Fair Trade Bicycle Fare

It looks like the early spring weather is here to stay in Atlanta, and it is the perfect weather for  leaving the car at home and biking around town.  

As part of their Spring 2012 collection, Serrv has offered up three dandy options for outfitting your ride.  Classic wicker, colorful bolga, or eco-graphic zig zag, each of their handlebar baskets makes a cool and useful addition to your ride, and retail for less than $45 each.

$35

$39

$42

If you prefer your view unimpeded, a standard bolga basket or one of these sturdy options from Ten Thousand Villages can be attached to a rear rack and easily removed to serve as a market basket.

Snack Wrapper Picnic Tote, $39

Essential Companion Tote, $39

For those who like to wear their haul, messenger bags from Serrv, Ten Thousand Villages, and Gorilla Sacks are plentiful and varied, as are accessories and gifts for the bicycle enthusiast.

From Beloved's Mercantile, recycled wire bicycle earrings:

www.beloveds.net, $7

 And from Noah's Ark International Exports, a bicycle chain bottle opener:

www.tenthousandvillages.com, $8

A San Francisco-based company has found a very clever way to merge their passions for biking and Fair Trade by creating The Bicycle Coffee Company.  They deliver freshly roasted, FT coffee by bicycle to locations in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland, CA.

If you need more inspiration to do your own Fair Trade biking this year, check out the blog "Fair Trade Bike Ride", a current travelogue that takes a Vancouver man from his hometown in British Columbia, through the US, Central America, and all the way down to Santiago, Chile by bike, visiting Fair Trade producers along the way.

Happy Riding!

Candy Cane Christmas

Nepali Mitten Garland, $29 Serrv

I love decorating the house for the holidays.  It is a glorious thing to put on Christmas music, make cocoa, and get out the tubs of Christmas decorations.  I think I enjoy it even more than decorating the tree, as there are so many more options for how things are displayed.  My standard color scheme is red with natural elements like rattan, wood, and raffia, and a bit of gold sparkle thrown in, but this year there have been cool new collections of red paired with white and silver.  This "Candy Cane Christmas" theme is lovely, and the combination of stark white with bright red manages to be both crisp and comforting, refreshing and relaxing.  In addition to my yearly draping of the doorways with strands of red straw star garlands from Ten Thousand Villages, I love these beautiful red and white Christmas decorations from Serrv.  How deliciously chic!

Set of 2 pillows, Ecuador, $75

Mitten Ornaments, Set of 6, $18

Sphere Tealight holders, set of 2 $19, Runner $45, Set of 4 napkin rings, $10, Set of 4 coasters, $12 www.serrv.org

Set of 3 Apothecary Jars, $140, also sold individually.

I could imagine these apothecary jars filled with peppermint disks, candy canes, and red and white gumdrops for a fun centerpiece.

For those who like to deck themselves with holiday cheer, Serrv's candy cane-striped mittens and scarves from Nepal are a warm way to get in the spirit.   

Peppermint Stripe String Mittens, $18

Peppermint Stripe Scarf, $38

Crazy cool. Cozy comfort.

Winter 2011

Unseasonably warm weather in late November has me thankful to live where I do, but just the teeny-tiniest bit moody as I eye my closet-bound, chilly-weather accessories longingly.  Until it gets colder, I'll have to enjoy looking at pictures of cozy things over at Indigenous Designs.  Their offerings in alpaca, merino, silk and cotton are fair trade as well as organic, and their merino mittens I acquired a few years ago are some of the softest things I've ever felt.  If you are among those who are already bundling up, you may as well look cool doing it.  I'll just be here dreaming of a cold snap.

Button Wristwarmers, $33

Asymmetrical Zip, $140

Airplane Wrap, $65

Branch Poncho, $180

Artisan Scarf, $50

Urban Fingerless Gloves, $36

Winter 2011

Wrap Hoody, $129

For men, or for the women who like to snuggle them, there are buttery soft merino hoodies and pullovers in addition to classic organic cotton button-downs.

Coffee House Hoodie, merino wool, $125

Urban Ski Zip, an I.D. staff favorite, $180

'Tis the season for chocolate!

As if I need an excuse for a daily dose of cacao-based confections, I am very excited about this year's offerings from Divine Chocolate.  Divine Chocolate is a is a fantastic FT (fair trade) chocolate company based in the UK, and available in the UK, US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Hungary, Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Japan.  They offer lush bars of chocolate with such additions as dried raspberries, crystallized ginger orange peels, and spiced cookies.

Divine's Advent Calendar is a beautiful thin box with a milk chocolate heart hiding behind each door and a layer of gold foil, just waiting for you to count down each delicious day leading up to Christmas.

Celebrate the Festival of Lights with milk chocolate coins, dark mint medallions, and foil-wrapped chocolate balls.


Limited Edition Holiday bars this year include additions like hazelnut truffle, dried cranberries, and spiced cookie bits.  Did I mention the spiced cookies already?  Imagine that Santa's cup of cocoa and plate of ginger cookies got caught in a tornado, and try not to drool on your keyboard.  Speaking of cocoa, they also sell cocoa powder for baking and have a list of decedent recipes you can make at home with tips on how to bake with chocolate.  This recipe for Squidgy Chocolate Pudding, compliments of The Pudding Club particularly sparked my interest.  How can you not want to eat something described as "squidgy"?  If I make this next weekend, as I suspect I will, I will try to keep track of U.S. measurements and post them.

Divine Squidgy Chocolate Pudding

by The Pudding Club

Ingredients

120g Butter
120g Fairtrade light brown sugar
90g Self raising flour
30g Divine Cocoa 
2 Free range eggs, beaten

Topping

180g Divine 70% Dark Chocolate
1 Tablespoon Fairtrade caster sugar
5 Tablespoons single cream

Method

Start by preparing the topping – melt the Divine chocolate, remove from the heat and stir in the cream and sugar.
Pour into the bottom of a buttered 3 pint (1.7Lt) pudding basin.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and airy.
Gradually beat in the eggs, beating well in between each addition.
Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together, add to the creamed mixture by folding in gently.
Pour the mixture into the lined pudding basin.
Cover the top with a tight fitting lid or several layers of greaseproof paper and tie securely.
Steam for 1 to 1 and ½ hours.
Turn out carefully on to a warmed plate, making sure that none of the sauce is left behind!
Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.

Find Divine Chocolate in stores in the U.S., stockists in the UK, or shop online...if you can wait that long!

Life Ain't Fair

Around the world today, millions of workers in agriculture, labor, and manufacturing are marginalized, overlooked, and denied rights of basic safety and proper wages.  They do not have enough money for food, adequate housing, or what they need for their children to receive basic education and health services.  And from all appearances, North American consumers have been just fine with that.

Large chain stores that provide inexpensive goods from overseas flourish in spite of a tremendous recession, and the supermarkets with the cheapest lettuce and bananas are those largely favored by the buying public. While it makes sense that we would look for ways to stretch our money farther, many people line up at the register with a cart full of savings and impulse buys and never consider the effect of their purchase on the people that produce the $1.69 heads of lettuce, $5 flip flops, and aisle-upon-aisle of bargain merchandise we load up on every day.

After 5 years of being on the inside of the Fair Trade movement, I have come to realize that it is an uphill battle against a mentality that doesn't know or care about someone else's quality of life in comparison to one's own.  I sincerely hope that at sometime in the near future, those folks can find an ease in being able to meet their own needs while looking out for the needs of those connected in the supply chain, though they will never meet.

The good news is that many people already "get" Fair Trade and have found it both easy and gratifying to look for that happy little label whenever they select food products.  While the production of personal and household goods has not yet received the attention that food products have, I believe it is only a matter of time before consumers connect the dots on extending socially responsible purchasing habits to every purchase.

In the meantime, I hope to do something about increasing the margin of Fair Trade goods bought and sold in the global marketplace simply by highlighting what is lovely and special about them.  There are lots of terrific blogs and websites that offer extensive information about Fair Trade, including initiatives, events, and resources.  (Check 'em out in my links list.)  What seems to be lacking are non-selling websites and blogs that find and feature cool Fair Trade products for everyday living.  With that, I present a blog that is more entertaining than educational for those who, like me, are already advocates of Fair Trade, and want to see all of the great home goods, clothing, and accessories that are waiting to be fairly purchased.  

Welcome!