rice and peas and other good things

Gav's mum did something very good for us. She cooked us a load of excellent Caribbean food. Rice and peas, curry goat, curry chicken, oxtail, festival (sort of like dumplings), macaroni and cheese, peanut chicken and a few more delights.

Gav says "I asked her to just because I think it's great people have all these great foods coming in for us at work so I thought I'd get mum to get involved, for years she's cooked for hundreds of people at our parties and we just take it for granted. She cooked it all the day before she flew to Jamaica and I told her on the phone how much everyone loved it. She's chuffed to bits."

win tickets to our cafe

We may have mentioned it before, but we're about to open a cafe. It's called the 5for5 cafe, and will be open for a week from this Friday 1st October, in the heart of London's slightly grubby yet hip Shoreditch.

There are a few tickets left if you fancy coming along and getting your 5-a-day for a fiver, as cooked by the delightful Gizzi Erskine. And we thought we'd dish out a couple of freebies for all of you reading this.

So, to win two tickets for dinner on Friday 8th October, just answer the simple question by leaving a comment and we'll pick a winner at random.

Which of the following vehicles has five wheels?

A. Bike

B. Tricycle

C. A car with a spare tyre in the boot

Good luck, and we'll see you at the cafe.

delicious & nutritious exclusive recipes

 

Our new celeb chef friend Gizzi has put together an entire delicious menu for our 5 for 5 cafe. And has just shared some of her most delicious and nutritious recipes on our website here for you to try at home.

 

 
 

hat of the week: gang wars

Cockadoodle-knitting-do - last weeks hat of the week goes to Sarah-Jane and her clutch of hens with their rockin' rooster. Excellent work, smoothies on their way...

Never has a fight been so fierce since the Warriors took on the Rogues, or the Sharks went up against the Jets. Though no crowbars or wrenches are involved, we've got a fierce battle of woolen proportions. This week's hat of the week brings us gang wars, with both teams battling it out for supremacy in Southampton. In the green corner we have Sandra's Southcoast Greenies.

 

And in the rainbow corner we have Joanne's Technicolour Troopers.

 
 
Vote for your favourite gang here.

what a lot of hats

You know how every now and again you stumble upon something that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and plants that biggest of cheshire cat grins upon your face? You know, like when a friend's baby laughs back at you (but not at them)? Well imagine how we felt when this photo arrived in Fruit Towers.

It came from Wendy Millett of the Knit and Natterers in Devon. Every Thursday they get together to do exactly what their name suggests, with a range of volunteers involved. So far they've made over 9,000 hats this year (as pictured with them), which is more than 1% of our entire target. This is an increidble group effort.

But hats and knitters come in all different shapes and numbers, and every contribution is needed to help us reach our target of 800,000 hats. We've received hats from all over the country, be it just one or two from individual knitters, or well over 100 from a family. Below is a contribution of various hats from Pat, one of our regular knitters.

 
We've also heard from Donna in Massachusetts who is holding a knit-in next week with her friends and family, where even her 10 year-old daughter has picked up her needles to support our campaign.

Thanks to all you knitters across the country and the world. We've been amazed by the response so far, but we still need more hats. Remember, the deadline's not until October 15th.

Keep on knitting.

knit 5, purl 2, sustainable living

So as you have probably noticed, it's that time of the year when we run the big knit - our campaign to help keep thousands of older people across the UK warm and healthy during the chilly winter months.

It's also that time of year when the days are getting shorter, it's only really warm if you're standing in direct sunlight with no wind, and you start thinking about turning on the heating again. During a visit to one of our suppliers we were asking them about the actions they take to use a little less and Chris told us about using wool from his sheep to make jumpers for the family.

It reminded me of the campaign run by Global Cool last year - 18 degrees of inspiration. Where they talked about really simple ways to stop wasting cash, look better (even lose weight) and reduce energy usage.

I think Rach from innocent watched their video.

   

So if your knitting skills are honed from producing hats for our little bottles, perhaps consider trying a jumper (or in my case a scarf - I need to keep practising).

Jess

pattern of the week - it's crochet time

For all you crochet fans, here's an intermediate level crochet pattern for a little granny hat. More to follow soon...

And you can get the pattern here.

 

the walls are alive

With some very fine tomatoes.

In just 10 days time, we're opening the doors to our 5 for 5 cafe and we're pulling together the final touches.

Along with some of the finest vegetarian fare for miles around, our cafe is going to feature a number of very special walls. Move over brickwork, breezeblocks and MDF - walls of fruit and veg are the way forward.

Our friend Rob at Rocket Gardens has been busy in his wood shed knocking together some frames for our living walls.

Here they are being loaded onto Rob's very snazzy blue tractor.

 

And here they are full of tomato plants, all ready for the journey up to London and their debut at The Tramshed.

There's still a giant wall of Little Gems to come.

Lettuce pray it arrives on time.

To book your spot at the cafe and to see the walls with your very own eyes, just click here.

a pea filled peaceful lunch

To continue to celebrate Peace One Day today we just had a very peaceful lunch.

 

Consisting of lots of our Peace One Day smoothies.

 

Pea based lunches from the good people at Hummus Borthers (give peas a chance).

  

 

And a film screening of the new Peace One Day movie 'The Day After Peace'.

 

There's still plenty of stuff you can do to get involved with Peace One Day yourself right here.
 
 
 
 

gingerbread building dilemma

Cake Club are undecided as to what to do for their special Christmas Cake Club.

Should they go to town and make an entire gingerbread village?

 

Or pool their collective baking prowess and make one massive gingerbread house (complete with ice cream cone turrets and brandy snap dovecote?)

 

Vote here to decide what the Christmas cake cheer should be.