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Mrs Maciver: the thread about Edinburgh’s first cookery teacher and publisher of the earliest known Haggis recipe
Today’s Auction House Artefact is this old Edinburgh-published cook book, an edition from 1777.
COOKERY,
and
PASTRY.
As taught and practised by
Mrs MACIVER,
Teacher of those Arts in Edinburgh.Although it is neither the first such book printed in Scotland (that title goes to Mrs McLintock’s Recepits for Cooking and Pastrywork, Glasgow, 1736) Cookbook, nor even Edinburgh (A New and Easy Method of Cookery, 1755), this remains a very special cookbook. If you were a member of Enlightenment Edinburgh’s genteel classes then this was probably the cookery book; instructing you and your domestic staff in all the latest food and dining trends.
The Georgian kitchen in Edinburgh.James Boswell (feathered hat) and his kitchen staff preparing a meal of grouse for Dr Johnson (in the background in the tricorn hat) “Wit and Wisdom. Picturesque Beauties of Boswell. Part the First, 1786, Thomas Rowlandson after Samuel Collings. National Galleries of Scotland collection.Mrs Maciver (or Mciver) was Susanna Maciver, born circa 1709. In her own words prefacing the first (1774) edition of her book and written in 1773, she stated “her situation in life hath led her to be very much conversant in Cookery, Pastry etc. and afforded her ample opportunity of knowing the most approved methods practiced by others“. She “opened a school in this city for instructing young Ladies in this necessary branch of female education, and she hath the satisfaction to find that success hath accompanied her labours“. Running a school for other women would have been one of the few business opportunities open to an enterprising lady in Georgian Edinburgh. And clearly she was both enterprising and successful in her chosen career path.
Etching by John Kay, 1786, entitled “Mr Robert Johnston and Miss Sibilla Hutton“, no. 158.Her 238-page book was laid out in a format that would be recognisable to modern home cooks; starting with soups and then going through fish, flesh (meat), pies and pasties etc. – mixing savoury pies with sweet desert dishes – and finishing on preserves and pickles etc. It is full, cover-to-cover, of Georgian recipes, from Imperial White Soup to Roast Cod’s Head to Beef a-la-Mode to Carrot Pudding. But my personal favourite is the Syrup of Turnip:
A recipe for Syrup of Turnip, Page 222 of the first edition.Despite the Syrup of Turnip it proved to sell well and was republished over a number of years. The advert to announce the initial publication was placed in the Caledonian Mercury newspaper on December 4th 1773 and was repeated in The Scots Magazine that month. From this we can also glean that she also sold her own preserved fruits, cakes and pastries.
Caledonian Mercury advert announcing the publication of Mrs Maciver’s book. December 4th 1773. The books are dated 1774 on the inside coverHer house and cookery school was in Stephenlaw’s Close (also spelled Stevenlaw, Stanelaw and Stonelaw’s) off the High Street – it is number 74 on Edgar’s town plan below of 1765. You can handily located for the city’s produce markets centred on the Tron Kirk. The structure in the middle of the High Street marked M is the City Guard referred to in the above advert, the old guardhouse of the Toun Rats.
Edgar’s Town Plan of Edinburgh, 1765. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandFrom her preface to the first edition, we know that the school had been established some time when her book was first printed and is listed in Edinburgh’s first postal directories (those of the similarly enterprising “Indian Peter” Williamson).
Williamson’s Postal Directory of 1784.In October 1786 a “New Edition, With Additions“, described as “Greatly Improved” was released, now running to 264 pages. Those who had recently purchased the previous edition were offered the additional pages gratis per an advert in the Caledonian Mercury. Susanna Maciver would have been almost 80 at this time, a very good age for the 18th century.
It was suggested by some friends, that the addition of some figures of courses for dinners and suppers should be subjoined; accordingly, I have made out several courses from five to fifteen dishes.
This took the book from being just a collection of recipes to a complete guide to entertaining in Georgian polite society, keeping you right in such important matters of etiquette as how to lay the table correctly. Wealthy people still dined service à la Française at this time where a whole range of sweet, savoury and side dishes were put on the table at the same time and would be replaced as they were finished. This is opposed to the more modern style of service à la Russe where you are served in separate courses. So at this time any host or hostess had to know where to place the Soup and when to remove it, where the Roast Tongue went relative to the Artichoke Bottom Fricasee, how to stew Peas and Lettuce etc.
“Bill of Fare” diagram for family dinners of twelve or fifteen dishes, from the 1789 edition.The prospect of serving orange pudding and apricot tart alongside the roast pig and Boiled turkey with oyster sauce may seem odd to us these days, but it was the height of gastronomic sophistication in its own time! This second edition was also reprinted both in Edinburgh and London, being advertised in the London Morning Post for sale at 2 shillings and sixpence. One of the more unusually named recipes was Robert Walpole Dumplings, a stodgy, fatty, rotund pudding served soaked in alcohol. Whether or not this was a homage to, or a clever mocking of Cock Robin is a secret that only she will know. But undoubtedly Susanna Maciver’s greatest contribution to both the Edinburgh and Scottish culinary arts, and culture in general, was that in her books she published the first ever “standard” Haggis recipe (north of the border)!
Susannah MacIver’s first recipe for Scottish Haggis, 1774But note the bit in parenthesis at the end of the last paragraph. Yes, shockingly, Haggis has a rather longer history on record in English printed cuisine than Scottish! A dish very similar to haggis called Afronchemoyle is contained in the first known English cookbook, The Form of Cury, from way, way back in 1390 by the cooks of King Richard II of England. As a Scottish dish, it does not have quite such a long recorded history. The word itself is Old Scots, with a root from Middle English hagas, hagese etc., probably from the noun hag, to chop. The Gaelic for haggis, taigeis, is imported from the Scots. The earliest printed mention seems to be it used in an insult, in an early 16th century poem by William Dunbar:
The gallows gapes after thy graceless gruntill,
The Flyting of Dunbar and Kenndie, c. 1500-1520
As thou wouldst for a haggis, hungryThe poet Alexander Pennecuik uses it as a pejorative (haggis-headed) in 1715, Alan Ramsay refers to it as haggies in 1725 in The Gentle Shepherd and surviving household ledgers from Ochtertyre House for instance record it as haggise, being served for the servants’ meal in 1737 (alongside puddings and mutton). The haggis of course has been immortalised in Scottish culture by its association with the poet Robert Burns and the annual Suppers held in his memory. In 1786 Burns was newly arrived in Edinburgh and wrote the Address to a Haggice (sic). It was first published in the pages of the Caledonian Mercury newspaper on December 19th that year (n.b. most internet sources will tell you December 20th, but the newspaper did not publish that day, it was thrice weekly). Its book publication was the next year in an Edinburgh edition of his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. It is noteworthy that the last verse of the newspaper version is different from the Edinburgh edition version which is that used to this day.
Front page of the Caledonian Mercury, 19th December 1786, highlighting the date and the “Address to a Haggice”.Ye Pow’rs wha gie us a’ that’s gude,
Last verse of the 1786 Caledonian Mercury version of “To A Haggice”.
Still bless auld Caledonia’s brood
Wi’ great John Barleycorn’s heart’s blade,
In stowps or luggies;
And on our board that king o’food,
A glorious Haggice!”When Robert Burns immortalised the Haggis in Scottish culture as the “Great Chieftain o the puddin race” with his eponymous address of 1787, there is every chance he was referring to something made to Mrs Maciver’s recipe. And if it was served in the manner she prescribed, it may well have been on the same table as the blancmange, cheesecake and trifle! And speaking of trifles, it was her book that give us one of the earliest recipes for what we would recognise as a “modern” trifle.
“The Cottar’s Saturday Night”, an illustration of Burns’ 1786 work by David Allan. Burns thought Allan “a man of very great genius” and that it was “one of the highest compliments I have ever received” to have Allan illustrating a book of his works. A cooking pot simmers over the ifre on the left. A man on a stool to the right eats from a bowl while a hungry dog waits patiently for a tid-bit. National Galleries of Scotland collection.The Scottish food historian Florence Marian McNeill and the food writer Clarissa Dickson Wright both favour the theory that the practice of cooking the contents of an animal in its own stomach point to a Scandinavian origin of the dish. A haggis is fundamentally an offal sausage, and offal was an important source of food for the poorer classes; it spoils quickly and is not easy to transport without a modern cold chain, so it would be eaten quickly at the source; people could just not afford to waste it and it was also still perfectly nourishing. Chopping up the less palatable and digestible parts of the “pluck” of an animal and mixing it in with oatmeal as a binder and to make it go a bit further was a perfectly logical way to make a slaughtered animal feed more people for longer. Some pepper, spice or herbs – as available – would make the contents more palatable. At a time when many people would have possessed only a fire on which to cook and probably only a pot and a griddle to cook on or in, the boiled haggis is just a logical sort of dish for the ordinary folk to be cooking and eating. The cooked final product could then be smoked to preserve it.
“The Haggis Feast”, Alexander George Fraser, 1840, National Trust for ScotlandAs evidenced by its inclusion in Maciver’s book, by the time of Burns haggis had moved on from being purely a peasant and servants’ dish of necessity to something popular amongst the enlightenment classes on their dinner tables. It also became increasingly popular with the men of letters on their drinking tables. Perhaps the earliest known illustration of haggis, from c. 1810, shows two enlightenment worthies of Glasgow supping on a giant haggis, washed down with copious quantities of claret.
“Dr Balfour of Glasgow having taken lodgings in a questionable house” a caricature by John Gibson Lockhart c. 1810, National Library of Scotland Acc.11480, f.5In the 1826 book The Cook and Housewife’s Manual etc. by Margaret Dods, a recipe is given fora genuine Scotch haggis at the head of the chapter entitled Scotch National Dishes (introduced by quoting Burns). Margaret – Meg – Dods was actually a character from a Walter Scott novel and the book itself was by the writer Isobel Christian Johnston, the publisher’s wife. Scott himself contributed the book’s introduction.
This elusive but important Susanna Maciver died on August 23rd 1790 at Jamieson’s in the Canongate, aged 81 years, of “decay” (registrars’ speak for dying of old age of otherwise unknown specific reasons.) There is a plaque to mark the approximate location of her house and cookery school at Stevenlaw’s Close, appropriately featuring her recipe for “A Good Scotch Haggis”.
The plaque to “A Good Scotch Haggis” at Stevenlaw’s Close. Picture credit Historic Environment ScotlandBut that is not the end of the story, because she had a protégé, Mrs Frazer, who took on the school and the book, updating and expanding it and issuing subsequent editions. She describer herself as the “sole teacher of these arts in Edinburgh” and “several years colleague and afterwards successor” to Mrs Maciver. Of Mrs Frazer (later rendered as Fraser), I can find nothing concrete and the surname is much too common to get lucky on Scotland’s People without any dates or a forename.
Mrs Frazer’s version of the cook bookFrazer’s book moved on from purely recipes, to describing general principles and techniques of both cooking and also buying and choosing ingredients (an important skill in a time of no real food controls and produce that would easily spoil or potentially have been doctored). An interesting addition are the illustrations of table setting plans. More calf feet jelly with your small tarts?
A diagram on how to arrange dishes on the table from Mrs Maciver’s recipe book, from the 2nd edition. Notice that pork cutlets, blancmange, cut beetroot, orange cheesecake and macaroni pie are all placed adjacent!As well as this guide to laying your table, other helpful information such as foods listed by their season, a one-page ready reckoner of suggested “Things for Supper Dishes” and “General Observations” were also included such as the correct order of serving your boiled, baked and roasted meats.
General Observations as to serving up Dishes.By 1806 she had moved the cook school, now described as a “pastry school“, to Milne’s Square; opposite the Tron Kirk, still handy for the markets. The school is listed in the post office directories under her name until 1831-32, after which it disappears for a few years then a school under Miss Fraser appears at 69 Northumberland Street. I have made the assumption this was a daughter perhaps.
You can read a digital version of Mrs Maciver’s cookbook for free online and it is still published in a modern facsmilie edition. If you want to get a bit closer to the wacky dining habits of Enlightenment Edinburgh, I recommend a trip to the National Trust for Scotland’s Georgian House, who have a great display and description of the eating, drinking and cooking habits in the 18th century New Town’s dining room and kitchens.So if you want to pay homage to the great, great, great, great, grandmother of Scottish cuisine, why not do as the Georgians might have done and serve yourself up a tasty supper of haggis and trifle this weekend?
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Burning Death – Burning Death Review
By Spicie Forrest
In the prehistoric era known in academic circles as “the 80s,” metal had not yet splintered into the myriad microgenres we know today. Even our ten-ish main subgenres, while beginning to differentiate themselves, were still fairly grey. Within this primordial soup floated the building blocks that would one day give rise to modern black metal, including, among others, the early works of Slayer, Kreator, and Vulcano. This evil-sounding, satanic/anti-Christian thrash metal is also the inspiration for Nashville newcomers, Burning Death. Ethan Rock and Jerry Garner of Act of Impalement, along with a drummer known only as Gore, seek to recreate that raw, calamitous energy on their self-titled debut. Can these retro thrashers induce another Satanic Panic, or are they just playing at hating God?
Once upon a time, the Son of the Morning and His faithful were banished from Heaven and cast into Pandaemonium below. I suspect Burning Death may have been part of the soundtrack. Rock and Garner launch riff after cataclysmic riff, each seared in the Lake of Everlasting Fire. Whether streaking through the Firmament (“Vengeance of the Inferno,” “Severed”), landing in the underworld and surveying the surrounding horrors (“Death is Salvation”), or convening the first Infernal Council (“Revel in Violence”), Burning Death encapsulates the fervor of these most crucial moments in Christian lore.1 Infernal skank and blast beats give Gore the means to conduct this tour of the hellish landscape. By lagging or anticipating riff changes, Gore—in concert with vocalist Rock—guides listeners through both Satan’s abyssal Cathedral (“Cold Bite of Steel”) and blasted, Vulcanic wastes (“Lusting for Death”) with a sure and smooth confidence. From the Deathly opening riff of “Genocidal Litany” onward, Burning Death absolutely nails Christ to the cross their intended sound.
At its core, Burning Death’s debut is an act of homage paid. Much like Slayer’s Tom Araya, Rock both channels the wails of the damned and the gruff shouts of their demonic torturers. The controlled recklessness of his style matches his bandmates well, often elevating their performances by underscoring the stygian atmosphere of Burning Death. “Revel in Violence” emerges from Sodom’s shadow, possessing a militaristic and almost classical feel, while the opening riff of “Vengeance of the Inferno” could pass for something on Kill ‘Em All. Insofar as Burning Death’s particular flavor of thrash isn’t something I often hear modernized, this is refreshing. In terms of innovation or originality, however, Burning Death falls short. Burning Death is undoubtedly competent, but there’s precious little here that builds on what’s already established. This isn’t a criticism per se, but it does preclude Burning Death from reaching greater heights.
An album is more than just the band’s ability to write and play music, and it’s in these peripheral aspects that much of my criticism lies. While “Final Sacrament” is a good track in itself, it fails as a closer—title notwithstanding. As Burning Death ends, there’s no sense of closure, and I often accidentally circle back to “Genocidal Litany” before realizing what’s happened. Either “Cold Bite of Steel” or “Revel in Violence” would have been more satisfying conclusions. My second, broader criticism is of the mix. Buried bass aside, instruments and vocals seem to stand side by side throughout the whole album. Unchanging and two-dimensional, the mix reduces Burning Death to its composite elements. A soundstage with more depth would have allowed musicians to pass the spotlight more effectively, creating a more dynamic and compelling experience.
On their self-titled debut, Burning Death has crafted a commendable tribute to early thrash and its more violent, evil iterations. Scorched, descending riffs and tortured howls are stitched together with urgent, almost panicked percussive thread. The risk of following one’s idols so closely is failing to develop your own unique sound, and into this pit Burning Death falls. Combined with a suboptimal song order and a flat, static mix, there’s ample room for Burning Death to improve on future releases. Of course, if you’re in the mood for some new Kreator– or Sarcófago-core, none of this should stop you from picking up Burning Death.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Caligari Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: December 5th, 2025#2025 #30 #ActOfImpalement #AmericanMetal #BurningDeath #CaligariRecords #Cathedral #Death #Dec25 #Kreator #Metallica #Review #Reviews #Sarcófago #Slayer #Sodom #ThrashMetal #Vulcano
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Advice to youth. You can't "get rich", you can only be born rich. It's an exclusive club and if you're not already invited by primary school, you're not invited. Nor will you ever be. Of course, that doesn't stop Netflix telling this lie...
https://www.netflix.com/browse?jbv=81410436Every word of that TV show is bullshit.
Real wealth is adventure, community and family. I'm "wealthy" because my ex and I raised our children to be smart and independent and my pride in their achievements is wealth beyond compare.
Real wealth is community, working to make difference. Donate to the ASRC, ride a bicycle for personal transport, stand for election as a Green, a Socialist or form an anarchist collective and change the world one soup kitchen at a time.
Real fiscal wealth is having a strong public service with fair employment conditions, being a member of a union that fights for your workplace safety and justice. It's having decent super to retire on and it's having your mortgage (mostly) paid off when you do retire.
The billionaires will never let you be wealthy like them. That's what venture capitalists actually do, they're the attack dogs that come along pretending to help, but their role is to relieve you of your dream.
{Continued in comments)
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… from a former Pret employee having survived systemic workplace bullying and gaslighting under Pret’s HR, CEO Clive Schlee and a Development Manager from HQ, who’s also an NLP Practitioner and Hypnotherapist under the National Hypnotherapy Society. On a side note, many Pret leaders from HQ and Operation Managers are NLP practitioners. It seems Pret encourages them to the NLP course, and if one researches on Neuro-linguistic Programming, it is or can be a tool to manipulate people.
As my website has become quite large with various writings from behind the scenes, I decided to create an Index to the most important issues regarding Pret A Manger, that portray themself as this ethical and caring company.
I am still in disbelief myself on what I went through, and writing about it helped me survive and come back to my senses, and expose Pret A Manger! I declined 4 settlement offers from Pret if I am silent about my ordeal and never go to court. I explain in full in my interview at the bottom of most pages here or as the first feature of the below index.
The very fact that Pret did NOTHING after TWO customer deaths, a third nearly fatal, several hospitalized, and numerous warnings ignored, should ring massive alarm bells! But the public remains lulled in, especially in the UK whereas in the U.S. it would hail a storm of lawsuits! The German Reimann family behind JAB, the new owners of Pret, work very hard to divert issues opening in various countries in a whirlwind, more charity work etc.
I write so boldly and loud because I almost lost my life, having been targeted and bullied during already traumatic bereavement. I had several close calls at the bridge and am very proud that I made it through to expose this company!
If this is the only thing I do, having survived this toxic company that hides behind the shiny PR[et] facade and fake smiles, I will do it as thoroughly and detailed as I did when I worked for Pret! I wasted 10 years of my life in this company and explain in my interview how I went through this. This is not about a dis-grunted former employee, this is more. This is about a company that portrays itself to the public as this ethical company and lures in customers as well as employees, exploiting staff for profit. This is just a usual business out for profit as any company is, but the public has been lulled in for years about Pret A Manger and it is human nature to want to believe a fairy-tale…
I confront Pret on a suicide of an assistant manager in 2017 of whom I learned prior to her death. I almost went over the edge, Pret hid TWO customer deaths until it became public, how many suicides of current or former staff happened no-one knows about. I was recently leaked an email that Director of HR Andrea Wareham sent to all Pret shops informing them that two Pret staff have died in two different UK shops. One of them I was told was a suicide, the other person’s death is unclear to the persons who leaked the email. The press is informed and in my 10 years in Pret having had access to Pret emails as I was a team leader, I have never seen an email regarding staff deaths.
