The Sourdough School: Sheila Dillon

A little girl sitting with her Grandmother at the Kasemire Organic Farmers Association Uganda

On Sunday lunchtime my family stood quietly in the kitchen for once as I was waiting to listen to the BBC Radio four Food and Drink program with Sheila Dillon. I’ve worked for my local BBC on Sundays on the BBC Radio Northampton Kitchen Garden show for about 18 months. I love the radio its like painting pictures with sound and for longer than I can remember I have indulged in The Food Program in a quiet moment.

But this show was different. The report from Uganda in vanilla was mine. I have no idea how the producer Dilly managed to condense the hours of recordings I sent to her into the amazing concise program I listened to but she did it and as Shelia’s familiar voice opened and William Sitwell set the scene and I was mesmerised listening to the people I interviewed and remembering the incredible difference a fair price made to their lives.

Twitter and my phone went crazy after the program. I had no idea how many people I knew were listening, and my children were so very proud of me.

Listening to the program was in someway surreal, however it certainly brought back the realization that our choices, our decisions our habits have impact far beyond cupcakes, and we have to change the way we think about food.

On my return from Uganda I felt so different. It’s a hard feeling to describe but I am somehow haunted and the feeling just won’t go away. It wasn't the poverty; it wasn't the desperate need of basics. It was the unfairness. The unfairness as decent hard working farmers who stood in front of me, looked me in the eye and said we don't want charity, we just want a fair price for what we have grown. It doesn't seem like an outrageous request.

"We don't want charity, we just want a fair price for what we have grown"

Lulu Sturdy, who owns Ndali estate, is the most incredible woman. She can be pretty cut off from the rest of the world at times, sometimes her electricity is out and other times there is no internet connection for days. It's not a life of luxury ! ... she lives very simply and throws her entire energy and effort into her estate the community and the people, and she already has 20% of the vanilla farmers are on a fairtrade deal. That is a truly amazing achievement .. but if we bakers ( and yes I mean you when I say we) demanded more Fair Trade Vanilla then more of the people I met could benefit from a decent price for their crop.

If I am honest I've never really been radical about much. I was pretty apathetic about most issues that people got worked up about at university and until now I've actually spent most of my life thinking about myself .. but something almost took me over as I stood and listened to these proud people asking for a just price. I’ve always had a very strong sense of fairness. As a child if something wasn't fair I'd then never give up. It's a basic almost childish instinct and so I decided that I must do something.

The thing that really shocked me was learning that vanilla is a cash crop. It's really easy to steal and I met farmers who had been robbed. One poor farmer had even been tied up whilst a gang stripped his harvest in front of him, and damaged the orchids so the next crop was done for too ... and there are no state benefits in Uganda.

The worried farmers are then approached by unscrupulous buyers .. and the vanilla is sold unripe, often for less than it cost to grown out of fear. This cheap vanilla isn't good though. It has not had the time to mature into the beautiful plump dark rich vanilla that makes our cakes taste so amazing.

As I chatted to the farmers it became clear that Fair Trade has been helping the farmers to form associations to close down the places stolen vanilla can be sold. As well as teaching the farmers to grow sustainably Lulu and new team also work really hard to persuade the farmers to keep their crop on the vines to ripen naturally .. which is why the vanilla is so flavoursome.

I realise that I can't cart off the entire baking population to Uganda... but I can bring Ndali Vanilla to my own community ... other food bloggers .. and so I have arranged The Ndali Vanilla Gift Swap on Monday 24th September and I am delighted that it will be held at Fortnum and Mason.

It is also the start of The Big Fair Bake Campaign which seemed so appropriate.

So .. on the afternoon of Monday the 24th September at 3pm I am inviting Bloggers to take part in the Ndali Vanilla Fair Trade Gift Swap. I have just 50 spaces and lots of Vanilla to send out.

On the day

You will need to bring along your gifts to Fortnum & Mason's 4th floor at 3pm (your forms must be attached securely in an envelope.) Your gift needs to be entered into the swap by 3.45pm. Your gift get’s a number and a category. At the end of the event you get to pick out the tickets (According to how many gifts you brought with you) out of the bowl and leave with the gifts correlating to the number that you have picked from the bowl it's like a raffle and you will leave with someone else’s gifts. I wanted to add a bit of gentle competition to it all ... so I am delighted that author and Sunday Times food writter Lucas Hollweg has kindly offered the very difficult job of judging the best the gifts.

The timetable is as follows:

4 - 6pm Lucas & team will judge the entries and pick the winning gifts.

6.15 pm you pick a ticket out of all the entries and you leave with a gift.

The gift categories are:

1 Biscuits

2 Cake / cupcake

3 Sweets
4 Preserve .... * NEW catagory

*LOOK *

The Prizes are as follows

1 Best Biscuit - New color Kenwood K-Mix

2 Best Cake / cupcake - New color Kenwood K-Mix

3 Best Sweet - New color Kenwood K-Mix
4 Best Preserve ... * - Fortnum and Maison Hamper

and runner up prizes New color Kenwood Hand Mixers and Blenders

Prizes are from the leading brand of kitchen appliances Kenwood. (hurrah for British design!)

The Rules

You must first email me with your postal address so I can send you some Ndali Vanilla. Recipes@vanessakimbell.com

You must then share your Fair Trade Ndali Vanilla recipe and blog about your gift using the Fortnum & Mason Ndali Vanilla / Fortnum logo used here in your blog post.

You may enter up to 3 categories. Minimum entry is 1 category.

Any combination of ingredients can be used .. e.g. strawberry and vanilla or chocolate and vanilla .. or just plain vanilla. .. the choice is yours.

You must provide an envelope with your forms (that I will email) inside and your name and email address. Ingredients must be clearly marked to accommodate any food allergies.

All gifts must be packaged in a way that is appropriate for someone to open them to judge easily and for someone else to transport home.

Prizes will be sent directly to the winners. If you win you will need to leave your address with me at the end of the day.

All decisions by the judge are final and there are no cash or product alternatives.

All the gifts must be handmade using Ndali Vanilla and any other Fair Trade ingredients wherever possible.

You must be over 18 to participate.

Some of the recipes will be published and therefore if you participate then you also agreeing that your recipe may be published (and credited to you) at a later date.

Please note that it is free to participate. I am delighted that the Fair Trade Foundation will be coming along and they are providing gift bag with some more Fair Trade & Kenwood goodies in to take home with you.

My sincerest thanks to Fortnum and Mason and Kenwood for their generosity and to Lucas Hollweg from the Sunday Times for helping show that we can change things for the better one bite at time.