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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Park + Vine day!

This morning was pretty great. Park + Vine had a "Composting 101" class that I went to. I always get invited to these events on Facebook (being a member of the group) and so many times I can't make it, for time or money (lack thereof) reasons. Anyway. The class was free and so was my morning. Off I went.

I didn't realize that there was a meeting space in between the P+V building and the empty one next door, but the alleyway there has been roofed over and transformed into a great little room that was packed with eager beavers like myself who wanted to know all about composting.

I grew up with the process, so it was pretty familiar to me. However, since moving to Cincinnati - especially where I am living now - there is absolutely NO yard space. I live with 5 other girls, and together we create a HECK of a lot of organic waste that I hate throwing away. Until today, I didn't really feel like I had much of a choice. It's not like I have room for a 3' diameter wire fence in which to toss in my scraps (nitrogen) and paper and dead leaves (carbon)!

Enter.... the Happy Farmer!!



It's a specially designed bin that ferments food waste instead of allowing it to decompose (a la the regular kind of composting) There's some special Probiotic feed that you have to add to the mix every time you add your scraps:



However, the real treat with Happy Farmer is that you can add meat AND dairy products.. and it doesn't smell. AND it's really easy and straight-forward. These three things are essential for making composting work at my house. I'm a little beyond excited, as my room-mates can attest.




i'll let you know how it works out.

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I love Park + Vine, and have been a loyal customer since the first month it opened. Some of the items are a little pricey for a college budget, but every time I'm in I always pick up an IZZE sparkling juice. It's delicious, healthy (helloooo, 2 servings of fruit!) and reasonable enough in price to where I can happily support my local businesses. I'm kind of known for my IZZE obsession, actually.

So I was getting ready to buy my Happy Farmer composter, when I saw that Dan had a NEW flavor of IZZE in the fridge. Get ready for it.... Birch Flavor. I kid you not.



Naturally, I had to try it. It tastes like a cross between home made root beer and that sarsparilla soda you get at the small towne general shoppe. Not too sweet. However, the nutritional value doesn't compare to the fruit flavors - it's just sugar, carbonated water and birch oil, so you're definitely not going to get two servings of fruit in while you're drinking it. It's probably better for you than other root beers, so if you're not looking to squeeze in fruit, you'll probably love it.

I also picked up a vegan gooey bar - chocolate and nuts. I ate most of it before I snapped a picture, because it was THAT freakin' good. I used to think that vegan automatically translated into "healthy, good for you, and yucky-tasting." This bar was exactly opposite of ALL of those things. Delish!!



so I've spent ALL afternoon doing this blog thing, updating my LinkedIn, and figuring out Twitter... now I should probably buckle down and do some real school work. Can't wait until I graduate and don't HAVE to do anything school-like on the weekends or in the evenings (in theory...)

1 comment:

  1. I must have just missed you, we walked into Park+Vine after most of the compost people had left, but there were still 3 or 4 hanging around talking about it.
    We walked the whole way around OTR I think, the Q, Main Street and then Findley Market.

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