2 Questions (FreshDirect and Cigars)

Subject: The Met has yucca. Can't put a price on that.

Meggle and I love the Fresh Direct. We also love the Met, and our local bodega. FD keeps us well-stocked, and saves us a ton of time. The Met gets trips for staples and things as we run out. The bodega rules for off-hours cat food and beer runs. They also have a decent selection of ice cream for craving times. Not to mention that I use their ATMs a lot rather than hike over to Chase in StrollerLand (aka Park Slope).

One quick way FD saves time is by storing previous orders. It makes subsequent orders a snap.

Subject: cigar party

I am such an amateur when it comes to quality cigars, but I would be so friggin' thrilled to join up for a cigar-smoking party with any kind of mild sporting aspect (air hockey, badminton, walk in the park, drinking, etc.).

So if a cigar party happens, please post and I am so there!

P.S. I also am a devoted Food Co-op squad leader and pick up veggies at the Union Street CSA, as well as shop the Farmers Market -- I am glad to see that others picked up those threads, tho, since I sometimes get tired of defending my commitments to cheap food and excellent produce.

Ex Produce Worker wrote:
Out of curiosity, key foods on flatbush delivers, wouldn't shopping there support the neighborhood and save your back?

Most of the grocery stores in New York deliver, but the real point is that the fresh food is TERRIBLE. All the produce is usually half rotten on the shelves already, and don't even get me started on the meat...and half the time they don't even have the things we want (it's hard to even find something as mundane as hummus at these stores sometimes. And the coffee selection... I could go on.)

Also, I became sort of nervous about getting groceries delivered from local stores after one time when they sent the guy walking WITH us back to our apartment on the spot. He was following about ten feet behind us with the cart. It was like the most awkward experience ever, and the last time I ever asked for delivery.

A big part of the "buy local" movement is related to the "we're running out of oil" thing. It's better to establish and support local businesses that don't require their goods being flown halfway around the world, both to support conservation and also so that when flying stuff from all over the world isn't an option anymore, these local places will still be around to provide you with the goods you need.

Watch "The End of Suburbia" for more information, if you're interested.

DLW5 wrote: And about cigars... perhaps I've never really had a good one ... b/c I've never appreciated them (or their odor)

I agree. I've never been able to enjoy a cigar (with the original filling), despite trying some purportedly very good ones, including Cubans like Cohiba and Romeo and Juliet.

Re: Buying Local
Buying local is important for a lot of reasons. Most importantly because it supports local farmers and not giant agricultural businesses. If you buy produce from around the world, unless is cooperative you are not really directly supporting the farmers.
Especially since the federalization of the organic foods market, a lot of local farms were shut out of markets. First by trademarking the word organic and then by raising the standards to be unreachable to smaller farms. Thus even if a local farm grows organic food, they may not be able to call it that unless they can pay to be certified by the government.
Buying local=fresher produce. It can be picked after its ripened on the plant, not picked and then ripened with gas, or time. Obviously some things like banannas you cannot buy locally in this part of the country. But part of the reason produce is crappy at places like key foods is that it has traveled a lot to get to the shelves. we have gotten used to having foods that are out of season or from exotic places and thus buying and eatting locally, while saving so many resources, and supporting local agriculture is hard, and sometimes impossible to do.
But, realize too conventional (not organic) tomatoes for example a lot of the time have been genetically modified, by using DNA from chickens and viruses to alter their genetic makeup to grow to be hardy, colorful, and able to travel well, vitamins are then put back into the tomato. Taste is not a concern. Food, esp produce is altered for travel and looks, not taste and nutrition. Thus buying local becomes even more appealing.

Ex Produce Worker Again wrote: Re: Buying Local
Food, esp produce is altered for travel and looks, not taste and nutrition. Thus buying local becomes even more appealing.

Genetically modified food is an interest of mine, and I wanted to point out that sometimes produce IS modified for nutrition. A prime example is 'golden rice', a type of rice with a high vitamin A content which is invaluable in the many countries where vitamin A deficiency is a major public health problem which, left untreated, causes blindness.

A tasteless tomato that ships well may not be the zenith of genetically modified food, but this techonology does have valuable uses.

bluedove wrote: I'm sorry, I am all for supporting the neighborhood (for a variety of reasons) but in this case, if the local businesses want my business, they're going to have to do a lot better. FreshDirect is more expensive, but it's worth it since the fresh food at grocery stores within walking distance is ABYSSMAL. And I am not in a position to sling my money around, either. It's enough of a difference to be worth it.

The coop is a nice idea in theory, but way too far away from me in practice.

hear hear! i started doing some of my produce shopping out in lawnguyland where my job is, but i hate that grocery store to because the quality isn't THAT much better, and its filled with demon children with their own mini shopping carts tearing up and down the aisles like it was the indy 500. i never feared so much for my well being (and the well being of my feet and ankles especially)! my mom would have kicked my ass if i ever behaved like that in public back in the day! i should have complained to the manager, but instead i just glared at the negligent parents. at that moment, i really missed the 'hood.

but yeah...i would totally dig it if fd would come out to 11216. no demon kids and top quality.


oh and hells yes i try to buy local, it does taste better, i used to work on a small farm. but its so hard to find places that sell locally grown produce here. back where i grew up, it was ALL local except during the winter.

escap. thanks for the kind words. fine buy from Tanzania then they will finally wipeout those pesky primates living on prime agricultural land. :? oh yea and the Brazilian rainforest is just getting in the way of our coffee needs.

I hate it when rain forests get in my coffee. It's so gross picking clotted monkeys and indiginous tribes from my latte.

I don't smoke, but after reading this thread, I'm jonesing. Where can we smoke cigarrs in public in New York?

daveb wrote: As far as I know, anyplace with outdoor ventilation that doesn't have a personal policy against it. Soda's garden, for example.

soda! (I love this place)

also, there's a cigar store/bar on 6th ave just below 57th street in midtown.