Tea Cosy of The Week....

Following our 100 SuperJam Tea Parties across the UK earlier this month, we've started receiving more tea cosies than ever.

This week's favourite is this lovely floral number.  It keeps tea snug as a bug and makes a cracking hat..

The mountain of hand-knitted squares keeps on growing - thanks very much to everyone who is sending them in.  We'll soon start sewing them all together to make blankets for the Gwalior Children's Orphanage.

If you like, you can 'sponsor a square' online and help to raise much needed funds for the orphanage.

The 12 Year-Old Burger...

Today I came across something truly astounding.

Karen Hanrahan teaches a workshop titled Healthy Choices for Children. It's a class for parents seeking solutions to how to improve the way they eat. It's about the alternative food market, organics, and the top ten food additives to avoid and why, menu planning and more.

She uses this burger as a prop. She purchased the burger in 1996, 12 years ago, from McDonald's and it looks identical to one that she might have purchased today.

The flecks on the burger are crumbs from the bun, the burger is starting to crumble a bit and smells a little odd. However, the point is that it has been laced with such a cocktail of chemicals and preservatives that it hasn't degraded, and perhaps never will.

Clearly, eating food that isn't natural is unlikely to be very good for you.  It is important to me that SuperJam is made entirely from fruit and fruit juice, without anything artificial.   Sure, it will only last a month or two in your 'fridge - but surely that is preferable to your food being so artificial that it can last forever...

How do you eat yours?

A lot of folks kindly send in their serving ideas and even recipes using SuperJam, which is always pretty cool to receive.

However, I also come across a lot of people who use jam in quite odd ways...

Jessica, from Sacramento, California has sent in a picture of herself eating SuperJam on boiled eggs. 

Not sure if it's a US thing.  I haven't tried it myself yet so I won't put it down entirely but I don't think we'll be adding it to the serving suggestions on the back of the SuperJam jars...

Alan, from Balloch near Glasgow, has sent in a picture of himself eating what he has imaginatively dubbed 'Jam-Offee'. 

He puts SuperJam in his coffee in the mornings. I find this a particularly weird concept. Alan, whose surname is Beverage and he is studying for a PhD at Strathclyde (which will make him Dr. Beverage), is an avid inventor of new drink 'mash ups' and says that he has ambitions to, one day, build the 'Jam-Offee' brand into a worldwide chain of coffee shops. 

Good luck with that.

Do you put your jam anywhere unusual? Feel free to send in a picture (unless it's particularly unsavory), and I'll maybe write about it.

Sponsor-A-Square..

As part of our 100 Tea Parties across the UK, we have been running a massive 'knitathon'.  The guests at all of this month's SuperJam Tea Parties have been invited to knit as many squares as they can throughout the month.  So far, about 1,000 squares have been donated, which is quite incredible.  

It was tricky to take a good photo to demonstrate how many squares that is, but I promise it is a lot!

My friend Fiona will be hosting a 'sewathon' in a few weeks' time.  The squares will all be sewn together, once they have all been collected in, and taken to the Gwalior Orphanage in Central India, which Fiona helps to run.  

We thought it would be a groovy idea to try and have each of the squares 'sponsored'.  If we can raise £1 for each square that has been knitted, we will be able to help fund the amazing work that goes on at the orphanage.  To sponsor a square and read more about the orphanage, please click here.

The King in Toast...

Today I came across a remarkable man.  He calls himself 'The Toast Man'.

Maurice Bennett is a New Zealand-based artist who creates massive murals using toast.  This is his gigantic picture of Elvis Presley, created entirely from thousands of slices of toast.  His website says:

"With the success and notoriety created by the toast portraits, and the aspect that I wish to explore the "Flame as a paintbrush" idea further, I have continued my interest in toast as a medium. I am working towards an exhibition later this year in which the colours and designs of Tapa Cloth are imprinted onto the toast with the help of a high powered blowtorch."

I look forward to seeing more of his work, it is really quite outstanding...

 

Tea Cosy of The Week....

I've lazily skipped a few weeks' worth of the delights of 'Tea Cosy of The Week', because of all of the madness surrounding our 100 Tea Parties across the UK.

This marvelous 'Moose' (mouse, for our English readers) Tea Cosy was kindly knitted by one of the Edinburgh CSV-RSVP volunteers who came along to the Tea Party at Meadowbank.  She also kindly knitted quite a few squares for the 'knitathon', which will be sewn together to make blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India.

As always, if you have the knitting bug, feel free to send in a Tea Cosy for The SuperJam Tea Parties project.  If it's particularly groovy, i'll pop it on the blog.

If you need any inspiration for your cosy, you might want to check out some of the funky knitting patterns from: Knitting Pattern Central.

Please beware; apparently (according to the Internet..) tea pots injure up to 4,000 people every year.  Tea Cosies make them a bit softer..

I need your vote in The Spirit of Scotland Awards!

I've very gratefully been entered into the Entrepreneur category of the Spirit of Scotland Awards and would, of course, be massively grateful of your support.

To Vote: You can vote on the Glenfiddich website here.

Alternatively, simply call 09016 560160 and follow the instructions or text SCOTA1012 to 81800.

There are lots of big names in the other categories, such as Chris Hoy, Sir Alex Ferguson, Mark Beaumont (who cycled all the way round the world last year) KT Tunstall and James McAvoy..

