Things I'm learning along the way

It's a gorgeous sunny 75° day in Brooklyn and I'm working at a friends house. She's preparing her PhD dissertation papers for publication, and I'm, well, blogging and reading "Days of War, Nights of Love" by CrimethInc. Have to love hi-brow and low-brow mixing like this. We needed a snack/sun break, and I haven't met any shop owners in her neighborhood so I suggested biking the mile or so to Fort Greene to Urban Spring. We stopped in and chatted with Gordon, introduced him to my friend Rachel, ordered some sandwiches and iced coffee, and then went off to show her the neighborhood and the new Fort Greene Flea Market. It was a longer break than perhaps she wanted, and it involved getting out her bike and not really knowing what the options were going to be when we got there. But aside from the food being great and the iced coffee fresh, it was worth the effort for me to walk in somewhere that I knew the owner and the back story, where I was greeted by name and with an acknowledgment that I had been there before and would be there again.

I guess that's a big part of the answer to "Why am I doing this?" that I get so often. Being aware of where my food and purchases come from allows me to be further involved and engaged in my decision to buy them. I know who I am supporting, and what goals I am helping them to achieve. And it allows me to be part of something bigger than myself and my own little world. I didn't just grab a snack today, I was part of Gordon's plan to create a neighborhood community and promote sustainable living; I was part of Harold's attempt to run a coffee bean business that he loves; and perhaps (I'm not sure if it was Nicaraguan coffee I drank or not) I was part of Mausi's mission to provide positive working and living conditions for her farm workers and innovative solutions for self-sustaining coffee farming.

Before starting this project, it was easy for me to think (or not think at all) that the things I bought sort of came into existence when I bought them, for the sake of me buying them. Knowing the stories and personalities involved in their creation blows that away.

Updating the site

For those who are following by rss feed, I've added a new section relating to the project, The Register, and updated recent blog coverage in the News Roll.

Coming soon: Brownstone Beans brewer Harold Butler, and an early morning shift at the Food Coop to meet the delivery men and farmers.

Thanks for your support of this project!

A Nicaraguan in Brooklyn

I can't believe it's taken me a week to get this up. One of the interesting side-effects of this project is that it actually gets me out more, gets me talking and gets me interested in people - and it make me busy. By the end of it all, it seems like a daunting undertaking to then log onto my computer to report about it. But, I promise to try to be better.

The exciting interaction that I alluded to last week was a spur-of-the-moment meeting with Mausi Kühl, owner of Selva Negra coffee farm in Central Nicaragua. She is a supplier to Harold of Brownstone Beans, whom I've been talking to off and on for a few weeks. Mausi was recently invited to the States by the Specialty Coffees Association of America to accept a Sustainability Award and present her methods to coffee growers and buyers across the country. Taking the opportunity to visit one of her daughters in Jersey City, she contacted Harold, who had gone to visit her and the resort she runs on her property in Nicaragua.

Harold, in turn, invited her to visit Urban Spring, and called up me and a few of his coffee-loving friends to meet her. It was a rare, exciting moment for me, to be talking with the grower (Mausi), producer (Harold), and retailer (Gordon) all in one place.

From the moment we were introduced, Mausi was a complete joy to talk with. A small, lively woman with gray streaked through her long black hair, she animatedly launched into a mini-version of her presentation for the few of us, boasting of how their farm has learned to reuse everything, from the water that cleanses the beans to the cow and human waste as compost. There is so much about coffee growing and processing I had never imagined -- like the fact that it is grown in the mountains under shade trees!

She is clearly proud of her farm, which employs 650-1000 seasonal workers, 300 year-round workers, including several generations of families. Quality of life is seen as good business, where workers receive food as part of their salary; the on-site school is mandatory for their children; visiting doctors regularly volunteer time at the clinic; and trade training (clerical, plumbing, and carpentry, as well as the farm duties) is offered for families of workers who then stay and work other parts of the farm, hotel and restaurant. The property is nearly entirely self-sufficient, and they are currently adding a water turbine which will generate 40% of their electricity.

But Mausi is most proud of her four daughters who live in Atlanta (running a coffee shop), Buffalo, Jersey City, and one with her in Nicaragua. Her 'presentation' included a segment on her granddaughter, a smiling 6 year old who saves orphaned birds and nurses them to health.

Local Produce, Local Buyer

Today was a tremendous day for 'the project'. I was contacted a few weeks ago by Allen Zimmerman, Produce Buyer for the Park Slope Food Coop, who had first seen my blog on a Google Alert for the Coop, and then again on some recent press. He generously invited me in this afternoon and walked me through some basic 101s of his job. A particular thanks to Allen for his patience with my amateur 'journalism'!

