When we then heard about the charity Re~Cycle, we knew we’d found some like-minded people.

Set up 12 years ago by Merlin Matthews, Re~Cycle collects unwanted bikes, parts and tools in the UK and ships them to the poorer rural areas in Africa where partner projects use them to help local people get around.

Millions of unwanted bicycles are rusting in garages or being thrown away in the UK, while in Africa a four hour daily walk is common – mothers collecting clean water, parents trekking to the farm, factory or market, or children facing a 20 mile walk to school and back. Motorised transport, where available, typically costs a quarter of people’s tiny income.

We found out more about how bikes are used and how the partner projects teach local people how to repair and maintain the bikes. Needless to say it all makes a big difference. Decision made…we wheelie wanted to help.

Now…we thought about how we could pick up old bikes from you along with your delivery boxes, but it wasn’t the best idea…imagine oil over your eggs and tyre marks in your long fermentation bread!

We weren’t deterred: Instead, we’re going to arrange some drop off points during September. The biggest will be our depot in Wimbledon, where we will all be 11am-3pm Saturday 18th September, along with Re~Cycle. You’re all invited to join us for burgers, beverages and bike related shenanigans for all ages!

For everyone that can’t pop to Wimbledon, we’ll have some regional collection points, and will be asking for any bikes and bike parts to be dropped between 1st and 30th September.

These bikes will be donated in October to Village Bicycle Project, who use the donations to empower women in Ghana.

We’ve not only set ourselves a hefty target of 650 bikes so that we can fill a whole container to go out to Ghana in October, but we’re determined to raise the money to get the container all the way there. So, we will shortly have a fundraising page and be tracking the progress.

We’ll soon have much more information about all of this, so watch this space.

And if you can get to Wimbledon, put Saturday 18th September in your diary…something to look forward to after your summer holidays!

Anthony has taken a considered approach to shun his young daughter’s attention away from the lure of the golden arches and the smiley faced-Ronald McDonald. His method is to tell her that Ronald McDonald smells. Juvenile: yes. But his target is a two-and-a-half-year-old. It’s an interesting tactic and it seems to be working, with his daughter at least. But will it have a long-term effect?

We’d love to know what you think..

What is the best way (is there A Best Way) to educate children about making healthy food choices?

What sort of tactics have you employed?

What techniques did your parents use? Did they work?

Historians have found the origins of the pie can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians. The bakers to the Egyptian Pharaohs used nuts, honey, and fruits in bread dough, a primitive form of edible pastry.

Here’s a shocking pie fact for you – during the mid 1600′s they were banned by Oliver Cromwell as the pie was seen as a source of too much pleasure.

JUMBLEBERRY PIE RECIPE

Sweet Pastry:

• Place 340g flour, 50g of caster sugar & 180g butter in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until you have a crumbly mix. Gradually add 50ml creme fraiche or double cream until the pastry forms a dough and comes away from the sides of the bowl.

• Remove from the bowl and combine lightly on a work surface dusted with icing sugar (tip when making sweet pastry always dust your work surface with icing sugar, it acts in the same way flour would but doesn’t toughen the dough as much and you get the added bonus of sweetening the pastry at the same time).

• Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.

Filling:

• Preheat the oven to 200C or the equivalent.

• Combine 150g caster sugar, the vanilla seeds from one pod (or ½ teaspoon of vanilla paste) and 3 tablespoons of plain flour in a bowl.

• Weight out around 500g of mixed berries of your preference, blackberries, red & black currents, raspberries, strawberries and jostaberries all work well. If you wish you could swap half the berries for small chunks of apple.

• Line an 18cm pie dish with half the pastry and scatter a layer of the sugar mix over the base, follow by a layer of fruit and scatter with more sugar mix. Repeat until all the fruit/sugar are used, making sure the pie domes in the centre.

• Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid and cover the pie, fold back the overhanging edges and use to crimp an edge to the pie.

• Bake 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for another 30 minutes.

• Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack, allow to cool fully before removing from the tin.

• Serve with custard, cream or vanilla ice cream.

