| In This Issue |
| For The Love of Chocolate |
| Plastics Update |
| UNH Report |
| Recommended Online Viewing |
| RGG Events |
-Friday and Saturday, Feb 13th and 14th at Real Green Goods, local award-winning chocolatier Dancing Lion Chocolate will be providing extraordinary confections using highly prized single origin cacao.
Dancing Lion
- The month of February is "Everybody Loves Downtown" month in Concord, NH, a reminder to shop locally in downtown businesses - including everyone's own Main Streets! Read here for reasons why shopping local pays off.
Main St. Concord
- The NH Bottle Bill is Back! There will be Subcommittee work session on HB283-FN, (establishing a solid waste management fund and assessing a beverage container fee) on February 5th at 2:45 p.m. in Room 308 at the Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Concord, NH for those interested in attending. This is a chance to increase the amount of bottles and cans that get recycled in NH and drastically reduce the trash going to our landfills. All the other New England States and New York already have a bottle bill. You can help make this happen. Contact your local NH Representative
Take Action! |
| New At RGG! |
- Rubia Heart Sachets filled with organic lavender are stitched by Afghan women. Each hand-embroidered piece is a unique work of art. Many of the sachets are backed with elegant silk fabric that was previously used in bride's maid dresses, donated to Rubia, and is now being recycled in the sachets.
- Better-late-than-never and back-by-popular-demand from Zimbabwe are a collection of giraffes, geckos,and elephants made from recycled soda cans. These whimsical pieces of art were due to arrive before the holidays, but shipping delays interfered with their delivery. The main portion of the proceeds will be returned to the parishioners of the Mbare Church in Harare, Zimbabwe, a country in the midst of social and economic turmoil. For more information about Zimbabwe, Read Article
- Re-designed To-Go Ware reusable stainless steel containers for lunch or left-overs are sleek and versatile. Two styles to choose from: double or triple tiffins.
RGG Online
(Traditional Asian tiffins can be seen in Slumdog Millionaire).
|
| Green Tip |
From our "Customer Green Tips" Journal located in the back of the store:
"Fill containers with water to fill empty spaces in your refrigerator and freezer. The cooled air gets stored and your fridge won't have to work as hard to stay cool. Save $$$ and CO2.
|
| Recommended Online Reading |
RECOMMENDED ONLINE BLOG
For more intense green reading with a little edge try: Real Green Girl
|
|
For The Love of Chocolate
A Valentine's Theme
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Articles, festivals, and even books are called, "For the Love of Chocolate". And so we will focus on this mysterious and wonderful delectable edible fare for this month's theme of Valentine's Day.
Historically, (see timeline)chocolate (wikipedia) as we know it has been around for about 400 hundred years and is a by-product from the crushed cacao bean (pronounced "kah-cow"). Going back about three thousand years (a brief history), cacao was used as a bitter spicy drink in Central America and in Mexico by the Aztecs and Mayans. (The term "cacao" refers to the beans before processing into sweetened "chocolate" or "cocoa" which is powdered chocolate). Even back then, it was prized by kings, used as currency, and was considered to be delivered from the Gods. To this day, we continue to associate chocolate with gift giving, especially on Valentine's Day.
Many healthy and nutritional attributes associated with dark chocolate have recently been documented. For guilt-free chowing down read: prohealth.com
About 50 million people rely on the growing and harvesting of cacao worldwide. While most of the industry is controlled by three big companies, there are also many small devoted plantations. At Real Green Goods, we insist that our chocolate is double certified, ie. both Certified Organic and Certified Fair Trade (less than 15 companies in the world are double certified) or have first hand knowledge that the chocolate is grown without pesticides and that the workers are treated fairly. Oh, and it has to taste really good, too!
Our steady stock of double certified chocolate is the acclaimed Art Bar, a three ingredients only, non-soy, vegan, smooth dark bar. We are fully stocked with our popular Art Bar.
During the holidays, we had a very special single source Grenada Chocolate bar. For a peek inside the cacao industry and how The Grenada Chocolate Company is trying to make a difference, you will enjoy watching: You Tube Video
Unfortunately, there can be a dark side You Tube Video to the cacao industry - child slave labor Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy - so we promote and support companies willing to do what's right. The Organic Consumers Association encourages us to give Organic and Fair Trade chocolate and flowers for Valentine's Day. Organic Consumers
And finally, at Real Green Goods, we are pleased to be featuring local award-winning artisan chocolatier Richard Tango-Lowy, owner of Dancing Lion Chocolate. He will be providing two amazing delectable confections using highly prized single origin cacao (void of all bad things) on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14 ONLY. The first is called "Sweet Love", a wildflower honey truffle with a hint of spicy ginger. The second is called "A Dozen Roses", a soft rosewater caramel in delicate Venezuelan chocolate.
Richard offers these interesting facts about chocolate:
"About 90% of the world's beans are what we call "forastero", low-quality beans produced mostly on Africa's Ivory Coast. Corporate agribusiness harvests and processes these beans to produce the junk chocolate most of us are used to eating. The result is subsistence farming and child slave labor: the stuff that gives chocolate a bad name.
The other 10% of the world's beans are "flavor beans," technically "criollo" or "trinitario" depending on the variety. These beans are generally grown on family plantations, where small chocolate-makers pay top-dollar directly to the owner or to a local cacao cooperative.These beans are good for the farmer, good for the environment, and good for you, too.
At Dancing Lion Chocolate, I believe that the best truffles and confections begin with the best cacao, hand-selected from environmentally and socially responsible plantations. I believe that only local, seasonal, organic, and artisan-produced ingredients can give my chocolates the bold and brilliant flavors that make them extraordinary. And I believe that chocolate can be art: beautiful, sensual, and emotional." Dancing Lion (Does this guy love his chocolate or what?)
So cozy up on Valentine's Day with some very special chocolate...and remember that delightful movie Chocolat?
You Tube Video
|
Plastics Update and Reminder: Reduce Your Exposure
Cancer-causing BPA stays in our bodies for longer than was previously thought, and it gets there from sources other than food containers. For a good review on BPA, read this watchdog report.
*(If the link doesn't work, copy and paste the following:
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/38515489.html)
|
UNH Report
EcoGastronomy
The University of New Hampshire recently launched an "EcoGastronomy Program", Mother Earth News, that will enhance a primary major into a dual major. For more information, UNH.edu (gotta love that word!)
|
Recommended Online Viewing
Growing Food on the White House Lawn
This short online video, "Growing Food on the White House Lawn" begins in the year 1800 when John Adams planted the first garden on the White House Lawn. Very entertaining! For more little videos and information, go to "Eat The View".
|
FOLLOW UP
The Book Drive for Uganda was a great success! Thank you all for bringing in your books. Leanna Shea trucked 86 boxes of books to Massachusetts which will be sold to disadvantaged schools and libraries in the U.S. That money will then go to Uganda to the school for the "Invisible Children". If you are still looking to purge your books, the Salvation Army and Goodwill take books in good condition.
WINTER HOURS REMINDER
- Monday through Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Sunday hours remain the same: Noon to 5 p.m.
Thursday nights Open until 7 p.m. For Downtown Shopping
Thank you for reading and for caring about the environment. And, as we say at Real Green Goods, Have a Green Day!™
Sincerely,
All of us from Real Green Goods
|
|
