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Written by Ronnie Mae Eastling
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
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Did your mother ever tell you not to waste food? Or that you could be a member of the ‘clean plate club’ if you ate all of your vegetables?? Well, whatever her reasoning was, she was on to something … Did you know that Americans throw away an average of 1.3 pounds of food waste per person per day?! That equals approximately 474.5 pounds per person per year. Studies done for the year 2000 showed that food scraps accounted for 11.2% of landfill weight, which equates to about 25.9 MILLION tons of food waste! Food waste is the third largest component of waste in this country. At this point in the human story, landfills are inevitable. Many of them are near full and are a huge threat to our environment. Isn’t it a crying shame that a lot of the problem is just food scraps? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to remedy this problem??? Well, it’s our lucky day, because there is...COMPOSTING FOOD WASTE! |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 July 2009 )
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Baby Steps to a Higher Quality |
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Written by Ronnie Mae Eastling
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Wednesday, 03 June 2009 |
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I would like to update you on some exciting changes in products that have taken place. We are now ordering from the food distributor UNFI . UNFI is a leader in distributing natural and organic products. Here’s a few things that are next to impossible to get through a regular distributor that we are now purchasing through UNFI: our peanut butter and shortening are non-transfat, our baking powder is aluminum free, our salsa is all natural, and our ketchup is organic. We also have several bottled/canned cold drink options available that are free from high-fructose corn syrup! (Three cheers for UNFI!!!) We are also working towards using more locally grown products. We have been buying tomatoes through Bay Produce of Superior, WI for years. Now some new ones to add to the list… We are proud to be using honey from the Home Sweet Homestead honey farm in Dennison, MN. Also, our pure maple syrup (available for a little bit extra) is from Simple Gifts of Duluth. And as soon as the plants have some time to grow, we will be using more local produce. A couple examples are... our pesto will be made with basil from Chelsea Morning Farm of Two Harbors, and we hope to garnish the breakfast plates with edible flowers grown at Moosehorn Meadows Florals of Moosehorn River, MN. We welcome and encourage your input on any and all of the ingredients/products we use here at the Grace… Thanks for reading.~Ronnie Eastling manager/buyer |
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Written by Ronnie Mae Eastling
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Saturday, 25 April 2009 |
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On April 8th, we hosted a talk on Relationship Coffee. It was fascinating, and I would like to share with you what we learned! The talk was given by Nassim and Deborah Bohbot, owners of Alakef Coffee. (For those of you who don’t know, Alakef is our wonderful local coffee roaster.) The idea for the talk was born after Stephanie and I attended a seminar on Relationship Coffee at the Chicago Coffee Fest in February. “Relationship Coffee” is a new term to hit the coffee realm. It speaks on the importance of the relationship between all of the businesses involved in the steps of getting the coffee bean from the plant to your cup. Let’s start at the beginning. Here’s a few amazing facts about the involved process of growing coffee. It takes an estimated 6 1/2 years to go from seed to cup. A coffee plant takes 5 years to mature enough to produce. Once the plant is ready, it yields only 1 1/2—2 lbs. of coffee per harvest! When the ‘cherries’ (the cherry holds the bean) are ready to be harvested, it is a mad rush to get as much off of the plants as possible to ensure a successful season in the market. It is at this time that the Coffee Pickers come onto the scene. Coffee farmers usually need to hire extra help to harvest, as they tend to harvest 24 hours a day! A Coffee Picker can pick up to 200 lbs. of cherries a day! (Which only equals approximately 35 lbs. of ground coffee). The conditions of picking coffee can be challenging to say the least. Coffee is grown in tropical and sub-tropical climates, so the plants (if grown sustainably) are in jungle-like conditions. If grown in steep hilled areas, the Pickers actually tie themselves to the plant and lean back, digging their heels into the ground in order to pick! After harvested, the cherries are cleaned and coffee beans are dried. This can be done by machine, but is often done by the sun if the farm cannot afford the equipment needed. In which case, it takes 2-3 weeks to dry. After the coffee is processed, it is then bought by an Importer. From there, the Roasters buy the green beans and, well, roast them. It is then that it is sent to the grocery market or cafes, and finally to your cup. |
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