Welcome to the May 2018 issue of the Stirling Health Food Store E-newsletter!
In this issue: more bumper special offers, Josine's chicken and TV - extra blog topped off with another seasonal recipe...
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Special Offer: Ricola Swiss Herbal Sweets 45g 40% OFF
 For one month only... we’ve got a fantastic deal on the Ricola Swiss Herbal Sweets (45g boxes). Instead of £1.49 you pay only 89p! That’s a mega saving of 40%!
These sugar free herbal sweets have been around since 1940, when a Swiss gentleman by the name of Herr Richterich combined 13 Swiss herbs to create these delicious, mouth-watering sweets.
The exact herb combination is still a closely guarded secret, but I can tell you that the recipe hasn’t changed in all that time.
 Made with only natural colours and flavours, these sweets are sugar free, and the sweeteners that Ricola use are gradually being replacing in favour of stevia, a natural plant sourced sweetener.
The unique blend of herbs makes Ricola sweets ideal for travelling, soothing tickly throats and freshening breath. They also help to keep your mouth lubricated - so if you are a bit of a chatterbox then these might be the very thing for you! I’ve been taking a box with me on my TV extra jobs, because I find them helpful if I think I’m going to cough (something you don’t want to do when filming in case you ruin a take!).
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Our News: Join the #NoPlastic Challenge!
We at the Stirling Health Food Store are very passionate about the environment. That’s why we try to stock brands which are ethical and green. Behind the scenes we also recycle all our cardboard (it either ends up on my vegetables beds or it gets uplifted by the council); we recycle all our glass; I even take home our used tea bags and apple cores and chuck them onto my own compost heap!
 I’ve often wondered why it is so much food comes in plastic packaging these days, but thanks to Sir David Attenborough (and many others!) there finally seems to be a public outcry about the amount of plastic waste that ends up in our oceans.
So, throughout May and June we will have a ‘plastic free’ display in the middle of our shop filled with lots of new and existing plastic free products.
One of these new products is Bloom & Nora reusable sanitary pads. Totbots says: “Quality and environmentally friendly cloth sanitary pads that allow you to have a cycle in style! No more irritations from harsh chemicals and saves you money too! Now that is positively period!”
Check out their website for more information! https://www.totsbots.com/about-bloom-and-nora
We will also be stocking new shampoo and shaving bars. This is shampoo not in a plastic bottle, but in a paper wrapped bar! A little goes a long way when using these products from Friendly Soaps. They all produce a rich, velvety lather that nourishes your hair and is gentle on the skin. They are all made in the UK, not tested on animals, free from parabens, palm oil and plastic and they are suitable for vegans. What’s not to like?
Next to these new soaps you will also find a ‘ramie cloth’: not made from plastic, but from nettle! Surely a misprint? But no, you read that right - apart from being super healthy, nettles contain lots of fibre which you can use to make clothes and in this case; bath sponges.
If all this pampering makes you peckish, then time for a wee snack. What about our new range of tortilla chips, packed in 100% compostable packaging?! These tortilla crisps are stone-ground from the whole corn kernel and packed in environmental friendly bags. I know what I will do: after a long, hard day toiling in the garden, I’ll grab some tortilla crisps and simply chuck the bag on the compost heap when I’m finished!
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Our News: Bio D refills
 You can also reduce the amount of plastic you use by refilling old bottles of Bio-D Laundry and Washing-up liquid.
Simply bring in your empty Bio D washing up liquid or laundry bottle and we’ll refill it while you wait (Might take a while if it’s the washing-up liquid you’re after) or swap it for one we refilled earlier.
You can also order 5 litre sizes of most Bio D household cleaning products, as well as those from Ecover, Ecoleaf and Faith in Nature. Just ask a member of staff for more details!
Bio D is one of the most ethical cleaning product companies around. Based in Hull, none of their products have been tested on animals; they only ever use natural ingredients and are not owned by a multinational corporation! Recently we were notified by our Scottish wholesaler Green City that they have now stopped distributing Ecover products, because it appears Ecover has started to use synthetically engineered algae, which effectively is GMO based. Green City has a strict non-GMO policy and has therefore discontinued Ecover products. We, as a shop, try to be as ethical as possible, and are therefore trying to promote the most ethical brands. We won’t discontinue the Ecover range entirely, mainly because they have some products which aren’t available from other brands. But we will extend our Bio D range and that’s one of the reasons you can now refill your empty Bio D bottles at our shop.
Not only is this better for the planet, but it’s better value too! The price of a refilled washing up liquid is only £1.99 compared to £2.19 for a new one. The refilled laundry liquid is £4.59 compared to £5.05 new.
We’re a bit short of empty Bio-D bottles, so If you have any spare empty Bio-D bottles lying about at home, then please bring them in and we can use them for refilling!
