Those of you expecting something meaningful or insightful may find this week’s news a little like the weather - grey patches with the odd sunny spell. But if you like Phil Collins and sustainable pineapples – apply the factor 30, the forecast is tropical.

Cocktails and calculators

We were in the news in two very different articles last week. ‘Enterprise enters social mainstream’ (in the Financial Times) was about how business has lost the associations of hard-nosed greed and entered the social mainstream. It described Rich, Jon and Adam as “hippies with calculators” which explains why one of them has started to insist on being called Cosmic Jon and has been bringing his pet goose to meetings.

The other was “Choose a boozy smoothie” in London Lite, which had this recipe for a smoothie cocktail:

Pour 100ml of innocent mangoes, guavas and goji berries superfoods smoothie, 100ml of lychee juice, 50ml of rum (gold or dark varieties preferable), two teaspoons of coconut cream and the flesh of a passion fruit into a shaker with ice. Shake well and pour into a highball glass.

If you’ve tried making it, drop us an email as we’d love to know if it’s any good.

Cumulomumbo

In case you’re off camping soon, we went at the weekend and regretted not bringing the following things:
•A mug
•Perudo dice
•Tweezers. Splinters and ticks are two of our least favourite things

But found these things very handy:
•Mum’s old collapsible kitchen table
•Eye-wateringly strong local cider
•A basic understanding of cloud formations (so as to impress your friends when discussing the likelihood of rain - feel free to print this out and tuck it into the pocket of your cagoule)
•The Genesis Platinum Collection. Play ‘That’s All’ on repeat for hours of fun.

Eu-Rica

While we were rinsing off the mud in communal shower blocks, our Jess was in Costa Rica learning about how to grow more sustainable pineapples. Seriously. We want to buy ones certified by the Rainforest Alliance (like our bananas), but currently there are no farms certified to the rigorous standard to supply us. So she went to visit the growers to learn more about pineapple farming and to understand what actions were needed to get them certified. The three main areas the farms are working on are conserving biodiversity, protecting the soil from erosion and worker safety. The aim is to work closely with the farms and auditors from the Rainforest Alliance to get them all approved. We’ll let you know how we get on.

And finally...

Hello. We would be extremely honoured if you could read our news, digest it thoroughly and then dispose of the remains with consideration for your friends and neighbours.

Harvest time

Right now, we are focused on strawberries. It's time for the harvest in Poland, which is where we get our Senga Sengana strawberries from. They're the finest we can find - beautifully tasty with a deep red hue - and seeing as we want to make the best tasting stuff ever, we figure we should use the best tasting strawberries. Lucy, Sam and Rozanne were out there checking up on the harvest and we're happy to say that this year's crop is mighty fine. Read more here.

Strapping little sapling

Cast your mind back to last winter, when the red red robin was bob bob bobbing across your garden and you got a little carried away one Friday night in November and kissed a man called Simon/lady called Rachel/both of them. You may recall that we did our thing with those little woolly hats, helping to raise money for Age Concern. Still with us? Well, thanks to everyone who knitted those hats, we won a prize (and a tree) at The Big Tick Awards. Anthony went to collect the trophy and a rather attractive little sapling. But now he needs some help in figuring out where to plant the latter. Please help him

A bit like Mad Max

The innocent touring fete gets started this week. Our first port of call is the Taste of London event, and then our touring team will be on the road for three months, a bit like Mad Max (but with bunting), taking the mini innocent village fete around the country. Click here to find out if they'll be stopping off in a town near you. And don't forget to wave if you see them on the road. If you need to see even more fete stuff, have a look at Bagnall fete, which we visited at the weekend.

Did you win?

The winners of those nice Cool Camping books from last week were Carol G, Sarah, Christine, Jo T, Richard L, Julia S, Sophie O, Keesje, Jennie P and Juliet I. We'll be emailing you shortly to sort out delivery.

And finally...

Hello one and all. This week things are good, like a dough ball. Tasty good. We hope things are tasty good with you too.

A new smoothie of the month

June - so good they named it after a girl. And seeing as it's a new month, with a whole new set of thirty days in which to breathe, sleep and do the electric boogaloo with the cool kids behind the bandstand, it's time for a new smoothie of the month. Some of you will know and love cherries and strawberries from years gone by. We like to bring it back every once in a while, just to keep you happy. But remember, it's a limited edition, so in four weeks or so it'll be gone again. Treat her nice while she's here.

Feeling (w)holy

Whole Foods Market is a big new shop that's just opened in London. They sell lots of healthy stuff there. You can even make your own peanut butter using the make-your-own-peanut-butter machine. Yahoo. Anyway, the reason for us highlighting this big shop is that we're helping out. We've invented some recipes for them to make at their in house smoothie bar, with 10% of all proceeds going to our foundation.

Win win win

Our Doug has got a friend called Jon. Jon writes and publishes books about camping. Jon said that we could have some of his books, to give to you as a prize. So there's going to be a competition, right now.

Click here to win one of these smart books.

And finally...

Ignore those other boring emails, take the phone off the hook and lock your boss in the stationery cupboard - we have an announcement. We’re all going to the park to have some fun and we’d love you to join us.

A glorious summer

There's nothing wrong with living in the city. In fact, if you like curious smells and rare cross-breeds of bull terrier then we'd highly recommend Shepherd's Bush. But it’s important to make an effort to get out and about - especially in summer. And in our book there's no better summer's day out than a fete on the village green. So this year we're dedicating the whole summer to celebrating the great village fete. We're going to be doing things all over the UK, visiting other people’s fetes and taking our own mini fete on a tour of the country. The big news is that it'll all culminate with the innocent village fete, held in Regent’s Park, London on the 4th and 5th August.

Everything's going to be done properly. Homemade cakes, a big farmers market, excellent live music, loads of stuff for kids to do, fruit and veg competitions, real ale and cider, ferret racing, Morris dancers, dog agility, miles and miles of bunting, and even the odd smoothie.

We’ve already booked lots of acts (including The Epstein, Ben Westbeech, and Grantura) and the list is growing daily, so keep checking our new website dedicated to all things fete.

Getting a ticket

It’ll be a great weekend and to make sure the park doesn't get too crowded, it’s going to be ticketed (all the profits go to charity). It’s £5 for adults, £2.50 for kids, and under 3s go free. There’s only a limited number of tickets available, so if you fancy coming, we’d strongly recommend getting them sooner rather than later. Click here to get your hands on them.

Find a fete

Not all fetes have fancy websites and email newsletters so we’ve also set up a fete finder to help everyone find their own local fete. We’ve only just built it so we’d love your help getting as many fetes in it as possible. If you’re organising one, or if you know the details of any being held in your town or village, we’d be really grateful if you could click here and upload them. No car boot sales or badger wrestling tournaments though please.

Our little fete tour

As we mentioned, we've also got our own little touring fete that'll be travelling around the country over the summer. It’s first stop will be at the Taste of London event on 21-24 June 2007 so if you're there, please pop by and taste some smoothies, chuck some stuff at coconuts or just grab a deckchair and have a chat.

And finally...