Self-made Fair Trade Chocolate Truffles

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15/130 Self-made Fair Trade Chocolate Truffles

Fair Trade Ingredients:
Tablea (Pure Cacao Tablets) 250g
Coco Sugar from Nectar 200g
Macobado Sugar 50g
Coco Jam 125g
Macapuno Preserve 125g
Virgin Coconut Oil 30ml
Ginger Tea Powder 10g
Turmeric Powder 2g

Natural Sea Salt 2g
Cashew Nuts (unsalted, slightly roasted) 100g
Desiccated Coconut 400g

Non Fair Trade Ingredient:
Organic Rolled Oats 100g

Preparation:
1.  Slightly brown Rolled Oats in pan.
2.  Slightly brown Cashew Nuts in pan and split into halves.
3. Melt Tablea tablets in pot. (Take care not to burn the cacao.)
4. Add Coco Sugar, Mascobado, Ginger Tea Powder, Turmeric, & Salt.
5. Mix and stir to form a thick paste, add a little water if necessary.
6. Add Coco Jam,  Macapuno Preserve, and Virgin Coconut Oil.
7. Mix and stir well.
8. Add Desiccated Coconut and split Cashew Nut and stir well.
9. Form into small balls with two teaspoons.
10. Roll in Desiccated Coconut and place in forms.
11. Store in freezer.
12. Serve chilled.

YUM :-)

******

Sorry: We closed at 2:30 pm today (and not at 4 pm)

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We Closed at 2:30 pm Today (and not at 4 pm)

Our old bamboo booth may look romantic,
But it’s steaming hot when it’s hot.
And behind its flair are signs of wear and tear:
Last week it rained in there and there and there.

Now mushrooms and fungi have started to grow,
Mini jumping creatures as well as mould.
So this time we took an open tent, one of those,
But rain poured in FROM ALL SIDES, and so …

******

12,000 apologies to EXPO customer Henry Ho,
who arrived at 3 pm …  Oh oh oh oh!
*************************

The Fair Trade Path of an Amateur Trader

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The Fair Trade Path of an Amateur Trader

Speaker: Fanny-Min Becker

12:30pm – 1:05pm
Saturday, 2008.06.28

Natural Products Expo Asia 2008
Hall 2, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center

FREE ENTRY FOR PUBLIC

Photo: courtesy of Ms Queenie S. H. Lui

My Little ‘Fish & More’ Story

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Imagine 213 bottles of milkfish.
Imagine 139 bottles of crab paste.
Imagine 67 bottles of fermented mudfish.
Imagine 61 bottles of fermented shrimp.

On December 28, 2007 arrived 480 8oz bottles
Of milkfish and mudfish and crab and shrimp,
Leftovers from the Hong Kong Food Festival,
Left for Fair-and-Healthy, FMIR, to devour.

Our guestroom has long been filled
By Panay & Preda & Southern Partners cases.
So milkfish and mudfish and crab and shrimp
Took shelter in our dining-living spaces.

Two tall columns against the wall!
When will we be able to finish them all?
We are only two dogs and two humans.
Will be taking us a year or more …

Our only outlet is Sunday Farmers’ Market.
I approached churches. I went to clubs.
I checked Yahoo!. I looked up eBay.
I appealed, in vain, to a Filipino store.

Don’t ask me how the bottles slowly went.
Some changed hands at the Farmers’ Market,
Some were sold at fairs, others to stores of friends.
We four consumed 120, for us a joy without end!

Having now accomplished my mission,
I started to ponder, ponder, and ponder:
Elegant and yummy and organic,
K & J Milkfish may stand a chance.

So I looked around and around and around …
And behold! A chance for Milkfish I finally found.
If the supermarket meeting should go well,
My milkfish would land on a Hong Kong super shelf.

FM:)

****

OUR TABLEA STORY (100 - 96 = 4)

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Dug out this Tablea Story in an old email sent off to Jun, our dear Tablea producer at Kablon Farms, on 31 December 2007

> Here is our Tablea Story

> A friend who has an organic shop has taken 3 rolls from us to try to sell.
> Three days ago, I asked him how many he has sold.
> He said: one.

