Unexpected Food Gifts

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This afternoon I presented a grateful colleague with seven pounds of Rancho Gordo beans.  And in return I now have another square foot or two of floorspace in my dining room. 

 

[Maison Rustique]

11 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

This afternoon I presented a grateful colleague with seven pounds of Rancho Gordo beans.  And in return I now have another square foot or two of floorspace in my dining room. 

 

I've been doing that a lot lately, too. It might be time to stop my subsscription, as sad as that makes me. 

[TdeV]

@Maison Rustique, there is an RG Bean Club subscription LIGHT. I get fewer beans (probably miss some great varieties), but my cabinet is less full!

 

[ElsieD]

What makes RG beans so great?

[Smithy]

11 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

What makes RG beans so great?

 

They're heirloom beans, organically cultivated. Some varieties are being rediscovered thanks to a project @rancho_gordo has going in Mexico. There's a lot of love and discussion about them here: Rancho Gordo: Beans and More. 

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

@Maison Rustique, there is an RG Bean Club subscription LIGHT. I get fewer beans (probably miss some great varieties), but my cabinet is less full!

 

They only offered that for a brief time and have no plans to offer it in the near future. 

[Katie Meadow]

26 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

What makes RG beans so great?

What Smithy says, all of which contributes to the fact that they are good for you and taste great. Besides that: They are fresh. They are consistent. They are beautiful. The packages are tidy and easy to open and they are clean. Almost never are found stones, dirt or weird beans. And if you order $50 worth of stuff, which is easier than ever to do, the shipping is free.

[FauxPas]

14 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

And if you order $50 worth of stuff, which is easier than ever to do, the shipping is free.

 

Not to Canada, however, which is where @ElsieDis currently located. Shipping costs are high these days and I understand that companies have to recover those costs but it makes some purchases prohibitively expensive. With Rancho Gordo, Canadian shoppers are limited to certain items also. 

https://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans-canada

 

Their shipping costs vary according to weight and postal code. For my location, shipping started at $34 US and I was able to put 6 packages (6 pounds) of beans in my cart before the shipping cost rose higher. Total cost was about $75 US at that point, which is over $100 in Canadian dollars. That's a lot for 6 pounds of beans! 

 

I have ordered from Rancho Gordo to ship to a Canadian friend as a gift. She loves beans and enjoyed them, but would never be willing to pay that much to buy them herself. 

 

RG has a nice selection of different varieties, though they are often sold out of some. RG gave beans a bit of a cool image, I think. 

 

Canada does grow a lot of beans though not as many varieties as RG supplies. @ElsieD, here is Ontario Bean Farmers info:

https://ontariobeans.on.ca/types-of-beans/

 

[heidih]

As probably previously mentioned @rancho_gordo Steve Sando is one of us  from the early days. Passionate and great sense of humor. We support his efforts. This New Yorker profile is old enough so may not be behind paywall.   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/23/the-hunt-for-mexicos-heirloom-beans

Edited November 12, 2023 by heidih (log)

[Maison Rustique]

2 hours ago, TdeV said:

@Maison Rustique, there is an RG Bean Club subscription LIGHT. I get fewer beans (probably miss some great varieties), but my cabinet is less full!

 

Yeah,, I already switched to that. With only 2 of us and my husband so ill now, he barely eats and I barely eat because I'm on the stress diet. We just can't keep up with it. I've donated way more than I've used in the last couple of years.

[liuzhou]

This afternoon I ordered a six pack of the local brew from my local beeratorium. They arrived 20 minutes later and it turned out that they had also thrown in a seventh as a thank you gift for my custom! I have been buying from them for about 15 years so ...

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Yesterday must have been Food and Drink Gift Giving Day in China, a previously unknown festival. Not only did I get a free can of beer (above post), but when I ordered dinner for delivery, they threw in this bag of shrimp crackers, free and gratis, without charge!

 

 

 

 

[Maison Rustique]

Yesterday was our 39th anniversary. Since my husband's dementia has gotten so bad, he often doesn't know I am his wife and certainly did not understand that it was our anniversary. A rather sad day for me.

 

It cheered me immensely when the doorbell rang. It was our neighbors' daughter who started a bakery business in her apartment during the pandemic when her college classes were all messed up. She has absolutely killed it with her fabulous baked goods in this area. She now rents a commercial kitchen space and two local coffee shops carry her pastries. Anyway, my beloved sister ordered some pastries to help get me through the day and it was Kirin delivering them.

 

Rai's Bake Shoppe

 

 

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, Maison Rustique said:

Yesterday was our 39th anniversary. Since my husband's dementia has gotten so bad, he often doesn't know I am his wife and certainly did not understand that it was our anniversary. A rather sad day for me.

 

 

That's rough. Nothing can make it better, but this kind of thoughtful gesture from a loved one helps.

I visited yesterday with a cousin of mine here in NS. Her husband was diagnosed in his early 50s with an extremely aggressive form of dementia, which had largely incapacitated him within a couple of years of the diagnosis. He's just 62 now, and it looks like he will have one more Christmas at home with his wife and daughter, which I would not have bet on a year ago at this time. It's getting very near the point where she can't care for him at home anymore, even with a nurse (their daughter) in the home.

