By Camille Rogers •
November 5, 2009
The state of Wisconsin has long served as the national focal point of all things dairy. However, Wisconsin is also the epicenter of another American food culture niche, and that is alcohol.
My oh my, do people in Wisconsin love to drink. I live the capitol city of Madison and, at least once every weekend, I see snapshot of that state-bred love, either through an embarrassingly sloshed UW undergraduate or a too-tipsy townie. When I found out the actual statistics— that Wisconsin has the highest percentage of drinkers in the population and that, person for person, the state has three times more taverns than anywhere else in the country—I hardly blinked.
Still, I’ll admit that sometimes I find Madison’s hyper-boozing culture to be intimidating. At a lot of college parties, my three-drink limit is everyone else’s warm-up drill, and I’ve met more than a few Badgers whose Thirsty Thursday extends through Wednesday night. However, I’ve never tried to keep up with the crowd. I’m sure some of my peers think it’s lame that my personal bar time is midnight, and not two a.m., but I bet I look a lot cooler the next morning when I haven’t succumbed to their same fate: the head-stinging, stomach-churning, regret-inducing experience that is the hangover.
By Dave Harcourt •
October 9, 2009
A donation of three tons of grapes has been converted, via wine, into funds for the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) project to save endangered dolphins endemic to New Zealand.
A Hector’s Dolphin showing the characteristic round dorsal fin.
The Wine
It started with Gemma McGrath who had moved from a job on Whale Watch boats to a barmaid in the small Otago village of Bannockburn which is about as far away from the sea as one can get in New Zealand.
Missing the dolphins and concerned by the steady decrease in their numbers, she spoke of them so passionately and persistently that she eventually got a farmer in the area to donate 3 tons of Pinot Gris grapes.
By Steve Savage •
October 3, 2009
Today I picked the grapes from my vineyard. I got 366 usable pounds from my 25 vines even though I lost at least 100 pounds to birds that somehow penetrated my elaborate net system. The harvest will still give me between 90 and 115 bottles of what I hope will be decent wine - at least as decent as the ‘06 I’m happily sipping right now.
I used the term “Suburban Farmer” as a shameless lure to get folks to read this blog. To be honest, I’m not a “Farmer” at all. I grow grapes as a hobby, and since I am a self-employed consultant, the time I spend growing these grapes has an “opportunity cost” far greater than what the Syrah I bottle will be worth as a reduction in my substantial wine budget. I think it is great to garden or do home wine making, and I wish even more people had the opportunity to do it. It is good for body and soul - better than the money I could have made. But this is still not farming. I have too much respect for real farmers to call it that.
By Jerry James Stone •
September 7, 2009
Using food as a resource in biofuel production is one of the biggest mistakes our country could make. And while we all shake our heads at the idea of corn ethanol…what about using turkey innards? Or Mountain Dew for that matter.
First, who ever has leftover alcohol except maybe these guys? The Shaq-backed MicroFueler is a 250-gallon tank for organic feedstock, such as waste wine and beer, that converts it into pure ethanol. It also doubles as a fuel pump and the only waste product is distilled water.
In the latest edition of Veg News, there is a small article discussing the quandary a Plant Based eater may face when trying to pair a fabulous wine with a fabulous vegan meal. Unlike our omnivore friends, plant based eaters don’t get to follow the age-old rule of “red is for meat and white is for fish”. So simple for the meat eaters, except it just doesn’t sound quite right when put into veggie terms. Can we really say “red is for seitan or texturized soy protein and white is for tofu and tofurky”? Selecting a wine to pair with your food can make a meal spectacular, or spoil the flavor of both the meal and the wine. Have no fear all you wine loving vegans, Denis Cotter, owner of Café Paridiso, serving seasonal and vegetarian fare in Ireland of all places, has put together some very easy pairings for us to rely on (along with some help of some wine experts). You, my thirsty friend, do not have to be wine expert to get the basics down.
dvGreen designs sustainable events without sacrificing style. They show clients that they can reduce their ecological footprint while still throwing a beautiful party - one that just happens to be Green. By featuring organic food, flowers, and table linens; tree-free paper invitations; donating or composting leftover food; purchasing carbon offsets, and more, dvGreen creates incredible events that you can be proud of forever.
