A weekend with Anissa...and Action Man!

After all that talk of going to the beach last week I’m sad to say I never actually got there. *sob sob*  BUT all is not lost because I still managed to have an amazing weekend with Action Man.  Instead of going to the beach we decided to stay in London and explore the city streets.  We went via Camden Town and Notting Hill and of course took advantage of the sunshine.

At 8am we got a train to Camden Town.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in a subway station, not even at Oxford Circus.  The market, people, houses, everything was beautiful.  My first job was to visit Western Union, which is where Action Man got up to a few tricks.

Next stop was Camden Market.  We looked around the shops and had the chance to eat pancakes and churros, as well as show Action Man the sights.  The French would be jealous!  What can I say about Camden?  It’s really multicultural and the place is a real mix of different cultures and tastes.  There are many restaurants and so many different types of food.  Waitresses at the Chinese eateries and stalls kept trying to grab us by the arm to smuggle us in their restaurant.  After a day of shopping we went for food and then had a walk along the Thames.  We didn’t get home until past 9pm.

On Sunday we went to Buckingham Palace – Queen Elizabeth II here we come!  My aim of the day was to take photos of the Queen’s guards but I wasn’t allowed to approach them.  *More sobbing*…although Action Man comforted me!  I found this place wonderful; beautiful; amazing.  In fact I can’t really find the words to express my thoughts.  Being at Buckingham Palace confirmed that I was in London – it’s such an icon of the city.  There were a lot of people there who were from all over the world, and all of them wanted to see the Queen.

As well as the Palace we visited the parks that surround it, and these were something I really enjoyed.  It was really great to have natural parks in the city centre, especially which have lots of animals and pretty landscapes.

After Buckingham Palace we headed to Westminster Abbey.  We wanted to see it because this is where William and Kate were married. And It was so great ! I’m sure this is where I’m going to marry Prince Harry.  Yes, dreaming is allowed   In the same time of course we saw Big Ben. I was a little disappointed because I imagined it to be slightly more impressive but maybe that’s because foreign people really idealise it.  We also went to the Hardrock Café and it was here that I saluted our friend Jimi Hendrix. The only Hardrock Café we have in France is in Paris, but I never see it because I live in Toulouse.

In summary it was a very good weekend full of memories and lots of pictures.  At first I was afraid to come to London but now I can tell you that I fell in love with this city.  It’s so alive and so beautiful.  It’s great!  I’d love to work here or live here later in life, but only the future will tell where I’ll end up.

Peace, love and lovely London pizza,

Anissa, Action Man and What On Earth

 

Eggs, asparagus, stories and limericks…and a competition

Every day seems to be dedicated to some cause or another, most of which you have probably never heard of.  For example yesterday (8 May) was apparently “Have a Coke Day” and 7 May was ‘National Roast Leg of Lamb Day’ – obviously.  Why on earth these days exist and who created them I’ll never know, but at least they provide amusement and events the world over.
Not only is it the days that are devoted to causes, though.  There are also months and weeks and possibly even years that have some special dedication.  This month alone is apparently one of six things.  These are:

• Local and Community History Month
• National Egg Monthy
• National Salad Month
• National Chocolate Custard Month
• National Asparagus Month
• National Share a Story Month

Also this week is National Herb Week and next week is National Doughnut Week AND National Sandwich Week.

Now, I can’t imagine that anybody really knows how to celebrate these so called special dates, and even if there should be any celebrations at all.  But we at What On Earth are saying that there should be a celebration occurring.  Please feel free to delve into as much salad, chocolate custard and asparagus as you want all month long – within reason of course.  We don’t want to be held responsible for any problems eating these foods could cause!

There are two dates in particular that we’d like you to celebrate with us.  These are:

1)  National Share a Story Month

and

2)  Limerick Day (12 May 2012)

We want you to do one of two things (or do both if you fancy it).  Firstly we’d love to hear your stories so please do email/tweet/Facebook us with some funny stories.  These can be related to anything you want – as long as they make us laugh.  They shouldn’t be any longer than 200 words.

