Foiled by Chipmunks

Cute, fuzzy, stripey, little b*st**ds darlings.....

We are overrun this summer. Five, six, a dozen, twenty, all boiling around the yard intent on mischief.

Planted squash in a big bin to get it off the ground away from squash mosaic virus, which seems endemic around here. They unplanted it and replaced it with sunflower seeds they stole from the birds...

Which sprouted with great vigor and are all toppling over one another in their race for the sky. I like sunflowers and all, but tiny summer squash sauteed in butter, with a dab of green onion, a touch of garlic and Italian seasoning, with baby green beans thrown in....well, that trumps vagrant sunflowers any dinner of the season.

Weeded the tiny patch of thyme that sows itself here and there every summer. I love to cook with thyme and so does Liz. Some of the tiny, eyelash-thin plants were uprooted in the effort so I potted them in a little strawberry planter we had.

Wouldn't it be cute if they sowed themselves and ran down the sides...and wouldn't it be nice to bring the planter indoors in winter and have fresh thyme all year round.

Evidently tamias striatus didn't think so. They have dug in the top and every hole on the planter every single day since I planted them there. Big steel staples don't deter them one bit. Today I wedged the seedlings down with a big rock. Not so very elegant, but maybe it will work.

I could go on and on. Since I can't figure out how to properly seat a cartridge in my little Crossman CO2 pistol (which doesn't do much more than tick them off, but at least they run away when I go outdoors), and it is currently dead, they thumb their furry noses at me and don't even move when I walk right up to them.

At least none have come in the house....so far.... Ack!

I poked one in the fanny with a cow pole the other day and he just turned around and glared at me and went back to prizing sunflower seeds out of the wire feeder in an utter huff.

Somebody help me...

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Just Announced: The Los Angeles Coffee Festival In November

Allegra Events are coming to Los Angeles. Just announced today, the group behind coffee festivals in London, Amsterdam, New York, and Milan as well as the Coffee Masters competition is heading westward for the inaugural Los Angeles Coffee Festival taking place November 9th through 11th at The Reef.

For this first-of-its-kind event in LA, you can expect to find a lot of the favorites from past festivals: coffee companies from around the world, coffee art, and all manner of cocktails. But there will be a few new wrinkles for spectators’ enjoyment, most notably the Coffee Mixologists competition. Making its first appearance in the United States, Coffee Mixologists pits teams of two (one barista and one mixologist) in a battle royale to see who can create the best coffee cocktail using a set of unknown ingredients.

Also new for the Los Angeles Coffee Festival is The Kitchen, a casual dining experience harnessing the power of one of the country’s best culinary cities. Per the website, attendees can expect “fiery demos, workshops and talks headed up by culinary legends” from the “vibrant Los Angeles cooking scene.”

Tickets for the Los Angeles Coffee Festival are on sale now, with early bird pricing starting as low as $22.50 (through July 31st). For more information or to purchase your tickets, visit the Los Angeles Coffee Festival’s official website.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Top image via the Los Angeles Coffee Festival.

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Help Small-Scale Colombian Farmers With A Microloan On Kiva

Direct Origin Trading is a farmers collective based in Colombia and Honduras “made up of many small-scale coffee farmers,” whose goal is to offer these small producers “direct access to roasters willing to pay fair prices for their microlots independently.” Many of the farmers that comprise the collective are based in conflict-torn areas of Colombia still recovering from civil war. Now a new microloan initiative created by Kiva is hoping to raise $50,000 to help raise the wages of these coffee producers.

Based in San Francisco, Kiva is a non-profit organization that hopes to help pull people in developing countries out of poverty via microloans. In essence, it works like Kickstarter. Backers contribute an amount of their choosing, but instead of getting some sort of reward, you will—assuming all goes well—get your investment back. No interest, just good will.

According to the microloan site, the $50,000 will help extend Direct Origin Trading’s “pre-financing program to more smallholder farming families, especially in isolated, marginalized areas affected by armed insurgency. This loan will allow Direct Origin to process and export more coffee more efficiently while paying a 50%+ premium to rural farmers.” With eight days left in the campaign, Kiva has raised 66% of their goal, leaving some $16,000 to go as of publication.

They are asking for loans as small as $25 all the way up to $500. Kiva is expecting the loan to last 14 months with repayments occurring as the funds are available to the farmers.

