Uses for fruit juice in cooking

Great news for chocolate lovers!  Good news for fruit juice lovers too!  A new chocolate has been invented that will have less fat than normal chocolate.  Why?  Because the designers behind it have replaced the fat with fruit juice.  Hurrah!  In fact, according to chemists at the University of Warwick, the brains behind the new product, up to 50 per cent of the chocolate’s fat content has been replaced with the juice.  They also claim that they have spent months making sure the ‘mouthfeel’ of the chocolate is perfect.

According to the scientists, people crave the indulgent sensations of chocolate which are brought on by the fat i.e. the silky smooth texture and the way it melts in the mouth.  But Dr Stefan Bon from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick has said he and his team have found a way to maintain those characteristics by using fruit juice.  Sounds delicious if you use us!

This got us thinking about other uses for fruit juice.  As well as drinking Simply Nectar you could use it for all manner of things.  Here is a little list of examples.

Ice lollies or frozen yoghurt

Fill some ice lolly moulds with Simply Nectar, add some water and stick them in the freezer for delicious ice lollies.  Or simply add some yoghurt to the juice and try making frozen yoghurt/ice cream.

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Cereal topping

If you’re not a fan of milk perhaps use Simply Nectar for cereal.  Pour it on and enjoy a fruity sensation for breakfast…or lunch, or dinner – whenever!

Cake ingredient

Perhaps add some Simply Nectar to cake mixture to give it a fruity kick.  Or alternatively add it to icing sugar or butter icing to give a flavoured cake topping or filling.

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Meat or fish flavouringRather than adding beer or wine to meat or fish, perhaps add a splash of Simply Nectar when it’s cooking.  It’ll soak into the meat/fish and add a fruity flavour.

Salad dressingCombine Simply Nectar with a vinegarette and drizzle over salad for an exotic twist on a regular dish.

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, what do you think?  Would you use Simply Nectar for any of these? If you have any other suggestions please do let us know.

Simply fruit juice uses,

Simply Nectar

(For more detail on the chocolate story, please see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2188119/Good-news-chocaholics-Scientists-replace-fat-FRUIT-JUICE-create-healthy-chocolate-bars.html#ixzz252SGTST2)

What On Earth seeks a new baker to join the team

Our close friends at What On Earth are looking for a new member to join the team.  They're searching for a baker...not a butcher or a candlestick maker!  The role is full time and the candidate in question will need to be experienced in the baking industry as they will be making What On Earth's renowned organic pizzas.  Here are more details that What On Earth has provided us with:

About The role

• Producing food up to company spec
• On-going quality control and informing supervisor of any changes to raw ingredients that might affect quality
• Effective production (min 300 pizza bases in a shift)
• Assisting supervisor and passing comments on to senior staff, which might make working more efficient
• Ensuring all technical standards are met by communicating with department managers.

Who we are looking for

• Available to start with us ASAP
• Excellent communication skills
• Able to promote a positive working culture, encourage staff to learn new abilities, be open for input from all members of the team
• Able to promote good working ethics: timekeeping, positive approach, appropriate behaviour, politeness, being calm under pressure
• Willing to undergo training
• Flexible & good attention to detail
• Punctual & a team player
• People person, “can do” attitude, optimistic, “cool head” personality

Qualification & Experience:

• Have relevant quality experience on bakery level-preferred experience of organic food industry
• Good  knowledge of industry standards (HACCP) & food hygeine
• Food Hygiene certificate preferable

Benefits

• 28 days paid holidays
• Discount on WOE products
• Most important- “room to grow”
  
  

How to Apply

If you are interested in the role please apply by sending your CV & covering letter to Tara@whatonearth.co.uk  for immediate consideration.

What on Earth Ltd is an equal opportunities employer.  Due to the high number of responses we receive we may not be able to get back to you all.  If you have not heard from us within 3 weeks please consider your application as unsuccessful.

Good luck guys.  Go forth and apply!

Simply baking,

Simply Nectar

We urgently need a weekend customer service administrator. Are you the one for us?

Are you looking for some weekend work or know somebody who is?  If so, read on...your answer may be here!

Simply Nectar is an award winning fruit juice and nectar brand.  There are eight drinks within the range and they are all free from pesticides, colours and refined sugars.  Simply Nectar is owned by What On Earth, a small, fun organic food company who has recently seen rapid growth.  Both companies are based in the same office so each brand is feeling the effects of the growth.  We are therefore urgently seeking a weekend customer service administrator to come in for four or five hours a day to help with orders and general admin work.  The candidate will need to be flexible as they may be required to work for a couple of hours on a week day - should the need arise. They should also be able to start immediately.

