Following the announcement today from the Scottish Government that Renfrewshire will be moving into level 4 restrictions, Rainbow Turtle will be closed from 4pm on Friday 20th November until 10am on Saturday 12th December.
At this time, we won’t be able to offer any click & collect or delivery services. We’ll still be open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, from 10am until 4pm, and we hope you might take this chance to buy Christmas essentials (advent calendars, cards, gifts!) early.
We’ve just taken an enormous delivery of Divine Chocolate to the shop, including some new and unusual flavours!
We’ve also now got advent calendars and other chocolate treats and gifts in stock. A full list can be found here, and remember that you can reserve items for collection or arrange local delivery on our online ordering page here.
If you’re out and about in Paisley this weekend with kids (or maybe you’re just a kid at heart!) then the Paisley Pumpkin Halloween Trail is a fun, socially distanced activity to keep the whole family entertained. At Rainbow Turtle we’ve got this cheeky chappy to tick off your list, and if you pop into the shop we’ve also got maps of the trail and plenty of Fair Trade sweets on sale to keep your energy levels up!
With the colder weather starting, it feels like time to make warming and tasty meals – like this Malaysian Curry with Kilombero Rice recipe, developed by our friends at JTS. Several of the ingredients can be purchased from the Rainbow Turtle shop!
Ingredients:
3 Shallots (can replace with 1 onion)
4 Garlic Cloves
2 teaspoons of Turmeric
1 teaspoon of Eswatini Swazi Fire (available at Rainbow Turtle)
1 teaspoon of Lemongrass paste
1 teaspoon of chopped Ginger
1 Onion, chopped
400g Chicken Breast
200ml of Chicken Stock
1 tin (400g) Ma’s Fairtrade & Organic Coconut Milk (available at Rainbow Turtle)
300g Kilombero Rice (available at Rainbow Turtle)
Directions:
Blend the shallots, garlic, turmeric, lemongrass and ginger into a paste. Add the Swazi Fire to the strength that you desire. Note – a full teaspoon will be quite hot!
Pre-heat a large frying pan or wok and add some oil. Cut the chicken into cubes of approximately 1 inch and add to the wok. Fry the chicken to seal in the flavour until it has a golden brown colour. Add the onion and fry until soft.
Add in your paste and fry for a further 2 minutes.
Open your tin of Fairtrade coconut milk and add to the paste. (Note – coconut milk can separate in colder temperatures so you may have to scoop the solid part out of the tin into the pan. This will not affect the flavour and will soon melt into the mix).
Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Serve with Kilombero rice for a really tasty Malaysian curry.
If you enjoyed this lovely curry, see here for more JTS recipes!
This month is Organic September and the Soil Association, who organise this annual campaign, think that the ever-changing times we now find outselves in are even more of a reason to get involved in the movement. They say:
This year has brought more changes to our world than anyone could have foreseen. With more of us seeking solutions to help restore nature, health and a safe climate, becoming part of the organic movement this year can help make a world of difference.
To celebrate, we’re going to revisit our blog post from last year and take a tour through just some of the organic products available at Rainbow Turtle…
“Organic September is a month-long campaign designed to encourage more people to try organic as a way to promote and educate people about organic food & farming practices. Following a year of unprecedented environmental protest and ground-breaking research, there’s never been a better moment to shout about the role organic farming has to play in the climate change debate: 🌿 Benefiting nature 🐝 Wildlife 🌍 The planet 🌾 And building healthy soils. Campaigning for more organic food and farming means that together, we can slow down climate change.”
The Soil Association
At Rainbow Turtle, we sell a wide variety of products which are not only Fairtrade certified, but organic as well because we believe that Fair Trade should care about the environment, as well as about people. These products include:
Bird & Wild Coffee £4.89
Traidcraft Orange Marmalade & Strawberry Jam £2.65
Hampstead Rosehip & Hibiscus and Peppermint & Spearmint Teas £2.40/£2.49
Ma’s Happy Life Coconut Milk £1.85
Clipper Green Teas with Echinacea and with Lemon £1.98/£1.79
You may remember that in June we promoted a Crowdfunding campaign from the Scottish Fair Trade Forum to support Fair Trade suppliers (like us!) to survive the Coronavirus pandemic. We’re very pleased to update you all that the campaign raised a total of £9000 and Rainbow Turtle successfully applied for a portion of this money. So far, we’ve used the funding to make our shop a bit safer for volunteers and for customers with a protective screen at our counter, and we’ve restocked the shop with lots of Fair Trade treats!
Many thanks to the Scottish Fair Trade Forum for organising this campaign, and to all who donated.
Remember we’re still operating our click and collect service! Just order before midnight on Sunday here and collect on Wednesday at an agreed time. The shop will also be open on Wednesday between 11 and 2 so if there are gaps in our collection schedule you can pop in for a browse! All we ask is that you first have a look through our windows to check if there’s another customer in already, and follow our simple guidelines.
Volunteers Roisin, Duncan and Eleanor (disguised as a customer) modelling our new C&C service
Rainbow Turtle successfully launched its click and collect service at its Paisley shop today. The shop is now open on a Wednesday for customers who have ordered through the website.
Each customer is allocated a 15 minute interval between 11am and 2pm to pick up their order. Needless to say, they can also add to their order at the time or get refills for their Ecover cleaning products.
With our new click & collect service beginning, we thought that it was time to seek out new products that are useful for the unusual times we’re living in. These 100% fair trade cotton reusable face masks are the perfect ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to disposable masks and are just £4.99 each. They also look great! The different pattern names are below (reading from top left) and you can order your favourite, along with all of your food, drink and cleaning essentials, here.
As you might know, Rainbow Turtle is almost entirely run by our lovely volunteers. Many of our volunteers are still vulnerable to coronavirus, and so we’ve decided that we aren’t quite ready to reopen fully yet. Instead, we’ll be taking orders here for click & collect and delivery starting next week! The deadline each week will be Sunday midnight, and orders will be collected/delivered on Wednesdays. We’ll be in touch to arrange a collection slot or payment for deliveries. We hope that this will be a good stepping stone to reopening, and that lots of you will be willing to support us in this way, and get access to great Fair Trade products again!