> From November 25 to now, we have gone to 9 market days:
> 5 Sunday Farmers’ Market Days from 9am to 5pm
> 4 days at Sai Kung Christmas Fair from 12 to 8pm.

> We had 100 rolls to start with.
> We sold only 3 or 4 on each of the first two market days,
> but sales picked up speed, and now we have only 4 left!

> You know why we have been able to sell so many?

> I have worked very hard to collect nutrition data about cocoa.
> And I have spent a lot of time to sort out the heap of info
> so that we can make a clear presentation to our customers,
> verbally as well as on a mini-poster.
> Our customers and potential customers have all been impressed.

> Two days ago I was invited to talk about Fair Trade
> at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou City,
> the biggest agricultural university in China and in SE Asia, they say.
> Tablea is one of the few products I took along.
> It caught the students’ attention.

> Last night I was at a dinner party
> and there, too, I started ‘preaching’
> to some of the guests whom I have never met before …

Fair-and-Healthy, FMIR, BREAKTHROUGH (Dedicated to SP)

A snaily and weary process
For my mosquito project to mature
But at long last a breakthrough

Remember how
In Jan 2006 approached by a super Supermarkt
I replied plainly we’re only interested in NGOs

Remember how
At the Oxfam FT Seminar in Aug 2007
I stood up and confessed I’d changed my mind

Above me
Not one lucky star
A whole galaxy

Just as my other half was again despairing
A marketing team now fell from Heaven
To help dot HK with mini selling points

Share
My joy
My EXCITEMENT

Fanny-Min:)

**************************

From Palate to Eye

Last Friday evening

As we were walking along Pokfulam Road,
After our Fair Trade Voice meeting at HKU,
My new young friend Kuma told me
About her fund-raising plans.

She could sell some Fair Trade products, she said.
How about our yummy Banana Chips, I asked.
Natural Flavour, Chilli, and Pizza,
All three flavours she would get from me … for free

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Chips from Iloilo organic bananas,
No artificial colouring, no preservatives,
All natural French herbs and flavour,
Manufactured by Panay Fair Trade friends.

Folks!
Go grab a packet of our Fair Trade BC from Kuma!
Give a treat to your palette!
Help Kuma to help Orbis doctors treat an eye!

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Awakening

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(Source: zh.wikipedia)University students
No longer in ivory tower

Fair Trade Voice
Broadcasting from HKU

*****************
Fair Trade Voice
Sharing and recruitment talk
17:30- 19:30
Friday
21.09.2007
Theatre 7
Meng Wah Complex
Main Campus
HKU
Pokfulam Road

*****************

Is It Fair

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Is it fair that birds get hunted by cats
And cats get hunted by dogs

In any case …

For days and nights Sammy was after a stray cat
And Doggie remained his loyal accomplice

Over the week the cat suffered bites on its back and leg
Eventually found refuge among the rocks next to the stream

Stephen said we should let it be
The cat would turn into compost eventually

But BJ our neighbour and I
Felt we could or should do more than wait

Protected by my thick shirt and leather working gloves
And armed with a net BJ waded to the cat’s hiding place

I held ready my precious Filipino straw basket
Lined with Doggies’ blanket bought by Aunt

The cat refused to be ‘rescued’
Preferring to go his natural way

As BJ finally grabbed it by the scruff of its neck
He was greeted by stretched out limbs and nails

Quickly we shoved the cat into the basket
And covered it with net and Doggie’s blanket

It was past seven and all clinics were closed
Teamed up by Eva BJ’s wife we drove to Emergency

Stray cats though it may be
I opted for all treatment possible

Our dogs had caused the misfortune
And it’s only fair that the owners paid

Jimmy the young vet kindly gave me a discount
On filling the form I named the cat Charity

Unplanned Holidays (Fair Hare)

Had we not missed the plane
I wouldn’t have met my fair hare

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I wouldn’t have had time
To lie low on my lawn
And watch and watch and watch
This furry guest of mine

Never knew hares enjoy rolling
Rolling themselves around
So I watched and watched and watched
And thought of my Doggie rolling in faraway HK

(Thanks, Prakash, for the photo)

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