To learn more about Direct Origin Trading, visit their official website. For more information on the microloan and to consider donating, visit Kiva’s donation page.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Top image via Kiva.

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Build-Outs Of Summer: Grindsmith Coffee Roasters In Manchester, England

The Build-Outs roll on and we are returning to Manchester, which has been pretty fertile ground for Build-Outs the past few years; last year we featured Roc & Rye—our first ever foray into the UK’s second most populated city—and then not but two weeks ago we highlighted Atkinsons Coffee Roasters. And here we are for round three with Grindsmith Coffee Roasters.

Featuring a hyper-clean lab space and a hyper-clean Loring Smart Roaster, Grindsmith is driven by three core values: community, customers, and craft. And from the looks of the shindig below, it looks like they’ve got it nailed down. So let’s head back to Manchester one more time for Grindsmith Coffee Roasters.

As told to Sprudge by Laura Wood.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

Grindsmith was created with the aim of serving the best coffee experience in Manchester. We believe this can only be delivered through quality of product, commitment to customer service excellence, and by creating a community that is enjoyed by staff, stakeholder and suppliers alike. Therefore, the Grindsmith is underpinned by three core values—community, customer, and craft. These pillars are part of our brand promise and are fundamental as the specialty coffee supplier of choice.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

The Grindsmith Coffee Roastery is a state-of-the-art laboratory and the latest innovation within the Grindsmith portfolio. The expansive space, set across two floors, has been renovated and is supplying all three of its stores with home-roasted coffee.

It includes an industry-leading Loring Smart Roaster machine—an odourless, flavour-locking system with lower emissions—and a Tech Lab that will help the company push further boundaries within the industry when it comes to quality and taste.

What’s your approach to coffee?

We use expert knowledge, training, and feedback to source, roast, and perfect the best coffees for our stores. We have a commitment to serving high-quality single origin coffee and innovative brew methods.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

Loring Smart Roaster is the heart of our operation.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

May 2018

Thank you!

Grindsmith Coffee Roasters is located at 231-233 Deansgate, Manchester. Visit their official website and find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

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Brave little Bird

That's TUTI on the left

This is TUTI, named with the code letter abbreviation for a Tufted Titmouse, which seemed to fit at the time. TUTI has twisted primary feathers on one wing, perhaps from a window strike or some other injury, perhaps from a genetic error.

TUTI is a toughie. He/she....I always think of her as a she and will write of her as such from here on in....has come to the feeder all winter  for two years. Then in spring she vanishes for a while, only to reappear leading her brood to the feeders.

Passing a seed

She has been coming back to the Jonna feeder...the only one I have out in hopes of fending off grackles...for a few days now after a prolonged absence. 

I worry.

Screechy little ball of fluff begging vociferously

This morning Miss Peggy emerged before her folks were up to urge me to come to the front porch where she announced that there were baby birds.

Too cute to be true

4-years-old and not a feather in sight, but somehow she knew that the strident peeping from the cedars was baby birds and not adults. However, we didn't actually see any of them. I couldn't quite figure out what we were hearing.

Until a few minutes ago when the yard filled with a flurry of the same sounds and a frantic TUTI racing to the feeder, quickly shucking a sunflower seed, and then flitting over to the honey locust to stuff a beak. And another beak. And another beak.

I have never gotten a decent photo of her, but today she was too busy to worry about the camera. I grabbed a few shots and came back inside to give her room to do her job.

The Downy Woodpeckers are bringing the kids in too.
Yesterday they were feeding them.
Today the kids have found the suet for themselves. Soon the parents will be ducking and dodging, trying to leave them behind on their own.

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Build-Outs Of Summer: Amethyst Coffee In Denver, CO

If you ask your favorite coffee professional to list the best cafes in America, there is a good chance that Amethyst Coffee in Denver would be one of the first spots you’ll hear about. Beyond good coffee, which of course they have—anchored by another local favorite Commonwealth Coffee—Amethyst and owner Elle Jensen have become well-known advocates for coffee professionals, particularly women, gender non-conforming, gender queer, and transgender individuals through their work with Cherry Roast. In short, they are your favorite barista’s favorite barista-driven coffee shop.

