04.15.08
Posted in Food, Local, Musings, Soapbox, Vent, lunch at 4:14 pm by trueepicure
I’m getting cranky in my “old” age. Maybe I’m just noticing inconsistency more these days. I don’t know. I just know I’m annoyed at the stupid political BS that runs rampant in this country.
There was a piece on NPR yesterday, talking about how Bush is sending a bunch of food aid to various developing countries. [I won't get into the fact that it would be better/faster/more efficient to send money rather than ship food.] It’s great that we are trying to be good world citizens (??) and help other countries in their time of need, without starting a war, but I wonder…
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01.06.08
Posted in Local, Play, fiber at 9:18 pm by trueepicure
With the exception of having to leave my Honey at the airport headed for Texas, today was a wonderful day.
I headed over to Stitch DC - Capitol Hill to return my defective Addi Lace Needles (they were part of the apparently funky first batch of ALN) after dropping Honey off, and arrived about 45 minutes before Stitch DC actually opens. I decided to see if I could find a magazine and a cup of coffee, so I proceeded walk over to Pennsylvania Avenue.
On Pennsylvania Avenue, I found Bread and Chocolate, which is a local chain, based in Alexandria VA. I missed Murky Coffee, right around the corner. I’ll have to try them next. And there definitely will be a next time.
I’ll be back to the Capitol Hill area again in the near future, not necessarily for the yarn, although I did purchase some new yarn that I didn’t need… well, they had AllHemp 6 (Hemp for Knitting) the pumpkin color that I’ve been wanting for a LONG time, and some lovely Kid Seta mohair yarn! Ooooooo… But the best part of the trip was the walk through the outdoor portion of Eastern Market. It was such a beautiful day - almost 60 degrees, gorgeous after some really frigid days here in the DC Area.
I didn’t buy any produce at the farmer’s market, but I found a great soap maker from Baltimore, Licopevel. I purchased a bar of cedar and sage soap that doesn’t contain any sodium laurel sulfate (or any of it’s cousins) or preservatives. I hope it lasts a while, because the soap is expensive at $4.50 a bar.
I went home for lunch, and did a couple more errands, including a trip to Borders to buy a couple of gifts. A few other books fell into my arms as well, including Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food
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Finally, I headed home for some quality time with the fur-kids and some much needed down time. A busy, but great day.
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Juice for Today:
Juice #1
1 Granny Smith apple
1 Braeburn apple
handful of frozen cranberries
2 carrots
chunk of ginger (a little too much this time)
Juice #2
2 Granny Smith apples
3 carrots
2 Clementines
1 glug of OJ
small chunk of ginger
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09.05.07
Posted in Local, Musings, Soapbox at 11:48 pm by trueepicure
I think a lot about local food, as you’ve no doubt gathered if you’ve read my blog for any length of time. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot more about local everything, considering the news that’s been brewing (boiling over) about toys and other goods made in China. There is a longer post here than I have time for at the moment, but I just wanted to share a thought that keeps popping into my head lately:
Why are we so surprised that we’re finding that there are all of these problems with paint and parts of toys (and I’m sure other goods) that are made in China, for example?
U.S. companies have outsourced production to other countries to save money. The production is outsourced to companies (contractors) in countries where quality standards are different and/or not enforced. These contractors have to bid low to get the contract, so they have to find ways to cut costs to meet the contract price(s)… it goes on and on. So I ask again: why are we so surprised that Mattel keeps having to recall toys because of lead paint? (Not to single out Mattel on purpose, but they are a prime example of late.) What food product are we going to find out has lead/chemicals/inorganic materials in it? What products from which country are going to be next?
Are we going to start to realize that the only way to really control what is being done to produce goods for U.S. consumption, is to produce them here? It’ll cost more, but maybe it’s worth it? But would we do any better by our own workers - providing benefits and such? I don’t have any of the answers, but I sure have lots of questions. And more keep popping into my mind. I think it’s time to go to bed. 
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