Allen has lived in Brooklyn for 50+ years and has been involved with the Coop since the very first days when he became friends with Joe Holtz - the Coop's first employee - who convinced him to come on board in his current role in 1988. From the early years of buying mainly grains in bulk from Huntspoint (a drive-in farmers' market in the Bronx still active today), the produce section alone has grown to one which requires 220 decisions per day figuring out where everything will come from. From the start, the Coop complied with what was assumed to be certain law, C.O.O.L. (Country of Origin Labeling). Even now, all produce is labeled with its origin, as specifically as possible. Sometimes that means the individual farm, sometimes it means "USA" if it comes from multiple sources, but Allen always knows where it's from, even when dealing with national wholesale vendors.

A story Allen is particularly proud of is the Coop's fifteen year involvement with Amy Hepworth and her farm in Milton, NY. They have a particularly trusting relationship, as the Coop had been buying from her when she was originally part of a farmers collective and then took her on as one of their primary apple and organic vegetable sources. The closeness is apparent when Allen shows me the handwritten invoices that often come blank. The two entities have relied on each other for so long it is like dealing with family. (Check out a great article about their shared history in The Scotland Sunday Herald)

In the next week or so, I'll swap shifts at the Coop so I can go in early early morning when the deliveries come in and help unload the trucks. If we time it right, I hope to make it in on a day when Amy is delivering her regular shipment. Allen is a tremendous resource and I look forward to ongoing connections with him.

More to come on this afternoon's surprise visit from Nicaragua!

Mother's Day on "The Program"

Despite a lack of recent posts, the project does continue and slowly becomes part of the daily routine. Lunches from Body & Soul, shopping at the Coop and the Farmers Markets, and lots of Brooklyn Lager and Makers Mark, of course.

My parents were in town for a Mother's Day visit and I did my best to keep them in line with the project guidelines (or "the program" as my mother adorably calls it -- does she think I'm twelve-stepping? I guess there are similarities....). Apparently Lucali, the local pizza phenomenon that I started to get to know, has had insane press recently so when we went at 8:30 on Friday night in the pouring rain there was a three hour wait. For the sake of my "no starving, no alienation" provisos, I accepted a "gift" from my parents and went to a restaurant, Crave, across the street. Aside from that blip however, I got them to make breakfast at home, took them on a whirlwind Saturday afternoon excursion to the Park Slope Food Coop to shop for dinner and made a huge stir-fry and salad, and then got my friends together to take mom to Counter for Mother's Day brunch this morning, which everyone loved. With some careful planning, and patience, my mission to know where all my purchases come from is proving possible.

We also checked out BklynDesigns on Saturday morning, an annual furniture and craft fair showcasing local designers. I took some serious notes should I decide I need to upgrade anything this year as there was some beautiful work made right here in my borough.

Coming up this week: I'm meeting with Allen Zimmerman, Produce Buyer for the Park Slope Food Coop, and Harold Butler, founder of Brownstone Beans. Plans for a June roadtrip to Tom's of Maine's factory and Seventh Generation's headquarters in Vermont are also in the works as well.

Urban Spring board

I've mentioned Brownstone Beans here before, and my on-going attempts to check out where they are brewed and get to know the founder better. I also mentioned that I discovered them (him?) when I walked by a coffee and juice bar in Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn called Urban Spring. This morning I was able to spend some time with Urban Spring's owner, Gordon. (I admit that I was slighly distracted by the fact that we were being recorded by a journalist, so forgive me if I have some of the details wrong.)

Gordon and his wife met while in Afghanistan, traveling around the Middle East region consulting for the United Nations. When his wife decided to return to the states to study acupuncture, they moved to Fort Greene with the assumption that his foreign experience would lead to quick employment. Things didn't go as smoothly as planned, and Gordon soon turned his sights to a vacant storefront on DeKalb with the idea of opening a juice bar (a soft-sell to a broader clientele than green building) and make efforts to consult on the side. Around the same time, they heard that Peace Church on Washington Square Park was being torn down - and a bit of being in the right place at the right time offered them the opportunity to salvage some beautiful artifacts from the landmark. Today, their benches are made of the church's floor boards, and shelving and the bar are constructed from wall and balcony moldings. A friendship with Angelica Kitchen taught them the basics of healthy baking using local ingredients, and an introduction to Harold led them to offering the only coffee brewed in Fort Greene, in Fort Greene.

Gordon said he and his wife are still very interested in green building, as well as community building and are working on a number of side projects that might combine the two interests. I'm looking forward to staying touch with him and seeing what they're up to. And excited to be able to sample more than just their coffee (which is french pressed and strong!).

Photo by Fred Froum from urbanspring.net