Each week Alex, Fair Food's grocery buyer, sends me a note about the new things we're getting into the webstore (which BTW you can always find here - New Products).  Anyway this week Alex noted beside newly the arrived Black Seed Oil , "This cures everything but death!"  Now Alex is not normally prone to overstating things so her claim for the miraculous healing power of Black Seed Oil intrigued me.  

I've heard of Black Cumin, Black Sesame and Blackstrap Molasses but I've never heard of Black Seed Oil. So I went searching and learned that Alex's quote is actually attributed to the prophet Mohammed who apparently was a big fan.  Anyway the black seeds are from the nigella sativa plant, part of the buttercup family and are also known as fennel flower, nutmeg flower, black caraway and Roman coriander (that's it in the pic above).  Predictably a Google search on Black Seed Oil's benefits will tell you it will heal everything from brain tumors to baldness and help you lose weight to boot. It's also widely reported to have been found in the tomb of the Egyptian Pharoah Tutankhamun. A fact that has been jumped on enthusiastically by Black Seed Oil marketers, although I'm not sure this is the best recommendation being that the unfortunate young King Tut was plagued by malaria and numerous other afflications and died at the tender age of 18.  

Going down the peer reviewed path Black Seed Oil has been studied a lot, mainly because it's full of thymoquinone (aka TQ) which has cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory properties. This article in the US National Library of Medicine 
referenced 98 studies and went on forever listing all the good things reserachers have to say about Black Seed Oil.  By the end of it my brain was fried but my initial sceptiscim of the good prophet's via Alex's claim had turned into curiousity - perhaps I'll lose weight and grow my hair back as well.  Anyway if you're curious about Black Seed Oil do your research and if you'd like to try some you'll find it here in our webshop.     

A final note; As always please be aware that like Dr Google him or herself, neither Alex, the prophet Mohammed nor I are qualified medical practitioners and as such you should seek the advice of a trusted professional when it comes to your health.  

Alex would also like to share that these Eco Store laundry products are on special this week down from $9.20 to $8.30

For the rest of our specials check out the Specials Section, it's packed with things that are cheaper than usual.

 

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Jenny's Quinces

Every autumn I get a phone call or an email from Jenny Indian in Beechworth telling me her quinces and chestnuts are ready.  It's one of those annual things like the blooming of easter lillies; all of a sudden they're there, announcing the end of summer. And although we've been doing this for several years Jenny and I have only met a couple of times.  The quinces will arrive one day, the bill wll be paid and that's it until next March when our orbits will briefly intersect again.

Quinces are unlike any other fruit; knobbly odd things they look and feel like furry, yellow rocks.  To relese their hidden delights you have to cook them long and slow.  Making quince paste can take the best part of a day and the spectacular spatter of the hot bubbling jam can end up coating the walls and clothing of novice paste makers.  But the end product paired with good cheese or a buerre bosc pear is like eating concentrated joy.

If you'd like to bake some quinces or have a go making some quince paste you can find them here
 

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Last chance to come out of the cave

This is it the last week of our annual survey; so if you've been holding back but have secretly been wanting to say something, share something, ask for something then your moment has come. Your time is now, This is it. Last chance.  Here's the link    And if you'd like to know a bit more read on......

Okay so four years ago when we started Fair Food we thought everyone wanted a mixed box of fruit and veg delivered to a neighbourhood Food Host once a week and that was enough - well I did anyway.  But when we starting asking what you actually wanted from Fair Food I suddenly realised how completely wrong I was about pretty much everything.

Over the years the things you've told us have completely changed Fair Food; we introduced lots more groceries, different types of set boxes, home delivery, changed the layout of the website, ran more specials and right now we're working on the software that lets you swap things out of your set boxes as well as next day delivery. The survey sets our agenda for the year ahead and tells us what we really should be working on.

Now these days everybody is always surveying this and asking you to tell them how you feel about that, so we thought we better sweeten the deal with some of Floyd from Cocoa Rhapsody's beautiful, very beautiful chocolate as a reward for making the effort,  At the end of the survey is a code to enter with your next order in which we'll pop in a medium sized bar of Floyd's best chocolate.

You'll find this year's survey here. 

 

Chris