Maine Event: Day 59

Hello hello. Work never ceases. I sincerely thought we would be releasing the app but instead, at the 11th hour, we are making content changes. This and lots of meetings make for long days without much moving about except for the fingers. 

We got up early to once again go to the post office to get our mail. In which I discovered the 2nd week I'm back I've been called to possible jury duty. (Never a dull moment.) Then we made it out for a quick walk at noon and then this evening after dinner we walked down to Banded brewery which has a huge indoor space with vast fermenting tanks burbling away. We shared a flight of our choosing which you will see below. The spruce tip beer was nothing to write home about, it tasted like a slightly fancy Budweiser. I detected no spruce flavors. I've heard there are better ones and the idea is interesting to me. I still haven't found any beer here that is even close. I think a beer called "Lunch" by the Maine Beer Company is still my favorite if I were comparing beers in the land of Maine against Maine. They are based out of Freeport. A lot of people are making beer here, which I'd call so-so.

I got a great rant in response to my post last night from one of my very favorite editors. I got permission to share it. 

Class and food class

"More than 50% of the world has a non-communicable disease and the primary causes of that are unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, tobacco use and exposure, and excessive alcohol. Those are the main risks to good health and in that order."

Those aren't the primary causes. The primary causes are capitalist economics and a food system that limits the money you have to spend on food and then makes the food that is bad for you cheaper than food that is good for you. A culture of work that makes too many people work in a single position while making limited movements. A culture of life that provides so little positive reinforcement, and so much advertising, that tobacco, alcohol and drug use seem like sensible pathways to feeling better. Not to mention how racism limits the options and makes these factors even worse for whole groups of people. Or how capitalist agriculture forces farmers to use agrochemicals that poison people and their soil if they want to keep their land. Etc. etc. ad nauseum. And nausea isn't good for a cooking class, so I'll just shut up now.

It's all true and yet we have choices. 

Lovely buildings on the way downtown.

5 stories of shops offices and condos. Pretty nice building from the 1880s. On the way back from the Post Office. Here is a link to some cool old photos of the same area.

Nice buildings with cobwebs galore.

My friend, the Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) is just starting to change color.

Here is a close-up of the color starting on the foliage.

Beautiful clouds and sky.

Lovely color combination.

So this is our beer flight. From left to right: Session Ender, Daikaiju, Greenworden, Dark Orb. Here is the description / menu if you are interested.

That's all for now.

Sending oodles of love, Tawnia