Now it is shops, plural, with a forthcoming location in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood. But if you’re expecting a carbon copy of the original cafe, think again. Whereas Amethyst is known for their “any coffee, any way you want it” service model at the original location, the new shop is option for a more streamlined approach, eschewing pour-overs all together in favor of batch brews. It’s a significant shift in concept, one that shows Jensen and Amethyst aren’t satisfied with resting on their laurels and are always examining the idea of service in the cafe context. We are still a few weeks out from the official opening, but in the mean time, let’s find out a little more about what we can expect at the brand new Amethyst coffee in Denver, Colorado.

As told to Sprudge by Elle Jensen.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

We are a woman-owned and operated cafe in Denver, CO focused on the treatment of our staff and making specialty coffee accessible to all.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

It’s in a building that was built in the ’20s, right next to a beautiful art deco theater. The space was used as a piano showroom until the ’60s/’70s and has been vacant since. We are excited to lend our hand to making this space a community space again!

What’s your approach to coffee?

We believe that good coffee should be approachable and that it’s our job as baristas to make people a drink they will enjoy, rather than the drink we think they should enjoy. Conversation is paramount when serving coffee, and we do our best to facilitate that conversation. We use Commonwealth Coffee as our house roaster and rotate our out-of-state guest roaster every quarter. We try to keep guest roasters on a little longer so that we can build a real relationship with them and their coffees. We spend a lot of time thinking about the difference between what is good coffee, what coffee do we prefer, and how to build a balanced coffee offering list.

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We’ll be using a Synesso MVP, which we are SO excited about, a Curtis batch brewer, and a Taylor Soft Serve Ice Cream Machine. We’ll also have a stellar four-bay sink. We will not be doing pour-overs at our new location, but we will offer two batch brews and larger format batch brew service.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

July 14th…

Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?

Yes! We are working with Art Builders Guild, Slate Construction, Paper Airplane (architects), Breezy Sanchez from Go!Go!Good!, Push Designs, and the tiny Scandinavian company Ikea.

Thank you!

No, thank YOU!

Amethyst Coffee Co. is located at 4999 W. 44th Ave, Denver. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

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Starbucks Announces Expansive New Trans Healthcare Policy

As reported this week an article appearing in them.—a Condé Nast publication devoted to “the lens of today’s LGBTQ community”—the Seattle-based international coffee brand Starbucks is said to have just adopted the “most comprehensive trans health policy in the world.”

According to the article, the new policy is a “direct parallel” with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) international recommendations for trans healthcare. This is the result of Starbucks working directly with WPATH to create the new benefits package, expanding the company’s trans benefits that have included gender reassignment surgery since 2012. The new packages, called “Starbucks Transgender Medical Benefits,” extends to “lifetime coverage for everything from hair graft and voice therapy to facial feminization and breast augmentation—services considered vital for transgender healthcare but often listed as ‘cosmetic’ and not covered by health insurance.”

Per the article, Starbucks is the first company to approach WPATH about turning their Standards of Care—a 120-page document list of care guidelines and provider recommendations—into a corporate policy. Much like with their findings that led the company to 100% pay equity, Starbucks is hoping to share these new policies created in tandem with WPATH with other employers looking to provide more trans-inclusive benefits.

For more information on the Starbucks Transgender Medical Benefits, the company’s announcement can be found here.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Top image via Starbucks.

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Build-Outs Of Summer: Beachcomber Coffee In Gibsons, BC

It’s summertime and the living is easy for those on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada. That’s the home of the brand new location for Beachcomber Coffee, a coffee company who does all their roasting on the mainland in Vancouver before shipping it over via ferry to the chiller side of things.

Beachcomber touts themselves as much of a lifestyle brand as a coffee company, and it is easy to see why. Being out on Gibsons—so close to the big city but still so very far away—is by its very nature a lifestyle. Any company that can successfully embody that vibe has the lifestyle part down; all it needs is the brand. And does Beachcomber ever have that. Let’s mosey on in, shall we, and check out the brand new Beachcomber Coffee in Gibsons, British Columbia.

As told to Sprudge by Martin DesRosiers.

For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?

Founded in 2015, Beachcomber Coffee is an award-winning craft coffee company based on the Sunshine Coast, BC! Roasted in Vancouver but based in Gibsons, Beachcomber Coffee represents the Sunshine Coast lifestyle and produces a proprietary blend of Certified Organic, Certified Fairtrade, Certified Kosher, and Certified Halal coffee. Beachcomber is unique in that it doesn’t offer different blends and roasts but instead focuses on its unique blend appealing to the daily Canadian coffee drinker.