This is a permanent, part time role which involves a lot of customer service.  We therefore need somebody who is polite, confident, hard working and reliable.

Responsibilities of the role include:

• Receiving calls, taking messages
• Taking orders via phone, email & fax
• Processing production orders for the kitchen
• Arranging courier deliveries
• Loading sales orders on Sage
• Invoicing on Sage
• Raising credits on Sage Producing picking sheets for the warehouse dept
• Producing collection & delivery notes
• Allocating invoice weights for relevant products
• Managing customer service, including: handling complaints, referring relevant queries/complaints to relevant departments and tracking the aforementioned
• Filing of invoices
• General Administration, including letter writing, posting, emailing and other filing

Candidate requirements:

• Must be able to start immediately
• Must be able to work weekends with some flexibility for the weekdays
• Able to speak and write good English
• Previous Sage experience is preferred but not necessary
• Experience working in an office environment
• Ability to multitask, manage time and work autonomously
• Have good numeracy skills & pay attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure
• Flexibility
• Good customer service skills

Pay & Hours:

• £6.50 per hour
• Starting at 10am (4-5 Hours per day)

If you are interested in the role please apply by sending your CV & covering letter to tara@whatonearth.co.uk for immediate consideration.  What on Earth Ltd is an equal opportunities employer.  Due to the high number of responses we receive we cannot guarantee that we'll be able to get back to everybody.  If you have not heard from us within 3 weeks please consider your application as unsuccessful.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Simply jobs,

Simply Nectar

Paralympic sports - past and present

The excitement of the Olympics Games may have died down a bit but there is certainly still anticipation in the air. There is a happy buzz across London and it seems the city is still on a sporting high because everyone is now awaiting the Paralympic Games. And there isn’t too long to wait either. The Paralympics will be kicking off on 29 August and I for one cannot wait.

While perusing the Paralympics Games website the other day I came across a few sports that I didn’t really know. It encouraged me to look into other popular Paralympic sports so that’s exactly what I did…I knuckled down and got on with some research. The findings were rather interesting. Do you know your Paralympic sports past and present? If not take a look at these:

Boccia
Boccia is a demanding but exciting sport that is a tough test of extreme skill, nerves and tactics. It requires strong muscle control, accuracy and concentration. It can be played by individuals, pairs or teams.

Boccia is played on a rectangular court and the aim is to throw leather balls and land them as close as possible to a white target ball, or jack. In this sense it is very similar to the well-known games of boules or petanque. The jack is thrown first and then the two opposing sides will play one ball each. The side who is furthest away from the jack will throw their remaining balls in an effort to get closer to it or to knock the opposition’s balls out of the way. Once they have thrown all their balls the opposing side will throw theirs. At the end of the round the referee measures the distance of the balls to the jack and awards points to the team or player who is closest. The team or player with the highest amount of points at the end of the game is the winner.

The balls can be moved with hands, feet, or, if the competitor’s disability is severe, with an assistive device such as a ramp. This year Great Britain are the defending Paralympic champions in this sport. Hooray for Team GB! 

Photo: tetraplegicos.blogspot.co.uk

Goalball
Goalball is one of the most popular Paralympic sports and is played competitively in more than 100 countries. It is played by blind and visually impaired athletes. Blindfolds are used by those athletes who have partial sight so as to compete on an equal footing with the blind players. The game was originally developed as a rehabilitation activity for injured soldiers returning from the Second World War.

In goalball participants compete in teams of three and try to throw the ball into their opponent’s goal. The teams take it in turns to throw or roll the ball from one end of the court to the other. The ball has a bell in it so that players can judge the ball’s position and movement. The teams remain in the area of their own goal in both defence and attack and whoever gets the most goals wins the game.

 

Photo: buryssp.co.uk

Ice Sledge Hockey
This is the Paralympic version of Olympic Ice Hockey and is played by athletes with a lower limb impairment. It is a very popular Paralympic sport and was invented in the early 1960s in Stockholm, Sweden at a rehabilitation centre. The game uses sledges, which are adapted to each player, to allow participants to move about the rink at high speeds, hitting a puck travelling at speeds of up to 100kph. Players propel themselves with sticks.

The majority of the rules are the same as regular ice hockey, but there are a handful of differences. The main differences are those necessitated by the ice sledge and the athlete. The equipment used is also similar.

Sledge Hockey was first introduced into Great Britain in 1981 and the British Sledge Hockey Association (BSHA) was formed in 1995 in order to promote and develop the sport.


