Recipe: Faitrade Mango & Avocado Salad with Sticky Balsamic Vinegar

Faitrade Mango & Avocado Salad with Sticky Balsamic Vinegar

Serves 4

Ingredients
Generous handful of pine nuts
Olive oil for toasting
Handful of lettuce leaves
2 small Fairtrade avocados (not too ripe)
3 small or medium, ripe Fairtrade mangoes
1 ripe Fairtrade lime
Good quality balsamic vinegar

Method
Mix the pine nuts with a little olive oil and place in the oven on a baking tray to toast for five minutes, or until nicely golden. Meanwhile, rinse and arrange the lettuce leaves in a bowl. Peel the avocados and mangoes and slice them lengthways into generous pieces. Mix and arrange them on a plate – but avoid damaging the delicate fruit. Add a generous squeeze of lime juice, a drizzle of the stickiest balsamic vinegar you can get your hands on, and scatter the toasted pine nuts on the top.

This recipe is copyright Joanne Harris. Have a look at more recipes from the Fairtrade Foundation.

Image copyright The Food Network.

Fairtrade Fortnight Starts Today

Fairtrade Fortnight Starts Today

Akwaba, Gorgeous!

Fairtrade is an important part of what makes us tick here at Tamu. Paying fair wages not only builds good karma for Tamu customers, it helps build a healthy community in Goaso, Ghana, where our organic, unrefined shea butter is produced.

The Fairtrade movement is blossoming in the UK. Overall the ethical market has expanded from £13.5bn in 1999 to £36bn in 2009.

If you'd like to learn more about Fairtrade Fortnight, or want to see what you can do to contribute, please visit www.fairtrade.org.uk


Join Tamu for Fairtrade Tea on February 28!

At my church on February 28, I'll be offering special discounts on Tamu products, plus tea, coffee, biscuits and homemade cakes made with Fairtrade ingredients. There will also be lots of information about buying Fairtrade. All profits will go to an orphanage in India seen in the photo below - just look at them cuties! :o)

More details for you:

When: February 28, Church service is 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. We will be serving the Fairtrade tea, coffee, cakes and displaying Tamu products after the service.

Where: Christian Life Fellowship Greenwich Dance Agency, Royal Hill, Greenwich, London SE10 8RE click here for Google map

Hope to see you there!

Afriyie Boateng
Tamu Founder

hello@tamunatural.co.uk
www.tamunatural.co.uk

Green Valentines

Akwaba!

We’ve got some goodies to give away in our valentine’s themed competition.


Tell us about your ‘green’ Valentine's Day. We have 5 Moroccan Rose Sensual Body and Massage oils to give away for the best stories.

We'll announce the winners in our March Newsletter....So get creative!

"UK Aware" Ethical Lifestyle Event - Fri 16 April 2010

Akwaba!

Tamu will be exhibiting at UK AWARE the UK's only green and ethical lifestyle exhibition All attractions at UK AWARE 2010 are included with entry ticket purchase.

Exlusive Tamu friends pay only £6 (reg tickets £1 - £15)
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/508059620/SpecialpartnerUKAWARE2010/3057849151

Hope to see you there!

World's Greatest Mum Contest!

Provider, protector, teacher, friend - Tamu wants to celebrate everything your Mum has been to you.

Tell us (in 200 words or less) what makes your mum tops and you could win her a Lavender Ylang Ylang Body Butter, plus exclusive bath salts and soap.

More details coming soon via Facebook, Twitter and the Tamu Blog.

Stay tuned!

JANUARY SALE! Online Exclusive

Tamu's winter sale is now on.

A little goes a long way with our ultra-rich products, so why not your pounds too?

We are offering 20% off all our products plus free shipping on orders over £60. Simply enter the COUPON CODE 20percent at checkout to receive your exclusive discount. Offer ends 31st January!


HURRY WHILE STOCKS LAST!

Product Review: Tamu Skincare, My New favourite Brand

Akwaaba! Hope you all had a fab weekend!

Check out this great review from Eco Chick on Tamu products!!

(The original can be found here http://blog.missecoglam.com/2010/01/tamu-african-organic-skincare.html, written by Anna Rogers )

Once in awhile, I stumble across a brand of products that ticks all the right boxes. Tamu Skin care is one of those brands that does that and much more.

Every single part of this product is completely ethical, from the way it was made, to how the people that made it were paid and treated, right down to the brochures being printed on recycled paper.

