The Prince of Wales is joining forces this Summer with musicians, comedians, environmental experts and some of Britain’s best known companies to create a unique festival in the heart of London. The Prince is opening up his own gardens at Clarence House, together with his neighbours’ gardens at Lancaster House and Marlborough House this September.

A Garden Party To Make A Difference is a rare opportunity to visit the historic gardens of Clarence House, Lancaster House and Marlborough House, as well as experience a unique festival in the heart of London.

With its programme of fashion, food, garden, home, debate and comedy, this is an opportunity to get involved in one of the most exciting events that the capital will see this summer.

Think of it as the Hay On Wye festival, the ideal home show and grand designs with a sprinkling of a summer festival.

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Here is the recipe courtesy of Olive Magazine, June 2010.

- Preparation 15mins

- Cooking Time 30mins

- Vegetarian

Serves 4



Ingredients

* olive oil
* 2 large courgettes , grated
* 1 clove garlic , crushed
* a pinch of chilli flakes
* ½ 250g tub ricotta
* 3 tbsp Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), grated
* 300ml jar tomato pasta sauce
* 6 sheets fresh lasagne (I used dry and cooked the dish 10 more mins)

Preparation

Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Cook the courgette, garlic and chilli until soft. Add the ricotta and 2 tbsp of parmesan, season and mix well.

Put a layer of the mix in the bottom of a small dish. Add a quarter of the sauce then cover with 2 sheets of lasagne. Repeat twice, ending with lasagne. Spoon over the last 1/4 of tomato sauce and sprinkle over the Parmesan. Bake for 20-30 minutes until bubbling.

Launching this month at By Nature is luxurious ethical lingerie British label Enamore.

Enamore create luxurious lingerie and accessories from the finest eco-friendly fabrics including organic cotton, bamboo, soya, hemp and natural silk.

Enamore support ethical and fairly paid labour and many of their ranges are manufactured locally in the UK.

When Enamore have no further use for fabrics, they donate the remnants to local schools and colleges for students to use for their own projects, reducing their own waste in the process!

Enamore began in Brighton in 2004, when Jenny Ambrose (our founder and Creative Director) reacted against the damage the fashion industry was doing to the environment. Jenny’s vision was to create beautiful, playful and quirky garments from reclaimed and sustainable materials, and Enamore has since evolved into an exciting range of eco-friendly lingerie with a new twist on the modern day pin-up.

Since then they’ve had editorial and product features in The Observer, Guardian and Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Domino, Elle, and Marie Claire, and many more too. Enamore have also been featured on BBC2’s Working Lunch, and ITV’s This Morning and LK Today.

Today, Enamore can be found in cities worldwide, from London to Milan to Paris to San Francisco.

Bedrock

Black Lashes

Sea Bunny

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There’s masses to do at the Soil Association’s Organic Food Festival this year, with over 150 quality stall holders, livestock, including the Sheep Show, top chefs showing you what to do with all the great produce you can buy, fun demos in the health and beauty marquee, great music to chill to, fabulous fashion and textiles, and loads of fantastic street food to enjoy while you are there.

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Labour Behind the Label believes that everyone with a stake in the garment industry has a responsibility to improve working conditions. Workers to join together and demand better rights, consumers to take ethics into account in the way that they shop and to enter into dialogue with companies, governments to step in and defend workers’ rights through legislation, and finally companies, especially the big brands at the top of the supply chain.

They are the UK platform of the Clean Clothes Campaign, a coalition of campaigns in 12 European countries with a network of 250 organizations worldwide.

If you would like them raising some money and have fun while you are doing it why not host your own swishing party?

Labour Behind the Label has just produced a beautiful new Clothes Swap Pack, with all the materials you need to run a successful clothes swap event and raise money.

The Clothes Swap Pack includes hints and tips on the practicalities of Clothes Swapping in different ways as well as interesting background info on the reasons why; Essential Forms include a handy donations form to make fundraising for LBL easier, plus sign up and membership forms so that you and your swappers can find out more from LBL; handcrafted extras such as original papercut garment signs, a beautiful illustrated poster with space for your event details and a cute recipe card can all help inspire your swap to be a really fun event.

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Plenty is drawn from Yotam Ottolenghi’s column ‘The New Vegetarian’ for the Guardian’s Weekend magazine. Drawing inspiration from his unapologetic love of ingredients and his far-ranging and eclectic culinary influences, he is well-known for his truly original and innovative approach to vegetable dishes.

Broken down into sections covering types of vegetable, Plenty opens with recipes for roots across the seasons, from warming Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette to a summer salad of Beetroot, yoghurt and preserved lemon relish.

Inspiration is then provided for leaves (both cooked and raw) in recipes such as Green pancakes with lime butter, Swiss chard, chickpea and tamarind stew and Vine leaf, herb and yoghurt pie.

