First Friday and more with Global Fayre

We’re getting excited; tomorrow is the First Friday Art Walk and also the start of a CRAZY weekend.

For First Friday we have the company again of the Bluetones Jazz Sextet. The guys made their debut performance in Springfield here at Global Fayre a few months ago, and got a great reception, so we’re really pleased to have them back again. The members of Bluetones are: Nick Rawlings on upright bass, Kurtis Foster on alto saxophone, Ian Roslawski on trumpet, Dugan Corsolini on trombone, Keith Haynes on guitar, and Austin Veteto on drums.Last time they played for a solid 4 hours and they are due to start right at 6pm this time around.

Then on Saturday and Sunday we have Art Fest on Walnut Street. The First Friday group has a booth at Art Fest this year, and we have a fantastic basket to raffle, stuffed with goodies from all the members of the group. When I last saw it, our estimate of its total value was way over $1,000! Proceeds from the raffle will go to Arts in Action, the 10 weeks festival currently underway in Springfield. Arts in Action is raising funds to benefit the Arts in Education Fund and the Care to Learn Fund. You can find out more at www.The10Weeks.com.

Finally on Sunday, Global Fayre will be teaming with Anna Sophia’s to hold our third Fair Trade Fayre at Christ Episcopal Church on East Walnut. The Fayre starts at 9 and finishes at 2pm. 10% of all proceeds will go to the Church’s outreach fund.

A fresh crop of Zulugrass arrives at Global Fayre

We just got a fresh consignment of Zulugrass from the Leakey Foundation.

Based in The Rift Valley Kenya, East Africa, The Leakey Collection founders Katy and Philip Leakey, combine their talents in interior design and the arts with their love of nature to develop stunning handcrafted products for an international market. Using natural elements such as fallen wood, grass and porcelain, these renowned designers create unique products while protecting the environment and providing economic opportunity to the local communities.

You can read more about the history of the Masai and the birth of Zulugrass jewelry here.

The women harvest the grass, one blade at a time. The long grass is dried and cut into bead-size pieces and dyed lovely hues – blues, greens, reds, yellows, pinks, purples, earth and natural tones – which are then strung into necklaces and bracelets. Brilliant Czech glass beads are added, mixing them with the soft luster of the grass beads and giving sparkle and a contemporary flair to the jewelry. That’s how Zulugrass is born!

We’ll be adding Zulugrass to our online store over the next few days.

Mothers Day Fair Trade Food Basket from Global Fayre

If you think the title to this blog is a mouthful, you should check out the basket itself!

We’ve tried to replicate for the online store what it’s like when you come in to the Global Fayre store to put a gift basket together – so many goodies to choose from!

Here’s what the basic basket looks like:

So what do you get?

Inside the standard basket is a cookie mix (you get to choose from 6 wonderful options from Soups of Success, based in Indiana) a soup mix (a choice of 4 from the Women’s Bean Project and Soups of Success), a scruptious Cornbread Mix from the Women’s Bean Project and a pack of tea from Equal Exchange (choose from Earl Grey, Green, Irish Breakfast, English Breakfast or Rooibos).

Think you’re finished? What about the basket….you can stick with the standard, or upgrade to a mini-Bolga market basket

or you could super-size and go for the full-size market basket:

or you could go for the Freeset options:

Fair Trade Fayre at Christ Episcopal Church

This Sunday sees Global Fayre and Anna Sophia’s combine forces again for our third Fair Trade Fayre at Christ Episcopal Church on E Walnut Street.

This beautiful Church has been lovingly restored and extended over recent years, and is currently celebrating its 150th year.

You can check out more about the history of the Church here.

Woven Hats from Ghana

We have some beautiful hats in the store, woven by the same people that make our market baskets.

We’re not going to put them in the online store, since buying a hat is one of those things that you really need to do in person.

Wire and Bead Critters from Zimbabwe

A fellow member of the Fair Trade Federation, Originals from Africa, have just delivered  some beautiful wire and bead critters, made by Bernard Domingo and his team of eight in Zimbabwe. Bernard has been perfecting the art of wire and bead making for over 20 years and loves what he does. The team works in Bernard’s yard in Zimbabwe, under the shade of jacaranda trees.

The team is constantly working on new designs and improving their quality, and they love to get customer feedback. Making these products allows them to provide for their entire families and sometime other village members as well.

We’ll be adding the critters to our online store over the next few days.

Too Hot to Handle

We suddenly hit 80 degrees today – a sharp reminder that it’s time to take the chocolate off the online store for the summer.

It’s not that we don’t want people to buy Fair Trade chocolate of course – it’s just that the environmental cost of shipping chocolate in hot weather is crazy, and way out of proportion to the benefit to the cocoa growers.

So – if you have a yearning for Fair Trade chocolate and live too far away from Springfield, Missouri to come in to Global Fayre to buy it in person, here’s a couple of suggestions:

1. Check out your local Fair Trade /whole food / grocery store and see what they have to offer. If no local stores stock

Fair Trade chocolate – then ask them to get some!

2. If that doesn’t work, go to TransfairUsa and enter your city name and/or zip code, specify what it is you want to buy, and it will list local retailers stocking Fair Trade products.

3. Make a trip to Springfield! We’re open all year round, 7 days a week in the historic downtown area – surrounded by the coolest galleries. Check out the Springfield art scene here.

4. Abstein for the summer and order from Global Fayre’s online store in October

NPR runs story on Fair Trade

It was great to hear NPR run a story on Fair Trade this morning.

The discussion was pretty limited, focusing only on tea, coffee, chocolate and bananas, but every little piece of exposure helps!

You can hear the story here.

Fair Trade Fayres in Springfield

We held two Fair Trade Fayres this weekend.

Pathways UMC held their fourth annual Greater Gift Sale on April 19th and 20th and Unitarian Universalist held their first Fair Trade Fayre as part of Earth Day.

We hear plenty of news about how tough times are, and how little people are spending.

Both events were well supported, with people digging deep to support the artisans of developing countries that are struggling to improve their way of life in a sustainable way.

When we started Global Fayre, we knew that awareness of Fair Trade in Springfield was low, but we were confident that people would be receptive. Nearly two years on, we’re just awed by the depth of compassion that the people here show, and we’re thrilled by the progress that Fair Trade is making in our part of the midwest.

Global Fayre has a weekend of Fair Trade Fairs!

We have a crazy weekend ahead.

The store is pretty busy anyway, with the spring weather bringing visitors for near and afar to downtown Springfield, but on top of that we have two Fair Trade Fayres over the weekend!

The first is at Pathways UMC on Dale and National. It starts today (Saturday) 9am to 2pm, and then continues tomorrow for a couple of hours around the morning service. Pathways was the first event for us, this time last year, and so it’s great to be back, although just a little scary that a whole year has gone past so quickly! We’ve changed the mix of products a little – the organizers seemed really pleased with the display when we set up last night.

The second event is a new one for us. We’ll be at Unity Universalist tomorrow from 10am onwards (till mid-afternoon). They have a busy schedule, and this is their first Fayre , so we’re excited to see how that goes.

What’s really great is the feeling that 16 months after we opened the store, and just two years after we first started at the Farmers Market on Commercial Street, we are starting to make progress in raising awareness of Global Fayre and (more importantly) Fair Trade in our part of world.