They were college sweethearts, and will be celebrating their 42nd anniversary at the end of December. I expect it will be a bittersweet moment.

 

ETA: While I was there she gifted me with about 15 pounds of apples from a neighbour's tree, and part of a Costco-sized chunk of parm that she wasn't going through quickly enough (just to bring this back into topicality). This represents only about half of the apples she herself was gifted by the beleaguered owner of the tree, and she knew I'd make use of them.

Edited November 18, 2023 by chromedome
Fix typo, add a paragraph (log)

[Darienne]

4 hours ago, Maison Rustique said:

Yesterday was our 39th anniversary. Since my husband's dementia has gotten so bad, he often doesn't know I am his wife and certainly did not understand that it was our anniversary. A rather sad day for me.

 

It cheered me immensely when the doorbell rang. It was our neighbors' daughter who started a bakery business in her apartment during the pandemic when her college classes were all messed up. She has absolutely killed it with her fabulous baked goods in this area. She now rents a commercial kitchen space and two local coffee shops carry her pastries. Anyway, my beloved sister ordered some pastries to help get me through the day and it was Kirin delivering them.

 

Rai's Bake Shoppe

 

 

Beautiful pastries but my heart goes out to you.  The hardest thing in the world I think is to lose a beloved spouse to dementia.  

[MaryIsobel]

The pastries were a lovely gesture from your sister. THey are gorgeous. I'm sorry for what you are going through. I'll echo Darienne's thoughts, I can't imagine anything more difficult. Wishing you strength.

[liuzhou]

Bit of an odd morning.  I was being wheeled through the crowds (it's a busy hospital) to a treatment room when someone called my name. An ex-student who graduated with a good MA about ten years ago. Neither of us had time to stop.

 

About 15 minutes later she reappeared bearing a large shopping bag of  gifts from the hospital shop - a typical polite reaction to running into me. Chinese custom.

 

Later, back in my cell, I found two large bao buns (stuffing as yet undetermined),  two boiled eggs, two half litre containers of soy milk, two cobs of damnation (my students weren't so aware of my c@rn aversion as people here) and two bottles of purified drinking water.

 

The kindest nurse of the day will get the corn and the runner-up the the soy milk. The rest I'll use.

 

[TdeV]

People ave very gracious in China. You're lucky to be there!

 

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, TdeV said:

You're lucky to be there!

 

Don't I know it!

[Kim Shook]

On 11/18/2023 at 8:57 AM, Maison Rustique said:

Yesterday was our 39th anniversary. Since my husband's dementia has gotten so bad, he often doesn't know I am his wife and certainly did not understand that it was our anniversary. A rather sad day for me.

 

It cheered me immensely when the doorbell rang. It was our neighbors' daughter who started a bakery business in her apartment during the pandemic when her college classes were all messed up. She has absolutely killed it with her fabulous baked goods in this area. She now rents a commercial kitchen space and two local coffee shops carry her pastries. Anyway, my beloved sister ordered some pastries to help get me through the day and it was Kirin delivering them.

 

Rai's Bake Shoppe

 

 

I'm so sorry that you are going through that.  It is the most damnable disease I've ever witnessed.  But what a lovely gesture from your sister!  Having understanding and thoughtful loved ones is a blessing.  

[liuzhou]

As noted elsewhere, I ordered a bottle of The Pogues Whiskey for Christmas and to toast the late Shane MacGowan. It arrived  this afternoon.

 

 

What was unexpected was that it was accompanied by a complimentary bottle of vodka. A brand I don't know. J. J. Whitely Artisanal Russian Vodka. Good old Tsarist name that, J. J. Whitley. Still they seem to have a good reputation.

 

 

Why I've been sent this, I've no idea, but hey, it's Christmas and I did empty my Stolichnaya bottle last night. And "Free Vodka" is my favourite brand!

 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Maison Rustique]

I failed to take photos, but a few days ago one of our neighbors brought us some Christmas cookies, bourbon pecans (I need to get the recipe from her!) and Ghirardelli peppermint bark. Then, yesterday, our next door neighbor brought us pastries from his daughter's bakery (The one I posted about before Rai's Bake Shoppe)--various croissants and pop tarts. We split a fudge pop tart and a cranberry orange pop tart last night and they were flaky and dellicious.

[Tropicalsenior]

I don't know where else to put this but they seem to be a gift from some little bird who deposited a seed right outside my back door. The plant has grown to be humongous and this is about my 10th Harvest. There seems to be no end to them. They just keep on keeping on and right now it is full of little green tomatoes and a ton of blooms.

At the price that they charge for cherry tomatoes here, that's about $5 worth of tomatoes right there. I'm not complaining.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[chromedome]

At the price they charge for cherry tomatoes here, that's $25-$30 worth of tomatoes (mind you that's in $CDN, so perhaps $18-$20 USD).

[Tropicalsenior]

15 hours ago, chromedome said:

At the price they charge for cherry tomatoes here, that's $25-$30 worth of tomatoes (mind you that's in $CDN, so perhaps $18-$20 USD).

I told Carlos that if these keep producing like this I'm going to send him out on the street selling tomatoes. Maybe I ought to just send him to Canada with them.