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Our News: Online and Click & Collect Service
D id you know you can also buy all your health products via our online shop and get them delivered to your door (from £2.79 for orders up to 2kg)? Or use our new click & collect service and pick your order up in the store (at no extra charge).
Not only is shopping online with a real, proper, well established shop much safer and more personal, we also pay our taxes, too!
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Dates to put in your diary
- 4th May – STAR WARS Day!
May the force be with you!
- 7th May - Early May Bank Holiday
Shop OPEN 10am – 4pm
- 28th May - Spring Bank Holiday
Shop OPEN 10am – 4pm
- 14th - 20th May
National Vegetarian Week, try something vegetarian! Check out our recipe site for inspiration.
- 14th – 20th May
Coeliac Awareness Week, we can tell you more about this and advice you on gluten free cooking
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Did you know.....?
A plastic toothbrush can take up to 400 years to decompose? Thankfully there are alternatives like bamboo toothbrushes or even plastic toothbrushes with replaceable heads. Both are available to buy in store.
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Josine’s Garden, TV and Chicken Blog
 What a funny month April has been! Easter fell very early this year, resulting in very cold weather and for some of us (including me and JP) more snow! We had some 8 inches of snow lying from Easter Monday until Wednesday. I felt sorry for our poor French wwoofers, but that said, they had been volunteering all winter in the UK, so they were used to the colder weather. Of course we couldn’t do much in the garden, so they cleared out the greenhouse, which was brilliant! Another job we were glad of an extra pair of hands was moving a small greenhouse across the road to our neighbours. Because we are a bit more exposed, we had to place the greenhouse next to the house, which meant it didn’t get any sun. So, our neighbours had a much better spot for it, and that’s where it ended up. Instead of the greenhouse, we built an outdoor run for the chickens, which actually turned out really nice! I planted it with ‘chicken friendly plants’, or should I say: ‘plants chickens really like to eat’?!
Unfortunately the hens are not really enjoying their new run, because the plants have to establish themselves first, before they have the chance to destroy them. They are, however, enjoying making a racket outside our garden! We live pretty remotely and away from any main roads, so we just let the hens run around the path, and the road, and the fields, and the neighbour’s garden and....
 Because of the long, long winter our garden is a little behind with everything. Our first frog spawn appeared the second week of April; our daffodils are only just beginning to flower in the last week of April; our helleborus plants are still fully flowering and I haven’t planted much in the vegetable beds either. I had to pre-sprout the onion sets, because we couldn’t plant them sooner. Anyway, normally everything catches up as soon as the weather warms up a bit.
I had some fantastic news the other week - the Bumblebee Conservation Trust confirmed that we are the proud ‘owners’ of the rare Bilberry Bumblebee! Planting all those wildlife friendly plants and shrubs has paid off, it seems, which I’m very happy about.
Mid April I have been doing some TV-extra work again. Keep an eye out for a birthday party scene in River City to be broadcast in summer. I was selected to be one of the main characters’ ‘friends’. I don’t have any lines (extras don’t say anything!), but I can be seen mingling with the main actors and another 3 extras. The other extras, by the way, were very experienced; all of them had been doing it for 10-15 years! I just started in July last year!
Sorry to those who follow River City, but I cannot say anything more about the scene, except that it was filmed in one of the studio ‘living rooms’. I had another extra job this month, too - but it wasn’t that exciting at all - the group of 6 I was in weren’t even used. We just hung around until we were released 5 hours later.
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Seasonal Recipe
this recipe is dairy free, vegetarian, vegan, egg free, gluten free
Vegetable Curry
Ingredients:
3 tbsp sunflower oil
4 tbsp desiccated coconut
2 onions, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely cut
3 cm fresh ginger root, peeled and finely cut
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 cloves
1 tsp paprika
1 can coconut milk
1 cauliflower, cut in rosettes
200 g fresh (or frozen) peas
2 tbsp flaked almonds, lightly toasted in a dry pan
Brown rice to serve
Preparation:
Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and soften for around 3 minutes. Add the garlic, desiccated coconut and all the spices and fry for another 2 minutes. Add the cauliflower and coconut milk and gently cook for around 15 minutes, add the peas after 10 minutes and cook until the cauliflower is soft.
Scatter the toasted flaked almonds on top and serve with brown rice.
Serves 4
British cauliflower is available almost all year round. There are varieties which you can plant in September and they will have heads early to mid spring.
Peas are the same, I normally sow a few in March indoors in my unheated greenhouse and they are ready mid to late spring.
You can also view this recipe (and more seasonal recipes) online at:
http://www.stirlinghealthfoodstore.co.uk/home/16093/recipes.htm
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