Happy days!

Blogged by Carol:

Our picture today shows Andy our engineer - the reason for his beeming smile is he's holding the first packet ever produced of our brand new muesli!

Muesli 'makeover'

Blogged by Carol:

After months of hard work on our muesli ‘makeover’ it was great to receive today the first samples of the new packs hot off the printing press. We took the packs over to our local store to have a look at them on the supermarket shelf and were pleased to see that the Biggleswade shoppers were as excited about the new look as we are!

Not long to go now until our tasty new recipes will be out on the shelves for real…

Harvest time

Blogged by Carol:
Driving over to Biggleswade from Bedford this morning I couldn’t help but notice all the grain lorries on the road full of this year’s harvest. It looks like our recent few days of dry weather is coming to an end with rain forecast for Biggleswade every day this week, no doubt making it a last minute rush for all the local farmers. All of the grain we use at Jordans is grown by a special group of Conservation Grade farmers to whom we pay a premium to plant 10% of their land with nature-friendly habitats that encourage bees, butterflies and birds to flourish in our countryside. Rob Law is our closest Conservation Grade farmer – his farm is just 13 miles away in Royston. Official early reports indicate that the total EU harvest for 2008 is up versus 2007 but we’ll have to wait and see how Rob and the other Conservation Grade farmers have faired.

Hi, this is Carol and I work with Rachel at Jordans - Rach is off on holiday now - she gets married next weekend - so I was only too happy to take over the blog! Today I popped down to our local Waitrose store who were celebrating their store relaunch with lots of tastings. We had Neal there giving out free samples of Country Crisp - there was a choice of Strawberry or Raspberry - shame that Denise Lewis wasn't around as that's her favourite! The photo shows the lovely Neal together with our very own Charlie who's the man to speak to if your local Waitrose doesn't stock your favourite Jordans product!

Olympic Breakfast

The whole world has gone Olympics crazy over the past week and its no exception here. Rachel, who normally writes this blog, came in on Monday saying ‘I never believed archery could be so interesting!’ Anyway – we were thrilled to see that British Olympic gold medalist Denise Lewis swears by breakfast and is a fan of our Country Crisp with Raspberries..

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/you/article-1041408/My-body-I--Denise-Lewis.html

Our Mill Shop

At my mum's request I went over to Mrs Jordans (Bill & David's mum) shop to buy some muesli. I am glad to see I have brought my family into the Jordans fold as well. Alas Mrs Jordan (known as Whizzer) was not around but David (my boss) and I had a good chat with a couple of customers and after I had loaded myself up with oats, you can see me clutching them like my life depends on it above, and David had purchased an afternoon snack of gingerbread men we headed back to the office. The poor old ginger bread man didn't even make it out of the car before he had been wolfed down.

Tea and Cake

We have been testing recipes for our website, which means we get to eat lots of cake. Julie is the cookery queen and created this delicious almond and honey cake for us. Keep an eye on the Jordans website for new recipes which will be added shortly, and send us some of your favourites too so we can try them out.

He's behind you! Ben, from the Marketing team at Jordans meets his match at the Village Fete.

My Muesli Moment
Now I know I am biased but I do love a bowl of muesli, which has to be one of the perks of working for Jordans as there is plenty of the stuff lying around to try. I can’t quite decide which I like the best, Nut and Seed or Organic but I am risking sounding like an ad so I’m going to stop. The bowl by the way is a limited edition Emma Bridgewater, she kindly made us a couple of thousand and there will be some for sale shortly through http://www.jordanscereals.co.uk/, watch this space.

Flying Visit

Yesterday we took Tim Lovett, President of the British Bee Keeping Asspciation on a farm visit so he could see the conservation work carried out on our 'nature friendly farms'. Rob Law has farmed for Jordans for over twenty years and is very close to the factory where we make our cereals. There are about fifty British farmers who grow oats, barley, wheat and rye for us. We pay them a premium and in return they manage areas of their farms so that wildlife can thrive. On Rob's farm he has planted large areas of plants to feed wild birds and wide strips of wild flowers and clover so that bees can thrive. This is what we wanted to show the BBKA, and I think they were pleased with what they saw. Bee's are vital for agriculture as they pollinate about a third of the food we eat, eg apples, courgettes etc so everytime you bite into a piece of fruit spare a thought for the bees.

Innocent’s Village Fete
It takes more than a few vile thunderstorms to keep the British inside, or so it seemed on Sunday when I, along with thousands of others braved the elements to visit Innocent’s Village Fete. The forecast was ‘sunshine and showers’ and the Met Office were not wrong. One minute Regent’s park with its tented village complete with ferrets, fair rides and farmers market was bathed in glorious sunshine. And the next, the scene was transformed into a sea of fleeing cagoules as the rain lashed unmercifully down turning hay bales mushy and small children soggy. In true British spirit no one seemed to mind and everyone just got on with making sure they were having a good time, the ferrets raced between snoozing and the fair rides refused to be drenched to a stand still. The Jordans stand courageously stood up to the pummelling of the elements, with small children frantically colouring cut outs of scarecrows in order to win cereal bars. Eventually we decided enough was enough and took shelter in the Pimm's bus which was a treat, but only after we made sure we had got our money’s worth and seen what every stand, stall and tent had to offer, a good day had by all at the village fete.

Busy Buzzing

I confess that I think bees are pretty fantastic so when I was invited to BuzzWorks, Hitchin’s Community Bee Garden on Wednesday night I sadly got quite excited. The garden is the brain child of Robin Dartington, a long time bee lover and he proudly gave me a guided tour of the site. Though everything is brand new, there are big plans for the bee garden and Robin hopes that in the near future he will be able to open the site to the public so he can spread the word about what amazing little creature’s bees are. The garden is bee heaven, with all sorts of plants bees love. On Wednesday they seemed to be favouring the lavender and borage flowers.

I then donned a rather attractive, and surprisingly claustrophobic bee outfit and stepped into the hive enclosure. The cunning use of a bamboo fence helps prevent stings as the bees have to fly up and over rather than along the ground where your feet live. I saw the queen bee busily at work, all she does is lay eggs 24/7 which seems like a labour of love.

Sadly, as seems to be the common problem these days, the hives were showing a distinct lack of honey. No one seems to know why bees seem to be suffering at the moment but it’s vital that we find out. Bees are responsible for pollinating, and therefore fertilizing a third of what we eat. No bees, no almonds, courgettes, beans, apples, the list goes on and on….

We sat and chatted over the plight of the bees over a cup of tea and a slice of honey cake while they buzzed around us and I became even more of a honey fanatic than I am already. Save the bees I say.

Bee lecture

Yes I am in danger of becoming obsessed but I have just ordered a copy of ‘A World Without Bee’s’, a book written by The Guardian’s deputy Society Editor Alison Benjamin and her geography teaching, bee keeping husband Brian McCallum. I decided I should read the book as last week I went along to a publicity lecture to promote it. I didn’t really know what to expect but the news room was filled to bursting, and not just with bee keepers but with ordinary people like me who have heard that bees are having a hard time and no one seems to know why. If I learned one thing about bees that night it was that there are an awful lot of people out there who are bee fans, quite right so, they need all the help they can get.