Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present June's 'Cereal of the Month', nestled snuggly in its grassy topped box and brought to us courtesy of the lovely folks at Sharpham Park.
My 'Top 100 nutritious grains' almanac tells me that spelt is an ancient cousin of wheat, easy to digest and very good for you indeed. In its honey puffed form, it's not that dissimilar to a posh sugar puff and very tasty it is too.
We’ve always thought that fruit is pretty good for you. Some other people think so too (these people and these people), but today's Guardian G2 isn’t so sure.
They’ve written an article challenging whether fruit is really that good for you. One of their experts has been quoted saying "it’s a myth that fruit is packed full of vitamins and minerals", which is quite surprising. It’s not like we’re brilliant at eating fruit in the first place - a recent survey by the Food Standards Agency reported that 83% of us aren't eating the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day: most adults just about manage two.
Dr Shilpee , our nutritionist, has this to say on the subject: "For the past couple of years, the government has been pulling out all the stops to encourage us to eat our five portions of fruit and veg a day, to make sure that we stay fit and healthy. And to make it even easier, it doesn’t need to be fresh fruit or veg, it can be frozen, crushed, juiced, dried or canned. I hope this article doesn’t mislead people into believing that fruit is bad for you. It’s packed with antioxidants, dietary fibre, phytonutrients and is an integral part of a health diet and lifestyle; not only does fruit taste great, it has a low GI which means that it will keep you feeling fuller for longer and perhaps stop you becoming too friendly with the biscuit tin."
We definitely think that people need to think carefully about what they eat. Everyone’s got to weigh up the pros and cons of all the foods they consume and work out the right balance for them. But we don’t feel that becoming suspicious about fruit is going to help our nation become healthier. And we hope this one article won’t discourage people from doing what the government reckons is the second best thing for your health after giving up smoking: getting your five a day.
Photos by courtesy of Gary Calton/ eyevine. Great shot Gary, thanks.
All of the acai berries that we use in our smoothies are grown sustainably from palms native to the Amazon estuary. These palms only grow within 25 yards of the Amazon in the mineral-rich tidal wetlands, meaning that they're naturally irrigated twice a day. What's more, our acai supplier is certified as organic, and is working with the acai collectors to preserve biodiversity, address social issues such as adequate nutrition and develop other sustainable local industries, such as making jewellery made from acai seeds.
The acai berries are collected by scaling the acai tree using hemp tape looped around the climber's ankles to give a good grip.
It's easier said than done though, as Rich found out.
"Just crop the photo below my feet and it will look like I nearly got to the top."
The berries are then threshed from the branch, and placed in baskets for transportation.
If you fancy trying a whole 35 of these hand picked, antioxidant rich acai berries from the banks of the world's biggest river, then why not have a go on our detox superfoods smoothie.
Air freighting food is a bit dumb. We don't air freight any of our ingredients, and we thought that this illustration, which we came across the other day, explained it better than we ever could.
The world's vegetables need your help. Traditional varieties are dying out, but never fear – you can save them. Simply adopt a vegetable at the Heritage Seed Library.
We've adopted a tomato called Texas Wild. Something about the name just made us think of cowboys and riding off into the sunset. But please don't let this be your motivation for adopting a rare variety. There aren't that many cowboy-themed veg varieties on the list.
You could choose the Walla Walla Sweet (onion), the Long Green Buddha (pepper) or the Lazy Housewife (climbing French bean). At £15, it's a snip.
Fergus Drennan (Wild Man, Wild Food) is a professional forager whose diet consists of about 50% wild food. His website features such delicacies as a recipe for pan fried squirrels. Mmm.
Fergus and some sloes
Intrigued by Fergus's unique view on where to find fine ingredients, our recipe inventors headed off to the Kent coast to meet him and learn more about the unusual foods that are growing on our doorstep.
hunting for seaweed
It was a long day which consisted of foraging for, among other things, seaweed, samphire, sloes, rosehips and seabuckthorn berries.
seabuckthorn berries
Lucy, samphire and seaweed
The day ended with a squirrel-free bonfire on the beach, cooking up all the food that had been foraged. And we returned to Fruit Towers full of slightly odd ideas about what to put in our next smoothie. We'll let you know if we manage to crack a seaweed recipe.
There's a new thing in our kitchen. It's called Cereal Of The Week. Every week, a new cereal is introduced to us, and is placed inside a special perspex box so that you can check it out. If it looks good, then you can put it in a bowl with some milk and eat it, maybe with a spoon.
This week's Cereal Of The Week is Gorilla Munch. It's the actual stuff that gorillas eat for breakfast*, and is very tasty. Quite sugary, but very tasty.
If you know of any interesting cereals that we should be trying, especially those eaten by rare forest-dwelling primates, please let us know via the comments.
Mark Stevenson on spreadable biscuits anyone?
Patricia on spreadable biscuits anyone?
Dodie on doodle things and win stuff
Dodie on bit of a thickie
Robyn on spreadable biscuits anyone?
Julia V on do your bit (and win stuff)
White Tea on put the kettle on
Ian on spreadable biscuits anyone?
Row at innocent on spreadable biscuits anyone?