Bringing it back to 1910!

I was walking through the neighborhood Safeway and I saw a magazine that I thought Angela and I would like, The Food Network magazine.  We like to experiment with different recipes and such, well as I was flipping through it I found an interesting section... it was on home roasting with a popcorn popper.  I have to admit this is something that I thought the food network wouldn't know or touch on, but it's cool that they're trying.  I think that popcorn poppers are alright, I do know that if you're going to roast with one of these hand crank poppers, you'd better be in shape.  My buddy Paul has been home roasting for a little while now using a hot air popcorn popper with great success.  Actually roasting from a popcorn popper can be a great teaching tool as well.  Paul and I were talking about the process of roasting and how corn and coffee go through the same process to be eaten/drunk.  It's called Pyrolysis.  Basically you can compare french roast to burnt popcorn, it's the same principle.  You can ask him or me for more info on home roasting too if you want.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters Producers Panel

Angela and I were fortunate to attend a presentation of coffee producers that were brought up and asked to discuss with the audience many issues concerning coffee and specialty coffee.  I made a small video (my battery began to run out) documenting the panel, and it touched on Fair Trade vs. Direct trade, how Fair Trade, in most cases, doesn't even cover the cost of production and percentage of coffee and specitaly coffee trade world wide.  It's a frustration that I think many people share but do little themselves to impact that world.