Danielle, founder and CEO of dvGreen spent several years as Event Director and later General Manager of L’Olivier, one of New York’s premiere floral design houses. The driving force in Danielle’s event work has always been her belief that parties are important. They are essential celebrations of life that allow us to freeze time and honor meaningful milestones. If we don’t mark these moments, then they risk going away forever.
It is this belief, coupled with Danielle’s very parallel feeling about the environment (if we don’t take care of it, the planet as we know it will also go away forever), that led her to launch dvGreen in 2006, a company that combines excellence in event design with the latest in sustainable practices.
Here’s is some great advice from dvGreen on how to go green for your next event.
It’s hard to watch television, read the paper, or go online without coming across facts about global warming prevention. You may already feel like you’ve got the basics down. Some of the more interesting global warming facts may have escaped your attention, though, as they don’t get quite as much coverage. The more time you spend digging into global warming causes and effects, the more you’ll realize that climate change goes beyond some of the most catastrophic (and newsworthy) problems associated with it. Global warming will transform your life at basic levels that we’re just beginning to understand.
Global warming causes you may not have known about
You’re likely aware that many of your daily activities — driving your car, cooling and heating your home, operating electronic devices — produce greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide. You may not, however, be aware of some other major global warming causes that you encounter regularly. For instance,
- The meat on your plate: Deforestation, especially of tropical rainforests, is one of the major causes of global warming, and residents of countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica often destroy these forests to create grazing space for cattle. Choosing to eat less meat, and purchasing the meat you do eat from local sources, should be a part of your plan to lighten your own carbon footprint.
- The food and yard wastes you throw away: When you send food wastes, grass clippings, and other organic materials to the landfill, they’re much more likely to end up producing methane because they’ll decompose in an anaerobic (or oxygen-free) environment. Composting those wastes, whether by sending them to a large-scale operation, or adding them to your own compost pile or bin, will allow for oxygen-rich decomposition… which prevents methane emissions, and “closes the loop” by creating material you can use for garden and plant fertilizer.
By Jeffrey Frame •
March 24, 2009
Two companies, one from France and one from Napa, California, use wind power to transport wine.
Have you ever considered how your wine from abroad is transported? How much carbon does it take for one bottle of imported wine to reach your local grocery store, especially from a faraway vineyard in Australia? How can those bottles shipped from so far away be so cheap? Are we externalizing the cost to the environment for future generations to pick up the tab? What about all of those other products we buy from abroad? Could there be another way that doesn’t involve burning so much coal?
By Dave Tyler •
February 18, 2009
The rapidly growing wine industry in the Finger Lakes Region of New York has been attracting a good deal of attention for the quality of its wines. One winery is looking to make a name for itself both for its wines and its commitment to the environment.
Red Tail Ridge Winery, in Penn Yan, N.Y., will break ground this spring on a new wine making building designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards. It would be the first New York winery building to earn LEED certification, according to a search of the USGBC’s online LEED project database. Husband and wife owners Mike Schnelle and Nancy Irelan opened Red Tail Ridge after moving to the region from California, where Ireland worked for Gallo wineries. Their tasting room opened in August 2007.
By Lucille Chi •
December 28, 2008
Are you someone who simply must have real Champagne on New Year’s Eve? Champagne is the name of a district of France which has ideal soil and climate conditions for the production of this very famous sparkling wine. Here are some wines made according to organic methods of the National Union of Independent Agrobiologists, (a French organic certifier) ~
- Serge Faust Champagne (Organic)
- NV (Non Vintage) Pascal Doquet Premier Cru Rosé (Organic)
- NV Pierre Brigandat Brut Réserve (Biodynamic)
- NV Larmandier-Bernier Premier Cru Vertus (Biodynamic)
- ’97 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvée (Biodynamic)
These are all examples of recommendations Treehugger made years back for organic and biodynamic Champagne, and they are still in style today. If you are not as picky about your bubbly being real and organic/biodynamic and prefer to buy local/domestic for the holidays then we also have several great sparkling wines to share.
