beantown digest #3

Mending night | Free knife sharpening | Train plug | Lunch | Teddie rejection

Next SustainaDinner: Saturday, Dec. 9th

Come one, come all (up to eight), to the next SustainaDinner, Saturday 12/9. It’s a monthly sustainability-centered dinner party for anyone who cares. Eat delicious vegan low/zero-waste food, make some new friends, and get cozy with your values. RSVP here! We might even have some new activities for y’all.

Community Classifieds

Sustainability-related asks and offers! To respond to any of these, please reply below or the email address if included. To submit to next month’s newsletter, email beantown digest

[Alexa | Somerville] is looking for recommendations on local cobblers to resole shoes, and local tailors to repair a backpack.

[Joshua | Orange] Wanted —help to build rocket oven attachment for a rocket stove. Must be willing to bike from Fitchburg, commuter rail station, 2 1/2 hours, or take public transit, about three hours. Overnight guests welcome. Previous skills not necessary, just focus. StandingMarmotAT@gmail.com

[Tim | Medford] Hello, this is Tim from Extinction Rebellion Boston. It’s cold outside, but the planet is still in peril, so we’re keeping the embers burning this season. I’d like to invite you to our Winter Solstice Potluck + Grief Circle, during the longest night, on Dec 21st at the Community Church of Boston, right by Copley Square. There will also be Climate Caroling in December, though the dates aren’t finalized yet…I did it for the first time last year, and it was wicked fun!

**** Friday, how about Mending Thursday?

I hope we all had a great day on Friday the 24th, a day that is home to several holidays but definitely not one that starts with a color. This week, instead of buying new mass produced clothing produced and transported by committing a laundry list of human and environmental injustices, why not mend your existing, well-loved goods and give them even more utility, life, charm, uniqueness, and character? I’m personally a fan of the art of visible mending, but invisible mending has its applications too.

I’m having a chill mending night at my place this Thursday (Nov 30) evening around 6pm. Let me know if you want to come! I have some thread, needles, and scrap fabric to share, although it’s not a huge stash so if you especially want a certain color of thread or fabric, you should maybe bring your own. Ask your pals, or check out Make & Mend in Somerville, my top recommendation for crafting supplies (secondhand!). Sewing is not one of my main hobbies but I’m experienced enough to help beginners. Hot drinks provided.

Free knife sharpening lessons + lending

On the topic of maintenance of goods, just this weekend I posted on Buy Nothing Somerville that I was offering free knife sharpenings to a few lucky winners. Out of the kindness of my heart. Dull knives can be dangerous, and poor possession upkeep fuels throwaway culture, and sharpening is fun! I did my first free knife sharpening session today, outdoors by the Harvard Divinity School (nice spot) and it was great! I sharpened two chef’s knives and a cleaver, and we had a nice chat. I’ve got lots more takers on Facebook, but if you or someone you know has some basic steel straight-edge knives they’re interested in learning to sharpen with a whetstone IRL, I could be down. My whetstone sits unused 99% of the time, so I’d like more people to make use of it more often, especially if that slows the purchasing of new equipment.

Guest plug: Amtrak Northeast Regional Train

[Michael | Somerville]

(10/10 favorite way to get up and down the Mid Atlantic)

ok WHY do I like northeast Regional Overnight trains SO MUCH??? 

• They’re cheap: usually between 30$ and 70$ to go all the way from BOS to WAS, even cheaper for intermediate trips
• They’re pretty: you get to see the skyline of New York City at night and golden hour over Chesapeake marshes or the coastal flats and harbors of Connecticut
• They’re eco-friendly: It’s electrified all the way between Boston and Washington, and trains are the most environmentally friendly long-distance, high(ish) speed motorized transport
• They’re comfortable: Even the coach class seats have ample legroom + space to recline, and the trains are plenty long if you want to get up and stretch your legs
• (Most importantly) they’re convenient: In the US, trains tend to be slow AF compared to the rest of the semi-developed world. However, the overnight time frame means you don’t miss out on any time at either destination, AND the trip flies by since you sleep through 80% of it.

I made lunch, and I’ll do it again

A couple weeks ago I cooked for my biggest event yet (blog post here). It went great, so consider this an advertisement for small-scale vegan zero-waste locavore catering. Joking but not joking.

Meme break

Teddie rejection

Teddie is a peanut butter company that manufactures peanut butter right here in Everett, MA. In one of my many “why not?” moments, I emailed Teddie customer service to ask if they’d consider selling their PB in bulk. They said no.

Here in Greater Boston and much of the northeast, glass you put in your single-stream recycling bin, per instructions, doesn’t get regenerated into new bottles or anything on a shelf. Much of it turns into something like gravel. It’s complicated and not good. It’s not clear to me if you can drop these jars off at bottle redemption spots, because the law only covers drink containers. I guess I could go find out next time I’m near one.

Regardless, even if the material usage were perfectly circular, there’s still all the energy consumed in the process.

It would be pretty sick if we could get gallon buckets of peanut butter from the factory next door, is what I’m saying. I guess the closest thing is the Whole Foods peanut grinder, if there’s any Whole Foods’ that still have it. The one by me removed theirs recently, and also, it’s Whole Foods.

Anyway, has anyone got a big food processor?

That’s all, folks. Thanks for being a part of the community. If anything sparked your interest above, don’t forget to make that connection!