Help. We all need it. The Beatles knew it and I’m sure you know it too. You probably also know all about The Big Knit by now, but in case you don’t, we’ve got a fancy website to get you up to speed.

Here at Fruit Towers, we think that helping is pretty important in The Big Knit. We’re asking lots of knitters to help us knit little hats for our smoothie bottles, and we’re making little packs to help friends get together for knitting parties.

Knitting Bee Deborah is one of the knitters who has planned to help us reach our target this year and she’s asked her friends to help her. Deborah has set up a pledge to encourage others to help her knit some hats this year. She’s agreed to get her needles out and make at least 5 dinky hats this year, but only if 35 others also agree to knit at least 1 hat each.

So if you’re thinking of knitting some little hats for us this year, and need a little help from your friends, create your own pledge, make a Scout’s honour to keep to it, and post the details in the comments section below.

More fete stuff (don't worry, summer will soon be over and we'll find something else to talk about) for you to see. This time, it's slightly better than the traditional and some would say staid carrots-and-beans. Oh yes. This time we have actual models of things made out of fruit and veg. Check them out and then try to make them at home. Go on.

it's amazing what you can do with some tomatoes, blueberries and a permanent marker. oh, and fake eyes.

an ancient sea creature, forged from a peach and some other summer fruits.

Thank you to our Lucinda for providing photos of these fine exhibits, which she found at the Hawkesbury Show.

I went to a fete at the weekend, in the village of Ewelme in Oxfordshire. As ever, the best thing about the fete was the excellent prize winning veg. Here are the best carrots and the best runner beans.

the best carrots in both the 'short' and 'long' classes

lots of beans

Ewelme is famous for its watercress beds, although there was no watercress on show in the championship marquee. Shame.

We don't have time to talk about the people in masks and capes, but we do want to let you know a little more about the man who isn't wearing a mask or a cape.

His name is Jim Demetriou and he was one of the first people to ever sell our drinks, via his company JD Foods. When we started out, Jim was pretty much the first wholesaler to sell our drinks, shipping them in his nicely refrigerated vans, and delivering them to all sorts of delis and cafes and foodie places all over London and sometimes further afield.

Indeed, this author remembers the regular Friday afternoon drive to visit Jim in Tottenham, where we'd settle that week's accounts (which involved Jim giving us a few quid) and talk about the weekend and other important things.

Without good people like Jim we wouldn't have got our business off the ground, so we were honoured when he popped into Fruit Towers this week, for the first time ever. It seemed like the circle was complete; like when the ghost of Yoda turns up by the campfire at the end of Return of the Jedi. A special moment. Thank you Jim.

But where did the moustache go?

Our new Paris office was officially opened this week. Philippe (the boss) wore a silly hat and cut the ceremonial innocent bunting, which is how things are done in France. The office is in this nice courtyard, where the gnomes roam free:

Our Emilie in Paris says "It is beautiful and high ceilinged, spacious, in a grand Parisian building. We have so many rooms we are getting lost inside and might need to invest in microphones to avoid yelling at each other across the office. We miss our old concierge Maria but apart from that it’s really much better than the old place."