I can’t imagine how thick the garlic mustard would be if we didn’t pick it each year. We wait until the white flowers come up out. The plants are up around a foot by then, they are easy to spot and they haven’t gone to seed. Unlike the tooth swallow wort they are really easy to get out of the ground, roots and all. Our friends Pete and Shelley eat them but they don’t have them in anywhere near the quantity we do. Our undergrowth is stressed by the deer and the invasives are opportunistic as hell.
Isn’t the local first movement just a scaled down version of nationalism? I think we are still a long ways off from having too many breweries or coffee shops. And I like the idea Fifth Frame has for combining the two. It’s not an original idea. Coffee shops in Spain have seamlessly shifted gears from coffee to brew for centuries.
We have a friend who’s been talking about opening a coffee shop downtown. Before he does I think he should go to Spain and walk out the door of his hotel and stop at the first café he sees. Have a cup, café con leche or solo, two choices, none of the fancy flavored stuff. A few simple food items will be within eyeshot. Tortilla Espanola and fresh bread. Tostada con aceite de oliva would hit the spot. A bin of fresh oranges would be on the counter. The proprietor could toss a few in the machine and squeeze some zomo de naranja fresco for you. A copy of three or four different newspapers will be on the counter for patrons to chew over and prompt conversation.
Walk out the door and stop at the next café you see. Repeat and steal this intellectual property. Continental substitutions will be allowed when you bring the basics home.
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Maybe I can chalk it up to market research…