Can you tell us a bit about the new space?

Having lived/worked in Gastown (Vancouver, BC), we wanted to take a slice of it and drop it into Gibsons Landing. Our space is located a stone’s throw from the ocean, situated at the epicenter of historic seaside village called Gibsons Landing. The location has been a coffee shop since 1979 and we purchased it late last year to convert it into our home base. Our model is coffee-first with complementary food options including exclusive baked goods from a local baker (two doors down) as well as grilled wraps and sandwiches. We sell our beans as well as merchandise as we consider ourselves a lifestyle brand.

What’s your approach to coffee?

Our approach from day one has been to create a coffee company rooted within the area we grew up tailored to the average Canadian coffee drinker. Our coffees have always been “medium” on the roast spectrum with notes of chocolate, caramel, and nuts. We set out to create a lifestyle brand leveraging the power of marketing and social media and spent months analyzing the Canadian coffee market. We’ve won numerous awards for our coffees and late last year we pivoted and completely redesigned our packaging and our signature blend. We are now Certified Organic, Certified Fairtrade, Certified Kosher, and Certified Halal. Our brand represents the Sunshine Coast lifestyle, a community nestled so close (40-minute ferry ride), yet so far away from downtown Vancouver, BC. The juxtaposition between concrete jungle and small town seaside community is what we’re all about and our approach to coffee has always been more than just a bag of beans, it’s about making people feel good and tap into that feeling of West Coast living. Our slogan is it’s not just a coffee, it’s a lifestyle…

Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?

We’re using a FETCO Batch Brewer, custom Victoria Arduino White Eagle, as well as Victoria Arduino espresso grinders. We are the first coffee shop in British Columbia Canada to be working with the purpose-built chocolate waffle cone called “coffee in a cone.” We are also about to launch a cold brew in a bottle (355ml beer bottle) within the next couple of weeks. We’ve decided to focus on efficiency and encourage a take a go model (as we are in a desirable tourist area) and is why you won’t find pour-overs and other methods.

What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?

Grand Opening June 16th, 2018 (currently in soft-open phase)

Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?

Definitely would like to shoutout a few people: John Lieffers from Blenheim Construction who was our contractor on the project, Ethan Luc Goosen who was our architect/designer on the project, and Ben Tour (local artist) for the murals within the space.

Thank you!

No, THANK YOU :D

Beachcomber Coffee Company Inc. is located at 264 Gower Point Road, Gibsons, BC. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.

Photos by Dolf Vermeulen.

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In the Cheap Seats

Admission to the Sitting Porch is a great bargain.

Free, and the show never ends.

Miss Peggy takes advantage now and then when she is bored or her folks are busy doing dangerous stuff.

I have fun with that. I had a bowl of glass thingies used in vases or aquariums. I just like them because they're pretty. She liked to play with them, so everyone was happy.

The other day I bought two more bags at the dollar store and put them in the bowl for her to find. She did and some serious play ensued.

I think she likes them.

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Surprise

Brand new House Wren, fresh out of the box

It's fledge week here at Northview. House Wrens emerged in two batches, with some coming out earlier in the week and what I hope were the final ones yesterday. One hung out with me for a while yesterday afternoon, before answering his parents' calls and flying away with them.

Wrens have been joined by baby Downy Woodpeckers, new White-breasted Nuthatches, new House Finches, a plethora of American Robins of all shapes, colors and sizes, and I think maybe some new Black-capped Chickadees.

Immature American Robin

It makes looking up into the Honey Locust in the yard a lot of fun. Along with all these birds and their kids are the resident vireos, flycatchers, and warblers.

To my delight another species showed up yesterday morning. We haven't seen or heard these birds since the 22nd of April.

Singing in the yard, hotly pursued by a batch of brand new fledglings, was a Carolina Wren pair.

I've missed the loud tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle, and the outraged rattling all around the yard.

I wonder where they were.

The end

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Supernova Hub In Curitiba, Brazil Is Coffee For Everyone

Curitiba, the capital of Paraná state, is well known in Brazil for its intense coffee culture. The newest addition to the already effervescent coffee scene is the Supernova Hub: a collective roastery—where coffee lovers/cafe owners can rent out the equipment to roast their own green coffee, a cafe, a business incubator for coffee-related startups, and a soon-to-be certified Specialty Coffee Association campus. 

