Delicious Peace

We had an exciting delivery at the end of last week – our first batch of Mirembe Kawomera (Delicious Peace) coffee.

Mirembe Kawomera Coffee began with one man’s dream. In 2003, JJ Keki, a Ugandan coffee farmer, walked door to door asking his Jewish, Christian, and Muslim neighbors to put aside old differences and come together. Their community of third and fourth generation coffee farmers was struggling to make a living off the low prices offered by the local market. With the assistance of Laura Wetzler from the US-based organization Kulanu, these Jewish, Christian and Muslim farmers formed a cooperative to build lasting prosperity in their villages and to spread a message of peace throughout the world. They named their coffee Mirembe Kawomera, which means, “Delicious Peace” in the Luganda language.

Now in 2008, the Peace Kawomera Cooperative has grown to over 750 members. Thanks to their collective effort, the farmers sell directly to Thanksgiving Coffee Company, and receive prices four times higher than what they were previously paid. This has enabled farmers to send their children to school, start savings accounts, and reinvest in their farms.

We have 3 versions of the coffee at Global Fayre: Light and Dark Roast and a Decaf. As well as paying Fair Trade prices, an additional $1 from the sale of each package is sent back to the Cooperative to fund community development projects.

First Friday Art Walk, August 1st

It’s been a quiet month in Downtown Springfield – but the August First Friday Art Walk is nearly upon us.

You can view the August newsletter at www.ffaw.org under the Art Walk Newsletter tab. View it now at

http://ffaw.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/august-newsletter.pdf

We’ll tell you more about what’s on at Global Fayre later…….

Update on Campbell Avenue

We’ve had a difficult few months downtown with major disruption to traffic due to construction work centered on Campbell Avenue. It’s been really frustrating for retailers and customers alike, but hopefully it will be worth it when all is finished and the new movie house opens early in the fall.

Here’s the latest from the UDA:

Campbell Avenue Construction Update

July 17, 2008

As we see the end in sight for the construction work, we’d like to provide an update on the remaining timeline for the Campbell Avenue closure.

Beginning Friday, July 18, Campbell Avenue will be  open to College Street and a left-turn will be available onto College.

By the following Friday, July 25, the Campbell/College intersection is expected to be completely open with left and right turns available onto College.

Campbell Avenue will have to remain closed north of the College Street intersection to complete repair work underneath Campbell and for construction of curb and gutter and sidewalk on Campbell between College and Olive.

Without too much additional bad weather, we anticipate this phase of the project to be completed by mid-August and Campbell can be fully re-opened to through traffic in time for the opening of Missouri State classes. If it is possible to temporarily re-open Campbell with at least one lane for the August First Friday Artwalk, we will work with the contractor on that.

In addition to the significant weather problems that caused delays throughout the spring and summer, there have been other factors that have contributed to the later-than-expected re-opening of Campbell. The primary factor has been the discovery of significantly worse sub-surface conditions under Campbell than anticipated at the start of the project. During the course of their work, the contractors have discovered a large amount of out-of-service utility infrastructure of many types – phone, water, sanitary sewer, electric, etc. Each time one of these utility issues has been uncovered, contractors have had to notify the appropriate utility and wait for inspections to make sure the utilities were not live for the safety of the work crews and to not disrupt service to customers.

The condition of the sub-surface also was worse than expected, likely as a result of the repeated construction projects for utilities, etc., over the years. So, it is requiring a higher degree of reconstruction than anticipated to improve the sub-surface before the final surface improvements are made. The process of replacing and “retiring” these utilities will greatly reduce the likelihood of needing to close Campbell for utility work in the future.

Once Campbell re-opens in mid-August, there will be no further full closures necessary on Campbell. Work on the Streetscapes surrounding College Station will continue into the fall and will necessitate some short-term partial side-street closures and potentially a short-term full closure on Market north of Olive. We will notify you of those schedules when they are more specific.

On behalf of the UDA, City staff and the contractors, we sincerely apologize for the inconveniences caused by the project, and particularly the delay of completion, for the businesses and customers. We hope that the final results will create both aesthetic and infrastructure improvements that will benefit the downtown area for many years to come. We look forward to celebrating the opening of the Hollywood Theaters this fall and the resulting traffic it will bring to the area.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact UDA at 831-6200.

