Today I was going from working on the community garden and collecting wood chips to the coffee shop where last year I found a wealth of coffee grounds for making compost. I was driving by the Fair Trade for All store that is featured in the Just Trade web page. Driving by I remembered that this store and two stores next to it, a fashion garden store and an Irish dance retail store were all having a special event today. First I went to the garden store and saw a wonderful display of trellises, statues, flags and other garden related fashions. They were very attractive, some were antiques, but they were not affordable. I remembered thinking to myself I could probably buy some more trellises at Aldi grocery store again this year, rough them up a bit and make them look like some of these expensive antique trellises. However, the gourmet snacks in the garden store were very good.

Skipping the Irish dance store I went to the Fair Trade for All store. I know the woman who started the store and her daughter and son-in-law who help run it. Actually I had run out of Juan Ana Coffee and thought I could pick up a bag while waiting for the new order I placed last night to come. The son-in-law had told me some time ago he was placing a new order since he had run out. This is the coffee (which I had recommended to the store) that had to be raised in price since it was priced so reasonably that people did not think it was good. Also, although it is coffee directly from a co-op I visited in the village of San Lucas Toliman in Guatemala, and all the cost of this organic and delicious coffee goes to he people who grew and processed it, the coffee does not have a certified “fair trade” label on it. All I found in the store was “fair trade” coffee from a local coffee processor. The son-in-law again repeated that he was going to order some and as an apology said that his mother-in-law was going next week to visit my friend Ella of Ella’s patch quilts to purchase some ‘just trade’ items.

However, the trip to the store was not in vain. Looking around the store I started talking with an Indian father and his son who were also looking around. Once the father discovered my interest in the culture of India we got into an extended conversation while his son wandered the store for items of interest. He had grown up in India while his son was completely American and even a meat eater. When I expressed my interest in Indian cuisine he shared with me a number of recipes from India. They sounded great and as soon as I left the store, making my way to the coffee shop, I stopped at the Indian store grocery store and purchased the necessary ingredients I did not already have.

When I got to the coffee shop I found that I did not need to even go in and ask the manager if he could save coffee grounds again for me this year. There at the side of this busy coffee shop were large plastic bags and bags of coffee grounds just waiting for me. With these coffee grounds and the wood chips I brought home from the DMZ I have a good start on a new batch of compost to grow soil.

The fancy garden store had nothing I could use. But I came home with recipes and ingredients for two more healthy meals as well as wood chips and coffee grounds to make soil to grow some more healthy food. I will take grounds over fancy any day for the garden.

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