The Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance is the muscle behind the Buy Local madness in Baltimore. They’ve teamed up with the Main Streets program and several neighborhood groups to target businesses in neighborhoods around Baltimore. We saw these posters all over town. This year they partnered with the Mayor’s Office on a “Back to School Buy [...]

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Peter and I were wandering around downtown looking for a good wireless spot to get some work done, when it occurred to me that we were in the neighborhood of my beloved alma mater, The Baltimore School for the Arts.

I haven’t visited in several years since they started the renovation and expansion of the school, [...]

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And with a sporting yell from the crowd, “Charge” the Orioles’ Corry Patterson steals another base during last Saturdays game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Thanks to Skid, Fred’s buddy who gave us tickets Sara, Bill and I enjoy a second trip to major league baseball this year.
Sports have a tremendous impact on peoples psyche. [...]

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Our friends from Concrete Couch just sent us some pictures of their most recent public art project in southern Rhode Island. Steve Wood, a Rhode Island native, painter and public artist who makes his home in Manitou Spring, Colorado runs Concrete Couch, a non-profit that works with kids and community groups to create public art. [...]

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It was a hot one in B-more this weekend. Time for the classic Baltimore summer treat– the Snow Cone! My favorite flavor is Egg Custard. Really sends me back.
We hit the farmers’ market on Sunday. Got a ton of peaches to do some canning (and had a miserable late night over a hot stove as [...]

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Local currencies have long been a interest of mine, and right now there is some really interesting stuff happening in the field. Berkshares, a local currency in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, has been getting a lot of deserved attention, including the recent article in Business Week Magazine: Buy Local– with Town Currency.
The Berkshares exchange [...]

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These are two things that have been taking up a lot of space in my brain. And I’m not the only one. The writer of Orangette, my very favorite food blog, has just up and gotten married herself, and the food looks like it was, predictably, amazing. Molly and Brandon even made their own pickles– [...]

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So until earlier today, I had no idea there was such an active food blogging universe in Portland. Well, it turns out there is. Not only that, but I missed the culinary event of the year without even knowing it- the “Foie Gras Death Match“- 7 chefs, 7 lobes of foie gras, 7 courses. Not [...]

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Thursday night August 23rd, we’ll be celebrating “The Year of the Goat”, a new book by local folks and Slow Food Steering Committee members Karl Schatz and Margaret Hathaway. The party’s at Rabelais Books from 5 to 7.
Karl and Margaret spent a year traveling the country visiting goat farms and searching for the “perfect cheese”, [...]

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a series of posters on transformer boxes along Broadway in Providence (here). You might have noticed in the picture that the face of the main figure had already been slightly defaced. Last time I was in town, I noticed that someone (the same artist? another artist?) [...]

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Last year, the microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, bringing attention worldwide to the new and growing field of microfinance. It also piqued my interest. So, just before Christmas, I loaned about $150 to six businesses around the world through the site Kiva.org.
One loan was to a [...]

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This seems like something you would find in the anarchist cookbook. When I was in high school my computer hacker and fanzine friends were always showing me ways to beat the system. Actually it was more like theft of service, but the tricks included reusing stamps by covering them with a glue so you could [...]

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In our neighborhood on the east end of Portland, Maine a new lawn service is quietly making its way into back yards. Greener Grass a lawn care service owned and operated by Carlin Whitehouse a neighborhood resident is growing his business and educating consumers along the way. Carlin uses a McLane Hand Push Reel Mower. [...]

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Every Thursday for most of the summer, the folks at PDD (Portland Downtown District) put on a show. “Alive at Five” is a weekly outdoors music performance, with relatively big name acts, right here in downtown Portland. And complete with beer tent. I was pretty thrilled to see Erin McKeown a few weeks ago. Fun [...]

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A few years ago, the fate of Fenway Park was far from certain. That seems hard to believe now. We went to a game a few weeks ago, and it was packed. People love it! And, of course, they love their Red Sox. Baseball fans are very sentimental.
I took a few pictures of Yawkey Way [...]

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On July 31st Sally and I had the opportunity to go to a Boston Red Sox game. The opposing team, the Baltimore Orioles, received a few cheers from Sally she said she was allowed to root for both teams because she was from Baltimore. I don’t think the fans around us agreed.
Our seating that night [...]

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But not much on the blog… Sara and I have been a bit focused on an upcoming event at Tamworth Farm in Blue Hill, Maine. Right, our wedding - just five weeks away and getting down to the wire. Here are two shots of the hay loft we have been cleaning out with the help [...]

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