Browsing: education

I love the summer holidays. It offers a little time to relax and unwind. It allows a little more time to spend with the kids. How we love those long blissful days of chilling out and engaging in fun activities. At least that’s the theory.

National Trust Pond Dipping Kit

Sometimes the actual experience is a little different. Not enough time to squeeze everything in and yet the kids seem bored before the day has even started. Everyone wants to do something different. And no one wants to do anything that doesn’t cost a fortune. It hardly feels like the “joys of family life” that I signed up for.

So once Harry Potter has been watched and the actual two weeks away has been taken – then what? Some days we will reach for the trusty National Trust membership card and take a trip to North East England jewels like Gibside or the Souter Lighthouse but I am hoping that this year the words “National Trust” will come to mean more than a quick dash round a stately home followed by spending a small fortune in the cafe and gift shop!

The new National Trust range we have just listed may well prove an entertaining distraction on some of the days those which look like a blank canvas -rather than those that look similar to the train timetable at Clapham Junction!

Each National Trust kit comes in a sturdy box with all you need to begin engaging with the particular aspect of outdoors that it focuses on. My personal favourite is the National Trust Bug Hunting Kit which offers everything from the specimen pots through to your very own pooter for collecting the bugs. I think it was reading Gerald Durrell’s “My family and other animals” that inspired me to get down on my hands and knees to study the little creatures that live all around us. The wonder of a centipede as the wave of movement ripples down its body. The amazing colour of the butterfly or dragonfly as it gets carried on the wind from leaf to leaf. The amazing world of ants all working together. So for the price of afternoon tea for the family we can set out on a bug hunting, pond dipping, bark rubbing, flower pressing or rock pool splashing adventure.

We’d love to know what ethical adventures your planning this summer – let us know by commenting to this post below.

Anane Mensah sharing his Divine story

This morning, Ethical Superstore was proud to welcome two of the cocoa famers from the Kuapa Kokoo Fairtrade cocoa cooperative, located in Ghana, West Africa. The cocoa that this co-operative grows, cuts and dries is used to make Divine Chocolate, which is certainly more than enough to make all of us sit up and pay attention.

The name ‘Kuapa Kokoo’ means ‘The Good Cocoa Farmers Company’. It’s a bit of a tongue twister in Ghanaian, but it has a good ring to it, and is certainly evocative of the faraway country from where the cocoa originates. It’s a name to be conjured with, and a name which is synonymous with Fairtrade success, as the stories of Mr Anane Mensah and Mr James Adiyiah told us first hand.

Anane’s and James’ roles in the co-operative are important ones. They are both Recorders, charged with the task of weighing and recording the amount of cocoa which is farmed and processed to be sold. Being responsible for the amount each farmer is paid is a large responsibility, and through this job they have both gained a respected place and influence in the Kuapa Kokoo community.

Read the rest of A Divine Cocoa Breakfast »