This is the type of brand that really deserves to be supported because it is just plain wonderful, in every way.

Tamu, was created by Afriyie Boateng who was born in the UK spent a few years of her childhood in Ghana, Africa.

Her mother instilled in her a deep sense of connection with nature and an appreciation and understanding for the healing power of plants and trees. In many cultures, particularly indigenous ones, grandparents taught the children certain things about their surroundings which were passed down through the generations. This is what western society is missing, I really do believe that. We need to remember our roots!

Along my journey as Miss Eco Glam, I am realising more and more that we all need to get back to nature, connect with the land and understand the use of these wonderful ingredients that were put on the earth to heal us and keep us healthy.

Afriyie had an idea to create an organic range of products that could incorporate all the knowledge that was given by her mother and her elders and the healing power of ingredients such as shea butter, coconut and african black soap.

Before starting the brand, Afriyie returned to Ghana and took a trip to question the African ladies about how they kept their skin so beautiful without the use of chemicals.

I find black skin so beautiful, it has a lovely healthy sheen and now I know why! Its because they smother ingredients like coconut oil and shea butter all over the skin on a regular basis.

Everything they used was completely organic, natural and simple.

So inspired by these women, that she offered them jobs with fair pay and good working conditions, to help hand make her products. She even uses cocoa butter that is from her very own Uncles farm in Ghana!

And so Tamu Skincare began!

The range consists of the most beautiful body butters I have ever tried, wonderful cleansing soaps, scented bath salts and an exotic body oil with Moroccan rose. I am sure this is the first of many products that will be added to the range in future.

The creams contain luxurious hand whipped pure shea butter (no water used either) which has long been used in African cultures for skincare. I immediately fell in love with the texture of the creams, with some being so similar to rich buttercream icing. I was reminded of my favorite hummingbird cake!

Afriyie has really done her research to create these products and it really shows, with each product truly doing what it says it will do. Nothing is heated to a hot temperature so the enzymes are intact.

She never uses any of these additives in her products:

• Parabens
• Sodium Lauryl sulphate
• Petro Chemicals
• Mineral oil
• Petroleum Jelly

• Perfume / Artificial fragrances
• Phthalates
• Triclosan

Tamu has been given the Soil Association stamp of approval.

I got to try quite a few things! I tested out the bath salts which made my bathroom and my house smell likes roses as I was filling up the bath. There are cute tiny little rose petals that will float around in the tub with you. The bath was really soothing, and detoxifying because of the Himalayan crystal salt and left my skin very clean yet soft.

I also tried the African Black Soap with Honey and Teatree which has a slight exfoliating texture – great for keeping the skin smooth. I have little bumps on my arms (they say from clogged liver!) and this soap really helps with them. What I love about the soap is how big the bar is and it lasts quite awhile! It lathers up beautifully as well and I will admit, I even use it on my face, something you shouldn’t really do with most soaps!

My absolute favorite product is hard to choose, there were about three. I don’t think I can now live without the Cocoa Vanilla Body butter, words can’t really describe that well enough just pure yumminess really. Even my husband, who will tell me if I get into bed with a cream on that smells like something he doesnt like, said to me, oh what is that you have on, yum! The texture of this cream is truly like the whipped icing I was telling you about, it is so luxurious and glides wonderfully over the skin.

It leaves a slight film on the skin, but in a good way, its not sticky and gives the skin a real glow. I love that you can keep smelling the cream even after its been on your skin for a while.

I also absolutely loved the Coconut and Lime body butter, I showed it to a friend who loves all things citrusy and she thought it smelt incredible. The ingredients in these products smell like they should because they are made with pure, unrefined, natural and REAL fragrances.

The Moroccan Rose Body oil is wonderful to use at night when you want to slip into bed with something decadent on your skin. Rose is one of my favorite smells and Moroccan Rose extract is thought to be the best quality. You can use this during the day as well, all of the products are for day or night or both!

I also tried out the Moroccan silky cream, Almond Brulee and Lemongrass and Ginger. All were fantastic!

Without a doubt, this range is just amazing.

Its my new favorite skincare range and I will definitely be buying more in the future. I love everything it stands for.

I get sent so much stuff to test out but I only have a few products that I can’t live without! My cocoa vanilla whipped body cream and coconut and Lime are added to that list of must have products.

I really hope you take a look at Tamu’s website, that in itself is lovely to look at you get a really close look at the products with enough info to describe how they are made, whats in the products and what they will do for your skin.