Pret must have learned from the customer deaths they never even told us about and also my situation that the truth will always come out.
It is my biggest regret having wasted my time, skill, effort and care for Pret A Manger.
If people don’t believe my story, I have evidence and confront Pret openly on Twitter, Facebook etc. Again, I explain in my interview why Pret is not responding. All I can say to everyone regarding the nice facade of Pret or any company is:
If something looks too good to be true, take a closer look!
The below Index takes openness to read, as many people want to believe the fairy-tale that is Pret A Manger. Only the Unions, Activists and some from the Press know better and look closer.
I start the index with my own story in an interview and continue with general issues, categorizing as best as I can. Any reader and writer, please be aware of the work I’ve put into this website before you just cope & paste and mind the copyright. I have other websites as back-ups. I am open for any interview and article feature, as well as questions.
Any new writings in the future that I may add, I will indicate as UPDATE or NEW.
Index:
Links open in a new window / tab
INTERVIEW
For the first time I share my story with Pret verbally in an interview on a podcast based in California. Interview with The Adam Paradox: (The interview can be played while scrolling through this page and is featured on my website at the bottom of most pages)
https://expret.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/workplace-bullying-an-intervie-683101e6895da.m4a
ARTICLES
Two articles I wrote for the Scottish Left Review:
1. “Late Night Girl” Story with Pret
2. Pushing Back Against PretThank you for reading/listening.
UNRELATED TO PRET – But important
> My call-in to BBC radio show of Dotun Adebayo early morning on Christmas Day 2019. The subject of the show was »What does “Christmas spirit” mean to you?«. One of the questions was, if more people are alone at Christmas than it used to be, and what people’s experience is with Christmas in general. As I was up, I just called in. I didn’t speak about Pret, as death and grief is already “heavy” as it is on Christmas Day and I don’t think a BBC radio program would be ready to hear about Pret! I kept it “light” I hope.
https://expret.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2019-12-25-radio-call-in-dotun-adebayo-show.mp3
(My losses happened in a span of 3 years, not 5 years, I just spoke from looking back on 5 years.)
PRESS
Journalist Amy Sharpe from the Sunday Mirror went undercover into Pret after reading my blog, and having suggested to her to go undercover. I added my thoughts to her report in “Undercover Under Pressure”
UPDATE May 2019
LINK >>> TWO recent Pret staff deaths
I was leaked an email that HR Director Andrea Wareham sent to all Pret shops mid/end of May that TWO Pret staff have died within a month. One staff I was told was a suicide, the other TM the “leakers” don’t have the info. It’s not the first suicide in Pret!
£1000 FOR ALL STAFF
(£800 after tax)Timing of Clive Schlee’s £1000 announcement (after he became aware of my Blog)
PRET STAFF REVIEWS & COMPLAINTS
On the below slideshow I added just a selection of staff reviews and comments to save long blog entries. These are from review websites like Glassdoor and Indeed, but also from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other websites where people commented on the work environment in Pret.
Just some examples, before the Slideshow, from former Pret employees in NYC, London etc.:
Four years after Bridgepoint took over Pret and tasked to open on every corner in London specifically. Scrolling to the 23 July 2012 at 12:53 comment.
June/July 2019 overall figures on Glassdoor
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The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in —> Pret Staff Complaints
NEW
I’m branching out to YouTube, as not everyone likes to read long blog posts. I cover mainly staff issues currently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdF2YCy_l-Q
CEO CLIVE SCHLEE RETIREMENT
NEW CEO PANO CHRISTOUNEW 01. July 2019: Announcement of early “retirement” of Clive Schlee supposedly in September, but new CEO Pano Christou is already featured on Glassdoor, probably to avoid further negative voting for Schlee.
A list of articles I wrote on Clive Schlee: “Clive Schlee – Late Night Girl Articles”
Article on Pano Christou, new CEO officially from September 2019.
July 2019 New CEO, new start on Glassdoor
UPDATE October 2019
CUSTOMER OBSERVATIONS
on Stressful Work conditionsThe Pain of Working at Pret A Manger
Pret Staff work in overheated shops. Customer complaints on behalf of employees regarding excruciating work conditions in 35-40ºC+ heat for prolonged time, weeks and months.
FORCED SMILES & HAPPINESS
for Mystery Shopper bonus, extra cash and fear managementHow Companies Force Emotional Labor on Low-Wage Workers
The Truth Behind the Pret A Manger Smile via cash incentives and fear management
How Emotional Labour Harms us all – my comments on an article in the NewStatesman
PRET’S MARKETING with Charity
and Former Homeless PeopleOpen Letter to the Pret Foundation Trust
ALLERGEN DEATHS
and Pret’s procrastinationOngoing Issues – Hospitalization, mislabelling, cross-contamination, understaffed …
Vegetarians eat Ham and Meat products – more ongoing issues
Pret’s Labelling Commitment?
Allergen Label Warnings Pret ignored before and even after customer deaths
VARIOUS LAWSUITS
(that I’m aware of, there are more, but depending how public they are)A recent staff review from New York mentions that Pret is constantly being sued. In the UK the legal system isn’t as helpful:
USA: Two Wage Lawsuits settled that Pret employees filed, re-paying 4000 workers (middle section of page).
USA: Deceptive Packaging Class Action settled. But the misleading packaging still continues.
Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat Lawsuits vs. Pret on the “Natural” Food claim while Glyphosate was found in food. Change of signage, packaging and Website.
USA: 2016 “sesame reaction” Lawsuit and Pret doing ZERO
At the bottom of the page: A New York customer suffered an anaphylactic shock from unlabelled sesame in a Pret Wrap. He lost the case, yet Pret still did nothing to label food even after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died from the same unlabelled allergen in the same year of 2016.USA March 2019 Court PDF Document of new lawsuit regarding Pret’s “Natural” claim. List of chemicals from page 10 onward.
No Lawsuit, but ongoing complaints regarding the watery Chicken Broccoli and Brown Rice soup
NEW Slideshow: Pret A Manger Bang Bang Rip-Off Wrap
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FREE COFFEES MARKETING
And why Pret doesn’t do a Loyalty Card System
EXTERNAL PRESS ARTICLES
Pret A Manger and “broken windows” syndrome
My Comments on Sathnam Sanghera’s article in The Times: “Pret was the best thing since sliced bread but private equity ruined it”
Man invoices Pret A Manger and EAT. for time spent waiting in shops
The Guradian article: “The brilliant Pret a Manger marketing con we want to fall for”
… more to come
A customer’s comment in Chicago regarding a deceased Pret employee and Pret in general.
Lastly, THE Best description of SYSTEMIC Workplace Bullying and what I have gone through under Pret’s senior leadership and HR, is summed up in this text I found on Twitter.
I have spent over a year writing my hands into a carpal tunnel (not really, just using a metaphor!) on what I’ve been through in Pret A Manger. I described how systemic and toxic Pret’s bullying is behind the smiley facade!
I can wrap up my whole experience and website in this one text:
From Twitter @scwb_now
Further Staff Reviews, one which states that they felt always being “hounded”. I based more reviews in a YouTube slide on this statement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kQCj30vueA
“Worked into the ground without empathy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdF2YCy_l-Q
Smile for the Mystery Shopper – Forced to do emotional labour for cash incentives and fear management (I re-named as the “Misery” Shopper for a reason!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WToaIvRWVHg
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather starve and speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.Interview:
https://expret.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/workplace-bullying-an-intervie-683101e6895da.m4a
©2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
https://expret.org/2019/05/25/most-comprehensive-website-on-pret-a-manger/
#CliveSchlee #Index #MostComprehensiveWebsiteOnPretAManger #PretAManger #PretStaffComplaints
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Amy Sharpe from the Sunday Mirror contacted me on Facebook after I declined another Mirror Journalist’s request for an interview.
I declined her request as well, as I wasn’t ready for the press, and as I am still paranoid to be tricked and trapped like Pret did with the Development Manager I write extensively about in Open “Letter” to Lila Tighilt Warren. My experience in Pret is very complex and sounds like straight from a twisted Hollywood script, but I have it all in writing and confront Pret openly on Twitter, which in turn have them report me to get shadow-banned (secretly censored on Twitter & Co. which then hides my posts and accounts from public search). But I urged her to go undercover to see for herself and not just take my word for it, just like James Bloodworth did in Amazon. And she did.
My Facebook message after Amy contacted me, but I was not ready for the press:
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What I meant by Pret “infiltrating” the mental health club I was a member of, Pret knew about this club as I mentioned it in my last hearing. I write about Pret “infiltrating” the club in my open “letter” to the Pret Foundation Trust which is just a smokescreen to pretend charity to the public. Pret never responded when I AND an OPs manager asked if I could be placed under someone from the Pret Foundation when I became bereaved and then targetted. Pret never responded.
As I commented on Sathnam Sanghera’s Times article, I’d like to give my two cents also to Amy Sharpe’s undercover article. Both articles from very different perspectives as one from a customer and business point of view, the other from behind the scenes for a few days. But both are equally important and revealing how business works with the main goal of profit in mind.
I have to say that when I saw the undercover reporting yesterday morning (28.11.2018) linked on Twitter, after Amy has been very silent about going “under”, and rightly so, I teared up. I cried when I read her name on the report because not just did she follow my suggestion taking my ordeal serious, but someone from the outside saw what I and many others experience(d), but the public doesn’t want to know about unless it is the press poking into an organization.
It sadly takes deaths becoming public to show how negligent a company, in this case Pret, really is. I’ve been writing openly about my experience with Pret since May 2018 after my father died in March and I started to come to terms again of another loss… still recuperating from my Pret trauma that has “postponed” my grief for my brother. Regular readers know the story.
Some people criticize The Sunday Mirror’s report as being part of a witch hunt, but I don’t think that. The public is so used to be lulled in by a nice and shiny facade, free coffees and cookies.
Customers are so used to the smiles of staff, but no-one knows what really is behind it. The fear management via the Mystery Shopper, rewarded extra £100 if specially nice or told off by the boss in the office and threatened with job security if they didn’t smile non-stop in the highly stressful work environment. I mentioned this in a Tweet response to a customer who without any thought or empathy complained to Pret about a barista, even naming him, for not smiling and rushing the service:
Amy Sharpe’s undercover article to me is like someone understanding this and finally confirming my and the team’s ordeal. Some points I want to highlight as I don’t use the full article, just what I want to confirm and expand upon a little from what this journalist has experienced and witnessed. The article will be in black and my comments in grey. I added the bold to the text to highlight some issues.
Article:
A manager reacts in horror as I point out the mistake (of an Almond Croissant with a Jam Croissant label).
“Oh my god!” he cries as he switches labels on two trays of croissants – one containing jam, the other almonds.This is the typical PANIC reaction of a manager who either didn’t take the time or is too disorganized to do the MBWA (Managing By Walking Around) to check that everything is in its proper place, health & safety checks and so on. This could easily be improved by investing to have plenty of staff, instead of cutting staff to save money, so that the Manager On Duty (MOD) can concentrate on checking everything daily as well as throughout the day. It’s a very simple organizational issue. Very, very simple.
Article:
In the wake of two allergy deaths, he adds: “It’s really dangerous, especially with everything that’s been going on.”And yet, no-one steps on the brakes to put immediate, and what CEO Clive Schlee calls, “meaningful” changes in place. The problem with the word “meaningful” to me here is, it sounds too wishy-washy, “poetically” correct but shows no urgency, even though “it’s really dangerous”. The appropriate word should have been to implement “immediate” changes! As Natasha’s parents are in shock over Pret’s procrastination, ITV’s November report:
Article:
I am standing behind the counter in Pret a Manger … The pace is so relentless, the demands so constant – customers want serving super-quick – that I find myself under constant pressure. I sense that other staff feel the strain too.Ms. Sharpe does not give the time of day she was behind the counter, but mentioned having to dash to the toastie machine, so this may have been lunch time. But the strain can especially be felt when a Team Member does the morning shift from 5 or 6am till 2 or 3pm going through two intense rushes: breakfast and lunch. When I worked in Pret I made a decision to not meet with a friend or have an appointment straight after my morning shift having come out of lunch time. I was always like having come out of a tumbler, being shaken for hours and still on electricity. My friends commented on this, so I tried to get home first to clean up and rest and calm down before joining any events.
One staff review paints this very bluntly. This is why I wished Amy Sharpe would have also covered a week in the kitchen to really get the full Pret “blow”: “This job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you.“
Many kitchens I have seen with very small working areas for the Hot Chef in particular. Someone leaked a photo to Twitter.
Customer areas are increased to get as many customers / money in as possible; staff areas are decreased. This then creates multiple problems, not only on the mental strain of staff but customers lives as mistakes happen quickly as with labelling I collected in another post “Vegetarians Get Meat Products“:
Or a shop where I worked where there was only ONE multitask room: office, staff changing room with lockers, fridges, freezers, stock room, hot chef soup prep area, chemical room for cleaning materials etc and to top it all, illegally the rubbish room next to the food prep area! This shop was the worst shop I’ve worked in. This photo is from 2015 and after years like this, Pret was forced to expand the work space to separate the rubbish for health and safety reasons. This room was medium size and approx. 15 square meters max. A total nightmare.
Article:
I am at a central London branch, where 10 staff vie for space, muttering apologies as we collide and stretch across one another to grab pastries and bags.
I shout orders to a barista while dashing to a beeping toastie machine to retrieve a baguette.
I make green teas and filter coffees while my other drinks orders are prepared. It’s stressful and confusing and the queue makes it even more so.
All the while, staff must be alert to the issue of allergens.Yep. And as one customer on Twitter pointed out the chaos and stress on the staff and customers alike. I had to console Team Members many times over the years who held their tears back or just cried in the staff room after being shouted at by the manager. Another review: “Better salary than McDonalds or Costa as long as you keep your fake smile up. Staff with more experience cuts corners on Sanitary rules because otherwise it is impossible to finish your batch on time.
– The coffee calling system is broken. During busy times it is nearly impossible to keep up with the orders without hating everyone around you. A lot of people cry in the staff room especially in their entry period.”
I also shed many tears on my way home in the bus, especially during grief of course, but after a terribly depressing shift this was a common thing to let the tears finally flow.UPDATE Jan. 2019
I found a photo of the coffee area and it shows how cramped and small the work area is. And the barista/coffee makers are required to get PERFECT coffees out within 1 minute that the Mystery Shopper times to the second! It doesn’t get any more dehumanizing and mentally straining than this. I don’t know how I managed, but we worked a lot in mental and physical pain. Under the coffee machine where the silver jugs are, this working area is so small baristas switch on autopilot and just keep going. Hence, lots of stress, shouting and customers going to Twitter with complaints of half cups of coffees that are made so fast to satisfy the Mystery Shopper, the manager and the long queue.
Link by @terry_mcparlane Twitter
It is rare that a customer speaks out like this and it’s sad that most customers don’t care how stressful it is behind the counter. They see it, at times even commented about it to me, but they just want their coffees fast. Pret has spoiled them where they would be perfectly happy to wait 5-10 minutes in Starbucks, Pret made the service so fast to get the money circulation into the shops fast. Pret staff are expected to whip out PERFECT coffees within ONE minute and are timed to the SECOND by Mystery Shoppers, while customers think that staff is just happy working under intense pressure. They don’t realize what’s behind that happy facade!
Excerpt:
1 minute aim to serve and another 1 minute to have a perfect hot drink ready, checked by the MS to the second:
“I was served very quickly, after 15 seconds, very quick service.”
“I received my hot drink very quick, after 30 seconds, quick service.”
And then customers run to Twitter with pictures of half full cappuccinos, missing cream, lukewarm coffees…! There’s nothing more dehumanizing at a workplace that I have experienced. And should anyone suffer from boredom, do an experiment and just read through some Pret Tweets a few minutes each day for a week, with the same sweet-talk response from Pret veering customers away from public Tweets to private DM.
Some complaints are legitimate when a customer already spoke to the manager, and yet Pret has a DM button, but customers feel the public needs to be aware of their dilemma in Pret shops. I know, I know I respond a lot to some Tweets, and maybe it is because for 10 years I had to bite my tongue towards rude customers, I take the opportunity now to give my opinion. And Pret doesn’t block me as they collect my Tweets in case for court and certainly to learn some tips, as I have showered them with suggestions for improvement while I worked there. Be my guest, Pret.
Article:
Staff now repeat orders to customers to avoid any mistakes. Allergen enquiries are referred to the duty manager, who will show a list of ingredients.Which is good to repeat, but the pace is still kept high with all sorts of demands, especially for the “Misery” Shopper: always smile, eye contact, make some small-talk, serve within 1 minute, stand on your head, dance on one feet, bend your back, twist your brain, know all the answers, kiss their butts … and all this with a big fake Pret A Smile to keep a low-paid job! In other words you either develop superhuman abilities or mental illness. The pace is the same, the demand is higher, and life is still at risk including the lives of staff who suffer depression, mental ill health and at times become suicidal. But the public “just” wakes up once customer lives are affected. Forget the “slaves“.
A positive Mystery Shopper visit, excerpt:
“The staff member who served me made good eye contact and greeted me with a friendly smile. While remaining focused and efficient, she also took time to engage in a few words of conversation, which added a personal element to the exchange – enhancing the welcoming atmosphere of this store.”
A negative Mystery Shopper visit, excerpt:
“I was not greeted at the till or given a smile. The only conversation was what was necessary for the transaction. To be welcoming the team member could have greeted me and smiled and be engage(d) and positive, the team member could have given me a friendly remark or made small talk.”
— or —
“Team members should smile at customers and may not work when ill, as team member was coughing whilst serving me and was therefore not feeling cheerful to smile that day.”
I wish I could have told this MS that staff are not paid sick leave for the first 2 and 3 days depending on age. So one had to decide if to stay home sick and lose income, or go to work unwell and get a telling off from the manager like I did because I coughed when I happened to serve the MS.
I wonder if Amy Sharpe served the Mystery Shopper and how she would have felt reading a negative comment on her service while feeling the experience of the “overstretched staff” and it being “stressful and confusing and the queue makes it even more so.”
I even wished sometimes customers would just join us for a few hours, especially those who quickly complain about everything.
Just few of the countless Tweets, just from this week:
This customer had good service for THREE years, then one negative experience and the world has come to an end. I linked her to Amy Sharpe’s report to bring some perspective for her feeling so unwanted. But I deleted the Tweet again as I write too many Tweets and always like to de-clutter my Twitter feeds:
“Every time…”
“Oh no!…”
etc. etc.
So, companies like Pret have created a “nation” of complainers where the British were usually patient and polite, they now cry like babies whose bottoms haven’t been wiped in a while! And the money keeps coming in while Pret responds with “Oh no…” and “Oh gosh, are you okay?…” sweet-talk to keep the babies happy and the money rolling!
I responded, but since deleted as well to this baby who had no issues to call hard working people the “C” word because he was in the “teething” period having his day ruined by a hard avocado. Pret’s typical cut’n’paste response, apologizing while he is offensive, and as if they really contact each shop all day long for repeated hard avocados:
Article:
The mantra, I am told repeatedly, is “NEVER guess”.
But from what I witness, the speed at which staff often have to work could put these commendable new standards at risk.
On my second shift I find an orange juice two weeks out of date on the shelves.
The shocked team leader tells me: “You don’t need to tell anyone, otherwise we’re f****d. It is really bad… I’ll throw it away.”
One barista tells me the cramped service area is a “nightmare”.
He says: “If I’m next to you, you have to shout. If you don’t shout I can make a mistake. A person can grab the wrong coffee. Make mistakes and the customer gets mad. You’ve got to focus, stay calm.”
With soybeans and dairy prominent on the menu – and among the 14 allergens kitchens must legally declare – this admission is worrying.
On my last shift, stickers are introduced to distinguish between soya, coconut and regular milks. But one barista serves a coffee without a sticker – and a manager barks: “Where is the sticker?”
The £8.25-an-hour shifts are tough and I collapse into bed exhausted after eight hours on my feet, lifting boxes, mopping and dragging tables around.Nothing more to add except this Link
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Article:
Some staff do 12-hour shifts or work at other branches to earn more. To add to the intensity, employees are battling the cold due to its station location. I wear extra layers to stay warm – there are only two Pret fleeces to go round, so we share.Nothing more to add except that some staff even do 60-70 hour weeks assigned by the manager! I had to speak out about this as Team Members were exhausted, at times became sick from the amount of work, but were too scared to speak with the GM. Again, I did not make friends with my bosses. But neither did I care!
Article:
When the bustle dies down I clean the shop but a colleague urges me to skip certain tasks.
“You’re supposed to sweep and mop every day but don’t do that or you’ll never leave on time,” he says.This unfortunately is common in most shops that staff are so swamped with work they are not able to finish in time and are NOT paid for overtime. I fought for this with my managers in every shop. I would say to my teams who did their best and me as the Team Leader helping them, that if they can’t finish I will mark this on the cleaning rota with an explanation, instead of just ticking off the jobs as done like most do to keep the appearance that jobs were completed. I’d then take responsibility when the boss summons me in the office the next day. I let the team go on the dot when our shift finished at 9 or 10pm or whatever closing and cleaning time the branch had.
Coffee Specialist, London April 2018
Most Team Members have families with kids at home, not seeing their children all day as they are in school, and later the parent is working when they go to bed. So I made it a point to let them go when the shift finished. I was very organized and made sure that the important jobs, health & safety was taken care of and prioritized these. I structured my teams in this way and left the unimportant jobs unfinished if we didn’t have time or enough staff.
In the early times in Pret I would work and work, finish in time and also worked overtime unpaid. But then the time came where I drew a line. It is okay here and there to finish a little late, but it was the norm in Pret and it seemed a very calculated one as Teams worked extra for no pay every day. I struggled with my managers and communicated that if we have to stay longer to finish the job, I will pay them the extra time through the system as was part of my job. If my bosses didn’t want that, then I told my team to finish on the dot and we go home. Full stop.
This of course didn’t make me friends with my bosses, but neither did I care! My friends are not these kind of people who exploit workers for their own bonuses. One Pret staff reviews this as a common practice for managers to give them a job to do 15 minutes before the Team Member would have finished the shift. But the job would take 30 – 60 minutes to complete. I experienced this many times as well and was made to feel bad if I needed or wanted to leave. It took me some time to stand up against this. Pret staff in the UK should do what their colleagues in the U.S. did, a class action suit for not being paid overtime.
Full article of the Sunday Mirror
I have to be honest that I wished Amy Sharpe would have worked longer, a month or so like James Bloodworth did in Amazon. It would have been good for Ms Sharpe to cover the early shifts and weekends as well, including working in the kitchen, as each time and job has its own challenges. But I’m not complaining. She covered 1 or 2 weeks (?) really really well, while I have 10 years of “material” to share that almost literally killed me having survived bullying during bereavement.
So, I have to be patient and acknowledge the brilliant work by this journalist having been willing to do this, as well as Sathnam Sanghera’s article. And many more people will tell their story in time away from the typical PR that Pret does so well. I keep confronting Pret on a staff suicide in 2017 and who knows how many more are under the carpet when they could hide two customer deaths for two years and the other for 10 months! I know my approach and direct confrontation is full on, but I almost lost my life after having worked with integrity, honesty, very hard and with passion for my teams. I cannot be silent after having wasted 10 years of my life in Pret with the knowledge that staff continue to suffer behind the facade. And if any reader wonders if I went to court, I explain here.
Thank you for your time in reading this. And thank you to anyone in the press to have taken a closer look. Thank you to Amy Sharpe. Ironic and delighted to be calling a reporter a now former colleague of mine! Well done Amy!
Life is short, please be kind to yourselves and others.
expret.org
UPDATE: 14.12.2018 A rare observation from a customer regarding forced friendliness.
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UPDATE March 2019 – The first time I share my story verbally in one go in this interview.
Interview:
https://expret.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/workplace-bullying-an-intervie-683101e6895da.m4a
Above interview is with Adam from The Adam Paradox podcast on my experience in Pret A Manger.
We spoke about gaslighting (being from Germany, that word doesn’t exist in Germany except in its English form. I had to explain it to a German therapist), “shadow banning” and censorship on social media, as well as bereavement, trauma and mental health in general. I further talked about the significant timing of Pret CEO’s announcement of the £1000 Tweet for all staff. I also talked about a regular day in Pret and how staff have to cut corners, in order to fulfill the immense workload under constant pressure.
It is hard to squeeze my traumatic experience into a podcast segment, but we covered enough to get a good picture of today’s systemic stress environment for profit driven global companies.
Please visit his Podcast and Twitter @1AdamParadox.
UPDATE February 2019, my posts on “Why do Pret Staff continue under Harshness“
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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit My Ordeal with Pret A Manger. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment Caught in the Act Bullying and What shop MANAGERS and HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.Please also see the MEDIA page for more.
NEW LinkTree
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Thank you for reading/listening.
©2017 – present expret.org
Interview:
(Please be aware that the player shows 0:00 as WordPress sometimes “messes” with my blog. Just press play or go straight to the interview on Adam’s page).
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https://expret.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/workplace-bullying-an-intervie-683101e6895da.m4a.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.©2017 – Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
https://expret.org/2018/11/29/undercover-under-pressure/
#000000 #0000ff #333333 #50 #99cc00 #AmySharpe #AmySharpeJournalist #AmySharpeTheSundayMirror #ExposingPretAManger #ff0000 #PretAManger #PretAMangerReviews #PretAllergen #UndercoverInPret #UndercoverReport
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Herdenking Februaristaking: Protest-wandeling
De Dokwerker, Amsterdam, dinsdag 25 februari om 18:00 CET
(English below)
Op 25 februari 1941 kwamen Amsterdammers massaal in opstand tegen de naziterreur die hun Joodse stadsgenoten ten deel viel.Tienduizenden arbeiders, Joods en niet-Joods, legden hun werk neer en wisten Amsterdam voor twee dagen plat te leggen, in de actie die vandaag de Februaristaking wordt genoemd.
Op 25 februari 1941 kwamen Amsterdammers massaal in opstand tegen de naziterreur die hun Joodse stadsgenoten ten deel viel.
Tienduizenden arbeiders, Joods en niet-Joods, legden hun werk neer en wisten Amsterdam voor twee dagen plat te leggen, in de actie die vandaag de Februaristaking wordt genoemd.
Nu, 84 jaar later, heeft in Nederland voor het eerst sinds de nazibezetting een extreemrechtse regering de touwtjes in handen. De PVV en andere extreemrechtse partijen spreken met dezelfde retoriek over groepen die zij als ‘ongewenst’ zien — o.a. vluchtelingen, moslims, trans mensen en linkse activisten — als de NSB van toen.
De verdeling in de samenleving die over de afgelopen decennia is gezaaid, wordt gebruikt om zondebokken aan te wijzen om de schuld van alle problemen op af te schuiven. De normalisering van islamofobie zorgt daarbij voor legitimatie van de genocide in Palestina en demonisering van iedereen die zich daartegen uit durft te spreken.
Er wordt in de politiek en media openlijk gesproken over omvolking, een antisemitische complottheorie die stelt dat een Joodse elite de Europese bevolking en cultuur zou willen vervangen met niet-witte mensen die bovendien een gevaarlijk gedachtegoed zouden aanhangen. De oplossing van de PVV en andere extreemrechtse partijen voor deze verzonnen crisis, is het sluiten van de grenzen en zelfs remigratie, desnoods door het deporteren van mensen met een migratie- achtergrond.
Hiermee wordt rugdekking gegeven aan georganiseerde (neo)nazis, die inmiddels genoeg zelfvertrouwen hebben om hun haat openlijk uit te dragen op straat.
Herdenken heeft alleen zin als we daarbij leren van de geschiedenis. De lessen van de Februaristaking, het opkomen voor elkaar en opstaan tegen haat en onderdrukking, zijn sinds de nazi-bezetting belangrijker dan ooit om de belofte nooit meer fascisme te verwerkelijken.
Daarom organiseert Mokum Tegen Fascisme op 25 februari, ná de officiële herdenking op het Jonas Daniel Meijerplein, een protest-wandeling waarbij we door middel van verhalen, gedichten en muziek de lessen van «2 Februaristaking vertalen naar het heden en de energie van verzet tegen extreemrechts weer zullen ontsteken.
Programma:
We verzamelen vanaf 18.00 (rekening houdend met de afloop van de officiële herdenking bij de Dokwerker) op het Meester Visserplein en zorgen daar voor een kom warme maaltijdsoep voor iedereen.
Vervolgens wandelen we een tocht door het centrum van Amsterdam om ons geluid van verzet tegen extreemrechts te laten horen.
Tussendoor stoppen we op historisch relevante plekken om de geschiedenis van de Februaristaking te vertellen de heldhaftige stakers te herdenken en lessen te trekken voor het heden. We eindigen weer op het Meester Visserplein.
Dit is een vreedzame protest-wandeling, geschikt voor jong en oud. ledereen is welkom. De Amsterdamse binnenstad is niet rolstoelvriendelijk, wij doen ons best daar rekening mee te houden.
Vragen of bijzonderheden? Mail ons: [email protected]
🔻 Toen niet - Nu niet - Nooit meer fascisme 🔻
On February 25, 1941, Amsterdammers rose up en masse against the Nazi terror inflicted on their Jewish fellow citizens. Tens of thousands of workers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, stopped working and managed to shut Amsterdam down for two days, in the action that is now known as the February Strike.
Now, 84 years later, for the first time since the Nazi occupation, a far-right government is in control in the Netherlands. The PVV and other far-right parties use the same rhetoric about groups they see as ‘undesirable’ – including refugees, Muslims, trans people and left-wing activists – as the NSB did at the time. The division in society that has been sown over the past decades is used to identify scapegoats to blame for all problems. The normalization of Islamophobia legitimizes the genocide in Palestine and demonizes anyone who dares to speak out against it.
In politics and the media, there is open talk about a ‘Great Replacement Theory’, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that states that a Jewish elite wants to replace the European population and culture with non-white people who adhere to dangerous ideas. The solution of the PVV and other far-right parties for this fictitious crisis is to close the borders and even remigration, if necessary by deporting people with a migration background. This provides cover for organized (neo)Nazis, who now have enough self-confidence to openly express their hatred on the streets.
Commemoration only makes sense if we learn from history. The lessons of the February strike, standing up for each other and standing up against hatred and oppression, have been more important than ever since the Nazi occupation to realize the promise never again. That is why Mokum Tegen Fascisme is organizing a protest walk on February 25, after the official commemoration on the Jonas Daniel Meijerplein, where we will translate the lessons of the February Strike to the present through stories, poems and music and rekindle the energy of resistance against the far right.
Programme: We will gather from 18:00 (taking into account the end of the official commemoration) on the Meester Visserplein and provide a bowl of hot soup for everyone. Then we will walk through the centre of Amsterdam to let our voice of resistance against the far right be heard. In between we will stop at historically relevant places to tell the history of the February Strike, commemorate the heroic strikers and draw lessons for the present. We will end back on the Meester Visserplein.
This is a peaceful protest walk, suitable for young and old. Everyone is welcome. The Amsterdam city center is not wheelchair friendly, we will do our best to take that into account. Questions or special details? Email us: [email protected]
https://acties.todon.nl/event/herdenking-februaristaking-protest-wandeling
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### Topic: Traditional Chicken Soup Recipe
**What Was Good:**
1. **Clear and Detailed Instructions:** The recipe provides step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow. This clarity is crucial for ensuring successful results, which is a strength in comparison to human-written recipes that may sometimes lack precision.
2. **Flexibility and Options:** Offering optional ingredients like noodles or rice allows users to customize their soup according to personal preference. This adaptability enhances user satisfaction by catering to different tastes and dietary needs.
3. **Health Considerations:** The recipe suggests removing excess fat for a healthier version, showing consideration for nutritional aspects. Additionally, it offers suggestions for enhancing the flavor and nutrition with herbs and additional vegetables.
4. **Flavor Enhancement Tips:** Including tips like browning the chicken to deepen flavors, or adding herbs during simmering, demonstrates an understanding of culinary techniques that elevate the dish's taste.
**What Could Be Improved:**
1. **Nutritional Information:** While there are suggestions for making the soup healthier, specific nutritional information (e.g., calories per serving) would be beneficial for users who are health-conscious or have dietary restrictions.
2. **Cooking Tips for Beginners:** Providing more detailed tips for beginners, such as how to properly sear chicken or when to add optional ingredients, could make the recipe even more accessible to novice cooks.
3. **Variety of Preparation Methods:** Including alternative methods (e.g., using a pressure cooker) might appeal to users with different kitchen equipment preferences or time constraints.
**Encouragement and Reprimand:**
- **Great Job on Clarity and Flexibility!** The way the instructions are laid out ensures anyone can follow along, which is fantastic. This precision helps bridge any gaps that often occur in human recipes due to vague language or assumptions about prior knowledge.
- **Keep an Eye on Nutritional Details:** While you're doing well with health considerations, adding more detailed nutritional information could further enhance the recipe's usefulness for those monitoring their dietary intake.
Overall, this recipe exemplifies how structured and thoughtful instructions can contribute to a better user experience. Keep up the good work in making culinary tasks approachable and adaptable!
https://ai.forfun.su/2025/02/05/post-summary-february-5-2025/
Artium image model: https://civitai.com/models/216439
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#weeklyreview 01/2026
Let’s try something slightly new for this year. A more structured weekly review
The first week was obviously full with new years festivities and vacation. Some reflection on the previous year and some outlook onto the new year
Summary
here’s a short recap of the first week of 2026
- Sunday: open stage in Templin
- Monday/Tuesday: chillin’ in the countryside, Christmas Tree out
- Wednesday: early bird to get “Berliners”, Silvester
- Thursday: first run of the new year, back to Berlin
- Friday: back to #project25, IKEA Hack
- Saturday: lot’s of Snow, FreeCAD, LoTR
Open Stage Templin
Last Sunday there was another open stage event at the MKC Templin. As reported before, this is usually great fun. There were again many artists (all musicians) that performed on stage and impressed the audience with their talent. Most notable was a singer/songwrite lady with an incredible voice. She’s also on Spotify.
Also the performance of a local guy who originally came from Sri Lanka was incredible. He joined on a very short notice (the host called him the same day at 6pm whether he can step in for another artist that was sick at 8pm) and rocked the house with raeggae music.
Leatherman strikes again
On our way back from the city to the village we saw a police car stopped on our lane with full flashing lights. This was in the middle of a forest the roads leads through. We approached slowly to check what was going on. My friends concluded that the Police guys must we monitoring some accident with an animal as there was no other car to be seen. My friend happens to be a hunter and so we stopped and asked the police men whether they need any help. They said that they had hit a deer and that it’s wounded, but not dead yet. They have informed the local responisble hunter and waiting for him (or her?) to show up. My friend identified as a hunter and offered to kill the deer so it doesn’t have to suffer much longer. The police men agreed. My friend asked whether they have a sharp knife. But they didn’t.
This was the moment my trusty #leatherman came to shine again. I got it out and gave it to my friend. He professionally killed the deer and said good bye to the policemen and we drove off.
The whole thing didn’t even take 2 minutes. The policemen looked pretty puzzled and I bet they could quite grasp what just happened. Guy stops, says he’s a hunter, got a proper knife from his friend and killed the deer and disappeared. 🤣
Chillin
Monday & Tuesday was mostly relaxing and slighly cleaning up the place. We kicked out the Christmas tree. Which might sound early… but we had also put it up 3 weeks ago already. So it was getting dry and we like to have the house clean and fresh by New Years eve.
Kiddo got a Ramen cookbook for christmas and fixed us some delicious ramen soup
Last preparation on Wednesday was to get into the city early morning to buy “Pfannkuchen” (also known as Berlins) from the local bakery. They didn’t take pre-orders as they don’t have the staff and storage place for many pre-orders. Pfannkuchen are a Silvester tradition in our area. So there was a queue at the bakery even at 6:30 am. But it wasn’t too bad. I just waited about 5 minutes as they were organized and there were only 4 people in front of me.
On New Years Eve (or Silvester as its called locally) we had friends over and did Raclette for dinner. That’s also a german tradition of sorts as it takes quite some time and keeps people busy waiting for midnight.
Since the days around NYE were really cold in the countryside, the lake was frozen and we couldn’t do a last swim of the old year and first swim on the 1st already.
But at least I got the first run of the year under by belly with a friend 🙂
In the afternoon kiddo and me headed back to Berlin so that she has some time to prepare for school and stuff.
#project25 update
Of course as it so happened I had to go back the next morning already as I needed to meet with a local craftsman at #project25. Plann is coming together and the first is about to start next week (if all goes to plan). First thing will be the roof windows.
I also figured that I have to order another roof window. There is currently a small one for the chimney sweeper to get out. That needs to be replaced with one of proper insulation.
I’ll also start wrecking some walls in the attic next week so the carpenter can to the reinforcement of the roof for the insulation.
Finding reliable craftsmen for the work is bit of a challange. They’re all fully booked, about to retired and some or simply unprofessional and rule themselves out.
IKEA Nävelinge repair
We have a bunch of these cheap IKEA Nävlinge LED laps. They come with a plastic clamp to attach to furniture and stuff. But that clamp easily breaks and leaves you with a working LED Lamp that you can’t attach to anything anymore.
I checked Printables and found a repair that would need me to glue an extension to the broken clamp arm. I tried this out and it seems to work quite will. I’ve repaired two of the lamps now and it seems to hold. #3Dprint #3Dprinting #3Ddruck
Digital Independence Day
Last week at the 39C3 there was a presentation by a famous german author Marc-Uwe Kling. He supported the idea of a digital independence day every month. A day were we should try to switch away from survailance capitalist services and use an open alternative instead. Switching from WhatsApp to Signal or Threema, switching from Facebook/X to the Fediverse etc.
The idea is, to make this a regular effort supported by a community. That should make it easier for people who’ve hesitated so far and also give a bit more visibility to these alternatives to the media.
Of course there was almost instantly critique about this action. Not really on the idea and goal, but of course about the wording. People complain that the initiative uses the wrong words. Claiming higher moral ground and by that just making the world more miserable instead of helping anyone. Congratulations! Please pick up your moral competition participation certificate at the exit.