Thank you for sharing your seasonal recipe Georgina!

See more from Georgina at culinarytravels.co.uk

A brilliant British beekeeper, Steve had everyone captivated and eager to learn more about honey bees.

We only wish we could replicate the honey tasting on the blog as well!

You may like to get yourself a cup of tea to enjoy while you listen, as it’s a little longer than most blog videos.

Also, be warned…there may be scenes of nudity.

Find out more about how to help bees here, and you can buy Steve’s Salisbury Plain honey here – 50p of every jar sold goes straight to the West Wales Bee Breeding Program to help Dr Anita Malhotra’s valuable research into improving bee health. For every 100 honey jars sold, Anita will be able to investigate the genetic background and  makeup  of one more new colony.

Also, make sure you see pictures of all of us at The Big Buzz on our Facebook page.

If you did join us that evening, it was lovely to see you there and we hope you enjoyed the honey in your goody bag.

Say ‘howdy’ if you were there, and let us know if you have any bee related questions.

Last week, Graham, Gaz and Clauds packed their rucksacks and went off to talk to and shoot (with a camera) Abel & Cole’s dairy, fish and meat suppliers. It was a right animal adventure!

We watched the fishing boats come in to Looe, Cornwall.

And met Chris, who catches our scallops.

At Higher Fingle Farm in Dartmoor we  met Rona and Nevil and their practically wild ducks.

Rona took us to see Freddie’s very free range chickens, who have the best view in Devon…

We got to wear some very fetching hats whilst Lloyd Green, from Green’s of Glastonbury, showed us how he makes  organic cheddar.

We dropped in on the dairy herd at Berkeley Farm….

And chewed the cud with Nick Gosling…

Then we got the cows at Box Farm to strike a pose.

The sheep were less interested in the camera…

Before we went home, we had time to say hello to Biscuit, the pet pig at Box Farm.

All the animals were so happy and healthy.  It made us very proud to work with such brilliant, dedicated farmers and fishermen.

The quote of the trip came from Rona at Higher Fingle Farm, “I think my phone’s stopped working – must have got some hay in it!’

The next thing anyone knew, we were emailing to offer to send some free with your next delivery, and I’d scheduled my family and friends to join me in elderflower foraging!

They ’sold out’ almost as soon as we sent the email round. I’m pleased as summer punch that our last minute foraging idea was so popular.

If you were one of the lucky few to get your hands on some elderflower…either from us or a nearby hedgerow…let us know how you got on? What did you make with it?

We look forward to hearing from you,

Keith

Here are some of the comments we’ve received by email so far…

“I took your advice and made my cordial straight away. Following the ‘paleo’ style of food prep that we are following, I used honey – about 400/500 gm instead of sugar. The resultant cordial was really tasty. It was quite concentrated so we drank it ‘on ice’, diluted with some water, and our son used it as a mixer with gin and tonic. Delicious! I say ‘was’, but there is still a little bit left in the fridge! Thank you, it reminded me of the drinks we used to make with the elderflowers that grew in the garden when I was a child.”

“Oh, thank you very much Keith!
I got the elderflower yesterday morning and made cordial last night!
I am waiting the cordial till being extracted now!
Exciting!
I am Japanese and I hadn’t made elderflower cordial.
There are no elderflower in Tokyo.
Elderflower cordial is very English.
I am enjoying doing like English does.
Arigatou!”

“I just wanted to say thank you for the free elderflower you sent this week. It is so rare to get something so beautiful – and for free. I very much value your concept. As I am from Germany but living in London, I did not do elderflower cordial, but a south German speciality – elderflower fritters – (or Hollerküchle as they are called) which came out fantastic and are very easy. Much faster than cordial, too.

125g flower

3 eggs

1 spoon butter

1 spoon beer

2 spoons milk

a pinch of salt

mix a batter, dip in the flowers and fry until golden. Best with a little bit of icing sugar. Enjoy!”

“I’ve wanted to make elderflower cordial for years! I lived in oxford where there is tonnes of elderflower but didn’t manage to make any while I lived there.
I made it on Monday after seeing the note to make it asap. Both my husband and I have really enjoyed it – a super recipe.”

