Why not let this week’s news warm the cockles of your heart, the periwinkles of your liver and the whelks of your spleen with some home cooking, woollen joy and a bit of dancing for those nippy waits at the bus stop.

Hat’s amazing

501,423 hats to be precise. Thanks to you and your needles, we’ve hit our target of 500,000 hats for this year’s Big Knit campaign which is brilliant news. As you read this, hats like this are being popped onto our little bottles, ready to go on shelf and things are looking good to raise £250,000 for Age Concern. There’s less than a week to go till your woolly creations hit the shelves in every single Sainsbury’s store across the land, so for now, massive thanks and back pats all round to everyone who knitted us a hat.

A bit of home cooking

When it’s raining outside, there’s nothing on the telly and the shop is out of Battenburg, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than a spot of baking? To avoid flabby flans and sunken crumbles, every Friday we’ll post a winter warming recipe from the best bakers we know (i.e. our mums). That way, you can buy all the ingredients on the way home after work and then whip up a baking storm come Sunday afternoon. And if you’ve got any good recipes for steaming puds and the like, post them on the blog and we’ll feature the best ones alongside our mums' recommendations next Friday.

No time like the present

Real time feedback. In the world of corporate blabber, it’s what trendy management guides think you should be doing RIGHT NOW. None of this softly softly rubbish, waiting around for end of year reviews to say how people are doing. If their tea making skills are under par, get over to their desk and tell them to get friendly with the milk jug RIGHT NOW. Yes, RTF is all about telling it like it is, right here, RIGHT NOW. So we’ve made this new widget thing on our website meaning you can tell us what you think of all the stuff we make, whenever you like (i.e. RIGHT NOW). That way, we can make things even better. We’ve given this new bit the snappy title of ‘your reviews’ and you can find it on every recipe page. What’s more, each month we’ll have a prize for the best comment posted. And seeing as there are only 3 days left this month, you’re in with a good chance of winning.

And finally...the dance edition

When is the right time to start wearing chinos and a club tie? Is it acceptable to get a perm, post-Keegan? And what should I have for my tea? Things to ponder whilst you digest this week’s news.

Queen of the blog

Dr. Shilpee has been writing her blog for a couple of months now and in addition to her many secret admirers, lots of you have been commenting. Since starting her weekly post, Shilps has talked about everything from sugar and energy balancing to what to do when you overdo it on the takeaways. Last week she was chatting about different types of fats and this week, it’s all about hair loss, protein and omega 3 oils. Seeing as we’re currently grooming her for the morning TV circuit, having super shiny hair is all the more essential. She’s looking hot right now – be sure to check out her health tips.

Innovating the Alps

Billa – not street speak for William but actually the name of a chain of fine Austrian supermarkets. Billa have over 1000 shops across the Alps and are kind enough to sell our drinks in pretty much all of them. Even better, we just won their award for “most innovative product in convenience” and for bringing general fruit based joy to the people of the mountains. So raise your schnitzels and dance to the sound of the flugelhorn. We did it. Oh yes, we did it.

Big knit, big nuisance

So the deadline for sending hats has passed, much to the relief of our postman. Poor Dave has been feeling the strain of late through the sheer amount of knitted hat packages flooding into Fruit Towers. He’s had to make so many extra deliveries that he’s renamed the whole campaign the Big Nuisance. Thankfully, all those bundles of knitted joy mean we should smash our target of 500,000 hats. So to everyone who’s knitted, thanks for making this a record year. We couldn’t do it without you.

If you've been keeping an eye on our our hatometer, and are worried that we've not hit our target, fear not. As you can see here, we've still got loads of hats to unpack, so we probably won't know what our final total figure is until the end of this week. In the mean time, we’re going to be counting hats and making cakes and lots of tea to pacify Dave.

Veg trivia #1

Seeing as we’re now selling pots of veg, we thought it’d be a good idea to include some veg related facts in the news every now and then. Just enough to enrich your vegetable knowledge for those all important Trivial Pursuit moments.

First up is the aubergine.

• The aubergine is part of the nightshade family, which also includes tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco. Taxonomically speaking, the aubergine is actually a fruit but tastes better in a tagine than a pavlova.

• Back in the 5th century, fashionable Chinese ladies used to make a dye out of the skin of aubergines and polish their teeth with it until they were a shiny gray. Yum.

• In Italy, the aubergine or eggplant is called "melanzane," which means "crazy apple." Like, crazy.

More useful vegetable related trivia very soon. We’ll see what we can dig up.*

And finally...

* this joke was brought to you in conjunction with The Innocent Home For Retired Quips

Think packed. Think full. Think value. Yep, that’s right. This week’s news is packed full of value. Get involved.

All about the value

According to billionaire businessman, Warren “Finger” Buffet, value ‘is what you get.’ Granted, his profound quotes aren’t quite as hot as his business chat but as the current richest man in the world (2008), Buffet has a point - value should be what you get for your hard earned cash. So when it comes to making smoothies, we want to make sure you’re getting the best value possible. To test this in true scientific style, we sent Lucy T down the shops to buy all the fruit for a couple of our recipes and see if it was cheaper to make them using shop bought fruit. You can read the long version here or watch our Rich talking about it on Working Lunch here. Otherwise, the very short version is that it’s cheaper to buy one of our big cartons than try and make it yourself at home. Plus there’s no washing up to do either (apart from your cup).

What a conker

Last Sunday saw the 44th World Conker Championships take place in Ashton, Northamptonshire and our Will J took part with his team, The St. Tanktonian Olympiad. Despite weeks of practice and a team consisting of Superman, the Spanish Armada, a werewolf and a man in a bib, they lost out to Ray Kellock, 62, who used his Kinetic Energy Conker Theory to clinch the 2008 title. Extra strong laces, conkers injected with epoxy resin, poking your opponent in the eye – those are tactics for wimps. Channel that kinetic energy, keep your beard tidy and be at one with the conker.

