if you go down to the woods today

And those woods happen to be in Poland, you might find a forest floor filled with blueberries

Rozanne and Dan have just returned from a berry sourcing adventure across Eastern Europe, where they tasted an array of berry shaped fruit.

 

Howver, before they got to actually taste any berries, they first had several mini adventures along the way.

After being greeted by a dog on the runway, hiring a car that sounded like a hairdryer and picking up a speeding ticket in the first twenty minutes of driving, they then got hideously lost (thanks to a self-programming sat nav system) and had to wait by some woods in the middle of the night for our suppliers to pick them up.

 

When our suppliers finally arrived, Rozanne and Dan were then driven through pitch black forests at 180kph in a blacked out Audi, plied with vodka, potatoes and breadcrumbed meat and made to sing along to Russian pop. And that's not even taking into account the 7 hour border crossing, rigourous strip search (of the blowdrying car) and more money changing hands they had to endure, all in the name of finding the best berries for our smoothies.

It was all worth it when they got there though as they got to taste loads of berries and meet this excellent chap

 

He is in charge of about twenty or so berry collection points, which is where all the farmers turn up each day, in Fiat Pandas laden with fruit to be sent further afield.

 

Here are Dan and Rozanne sampling some berries

 

And here they are post berry-buying-vodka-toasting-high-speed-driving-traffic-police-bribing antics, playing catch up kip.

 

Berry buying at it's finest.

we go vegan

Lots of you wrote in to ask why our veg pots weren't vegan and if we could possibly make some that were. Well, you talk, we listen (or more to the point, you ask us nicely and we try our best to help you out).

Anyways, we're pleased to announce that two of our veg pot recipes are now vegan. We've taken the honey out of our moroccan recipe and created a new seasonal recipe, sweet potato chilli, which is also suitable for vegans.

So hopefully now even more people can enjoy our pots.

the price of fruit

Value is important.

And when it comes to making our smoothies, we like to make sure you're getting the best value for your hard earned money. So we conducted a little experiment the other week to check we're doing just that.

Lucy T went off to the supermarket and bought the exact ingredients needed to make a litre of our strawberries and bananas recipe and a litre of our mangoes and passion fruits recipe.

To make 1 litre of our strawberry and bananas recipe using shop bought fruit cost £4.71 whilst making a litre of mangoes and passion fruits cost £6.35.

For those of you who like graphs and charts to illustrate such points, here's one we made earlier:

So, there's the proof - it's cheaper to buy one of our smoothies than getting all of the fruit yourself and making it at home.

Another good fact - at the recommended retail price of £2.99 a pop, you can still enjoy our big cartons at the very same price they were when we first launched them over 4 years ago.

And it goes without saying that our fruit is ethically sourced and the finest tasting stuff out there.

Who says we don't treat you right?

this season's berries

Sustainability Jess and Rozanne went to Serbia in July to check out our raspberries and blackberries. Naturally, we're striving to only buy the very best berries for our smoothies, and they were there to make sure that we're buying them from farms that look after their workers and the environment.

The farms we buy our berries from are typically very small family farms – only 0.1-0.2 hectares. They grow a mixture of different crops: maize for feeding animals, plums for local markets and making schnapps, vegetables for the family and berries for some income.

These farms have been with the same families for generations, and they know exactly which crops to plant where to make the most of the natural environment (sun access, types of soils, water etc). The picking of the berries is mostly done by family and friends.

Serbia is a pretty interesting place. Not only do they have amazing berries, but they also hosted the Eurovision song contest earlier this year, have the tallest hay bales in Europe, and make some pretty spooky pottery.

Overall, Jess and Rozanne were really happy with what they found, and feel confident that only the best berries are making it into our blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries smoothie.

 

And once the hard work was done, they celebrated by drinking a few litres of homemade schnapps with this farmer. Those girls sure know how to party.

no spelt yet

You may have already had a go on our new break time thickie. It's called 'break time' because it fills you up nicely, so is perfect for supping after a tough game of scarecrow tig. Anyway, some of you may have read that this drink contains something called spelt, which is a type of wholegrain.

Well, we just wanted to say that it doesn't contain spelt, yet. It was going to, but the spelt we were going to use was playing up a bit. So we took it out of the recipe, went back to the kitchen and kept on fiddling. In the mean time, the recipe has hit the shelves and contains a whole heap of wholegrains, in the shape of good old reliable oats.

We're working really hard with the spelt people to get the issue resolved. And as soon as we have figured out these pesky grains, they'll be in that recipe, or our name's not Monkey Juice Inc.

is fruit good for you?

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.

believe in magic

Those of you in the innocent family will know we like to have competitions to win drinks and stuff in our weekly newsletters every now and then. Last week's family competition was to guess our secret ingredient with the choices being broccoli, a chicken, a wizard and nature.

Of course nature was the right answer, but it made us smile to see that 111 of you believe our secret ingredient is the wizard. We salute the believers.

And congratulations to Charlotte K, Laura H, Adrian H, Johanna P, Becca M, Sophie F, Annie S, Richard P, Ruth D and Sara D who all win a box of smoothies each for guessing nature.

If you'd like to join in the fun get with the wizard and receive our weekly email, you can join our family here.

climbing to new heights

There was a bit in Sunday's Observer Food Monthly on our acai farmers in the Brazilian Amazon.

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.

 

save our vegetables

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.

an article about damsons

Something that we forgot to share when it was in the paper a couple of Saturdays ago - an article about damsons and the people who grow ours. Read it here in The Times.