Hippyshopper

How to go Locavore

Food & Wine has a listing of sites to help you go locavore. Eating locavore involves the commitment to only consume sustainable food from within 150km of where you live (or, if that's infeasible, then organically produced food). Headwater site is Locavores.com, which gives you a plethora of tips on how to go more ethical with your food. [GT]

How to eat like a locavore

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Balance water floras your travels

I'm always a bit sceptical of anything fluid that claims it does a better job of hydrating you than water does, since water is what our system is designed to like best, but in any case, Balance Water uses Bach flower essences to provide an extra lift in specific circumstances. Balance Water for traveling, for example, is good for "concentration calmness and alertness", "motion sickness, balance", "feeling comfortable in strange settings, tiredness and emotional fatigue and fear of flying." [GT]

Balance Water [via NOTCOT]

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Whole Foods Market 'on course' to open organic megastore in June

Whole Foods Market has announced that it is still on schedule to open its flagship UK store - a whopping 80,000 square feet of organic goodness - in London's Kensington High Street this June.

We're used to supermarket chains opening massive outlets, but will this one really be any greener, and how will it benefit the area? 

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[Via New Consumer]

Whole Foods Market claims that despite the vast space they have to fill (the lovely art-deco building formerly occupied by Barkers department store), there will be a 'focus on procuring foods from local growers, food artisans and manufacturers'. But with talk of air-freighted goods potentially losing their organic certification, I'll be interested to see how they'll work this out. 80,000 square feet of local produce would be no small feat.

The American organic and natural foods chain, which already operates the Fresh and Wild stores in the UK, says that this will be the largest supermarket (of any sort) in London. Just imagine a visit there...no more
looking for the organic 'section' or making do with only one type of organic bread...

And as a local resident, I'll be keeping a close eye on the company's aim to be an 'active member of the local community', checking out the events and activities they've promise to put on. I can't wait!

Celebrate fairtrade fortnight with Traidcraft wine

Fairtrade fortnight is coming up fast, and what better way to welcome it than by cracking open a bottle of fairtrade wine and raising a glass to the growers?

Unlike many of the wines in the still-small fairtrade category, Traidcraft's Torrontes is from a relatively little known and up-and-coming grape, which grows in Argentina. Torrontes gives a subtily fruity flavour, hinting of pears and melons, with a natural crisp acidity that lends itself well to salads, creamy pastas or mildly-spiced dishes - perfect for spring!

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The grapes are picked by over 500 farmers who make up the La Riojana Co-operative, and are guaranteed a good price for their grapes, as well as benefiting from free advice and technical assistance thanks to fairtrade. Sold by the case for £67.70 (that's £5.65 a bottle), Torrontes is available to order on Traidcraft's site.

Seth Kinmont's Still transforms wine into eau de vie while you watch

The very gadget to chi-chi up any dinner party: Seth Kinmonth's Still.  Using the old-schoolest of tech (fire and glass) and 15 custom-blown Pyrex bottles, the still converts a regular bottle of wine into eau de vie over a period of time corresponding to about a dinner.  You can watch it work, and at the end, inhale some truly exceptional tipple.  It also comes with a case of cab sauv that the artist made himself, and candles he designed and cast.  $1750 USD.  [GT]

Seth Kinmonth's Still [via Cool Hunting]

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Vegetarian Society awards - have your say

For the non flesh-eaters among us, the Vegetarian Society provides a wealth of really useful information on life in a carnivorous world. Their awards, which are now spread throughout the year with a different category to vote on each month, are a great incentive for the food industry to pull its socks up in terms of the quality and availability of vegetarian options.

And as a frustrated veggie who has been wondering for YEARS why Muller Light are still using gelatine, and why Worcestershire sauce is so hard to find without stealth-anchovies, I'm already cackling with excitement about this month's category: Imperfect world - vote for the products you think should be veggie. The society will then lobby the organisations concerned on our behalf. Which they've done with huge success in the past. Remember the days when vegetarian cheese was considered a 'speciality product'? Not that long ago, was it. Go there and have your say now!

Their past nominations pages also make interesting reading for any veggie whose ever wished for more than cheese salad in a baguette, or indeed any non-veggie who still thinks giving up meat means giving up decent fry-ups.

Oranges are the only fruit for February.

It may come as a surprise that the sunniest of fruits should be at their best in the bleakest of months, but we're reliably informed by those lovely people at Eat the Seasons that oranges are the seasonal food of the moment. Which judging by the need for vitamin C in flu-ridden Shiny Towers is definitely no bad thing! 

Not sure what to do with all those oranges? Eat the Seasons website features loads of mouth-watering recipes and ideas, including chocolate orange and whisky mousse, caramelised oranges and cranberry, orange and port sauce. And if you can't get enough orangey goodness, why not cover yourself in it? Love Eco have slashed the price of their scrumptious Orange flower scrub to just £5.49 as part of their winter sale...

Shiny green stars: Ben & Jerry go fairtrade

For those in the UK today may not be the best day for eating ice cream, but climatic chaos will undoubtedly bring a heatwave before 'winter' is out, so we're delighted to learn that Ben & Jerry's ice cream is about to give more of its range the fairtrade treatment!

Just in time for Fairtrade Fortnight (a date for your diaries - or should that be dairies, hehe - watch this space for more info soon) Ben & Jerry's will be turning the classic favourite vanilla toffee crunch fairtrade. It'll be the second flavour to get the seal of approval in the Ben & Jerry's range, after their vanilla became the first ice cream to go fairtrade in the UK. Which awards them several million shiny green stars from us...

Win a valentine's hamper with Green & Blacks

Don't mistake us for romantic fools. Yes, it's yet another bloody V-Day promotion, but this one isn't only for couples. In fact, Green & Black's chocolate is so scrummy I'd advise keeping this one to yourself whether you'll be coupled-up or steadfastly single this Wednesday!

The green chocolate gurus are running a competition to win a valentine's hamper, crammed with tasty treats, including a luxury chocolate box, some decadent bars, cocoa dusted almonds and their trademark Dark, Milk and White Squares. Good luck, folks!

Bossa Nova açai fruit juice

Unless you've been in hiding since Christmas, you'll no doubt have heard that açai has been proclaimed the latest 'superfood'. So what's all the fuss about?

Açai is a small, dark fruit which grows on palm trees on the floodplains of the Amazon basin. It has the highest antioxidant count of anything measured so far by science, leading to it being labeled the world's healthiest fruit. Bossa Nova Açai juice is fresh Açai, sweetened with agave (syrup extracted from tequila cactus - it's good stuff! More neutral and sweeter than honey, with less of a blood sugar boost). Also, for every bottle you buy, Bossa Nova saves a rainforest tree.  [GT]

Bossa Nova Açai juice [via NOTCOT]

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