“The timing of this email is absolutely surreal, I have finished the recipe for the cordial within the last hour and have had the fantastic experience of drinking the first spoils which I have to admit were so delicious I am absolutely amazed I could produce it. So many thanks for the suggestion and recipe, I have plenty of cordial to enjoy and have frozen sufficient ice cubes to enjoy with some gin and tonic throughout the summer.  Many Thanks to your foragers and Rachel for the recipe – absolutely brilliant.”

“Just a note to say I’ve already made the cordial and it’s delicious. We have some birthday celebrations coming up at the weekend so it will be great for that. Thank you so much to Keith and gang…”

Today, a year to the day that Michael Jackson passed away, Paul made tribute ‘Smokin’ Beets’.

With some classic MJ tunes blaring, we tucked in. It’s the best beetroot we’ve tasted. Well done Paul!

Here’s how he did it:

Clean, peel and cut the beets into quarters.
Cover them in olive oil, sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
Put them in a pan with a little bit of water and cook them till they soften slightly.

Tip them out into a sieve and let them cool.

Then, in a smoking pan (you can buy one, but Paul uses an old saucepan, a cake tin and a sieve…). Lay dried rosemary and rosehip tea (not bagged) in the bottom of the  pan.

Add the beetroot onto the smoking shelf, and place the pan on the flame.
Bring it up ‘to the smoke’ for about 10 or 15 mins. Then turn the flame off, but keep the pan sealed. Leave for about an hour. The smoke will give the beetroot a beautiful, subtle smokey flavour. It will cool down a bit while it’s standing, so it’s ready to serve when you take the lid off.

It jars that bee numbers are in decline, so we’re donating 50p from sales of The London Honey Company’s Salisbury Plain Honey, and our Honey Buns to the West Wales Bee Breeding Programme. In the last two weeks we’ve raised nearly £200. Hurrah!

Want to help?
Here’s what some Abel & Cole customers are already doing…

‘I’m planting wild flowers’
‘I’m looking to get a hive’
‘I’m planting seeds and spreading the word about the plight of the honey bee’
‘I’m adopting a bee hive’
‘I will increase the number of plants in my garden that attract honey bees’
‘I keep bees in north London and informally raise awareness’
‘I grow bee friendly plants in my garden’

If you want to grow bee friendly flowers, Wiggly Wigglers have a bee seed mix.
Find out more about the Adopt a Hive scheme.
Keep an eye on our blog for videos of the talks from the night.

 We’d love to hear what you are doing for bees. Do post a comment and let us know.

 Keep buzzing bee lovers!

Fruit and vegetables

Your Abel & Cole boxes are used six or more times – so do please leave them out for us to collect.

In the bag

Cardboard absorbs moisture, so we pop things with a high water content – like cucumbers, lettuce and celery – in bags. This creates a microclimate so they remain crisp and crunchy until they get to your fridge.

From time to time (only if we have to) we pop leaves, like spinach, in bags to keep them fresh and safe.

When it comes to deciding between paper or plastic bags, we’ll use paper when we can, but fruit and veg with higher water content make paper bags go soggy and disintegrate. 

We meet up with all our farmers and look at all the different options, and we constantly review things.

For example, when we put mushrooms in your box, we used to put a film over the top, but we’ve done away with that now – we snug them into the corner of your box, and generally they stay put!

We also help farmers out by buying bags in bulk and providing them to suppliers, as this saves them money and time.

We’ve recently started bagging up spuds for three reasons:

• To keep any stray soil off your other veg and fruit. 
• To protect the box from the potatoes, so we can reuse them more often
• To make life a bit easier for you – potatoes last longer in dry, dark conditions – so you can transfer the bag from your box to the cupboard and they’ll stay happy in their gloomy little home.

We continually try and find the right balance between what’s best for you and your food, and what’s best for the environment.

On the compost?

Paper bags, cardboard, egg cartons and the card-like punnets mushrooms usually come in, are happy on your home compost heap.