Kitchen magic

Our Lucy has just got back from a 3 month stint working for Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck. As well as learning about all things foodie, experimenting with new ingredients and working on an exciting new TV programme (due out in February), she also got to eat copious amounts of bacon and egg ice cream and say ‘Yes, Chef’ a lot. Seeing as Lucy is our Head of Products, make sure you keep your eyes (and taste buds) peeled for any unusual smoothie recipes in the coming months. Maybe that mangoes and tarmac recipe will finally get to see the light of day after all.

Remember, remember, the tash of November.

It’s only 16 days till November arrives in all its firework-displaying-earmuff-wearing-hanging-round-the-bonfire splendour. Here at Fruit Towers, the boys are celebrating by growing some facial furniture. That’s right. Movember is almost here and we need your help to design tashes for our soon-to-be moustachioed men. All you need to do is download this template and send us your moustache creations. Once we’ve got all your entries, we’ll pick our favourites, assign one to each participant and keep you updated on their progress. Deadline for moustache styles is 26th October 2008. Get scribbling.

And finally...

STOP PRESS Don’t forget that the closing deadline for sending us your little wooly hats for The Big Knit is this Friday 17th October STOP PRESS

This week’s news is almost as satisfying as reuniting a lost sock with its partner and then discovering it's where you’d stashed that tenner. Almost.

Good weed, bad weed

Jess and Atha have just got back from visiting our pineapple farmers in Costa Rica where they learnt about good weeds. Historically, weeds on pineapple plantations have been culled with chemicals to stop them from stripping the soil of its nutrients. However, pineapples actually get their nutrients from the top of the plant and not the soil. So since they’re not competing with the weeds, thinking has now changed and farmers are all in favour of buenahierba (good grass). By leaving the weeds to grow, birds and frogs have returned to the plantations, eating the insects that cause damage and meaning that fewer chemicals are being applied. So, turns out there can be such a thing as a good weed.

Cow on the run

Last week we promised you Jess’ cow story, so here it is. After visiting our pineapples in Costa Rica, she popped over to Ecuador to see some passion fruit. On the way to the airport, a cow ran out in front of her car and left a rather large bovine shaped dent in the bonnet. Luckily, all passengers and the cow were unharmed though the car was a write off. The insurance company and Ecuadorian police are still searching for said cow to interview it for insurance purposes.

Darn fine effort

With less than 10 days to go till all hats need to be in for The Big Knit, it’s all hands to the, er, needles. People are taking their knitting to meetings, knitting at their desks, knitting on the loo. Joe got some expert knitting tuition from Beryl and Jean at the local Age Concern centre. This was then followed by a knitting masterclass at Fruit Towers and then a speed knit on Monday. We’re currently at 232,014 hats so if you’re busy hatmaking, please remember to get your hats to us for 17th October. To spur your tired fingers on that bit more, let this week’s Hat of the Week, Mr. Tash, inspire you like it did us.

Family times

Families. Sometimes it feels like you don’t see enough of them and other times you’re just glad that Christmas only comes once a year. We’d never want you to feel that our innocent family is like that, but we also know that some of you are keen as beans to be more involved. Coming in to see us more often, having a chat about what we’re up to, answering questions, helping us choose new recipes, being one of our Taste Buds (a.k.a. home smoothie tasters) and just being more involved in innocent as a whole. If you like the sound of all that and fancy getting involved, then just fill in this little survey.

And finally...

It’s raining outside but there’s a song in my heart, a skip in my step and a conker in my pocket. Must be time for Autumn again.

Autumn times

We can’t pretend anymore. Autumn’s here and Summer’s gone (actually, Summer never came). But rather than sulk by the radiator, we’re embracing this rather bracing season instead, starting with our new damsons, blackberries & apples recipe. This is the recipe chosen by those of you who came along to our AGM back in April, pipping the elderflower recipe to the post. It’s the taste of the hedgerow (minus the birds’ nests and bits of twig) and as local as you like, with damsons from Herefordshire, apples from Sussex and blackberries from Essex. And if you’re still not feeling the Autumn love after trying it, hopefully some of these ideas will get you in the mood. Or at least warm up those numb toes if nothing else.

Green times

Our Rich was interviewed this week in The Times as part of their Green Rush series. They’ve been interviewing all sorts of people from the dashing Zac Goldsmith to the CEO of Shell about the place of ethics, sustainability and what it actually means to be green in the world of business as well as addressing topics like how business can make money and still do good at the same time. There’s lots of interesting stuff in there and little video clips if you don’t have time to read all the articles. Plus you can see Rich in all his beaded glory here.

Interesting times

It’s been an exciting week on the news desk at Fruit Towers this week (well, sort of)

• Two people called Tom started working here, bringing the grand total of people called Tom working here to a sizeable 4.
• Douglas got a black eye from a cricket ball in Ibiza ( because that’s what you do when you go to Ibiza…)
• Jess crashed into a cow in Ecuador (more on that next week, though fret not, the cow was fine)
• The Mayor of Rotterdam may now be drinking our smoothies*
• And over in the gym, Old Spice is back.

Crazy times.

*Depending how often he goes down the canteen at Rotterdam Town Hall

Winning times

A big well done to last week’s competition winner, Rebecca G-W, who correctly guessed that a fondant fancy is in fact a teatime cake based treat and not a member of the vegetable family. Ten tasty veg pots on their merry way to you now.

And finally...