Fairtrade Fortnight is imminent: Monday 24 February and Sunday 9 March 2014 and this year there is special emphasis on the banana, Britain’s Favourite Fruit: we eat over 5 billion a year. But the cost of bananas have been dropping steadily and this has a significant effect on the welfare of the banana growers.
“Fairtrade provides a vital safety net for banana farmers and workers, by paying a minimum price that aims to cover the costs of sustainable production, and an additional premium that farmers can use to invest in community projects or to improve their businesses. This empowers producers to take control of their lives and provide their families with the basics such as education and healthcare. ” So you need to #stickwithfoncho during Fairtrade Fortnight and in the long term, to ensure that all of the UK’s bananas earn the growers a fair wage.
Whilst you are thinking about that, you can whip up some tasty and filling treats: Fairtrade Banana Date Flapjacks.
- 120g butter
- 70g soft brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons golden syrup or honey
- 250g porridge oats
- 150g chopped dates
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed.
- Melt butter, sugar and syrup/honey in a pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- In a bowl, mix oats and dates.
- Pour over melted mixture and stir well.
- Stir through banana.
- Turn into a lined greased tin- mine is 20cm square- and bake on grill shelf on the floor of the top Aga oven with the Cold Shelf two rungs above.
- Check after ten minutes, but this should take about 15 minutes to cook.
- Conventional fan ovens can bake at 160C for approx 25 minutes until the edges are crispy.
- Leave in pan to cool, then turn out, slice and devour.
- Makes about 20-25 pieces, depending how large you cut them and what shaped tin you use!
Only three supermarkets currently stock 100% Fairtrade bananas:
For more information about Fairtrade Fortnight and #stickwithfoncho, check out the Fairtrade Home Page.
Fancy another banana recipe? Why not try:
White Chocolate, Fudge and Banana Cake
Banana Chocolate Crepes
I’m not a fan of bananas but we get lots of fairtrade bits!
Bananas are definitely a love-or-loathe thing Paul. Thanks for commenting 🙂
We buy ours at the co op – and love flapjacks so will happily try out your recipe!
always buy fair-trade. we have too
Tigger loves bananas I wonder if I could persuade him to try this (worse case scenario I get to eat it all)
Hooray for Foncho! I don’t know why Tesco don’t stick FairTrade it drives me nuts.
I’m not sure I’ve ever bought fairtrade bananas sorry 🙁 This is something I must address though.
Love a flapjack and look lush x
I always buy fair trade bananas, S takes the stickers off at school and comes home with them on her cardigan!
I always end up making banana bread with our bananas so I will have to try these! We always buy Fairtrade bananas here too x
Oooh these sound YUM!
Mmm, we love bananas here and buy ours Fairtrade at Waitrose *polishes halo*. This looks like a fab recipe, as per our current healthy eating regime I love that they have dates in as well as sugar for sweetness! x
Dates are heavenly Alice.
ALWAYS a fair trade banana family here – and those flapjacks look lush xx
I thank you Jenny. I confess I didn’t know that there were ‘Other’ bananas!