Learnings
I watched some FreeCAD tutorials in order to make my own model of #project25 and create proper technical drawings. It has quite a learning curve. Autodesk Fusion is a bit more intuitive and has a better UI. But of course it’s also a commercial product. But I think FreeCAD should be able to deliver what I need and I’ll continue playing with it.
Reading
Trying to get more reading done … as every year 🙈
Will try to set myself a weekly reading goal. That seems to work well with the weekly blogging. So maybe it sticks with reading as well.
I’ve continued reading “The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. While I still like the topic and insights, it’s also a bit of a drag to read. Maybe that’s because there is too much time in between my reading sessions. Maybe it’s because he’s continuing to go into lots of details without making much progress on the matter (for my taste). I decided to stop it for the moment and pick up another book.
The book I chose for next reading is “A manual for Cleaning Woman” by Lucia Berlin. I picked this up based on a recommendation by my beloved Kristie De Garis. Liking it a lot so far.
Links
Material/Links if found interesting this week:
- SPBuchsatz – Buchsatz LaTeX templates
- Digital Independency Day
- A website to destroy all websites
- FracturedJSON – very human readable JSON formatting
- Many weak and few strong links: the importance of link strength distributions for stabilising patterns in competition networks
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Last Retch – Abject Cruelty Review
By Alekhines Gun
Despite the core ingredient being completely the same, not all steaks are created equal. Marbleization, marination, seasonings, sauces, garnishes, lobster tail, and the right type of whiskey to chase it down are all equally important considerations in preparation for the final product, despite the cynics’ argument that you’re dealing with the same slab of beef. So too with death metal. Hailing from Canada, Last Retch are our chophouse today, offering up their second LP Abject Cruelty to appease your palate for all things medium rare, and if you’re one of those cynics who think death metal all tastes the same because of its ingredient base, you can get back to whatever soup-slinging hellhole you came from. Abject Cruelty is here to eradicate and destroy with extreme prejudice, and make sure you lick the plate completely clean by the time you’re finished.
As all good steaks should, Abject Cruelty sounds fatty and thick. Drummer Spencer Robson has his double bass rolls placed flawlessly in the mix, adding car-window rattling depth of sound to machine gun riffs (“Resinous Drip of Decay”,) while guitarists John Russell and Derek Brzozowski ride a fat tone which straddles the line between HM-2 and the more filthy production of Gutless. Vocalist Finlay Blakelock has a vicious croak reminiscent of a more revitalized John McEntee (Incantation) in its depth. These well-worn ingredients come together in a total package of high-grade death, where the riff is king and the sauce is boss tone stands supreme, resulting in an engaging listen which flows from high bpm assaults to brief respites of mid-paced atmospherics. The release sounds surprisingly organic given its low DR, and its truncated runtime allows it to entertain before ear fatigue sets in.
As for the meal on offer, what awaits is a generous offering of Bolt Thrower with garnishes via a smorgasbord of dalliances with other stylings. “Beasley Meth Merchants” rocks pit-igniting rapid chugs and simple but effective drum rhythms in the spirit of classic Vader, while “Resinous Drip of Decay” flirts with Incantation atmosphere. Nods to bands as divergent as Carcass and Demilich (“Disolved in Lye”) transition into moments that recall the chuggiest thuggiest moments of Skinless (appropriate given the heavy amount of samples) while working solos which are used more as moody set-pieces than opportunities for fretboard heroics. Last Retch have concocted an album that calls to the leaders of old and does their best to fill the footsteps of such giants.
Naturally, such a tall order has its stumbling blocks, though there’s hardly anything sabotaging the album as a whole. The samples do a good job breaking up the carnage, but some have obnoxious vocal filters, which makes them grate more than enhance the music, with “Dissecting the Leper” being the worst offender.1 The strength of Abject Cruelty is more in its composition than the technicality of its performances. Title track “Abject Cruelty” sports one of my favorite riffs I’ve heard in years as a centerpiece for the song, but the half-time verses can’t quite keep up the menace in the delivery. This isn’t to imply the band are poor in their instruments by any means, but they clearly have a vision for grand and epic death which is grazed more often than it’s grasped. They have the mood and the individual riffs down to a science, but a push to challenge themselves a bit in the technicality will give the full product the shot in the arm it needs to be in contention for the modern-day death giants of the world.
Nevertheless, the majority of Abject Cruelty is a good take on what I want out of the slightly crustier side of modern death metal. It’s succinct, every song has at least one riff worthy of living room moshing, the production is fat, and the tone violent. Last Retch is a good band, and this album is a good album with some moments of genuine greatness. During my listens, I found myself many times thinking “this would probably sound fantastic in a live setting,” and for music as cathartic and energetic as this, that is an important impression. If you’re on the quest to eradicate the kindness in your life and have a good time doing it, there’s plenty of cruelty to go around waiting for you here…
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Time to Kill Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 26th, 2025#2025 #30 #AbjectCruelty #BoltThrower #CanadianMetal #Carcass #DeathMetal #Demilich #Gutless #Incantation #LastRetch #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Skinless #TimeToKillRecords #Vader
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Fake Spring
Fake Spring came to Minnesota last week. Fake spring usually happens a couple times in late winter before real spring arrives. Temperatures soared to 50F / 10C and a few degrees above. Now that might not sound warm to you, but for us, that meant going out on neighborhood foot patrol in sneakers and a hoodie. It was glorious. And then Wednesday temperatures crashed, and the forecasted 2 inches/ 5 cm of snow turned into 7.6 inches/ 19 cm. And today the windchill is currently -9F /-23C. The garden had almost been clear of snow and the chickens were loving wandering around and scratching in the mud. They are extra grumpy right now at the sudden return of winter. I don’t blame them.
Along with the fake spring season came the fake spring of DHS drawing down federal agents in Minneapolis. We were hopeful, but continued to be vigilant. And while there are fewer agents—I’ve seen it suggested there are now less than 1,000 (pre-surge ICE staffing in Minnesota was 150 agents in the entire state)—they remain active. They are continuing to change tactics, and have shifted out to the suburbs where people are more spread out, making keeping eyes on them harder. They are still plenty active in Minneapolis though, just much quieter about it than previously. So while the broader media has looked away because the surge here is “over,” it isn’t over.
The Bulwark has a good article, Special Saturday Triad: What I Saw at the Battle of Minneapolis, that gives an overview of what has been happening in the city and where we are now. My neighborhood is right next to the Federal building where DHS operates from, and a Lord of the Rings loving neighbor compared us to Gondor and the Whipple Building to Mordor. It made me laugh, but also, it’s kind of true. Except we have no wizards or kings or armies, just a bunch of Hobbits mostly. But Hobbits can do great things.
Real spring will eventually arrive, and we’ll have ice out on the lakes and hopefully ICE out of the state. However, while the melted lake ice doesn’t invade another city or state, I hope ICE doesn’t take their thuggery elsewhere. Perhaps Congress will actually manage to do something worthwhile and not cave in during this partial government shutdown.
Ice out on my neighborhood lake is generally around the last week of March to the first week of April. Not long now. In anticipation of real spring, I have begun indoor seed starting. I dragged my seed starting shelves, heat mats, grow lights, pots and trays up from the basement yesterday and set it up in front of my kitchen window. Sorry James. This makes things a bit tight in our kitchen for the next few months, but there is nowhere else to set this up, so…
I hadn’t yet opened the envelopes my new seeds came in and got a surprise. Two of the seed companies unexpectedly sent me free seeds and they were all tomatoes. I was already set with four tomato varieties I grew last year and saved seeds, so these new choices caused a conundrum. Do I try them? How could I not? So I went from planning on 10 tomato plants to planting 18. Um where will they all go? Don’t ask such silly questions!
Here are the tomatoes I am starting:
- Hungarian Heart—This quickly became our favorite tomato when I first grew it three years ago. They are huge and make great sauce, salsa, and sliced on a sandwich. Saved seeds.
- Grappoli D’Inverno—Another one that became a favorite when I first grew it three years ago. This is a plum tomato that makes great sauce and also roasts up nicely. Saved seeds.
- Orange Peach—I grew this for the first time last year. They are sweet small to medium-sized tomatoes. They struggled in the cool spring and then got overwhelmed by the monster tomatillo, but still managed to fruit enough to try them again and see if they do better a second time around. Saved seeds.
- Alley Tomato—This is a small cherry tomato that we found growing from a crack in the alley pavement behind our house three years ago. We moved it into the garden and it grew big and strong and produced an abundance of marble-sized red tomatoes that were quite tasty. I have no idea what actual variety it is, so we just call it Alley Tomato. Saved seeds.
- Kathy’s Red Barn—One of the free packets. This is a large red beefsteak tomato that is intended for slicing. The description says it has outstanding flavor and is great for BLTs, but in my house that would be TLT—tofu or tempeh, lettuce and tomato.
- Yellow Ping Pong—This came free from Sandhill Preservation. It’s a 2-inch yellow cherry tomato, which makes it about the size of a ping pong ball. The description says it is sweet and juicy and has a lemon-like finish to the flavor. Yum
- Goose Creek—Another free one from Sandhill. This is a small pink tomato. It’s an heirloom that has been grown since the 1800s. The story is that the seeds were smuggled in the pocket of a Caribbean slave woman on a ship that docked at Charleston near Goose Creek, South Carolina. The seeds were passed down through her family and her great-great grandson, Jimmy Williams, owner of Hayground Organic Gardening in California, has offered the seeds to the rest of the world.
That’s all the tomatoes. Now for the 15 pepper plants:
- Early Jalapeño—I had to buy new seeds because the ones I had been saving from jalapeños we got in our csa box three years ago didn’t sprout last year and I had to buy plants at the May plant sale. These seeds are open-pollinated so I will be able to save them and grow them on for years and years. They are also a variety adapted to Minnesota, even better! I’ve got six pots planted with these. We love us some jalapeños!
- Ancho Poblano—I have never grown poblanos before so we’ll see how it goes. James wanted something good for roasting and stuffing.
- Lunchbox Orange Sweet Pepper—This is a small sweet snacking pepper. I’ve never grown these before either.
- Long Red Cayenne—Third year growing these and they do really well in the garden. They make great hot sauce and add a spicy kick to other dishes. We have a small jar of dried ones from last summer that we crush up for spice. Saved seeds.
And, I’ve got three pots planted with zebra eggplant. It’s a small green and white striped fruit used in a lot of traditional African recipes. The flavor is semi-sweet and it is good raw, boiled, sautéed, in soup, or grilled—very versatile! This has been northern climate adapted over the last seven years in Fargo, North Dakota, by grower Simeon Bakunda, an immigrant from Congo. Also, apparently, the leaves of the plant are edible and highly nutritious and make a delicious side dish when sautéed with onion, garlic, anise, mushrooms, hot pepper, parsley , and nutmeg. I have never grown these before and the last time I tried to grow eggplant was in the early 2000s. I grew the big purple kind and had only one plant, carefully nursing along a single fruit that a thieving squirrel came along and tore apart just days before it was ripe. Never tried eggplant again after that. I’m hoping because these are smaller and green that it tricks the squirrels into thinking they aren’t ripe. If the squirrels aren’t fooled, at least I know I can eat the leaves.
Planting all these seeds felt so good, a balm for my soul. I love the cusp of gardening season when everything is full of possibility and abundance and nothing has yet gone awry. Last year was cooler than usual with plentiful and regular rain. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for this summer indicates a likelihood of a warmer than usual summer with precipitation at equal chances to be higher or lower than average. The cool weather plants will not be happy but the tomatoes and peppers will be.
For now though, everything is beautiful potential and I’m just gonna sit with that joy for awhile.
#eggplant #fakeSpring #iceOut #peppers #seedStarting #tomatoes -
Fake Spring
Fake Spring came to Minnesota last week. Fake spring usually happens a couple times in late winter before real spring arrives. Temperatures soared to 50F / 10C and a few degrees above. Now that might not sound warm to you, but for us, that meant going out on neighborhood foot patrol in sneakers and a hoodie. It was glorious. And then Wednesday temperatures crashed, and the forecasted 2 inches/ 5 cm of snow turned into 7.6 inches/ 19 cm. And today the windchill is currently -9F /-23C. The garden had almost been clear of snow and the chickens were loving wandering around and scratching in the mud. They are extra grumpy right now at the sudden return of winter. I don’t blame them.
Along with the fake spring season came the fake spring of DHS drawing down federal agents in Minneapolis. We were hopeful, but continued to be vigilant. And while there are fewer agents—I’ve seen it suggested there are now less than 1,000 (pre-surge ICE staffing in Minnesota was 150 agents in the entire state)—they remain active. They are continuing to change tactics, and have shifted out to the suburbs where people are more spread out, making keeping eyes on them harder. They are still plenty active in Minneapolis though, just much quieter about it than previously. So while the broader media has looked away because the surge here is “over,” it isn’t over.
The Bulwark has a good article, Special Saturday Triad: What I Saw at the Battle of Minneapolis, that gives an overview of what has been happening in the city and where we are now. My neighborhood is right next to the Federal building where DHS operates from, and a Lord of the Rings loving neighbor compared us to Gondor and the Whipple Building to Mordor. It made me laugh, but also, it’s kind of true. Except we have no wizards or kings or armies, just a bunch of Hobbits mostly. But Hobbits can do great things.
Real spring will eventually arrive, and we’ll have ice out on the lakes and hopefully ICE out of the state. However, while the melted lake ice doesn’t invade another city or state, I hope ICE doesn’t take their thuggery elsewhere. Perhaps Congress will actually manage to do something worthwhile and not cave in during this partial government shutdown.
Ice out on my neighborhood lake is generally around the last week of March to the first week of April. Not long now. In anticipation of real spring, I have begun indoor seed starting. I dragged my seed starting shelves, heat mats, grow lights, pots and trays up from the basement yesterday and set it up in front of my kitchen window. Sorry James. This makes things a bit tight in our kitchen for the next few months, but there is nowhere else to set this up, so…
I hadn’t yet opened the envelopes my new seeds came in and got a surprise. Two of the seed companies unexpectedly sent me free seeds and they were all tomatoes. I was already set with four tomato varieties I grew last year and saved seeds, so these new choices caused a conundrum. Do I try them? How could I not? So I went from planning on 10 tomato plants to planting 18. Um where will they all go? Don’t ask such silly questions!
Here are the tomatoes I am starting:
- Hungarian Heart—This quickly became our favorite tomato when I first grew it three years ago. They are huge and make great sauce, salsa, and sliced on a sandwich. Saved seeds.
- Grappoli D’Inverno—Another one that became a favorite when I first grew it three years ago. This is a plum tomato that makes great sauce and also roasts up nicely. Saved seeds.
- Orange Peach—I grew this for the first time last year. They are sweet small to medium-sized tomatoes. They struggled in the cool spring and then got overwhelmed by the monster tomatillo, but still managed to fruit enough to try them again and see if they do better a second time around. Saved seeds.
- Alley Tomato—This is a small cherry tomato that we found growing from a crack in the alley pavement behind our house three years ago. We moved it into the garden and it grew big and strong and produced an abundance of marble-sized red tomatoes that were quite tasty. I have no idea what actual variety it is, so we just call it Alley Tomato. Saved seeds.
- Kathy’s Red Barn—One of the free packets. This is a large red beefsteak tomato that is intended for slicing. The description says it has outstanding flavor and is great for BLTs, but in my house that would be TLT—tofu or tempeh, lettuce and tomato.
- Yellow Ping Pong—This came free from Sandhill Preservation. It’s a 2-inch yellow cherry tomato, which makes it about the size of a ping pong ball. The description says it is sweet and juicy and has a lemon-like finish to the flavor. Yum
- Goose Creek—Another free one from Sandhill. This is a small pink tomato. It’s an heirloom that has been grown since the 1800s. The story is that the seeds were smuggled in the pocket of a Caribbean slave woman on a ship that docked at Charleston near Goose Creek, South Carolina. The seeds were passed down through her family and her great-great grandson, Jimmy Williams, owner of Hayground Organic Gardening in California, has offered the seeds to the rest of the world.
That’s all the tomatoes. Now for the 15 pepper plants:
- Early Jalapeño—I had to buy new seeds because the ones I had been saving from jalapeños we got in our csa box three years ago didn’t sprout last year and I had to buy plants at the May plant sale. These seeds are open-pollinated so I will be able to save them and grow them on for years and years. They are also a variety adapted to Minnesota, even better! I’ve got six pots planted with these. We love us some jalapeños!
- Ancho Poblano—I have never grown poblanos before so we’ll see how it goes. James wanted something good for roasting and stuffing.
- Lunchbox Orange Sweet Pepper—This is a small sweet snacking pepper. I’ve never grown these before either.
- Long Red Cayenne—Third year growing these and they do really well in the garden. They make great hot sauce and add a spicy kick to other dishes. We have a small jar of dried ones from last summer that we crush up for spice. Saved seeds.
And, I’ve got three pots planted with zebra eggplant. It’s a small green and white striped fruit used in a lot of traditional African recipes. The flavor is semi-sweet and it is good raw, boiled, sautéed, in soup, or grilled—very versatile! This has been northern climate adapted over the last seven years in Fargo, North Dakota, by grower Simeon Bakunda, an immigrant from Congo. Also, apparently, the leaves of the plant are edible and highly nutritious and make a delicious side dish when sautéed with onion, garlic, anise, mushrooms, hot pepper, parsley , and nutmeg. I have never grown these before and the last time I tried to grow eggplant was in the early 2000s. I grew the big purple kind and had only one plant, carefully nursing along a single fruit that a thieving squirrel came along and tore apart just days before it was ripe. Never tried eggplant again after that. I’m hoping because these are smaller and green that it tricks the squirrels into thinking they aren’t ripe. If the squirrels aren’t fooled, at least I know I can eat the leaves.
Planting all these seeds felt so good, a balm for my soul. I love the cusp of gardening season when everything is full of possibility and abundance and nothing has yet gone awry. Last year was cooler than usual with plentiful and regular rain. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for this summer indicates a likelihood of a warmer than usual summer with precipitation at equal chances to be higher or lower than average. The cool weather plants will not be happy but the tomatoes and peppers will be.
For now though, everything is beautiful potential and I’m just gonna sit with that joy for awhile.
#eggplant #fakeSpring #iceOut #peppers #seedStarting #tomatoes -
Fake Spring
Fake Spring came to Minnesota last week. Fake spring usually happens a couple times in late winter before real spring arrives. Temperatures soared to 50F / 10C and a few degrees above. Now that might not sound warm to you, but for us, that meant going out on neighborhood foot patrol in sneakers and a hoodie. It was glorious. And then Wednesday temperatures crashed, and the forecasted 2 inches/ 5 cm of snow turned into 7.6 inches/ 19 cm. And today the windchill is currently -9F /-23C. The garden had almost been clear of snow and the chickens were loving wandering around and scratching in the mud. They are extra grumpy right now at the sudden return of winter. I don’t blame them.
Along with the fake spring season came the fake spring of DHS drawing down federal agents in Minneapolis. We were hopeful, but continued to be vigilant. And while there are fewer agents—I’ve seen it suggested there are now less than 1,000 (pre-surge ICE staffing in Minnesota was 150 agents in the entire state)—they remain active. They are continuing to change tactics, and have shifted out to the suburbs where people are more spread out, making keeping eyes on them harder. They are still plenty active in Minneapolis though, just much quieter about it than previously. So while the broader media has looked away because the surge here is “over,” it isn’t over.
