Fresh vegetables = Yummy

I’m working on a website redesign for Kawartha Ecological Growers (KEG), a collective of about 20 independent farms east of Toronto, and they’re paying me in food!  They offer Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) shares, and they’re giving me a share in exchange for my web design work.  What’s a CSA share?  From KEG’s current website:

“Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution; a system that connects people craving farm fresh local produce directly to the farmers growing their food.  A CSA consists of a community of folks who commit to supporting a farm before the growing season begins, in return for a regular dose of seasonal produce throughout.  In this way, the farm becomes the community’s farm and the consumers become co-producers of the food, with the growers and eaters supporting one another while sharing in all the risks and benefits of food production. It’s the ultimate model in local eating!”

Great idea, huh?

I just picked up this week’s share, which included fresh lettuce, rhubarb, onions, potatoes, radishes, asparagus, and eggs.  I am really looking forward to getting a weekly bounty for the next 25 weeks!  Oh, and I’ll post info on the blog when the new KEG website is up and running.

Top 20 Writers under 40

In its annual Summer Fiction issue, the New Yorker has recently published a list of Top 20 Writers under the age of 40 (click on each author’s face for more info).  There are two Canadians on the list (Rivka Galchen and David Bezmozgis), so the Canadian news media has been really touting the story (Toronto typically swoons whenever acknowledged by anything in New York).

I’m one to talk though – I had read a review of Bezmozgis’ Natasha and Other Stories when it came out in 1994, and wanted to read the book then, but never got around to it.  But now that he’s on the New Yorker’s list?  I’m definitely going to pick that one up.  Here’s an excerpt from the book – a short story called Tapka that you can read to get a taste.

I’m happy to see that Nicole Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer are on the list.  And there are many there that I haven’t heard of.  All authors will have excerpts from their work published in the New Yorker over the course of the Summer.  If that’s not reason enough to pick up the magazine each week, I don’t know what is.

Eatin’ in the ‘hood: Queen Margherita Pizza

[image above taken from the Globe and Mail review by Joanne Kates; photo by Fernando Morales]

Ian and I checked out Queen Margherita Pizza on Saturday night with a friend.  We didn’t intentionally try to go on the same day a good review came out in the Globe and Mail, but that’s the way things worked out.  We wanted something yummy and not-too-fancy within walking distance, and had heard good things about Queen Margherita.  So we headed around the corner, without a reservation, thinking that if they couldn’t accommodate us, we’d go to the Ceili Cottage, or any of the other awesome restos in Leslieville.

The guy at the door was friendly and helpful – it was around 8pm on a Saturday, and he told us that normally we wouldn’t be able to get a table for 3 until 10pm.  But he happened to have one coming up if we could wait 10 minutes.  So we waited, and were seated within 10-15 minutes.  Impressive!

The place is casual and cozy, with lots of beat-up wood floors and beams, and old-timey windows (with the original window panes and lead).  I figure those are going to be cold in the winter, but for now, they’re great.  There’s a giant wood-fired pizza oven down at one end of the dining room.  The menu is simple – you can do a prix fixe with a starter, a pizza and a desert, or you can just order pizza.  Mine was delicious, with a nice thin crust, and it was so big that I could only eat half of it and had to take the rest home for lunch the next day.  Decent prices too – the prix fixe is $25, and pizzas are between $13 and $17.

Cool Dwellings: Airstream Trailers

I have a strange fascination with RVs and trailers.  When I was a kid, I took a road trip with my sister, mother, and grandmother in a Volkswagen Westfalia camper-van.   I loved it.  I think it has something to do with the small space and efficiency – there’s a place for everything, and everything is in its place.  Oh, and the fact that your dwelling can move?  Super cool.

I saw this photo slideshow on the Dwell Magazine website – this guy lives in a vintage 1950’s Airstream Trailer.  He keeps it parked in one spot most of the time, but also takes it on-site when he’s working on a landscape design (he’s a landscape architect).  The accompanying article is here.

Now I really want to go on a road trip…

Monthly Desktop Wallpaper

I like to change the wallpaper on my computer regularly.  Keeps things interesting.  At the start of every month, I check out the monthly desktop wallpaper available on Design*Sponge and Smashing Magazine.

Over at Design*Sponge, one artist is asked to make a wallpaper each month.  So while they’re usually gorgeous (this month is no exception – check out that stunner from Chris Bettig above, first), they don’t offer much choice or variety.

At Smashing Magazine, they do an open call for designers and illustrators to make monthly desktop wallpaper.  Since the selection isn’t curated, it really runs the gamut from lame-o to awesome.  But I can usually find one I like in the 50 or so they have each month.

I think I’m going to put the Design*Sponge choice (above, first) on my laptop, and this one (above, second) from Smashing Magazine on my desktop computer (I went with the non-calendar version, but there is one with the days of the month available too.  There’s even a version for your iPhone).

Favourite Things: Picnics


Picnics are way cool right now.  Lots of hipster blogs are encouraging picnics, detailing picnic style, and swooning over photographs of picnics.  So, being the rad person she is, The King suggested we start a picnic club in Toronto, where we invite all our friends to bring food and eat it together in various parks around the city.  Last night we hit up Riverdale Park (on the Cabbagetown side, by the farm).  Those are some shots up there.  If you look closely at the picture in the middle, to the left, you can see bubbles!  I picked up a bubble blowing kit at the dollar store.  Super fun.

Photo Inspiration: Roth & Ramburg

I was just catching up on my design blog reading, and came across this post featuring Applied Arts Photography Award winners Roth & Ramburg.  The Calgary-based photographers won seven awards for their Newfoundland road trip self-promo calendar and postcard.  They blogged their trip, and turned the whole thing into a promotional piece.  While that sounds like a whole lot of work to me (traveling is for fun and vacationing, not for work), it obviously worked for them.

Aren’t these images gorgeous?  They make me want to go to Newfoundland.

Feeling Crafty: Potato Printing

I saw this video on Design*Sponge Friday – it’s of Lotta Jansdotter showing you how to do potato printing.  The video is basically a 2-minute long commercial for Rowenta irons, but I watched it anyway (I’m a big Lotta Jansdotter fan).  I checked out the web address posted at the end of the video (Rowenta Craftlabs), and it looks like Lotta is doing a whole bunch of crafty projects with Rowenta irons. These videos have inspired me, and I want to get my craft on!

I must admit two things: 1. I love crafts.  2. I am terrible at crafts.

I’m pretty good at making things on computers, but once you bring out the scissors and glue, I get all messy and nothing turns out the way I want it to.  But I still try.  And potato printing is just about the easiest thing you can do (remember it from kindergarten?), so maybe I would have some success with it.  I’m going to give it a try soon…

Discounts and deals!

Happy almost weekend!  I wish I was at a lake, jumping off a dock like those guys up there.  That photo was taken from the Dockjumping Blog.  See, there really is a blog out there for everything.

Sorry, I don’t have a Funny on Friday today.  Instead, I bring you 3 deals that I came across this week – that should cheer you up if you’re stuck at your desk, wishing you could be jumping off a dock instead, like me:

1. Moo printing: 15% off your entire order.  That’s amazing.  Use promo code 2TP2XN.  It expires at midnight on Monday, so get shopping!  http://us.moo.com/en/

2. Joe Fresh Style: $10 off if you spend $50 or more.  The coupon expires on June 15, so you have some time.  You have to sign up for their email newsletters to get the coupon: http://www.joe.ca/en/coupon/login.aspx

3. Daily Groupon deals: I signed up for this daily email service, which sends you a “group coupon” aka a Groupon.  Every day a new deal for somewhere in Toronto is published.  Some days I take a quick look at the offer, and the delete it, as it doesn’t interest me.  But some days the deals are amazing – I got a ridiculous deal on a spa package last week, and this week I saw a good deal at a neighbourhood restaurant.  Check it out: http://www.groupon.com/toronto/