FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, A case for buying better stuff…

Stay with me…this will have a point I promise:)

When I was a boy, steak at home was a special treat we would have maybe once a month. My brother Jean Louis and I would know its was steak night when we can home and saw these wooden plates my father had gotten in Germany for steak and of course sausage:) They were basic oval boards with a gutter around the perimeter so all the good juices wouldn’t run off. I dont know what became of them but I’ve always wanted some of my own and recently Josh Christensen (A very talented someone Ive worked) who is married to Beth Fauerbach (another talented person who I hired to Choreograph CHICAGO in Fort Mac where she met and fell in love with Josh) launched a small business making custom wood products so the opportunity to get what I wanted was here! Josh did a fabulous job making these boards and I love them and will cherish them for the rest of my life, but here is the real reason I love them that you may not completely understand.

Whenever I eat something on them its special…its special because josh; someone I know personally made them and more importantly my buying them helped feed and support his family if only for a microsecond. I love that, thats is where my money went and when I buy beef from Sumas Mountain Farms I know I am supporting a fantastic farm and helping to feed Kelly’s family in the process. I also love buying Chicken from Hatch a Bird Farms in Powell River first because its the best chicken Ive ever eaten but also because what Helena and Peter are doing there is a model of sustainability and again did I mention how good the chicken is… Holly Molly ITS GOOD! I also travel to Powell River so I can eat bread (the only bread I eat that isn’t my own) from Hearth and Stone Bakery where Larry and Chris mill there own wheat, use only real fire to cook and have Red Fife Flour bread which is the oldest strain of Flour still available in Canada dating back to the mid 1800’s. Its good bread…Did I mention Powell River is 3 hours and two ferries away from where I live?

All of this to say I go well out of my way to buy good things from good people I know personally whenever I can. It makes me feel good and Im pretty sure its good for my family and I and the entire rest of the world if I keep thinking and doing things this way more and more…Michale Pollan says “buy better food and eat less of it”. I think thats a damn fine idea!

You should too not always but as often as you can….

Cheers

Claude