The Bulwark has a good article, Special Saturday Triad: What I Saw at the Battle of Minneapolis, that gives an overview of what has been happening in the city and where we are now. My neighborhood is right next to the Federal building where DHS operates from, and a Lord of the Rings loving neighbor compared us to Gondor and the Whipple Building to Mordor. It made me laugh, but also, it’s kind of true. Except we have no wizards or kings or armies, just a bunch of Hobbits mostly. But Hobbits can do great things.
Real spring will eventually arrive, and we’ll have ice out on the lakes and hopefully ICE out of the state. However, while the melted lake ice doesn’t invade another city or state, I hope ICE doesn’t take their thuggery elsewhere. Perhaps Congress will actually manage to do something worthwhile and not cave in during this partial government shutdown.
Ice out on my neighborhood lake is generally around the last week of March to the first week of April. Not long now. In anticipation of real spring, I have begun indoor seed starting. I dragged my seed starting shelves, heat mats, grow lights, pots and trays up from the basement yesterday and set it up in front of my kitchen window. Sorry James. This makes things a bit tight in our kitchen for the next few months, but there is nowhere else to set this up, so…
I hadn’t yet opened the envelopes my new seeds came in and got a surprise. Two of the seed companies unexpectedly sent me free seeds and they were all tomatoes. I was already set with four tomato varieties I grew last year and saved seeds, so these new choices caused a conundrum. Do I try them? How could I not? So I went from planning on 10 tomato plants to planting 18. Um where will they all go? Don’t ask such silly questions!
Here are the tomatoes I am starting:
- Hungarian Heart—This quickly became our favorite tomato when I first grew it three years ago. They are huge and make great sauce, salsa, and sliced on a sandwich. Saved seeds.
- Grappoli D’Inverno—Another one that became a favorite when I first grew it three years ago. This is a plum tomato that makes great sauce and also roasts up nicely. Saved seeds.
- Orange Peach—I grew this for the first time last year. They are sweet small to medium-sized tomatoes. They struggled in the cool spring and then got overwhelmed by the monster tomatillo, but still managed to fruit enough to try them again and see if they do better a second time around. Saved seeds.
- Alley Tomato—This is a small cherry tomato that we found growing from a crack in the alley pavement behind our house three years ago. We moved it into the garden and it grew big and strong and produced an abundance of marble-sized red tomatoes that were quite tasty. I have no idea what actual variety it is, so we just call it Alley Tomato. Saved seeds.
- Kathy’s Red Barn—One of the free packets. This is a large red beefsteak tomato that is intended for slicing. The description says it has outstanding flavor and is great for BLTs, but in my house that would be TLT—tofu or tempeh, lettuce and tomato.
- Yellow Ping Pong—This came free from Sandhill Preservation. It’s a 2-inch yellow cherry tomato, which makes it about the size of a ping pong ball. The description says it is sweet and juicy and has a lemon-like finish to the flavor. Yum
- Goose Creek—Another free one from Sandhill. This is a small pink tomato. It’s an heirloom that has been grown since the 1800s. The story is that the seeds were smuggled in the pocket of a Caribbean slave woman on a ship that docked at Charleston near Goose Creek, South Carolina. The seeds were passed down through her family and her great-great grandson, Jimmy Williams, owner of Hayground Organic Gardening in California, has offered the seeds to the rest of the world.
That’s all the tomatoes. Now for the 15 pepper plants:
- Early Jalapeño—I had to buy new seeds because the ones I had been saving from jalapeños we got in our csa box three years ago didn’t sprout last year and I had to buy plants at the May plant sale. These seeds are open-pollinated so I will be able to save them and grow them on for years and years. They are also a variety adapted to Minnesota, even better! I’ve got six pots planted with these. We love us some jalapeños!
- Ancho Poblano—I have never grown poblanos before so we’ll see how it goes. James wanted something good for roasting and stuffing.
- Lunchbox Orange Sweet Pepper—This is a small sweet snacking pepper. I’ve never grown these before either.
- Long Red Cayenne—Third year growing these and they do really well in the garden. They make great hot sauce and add a spicy kick to other dishes. We have a small jar of dried ones from last summer that we crush up for spice. Saved seeds.
And, I’ve got three pots planted with zebra eggplant. It’s a small green and white striped fruit used in a lot of traditional African recipes. The flavor is semi-sweet and it is good raw, boiled, sautéed, in soup, or grilled—very versatile! This has been northern climate adapted over the last seven years in Fargo, North Dakota, by grower Simeon Bakunda, an immigrant from Congo. Also, apparently, the leaves of the plant are edible and highly nutritious and make a delicious side dish when sautéed with onion, garlic, anise, mushrooms, hot pepper, parsley , and nutmeg. I have never grown these before and the last time I tried to grow eggplant was in the early 2000s. I grew the big purple kind and had only one plant, carefully nursing along a single fruit that a thieving squirrel came along and tore apart just days before it was ripe. Never tried eggplant again after that. I’m hoping because these are smaller and green that it tricks the squirrels into thinking they aren’t ripe. If the squirrels aren’t fooled, at least I know I can eat the leaves.
Planting all these seeds felt so good, a balm for my soul. I love the cusp of gardening season when everything is full of possibility and abundance and nothing has yet gone awry. Last year was cooler than usual with plentiful and regular rain. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for this summer indicates a likelihood of a warmer than usual summer with precipitation at equal chances to be higher or lower than average. The cool weather plants will not be happy but the tomatoes and peppers will be.
For now though, everything is beautiful potential and I’m just gonna sit with that joy for awhile.
#eggplant #fakeSpring #iceOut #peppers #seedStarting #tomatoes -
Fake Spring
Fake Spring came to Minnesota last week. Fake spring usually happens a couple times in late winter before real spring arrives. Temperatures soared to 50F / 10C and a few degrees above. Now that might not sound warm to you, but for us, that meant going out on neighborhood foot patrol in sneakers and a hoodie. It was glorious. And then Wednesday temperatures crashed, and the forecasted 2 inches/ 5 cm of snow turned into 7.6 inches/ 19 cm. And today the windchill is currently -9F /-23C. The garden had almost been clear of snow and the chickens were loving wandering around and scratching in the mud. They are extra grumpy right now at the sudden return of winter. I don’t blame them.
Along with the fake spring season came the fake spring of DHS drawing down federal agents in Minneapolis. We were hopeful, but continued to be vigilant. And while there are fewer agents—I’ve seen it suggested there are now less than 1,000 (pre-surge ICE staffing in Minnesota was 150 agents in the entire state)—they remain active. They are continuing to change tactics, and have shifted out to the suburbs where people are more spread out, making keeping eyes on them harder. They are still plenty active in Minneapolis though, just much quieter about it than previously. So while the broader media has looked away because the surge here is “over,” it isn’t over.
The Bulwark has a good article, Special Saturday Triad: What I Saw at the Battle of Minneapolis, that gives an overview of what has been happening in the city and where we are now. My neighborhood is right next to the Federal building where DHS operates from, and a Lord of the Rings loving neighbor compared us to Gondor and the Whipple Building to Mordor. It made me laugh, but also, it’s kind of true. Except we have no wizards or kings or armies, just a bunch of Hobbits mostly. But Hobbits can do great things.
Real spring will eventually arrive, and we’ll have ice out on the lakes and hopefully ICE out of the state. However, while the melted lake ice doesn’t invade another city or state, I hope ICE doesn’t take their thuggery elsewhere. Perhaps Congress will actually manage to do something worthwhile and not cave in during this partial government shutdown.
Ice out on my neighborhood lake is generally around the last week of March to the first week of April. Not long now. In anticipation of real spring, I have begun indoor seed starting. I dragged my seed starting shelves, heat mats, grow lights, pots and trays up from the basement yesterday and set it up in front of my kitchen window. Sorry James. This makes things a bit tight in our kitchen for the next few months, but there is nowhere else to set this up, so…
I hadn’t yet opened the envelopes my new seeds came in and got a surprise. Two of the seed companies unexpectedly sent me free seeds and they were all tomatoes. I was already set with four tomato varieties I grew last year and saved seeds, so these new choices caused a conundrum. Do I try them? How could I not? So I went from planning on 10 tomato plants to planting 18. Um where will they all go? Don’t ask such silly questions!
Here are the tomatoes I am starting:
- Hungarian Heart—This quickly became our favorite tomato when I first grew it three years ago. They are huge and make great sauce, salsa, and sliced on a sandwich. Saved seeds.
- Grappoli D’Inverno—Another one that became a favorite when I first grew it three years ago. This is a plum tomato that makes great sauce and also roasts up nicely. Saved seeds.
- Orange Peach—I grew this for the first time last year. They are sweet small to medium-sized tomatoes. They struggled in the cool spring and then got overwhelmed by the monster tomatillo, but still managed to fruit enough to try them again and see if they do better a second time around. Saved seeds.
- Alley Tomato—This is a small cherry tomato that we found growing from a crack in the alley pavement behind our house three years ago. We moved it into the garden and it grew big and strong and produced an abundance of marble-sized red tomatoes that were quite tasty. I have no idea what actual variety it is, so we just call it Alley Tomato. Saved seeds.
- Kathy’s Red Barn—One of the free packets. This is a large red beefsteak tomato that is intended for slicing. The description says it has outstanding flavor and is great for BLTs, but in my house that would be TLT—tofu or tempeh, lettuce and tomato.
- Yellow Ping Pong—This came free from Sandhill Preservation. It’s a 2-inch yellow cherry tomato, which makes it about the size of a ping pong ball. The description says it is sweet and juicy and has a lemon-like finish to the flavor. Yum
- Goose Creek—Another free one from Sandhill. This is a small pink tomato. It’s an heirloom that has been grown since the 1800s. The story is that the seeds were smuggled in the pocket of a Caribbean slave woman on a ship that docked at Charleston near Goose Creek, South Carolina. The seeds were passed down through her family and her great-great grandson, Jimmy Williams, owner of Hayground Organic Gardening in California, has offered the seeds to the rest of the world.
That’s all the tomatoes. Now for the 15 pepper plants:
- Early Jalapeño—I had to buy new seeds because the ones I had been saving from jalapeños we got in our csa box three years ago didn’t sprout last year and I had to buy plants at the May plant sale. These seeds are open-pollinated so I will be able to save them and grow them on for years and years. They are also a variety adapted to Minnesota, even better! I’ve got six pots planted with these. We love us some jalapeños!
- Ancho Poblano—I have never grown poblanos before so we’ll see how it goes. James wanted something good for roasting and stuffing.
- Lunchbox Orange Sweet Pepper—This is a small sweet snacking pepper. I’ve never grown these before either.
- Long Red Cayenne—Third year growing these and they do really well in the garden. They make great hot sauce and add a spicy kick to other dishes. We have a small jar of dried ones from last summer that we crush up for spice. Saved seeds.
And, I’ve got three pots planted with zebra eggplant. It’s a small green and white striped fruit used in a lot of traditional African recipes. The flavor is semi-sweet and it is good raw, boiled, sautéed, in soup, or grilled—very versatile! This has been northern climate adapted over the last seven years in Fargo, North Dakota, by grower Simeon Bakunda, an immigrant from Congo. Also, apparently, the leaves of the plant are edible and highly nutritious and make a delicious side dish when sautéed with onion, garlic, anise, mushrooms, hot pepper, parsley , and nutmeg. I have never grown these before and the last time I tried to grow eggplant was in the early 2000s. I grew the big purple kind and had only one plant, carefully nursing along a single fruit that a thieving squirrel came along and tore apart just days before it was ripe. Never tried eggplant again after that. I’m hoping because these are smaller and green that it tricks the squirrels into thinking they aren’t ripe. If the squirrels aren’t fooled, at least I know I can eat the leaves.
Planting all these seeds felt so good, a balm for my soul. I love the cusp of gardening season when everything is full of possibility and abundance and nothing has yet gone awry. Last year was cooler than usual with plentiful and regular rain. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for this summer indicates a likelihood of a warmer than usual summer with precipitation at equal chances to be higher or lower than average. The cool weather plants will not be happy but the tomatoes and peppers will be.
For now though, everything is beautiful potential and I’m just gonna sit with that joy for awhile.
#eggplant #fakeSpring #iceOut #peppers #seedStarting #tomatoes -
Fake Spring
Fake Spring came to Minnesota last week. Fake spring usually happens a couple times in late winter before real spring arrives. Temperatures soared to 50F / 10C and a few degrees above. Now that might not sound warm to you, but for us, that meant going out on neighborhood foot patrol in sneakers and a hoodie. It was glorious. And then Wednesday temperatures crashed, and the forecasted 2 inches/ 5 cm of snow turned into 7.6 inches/ 19 cm. And today the windchill is currently -9F /-23C. The garden had almost been clear of snow and the chickens were loving wandering around and scratching in the mud. They are extra grumpy right now at the sudden return of winter. I don’t blame them.
Along with the fake spring season came the fake spring of DHS drawing down federal agents in Minneapolis. We were hopeful, but continued to be vigilant. And while there are fewer agents—I’ve seen it suggested there are now less than 1,000 (pre-surge ICE staffing in Minnesota was 150 agents in the entire state)—they remain active. They are continuing to change tactics, and have shifted out to the suburbs where people are more spread out, making keeping eyes on them harder. They are still plenty active in Minneapolis though, just much quieter about it than previously. So while the broader media has looked away because the surge here is “over,” it isn’t over.
The Bulwark has a good article, Special Saturday Triad: What I Saw at the Battle of Minneapolis, that gives an overview of what has been happening in the city and where we are now. My neighborhood is right next to the Federal building where DHS operates from, and a Lord of the Rings loving neighbor compared us to Gondor and the Whipple Building to Mordor. It made me laugh, but also, it’s kind of true. Except we have no wizards or kings or armies, just a bunch of Hobbits mostly. But Hobbits can do great things.
Real spring will eventually arrive, and we’ll have ice out on the lakes and hopefully ICE out of the state. However, while the melted lake ice doesn’t invade another city or state, I hope ICE doesn’t take their thuggery elsewhere. Perhaps Congress will actually manage to do something worthwhile and not cave in during this partial government shutdown.
Ice out on my neighborhood lake is generally around the last week of March to the first week of April. Not long now. In anticipation of real spring, I have begun indoor seed starting. I dragged my seed starting shelves, heat mats, grow lights, pots and trays up from the basement yesterday and set it up in front of my kitchen window. Sorry James. This makes things a bit tight in our kitchen for the next few months, but there is nowhere else to set this up, so…
I hadn’t yet opened the envelopes my new seeds came in and got a surprise. Two of the seed companies unexpectedly sent me free seeds and they were all tomatoes. I was already set with four tomato varieties I grew last year and saved seeds, so these new choices caused a conundrum. Do I try them? How could I not? So I went from planning on 10 tomato plants to planting 18. Um where will they all go? Don’t ask such silly questions!
Here are the tomatoes I am starting:
- Hungarian Heart—This quickly became our favorite tomato when I first grew it three years ago. They are huge and make great sauce, salsa, and sliced on a sandwich. Saved seeds.
- Grappoli D’Inverno—Another one that became a favorite when I first grew it three years ago. This is a plum tomato that makes great sauce and also roasts up nicely. Saved seeds.
- Orange Peach—I grew this for the first time last year. They are sweet small to medium-sized tomatoes. They struggled in the cool spring and then got overwhelmed by the monster tomatillo, but still managed to fruit enough to try them again and see if they do better a second time around. Saved seeds.
- Alley Tomato—This is a small cherry tomato that we found growing from a crack in the alley pavement behind our house three years ago. We moved it into the garden and it grew big and strong and produced an abundance of marble-sized red tomatoes that were quite tasty. I have no idea what actual variety it is, so we just call it Alley Tomato. Saved seeds.
- Kathy’s Red Barn—One of the free packets. This is a large red beefsteak tomato that is intended for slicing. The description says it has outstanding flavor and is great for BLTs, but in my house that would be TLT—tofu or tempeh, lettuce and tomato.
- Yellow Ping Pong—This came free from Sandhill Preservation. It’s a 2-inch yellow cherry tomato, which makes it about the size of a ping pong ball. The description says it is sweet and juicy and has a lemon-like finish to the flavor. Yum
- Goose Creek—Another free one from Sandhill. This is a small pink tomato. It’s an heirloom that has been grown since the 1800s. The story is that the seeds were smuggled in the pocket of a Caribbean slave woman on a ship that docked at Charleston near Goose Creek, South Carolina. The seeds were passed down through her family and her great-great grandson, Jimmy Williams, owner of Hayground Organic Gardening in California, has offered the seeds to the rest of the world.
That’s all the tomatoes. Now for the 15 pepper plants:
- Early Jalapeño—I had to buy new seeds because the ones I had been saving from jalapeños we got in our csa box three years ago didn’t sprout last year and I had to buy plants at the May plant sale. These seeds are open-pollinated so I will be able to save them and grow them on for years and years. They are also a variety adapted to Minnesota, even better! I’ve got six pots planted with these. We love us some jalapeños!
- Ancho Poblano—I have never grown poblanos before so we’ll see how it goes. James wanted something good for roasting and stuffing.
- Lunchbox Orange Sweet Pepper—This is a small sweet snacking pepper. I’ve never grown these before either.
- Long Red Cayenne—Third year growing these and they do really well in the garden. They make great hot sauce and add a spicy kick to other dishes. We have a small jar of dried ones from last summer that we crush up for spice. Saved seeds.
And, I’ve got three pots planted with zebra eggplant. It’s a small green and white striped fruit used in a lot of traditional African recipes. The flavor is semi-sweet and it is good raw, boiled, sautéed, in soup, or grilled—very versatile! This has been northern climate adapted over the last seven years in Fargo, North Dakota, by grower Simeon Bakunda, an immigrant from Congo. Also, apparently, the leaves of the plant are edible and highly nutritious and make a delicious side dish when sautéed with onion, garlic, anise, mushrooms, hot pepper, parsley , and nutmeg. I have never grown these before and the last time I tried to grow eggplant was in the early 2000s. I grew the big purple kind and had only one plant, carefully nursing along a single fruit that a thieving squirrel came along and tore apart just days before it was ripe. Never tried eggplant again after that. I’m hoping because these are smaller and green that it tricks the squirrels into thinking they aren’t ripe. If the squirrels aren’t fooled, at least I know I can eat the leaves.
Planting all these seeds felt so good, a balm for my soul. I love the cusp of gardening season when everything is full of possibility and abundance and nothing has yet gone awry. Last year was cooler than usual with plentiful and regular rain. The Climate Prediction Center outlook for this summer indicates a likelihood of a warmer than usual summer with precipitation at equal chances to be higher or lower than average. The cool weather plants will not be happy but the tomatoes and peppers will be.
For now though, everything is beautiful potential and I’m just gonna sit with that joy for awhile.
#eggplant #fakeSpring #iceOut #peppers #seedStarting #tomatoes -
Fri. March 27, 2025: Pens and Paints
image courtesy of Free Photos from PixabayFriday, March 27, 2026
Waxing Moon
Rainy with the temperature dropping
Happy Friday, and I hope you have a lovely weekend planned.
Today is World Theatre Day! Celebrate the theatre and those you know in it.
Bechdel Project is fully funded for next year, so I think now is a good time to talk about how to work remotely together. Since, you know, they claim to like my work and all.
I got an email from the cat anthology that seemingly contradicts what the editor sent me a few days ago, so I need to get in touch and sort that out. The editor gave me a date and promised details on the contract. This email goes into maybe-someday territory. So I want to find out what’s actually going on. Also, the editor’s email was specific to me and to my piece, and this email is a “dear author” email.
