The health benefits from eating spreads made with palm oil are real. But at what cost? Because palm oil deforestation is a very real concern and the loss of habitat is a dreadful scandal as it is further endangering already at risk animals such as the orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino.
But this is where Flower Farm Spread comes into its own. It doesn't use any palm oil, it is made with rapeseed oil, shea butter, some water, some lemon juice, some sea salt (not much!) some carrot juice, pectins some vitamin and and d and some natural flavouring.
The interesting fact about Shea butter is that it is a fully sustainable crop grown in Africa which does not require any deforestation or intensive farming.
Who is the person behind The Flower Farm? Meet Marcel van Wing, who, after witnessing first-hand the destruction of the tropical rainforest, realised that something had to be done to address this issue.
Marcel said: “The Flower Farm grew out of my personal love for the rainforest. I lived in Indonesia for four years and saw with my own eyes the devasting damage to the rainforest for the construction of palm oil plantations. And yet still, this continues.
"The Flower Farm is a member of the Global Shea Alliance, a non-profit organisation dedicated to shea sustainability. It also supports Orangutan Rescue, a non-profit which focuses on relocating endangered orangutans to a safe area of rainforest."
To learn more about The Flower Farm visit them at https://theflowerfarm.world.
Not only is it a great tasting spread it's also absolutely excellent in baking and cooking and my wife has declared it "absolutely brilliant for making light, delicious pastry and wonderful cakes! I give it my thumbs up!"
It comes in regular and light versions.
And here is a recipe created by my wife which you can try with Flower Farm Spread or "Eat Plants Free of Palm" as it says on every tub.
This one is called "Anni's Vodka Cherry 'Baked Well' cake."It requires 175g of Flower Farms Spread
175g of dark brown sugar
225g of Plain flour
3 eggs
1tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ginger
550g of luxury dried mixed fruit
400g of cherries
100g chopped almonds
zest of an orange
zest of a lemon
150ml of Vodka
Pre-heat your oven to 160C 325F or Gas Mark 3.
Cream together the margarine and the sugar. Beat the eggs and add the egg mixture a little at a time, mixing well.
In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients together, then carefully fold this into the cake mix and stir well.
Add the dried fruit and 200g of the cherries to the mixture and make sure they are thoroughly mixed in. For a better result you could mix 100g of the cherries and the dried fruit and marinate them in the Vodka overnight. If you can't do this, just pour the Vodka into the mix once the dried fruits have been added and mix well.
Place the cake mix into a greased and papered cake tin (the Aldi one shown in the pictures is ideal) and put the remaining 200g of cherries on the top of the cake and put it in the oven for approximately two hours.
After two hours test the cake with a skewer. When it comes out clean, the baking is complete.
If it starts to look a little too brown, cover it with some aluminium baking foil.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for at least an hour before you remove it from the cake tin.
At this stage you can add more Vodka to the top of the cake. You can also prick the cake in several places to ensure that the cake is well fed with the additional Vodka.
For a bit off added decadence serve the cake with shots of chilled Vodka straight from the freezer!
At present it's available throughout Holland and also in Booth's stores in the UK https://www.booths.co.uk.
If you would like to stock Flower Farm Spread please contact them at