Local Yum

Fruit and vegetables were not making their way into our house often enough.

Eventually, I remembered the local organic produce delivery service in Toronto, and it turned out there was similar one here: Door to Door Organics. Hooray!

$25* gets you a box of 4 kinds of fruit and 5 kinds of veggies, including delivery. The produce is seasonal and random, which is nice: seasonal food is tasty, and random food is sometimes a challenge to prepare ("chard... sure, let's see what we can do with this!").

I told my eco-literate friend about the service — and as per usual, he rebutted with something cooler that I had never heard about.

Community-Supported Agriculture depends on local shareholders to raise capital for the upcoming growing season — you buy a share, and you get fresh local produce for the duration of the season. Big M puts it into more interesting terms, saying something along the lines of "money to support urban mad scientists!"

According to PASA's farm locator, I've got two nearby CSAs to choose from:

• Somerton Tanks Farm, and
  
• the super-local to me Greensgrow Farm (makers of Honey from the Hood)
  

Greensgrow also runs a market stand on Thurdsay and Saturday afternoons. Since they're so close (and CSAs don't typically deliver produce), I'm likeliest to buy CSA shares from them when the next growing season starts.

Philadelphians interested in local agriculture can also check out the cooking workshop at Weaver's Way Farm, on Saturday, September 29th.

For the record, no, I'm not a "localvore." I'm not saying you can't eat entirely of local sustenance (and if that's what you want to do, get down with your bad self). I'm just saying, way back when people used to eat strictly local organic produce, and they were often *hungry.*

But supporting the local economy, ensuring I eat my vegetables, and making sure urban mad scientists can do their thing? I'm all about that.


*Yeah, I know that those $25 could be either USD or CAD at the moment.

Foodstuffs

This past week or so has been a roller coaster of food quality:

Tiffin is amazing. This Indian food is delicious, they don't use trans fats, they deliver to our house, and they mix up the menu every month with different specials. Anyone who knows me well knows I love a menu with a bunch of unique dishes. If you find yourself in Philadelphia, you must find your way to 710 West Girard (especially if you're vegetarian).

New China has been our reliable local Chinese food delivery restaurant for almost two years. It has recently rescinded its duties by delivering a few meals that... weren't very good. I could understand if it was just the ma po tofu that was mediocre (and pretty bland, considering that they said they'd make it extra spicy), but the beef ho fun wasn't good either (and I thought it was near impossible to mess up). I'm now on the lookout for another local Chinese restaurant (suggestions are very much welcome).

Voila! meals are pretty damn good, considering that they start frozen in a bag, take about two minutes of prep, and are ready in ten minutes. I thought they would be a little boring, but they're not. Bits that should be moist are moist, pieces that should be crisp are crisp. Nom, nom, nom.

Wawa was recently written up at uwishunu. When I first heard the name about five years ago it was charmingly perplexing, when I was introduced to the first of many products (the 'Magnum' — a 44 ounce/1.3 liter cup whose intended use is to hold that much soda and ice) I was somewhat taken aback by the American egregiousness of it. Since then, I have grown to love Wawa. Not for its cups of soda as large as my head, but for its hoagies and salads made-to-order, its coffee, and its macaroni and cheese. I am a particular fan of the computerized made-to-order ordering system. The name, interestingly enough, is Ojibwe for Canada goose.

Oh, Philadelphia... How Are You So Awesome When Your Transit System Is So Awful?

While we're on the subject of public transit, does anyone know anyone who thinks SEPTA's elimination of paper transfers is a good idea?

I'd be all for eliminating the transfers if they were replaced with something else (DC's Metro, for example, has a fairly sophisticated transfer system), but they're simply disappearing. If you need to take more than one SEPTA vehicle — be it trolley, el train, subway, or bus — you'll need to pay an additional fare for each one (unless one of your transfers is through the subterranean routes at City Hall/15th St. Station, these will remain free).

While I never thought it made much sense to charge $0.60 per transfer to each additional vehicle, paying an extra $2 ($1.30 if you can get tokens) per route just seems ludicrous.

Junto Philadelphia

Last week I got to participate in an institution hundreds of years old... and it wasn't patriarchy!

Junto was started in 1727 by the irresistible Ben Franklin (what, you don't find the guy who invented bifocals and the armonica hot?). As you might imagine, meetings took place in Philadelphia. Meetings filled with discussion on a wide range of topics -- including philosophy, science, and business. Meetings with a purpose of bettering each other. Wikipedia tells me this is exactly my cup of tea.

Naturally, I was very glad to be invited to the modern incarnation of Junto in Philly. P'unk Avenue now hosts the event, and draws a lot of great people to the meeting (they also serve a mean tomato pie). The structure's more laid back -- besides the feature presentation of the evening, there's a focus on getting to know the other community members there. It's a tech-savvy membership, which also means the potential for awesome geek-outs while randomly chatting is high.

Did I long for the questions of Juntos past? A little, I do have a penchant for meetings with curious structures. Did I have a good time? Absolutely. Did I feel better off for having gone? Yes. (Am I starting to sound like Donald Rumsfeld? Err...)

I'm looking forward to the next Junto. It's an event that makes me wonder what took me so long to get back into local tech communities.