Chapters on Green Things and Green Beans include Warm glass noodles and edamame beans, Green gazpacho, Hot yoghurt and broad bean soup and Soba Noodles with wakame. Vibrant dishes such as Avocado, quinoa and broad bean, Coconut rice with sambal and okra and Quinoa salad with dried Iranian lime are suffused with the flavours
of the East and Mediterranean, whilst Courgette and cobnut salad showcases a traditional English ingredient.

1. Families save money when they switch from single-serving packaged foods, drinks and containers. See Cost Comparison

2. Families reduce waste and help the health of the environment.

3. Kids eat healthier when they prepare and bring fresh foods to school.

4. Kids benefit from waste-free lunch products that are free of harmful toxins. All Kids Konserve’s products are free of BPA, phthalates, PVC and lead.

5. Kids learn how their actions can directly affect the health of our planet when they pack a waste-free lunch and take part in waste-free activities.

6. Schools save money on waste-hauling costs when lunchtime waste is reduced. The Center for Ecoliteracy reports: “A recent waste audit in Berkeley (California) Unified School District determined that the district was spending on the average of $26 per student for waste disposal, or a total yearly cost of $225,661 for the district. A large part of this figure is waste generated from school lunch.”

7. Schools meet their goals to become more sustainable, promote environmental stewardship, and make real changes to educate their students about the importance of reuse.

Start this school year by putting an end to daily throwaway of foil, plastic bags, used juice cartons and containers with Kids Konserve’s lunch kits! Waste-free and reusable they are fun and colourful. Kids love their fun and colourful caterpillar and butterfly designs.

Each lunch kit contains a stainless steel drink bottle, 2 stainless steel containers with leak proof plastic lids, 1 Food Kozy™ (reusable bag for sandwiches, cheese etc..), 1 cotton napkin, 1 recycled aluminium tag.

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Dry cleaning is expensive and can be quite nasty for the environment. Hangers, pins and plastic covers also produce a lot of waste.

Dry cleaning is a cleaning process using an organic solvent rather than water. The solvent used is typically tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene), abbreviated to “perc”. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft review stating that perc’s classification should be changed to “likely human carcinogen” from its current status in a grey area between “possible” and “probable” carcinogen. When poorly managed, disposal of conventional dry cleaning waste can leak into the soil and groundwater.

There are 4 main alternatives to dry cleaning:

:: Professional Wet Cleaning is regarded as an environmentally safe alternative to dry cleaning, wet-cleaning uses water as the solvent with a mild detergent.

:: Some argue that CO2 (carbon dioxide) cleaning process is better. Compressed CO2 turns into a clear and transparent liquid, which is a very effective yet gentle solvent for cleaning garments. The CO2 is collected and purified from CO2 present in the atmosphere. Approximately 98% of the CO2 used in this cleaning process is recovered for reuse, and all dirt removed from clothes is safely disposed of. Contact Ecodrycleaning for you nearest agent.

:: Green Earth dry cleaning process uses liquid silicone, a gentle solution made from silica (sand). This method is more widely available than the previous two. See Green Earth website for your nearest store.

:: The fourth alternative to dry cleaning is to avoid it altogether. Choose clothes that are not labelled as “dry clean only”. If it is a must-have piece then use your best judgement as most fabric and garment can be hand washed with cold water instead.

So next time you are shopping think twice before buying clothes you know will need dry cleaning. Shop around for a more eco friendly dry cleaner and don’t forget to recycle those plastic covers, pins and hangers back to the shop.

Hand crafted from 100 % recycled tyres, these innovative, attractive planters made by Tread are environmentally friendly, frost proof and easy to move – if dropped, they bounce! The different tread marks and individual characteristics of the tyres make each planter unique.

Practical and maintenance free planters are an Eco- friendly option for your garden, offering extra strength and they wont rot, suitable for small trees, shrubs, bedding plants, allotment produce, herbs or garden tools.

Also great for planting indoors or as a practical storage solution for logs, magazines, toys or even as a waste paper basket.

Tread design and supply a range of recycled tyre planters, containers and furniture offering an eco friendly option for the home and garden. Landfills overflowing with old car tyres take up valuable green space. Tread helps to keep our earth green transforming them into great environmentally friendly products.

They are proud to be supporting and sustaining the traditional artisan communities and crafts of Morocco, while promoting innovative and environmentally friendly products.

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We have extended our Facebook Competition deadline as some of you found it unclear where to enter. So here it is again:

Join us on Facebook and let us know which ethical brand you would like to see most at By Nature this Fall. Ends September 30th 2010.

What you can win: A Fabulous Case of Organic Wine from Vintage Roots!

How to enter: Entries need to be placed on our Wall. We do not accept any entries by email or phone.

(Winner of 1 case of Vintage Roots European Wine Case to be selected at random amongst answers to the above question. Competition opened to existing and new Facebook members)

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