Secondly, we want you to write a limerick about What On Earth to celebrate Limerick Day on 12 May.  Again you can do it anyway you want but perhaps don’t make it too long!

The people who enter the funniest story and limerick will win some What On Earth goodies.
Get those creative hats on boys and girls.  We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Send the stories to laura@whatonearth.co.uk, tweet them to @whatonearthfood or add them to our Facebook page www.facebook.com/WhatOnEarthOrganicFood.  You can even comment on this blog with them if you fancy it.

Peace, love and creative pizza.

What On Earth

I ate a durian...oh no I didn't, I ate a cempedak

One of our ‘fans’…we like to call you all fans because it makes us feel more special…commented on one of my recent blog posts.  They didn’t comment on it in a negative way.  In fact, the post actually captured their attention and interest.  But, they did point out an error of mine.  That’s right; I’m not as perfect as you may all think ;)

 

The error came in the form of a fruit that I spotted and tasted in Borneo.  There’s me thinking that I’d tried one fruit when in fact, as it turns out, I actually tried another.

So, that durian fruit I went on and on about – the horrible fruit with the smell and taste I really hated and that regrettably stayed with me for a few hours – wasn’t actually a durian fruit.  I thought it was!  It certainly looked like one on the outside but apparently the fleshy fruit on the inside actually proved it to be a cempedak.  “A what?” I hear you say.  A cempedak.  I’d never heard of it either but when I looked it up sure enough it is actually a fruit.  So, I’m now going to give you a little education on what the cempedak is.  Concentrate now.

The cempedak (pronounced chem-pe-dak) is a sausage-shaped fruit that ranges from 22 to 50cm in length and 10-17 cm across.  It is smaller than the jack fruit and is actually seen as an uglier version.  It is green in colour but turns slightly yellow as it ripens.

The fruit has a thin, leathery skin which is patterned with hexaons and either flat or raised protuberances.  Below the skin is a husk which is filled with a bright yellow, orange or green edible pulp which covers large brown seeds.  The flesh is soft, sweet and has a strong aroma – so you can see why I thought it was a durian fruit.  It also has a hint of durian flavour so, in my defence, you can see why I got the two confused.

The cempedak is also known as a chempedak or, more scientifically, artocarpus champeden.  It is native to southeast Asia, occurring from Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula to the island of New Guinea.   It is a very popular fruit in these native areas and there are many varieties, although few are named.

The photo I took is not of a durian.  It is a cempedak.

A durian looks like this:

Courtesy of wiangya / freedigitalphotos.net

So there we have it.  A little lesson in durians and cempedaks.  Never will you be able to get confused again.  This also means that I’ve never actually tried a durian.  I have in fact tried a cempedak.  This is bad because I’ve always wanted to try durian and now that I know I haven’t I will make it my mission to find one.  I didn’t like cempedak at all so if durian tastes similar, which I think it does, I will have to go through another episode of trying a horrible fruit.  But I’m willing to do it for my own piece of mind.

If anybody knows where I can get durian fruit in England let me know for I will be there like a shot.  I think I need to hit all the Asian stores in London to see if I can find one.  Starting now…

Peace, love and cempedak (not durian) pizza.

What On Earth

Our new intern

Name: Anissa Selmani or Nissou
Age: 18
Occupation: Trainee in WOE and I study International trade and Management inToulouse.

Where are you from?
I currently live in Toulouse, south of France. People call my city “PinkCity” because of its wealth in art monuments, most of which are built in red brick.  I live in Toulouse because of my studies but I am from Lavelanet in Ariège, which is near the border of Spain.  I go home at the weekends.  It is a lovely area with lots of natural beauty.

Do you enjoy living in Toulouse and where do you like best?
The two places I love most in Toulouse are Capitole de Toulouse and Quai de la Daurade.  In these beautiful places I can spend my time reading, watching people, listening to music and having fun.

Courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / freedigitalphotos.net

How long are you in London for?
I’m in London for 2 months.