Books at Global Fayre

Books at Global Fayre We’re steadily adding to the range of the books that we carry at Global Fayre. Here’s a brief review of what we have at the moment. If you have any suggestions for other books that you feel our customers might enjoy, then let us know! Bella’s Chocolate Surprise (Adam Guillain and Elke Steiner) $8.95 It’s Bella’s birthday and Mum’s made Bella her favourite chocolate cake. But just what is chocolate made of and where does it come from? With the help of her friend the Quetzal bird, Bella harneses the powers of her mystical pendant and flies to Ghana in West Africa to discover much more than she bargained for. Fair Trade:A Beginner’s Guide (Jacqueline DeCarlo) $14.95 Author and activist Jacqueline DeCarlo explains the principles behind Fair Trade and its development into a powerful economic tool. Packed with inspiring ways to make a difference, this book will encourage readers of all backgrounds to help end poverty, environmental destruction, and human exploitation. The Conscious Consumer: Promoting Economic Justice Through Fair Trade (Rose Benz Ericson) $3.95 Helps the reader to: understand how Fair Trade relationships enhance the quality of life for producers; interact with a global community taking action to ease inequalities wrought by traditional trade structures; discover the growing array of fairly traded products now readily available. Extending the Table: Recipes from Argentina to Zambia (Joetta Handrich Schlabach) $21.00 An opportunity for cooks to learn about our world and its wide variety of flavorful foods. Sit at the table with people you have never met, taste the flavors of their food, feel the warmth of their friendship, and learn from their experiences. Simply in Season: Recipes that celebrate fresh, local foods (Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert) $21.00 Providing recipes and reasons to eat seasonal foods grown locally. Eating in season is a great way to improve your health, support local farmers and help the environment. Simply in Season Children’s Cookbook (Mark Beach and Julie Kauffman) $21.00 Each season this cookbook takes you out to the garden, into the kitchen and around the table to enjoy fresh food. Fun with food from garden to table. More-with-Less (Doris Janzen Longacre) $21.00 Suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world’s limited food resources. the world of street food (Troth Wells) $19.95 Sizzling, stirring, frying – delicious fresh street food served up in a trice before your eyes. Now you can cook real fast food at home with these 100 best recipes from around the world – easy, quick dishes sampling the deights of street food. The Bittersweet World of Chocolate (Troth Wells and Nikki van der Gaag) $19.95 For many people, one of the most enjoyable pleasures is a delicious piece of chocolate. The The Bittersweet World of Chocolate explores the story of this delectable food, as well as offering 50 recipes from around the world. It reveals an eventful history and explains why more of us are buying Fair Trade chocolate. Tree of Life: The World of the African Baobab (Barbara Bush) $7.95 Describes the life cycle of a tree that lives on the African savannah and the insects, birds, and animals that reply on it for home, food and survival. Illustrated by breathtaking watercolors portraying the sparse African landscape.

First Friday at Global Fayre – August 1, 2008

 

 

This month we’re delighted to welcome fashion designer Cherrelle Hitchcock, a recent graduate of Missouri State.

Iced Coffee

Since summer is upon us (in theory at least), it seemed a good time to share these tips and recipes for Iced Coffee from our main coffee supplier, Equal Exchange. Equal Exchange led the way in introducing Fair Trade coffee to the USA over 20 years ago, and we stock around 20 of their fine coffees at Global Fayre.

The following is an extract from the June/July newsletter edition of What’s brewing

Iced coffee is tricky business. Making a refreshing summer coffee drink might sound easy, but it actually requires some technique. For best results, you can’t just brew your coffee, pour it over ice and kazaam! Iced coffee is made! So, what is the best way to make iced coffee?

We knew that regardless of the method, the principles for brewing great coffee would be the same: clean water, proper grind size, proper brew temperature and, of course, great coffee. Our team discovered that temperature shock was a primary challenge, but we found that leaving the coffee at room temperature before icing or refrigerating had the best tasting results.

Each iced coffee method recommended below is suited for light and dark roasts and will bring out the attributes in each coffee.

Method: French Press

Preparation: Use a coarse grind for your coffee. Boil water and set aside for 2 minutes to achieve the proper brew temperature (195-205 degrees Fahrenheit). Infuse ground coffee with hot water and wait for the coffee to steep for 4-5 minutes.
Brew Time: After the 4-5 minute steep, transfer brewed coffee to a glass or ceramic decanter and leave the brew at room temperature for 6 hours. Then add ice and serve or refrigerate the decanter.
Tasting Notes: The weight and texture of this method is unsurpassed and provides an almost espresso-like consistency. The temperature of the hot water used to brew the coffee is crucial to making a great French press for this iced coffee method. In addition, we found that delaying the transfer of the brewed coffee into another vessel produced a dramatically more bitter cup.

Method: Automatic Home Brewer

Preparation: Use 1 unbleached paper filter, 1 well rounded tablespoon of ground coffee per cup of water and begin brewing.
Brew Time: Brew and leave coffee at room temperature, off the warming plate for 6 hours. Add ice and serve or refrigerate.
Tasting Notes: We found that the flavor produced from a home brewer with a paper filter was superior to that of a gold metal filter. The paper filter produced crisp and bright attributes, while the metal filter muted these same flavors and created an almost stale effect on the coffee. In addition, we strongly recommend using a home brewer with at least 850 watts of power to achieve the proper water temperature for brewing which heavily impacts the way the coffee tastes.

Method: Americano

Preparation: Pour a 1-ounce, properly prepared shot of espresso into 3 ounces of cool water and then add ice. Be sure to add the ice last to reduce the temperature shock for the espresso.
Brew Time: 30 seconds
Tasting Notes: This method requires a professional grade espresso machine, but the flavor of the espresso is well preserved and the crema is still in tact.

Method: Toddy Method

Preparation: Using a Toddy brewer, combine 1 pound of ground coffee with 72 ounces of cold water. Let the coffee and water combination stay at room temperature for 24 hours and filter the grounds when the brew cycle is complete.
Brew Time:12 hours
Tasting Notes: The Toddy method produces a very mellow cup of iced coffee that can be stored as a concentrate for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.