Real vanilla is the only only edible fruit of the orchid family, and only grows in hot, moist climates, originally coming from Central America.

Vanilla is extremely labour-intensive to cultivate. It takes around three years after planting for the first flowers to appear, and each plant must be hand-pollinated. It was a 12-year old slave from the island of Reunion that in 1841 discovered hand pollination, after years of attempting to cultivate the crop.

The ancient Totonaco Indians of Mexico were the first people to cultivate vanilla. They didn’t have to hand pollinate, as there is only one insect in the world known to pollinate vanilla – a Mexican bee. The Aztecs conquered the Totonaco, and were in turn conquered by the Spanish, and the secret of Choclatl, a beverage of cocoa, vanilla, maize and honey was out.

We have both the pods available and a powder, offering great value (mine has lasted for months and I use it almost daily in my smoothies).

What’s New?
We have lots new this week – for the autumn moms there’s baby formula and baby porridge, baby wipes as well gluten-free rice pasta and an old favourite, tomato sauce.

We’re also very happy to have Soaring Free Superfood’s spirulina back this week. You may have read recently about the heavy metal contamination of some Chinese spirulina. Six out of eight brands tested by the Chinese government found dangerous levels of lead. Ours is produced locally, and although it’s not certified organic it’s produced according to the old organic standards, and is not irradiated.

Survey
A reminder that your feedback would be greatly appreciated for the veggie box survey – please complete it at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/vegbox if you haven’t already. It’s anonymous, quick and easy to complete, and the information is used for research only.

Have a great week,
Ian and the Ethical team

To order, head on over to www.ethical.org.za to place your order before Tuesday 2pm, and remember that you can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter

Slowly the growing body of evidence of the harmful effects has been gathered and there are moves now to ban it.

It’s indicative of all that’s wrong todays warlike food model. Those working in the conventional food system are trying to fight against the tide, one poisonous ingredient at a time, while new ones are approved ever quicker.

Much more sustainable, the organic model works, is safe for both those producing it and those eating it, and produces enough healthy, arsenic-free food for all.

Trikatu – the digestive enchancer
Trikatu is an ayurvedic blend of herbs (ginger, long pepper and black pepper) used to stimulate and light the digestive fires in particular. Such is its effectiveness in increasing bioavailability it’s even used with some modern medicines to improve absorption. Find it in our wholefood supplement section.

Veggie Box Survey
We were recently approached by a UCT research team working to understand why and how people participate in veg box schemes in order to develop better urban agriculture policies in Cape Town.

Cape Town is one of the few African cities that has an Urban Agriculture Policy Unit, which relies on this kind of research to maximise the benefit of growing food in and around the city of Cape Town.

To provide your valuable feedback please complete the survey

The survey is anonymous, quick and easy to complete, and the information is used for research only.

Have a great week,
Ian and the Ethical team

To order, head on over to www.ethical.org.za to place your order before Tuesday 2pm, and remember that you can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter.

When asked why, they answered “Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the others are sad”

“I win and you lose” is the fundamental insanity of the world today. We are taught this in our games, our schooling, our sports. The challenges of the world today require us to win together. If we’re all fighting amongst ourselves for an individual victory, we’ll all be losers.

Autumn Rains
As the first autumn rains arrive, the seasons are changing. The summer fruits are disappearing, but it’s time for the return of apples and pears. We have royal gala, the red staple, and golden delicious, as well as the first naartjies.

Chocolates
I remember, during one my son’s first experience of Easter eggs, becoming rather despondent about all the unhealthy chocolates he was being given. Nowadays the situation is much better and alternatives are easier than ever to come by. We have raw chocolates from Honest Chocolate, a chocolate florentine from Earthshine and chocolates from Gayleen‘s (note that these are now roasted). Or of course your can make your own with cacao butter and cacao paste (or cacao powder) with a dash of coconut oil and honey or sweetener of your choice.

Have a great week,
Ian and the Ethical team

To order, head on over to www.ethical.org.za to place your order before
Tuesday 2pm, and remember that you can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter

Germs
I seem to remember my first exposure to the word “germs” being a television ad, and years later they still seem to be the basis for selling personal hygiene products, usually anti-bacterial soaps. With every surface flashing red with danger, an anti-bacterial soap is the only answer. Well, no. Another study published this week looked at the severity of disease in mice living in sterile conditions, compared with those exposed to more germs. Those living in a sterile environment were far more severely affected. Auto-immune diseases are more common in the developed world, and this is believed to be related to overuse of antibiotics and antibacterial products, as well as less playing outside, in the dirt.

Childhood exposure is particularly important, and it was found that this could not be completely made up for as an adult. So children really can claim playing in the mud is both fun and healthy, while us for us adults, it’s mainly just fun.

Honey
In the US, it’s been found that most supermarket honey isn’t honey, and I’ve heard some horror stories locally as well. Many varieties contain no pollen at all, and are even mixed with high-fructose corn syrup, or other cheaper sweeteners. To remove the pollen, honeys are ultra-filtered, heated and then forced through tiny holes at high pressure.