How are you finding London so far?
Rainy!  But London is beautiful and it always surprises me.  The streets, buildings, people, everything is different and the city amazes me.  The people I’ve had a chance to meet are friendly, nice and cool, but also quiet!

What were your first thoughts on London when you arrived?
Again, rainy!  At first I did not realise I was inLondon– it didn’t register.  I’ve always wanted to come here to discoverLondonand learn more about the city.  I look forward to doing that.

Is this your first time in England?
Yes! I’m so happy to be there!

What will you miss most about France while you are away?
My Mum, my bed and my best friend!  No seriously, except my mom and Nawel my bestfriend, I don’t feel I will miss France too much because every day I am discovering news things so I don’t have time to miss anything.

France is known for its cheese.  Do you like cheese?
Not all of them, but I have my favourite! Try it, it’s called “Leerdammer”. Oh my, I have never tasted a cheese like this.

What is your favourite and least favourite food?
Simply, I love a good plate of pasta with grated cheese and also the couscous my mum makes.  I really don’t like ham or fish.

Courtesy of Laura Collins

If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
Like all people my age I’d like to go to theUSA.  But I loveLondon, it seems a really free city.  I have found Londoners to be more open minded than French people.

If you were an animal what would you be and why?
A cat. I don’t really know why, but I love cats. They look so cute and I love it when they come to me for a hug.

Do you know any jokes?
My laugh is a joke, so I don’t have to add anything more. Aha!  Indeed my laugh is very communicative and cheerful.

Can you speak any languages and if so, what?
Oh yes. I speak English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Occitan, Spanish, and some words in others languages.

What would be your dream job?
I’d like to work in human resources or a role in which I’ll be in contact with people. I really love people.  I like getting to know them, helping them and generally just listening to them.

How was your first day?
I was afraid and fearful that I wouldn’t understand what people said to me or asked me to do. But now, it’s ok. Everyone puts me at ease. I have my desk, and people are really nice with me.

Do you like Jeremy?
Yes, he’s good with me. He’s really respectful and friendly with his employees. I’m just waiting to see him secretly speaking French.  I know he can speak it a bit!

Does Rolf scare you?
No, he makes me laugh. He looks funny but I don’t really know him yet.

Do you like Laura?
Yes, a lot. She has patience with me. And she tries to understand my English, aha.
I love the whole What On Earth team and even though I haven’t spoken with everyone yet, I will do as soon as possible

Which of the What On Earth products would you most like to try?
Maybe, for my birthday, I’ll try one of the cakes! I think chocolate cheesecake would be the best.

Which of the Simply Nectar flavours do you want to try?
Peach. It’s my favourite fruit so why not?

Simply Nectar is made in Provence.  That’s in France!  Have you been there?
Yes, it’s not so far from Marseille.  I know this area. It’s really beautiful.

If you were to launch a new flavour of Simply Nectar, what would it be?
Hmm, maybe Cherry or Lychee.

What do you expect from this internship?
To be more autonomous and to learn how a company works. I want to help the company, learn their knowledge and share my knowledge with them. I also plan to work hard and do my utmost to satisfy everyone.

We just can't give it away!

Giving food away for free is something you’d think would be easy but alas we have recently found out that it isn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t just stood in the street trying to hand it out to passers by.  I’m sure that may be a much easier way to give away food.  But sadly the type of food we were planning to offer wasn’t quite right for this type of event. I don’t think 5kg bags of ingredients would be that easy to dish out!  Instead, we wanted to donate the food to a charity or cause rather than throw it away, but it seems lots of places don’t want these sorts of donations.

We looked at numerous charities in London where we thought the ingredients we had would be useful.  Homeless shelters and other charities that help the homeless were some of our ideas but unfortunately, after much research, we realised that due to all the health and safety rules in many of these places they wouldn’t be able to accept what we wanted to give them.  Such a shame.

The next brainwave was to donate the food to a local animal shelter.  We thought that maybe they could use the chips for both the staff and the animals.  But once again we drew a blank.  A lot of the shelters don’t accept any food donations because the animals already have a strict diet that they have to stick too.  Our food is tasty and organic so we’d like to think that all animals would enjoy it if they had the chance to tuck in, especially meerkats who like to eat anything!

