Compost Competition Winner

A couple of weeks ago I announced a competition to win a copy of the book Compost by Ken Thompson. Entrants had to identify what was unusual about the following short review of the book:

K. Thompson's book Compost shows you how to turn scraps and plant cuttings into compost. It shows that it's quick and not at all hard to do. It has lots of full colour photos. This book is good for compost virgins and compost-o-phobics.

I didn't count all the entrants but there were quite a few and most of them were wrong, so maybe the puzzle was a bit too hard. Sorry. On the other hand, five people got it right and lots of people seemed to enjoy trying, so maybe it was just hard enough after all.

The answer was that the review was a lipogram, a piece of writing which avoids a certain letter of the alphabet. You didn't have to use the word "lipogram" to be entered into the draw, but you had to spot that the review didn't use the letter E, the most common letter in the English language.

My beautiful 4-year-old goddaughter Rebecca picked the winner out of a (rather small) hat this morning. The winner was Ruth Turner of Edmonton. Congratulations, Ruth. A copy of Compost will be winging its way to you as soon as I can get to the post office.

Compost Competition

If you would like a chance to win a copy of Compost by Ken Thompson (reviewed here a couple of weeks ago), then here's your chance. All you have to do is identify what is unusual about the following short review of the book:

K. Thompson's book Compost shows you how to turn scraps and plant cuttings into compost. It shows that it's quick and not at all hard to do. It has lots of full colour photos. This book is good for compost virgins and compost-o-phobics.

If you can spot what is unusual about the review, email me with your answer and your postal address. Don't put your answer in the comments. The winner will be pulled from a hat next Monday. The competition is only open to residents of the British Isles because I'm too mean to pay international postage. And anyway, think of the air miles.

Anagram Competition Results

The voting is now closed on our anagram competition. The most popular anagram of "Dill's Atlantic Giant" was "Titillating Scandal", with 55% of the vote.

So Frank Marsland wins the windmill palm seeds. Congratulations Frank. Honourable mention to Hedgewizard whose entry "Gilt-clad Snail Titan" was also very popular.

Anagram Competition Poll

You've got 3 more days to vote in the anagram competition poll. Titillating Scandal pulled ahead to an early lead, but Gilt-clad Snail Titan has surged ahead in the last 24 hours, and the voting is now level. Lit in Lactating Lads and Instant Digital Call are attracting no interest whatsoever. You'd think at least their creators would vote for them, but apparently not.

Vote now for your favourite anagram of "Dill's Atlantic Giant" and choose who will be the lucky winner of two windmill palm tree seeds.

Anagram Competition

The deadline has passed for the anagram competition I announced last week. The challenge was to make an anagram from the words "Dill's Atlantic Giant". Here are the qualifying entries entries (one entry was disqualified as being too rude to print):

• Lit in Lactating Lads
• Gilt-clad Snail Titan
• Titillating Scandal
• Instant Digital Call

I've put them in a poll in the right-hand sidebar and you have one week to vote for your favourite. The lucky winner will receive a packet of Windmill Palm seeds, which grow into 40' high cold-hardy palm trees.

What are you waiting for? Go and vote!

Pumpkin Seeds

Ed's Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds arrived in the post today. He wants to grow giant pumpkins next year, and this is the only variety to grow. Every world champion pumpkin since 1979 has been an Atlantic Giant.

The online supplier that sent the pumpkin seeds also sent us a free gift - two windmill palm seeds. These are cold-hardy palm trees that grow up to 20-40 feet tall. I don't really have any use for a 20'-40' palm tree, so I'd like to offer these seeds as a competition prize.

I will post the palm seeds to whoever emails me the funniest anagram of "Dill's Atlantic Giant". Remember to include your address - the seeds are very light so I don't mind posting them anywhere in the world. I'll publish all the anagrams in one week's time (November 9th) and the winner will be chosen by a poll.

Friends of the Earth Competition

Friends of the Earth are running a competition to win £150 worth of books from their online bookshop. They have introduced a new feature where visitors can review the books, similar to Amazon's customer review system. Anyone who writes a review between now and the end of October will be entered into a prize draw.

There are more details on the FoE website. I notice they're selling Food for Free which some Bean Sprouts readers have recommended. I feel a book shopping spree coming on.

Piece of Cake

I set a competition on Thursday, asking "How can you cut an apple pie into eight pieces with three straight cuts?". The answer was:

Cut the pie in half with one vertical cut through the centre (that is, how you would normally cut a cake in two). Then cut it into four with a further vertical cut through the centre, at right angles to the first (again, all normal so far). Then stack two pieces on top of the other two, and make one further vertical cut through all four pieces, making eight pieces.

Some people offered a slightly different solution, cutting the pie horizontally after cutting it in four. I don't think I'd be pleased to get a piece of apple pie with no crunchy piecrust on top. But I didn't specify "eight equally appetizing pieces" so I accepted this solution.

There were seven correct answers in all, and the winner (pulled out of a hat this morning by Eleanor) was Matt Shacklady of St. Helens. Congratulations, Matt. I gave the books to your mum and sister as as I passed through St Helens today. They seemed really nice. Say "hi" to them for me.

Three-Day Virtual Quilt Show - Prizegiving

To round up the Bean Sprouts Three-Day Virtual Quilt Show, we are holding a prizegiving ceremony. All winners will be entitled to display this prestigious ribbon on their websites.

