What to do about all that food (from our friends at Marty’s)

From home kitchens to industrial-sized farms, food waste is a constant challenge, too often ignored or unseen.  The horror of food waste can only be truly measured in response to those people throughout the world (and in the U.S.) who are categorized as food insecure.

The problem with the problem of food waste (still following?) is that we tend to compartmentalize the issues.  Food security and access are often tackled as a distinct issues.  The labor, energy, fertilizers, nutrients and compost needed to grow food that is never harvested, never brought to market or brought home are losses absorbed by farmers, and that’s ….. click here to read the article.

The Friday that is a Monday

See the fog in the picture?  No, it’s not a photoshopped image of how Pittsburgh was supposed to look 30 to 40 years ago.  It’s how my head feels. Because of that, it feels like Monday.

… and for some reason the line in the coffee shop is never ending today, when normally at this time nobody besides the local police are hanging out here (not that it’s a bad place, they just like the coffee – although a little action would be entertaining in the morning).

It’s a great morning {note the sarcasm here} … I can’t get the new caulking around the bathtub to cure well, the kid was whining about not having pop-tarts for breakfast (possibly the most unhealthy thing there is first thing in the morning), the garage door is breaking, and our school board gods are starting to think they are actually god – I had to read about that in the local paper because obviously it was a sucky news day.

I’m sure some idiot will cut me off on the way to work, and my coffee will spill in the car again avoiding him.

The only perks I’ll get today is the view of the city driving into work, preceded by the aroma of Alcosan on the way.  You know your life is on the down side when you look forward to the aroma of Alcosan.

-SWB

Happy Friday

Pirates …. best losers around

I realize I’m complaining just like everyone else, but it would be nice to see a winning season, before I die.

But, then again … if you are going to do something, do your best, no matter what it is {{groan}} even losing ….

I  can see the headlines now – “20 great seasons – the best losers in town”.  Not that the team did massively bad this year, but the last time I was able to not watch a game simply because I KNEW the were going to win was in the 70’s and early 80’s.  Baseball games no longer give me that “happy fuzzy” feeling they used to when I was a kid.

Guys …. you have a slim chance remaining …… give us something little this year.

Remember, we gave you that nice new shiny ballpark – let’s get a few more flags for it before we have to build a new one.

-SWB

… {{swish}} missed the ball again ………

Review: Luke Wholey’s Wild Alaskan Grille

Click Pic for link. SWB has spent years in The Strip, especially liking Wholey’s seafood.  So when Luke decided to open his own seafood spot, we figured it would be hot.

Placed in the old Area 51 spot across from Reyna foods, the space is simple, slightly rustic yet elegant, and very, very, very tasty.  We are convinced that no one does seafood like Luke.

When we went, we treated ourselves to the grilled swordfish. Personally, I have never experienced swordfish as well prepared and moist as I had at Luke’s. The service by all staff (including Luke himself) was excellent. The drinks were heaven. The atmosphere overall with the food quality made a very long day end quite nicely due to Luke’s Grille.

We highly recommend you visit and support this sure to be future Pittsburgh mainstay.

-SWB

A Senseless Day

What is a senseless day to SWB?

Today.

The sun is out.  The air is cool. Everyone seems happy. The only real irritating news is of the 10th street bypass having construction near it soon, and that’s not really even irritating because we are so used to it. There is nothing to whine or rant about today.  that really sucks for this blog.

The only thing we can rant about is not being able to rant.

We’re even too used to potholes to care about that much anymore.

The politicians are all the same, so if we rant about one we automatically rant about the others in the same exact way, which nullifies any of our rant enough for anyone to actually really give a crap about it.

The rivers are flowing good, so we can’t even complain about stagnant water, or dead and decaying fish.

……… HELP US HERE!!!!!

-SWB (a frustrated weasel on a too nice of a day)

 

Enter The Weather

Got a great raised garden started this year …

Veggies grew fast, flower buds abound …

Then …

The bees left, the critters ate the flower buds, and my new raised garden slowly became a wilting weed box due to the drought.

So, what happens now, you ask????

Rain …. lots of it.  Right at the end of the garden growing season that allotted me two tomatoes, one green pepper, and five micro-miniature carrots (think eating with tweezers).

So, WTF?

I mean I realize I live in Pittsburgh, but I’m a descendent of Italian and German immigrants that farmed any of the land in Pittsburgh they set foot on and usually ended up having way to much to eat (which became compost for next years crop).

A few peppers, tomatoes, and some carrots …. that’s what I got. Now I have to go buy my crap.  I feel cheated, my ancestors owe me at least a few bushels of veggies.

…. and enter the weather … rain … can’t even cut the grass (which was dead most of the summer).

-SWB

P.S. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…….

It’s Monday, and there’s no mourning.

They won …. which makes for a happy Monday.  Pic by Matt Freed/Post-Gazette.