Luiz Eduardo Melo, Supernova founder, is a lawyer by training and an entrepreneur by trade. In 2014 he started learning about roasting and opened the first Supernova location in 2015, together with his partner Bruno Regalo. Since then, Melo has opened two other cafes, led the production of a coffee documentary film (“Coffee Isn’t Just Coffee”—watch the trailer here), finished his SCA instructor certification in the US, and now opened the Supernova Hub.

Luiz Eduardo Melo

Melo’s three prior Supernova cafes are focused on the “coffee to go” concept—to the extreme. “I needed to stand apart from the other already established roasteries from Curitiba and offer something new to our customers,” explains Melo. They eschew WiFi and table service, and only serve in to-go cups, focusing solely on coffee quality and customer experience, which Melo today recognizes was really risky. Thankfully, it has worked out so far.

The Supernova Hub came about for many reasons, Melo tells me. The roastery space in the flagship store was overcrowded with green coffee storage. The stock space for cafe supplies and green coffee was divided among the stores, which made it logistically challenging to distribute supplies. Melo began to conceive of a space where he could centralize the roastery operations and the stock together, and at the same time, he got a nudge from the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association to become an authorized SCA trainer. And he found an amazing, spacious location in downtown Curitiba, then somewhat of a desert for specialty coffee. That was it: the Supernova Coffee Hub would host his SCA training lab, roastery, green and roasted coffee storage center, and also a cafe.

The Hub cafe initially opened in October 2017, and Melo and his team of baristas quickly learned that customers in this part of Curitiba were different than those they’d served elsewhere. Low-income downtown workers were not used to specialty coffee, the beverages offered, let alone the pricing. They took the opportunity to rethink the Hub’s cafe operation when they had to briefly close to build out the roastery and the training lab upstairs.

Much of the Hub format today came from this rethinking period, says Melo. One of the important decisions—that was suggested by baristas Amandha Locathelli and Daniel Munari—was to leave it up to the customer to decide how much the beverage they order is worth. Inspired by other initiatives such as Curto Café, this allowed them to make specialty coffee more affordable for their clientele. Focused on making the space an accessible space for people of all backgrounds and income levels to experience specialty coffee, The Hub will also host free cuppings and events, as well as allocate one vacancy in every coffee course for low-income coffee professionals. 

The structure of their collaborative roasting space, too, came from this period of renovation and reflection. The Supernova Hub offers members usage plans that include roasting training as well as roastery hours, so that students can practice what they learn during classes.

To tie this all together, Melo realized he needed a tool that could facilitate the access to specialty green coffee by the roasters who would rent out the roastery equipment. His newest startup initiative is a web platform for the specialty coffee trade: Baerter. The idea is to provide a link between roasters and specialty coffee producers, where they can buy green coffee online with guaranteed delivery, and also post reviews of the coffee quality and so forth. All parties are held accountable—both producers and buyers have the opportunity to review the transaction and thus a reputation is slowly built within the platform. All samples are submitted by producers to the Supernova Hub, where they evaluate green quality and grade the coffee, attesting to its quality, before it can be posted online for sale.

“I remember all the difficulties I had to go through when trying to open my coffee business,” recalls Melo, “and I am thus trying to solve all of them for the newcomers to the industry: access to roasting and barista courses, access to roastery equipment, access to high quality green coffee from all over the country—without necessarily having to travel all the way to the farm in order to buy directly from the farmer.”

And how will he measure Supernova’s success? Melo will know—when specialty coffee in Brazil gets even more competitive.

Supernova Hub is located at Rua Barão do Rio Branco, 222, Centro. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Juliana Ganan is a Brazilian coffee professional and journalist. Read more Juliana Ganan on Sprudge.

Photos by Bruno Regert.

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COOL is Cool

Not a beef cow, but certainly a product of the USA

Country of Origin Labeling that is. It's good to know where food is grown and under what set of standards.

I'd rather not buy imported produce if given the choice. Same goes for meat. Our inspection standards are far superior to those in many other countries, and I prefer to give our neighbors the business....and money....if possible.

However, it seems that FSIS is allowing foreign beef to be plainly labeled as a product of the USA.

Ridiculous. 

You can read about it here. Petition for Rulemaking on "Product of USA" Labeling

You can leave your own comment here.

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