 

Photo: nowpublic.com

Dartchery
It’s quite self-explanatory but Dartchery is a combination of darts and archery. It is played with two players or two teams and the distant from the archer to the target is 20 yards (18.3 metres), Each player shoots three arrows and the points received depend on where the arrow hits the target.  The sport was actually part of the Paralympic games between 1960 and 1980.

 

Photo: enlightenedmind.co.uk

Showdown

This sport is a bit like air hockey or table tennis and is played by blind and visually impaired people. It is played by two players on a table that has goal pockets on each end. In the middle of the table there is a net like divider. The participants play the game with racquets and an audible ball. The aim of the game is to keep the ball out of the goal but to try and get it into the opponent’s net. It must pass under the net.

The game was invented in the 1960s by Joe Lewis, a totally blind Canadian man. The sport has been played in the Paralympic Games in the past but it is no longer part of the event.

Photo: showdownsweden.se

So there we have it, five sports that until today I’d never really heard of. Every day’s a school day and all that! If you know of any other popular Paralympic sports please do let us know. It’d be great to hear about them.

Peace, love and pizza.

What On Earth

Strange sports from around the world

All this Olympic talk got me thinking about sports that go on around the world.  There are obviously hundreds, but aside from the regular sports there are some rather unusual ones that exist too.  I never knew the world of sport was quite so colourful!

This muddy sport is exactly as it sounds – snorkelling in a bog.  It first began in 1976 after the game was devised over a pint of beer.  The first World Bog Snorkelling Championship was then held in 1985.  This annual event, which attracts more than 100 people, still takes place today and it is held in Wales.  Contestants must swim two lengths of a 55 metre bog trench wearing a snorkel and fins, although they are not allowed to use regular swimming strokes.

After doing some research into the strange sports that happen across the globe, I found some rather amusing ones that I just had to share with you.  Here are ten of my favourite weird and wonderful sporting events that take place.

Bog snorkelling:
This muddy sport is exactly as it sounds – snorkelling in a bog. It first began in 1976 after the game was devised over a pint of beer. The first World Bog Snorkelling Championship was then held in 1985. This annual event, which attracts more than 100 people, still takes place today and it is held in Wales. Contestants must swim two lengths of a 55 metre bog trench wearing a snorkel and fins, although they are not allowed to use regular swimming strokes.

Photo: tommartinphotos.blogspot.com

Bed racing:
Another British sport to add to the list.  Bed racing was introduced in 1965 in the town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.  The first race was only open to Army, Navy and American marines but now it is open to anybody.  The rules state that competitors must race in teams of six with one contestant on the actual bed.  The rest push and control the bed round a 3km track that involves hills and river crossings.

Photo: jm.creativeblogs.net

Joggling:
This sport maintains a rather simple rule – competitors must juggle while jogging.  Rather self-explanatory really! If an object is dropped the joggler (yes that is what they are termed) must return to the point where the object fell and continue from there.  The annual Joggling World Championship was first held in 1980 in North Dakota, USA. The championships include a variety of races and the most common objects used are juggling balls and clubs.

Photo: en.Wikipedia.org

Sepak Takraw:
Sepak Takraw is an exciting fast paced sport that was founded in South-East Asia, perhaps as far back as the 15th century. The popularity of the game is spreading throughout the world. It brings together the skills and techniques found in volleyball, football and martial arts. It is traditionally played over a badminton-like net and each team has three players on the court at one time. The game is similar to volleyball, except that using the hands is not permitted and each player can touch the ball only once before it is hit over the net. The ball can be returned over the net using any part of the body except for the arm – from the shoulder to the point of the finger.

Photo: sepaktakrawfans.blogspot.co.uk

Street luge:
This extreme gravity powered activity is a dry land version of the renowned winter sport, the luge, although rules do vary. Participants race downhill feet first on a streetluge board, which is similar to a skateboard. Street luge started in 1975 in southern California. The sport was hosted by the US Skateboard Association but was soon halted due to a high number of injuries for both contestants and spectators. Several riders kept the sport alive and as a result the sport evolved rapidly. There are now there strict safety requirements for any sanctioned competitions, including the wearing of a helmet, sturdy shoes and a protective racing suit.

Photo: adventure.howstuffworks.com

Shin kicking:
This is an ancient sport that makes up part of the Cotswold Olimpicks (not a typo!), a popular event held in Gloucestershire since 1612. Once again the sport is rather self-explanatory with the aim to kick your opponent as hard as you can in the shins. Each time the opponent falls to the ground the other participant gets a point. The winner is the person with the highest score in the best of three rounds. The rules state that competitors can pad their legs with straw.