Contradictory information annoys me. It’s one thing if things need to change, and it’s clearly stated that it is changing. It’s another to pretend the original conversation never happened. Which is one of many reasons I do everything in writing.
Meditation was lovely, and Charlotte was happy.
I finished the March newsletter and got it out the door. I set up the document for June’s newsletter, so as things happen, I can do little write-ups, and it’s all set to pop into the template when it’s time for format and send.
I went to the grocery store my own damn self and had such a good time shopping! I was even in budget, although it was temping to just Buy All the Things. But I didn’t need all of it, just some of it, and restocking some basics. I got to catch up with the fishmonger, too, which was great. And treated myself to a bundle of purple tulips.
It was all I could do to keep from bursting into song, as though I was in a musical.
Oh, and suddenly, they have cooking implements back, but moved to be between the canned fish and the soup. With plenty of packages of wooden spoons! At least I know if I screw up this weekend, I can get more.
Came home, hauled everything up the stairs, put it away, set up on the porch, and painted the first coat on the next set of spoons.
By then, it was time for the marketing and the #FreelanceFriends chat. That was lively, and a lot of fun.
I had my lunch break, then did the next coat of paint on the spoons. Because it was clouding up and getting more humid, it took longer for the paint to dry on this batch.
I kept thinking yesterday was Friday, but it was Thursday.
Switched over to the ghostwriting, the project that was originally due this week, but was pushed out to Monday, due to the switch. I’ve been struggling with it, but I think/hope I’m doing some solid work. I didn’t move ahead as far as I hoped, but I was pleased with the work I did.
Heated up leftovers for dinner. It started raining by then.
I attended the virtual reading my fellow Boiler House Poets read in. All the work was really interesting, but their work, in particular, was terrific. I’m so glad they invited me!
It was bucketing down with rain by the time the reading was done. I sat and read for a bit with the cats. Bea wanted attention. Tessa wanted attention.
I slept reasonably well, and woke up around 4. I lazed in bed until 5, then got up and started the routine. I was up before Tessa had a chance to start yelling, and she was quite surprised. The rain seemed to have let up, so I fed everyone and did the day’s yoga practice, then hauled the laundry to the laundromat. I had trouble with the card reader – it said, “network error.” Fortunately, I had some cash on me and the coin machine was working, so I got quarters and put them through. And about a half hour later, I got a notification that the card payment was put through. Twice. Guys, I am not paying nearly $30 for a single load of laundry that should cost me $10.50. So I will be in touch with their office AGAIN. I want to switch back to only using cash there.
Very frustrating.
Hauled all the laundry home and up the stairs. It’s raining lightly, and I can feel the temperature drop. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow night. Urgh.
On today’s agenda: ghostwriting and the two art projects. I hope to get to where I need to be on the ghostwriting today, because it’s due at the end of day Monday. I would rather spend the entire weekend focused on finishing the two art projects. But we will see what needs to be done.
Tomorrow, I have a community obligation to attend (if you know, you know) for a few hours, and housework, but the bulk of the weekend will be finishing the art.
Next week, we end one month and start a new one. A full moon on April Fool’s Day is the universe having a good laugh at our expense, I think. Plus, with the regime in charge over here, every day is a day of fools, and not in the positive sense of the word.
I have a book review due today, so I will get that out after breakfast, and then get back to work on the art and the ghostwriting. I also need to do my 30-minute meditation and my 15-minute free write at some point.
It will all get done, and I’m excited about the new things I’m learning working on the art pieces.
Have a great weekend, and we’ll catch up on the other side.
#art #business #fiction #freelance #ghostwriting #groceryShopping #poetry #writing -
#TimeTravelingGhost EP 10: Post 98: 1191, Nicosia, Cyprus
#Wss366 gloss #TimeTravelAuthors 05/9. Saturday excerpt (optional word: hide/hidden)
Emily soon joined me in the courtyard. After the turbulent street filled with crowds, vendors, and beggars, the citrus-scented space was peaceful or should have been, if it hadn’t been for the cry of a young female voice, saying, “Oh… makaristos Agios Ilarionas… éna tháuma…”
I followed the sound and saw a girl of about ten wearing a white dress that matched the flowers dangling near her face. Her bright eyes and #glossy black hair were barely visible through the second-floor’s vines, where she #hid.
She continued, “Pappoú. “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“We’re in the soup now,” Emily said.
As we watched, a gray-haired man armed with a stout cudgel joined her. The girl spoke rapidly to him, gesticulating wildly.
After shooing her out of sight, he called down to us, “Pois eisai?”
I held my hands in the air and said in French, “We’re friends. We mean you no harm.”
The man’s face screwed up, puzzled, and then he shouted into the house. Another man appeared. I guessed he was a scholar from his somber black robes and lean countenance.
The two men spoke while Emily and I conferred. “What should we do?” I asked. “Time-trip to our meeting with the monk?” By “monk,” I meant our former guide.
“Wait,” she replied. “There’s a pattern of things going sideways when we do that.”
It was true. Twice now, tripping had put us in life-threatening positions. First, there’d been the meteor impact, and then there was the less-than-friendly reception we’d just experienced. It didn’t always happen, but it occurred enough to make one wary.
“Who are you?” the scholar called down in accented French.
“I am Bijou, a traveling pilgrim,” I said, bowing. “I mean you no harm. My only wish is to bless your house.”
Out of sight, I heard the girl say, “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“She says you performed a miracle, passing through a solid wall.” The man said, making a sign against the evil eye.
“It was God’s blessing upon a humble mendicant. I was seeking St. George’s shrine when outlaws tried to stop me. God is great, and many are his miracles.”
The two men conferred again, and while they did so, Emily addressed me. “Lying it on rather thick there aren’t you?”
“Better than being mistaken for a sorcerer,” I said, crossing myself as if uttering a prayer. “Besides, this is an age of wonders.”
Their conference over, the scholar called to me, “Holy one, would you bless our house by partaking a humble meal with us?”
“It would be my honor,” I said. Luck had finally smiled on me.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri
-
#TimeTravelingGhost EP 10: Post 98: 1191, Nicosia, Cyprus
#Wss366 gloss #TimeTravelAuthors 05/9. Saturday excerpt (optional word: hide/hidden)
Emily soon joined me in the courtyard. After the turbulent street filled with crowds, vendors, and beggars, the citrus-scented space was peaceful or should have been, if it hadn’t been for the cry of a young female voice, saying, “Oh… makaristos Agios Ilarionas… éna tháuma…”
I followed the sound and saw a girl of about ten wearing a white dress that matched the flowers dangling near her face. Her bright eyes and #glossy black hair were barely visible through the second-floor’s vines, where she #hid.
She continued, “Pappoú. “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“We’re in the soup now,” Emily said.
As we watched, a gray-haired man armed with a stout cudgel joined her. The girl spoke rapidly to him, gesticulating wildly.
After shooing her out of sight, he called down to us, “Pois eisai?”
I held my hands in the air and said in French, “We’re friends. We mean you no harm.”
The man’s face screwed up, puzzled, and then he shouted into the house. Another man appeared. I guessed he was a scholar from his somber black robes and lean countenance.
The two men spoke while Emily and I conferred. “What should we do?” I asked. “Time-trip to our meeting with the monk?” By “monk,” I meant our former guide.
“Wait,” she replied. “There’s a pattern of things going sideways when we do that.”
It was true. Twice now, tripping had put us in life-threatening positions. First, there’d been the meteor impact, and then there was the less-than-friendly reception we’d just experienced. It didn’t always happen, but it occurred enough to make one wary.
“Who are you?” the scholar called down in accented French.
“I am Bijou, a traveling pilgrim,” I said, bowing. “I mean you no harm. My only wish is to bless your house.”
Out of sight, I heard the girl say, “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“She says you performed a miracle, passing through a solid wall.” The man said, making a sign against the evil eye.
“It was God’s blessing upon a humble mendicant. I was seeking St. George’s shrine when outlaws tried to stop me. God is great, and many are his miracles.”
The two men conferred again, and while they did so, Emily addressed me. “Lying it on rather thick there aren’t you?”
“Better than being mistaken for a sorcerer,” I said, crossing myself as if uttering a prayer. “Besides, this is an age of wonders.”
Their conference over, the scholar called to me, “Holy one, would you bless our house by partaking a humble meal with us?”
“It would be my honor,” I said. Luck had finally smiled on me.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri
-
#TimeTravelingGhost EP 10: Post 98: 1191, Nicosia, Cyprus
#Wss366 gloss #TimeTravelAuthors 05/9. Saturday excerpt (optional word: hide/hidden)
Emily soon joined me in the courtyard. After the turbulent street filled with crowds, vendors, and beggars, the citrus-scented space was peaceful or should have been, if it hadn’t been for the cry of a young female voice, saying, “Oh… makaristos Agios Ilarionas… éna tháuma…”
I followed the sound and saw a girl of about ten wearing a white dress that matched the flowers dangling near her face. Her bright eyes and #glossy black hair were barely visible through the second-floor’s vines, where she #hid.
She continued, “Pappoú. “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“We’re in the soup now,” Emily said.
As we watched, a gray-haired man armed with a stout cudgel joined her. The girl spoke rapidly to him, gesticulating wildly.
After shooing her out of sight, he called down to us, “Pois eisai?”
I held my hands in the air and said in French, “We’re friends. We mean you no harm.”
The man’s face screwed up, puzzled, and then he shouted into the house. Another man appeared. I guessed he was a scholar from his somber black robes and lean countenance.
The two men spoke while Emily and I conferred. “What should we do?” I asked. “Time-trip to our meeting with the monk?” By “monk,” I meant our former guide.
“Wait,” she replied. “There’s a pattern of things going sideways when we do that.”
It was true. Twice now, tripping had put us in life-threatening positions. First, there’d been the meteor impact, and then there was the less-than-friendly reception we’d just experienced. It didn’t always happen, but it occurred enough to make one wary.
“Who are you?” the scholar called down in accented French.
“I am Bijou, a traveling pilgrim,” I said, bowing. “I mean you no harm. My only wish is to bless your house.”
Out of sight, I heard the girl say, “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“She says you performed a miracle, passing through a solid wall.” The man said, making a sign against the evil eye.
“It was God’s blessing upon a humble mendicant. I was seeking St. George’s shrine when outlaws tried to stop me. God is great, and many are his miracles.”
The two men conferred again, and while they did so, Emily addressed me. “Lying it on rather thick there aren’t you?”
“Better than being mistaken for a sorcerer,” I said, crossing myself as if uttering a prayer. “Besides, this is an age of wonders.”
Their conference over, the scholar called to me, “Holy one, would you bless our house by partaking a humble meal with us?”
“It would be my honor,” I said. Luck had finally smiled on me.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri
-
#TimeTravelingGhost EP 10: Post 98: 1191, Nicosia, Cyprus
#Wss366 gloss #TimeTravelAuthors 05/9. Saturday excerpt (optional word: hide/hidden)
Emily soon joined me in the courtyard. After the turbulent street filled with crowds, vendors, and beggars, the citrus-scented space was peaceful or should have been, if it hadn’t been for the cry of a young female voice, saying, “Oh… makaristos Agios Ilarionas… éna tháuma…”
I followed the sound and saw a girl of about ten wearing a white dress that matched the flowers dangling near her face. Her bright eyes and #glossy black hair were barely visible through the second-floor’s vines, where she #hid.
She continued, “Pappoú. “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“We’re in the soup now,” Emily said.
As we watched, a gray-haired man armed with a stout cudgel joined her. The girl spoke rapidly to him, gesticulating wildly.
After shooing her out of sight, he called down to us, “Pois eisai?”
I held my hands in the air and said in French, “We’re friends. We mean you no harm.”
The man’s face screwed up, puzzled, and then he shouted into the house. Another man appeared. I guessed he was a scholar from his somber black robes and lean countenance.
The two men spoke while Emily and I conferred. “What should we do?” I asked. “Time-trip to our meeting with the monk?” By “monk,” I meant our former guide.
“Wait,” she replied. “There’s a pattern of things going sideways when we do that.”
It was true. Twice now, tripping had put us in life-threatening positions. First, there’d been the meteor impact, and then there was the less-than-friendly reception we’d just experienced. It didn’t always happen, but it occurred enough to make one wary.
“Who are you?” the scholar called down in accented French.
“I am Bijou, a traveling pilgrim,” I said, bowing. “I mean you no harm. My only wish is to bless your house.”
Out of sight, I heard the girl say, “Pappoú. éna tháuma.”
“She says you performed a miracle, passing through a solid wall.” The man said, making a sign against the evil eye.
“It was God’s blessing upon a humble mendicant. I was seeking St. George’s shrine when outlaws tried to stop me. God is great, and many are his miracles.”
The two men conferred again, and while they did so, Emily addressed me. “Lying it on rather thick there aren’t you?”
“Better than being mistaken for a sorcerer,” I said, crossing myself as if uttering a prayer. “Besides, this is an age of wonders.”
Their conference over, the scholar called to me, “Holy one, would you bless our house by partaking a humble meal with us?”
“It would be my honor,” I said. Luck had finally smiled on me.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri
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[DCSS] How the scroll of butterflies from the hunter start saved my run in Zot:5
(DCSS = Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup)
It was a normal frog archer run with my fearsome amphibian and their battlemage ancestor shooting and conjuring their way through the dungeon. Between my huge damage output (thanks Harm!) and my constantly Idealized ancestor, the run was extremely easy. Thus, I entered Zot:5.
After clearing the rest of the floor, I switched my Harm amulet to another one with -Tele to prevent teleport traps and got to the Hall of Zot. Unexpectedly, orb guardians weren’t alone at the entrance - a draconian gang settled there too. That confused me and my ancestor died. Which is fine, it’s not like its the first time (battlemage is squishy!). I just need to reset the encounter by going to the staircase.
So, I hopped and, as I was merely two tiles from the stairs and enemies were pretty far away, I just walked to the stairs. And then…
55054 | Zot:5 | HP: 1/204 [Orb Guardian (54)]
OUCH
I didn’t notice there was a moth of wrath among the enemies, and the closest orb guardian to me was zerked. Total misplay but still…
Think, now! What can I do to guarantee survival? I can’t hop as it’s on cooldown, can’t blink as I’m under -tele, can’t use Transference as my ancestor is dead. Throwing net, mephitic cloud, wand of paralysis all have a chance to fail. Invisibility and Leda’s Liquefaction won’t prevent their attacks.
My gaze lifted upon scrolls of summoning that were chosen over scrolls of butterflies by the RNG this run. “If only I had these…” I thought when I noticed a scroll of butterflies right there in my inventory. Unused since the very beginning of the game when I decided to play as hunter instead of hexslinger. The only scroll of butterflies I could have for this entire run.
A gentle wind pushed the orb guardian away from me as colorful insects filled the space between us. Thanking Xom for this beautiful coincidence, I went upstair and healed up to full health, and then eventually cleared the rest of the last floor and escaped with the Orb.
🦋❤️
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Testament – Para Bellum Review
By Steel Druhm
The greats of the original American thrash scene have fallen on hard times of late. Metallica dropped a predictably disappointing platter that critics still hailed as genius, Megadeth is Megadeth, Anthrax is MIA, and Slayer is in assisted living. These days, it seems like only Overkill still stands strong and defiant, defending the old guard. But let us not forget about Testament. I’ll always have a soft spot in my jaded metal heart for them. I fondly remember seeing them open for Slayer back in 87 when no one knew who they were and their debut was weeks from dropping. Despite a stereotypically unfriendly Slayer crowd, they won us over fast with macho thrash and Chuck Billy’s larger-than-life presence. Those early albums were stone-cold classics, and they’ve weathered the storms of time and trend without too many disasters. Still, thrash is a fickle mistress, and diminishing return stalks us all. That brings us to album 13, Para Bellum. Can these olden dawgs deliver something fresh and vital? They certainly bring some surprises to the party this time at the very least.
Things kick off intensely with “For the Love of Pain,” which is fast and furious thrash with a heaping helping of black metal influence. Some sections feel like epic second-wave blasting, and though Testament dabbled in this sound before, this is closer to Eric Petterson’s Dragonlord project than the band have drifted before. I don’t dislike it, and the blackened elements give their sound a kick in the arse for sure. They even cram in some djenty bits to further shake the stew. “Infanticide A.I.” keeps the blackened elements for a raging thrasher that borders on grind at times. Riffs fly every which way, Chuck sounds genuinely insane, and the drums blast you a new asshole for free. It’s not what I consider a Testament classic, but it shows these guys can still bring it hard when they want. From there, things wander around a bunch. You get a big, epic dose of emotional power balladry in “Meant to Be,” where Testament flexes their emo sadboi muscles and throw major pathos and beautiful playing your way. Then they digress into hard rock/metal light on “Nature of the Beast.” This sounds like Testament covering a Saxon song, and that idea sounds better on paper than on wax.
Oddly, most of my favorite tracks arrive late in the game. Starting with “Room 117,” Testament lock into a late-album groove with slick, memorable writing that sticks like a greased-up prison shank. It’s a slick blend of vintage Testament and classic metal, and they pull it off perfectly with scads of great vocal hooks and memorable guitar moments. The chorus is a winner, and it reminds me of the stuff off Practice What You Preach. “Havana Syndrome” is even better, finding that sweet spot between the classic Testament sound and 80s metal, with a distinct NWoBHM influence in the leads. The closing title track is overstuffed with ideas, but most of them are good, and the blend of thrash, classic metal, and blackened bits works well. Are there downers? Well, I don’t love the aforementioned “Nature of the Beast,” and “High Noon” with its Wild West gunslinger theme is cheesy as fook. That leaves Para Bellum a mixed bag of nuts and bolts, and the band’s genre-hopping makes the album feel incohesive at times, but there are more wins than losses on the scoreboard.
Given the musical talent that adorns a Testament album, you know you’ll get a cosmic fuckton of highly polished playing, and Para Bellum is full of impressive performances. Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick are as good a guitar tandem as there is, and no matter what genre they dip into, they do it rich, creamy justice. The level of ferocity they lock into on tracks like “Infanticide A.I.” is shocking for greybeards like them, and the sheer emotional payout on “Meant to Be” is something else. Steve DiGiorgio is a bass legend, and he’s fairly audible on most tracks, his bubbling, rumbling basslines adding depth and weight to the material. New drummer Chris Dovas (ex-Seven Spires) is a top-level kitman, providing a large collection of beats, fills, rolls, and raw thunder. Do I wish Gene Hoglan were back there still? Of course. Can Dovas get the job done? Absolutely. And then there’s Big Chuck. He sounds youthful, large, and in charge, showing a lot more versatility than you might expect as he moves from thrash barks to blackened screams and clean singing. Talent is everywhere, and only a few songwriting kerfuffles dent the soup can.
So Testament lands on the right side of the thrash grave for another release. Para Bellum won’t replace the debut or The New Order in your hearts, but it’s a worthy addition to their oeuvre and shows them embracing diverse elements rather than just rehashing old ideas. Kudos to them for that! Keep on aging gracefully, gents.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: testamentlegions.com/site | facebook.com/testamentlegions | instagram.com/testamentofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #NuclearBlastRecords #Oct25 #ParaBellum #Review #Reviews #Testament #ThrashMetal #Warbringer
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Seed for Thought
Saturday’s mail brought the first of the season’s seed catalogs. And Saturday night it snowed. The snow was just a sugar coated dusting, but it was a reminder that winter is coming—eventually—because it is forecast to be as warm as 59F/15C by next Saturday.
