Cake and Commerce

Have a bake sale, fight childhood hunger

I'm not quite sure how this tiny blog got on anyone's radar (it isn't vegan,vegetarian, primal, raw, or anything niche; I barely write about recipes, I don't document my exploits, in fact, I hardly talk about myself at all) but lately I've been getting press releases of varying quality and quantity. I love the announcements I get from publishers about new cookbooks, food-based memoirs, or food-oriented work or fiction. By contrast, the announcement of a new blog or platform isn't really appropriate for Cake and Commerce, which is mostly my first person take on artisan products and food that I like or make.

The other day a press release arrived that I actually found compelling enough to talk about here. They weren't asking me to buy something or to write a paid article about a product or place or thing. Rather they were asking me to get the word out, via my blog, about a bakesale/fundraiser/grassroots event to support the fight against hunger in the US.

I like events that on the outside seem trite and silly, but ultimately benefit a cause I hold dear, mainly because it doesn't really feel like work. Last year I organized a charity auction - basically a win-a-date-thing -which benefited the Greater Chicago Food Depository. In one week of online auctions, our group contributed over $2000 to their fight against hunger.

So when I found out about the Great American Bake Sale, I found the pull of baking sweets for charity too great to resist. I don't care about the celebrities involved (you'll need to go to the website to find out who they are), but the cause and the means of raising money, through bakesales, won my sugar-coated heart over. I love a bakesale. I love baking. I love raising money for anti-hunger causes. And registering to have a bakesale couldn't be easier.

For those of you who may be put off by the involvement of C&H, The Food Network, Family Circle, and food celebrities, take note: you can organize a bakesale and donate proceeds without commercial sponsorship or intervention, and your money will go directly to Share Our Strength, one of the largest anti-hunger non-profits out there who have turned fundraising into an experiential art.

You only have 6 more weeks to register - the deadline is June 30th. So get baking!

www.greatamericanbakesale.org

Buying Machetes in San Salvador

Ethan bargains with a street vendor for his & hers machetes. Ah, sweet sweet romance.

For $10, a family can enjoy a large meal in the park

At a small park northwest of San Salvador in a village known for its shamans.

Antique Coffee processing equipment at Cafe Ataco in El Salvador

More pictures from Cafe Ataco, high in the hills northwest of San Salvador. Their claim to fame? Starbucks buys green beans from them.

Many layers of paint coat this piece.

A wood-fired drying kiln

Gears:

I'm not sure what this one does.

Made in New York and Illinois

This batch roaster does 250 lbs at a time:

A "Granulizer" for grinding coffee. Bad picture, but interesting piece of equipment:

Solace at the main cathedral in San Salvador

The Beach at Sunset, El Salvador

If I didn't include this, I'd have my tourist card revoked.

Coffee Obsessed: I got nuthin' on Liz

Liz, aka Confused Bee, aka Chinese Broccoli, aka Kitty Empire, is the most coffee-obsessed person I know. A freelance writer, Liz spends a great deal of time in cafes, and has turned that time into opportunity to get to know baristas, coffee, and the ways and means of coffee.

Here's a photo I nabbed from her photo stream on flickr:

Liz is as obsessed with documenting coffee as she is with coffee itself. She photographs every visit, party, beverage, and trip to the coffee shop with her Canon. I'm actually envious!

To see more of Liz's photos of coffee, coffee roasters, coffee shops, baristas, latte art, coffee competitions, etc, go here: Confused Bee's Latte Art Sets. In my links you'll see a link to her blog, Chinese Broccoli. She's as good a writer as she is a photographer (perhaps better?).

Three Stone Hearth: a (r)evolution in eating

For the last 16 months, out of a crowded Berkeley kitchen leased from a social services facility, Larry Wisch (the kitchen's "Fermenter") and his partners Porsche Combash, Misa Koketsu, Jessica Prentice, and Catherine Spanger at Three Stone Hearth have been preparing and selling sustainably sourced and produced foods based on the ideas originated by Weston A. Price, the "Charles Darwin" of nutrition science. Although Price was a dentist, his interest in diverse cultures around the world (he referred to the people he studied as 'primitives'), diet and dental health led him to the conclusion that 'native' (local, pre-modern) diets, rather than modern diets, were better for the formation of the palate, teeth, and ultimately, health. In 1939 he published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, which linked modern methods of agriculture and food production to disease. Michael Pollan has helped to introduce a generation to the teachings of Weston A Price in his books Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, and many, including the five owners of Three Stone Hearth, are putting theory into practice.

Once a week customers line up to pick up yellow bins full of glass mason jars stuffed with rich stews and soups, lactofermented vegetables (think sauerkraut), and all nature of fermented drinks. When customers return to pick up their weekly bin, they return the used mason jars and bottles so that Three Hearth Kitchen can reuse them.

Below, jars of Russian Beef Soup are lined up just after they've been sealed in jars and cooled. Three Stone Hearth publishes a weekly menu that customers order from.

Here's the cooler, lined with jars - in a day, the cooler will be filled with the yellow bins ready for customer pick up:

In the back room, Larry keeps large, imported crocks built for fermenting vegetables - and for making fermented drinks:

A milk crate filled with coolers, including root beer coolers:

Larry shows off a jar of Kvass, a ruby red tonic made from fermented beets with a little bit of sauerkraut juice - when Larry has extra.

We stood around a table in the Black Room as Larry opened up the jar of kvass. This was the second beverage he served us - the first was a lightly fermented soda made from douglas fir essence and whey (that's what he's pouring in the photo above). Delicate with a hint of the forest, it was the perfect precursor to the salty, acidic kvass, said to be an excellent liver cleanser.

According to Larry, Three Stone Hearth's goal is not to be a large, profit-making entity (which would, invariably, force them into many of the conventions of industrial food production that they are trying to avoid), but to teach people from around the country to practice similar sustainable food purchasing, preparation and distribution (as a community supported kitchen they rely on volunteers for everything from picking up cheese to working in the kitchen). The idea is that as interest in this kind of food grows, the demand for farms that are producing truly sustainable meat, eggs, dairy, produce, and fruit will increase, and more farms will begin farming in this way, and people will have more access to good, real food - food that nourishes the soul and the body in equal measure. It is a noble goal - and something I ardently hope will happen.

Stollen (and other treats) at KaDeWe in Berlin

You can't really tell from the photo, but these stollen are HUGE. I bought a slice - pretty tasty if you like stollen. KaDeWe, Europe's largest department store, has an unbelievable food hall with a seemingly endless variety of foods. There's wursts from every part of Germany, eat-in restaurants, and rack upon rack of sugary sweets.

Here's another view of the bakery case:

There was the usual world spices and prepared foods. Most remarkable were the uber 60's prepared foods (didn't I see this in 100 thing to do with leftovers?)- I'm still not sure what they are:

Anyone?

Hand Made Jams at the Farmers Market in Berlin