In lieu of a large post today, I'll round up a few fair trade goodies I'm loving recently.

1. Our new fair trade blog. The post from today is about yesterday's visit to Kfar Kara and has some nice pics. I'll be blogging there regularly with goings on in the world of Israeli-Palestinian fair trade. (End shameless plug.)


2. Dangling Fan Earrings. So cute they literally make me want to pierce my ears. I'm really not kidding. And they're made by a fair trade Balinese artisan cooperative. SERRV, $34.


3. Larry's Beans Ethiopian Mama Nile single-origin coffee. Yes, yes, I'm a Dean's Beans girl, but they don't sell it in North Carolina (which is where my parents live) so the folks brought me this instead...and I'm addicted. It's got the most chocolatey, velvety aroma--it may even beat Ahab's Revenge. And as a bonus, it comes in Larry's special "bio bag", which is supposed to decompose in the compost in a couple of months. This, of course, prompted many jokes from my roommates along the lines of, "Quick, make some coffee before the bag turns into dirt!" Larry's Beans, $13.25.


4. Soluna Winery- Viña de la Solidaridad. Yo and I are planning a trip to Argentina in the summer, and, of course, I'm figuring out how to mix business with pleasure and researching Argentinian fair trade like crazy. Right now, one of the country's biggest fair trade products is wine, and the Soluna winery in Mendoza is part of that growing sector. Come on--it's got a stamp that says "Vineyard of Solidarity" people! It's like so many of the best things all rolled up into one: Argentina, fair trade, solidarity, and WINE! Needless to say, I will be calling them and hopefully we'll spend some time at the viña. Check them out here.


5. Jackie DeCarlo's blog, Fair Trade Beginners. So the story goes like this: I started working for a fair trade organization and realized very quickly that I needed to understand it better in order to do a good job, and so, like any good Hampshire student, I immediately made myself a reading list, ordered the books, and had my parents bring them from the States. Jackie is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Fair Trade, which I read and found extremely useful. So I googled her, found her blog, and decided to email her to consult on some things I'm working on, because apparently that's what I do--I read books and then call up the authors as if they should know me. Not only did she agree, she was extremely helpful and super sweet. And she's got a great blog. Check it out here.


Oh my, those did get longer as we went along, didn't they? Oh well. I like this format though--I think I'll try to give more roundups.

Happy fair trading!
S