First up, the winner for Best Use of Novelty Fabric is Birdie, with this lovely lap-size orange peel quilt. Birdie is obviously an experienced quiltmaker as this kind of curved piecing is very tricky. But the zig zag stitch visible in the detail photo with the snowman makes me wonder whether she used machine applique to "cheat". If so, she gets a big thumbs up from me - I made a "cheating" Dresden plate quilt a while ago and I'm never going back to curved piecing again.

Kethry wins the prize for Best One-Patch Quilt with another lap-size quilt made from what look like recycled or scrap fabrics. Kethry said:

i made these entirely with the sewing machine, and it was difficult enough that i swore at the time: NEVER again!

I believe this is the second quilt she ever made. She also submitted a photo of her first quilt which was basically very similar. I selected the better of the two for a prize, but both quilts were very impressive for a beginner. By the way, Kethry, I can show you a much quicker way to make a quilt like this which turns it into a weekend project. You need a rotary cutter and mat. Mail me if you're interested.

Gabrielle easily won the prize for Slowest Quilter with this lovely red and white quilt. I can't clearly see the design in this photo but it appears to be random with some large squares, some rectangles, and some pieced blocks including nine patches and foundation paper pieced blocks perhaps. It looks very cosy, and the design and colour scheme have stood up remarkably well for a quilt that took so long to make. Too often a design that you loved in the 1980s turns out 20 years on to be a grey-and-red angular monster that brings painful flashbacks of Miami Vice and Duran Duran, or a puffy pastel confection that reminds you of your Wham! and Haircut 100 period. Don't throw such quilts in the bin. In another 100 years they will be charmingly quaint valuable antiques. If I still had all the old things my grandparents threw out because they were old fashioned and dated I could make a killing on eBay.

Congratulations to all the winners. I hope other Bean Sprouts readers feel inspired to have a go at patchwork or quilting, especially those who said they have UFOs (UnFinished Objects) which need to be completed. I think we'll run some more competitions like this in the future.

Win Cider Making Books

As it happens, I had just bought a copy of "Real Cidermaking on a Small Scale" for myself when another arrived with my new crusher and press. What is more, both new bits of equipment came with a booklet entitled "Basic Cider & Juice Making" by Alex Hill. If you'd like to win the book and the booklet, email me your answer to the following riddle:

How can you cut an apple pie into eight pieces with three straight cuts?

UK residents only please (think of the carbon released in airmail!). Don't forget to send your name and postal address along with your answer.

Skooperbox Competition Results

Bean-sprouts' first competition was a big success. We even received entries from people who didn't want to win the prizes, they just enjoyed doing logic puzzles. Three winners were pulled from a hat this morning, and packages of Skooperboxes are now winging their way to Rosemarie from Canada, Barry from Northampton and Jacqui from Leek. I hope they enjoy using their recycled biodegradable dog poop scoopers.

Thanks to Augustus from Skooperbox for donating the prizes. If any other green companies would like to donate prizes for competitions, we'd love to hear from you.

10 Reasons To Eat Organic

1. It's better for you.

2. It's better for your children. Because of their smaller size, children are more affected by pesticides in their food than adults, but feeding them organic food has been proved to significantly reduce their intake of pesticides.

3. It's better for the farmers and their families if they don't have to use pesticides and other toxic chemicals. This is especially true in countries which have less strict health and safety legislation.

4. It's better for the farm animals. Joyce d'Silva of Compassion in World Farming said "Organic farming has the potential to offer the very highest standards of animal welfare."

5. It's better for wild animals. In one study, organic farms were found to contain 85% more plant species, 33% more bats, 17% more spiders and 5% more birds than conventional farms.

6. It's better for the planet because it doesn't lead to soil erosion. Conventional farming is responsible for unsustainable soil loss, but organic farming actually builds the soil.

7. It doesn't lead to waterway pollution.

8. It doesn't depend on oil-based agrochemicals.

9. It uses less energy because it relies on people rather than machinery. David Milliband said “in many, but not all cases, [organic food] produces fewer greenhouse gases”.

10. It tastes better, and don't believe anyone who tells you they don't. Many years ago my sister Stephanie was helping me chop some carrots for our lunch and she ate a slice of carrot. Immediately she started exclaiming "Oh, oh, these carrots are wonderful! Why do they taste so good?" She hadn't known they were organic carrots.

Convinced? Why not sign up for an organic veg box to be delivered to your door?

Remember there are only two more days to enter our Skooperbox competition. There have only been seven correct entries so far, so your chances are excellent of winning a package of Skooperboxes, the recycled biodegradable dog poop scooper. All correct entries will be entered into a draw and winners will be announced on Wednesday.

Win A Skooperbox

I've been given three packets of Skooperboxes, a recycled biodegradable dog-poop scooper. Most people I know re-use supermarket plastic bags to scoop poop, but more and more places are phasing out plastic carrier bags or banning them altogether. Other people don't like the hand-to-poop contact, even with an intervening layer of plastic, and would welcome an effective way of scooping poop without getting their hands warm.

You can win a package of Skooperboxes by solving the following logic puzzle:

Walking my dog in the park, I passed four other dogs and made the following observations. Shep had lovely golden fur. The black dog had a green collar. Patch was not white, and Bobby was not brown. Lucky had a blue collar, and the white dog did not have a red collar. Bobby's collar wasn't green, and one of the dogs had a yellow collar but I don't recall which one.

Can you match the dogs' names with their colour and the collars? Email your answers and your postal address to Bean Sprouts. Correct answers will be entered into a draw and the winners will be announced next Thursday. Good luck!

Edited at 10:06
Thanks to Steph for pointing out that I already know my own dog's name, colour etc. The puzzle is about the four other dogs I passed. There are only four dogs in the puzzle: four colours, four collars, four names.