We tried out corn starch bags for a while, but after serious consideration switched back to plastic.  Here’s why:

• They are often made from a mixture of biodegradable stuff and regular oil-based plastic, so don’t compost in normal garden conditions. We were pulling them out of the compost heap a whole 12 months later. 
•  Not everyone composts at home – and the biodegradable bags can’t be recycled, so it ends up in landfill. Not what we want.

So we went back to recyclable plastic simply because we know that it really is, and we can recycle it efficiently. If you want to leave your plastic punnets and bags out with your empty boxes, we’ll recycle them for you. 

Meat, fish and chilled food

For food hygiene we obviously need to wrap things up properly. This year we’ve reduced the number of bags we use to wrap your chilled food, but the most important change is to the box itself.

To keep all that lovely food cool, we switched from polystyrene boxes to new woolcool insulation. Made from British sheep’s wool (which would otherwise go waste), not from fossil fuel, woolcool doesn’t snap in half like polystyrene can – so we can get lots more uses from it.

Jars and bottles

To keep your jam, wine and other bottles safe when on its way to you, we use origami like separator card. Please leave these out with your box so we can reuse them.

Your councils should collect glass for recycling.

Left overs

We compost all our teabags, apple cores and the like, which feeds our herb garden.

Any left over fruit and veg that can’t make it into your box, either goes to a local charity or gets whipped up into delicious lunches by our resident chef, Paul. Anything that Paul can’t transform goes to a local farmer who feeds it to his pigs.

We recycle all of our cardboard, plastics, wood and glass. 

One of our drivers uses any bits of left over wood in his log burning stove which heats his whole house.

All waste cardboard and paper is baled and collected for recycling by a local paper mill, and plastic we bale up and send off to be turned into new things.

We do have some landfill but at the last count this represented less than 10% of our waste. Obviously we’re aiming for 0%.

Leave out for your driver:

• Cardboard boxes (please fold flat, keep dry, and leave out one or two at a time)
• Woolcool boxes®
• Ice boxes
• Gel packs
• Clear plastic Abel & Cole bags
• Punnets

In the recycling:

• Paper bags
• Plastic and glass bottles
• punnets

On the compost

• Egg cartons
• Paper bags

That’s a wrap!

As you know, the British honey bee population is in rapid decline and our little furry winged friends need a helping hand.

We wanted to learn how to help – so, in true Abel & Cole style, we threw a party – The Big Buzz…

Busy Bees

When it started raining on Wednesday we tried not to get too Eyore-ish about it. The Big Buzz was that evening, and we really wanted sunshine. But the spirit of Winnie the Pooh was with us and by the time we opened the doors to over 300 bee fans the sun shone down on Battersea Power Station.

After a couple of glasses of wine and some terribly delicious canapés (the beetroot honey hummus went down a storm!), everyone sat down to honey tasting and talks.

Steve Benbow of the London Honey Company talked us through his journey from professional photographer to urban bee keeper, and even enlightened us on the matter of bee poo. Thanks Steve.

Dr Anita Malhotra, a bee geneticist, told us how the West Wales Bee Breeding Programme Wales is mitigating the dwindling bee population by breeding strong bees who are more resilient to disease and rainy summers.

Barnaby Shaw of the British Beekeepers’ Association told us about their brilliant Adopt a Hive scheme – the best way to keep bees, without actually having to keep bees!

As the sun set behind the mighty chimneys of the power station as the Q&A ended – the Bee Bop Band jazzed, the Bee Movies played, and the organic wine and bee banter flowed.

We had a blast.  Thanks so much for coming!

It was great to meet so many customers in person (the internet is a great invention, but we just don’t get to see as much of  you as we’d like), it was lovely to see you.

Want to help bees too?

Dr Anita Malhotra says: “Like all of us, bees like sunny weather and aren’t keen on the cool, wet and windy summers that we’ve experienced recently, which see them hardly making enough honey for their own needs.”

Whist none of us have the power to make the sun shine – you can plant lots of wild flowers in your garden, and adopt a beehive from the British Beekeeping Association, see www.adoptahive.co.uk for more info.