REPAIR CAFÉ

REPAIR CAFÉ

Repair Café is a fantastic idea that was born in Amsterdam in 2009 by Martine Postma.

But what is a Repair Café?

It is not just a hangout.

It is not just volunteering.

Repair Cafè has a very important social function.

Repair Café is a free meeting place where you can repair objects of all kinds together.

Repair Café is an organization that provides tools and materials to help carry out repairs on clothes, furniture, appliances, bicycles, dishes, appliances, toys, and much more thanks to the availability of experienced volunteers, with repair skills in all types of fields.

The success in the Netherlands has spread over space and time, forming a worldwide movement with the express purpose of preserving the ability to repair in society and promoting the recovery of objects that can continue to function.

There are organizations in Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Japan and many other countries around the world

In this video Martine, Ginko and Therese explain also giving numbers

Isn’t it wonderful that coffee machines are among the most sheltered objects?

There is also a Repair Café in Pavia founded in 2015 by Irishman Mike Kavanagh and Australian Michael Richards.

The team, which also takes care of teaching the knowledge needed to repair, has since grown and organizes repair events in collaboration with various local associations.

In this regard, I would like to point out the appointment on Saturday 26 February: Activators Breakfast

Are you for reuse
Can you fix broken objects?
Is there a particular object to which you have given or would you like to give new life?

What if I tell you 金継ぎor kintsugi?

FUNGHI ESPRESSO – MUSHROOM EXPRESS

FUNGHI ESPRESSO – MUSHROOM EXPRESS

Your comments show that many of us use coffee grounds to fertilize plants, and this is undoubtedly a good thing.

But there are those who, before fertilizing the plants, use the coffee grounds collected from the local cafes to cultivate.

Well yes: it is a landless cultivation, only with coffee grounds, and it produces mushrooms!

These mushrooms are then sold in local fairs or in local restaurants: in Tuscany.

What better name than Espresso Mushrooms

Among other things, ironically, this business was born in a former shoe factory

The project was presented to UNIFI Impresa Campus in 2013 here you can find the spin off  of the Florentine University Incubator and the newsletter which decides its success.

Funghi Espresso then participated in Expo 2015  receiving consensus and acknowledgments.

Mushrooms Espresso is inspired by Gunter Pauli‘s Blue economy  becoming part of the concept of Smart city, but even more of Urban farming.

Antonio Di Giovanni, one of the creators of the Startup Mushrooms Espresso, is also the founder of Circular Farm whose production cycle illustrates in detail the composting process and hydroponic cultivation.

Have you already tried the hydroponic method, that is, out of the ground?

KEEP CALM AND GO VOLUNTEERING

KEEP CALM AND GO VOLUNTEERING

Keep Calm and Go Volunteering! 

In this case keep calm is not for the coffee but for an interesting as well as admirable volunteer project.

The general objective is to sensitize young people to the adoption of sustainable and responsible lifestyles, in contrast to the increasingly widespread “culture of waste” and disposable use.

The active promoters are four young people from different backgrounds: Edisona Xhani from Albania, Sophie Anvroin from France, Hamudi Salama Batah from Spain and Mehdi Meddeb from Tunisia who are involved in sharing information and promoting initiatives by working in the fabric of the community to combat food waste.

Keep calm and go volunteering therefore consists of a European Solidarity Corps that is funded by the National Youth Agency and promoted by the Europe Area of the Belluno Committee of Understanding. 

In fact, on Sunday a flash mob took place in Belluno to involve more people with the aim of raising awareness the population.

And speaking of the fight against food waste, I suggest you follow Paola who through her book ll gusto di non sprecare, her blog Primo non sprecare for years has been diligently and deeply involved in the fight against waste.

It was nice to discover that many of us use coffee grounds, so I trust in just as many precious suggestions for food as well.

What do you think?

HOW DO YOU USE COFFEE GROUNDS?

HOW DO YOU USE COFFEE GROUNDS?

Have you ever reused coffee grounds?

I sometimes add them to the earth of the pots.

Unfortunately they were less helpful against the ants, you say they were particularly naughty like all the insects who decide to move here?

Have you ever tried?

Or maybe you can read them? The first scene that comes to mind is in Joel Schumacher’s Dying Young, when Estelle played by Colleen Dewhurst sees a bad omen in Campbell Scott’s cup.

What do you say? Better to focus on other ways of using it.

For example, RENS from Helsinki, Finland had the best idea of using coffee grounds together with recycled plastic to make sneakers!

They named them coffee shoes, isn’t it great?

I quote verbatim: we transform post-industrial plastic and used coffee grounds into feature-rich products that are made to go the distance.

While waiting to go the distance, this is definitely a first step, don’t you agree?

THE THREAD OF INFINITY IS TIED TO THE PAW OF EVERY FLYING BIRD

THE THREAD OF INFINITY IS TIED TO THE PAW OF EVERY FLYING BIRD

The thread of infinity is tied to the paw of every flying bird

I find that this sentence by Victor Hugo somehow fits the thoughts that this video by Ugo De Cresi gives:

Do you understand why I get angry when Lomellina, this land of rice paddies and beauty is poisoned

Don’t you seem to really perceive that thread of infinity that is mirrored, like the sky, and leads you to breathe in a better dimension?

That flight of sacred Ibis is a melody of freedom and harmony.

Yet, the Ibises are not at home, indeed, environmentalists consider them an invasive species because they are not native, a bit like the otters.

But how did they get here?

The man brought them to us.

Always we who break the balance …

Paradoxically, they turn out to be extinct in Egypt, where they were depicted as the representation of the god Thot.

According to Treccani, Thot was revered as the god of writing and magic formulas, and obviously I can’t help but think immediately about the magic of books!

What is the book that triggered the magic for you?

What is the book that made you feel at home like an Ibis in Lomellina?

What is the book that made you fly tied to the infinity thread?

RICE FIELDS DON’T RISE FEELINGS

RICE FIELDS DON’T RISE FEELINGS

According to the annual report published by the National Rice Authority, Lomellina and Pavese are confirmed as the area with the greatest extension of rice paddies.

“The checkered sea” as my cousin used to say when we were children… yes, here we are quite far from the sea and therefore we are content to find beauty with alternative visions.

The checkered sea or rice paddies.

Paddy fields but no laughter.

Or, quoting neorealism, bitter rice since the conditions of livability, or should I say mortality, due to high rate of cancers, certainly do not allow smiles.

I don’t get tired of periodically reiterating the high danger of the poisons we live with, because the damage they cause to the body is terrible.

But as Charlie Chaplin taught us, a day without laughter is a day wasted.

So if the smile is still a little difficult, I would say to start at least with rice.

The most typical recipes of Lomellina, to stay on the subject of rice fields… mention among the first risotto with frogs … 

But I would “jump” directly to something else like the simple ris e lac: rice with milk or risotto with black-eyed peas.

Or, better still: why not take a longer jump outside the borders of Lomellina?

The caustic misanthrope proposed a tartare with Nero rice which to describe as delicious is few, and then she also told me about red rice!
I am a mess so on the first try I got the cooking time wrong but … you learn by making a mistake!
Thanks Lu!

Also on Paola’s blog: Primo non sprecare – First don’t waste, which I advise you not to miss, you will find a long series of recipes for cooking rice enriched with valuable advice, and they are one more interesting than the other!

I don’t know if I can choose, and you?

How about: can we dare a Keep Calm version?
Proposals are accepted!

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