After looking into other charities and ideas we came to the conclusion that we probably wouldn’t be able to give the food away, no matter how hard we tried.  We are a very ethical company and hate any food going to waste so this whole situation was frustrating for us.  In the end we dished the food out between the staff, much to the happiness of everybody here.

We make all our food to order so very rarely have leftovers.  But when we do we like to use them somehow rather than put them to waste.  If you know of any charities that may be interested in receiving food donations in the future please do let us know.  We’d love to be able to help out any causes with any leftover ingredients or products.

Love, peace and non wasted pizza,

What On Earth

We're going live... minus Philip Schofield and Gordon the Gopher

The time has come...we've finally launched our brand new website.

[insert clapping, cheers, woops, air punches, back slaps etc here]

Hmmm, I guess you'll know about the new site if you're reading this blog because you'll be on said website.  Ah well, we'll still shout about it.  What's more, we're extremely pleased with the new site so we want to show it off as much as we can.  Do you like it?  We hope so!

Our new homepage

If you don't remember the old website, that's fine.  We won't hold it against you.  But basically our new site is just a more modern, colourful and user friendly version.  It also contains a host of new features and allows you guys to see further into our weird and wonderful world, while obviously still reflecting our fun loving attitude to organic food, the environment and life in general.

Among the new features are cartoon interpretations of all our staff members so now you can see all our ugly mugs.  I wonder if we look how you thought we would.   Do we, do we?  There's also a moving, changeable banner in which we will endeavour to show different employees, products and retailers every month.  Plus we've added a login page specifically for What On Earth clients, which can be accessed with a special username and password.  This page allows any clients to see the company’s latest newsletters and price lists.  If you're a client of ours get in touch for details of how to gain access to this area.

Part of our new staff page

We have dedicated more pages to our wide range of organic products and have connected the site with our social media pages (and blog...obviously.)   The interactive and popular What On Earth World is still a main feature on the site, as are the quirky allotment cam, the company’s views on saving the planet and our amusing (some would say) manifesto.  Once you've read this post go and check these bits out.

If you want to hear Jeremy's thoughts on the site don't ask him because he may bore you.  Instead, just read them here:

“We’re extremely impressed with the new site and feel it reflects our personality perfectly.  It continues to show our lazy activist attitude and the company’s more playful side.  It also still encourages consumers to interact with our brand and, most of all, to enjoy it."

Could't agree more Jeremy.

“The client log in area shows our more serious side and has been designed to make dealing with us more convenient.  In such a fast moving society many people now prefer to do things online.  If customers need to know the price of something quickly they can now access it on our website.  We want to show the world that we are moving with the times.  We are active on social media and are constantly launching new products so it’s only right that our website portrays this as well.”

 

Hear hear.

Do you want to know the clever bods behind the site?  I'll tell you.  Our website was developed by Tom Sinclair of www.helloimtom.com.  Tom has previously worked on websites for the likes of The Nike Foundation, Sony PlayStation and Dr Marten’s.  The sound effects for the site were created by Soundtree Productions, noted for its work onLevisand the Guinness ‘Surfer’ TV commercial.

We love the new site but we'd love to know your thoughts too.  Please do let us know what you think of it.

Peace, love and new online pizza,

What On Earth

Turning tribal in the Iban longhouse

I must apologise for the gap between blog posts.  Travelling the world took its toll on me…plus the computers I was using in Indonesia didn’t allow me to upload images in a very quick fashion.  After a couple of hours of messing around with photos I just had to give up I’m afraid.  Sorry about that.  The good news is, however, that now I’m back in the UK with some speedy internet access which allows me to upload photos until my heart’s content.

Now, I’m not one to go on and on about my travels and the experiences I’ve had because I know it bores the boots off everyone.  But, having said this, I would just like to do another blog post that talks about exactly that – my travels.  In my defence the story I am about to tell is a good one.  I promise!   I thought it may be of great interest to all organic food lovers and those who believe in a self sufficient lifestyle. 