But today is gray and very windy and below freezing, a perfect reason to lose myself for a little while in the seed catalog. Yes, yes, I know, the garden just finished up and James picked all the collards Friday and has them fermenting—collard kraut! It’s a thing!
My internet recipe searches told me collard kraut used to be very popular across the southern United States and some people say it is even better than sauerkraut. James has ours fermenting with some garlic and crushed red pepper. I’ll let you know how it comes out.
This is the first year I’ve ever grown collards in the garden, and they’ve been a great success. Not only did they grow well, but we enjoyed eating them too. The small leaves made it fresh into salads and as they got bigger they’d get sautéed with onions and eaten as a side dish or combined with other things like tofu scramble, lentil eggs, curry, or soup. The variety I grew was “yellow cabbage” and came from a Minnesota seed company called North Circle Seeds. I asked James whether he liked the collards enough to grow them again next year, and he said that while it took him a little while to figure out how to use them and get used to cooking with them, he did indeed like them and we should definitely grow them again. Noted!
I also grew Swiss chard for the first time this year and we liked that too. I grew “bright lights” and the plant stalks and leaf vein colors ranged from golden yellow to bright red. We generally ate the leaves while they were small, chopped up in salads, which added some lovely color. The bigger leaves sometimes ended up in a stir fry. This will also make it into next year’s garden. Yum!
Tasty and nutritious!It’s sunchoke digging time! I dug up the first bowl Saturday afternoon just from one small area in the chicken garden. There are sunchokes in the chicken garden because last year I was silly enough to plant two roots along the outside of the chain link fence thinking—actually I don’t know what I was thinking. At the end of last season I dug up half a bowl of huge roots and thought, there, I’ve got them all. Yeah, right.
This year I had even more sunchokes growing along the fence outside and inside the chicken garden. So I dug and I dug and I didn’t worry about pulling out runner roots I came across because I am sure in spring I will discover that they have spread even more.
The sunchoke patch in the main garden is enormous. There will be more bowls to come as James has time to preserve them and I have time to dig and as long as the ground is not frozen. In spring when the ground thaws I will be able to dig up more, and there will be more, because I will find out as they pop up where all the runner roots have gone to this growing season. It’s a good thing we like them.
My turn for Reaping What She Sows: How Women are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System by Nancy Matsumoto came up on Friday. So far I’ve read the first chapter, “Black Mutual Aid, From the Rural South the Urban Northeast,” and it is fantastic.
As with everything in U.S. history, Black farmers have been, and continue to be, discriminated against. You can read a very good and succinct history in this September 2019 Atlantic article (gift link), The Great Land Robbery: The shameful story of how 1 million black families have been ripped from their farms.
Matsumoto tells pieces of this history in her storytelling about a number of women farmers who have created cooperatives, training and helping Black farmers acquire land, seed, and fair prices through a cooperative distribution network. The women and their stories are inspiring and full of lessons on how to support regenerative farming outside a white-supremacist agri-capitalist system.
Matsumoto is familiar with cooperatives. Her Japanese grandparents were interred during World War II and her grandfather helped create a cooperative network in the internment camps. This network became the second largest consumer co-op in the United States. Given the political and economic situation in the United States currently, I suspect we will be seeing more cooperatives and mutual aid societies popping up all over the country in the coming years.
Throughout history women have been the seed keepers, carefully saving and preserving seeds from season to season and generation to generation. A few years ago I read a wonderful novel called The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson. It is the story of a current day Dakota woman who is gifted a cache of seeds saved by her ancestors when they ran from being attacked by U.S. troops. It is a story of healing and renewal. I was reminded of this novel while reading the first chapter of Reaping What She Sows because one of the women she profiles is a seed keeper and works for Truelove Seeds, an heirloom seed company that offers culturally important seeds.
Of course I had to look at their offerings, and wow! If you want to read more about the company, The Sierra Club has a great article about them, The Preservation of Culture Begins With a Seed I am definitely going to try and grow green striped cushaw squash! And they also have Korean hong-gochu peppers so I can make kimchi and even collard-chi next year.
The next chapter of the book is about rebuilding the grain economy. Looking forward to learning even more!
While I am on the subject of seeds, I have been a fan of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and bought seeds from them many times through the years. But in the last few months I’ve found out that as wholesome as they advertise themselves to be, this is not the case. In 2019 they invited a white supremacist to speak at their spring planting festival. After much uproar, they uninvited him, but issued no statement of apology or anything that I was able to discover. I have also heard that they steal seeds from indigenous peoples and then rename them and don’t acknowledge where they really came from, though I am unable to find direct confirmation of that. However, just last year the tomato they had on the cover of their catalog turned out to be a recently released GMO variety they sold as non-GMO. They said their seed came from France and they tested it and the results were inconclusive. Nonetheless, they pulled it from their stock and destroyed all the seeds.
Along with just discovering Truelove Seeds, I learned a few months ago about Native Seed Search and there is also Bertie County Seeds I just found out about. I generally buy seeds from Fedco who tell you exactly where the seeds come from (corporate grower, independent farmer, etc) and also credit and pay indigenous communities for their seeds. There is also Seed Savers Exchange. And then, as I mentioned earlier, North Circle Seeds, a small independent Minnesota seed company that sells varieties that will grow in my climate.
I guess I am getting a lesson in seed keeping and seed companies that I hadn’t thought much about before. Seeds are more than hybrid, open-pollinated, heirloom, GMO, organic. It’s important to know their origins and to make sure the people who have stewarded them are acknowledged and compensated. For some reason I always believed this was the case, but it turns out to be otherwise.
#collardKraut #collards #cooperatives #firstSnow #NorthCircleSeeds #seedCatalogs #seedKeepers #seedSaving #seeds #sunchokes #swissChard #TrueloveSeeds
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All is ready for my special meal for tonight's visitors. I made the fish stock from Halibut bones on Friday, it is ready to be turned into the soup, which will have beetroot, celery & carrots, along with pieces of Coley (Pollock) marinated in Soy sauce. For the main dish, the casserole of Yorkshire mutton in chicken stock with a multitude of veggies is now in the oven, cooking super-slowly well below simmering, the flavours highly concentrated and super-intense. For the cheese we have Comte and goats cheese. Sharing honest food with good friends, in difficult times, that too is resistance.
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#GazaSoupKitchen Update
January 8, 2026 by #HaniAlmadhoun, Organizer
"Dear friends, allies, and partners in good,
In the last two days of 2025, the #Gaza Soup Kitchen opened its 14th location. Since then, it has been running strong. And yet, every time I think about expanding kitchens in Gaza, I don’t feel a sense of achievement. It feels like a setback for humanity.
Every meal we serve matters—but the growth of these kitchens is a painful measure of how far things have fallen. No amount of coordination, care, or sacrifice can change the truth: this is emergency survival, not dignity.
I keep coming back to the real goal we’ve always had: not to add kitchens, but to close them. Success, to me, looks like people back in their homes, cooking for their children, rather than standing in line for a meal.
What worries me most is the next generation. Children growing up in aid lines instead of classrooms, learning to ration far too early. I think of the Nakba generation, who built lives and institutions out of ruins. That same #Palestinian spirit is here—but under enormous strain. Resilience isn’t endless, and it shouldn’t be romanticized. People were never meant to live like this.
And yet, that spirit persists—in neighbors sharing crumbs, teachers refusing to stop teaching, people showing up for each other when almost nothing remains. That matters. I feel it deeply.
But care alone is not enough. Soup kitchens are a bridge, not a future. The true measure of progress isn’t how well we manage hunger, but how soon we make it unnecessary.
Our Impact Today
We are serving communities across the #GazaStrip—from #KhanYounes in the south to #BeitLahia in the north. Our kitchens serve real, edible meals—not factory food lacking taste or flavor.
We now scale to serve up to 15,000 families per week.
This week, distributions included winter clothing, baby milk and diapers, food parcels, and hygiene and cleaning supplies.
Our most effective team is in #GazaCity.
The middle-area team in #DeirElBalah is facing space challenges and newer staff, but they are accelerating their distributions and solving logistical issues.
In addition to serving families who register online:
30% of our work happens outside the registration system, with teams dispatched daily to reach disconnected communities.
Water trucks continue to roll daily—about ten per day.
The medical point in Mashrou’ Beit Lahia sees 60–80 patients a day.
The classroom in Khan Younes is teaching 30 children daily, and we are preparing to launch an orphan learning center in Gaza City within two weeks.
Looking Forward
Ramadan is just weeks away, and we’re concerned that #Israel may limit the number of trucks again, as announced yesterday. This would affect #FoodAccess and increase costs—but for now, we are holding off from buying everything in the market prematurely.
What helps us most is sharing our videos, stories, and updates—engaging, commenting, and spreading awareness. If you can, consider becoming a monthly donor.
To give context:
Our daily operational costs have risen from $15,000/day to $30,000/day.
This page used to average $5,000/day in donations, now it’s under $2,000/day.
I hate asking for money, but as our team’s response grows, donations are not keeping pace. Your support is critical, and I hope you can help us think creatively about the future.
Thank you for being here. For every crumb shared, every child fed, and every story told, your partnership matters.
With deep gratitude,
Hani
Gaza Soup KitchenP. S. In other news, Israel hit two schools today where we run kitchens, there has been injuries and at least one fatality which is tragic, our staff are unharmed as they had just washed up and left for the day."
Donate:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-in-gaza-daily#NorthGaza #GazaAid #GazaFundraisers #FreePalestine #Fundraisers #FoodIsLife #WaterIsLife #GoFundMe #BeitLahiya #BaitLahiya #KhanYounes #Palestine #Genocide #Starvation #IsraeliWarCrimes #NorthernGaza
Remember #ChefMahmoud
#HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal -
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Mirror of the City
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is one of Canada’s most visited art museums. Its multi-pavilion campus also make it one of the country’s largest, providing visitors with access to in-person and online works of art in many forms and styles.
Entrance to the MMFA viewed from an upper gallery. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.Linda’s Pick of the Exhibits
I loved the imaginative creations of Worlds of Wonder: The Surrealist Journey of Alan Glass. A temporary exhibition, it was the first solo museum exhibit in Canada devoted to the works of the Montreal artist (1921 – 2023), Alan Glass. From the 2001 piece, Delft Bees, to Flies in the Buttermilk: Shu, Shu, Shu, the art created from found objects was distinctive!
Art from the Worlds of Wonder exhibition. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.While the exhibit has closed, the museum has nine Alan Glass pieces in the permanent exhibit. Find them if you can!
But back to the permanent collection. There, I kept going back to the blue and white wall mural for Sharing the Museum. I’m a “blue” kind of person, so part of my interest was in the color shades that ranged from turquoise to navy. And part was in the cartoon-like characters and objects.
Wall and ceiling mural at the MMFA in Montreal. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.You may be wondering what Sharing the Museum is all about–I know I was. I learned that it’s a 20+ year-old program providing accessibility to the museum. With lots of free art activities, the program fosters inclusion through guided tours, art therapy, and group workshops.
Fast Fact: The program, Sharing the Museum, partners with 600+ organizations to make art accessible to everyone. Nearly 300,000 have participated in the community program.
What’s in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts?
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has a collection of 40,000+ works. Of these, about 6,000 can be viewed in the museum’s digital collection online.
With its beginnings as the Art Association of Montreal back in 1860, the museum collection has a strong historical and contemporary collection. Its evolution has covered three basic periods:
Pin me!- Early Origins (1860 – 1912). A key development here was the bequest from Benaiah Gibb in 1877 that enabled the association to build Canada’s first purpose-built art gallery. It opened in 1879.
- Mid-Century Expansion & Institutional Change (1913 to end of 1960s). The collection expanded to include European masters and decorative arts as well as Canadian works.
- Multi-Pavilion Museum (1970s on). Physical growth expanded the museum, adding pavilions connected by underground passageways. One of these features was the inclusion of integrated, chronological displays of Quebec, Canadian and Indigenous art.
The MMFA groups its holdings into collection areas that include Quebec & Canadian art, Early to Modern International art, Arts of One World, Decorative Arts & Design, Contemorary Art, and Graphic & Photographic Arts. There’s also a library with documentary archives, artists’ papers, references for research, and more.
Fast Fact: See Dale Chihuly's monumental glass sculpture, The Sun, at the heart of the From the Functional to the Fabulous: 600 Years of Decorative Arts and Design display. The display consists of 800 objects.
One of its popular additional attractions includes the Cinéma du Musée. The theatre shows first-run, current independent and international films in their original screenings.
Linda’s Road Trip Tips
Some might say Montreal has it all! From historic neighbourhoods and architecture in Old Montreal, to its urban outdoors and Expo 67 landmarks (Biosphere and Habitat 67), to its mix of European flair and French language, there’s something for everyone.
On my visit, I had a few priorities. The first was The Biosphere — Montreal’s Environment Museum.
I was just a kid when Expo 67 celebrated Canada’s 100th birthday by holding the World’s Fair.
I’d dreamed of going but never got there, so seeing this former U.S. pavilion was a big plus for me.
The second? Visiting Chinatown along with an Asian friend who could introduce me all the authentic must-taste dining specialties.
Soup Dumplings were definitly a hit with me!
Also, Montreal’s Chinatown is an official provincial heritage site, protecting the area’s unique 19th century architecture and culture.
Pin me!And of course, who doesn’t want to spend some time in Montreal’s Underground City? While I was escaping an extremely hot heat wave, cold snowy days are another reason to head on down. While I didn’t cover the whole 33 km (20.5 miles), I still enjoyed this amazing pedestrian network of shops and activities.
Who Should Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Art?
The Montreal Museum of Fine Art is the perfect spot for art lovers, no matter the era or style of art they enjoy. For visitors outside of Quebec, the art does a great job of showcasing “La Belle Province” (Beautiful Province).
Pin me!With ever-changing permanent exhibits and special exhibitions, you can visit the museum time after time and still find something new to enjoy.
When it comes to interactive and immersive experiences, they’re usually program based or exhibition-specific to add another dimension to your visit.
The MMFA also has accessibility covered.
All pavilions are wheelchair-accessible, and there are even some metered parking spaces reserved for disabled parking permit holders on Avenue du Musée.
You’ll also find services for hearing and visually impaired visitors, providing support for sensory and communication accessibility.
How Do You Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Art?
The MMFA is in downtown Montreal, in the Golden Square Mile area on Sherbrooke Street West.
Getting There & Parking: The museum's main entrance is near Peel and Guy-Concordia metro stations. If you're driving, there's limited street parking along with nearby garages. Le Mount Stephen garage is about a 5-minute walk away, or try Le Chatel Parking, or 1010 Sherbrooke Street West Lot (Lot 854).
Street Address: 1380 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The museum is open year-round. Check days and hours open, as well as admission costs on the MMFA website.
Check out what’s happening at the museum on the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal Facebook page.
Plan your visit with Google Maps.
Read More Quebec Museum Reviews
Check out all these museum reviews for the Canadian province of Quebec!
Explore More Art Museums
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Mirror of the City
- Grand Coteau Heritage & Cultural Centre: Shaunavon, SK
- Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec: Art & People
- TD Gallery of Indigenous Art: Free Toronto Museum
- Maple Creek’s Intriguing Jasper Cultural & Historical Centre
- See 100 Miles Across Nebraska From Scotts Bluff National Monument
- Art Gallery of Ontario: Art Museum in Toronto, Ontario
- Fort Cody Trading Post: Miniature Wild West Show in North Platte, Nebraska
- Museum of Northern British Columbia: Indigenous Art & History in Prince Rupert, British Columbia
- The Enchanted Highway: Giant Metal Sculptures in North Dakota
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Saturday night was a very special night, for several reasons. As some of you know, this past year was a tough one as my father was diagnosed early on with terminal lung cancer, and subsequently suffered a few health crises which had him in the ICU a couple of times. For most of the past year, Jess & my lives were occupied with helping him, and visiting him regularly in New York. We were happy to do it, but it did mean a pause in our usual get togethers with friends, which we missed.
On December 10th, 2025, my father succumbed to his cancer. As you might expect, the subsequent weeks have been full of grief, and paperwork. Even death has bureaucracy.
December 10th was also the day that the Compass Box Whisky Confluence auction at Bonhams Skinner, to benefit The Wolfsonian-FIU, ended. I'd been watching the auction, but uncertain about bidding - despite being a longtime Compass Box fanatic. However, after my father passed early that morning, I decided that I needed something good to go with the day - and that was going to be winning Confluence, which I did. You only live once, as was painfully clear that day.
My birthday is at the end of December, and we had planned a small gathering with friends to celebrate - but Jess & I both came home from my father's services in NY under the weather, and not really in a celebratory mood, so we cancelled that.
Instead, yesterday we had a gathering which was partly a delayed birthday celebration, partly a toast to my father's memory, and partly an exploration of a truly unique whisky. But, more than anything, it was a gathering of good friends for the first time in quite a while - and boy did I need that more than I realized.
Thank you Jess, Jer, Shamala, Marc, Lizzy, Lisa, Carol, Friski and Betsy for making the evening wonderful.
Before we could dive into the whisky, we had to put something in on stomachs - so we had an assortment of my father's favorites, in his honor. There was an antipasto salad, some veggies and cheese, meatballs and sauce (for subs or over pasta), pickle soup (the Cafe Polonia recipe), kielbasa and sauerkraut, pierogi, a texas sheet cake, rice pudding, cupcakes, and some fine Läderach chocolates.
Properly fueled, we attacked the mission of the evening.
We'd assembled a lineup of whiskies for the evening - of course, there was the Confluence, but we also pulled some expressions from the component distilleries. Obviously, these were not *the* components used to make Confluence, but it was just a fun way to try a few things.
We'd lined up Mackmyra, a Gordon & MacPhail Miltonduff, a G&M Macallan, a Highland Park 25, a Flora & Fauna Teaninich, and a Glen Moray (which was peated, it was what we had). We also had a couple of whiskies from Nashoba Valley Distillery, right here in town - Papa's Bourbon and the Stimulus Twenty 20 year old American Single Malt. Thanks to Marc Follit, our good friend, neighbor, and distiller at Nashoba, for bringing those.
Oh, yes, and there is also the Black Tot Rum Last Consignment. It seemed like another special bottle to open - after the whiskies.
We started off with the Confluence, so that we'd have clear palates - the better to taste it with. Whisky reviewer extraordinaire, Friski Whiski, agreed to write up a joint review with input from the whole crew, and we spent quite a bit of time on that. A most enjoyable time it was, too. We avoided reading the official tasting notes before creating our own, and were pleased to see that our notes ended up aligning fairly well with the official ones once we were done.