Photo: brainz.org

Canal jumping:
This unusual sport was founded in Holland and is known to locals as Fierljeppen. Contestants have to use a long pole to jump from one side of the canal to the other. The poles are between 3-5m long and have a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy canal. The contestants run and jump onto the pole and then shimmy to the top of it before jumping off on the opposite side of the canal. Participants attach bicycle inner tubes to their feet to aid their jump. A National Canal Jumping Contest is held in the Netherlands on 22 August each year. No prize is won in the competition, except the honour of being the Dutch Champion Canal Jumper.

Photo: obscuresports.wikispaces.com

Toe wrestling:
Another strange British sport with another simple theory. Competitors must take off their shoes and socks, face each other, interlock toes and try to force each other off the ‘toedium’. It is common courtesy for each player to remove their competitor’s socks (yuck!!) Typically, after a short starting chant (for example, “one, two, three, four, I declare a toe war.”), the competitors proceed to attempt to pin their opponent’s feet for three seconds, while avoiding the same. Pinning is accomplished by placing one foot on the same foot of the opponent. The first World Toe Wrestling Championship was held in 1976 after the game was devised in a pub in Derbyshire.

Photo: creative-journeys.com

Cardboard Tube Fighting:
Once a favourite childhood pastime after the wrapping paper had been used up, cardboard tube fighting is now a proper sport. Opponents go head to head and try to break each other’s tube without breaking their own. They also get points for cardboard costumes and theatrics. The game is so well known that a global organisation called the Cardboard Tube Fighting League (CTFL) was devised. The CTFL hosts cardboard tube based events in the USA and Australia.

Photo: laughingsquid.com

Dunny derby:
As you may know the dunny is an Australian term for the toilet so yes this sport does involve toilets! The Dunny Derby is an important event on the sporting calendar of Winton in Queensland, Australia. The unusual pursuit involves a person sitting on a lavatory on wheels while other team members pull it along. Teams can have up to five members. The event is part of the Outback Festival which is held every second year in September.

Photo: australiantraveller.com

So there’s a little round up of some rather unusual sports. The list doesn’t stop there though. There are plenty more strange pursuits going on around the world; some involving animals, some using food and some in which you’re attached to your spouse! You should look them up – they will definitely make you giggle. Maybe you’ll even be encouraged to have a go at some…

Simply strange,

Simply Nectar

Job vacancy: Purchasing manager wanted

We're looking for a purchasing manager in the What On Earth and Simply Nectar office.  So, if you fancy joining a fun, dynamic and friendly team in an innovative and busy organic food company then read on – you’re on the right tracks to getting there.

What On Earth are a small but ever growing organic food company that launched almost 14 years ago.  The company also owns us - Simply Nectar.  Over the last few years What On Earth has seen some great success so are going through a period of expansion as a result.  The company is therefore on the hunt for some excellent new staff members to join the team and are currently looking to fill the position of purchasing manager.  This is a demanding but satisfying role that sees you dealing with clients and suppliers on a daily basis.

Job description:
Purchasing high quality products at the lowest possible cost and negotiating prices with suppliers, as well as ensuring all products are in stock and communicating stock availability to the team

The purchasing manager is responsible for:

• Purchasing for all good
• Stock control
• Creating and printing labels and barcodes
• Customer service

Daily tasks will include:

• Daily stock check
• Ensuring communication with stock availability with all staff 
• Daily purchasing
• Creating labels
• Sourcing new products
• Organising transport
• Organising samples
• Liaising with the production and logistics manager regarding ingredients, transport and deliveries
• Customer service: answering calls and taking orders
• Input customer orders
• Checking orders are correct
• Postage and Bank duties required
• Checking invoices that accounts have compiled before payment
• Liaising with staff in our Bridgwater depot regarding their products
• All Bridgwater purchasing orders
• Meeting with suppliers
• Attending trade shows and meetings for current and potential suppliers

We ideally would like the purchasing manager to have the following skills and experience:

• Top notch organisational and logistical skills
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Be numerically minded
• High level of customer service
• Experience using Microsoft programmes, especially Excel
• Experience using Sage
• Confident decision making ability
• Food trade experience

If you have skills and experience suitable for this role and believe you could be our next purchasing manager please get in touch.  Send your CV and covering letter to our HR administrator Tara on tara@whatonearth.co.uk.

Due to the high volume of responses we get to job adverts we cannot promise that we will be able to get back to each and every one of you.  Sorry!  If you haven’t heard from us within three weeks please consider your application as unsuccessful.  What on Earth Ltd is an equal opportunities employer.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Simply jobs,

Simply Nectar