While I was in Borneo I spent two days and one night in an Iban longhouse, which resided in Nanga Ngemah on the banks of the Lemanak River.  It was a good four hour drive from my base in Kuching and I was taken there by an Iban gentleman.  He was an impressive man who could speak Malay, Iban, English and other languages of some of Borneo’s native tribes.  We drove part of the way and then had to get a longboat up the river to get to the village.

A bit of history now – just so you know who the Ibans are!  The Ibans are a branch of the Dayak peoples of Borneo. In Malaysia, most Ibans are located in Sarawak, a small portion in Sabah and some in west Malaysia. They were formerly known during the colonial period by the British as Sea Dayaks.  Ibans were renowned for practising headhunting and tribal/territorial expansion. In ancient times the Ibans were a strong and successful warring tribe in Borneo. They speak the Iban language.  Traditionally, Ibans that had headhunted a person would get a tattoo on their neck to prove this status.

Ibans live in longhouses called rumah panjai and each house has a leader.  Most of the Iban longhouses are equipped with modern facilities such as electricity and water supply and other facilities.  The Ibans today are becoming increasingly urbanised while retaining most of their traditional heritage and culture (with thanks to Wikipedia for that little description! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iban_people)

When stepping off the boat I could see instantly that the Iban longhouse was rather on the old and dilapidated side.  It was made of wood and corrugated iron and was built high on stilts in case the river ever flooded.  Surrounding it was bits of rubbish, greenery and lots of chickens and puppies.  In this particular longhouse there lived 35 families, all of whom have their own private family room to live in as well as the communal area.

Front of the longhouse

We were welcomed into the village by some of the children who lived there and were warmly greeted at the front door of the longhouse by one of the mums.  She shook our hands and welcomed us in the Iban language.  She carried a baby under one arm.  She was just 16.  She was married at 14 and pregnant at 15 – a completely different life to what we are used to here.

Once settled into the longhouse we were given mug after mug of Malaysian tea and were then left to our own devices.  In the hours that followed we played with the children, some of which could speak a little English, and had a wander around the tiny village.  It consisted of about three or four houses, a series of three toilets and showers (which consisted of a hose on the wall) and a very small church.  When darkness fell the longhouse switched on the generator to get electricity, although candles were still used throughout the house.

The young 16 year old mum

Inside the longhouse

At around 8pm we were called into one of the family rooms for dinner and it was here that I was fed one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.  All the food used had been grown in the village and the nearby paddy fields. The fish had been caught from the river that morning and had been cooked in bamboo for the majority of the day.  Among other things, wee ate rice, bananas, fish, jungle fern and fresh pineapple.  We got to taste the pepper they grow and were offered their local coffee and rice wine, which was delicious.  Everything they had was grown, picked and cooked by the villagers.  Residents of all ages went out during the days to collect food.  They were an inspirational bunch and eating their food was a humbling experience, as was staying in their home and watching their traditional dance.  Sleeping was more difficult, what with the noise of the generator, the barking dogs and the crowing roosters, but this is what it’s like living in this way.

Peppercorns growing in the village

Emptying our fish out of the bamboo

The family room I ate in

 Staying in the Iban village was a very eye opening experience.  The villagers have very little money and possessions but they are happy.  They live a self sufficient and organic lifestyle, making do with everything they have.  The children go to school until about the age of 12 or 15 but that is where their education stops.  A lot of them stay in the village until they are old, looking after their families and friends.  The women leave if they marry into a family who live in a different village but the men tend to stay if they have no desire to continue their education or embark on a working life.

A resident of the longhouse with his traditional headhunter neck tattoo

More tattoos on his back

Residents showing us traditional Iban clothes

My two days in the longhouse were inspiring and touching and I would love to go back in the future to see how the families are getting along.  It was also a lesson in how we could all live – i.e. self sufficiently and organically.

Peace, love and Iban longhouse pizza.

What On Earth

* All photos are by me - Laura Collins - so please do get in touch if you wish to use them/credit me.