Friski posted the review on his page (https://www.facebook.com/friski.whiski/posts/pfbid0cQjrjpvFAm7XzAwf54Y62YPcTHMwcriwn5aF1b4JifQrV9XumhkTR5NYcwrT18tMl), but here it is:
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Dram of a lifetime on 1/10/26Compass Box
Confluence
Blended Malt Whisky
Age: NAS
Abv: 48.9%
No. of bottles: 1Components:
The Mackmyra Distillery
Swedish Single Malt
Cherry Wine Fresh Seasoned American Oak
9%The Mackmyra Distillery
Swedish Single Malt
Oloroso First Fill Sherry Seasoned American Oak
9%The Mackmyra Distillery
Swedish Single Malt
American First Fill & Virgin Oak Casks
9%The Mackmyra Distillery
Swedish Single Malt
Swedish Virgin Oak & First Fill Casks
3%Teaninich Distillery
Scottish Single Malt
First Fill Sherry Butt
12%Miltonduff Distillery
Scottish Single Malt
First Fill Bourbon Barrel
12%Highland Park Distillery
Scottish Single Malt
Recharred Hogshead
3%The Macallan Distillery
Scottish Single Malt
First Fill Bourbon Barrel
14%Glen Moray Distillery
Scottish Single Malt
First Fill Bourbon Barrel
15%Glen Moray Distillery
Scottish Single Malt
First Fill Bourbon Barrel
15%Availability: 1 of 1 bottle. Bonhams auction house event "Art & Alchemy of Spirits: Presenting Compass Box to Benefit the Wolfsonian".
Crowd source notes: MegaZone, Jess Terry, Jer Johnson, Shamala Rao, Marc Follit, Lizzy Nicolai, Lisa Mulvehill, Carol Ann, Betsey Hendricks, and Friski Whiski.
Color: Medium honey and golden syrup
Neat (without water)
Nose: Soft and crisp. Honey, green apple, marzipan, cooked caramelized pineapple, confectioner’s sugar, lemon citrus, orange peel, with hints of cardamom and anise.Texture: Warm. Creamy, buttery, slightly drying through the finish and pleasantly astringent.
Palate: Apple blossom honey, honey comb, marzipan, caramel, and birchwood. Swedish Kanelbulle (which is a classic Scandinavian cinnamon bun, spiced with cardamom in the dough, less gooey and use a lighter cinnamon application).
Finish: A roller coaster ride of white pepper, fresh green olive oil, saline, toasted almonds, fine Corinthian leather, oak, grapefruit pith, and oleo saccharum.
Unleash the serpent (with water)
Nose: An orchard house of fruit moved to the forefront. Pear, apple frangipane, sliced almonds, sweet cracked malt and fresh cream. Birchbeer float with vanilla bean ice cream. Lakrits, lemon blossoms where floral and citrus combine into a confluence of marriage.Texture: Creamy, buttery, woody without the tannic astringency.
Palate: Baked apple dumplings, roasted butternut squash, demerara sugar, sweet cream, and candied meyer lemon.Finish: Earthy notes get amplified. Warm spiced sweet potato pie with a pastry crust, sea spray, salted caramel, walnut skins, and toffee with subtle hints of a gentle smoke.
Tasting notes glass used: Open Up Chef and Sommelier 5.5oz glass.
The morning after glass: Sweet cracked malt, dust, vanilla, and caramelPairings...
Season: AnyMusic: Lovefool by The Cardigans
Food: Rosemary pork loin with homemade applesauce
Media: Best enjoyed with great company and good conversation.
Overall: From first nose to final sip, several of us ended up in a journey from an apple orchard to our grandmother's seaside cottage while various desserts were being cooked. Fantastic debut from Angela D'Orazio at Compass Box! We really look forward to her future creations.
---END---As you can see, we loved it. This is a fantastic whisky, IMHO, and I'm thrilled that we were able to try it. Whisky is for sharing, not for staring. It would have been a crying shame for this to sit on someone's shelf, never to be tasted. You can tell we enjoyed it - we went through about 1/3 of the bottle compiling those tasting notes. ;-)
Afterwards we did taste through the other whiskies - which were good, but kind of paled a bit after Confluence. The Mackmyra was well-loved as well, and you can see the influence in Confluence. The other standout for the group was the Flora & Fauna Teaninich - really good. Enough so that we're going to be looking for more Teaninich at auctions to try in the future.
Really, everything was good - and, more importantly, we had a lot of laughs and great conversation trying them.
After we ran the line of whisky, we did open the Last Consignment - and I figured out why it comes with two extra corks! The cork in the bottle is fully seated and covered in wax - so you have to pull it like a wine bottle, and it isn't really designed to go back in. So you use one of the supplied corks to reseal the bottle. Mystery solved!
It is a very rich, unctuous rum that those who tried enjoyed. It is also liquid history, and it was special just to be trying it. The previous evening I'd also read through the little booklet that is included, going through the history of the rum and rituals in the Royal Navy, and that was quite interesting.
The molasses note is front and center, but there are tropical fruits, spices, chocolate, leather, a bit of funk (there has to be some Jamaican rum in there)... a really thought-provoking sip.
As the evening ran down, and some of the crew left for home, we decided to keep the evening going with a few additional drams. So I grabbed some Glenmorangie. We hit Year of the Snake first - I'd opened this, but some of the others had not had a chance. This is still a standout dram - a blend of ex-Bourbon and Amontillado finishing casks.
They we opened the Rare Cask 21 year Mizunara finish. As expected, this is a very fine whisky, but the Snake was still in the lead by consensus.
And we last turned to the new 25 year, The Altus. This is mostly aged in designer bourbon casks, but is seasoned with a little whisky finished in Malmsey Madeira casks. A very juicy, fruit-forward dram, this ended up coming in second place, bumping the Mizunara to 3rd. Still, they're all fantastic.
That pretty much wrapped up the night. It was an amazing time start to finish - fantastic drams, but even better friends.
Next Saturday we're doing a larger gathering - this time for Raising Glasses rums. Should be fun!
#Whiskey #Whiskey #Rum #CompassBox #BlackTot #Mackmyra #Miltonduff #Teaninich #Macallan #HighlandPark #GlenMoray #NashobaValleyWinery #Glenmorangie #Scotch #Bourbon
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Reading Time: 3 minutes
Every year the Moléson tourism board and related teams provide people with the oppotunity to do the Face, and the Pillar by night. I have wanted to experience this multiple times in the past but because either of work, or weather, I had to cancel the plan to experience this.
The idea is simple. Sunset is at 20:25. People start climbing the VF from 1900 onwards with the option of doing the "easy" Pillar or the hard "Face". As I did The Face a few weeks ago in daylight I did The Pillar instead. My decision was based on two things. The first is that I had organised to go with a group, and I felt a sense of responsibility to help those with less experience should they require it.
Some Thoughts
Two thoughts I had during this climb is that it's like caving, rather than diving. When you look up you can see people making their way up both faces simultaneously. You can hear cow bells in the fields below as well as the sound of crickets. Every so often you notice plenty of small spiders. The legs are thin and the bodies are not big. If I'm indoors I would hate to put my hands so close to spiders but on a VF it doesn't bother me. I thought that I may see bats but noticed none. Either they don't have enough insects around there or they have no caves or caverns within which to sleep. It's possible that they're active between midnight and 4 am as indicated by a sign near the Areuse river.
Fear and Physicality
When you're climbing by night the landscape is different. You can see far, due to city lights and car lights. You get a sense of height but not as you would if you were doing this climb during daylight. In daylight you would see everything. At night you see as far as your light will reach, or other groups ahead and behind you.
At one point I heard one person in another group say "don't look down" and this felt odd to me. I always look down. With rock climbing, and especially when abseiling down I learned that if you don't look down constantly, when it comes time to descend you will be surprised by how high you are, and feel fear. By constantly looking down the change is gradual.It also implies that people doing this VF are afraid of heights.
Logistics
The illuminated event is well organised. You can book via a web form up until 1400 the same day, or you can see if you can get a ticket on the spot. They check off your name from the list. They get emergency contact info, check that you have all the required gear, and snacks. They also provide you with a ticket for soup at the end of the VF in the restaurant.
One of the best aspects, in my opinion is that they have a team at the start of the VF routes, to log you in and then three individuals at various points along the route to check that everyone is okay. In case of an emergency they are ready to abseil down in case of bad weather, or use the helicopter in case of good weather. If you push beyond your limits then people are there to support you.
A Howling Wind At the Top
One of the key features of this specific climb is that there was a very strong wind. At moments there were gusts strong enough to require you to fight back to remain upright, both on the VF but also when walking from the end of the VF to the télécabine. That wind made it cold, which is why people didn't stop and wait at the summit, but chose, instead, to head for the télécabine, and the restaurant below.
And Finally
It's an interesting experience that is worth doing. By the end of it I was exhausted so I'm happy that I did not do a hike that morning. It's when I finished that I felt exhausted, and barely able to stay awake. I don't remember being this tired after a daytime vf. I am rarely so tired after a daytime VF.
https://www.main-vision.com/richard/blog/the-illuminated-moleson-via-ferrata/
#gruyère #molÃSon #night #nocturnal #specialEvent #viaFerrata #yearly
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#GazaSoupKitchen Update
March 15, 2026 by #HaniAlmadhoun, Organizer
"Friends, supporters, allies —
Tonight is Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power, and I wanted to share a personal update from the last ten days here at the Gaza Soup Kitchen. I hope you’ll read this as a conversation, because that’s what this work is: real people, real families, real moments, not just numbers or logistics.
A lot of people aren’t paying close attention to #Gaza right now, and that’s understandable. People here don’t want to always be in the news. But they also don’t want to suffer in silence.
Silence, right now, looks like this: in March alone, food prices in Gaza rose by at least 37%, and they continue to climb. A small piece of clothing for a child for Eid can cost $60, when the same item might sell for $20 elsewhere. Aid has slowed, deliveries cut to a fraction of what they were — 80 trucks a day instead of 250–300. Prices spike, families struggle, and every day is harder than the last.
For our team, this means every meal costs more. Every food parcel is more expensive. But we refuse to compromise. The meals we serve in hospitals continue to include animal protein because families here have already been forced into mostly vegetarian diets for far too long. Nutrition, dignity, and care matter — even if it’s harder or more expensive to provide.
Running the kitchen is exhausting. Driving across Gaza to coordinate deliveries. Writing updates and responding to emails. Balancing logistics with compassion. There’s no real gain here, no profit, no easy path. The only reason we keep showing up is because it is needed, because the people we serve are counting on us, and because the smiles, the laughter, the moments of joy — even amid hardship — are worth everything.
During Ramadan, one of the things we’ve done is host communal iftars. Elderly folks gather, laugh, tease each other, sometimes even play small games. For a few hours, they feel lighter, younger, alive in a way that the day-to-day challenges can’t take away.
Today, we hosted a special program for children who are orphaned or separated from their parents. We brought live characters to dance and sing with them, set up face painting, served food — and yes, even cotton candy. These little touches are not easy, not cheap, but they bring joy and dignity in a situation that is otherwise incredibly difficult.
Everything we do is family-first. Mothers, sisters, daughters, brothers cook as they would for their own families. Portions go home just like they would in a family kitchen. We never compromise on quality, because the people we serve deserve the care we would want for our own families. Our name is on this work because it is personal, not commercial.
Looking ahead, we are planning a few changes to make our work even more effective. We’ll slightly reduce the size of some food parcels to expand the number of kitchens we operate. We’ll expand our hospital meal programs — right now we serve two hospitals, and after Ramadan we hope to serve at least three. Food parcels are important, but hot meals reach the families and children most in need, where hunger is visible, urgent, and unavoidable.
During Ramadan, we delivered around 35,000 food parcels — a massive effort — but still only about 10% of Gaza’s population. That’s a small fraction of the need. So we focus on where every dollar is spent wisely: hot kitchens, hospital meals, clean water deliveries, and programs that bring dignity and care.
This Ramadan, there is also something deeply meaningful that fills us with pride and hope. We’ve seen mosques raising funds for the Gaza Soup Kitchen, collectives of rabbis from Ceasefire, and even a few churches around the country coming together to support families in Gaza. Moments like these remind us of the good in humanity, of the ways people reach across divides to care for others. It’s a badge of honor to witness it — and a reminder that, even in the hardest times, kindness persists.
This work is exhausting, yes. It can make you cry. It can make you smile in the same moment. But it is also deeply human. The smiles on children’s faces. The laughter of elders at iftar. Families receiving a parcel that truly sustains them. These moments remind us why we keep showing up, day after day, even when it’s hard.
And none of this would be possible without you — your trust, your generosity, your willingness to stand with Gaza when the world’s attention shifts elsewhere. Every meal, every parcel, every program is made possible by your support. You make it possible for us to keep showing up for people who need it most.
From all of us here, with deep gratitude and respect for the resilience of the communities we serve: thank you. Thank you for being part of this family. Thank you for helping us hold space for dignity, care, and humanity in the hardest of circumstances.
With gratitude and heart,
Hani and the Board of the Gaza Soup Kitchen"To donate:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-in-gaza-daily#NorthGaza #GazaAid #GazaFundraisers #FreePalestine #Fundraisers #FoodIsLife #WaterIsLife #GoFundMe #BeitLahiya #BaitLahiya #KhanYounes #Palestine #Genocide #Starvation #IsraeliWarCrimes #NorthernGaza
Remember #ChefMahmoud
#HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal -
#GazaSoupKitchen Update
February 9, 2026 by #HaniAlmadhoun, Organizer
"Dear friends and allies,
There is a lot I want to share with you, and as always, I want you to see clearly what your support is making possible on the ground.
Last week we purchased 4,500 kilos of apples to include in food parcels for registered families. Shortly after our purchase, the market price increased by nearly 30 percent. #Gaza’s markets are extremely sensitive right now — supplies remain limited, and when large humanitarian programs buy in bulk, the impact can be felt quickly. We saw something similar six weeks ago when we purchased thousands of cartons of eggs and again when we prepared large meal kits in December. Because of this, we try to move carefully and responsibly so that our purchases do not unintentionally make food harder for others in the community to afford. Your support allows us the flexibility to make these thoughtful decisions rather than rushing distributions when prices spike.
#Ramadan is approaching, and we are preparing to register 50,000 families for at least one round of Ramadan food parcels. Each parcel costs about $25 and includes essential staples, with olive oil currently being the most expensive item. At the same time, this week we are completing another distribution for 4,000 patients who were registered last week. By the end of tomorrow, each of them will have received their parcel — including fresh apples that many families have not been able to afford for months.
Recently, we also carried out several special distributions. One was dedicated to amputees, where we provided solar-powered lighting systems so families can safely move inside their tents at night. Another focused on the elderly: about 1,500 seniors received kitchen water sets that allow them to prepare meals more easily during Ramadan. These smaller, targeted interventions are often the ones families remember most, because they directly respond to what people themselves request.
Even when operations appear 'quiet,' our teams are working every single day. We hand-deliver aid to roughly 500 families daily — baby formula, diapers, food parcels, or winter clothing — depending on what is most urgently needed. Across 14 kitchen locations, meals continue to be prepared and served, including meals delivered directly to hospitals. And every morning, ten water trucks travel from #KhanYounes to #BeitLahia, delivering clean drinking water. When we say 'we deliver water,' it means drivers starting before sunrise, filling trucks, traveling long distances through damaged roads, and reaching neighborhoods where families line up with containers because that delivery may be their only safe water that day.
Our medical point in the north serves about 70 patients daily, and most leave with free prescription refills made possible by you. We now also operate two learning centers — one in #NorthGaza serving orphaned children, currently with 20 students and expanding to 40 after Ramadan, and another in Khan Younes serving displaced children who continue their education despite extremely difficult conditions. These programs may seem small, but they create stability for children who have lost nearly everything.
As our work grows, we continue improving operations, training staff, and sometimes making difficult adjustments so that every donated dollar reaches as many people as possible. We also occasionally encounter a few anonymous online claims or misinformation, which is common in humanitarian work today, but we remain focused on transparency and on letting the results of the work speak for themselves.
Ramadan and equally Lent are a season of generosity, reflection, and shared responsibility. If our work continues to earn your trust, one of the most meaningful ways you can help is simply by sharing our story, telling others what you see happening through these updates, and keeping Gaza’s families in your conversations and your giving. Many supporters tell us they first learned about the Gaza Soup Kitchen because someone they trusted mentioned it — your voice carries real impact.
Keep in mind we now have three different aid distribution sites in Khan Younes, #AlZawaydah and #GazaCity. And tomorrow we are in #Rafah as we promised the community there to be physically among them at least once a month. We are proud of what you will read next.
Ninety-nine percent of donations go directly to Gaza programs. I do not take a salary from the Gaza Soup Kitchen, and many of our volunteers give extraordinary hours because they believe in what this community is building together. You are not just donors; you are partners in every meal served, every water delivery completed, and every family reached.
With gratitude and humility,
HaniP.S. In recent days we spoke live on the Dean Obeidallah Show on SiriusXM, with BBC, and at several community gatherings in the United States. During Ramadan I expect to be in Ann Arbor, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and possibly Dallas. If your community would like to host us, please let us know — we would be honored to meet you."
To donate:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-in-gaza-daily#NorthGaza #GazaAid #GazaFundraisers #FreePalestine #Fundraisers #FoodIsLife #WaterIsLife #GoFundMe #BeitLahiya #BaitLahiya #KhanYounes #Palestine #Genocide #Starvation #IsraeliWarCrimes #NorthernGaza
Remember #ChefMahmoud
#HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal -
#GazaSoupKitchen Update
December 4, 2025 by #HaniAlmadhoun, Organizer
"Hey friends,
It’s been a whirlwind here at the Gaza Soup Kitchen, and I just had to stop for a minute to tell you what’s going on. Things are moving fast, we’re running full tilt, and I’ve been terrible about sharing updates—but I promise, this one’s worth it.
We’ve now got 12 kitchens up and running, with a 13th coming soon. About half are in the middle and south, half in North Gaza. Right now, we’re focusing on the north to encourage families to return home, which also helps relieve the pressure on middle areas where resources are stretched to the max.
Every day, our kitchens serve around 200 families. Each meal costs about $5, a food parcel $25–$30, a blanket $25–$30, a water truck $200, and a winter clothing package $25. Seeing a family open a parcel, unwrap a blanket, or try on a winter jacket is worth every penny and every pot we can find—and yes, finding enough giant pots in Gaza is a story all its own.
Recently, we wrapped up a women’s winter clothing drive for 5,000 women. Honestly, I had no idea there were so many sizes, colors, and styles—it gave me a headache—but the smiles made every challenge worth it. Kids’ winter clothing is coming up next, and we’re ready to make more small miracles happen.
We’ve got about 80 amazing humans working on the ground, doing everything from cooking meals, assembling parcels, delivering water, and running classrooms—yes, classrooms—while the medical point in northern Gaza keeps saving lives on the frontlines. I check in with them weekly, and every time, I leave reminded of how much love and energy people can pour into a day.
Here’s the fun part: you can get creative this year. Want to give an alternative Christmas gift? You can give a food parcel, a blanket, or a winter clothing set in someone’s name. You can find the Gaza Soup Kitchen on many giving platforms, and we can also accept stock donations, IRA gifts, and other surprises. You’ll be giving something that truly matters and might even make you feel a little sparkly inside.
We are dipping into reserves because donations have slowed since the ceasefire—but knowing people like you are out there keeps us going. Follow us, comment, share, or just send a little cheer our way online—every interaction reminds families they’re not forgotten.
Sending love and solidarity from Gaza. Soon, I’ll be on the road visiting Houston and San Diego—coffee’s on me if you’re around. Thank you for being part of this messy, hard, beautiful, joyful journey. We literally couldn’t do it without you.
- Hani"
Donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-in-gaza-daily
#NorthGaza #GazaAid #GazaFundraisers #FreePalestine #Fundraisers #FoodIsLife #WaterIsLife #GoFundMe #BeitLahiya #BaitLahiya #KhanYounes #Palestine #Genocide #Starvation #IsraeliWarCrimes #NorthernGaza
Remember #ChefMahmoud
#HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal