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Ok, Twitter. Now you're just showing off.
We'd hit something of a roadblock with the post we were intending to... post... this morning. When coffee failed to fix the problem, we knew we were in trouble. And so we turned to our old standby: procrastination. No sooner did we log on to @gogreenologist than we heard from @onefoodguy, asking about where to get farm-fresh eggs. #Eureka!
Oh, eggs. We love eggs. They're full of protein and OMEGA-3s, they can be sweet or savory, hard or soft, scrambled or un-scrambled, carried on spoons, and hidden in the out-of-doors. And wow, are they cheap.
There are times at which we do not love eggs, however; this mostly has to do with the way the egg is introduced to the world. Is it laid, free of hormones, chemicals and antibiotics, in a town we have heard of, where its mother is allowed to peck and scratch and bob her head in the open air as free as her little chicken heart desires? Or is it pumped full of junk we can't pronounce on a commercial farm somewhere in Indiana and laid in a giant warehouse by a hen who's never seen the light of day? There's a big difference, and we can taste it.
The point is, local is better for more reasons than just the carbon emissions created in the shipping of goods. Local eggs, for example, from the small-production dairy farms around Massachusetts, are more likely to be hormone/antibiotic-free and laid from hens who are actually allowed to free range (none of that "open-cage" stuff). Why do we care about this? Aside from the fact that we figure we're exposed to more chemicals than we'd like just by breathing and don't think we need any more from our food, local eggs, in our experience, actually taste better. For reals, yo. Flipping delicious. They're creamier, more flavorful, and the yolks (we swear) are the yellowest yellow we have ever seen. (Probably because free-range chickens eat leafy greens, which help turn their yolks yellow. How do commercial farmers get yellow yolks? They put dye in the chicken feed. Yup.)
Where can you get your hands on some local eggs? Lots of places. If you want to stick to the mean streets of Boston (or Cambridge or Somerville), we've listed the places we've found the little local ovums below. If you feel like daytrippin' for your dairy (do it, do it!) check out FarmFresh.org (a Rhode Island-based site, but works for MA, too), and search their database for a farm to visit and buy from directly.
One final thing we love about eggs: shells. Go here to see all the glorious ways in which you can harness the power of what you probably thought was nothing more than a fragile little membrane. Think again!
Happy February 4th! What's happy about it, you ask? We'll tell you! We just got rid of a bunch of closet-dwelling junk that was making us seriously claustrophobic. Old toasters, twin bedding, bio books and reams of hot pink paper begone! How did we do it, you ask? Did we pay one of those junk removal companies to come pick it all up and do whatever it is they do (what DO they do with that stuff?) with it? Pssht. No, ma'am. You underestimate our capacity for thrift. We used Freecycle.org's Cambridge-based Yahoo!Group page to find people who actually wanted our stuff and were willing to come get it from us. We traded one guy for a spiffy colander he was unloading. Huzzah! Why didn't WE think of this?
Using Freecycle was easy and rewarding. We signed in with our own Yahoo! account info (though not all Freecycle groups are hosted by Yahoo!Groups), we posted our stuff, and a few days later, we can see the floor of our closet again. Most importantly, though, using Freecycle helps keep stuff out of landfills. Recently posted (and immediately taken... you gots to be fast): a bag of pig's ears, a Brita water filter, a bag of beads and a green velvet couch. Nice.
We see that box of stuff in its original packaging lurking beneath your bed. You're never going to use any of it. Ever. For serious. We know, we know; you're waiting to have a yard sale! Please. You've been saying that for two years now. And even if you did get it together enough to have one, how much do you think you're going to get for a sleeve of Betty Boop Titleists? Just go to Freecycle.org, enter your location, post your junk, and you're clutter-free, kid. Or, you could end up living like this. Just sayin'.
So. Twitter. We must confess, we kind of hated you for a period of time, in the same way we kind of hated the cool chicks in middle school. You were all up in everyone's business, gossiping about everyone's dinners, the interiors of their refrigerators, whether farms were REALLY organic or just low-spray, and how the cheese cart at Troquet is "so totally not the best in Boston." We felt out of the loop (and kind of chubby). And what was the story with all those pound signs flying around? #nickcarter? #noonprop8? #munchkins? Who accidentally hits the # sign that often? We were confused and generally bothered.
But recently, we've been making a few more friends on this here Twitter. We get the whole hash mark thing now (#eureka!), and we're feeling a little better about ourselves. We heard from the Green Mountain Farm to School project, a Vermont-based group that brings local, healthy produce and educational programs to fifteen schools in the Northeast Kingdom. Not only are their kids benefitting from "eating the rainbow" and learning about the farms supplying their lunches, they're little budding foodie poets: "Crunchy like a bunny eats, crunchy like a horse eats, crunchy like we eat, crunchy is so yummy!" Love.
We also heard from Amy Cotler, whose new book, The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food, looks like it's pretty much the awesomest. (We know it's not a word. We don't care.) We're excited to read a copy and let all of you Greenologist folks know how you might use it as a tool for living small.
And then there was this from @eatboston. All we'll say is that we always thought it would be great if food and fashion (our two favorite things) could be combined some way, somehow. It would be creative! It would be edible! It would be a nexus of delicious fierceness! Now? Maybe not so much.
Yup. It's official. We love Twitter. We love the kids in Vermont, we love finding new books, and even though it grosses us out a little, we kind of love meat hats. Goodbye, Luddites. Hello, @newluddite.
