Tuesday, December 09, 2003


holiday quick bread

this gingered-pear walnut quickbread just sounds delicious, tho' of course i would swap out the shortening for normandy butter and add a touch of vanilla or brandy. but that's just me.

with that treat in mind, let's think for a moment about a serious fact. long-time readers may remember that with the exception of gillies exceptional yrg and counterculture's sidamo, i am not a big fan of african coffees -- they tend to be too bright for me. but even so, i'm sobered by this:

"ethiopian farmers are paid less than US$0.10 a kilo for coffee, which will sell in western countries for around US$26. five years ago they received six times that amount. [the illegal drug] khat brings in over US$9 a bushel."

some may remember my recent wacky rant on how messed up the current world economic system truly is, particularly when we think about coffee, the world's second most-traded commodity. and long-time readers know that i've written about this before.

either way, we consumers -- especially those of you who love your ethiopian coffees -- should seriously be alarmed about the effects of the coffee crisis.

in much lighter news, the spa trend of using chocolate and coffee in facials and body wraps has spread from the u.s.a. and japan to southern indian brides. a wise cosmetics entrepreneur would start a full-scale mocha line, i think. (richard donnelly, are you listening?)

looking outside at the piles of snow and the endless gray sky, i know it's not really time to think of cycling. however, i also know it's a sport growing in popularity.

those of you who can't wait to get back out on your bikes shouldn't be wasting this time: yoga is a great winter prep for improving your road cycling.

posted by fortune | 10:12 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments