Saah-weet Sweetgreen

Fast food can be tricky.

Actually, no. I'm being too nice. 

Fast food can be disgusting. 

Sorry. I said it.  So often I have to ask where does the food come from? How removed is it from real ingredients? Should one bitty food really have over fifty ingredients? And two thousand calories?  And how is the chain sourcing enough food for the billions it's serving?

And yet, I absolutely do not judge anyone who eats fast food. In fact, I am jealous of people in my life who eat fast food.  After a little stomach ailment that left me unable to eat any processed food whatsoever for over three years, if there is one thing I know it is how LONG it can sometimes take to plan, shop for, cook, and clean up after a healthy meal at home.  My over-three-years of continuous cooking for myself, as so many people with digestive ailments, has left me exhausted and killing for a quick and easy option at the end of a long day.  Let me introduce you to a great one that is A) fast, B) healthily responsive about ingredients you cannot put in your body, and C) local, local, local!

Sweetgreen (found in a number of metropolitan areas, but specifically for this blog, in Back Bay, Chestnut Hill, Fort Point, Prudential Center, Lynnfield, Downtown Crossing, Fenway, and Harvard Square, all in the Boston area) has got the goods.

Can I just tell you?  I love to walk into a place and see a local farmer supported. Combining FAST food with truly whole, healthy -not McTwisted concepts of healthy- foods is what a quick restaurant pit-stop should be all about!  Getting a little Sweetgreen as we speak... Look at me; I'm eating fast food!

Masters, Indeed

Before I sound elitist here, know that I probably cannot afford a number (translation: any) of these pieces. 

But I can drool over them just the same.

As an interior designer, I love me some custom-made furniture.  Quality, hand-crafted, lasting pieces of art!  So you will understand why I adore the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association. They carry-on a 300 year old tradition of handmade museum-quality furniture and you should see their pieces!  Gor. Geous.

Dedicated to preserving, promoting and expanding the art and craft of fine furniture making, the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association was created in 1993 to build public awareness of New Hampshire’s fine furniture makers and to cultivate an audience for their goods closer to home. The concept of banding together was that not only could artisans benefit from creative relationships with each other, but they could draw greater local interest and support in their work while sharing traditional skills desperately needing to be kept alive. The Furniture Masters, working out of all corners of the state, work collaboratively and leverage their amazing body of collective knowledge and experience to stimulate one another’s creative output of furniture for museums, collectors, and every-day users combined. Each year, the organization showcases a select group of the members’ creations in a series of exhibitions, house parties, and an annual auction.

I have used pieces like these in the nicest of my Manhattan penthouse projects.  But this furniture is not something everyone can take home. However, having the right finances for this furniture or not, it can still be a pretty awe-inspiring art to behold.  Things like the bowtie and pocket joints, the intarsia, the colorful marketry, or just simply the curve of a piece of wood can illicit appreciation from art collectors to novices alike.  What incredible things we human being can do with simple tools and our hands! No matter what your bank account tells you, DO check out the website of some of the most inspiring local artisans I have ever seen: http://furnituremasters.org/

 

Ted Talking about Local

I love me some Ted Talks. 

If you're not familiar with them, Ted Talks are organized by a non-profit devoted to ideas worth spreading.  Through their annual conferences, experts tackle some of the biggest and littlest ideas that could change the world.  Their speakers are some of the most important thinkers, doers, researchers,  and idea generators in the 21st Century.  On a random side note, if you've never checked them out before, here are the 20 most watched Ted Talks thus far:  http://blog.ted.com/the-20-most-watched-tedtalks-so-far/

You're welcome.

So what does this have to do with living local?  I came across a Ted Talk right up Living Local New England's alley, discussing our economy of corporate consolidation and how it affects consumer choice.  Sound depressing?  Nah.  It's also got a number of great statistics about the efficiency, necessity, and productivity of community-scaled enterprise (fancy word for small business) that hit the nail on the head. 

While the speaker, Maine's own Stacy Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance and the Community-Scaled Economy Initiative, does not seem the most comfortable onstage, her talk sure is. It's worth a 15 minute listen for sure...

Why We Can't Shop Our Way to a Better Economy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6rAgHcuYtE

Want more of Stacy Mitchell's thoughts? Her book, Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, has appeared on several top-ten lists. Described by Bill McKibben as “the ultimate account of the single most important economic trend in our country,” it's a searing indictment of Big Box chains and an encouragement for returning to our local main street roots.