The winner of each category is selected by readers of The Scotsman and visitors to Glenfiddich's website.  Everyone who takes the time to cast their vote will be entered into a prize draw to win one of twenty-one different Glenfiddich prizes.

Thanks very much for taking the time to vote.

Orange & Passion Fruit SuperJam

SuperJam launched over eighteen months ago, with three original flavours.  Following the massive success of the range, we've finally managed to develop a fourth flavour, Orange & Passion Fruit.

One of the most common questions of the past couple of years has been 'Why don't you make marmalade?'.  Well, after lots of recipes and all kinds of different ideas, this is a really fab tasting addition to the SuperJam range - available now at Asda and soon at Waitrose and everywhere else..

SuperJam Launches Nationally in Asda Wal-Mart..

SuperJam is now available in most Asda stores in the UK, about 220 of them to be exact.  This is a big step for the business and means that tens of thousands more people can enjoy our products on their toast or in their porridge every morning.

We're very excited to be supplying Asda, who are part of Wal-Mart; the biggest retailer in the world....

SuperJam Tea Party in North Wales..

This is very exciting! We just hosted our first SuperJam Tea Party in Wales.  

There were quite a lot of people who came along to the tea party at Llandudno West Shore, for tea and scones and SuperJam.  There was much laughter and new friendships were made.

Audrey, the host, and the elderly guests are going to knit squares over the coming weeks and bring as many as they can to the tea party next month.  Of course, we'll be sewing all of the squares together to make blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India, which is something we started doing as part of our 100 Tea Parties Across the UK a couple of weeks ago.

Please get in touch if you would like to help host a SuperJam Tea Party in your local community...

'The One to Watch for 2009'

A couple of weeks ago, I got to go to 'Kensington Roof Gardens', which apparently is owned by Richard Branson and is about 6 floors above Kensington High Street.  Fairly fancy schmancy.... they even have flamingos in the bar!

Anyway, we went there to have our pictures taken for the front cover of this month's edition of Growing Business Magazine, which is the 'Young Guns' edition.  I was chosen as 'the one to watch for 2009', so I better do something exciting next year, ha.

It was very fun and there are a lot of other interesting entrepreneurs in the edition, such as Tim Campbell who won the Apprentice, Fiona McLean and Clare Thommen who run the Scottish lingerie business Boudiche and Vincent McKevitt, who runs the chain of salad bars  Tossed.

I've also been shortlisted for the Growing Business Awards, in the 'Young Entrepreneur' category, which is run by the same magazine.  It is being judged by Duncan Bannatyne, Surinder Arora and various other entrepreneurial heavyweights.  I have to give a presentation about my business next week... perhaps I'll buy a tie.

The award was won last year by a very nice chap called Dan McGuire, who runs a business called Broadbean and a project called The Two Hour Initiative, which encourages business people to spend two hours per quarter promoting entrepreneurship to young people.

SuperJam & Today Was Fun Tea Party at Harrow School

Today we hosted a tea party at Harrow School in North London, to mark the end of our week of 100 SuperJam Tea Parties all across the country.

You can have a look at the pictures from the day here.

There were about 100 guests and we all enjoyed the wonderful music of Shamisen Club, food from Waitrose and tea from our chums at Today Was Fun.

Some of the boys from the school helping out were dressed in their full tailcoats, with top hats and walking canes.  Their help with serving the tea was much appreciated.

The Mayor and Mayoress of Harrow came along.  The Mayor was wearing his chain (bling!), which the guests enjoyed talking to him about.

The free raffle caused great excitement, with prizes donated from Jordans Cereals and Famous Grouse, as well as tea and jam.

All in all, it has been quite a week.  A hundred tea parties, thousands of scones, thousands of cups of tea and hundreds of balls of wool.  A lot of people had a lot of fun because of all of this and we'll soon start work on sewing together all of the squares that were knitted, to be sent over to our friends' orphanage in India, as blankets for the kids.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible; especially Contact the Elderly, Waitrose, John Lewis, 

Almost 500 people came and 500 scones were buttered and jammed...

Yesterday we hosted our biggest ever SuperJam Tea Party, at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, with the support of our friends at Edinburgh Leisure and the City of Edinburgh Council.

You can have a look at some of the pictures from the day on our SuperJam Tea Parties Facebook Page .

Around 500 people came along for tea from Today Was Fun and scones and cupcakes from Waitrose. Everyone took part in our massive 'knitathon' and we knitted over a hundred squares, which will be knitted together to make blankets for the Gwalior Children's Orphanage in Central India.

There were plenty of people dancing all afternoon to the wonderful music of Moira Hepburn, who was playing her keyboard.

We were hugely thankful of the support of all of our friends at: Miller-Mccowan, Eat Natural, Tunnocks, The Famous Grouse & Highland Park, Rachel's Organic, Dorset Cereals and for the help of my Mum and Dad, my cousins, friends and my Mum's colleagues from her work - it couldn't have happened without all of you!

We've got about 100 tea parties planned for this weekend, including a massive event for about 100 people at Harrow School in North London, again supported by our friends at Contact the Elderly , Today Was Fun , Waitrose and John Lewis .

*The picture is of myself with Dan Orr, who is 100 years old. We were overlooking the 47 advice stalls and hundreds of guests drinking tea!