Without the pollen, there’s no way to trace the source of the honey. This has been done in part to facilitate dumping Chinese honey in other parts of the world. Chinese honey has notoriously been frequently laden with antibiotics. Ultra-filtering is also done to prevent honey crystallising. Natural honey will always eventually crystalise around the tiny pollen particles – how long it take depends on factors such as how much it was heated, the current temperature, and how finely the honey was filtered. All honey is filtered (otherwise you’ll get bits of bee and bits of wax in the mix), but the degree varies.

Luckily we’re blessed with four varieties, all of them real!

Have a great week,
Ian and the Ethical team

To order, head on over to www.ethical.org.za to place your order before Tuesday 2pm, and remember that you can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter.

Everything is running smoothly now, and hopefully there are no more sunspots hurtling towards Denmark.

Human Rights Day
Wednesday is a public holiday this week. It won’t affect your deliveries on Thursday, but it will mean that you should place your order as soon as possible, as some of our suppliers won’t be able to deliver on Wednesday, and will not be available for ordering if you leave it to the last minute.

The Baboons of Citrusdal
The baboons must have read my previous newsletter, as they enjoyed a field day amongst the maize and sweetcorn, ensuring there wasn’t much left for the rest of us. The origins of the term “field day” were originally entirely positive, being a rare day in the fields at first for soldiers, and later also for schoolchildren released from their classroom boredom for a field trip, and now for baboons.

Somehow, in the Victorian era, the fields took on a negative slant, becoming associated with scandal and the press having a field day.

Personally I think we all need more field days, scandalous or not.

GM Labelling
Many of you may have seen newspaper articles about the tests done on various brands to see whether they contain genetically-modified material. Celeriac infant cereal, Pronutro and Impala maize meal were all tested and found to be largely GM. I didn’t understand the outcry at first, as I’ve been assuming that everything containing maize and soya in particular will be GM, but it looks like I’d missed the new legislation meaning that this now needs to be prominently labelled.

Labelling is critical, and I’m constantly amazed at how people respond to labels. The outcry when a high-sugar cereal could no longer claim to be “good for you”. Avoiding the chips stating “Contains Tartrazine” in prominent writing, while going for the brand with equally nasty ingredients in the fine print. Or vegetarians choosing the brand of yoghurt prominently displaying that it contains live AB cultures, while not noticing it contains animal products (most yoghurt contains gelatin).

Labelling can be a minefield, but a minefield with too much information is far better than one with none at all. Congratulations to the African Centre for Biosafety for arranging the tests and the subsequent publicity.

Have a great week, and remember to place your order early.
Ian and the Ethical team

To order, head on over to www.ethical.org.za to place your order before Tuesday 2pm, and remember that you can follow us onFacebook and on Twitter

I have been feeling quite burnt out recently, so haven’t been feeling inspired to write too many 3am missives. The common cure for burnout is to go and sit in the Himalayas, so that’s just what I’ll be doing, come April. But I hope to get a few more newsletters in before then.

Toxic Baby

In this week’s video from TEDWomen, filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer became curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant, and in particular atrazine, a commonly used herbicide used on maize. View it here.

Maize

We’re offering three varieties of maize this week. Yellow sweetcorn, white maize – hard and starchy, and my personal favourite, and white sweetcorn, falling somewhere between the two in sweetness and softness. Yellow sweetcorn, albeit most likely a genetically-modified atrazine laden variety, is the only one commonly found in the supermarkets, being the most popular for those with a sweeter tooth.

Onions

Onion season is in full swing right now, and if you can’t tell your Rossa lunga di Firenze from your De Genoa, help is at hand. Regular brown onions have the highest eye-watering sulphur content and generally keep their distinctive flavour when cooked. Red onions are better for raw dishes, as they’re milder and sweeter and your host won’t be offended by your tears while you tuck in.

If brown and red are a little mahogany for you, we also have small pickling onions, and Drift farm have supplied us with three unusual varieties. The Rossa lunga di Firenze has a big shallot, long bulbs, is also great raw, and won the RHS award for the sweetest onion in 2008. The round, red-skinned De Genoa has a tender, consistent red/white flesh, and is ideal both for eating raw and making onion pastes. Finally, the medium-sized Ramata de Milano has round golden bulbs with white flesh, and stores well.

While our dry produce is normally relatively easy to manage (bar the occasional exploding chia seeds), fresh produce can be more challenging. Those of you that ordered potatoes last week would have been notified about them in advance, while our recent batches of peaches, Jekyl in the warehouse, have turned into Hyde by the time they got to their destination.

Remember, if your peaches are peach jam when you get them, or if anything else goes wrong, we will happily refund you.

Have a great week,
Ian and the Ethical team

To order, head on over to www.ethical.org.za to place your order before Tuesday 2pm, and remember that you can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter

I went to a friend’s farm near Heidelberg for the holidays, and got to experience shopping the old-fashioned way. Driving, queues, and a very, very limited range of greens at the local shops. I am extremely grateful for the wide range of fresh produce we offer, all of it organic or biodynamic, and all delivered to my door.

At the end of last year, our server, my cellphone, my spare cellphone, my laptop, my backup drive and my car (amongst other things!) all decided to wind down a little earlier than planned. I took the hint, and spent most of the holidays completely disconnected from everything. They’re (mostly) all back on track, but I know some messages and emails went missing, so if you are still waiting for a response, please accept our apologies, and let us know how we can help.