Thursday, October 29, 2009

the 3/50 project and recipe

One of the best bits of family gatherings is to share the foods you grew up with. Cousin D made the green beans that spell home for me. I've never made them myself--we don't use bacon at home and we never over cook veggies, but I can't resist them when we're home. Here's the recipe.
While we were in Indi, we visited a really great bead shop: Beads Amoré. I found some goodies (I hope to get a picture soon) and in my bag was a little notice for the 3/50 project aimed at saving brick and mortar stores. We strive to avoid box stores, buy local, and shop at local small businesses. I think their project is worthwhile and interesting. You can see their statistics about employment and how much money stays in a community on their webpage. The most striking one--the number of people it takes to start the trend = one--just me (or you!).

6 comments:

terry b said...

I wish we had known about Beads Amore when we attended the GLR fall meeting in Indy. It was so close to where we stayed and shopped. We visited Needle Fever and it had to be right in the neighborhood. Needle Fever is where I found a really beautiful blackwork design--yes, I succumbed to it.

Jenny said...

3/50 project is a great idea. We have something similar in England called "Support your Local High Street" The idea is sort of gaining currency, although it works best in small towns with a semse of community.

Also, it's about supporting local branches of big chains rather than driving out somewhere. In our local high street (FInchley Road, London NW3) we feel the loss of our medium sized Woolworths. The British Woolworths Co. closed down a year ago and the shop has lain empty ever since. So people don't have much cause to go down that stretch of road, and smaller businesses are suffering somewhat.

there are so many aspects to keeping a community going. I am certain that supporting local stores is an important part of this.

Susan said...

Hi Marjorie! There's been a bit of talk about the 3/50 Project here in tiny Hudson. You know-- and you saw when you came to visit-- how much I love all our small shops. No Starbucks but three independent coffee houses (plus a bean importer/roaster) on the street. No fast food but 20 or so restaurants. I can walk to the cheese shop, wine shop, candymaker, tea shop and a farm stand supplier has just opened a year-round storefront. All this in a town of less than 8,000 residents, although tourists certainly make up a large portion of the sales. Now all we need is a bakery!

Susan said...

P.S. My father's side of the family had a similar green bean recipe, although we called it Grandma's Grey Beans since they were no longer green after cooking for so long...

Moonsilk Stitches said...

Terry: it was almost right across the street! I spotted Needle Fever on our way back to the motel. I found the bead shop from a little teeny flier they had in the hotel lobby--there was a little rack of them from local businesses and I grabbed one "just in case." It had a discount coupon, too!

Jenny: Oh, I remember shopping at that Woolworths--it was really nice. I'm sure it's missed.

Susan: I used to call them gray beans, too--because they are! I decided to be polite when I typed in the recipe.

Anonymous said...

this is the second time in as many days i have heard about the 3/50 project! it is a great idea - it makes me sad when i see people supporting big chains rather than small locals - especially galling when i find myself doing it.

i cook a similar bean recipe - but add garlic and onion with the bacon and only a touch of water and cook the beans only until tender - all the flavour, but not grey (we always had grey beans at my nannas too).
paula