It’s not just a plan for this suburb; it can be used to make any suburb sustainable – it’s free and you’re welcome to put it to work where you are.

Now the Plan can be read on mobiles, kindles and is very easy to search, use and tweet.  Get it here:

theplan.sustainablehouse.com…

Enjoy.

You can see some of the folks who support the Plan.

Please sign the petition to have the Plan exhibited for public comment.  We want the Plan and there’s strong community support for it from here and other people across Sydney, Australia and overseas.

If we can get the Plan made here anyone may use it as an example to persuade other councils and governments to make a Plan to sustain the suburb where they live – if you’re reading this in Melbourne or Texas, USA – sign the petition for the Plan and you’ll be able to use a Plan like this where you live and work, too.

Michael

The answer, “Chile”.

So there were no scallops on the table that meal.

This exchange brought these questions to my mind:

When citizen-funded meals are served when:

- COAG meets – the group of federal and state Prime Minister and Ministers, public servants and consultants . . .

and

- the Prime Minister and Premiers host dinners . . .

and

-Mayors and Councillors eat at Council . . .

. . . where does their food come from?

Nearby farmers?

Or from Coles or Woolworths (which pay farmers about 5 cents in the consumer dollar).

Or, China, Chile, Argentina, Italy . . . ?

Interesting, don’t you think?

Just as interesting is this question:  ”Do they ask this question?”

It’s a question I suggest needs to be asked by places which affix themselves with the title ‘a place of higher learning”  - universities; and by schools, companies and anybody professing support for a sustainable business or Earth.

May the local farmers be with us,

Michael

Pies, and taxi driver wisdom.

To pies, first.

It was when my son, Julian, far more fastidious than I, said, “That pie was the best I’ve ever had”, that I thought about the pies at 6,7, ate, the little cafe on the corner of Abercrombie and Levey, here.

For location, see map of Chippo put up by Sustainable Chippendale, here:

www.sustainablechippendale.com…

Then, today, doing my best to do nothing much this long weekend, I made myself lunch at the shack here with a pie from 6, 7, ate and some veggies picked by local farmers on Tuesday, from my box from Sydney Food Connect.

As I ate, I got it.  That boy could be right.  The pie’s pastry was fresh as, the innards of the pie spoke to me, and the whole thing was special for its sum of clearly distinguishable tastes.  A marvel that now, thinking back, has been in every pie I’ve bought there, whether vegetarian, with meats, and quiches, too.  They’s passed me by, really, ’til the quiet of the holiday day.

Do you remember yesterday?  When I walked out early in it I thought there’d be a mistake.  Such a day. Cool air against my flesh, a song in the air and a balanced nuance to the light and heart of a day such as I’ve not seen for weeks.

But, not seduced, yet, by all this, I later walked off to Broadway to catch a taxi and get to a meeting in town.

Crossing at the lights there was an empty taxi, pulled up, ready to roll.

As I got in he said, “If you get in this taxi today you have to like Slim Dusty”.

He had on a CD of Slim Dusty for truck drivers.

I reckoned he was right and said so.  We headed off to the city and its dark arts. He handed me a rubber-banded stack of CDs to look at: I saw eclectic: blues, opera, the arcane (some of which I had, too) and so on.

What a surprise.

I asked him to turn it up, and he did.

We rounded Central with the lights heading on a good run though to the slough and stuff of the CBD, sun filling the insides of the taxi, and, I think, us.

Then he said, “With weather like this your imagination goes out over the Blue Mountains . . . “.

I could think of nothing to say that.  Anyway, I was too stunned to.

You get a taxi driver, he doesn’t have to justify anything, you get a gift.  He was the man for the day.

May the pies be with us, and our imagination over the Blue Mountains,

Michael

www.monbiot.com…

He’s also provided some beaut photos.

Enjoy,

Michael

• Every type roasts at a different rate because of a different  density
• When a bean reaches its individual temperature it cracks, like popcorn pops
• This first ‘crack’ is caused by the physical expansion of the bean as water and carbon dioxide split and carbon dioxide is released (ah, it’s everywhere this stuff!).  This first crack opens the central divide of the bean and loosens the very light papery sheath that encloses it and which becomes a waste chaff that’s beaut for compost – fluffy, light, easy to carry and high in carbon; we use it every week in our compost bins here
• After this first crack the coffee may be made and drunk
• If the bean is heated further the flavour is heightened as the sugars inside the bean caramelize and the bean cracks a second time
• The second crack is the roasting goal of commercial roasters who roast for espresso coffee and the more evenly the heat is applied to the whole bean the more flavoursom the coffee
• Home roasters may be a hot pan in which you stir the beans as fast as possible; a popcorn popper; or a combination of a gas jet like that used to strip paint and a bread maker go well together;

For more information: Coffee Snobs  – www.coffeesnobs.com….au ,  coffeegeek.com…  , home-barrista.com…  ,   café-grendel.blogspot.com