Click Here for the PG Article.

The Steelers are off to a good start, which makes SWB happy.  When they lose, we have to suffer through the Monday morning mourning. You know, after a Steeler’s loss the traffic is slower, the coffee shop patrons take longer to pay for their drinks, road-rage is times ten, etc.

Everything changes when the Steelers win in Pittsburgh.

Now, if the the Steelers could rub off on the Pirates just a tad more.

Anyway … thanks Steelers … your win means less headaches for this weasel one this beautiful Monday mourning-less morning.

-SWB

Marty’s Market – new site at an old friend’s house

Marty’s Market – 23rd and Smallman

…. if you recognize the address, it used to be the Right By Nature market, which just didn’t make it. We were fans of that store in the beginning, but near the end it just wasn’t the same.

Marty’s seems to be playing a better game … so keep tuned as it grows, as SWB feels you may be pleasantly surprised.  And, yes …. there is a Marty.

Marty’s was conceived as a business in the businesses of helping change the local food system, and having “food made of food”.  Sound familiar.  Not really, right?  Most of the food businesses are in the business of bottom line only …. not caring whether you eat, nor whether you can still fit though the door of your house.  The people at Marty’s actually care, and that shows in how the business is evolving.

To those those who like the mainstream stuff, we apologize, as we are elated that at no time will you ever see Marty’s contracting out the cafe’ to McDip’s.  The food at Marty’s will actually be good for you.

As we said, we shopped at and liked Right By Nature in the beginning, but as they compromised their beliefs, things became confusing, and as a result they eventually went away.

We don’t feel that Marty’s will at any point, go away. SWB sees a much better business model in place.  Things like starting small, and not opening with a huge bang allow the folks at Marty’s to really tweak things to what customers want.  With trained staff on food systems you get at least a few highly knowledgeable staff on site to answer questions.  With an excellent chef, there are no compromises on cafe’ food. With perfectly chosen coffee, your morning brew from Marty’s coffee bar will put a smile on your face on even the worst day.

We like what we see and will give you updates at this new site evolves.

Link: Marty’s Market

-SWB

Construction Season Is Here … WoooooHooooo!!!

It’s the time of year you’ve been waiting for ….. road construction season!

Wait ….

School has started …..construction should be over, because by some unwritten, but highly understood law – road construction only takes place during summer vacation season to fully enhance automobile driver road-rage.

But it’s still around …

Where have we found to be one of the bigger bottlenecks?

The parallel work on Rt65 and Beaver Street near Sewickley and Edgeworth.

I realize there has always been a ridiculous competitive spirit in Edgeworth to be better than everyone else … but now they are competing with PennDot. Go Figure!

Here is the main problems of the Edgeworth Road Crew competing with PennDOT:

1. They ALL WORKED …. the whole road crew worked.  If you are going to compete with PennDOT there are rules!!!

• At least six supervisors doing nothing. Edgworth appeared to only have one supervisor, actually supervising.
• Shovel leaners …… no less than 5.  Edgeworth had none.
• Only one laborer actually working …. Edgworth had at least 10 to 12 people actually working on the project.
• The path through the road construction should be clearly confusing to the point where you feel you are either going to go head in to another car or end up driving through a guard rail.  Edgeworth’s direction was well laid out.

Get the idea …… there are rules to this road work stuff.

What did they get right?  At least one thing:

• Obstructions – Edgeworth did well, and obviously learned from PennDOT in this area.  The main road work is around the elementary school and was started (good timing learned from PennDOT here) right when the school year started. Well done, this is where Edgworth gave PennDOT some competition in the way proper road construction is to be done.

As far as Rt65 in Pittsburgh …. that ramp is completed – but we, here at SWB still take the detour, as it doesn’t feel right in PA at any point to get a straight shot to where we are traveling without at least 20 minutes minimum of detours.

-SWB

Out Of A Coma

We’re back …. or at least out of a coma.

Slightly after our little stint of “help” from the folks at Sophisticated Pittsburgh on upping our number of blog writers, they in fact lost many of theirs.  In other words people got real jobs, go married, or just disappeared of the face of the earth at SP.  As a result, we are coming back to our original self.

So, about our original self. The blog experimentally started in 2005, and was moved to .mac via the Apple iWeb.  We started writing around the time that PittGirl, CafeWitness, and others started and gained one of the top growing blog rankings ending up with 2000 readers per day, across 15 countries while on the .mac site.

That actually scared us, considering the amount of vomit we spewed out in those days along with the other rant blogs.  I’m not sure we’ll be as harsh these days, but we’ll try.

BTW – while we were hosting on .mac, Apple kindly asked us to move our site due to their product not being originally made for the amount of throughput we were getting.

So, around Spring of 2008 we moved to WordPress.

The Weasel is back, and we will be blowing word chunks as far as possible.

Cheers

-SWB