SuperForester Cassie Presents: Bento Box Ring and Cute Cookery!

This just came in from the incandescent, unstoppable SuperForester Cass, (she of the mighty Gravel and Gold blog!) Absorb!

"Hiya Jack!

SuperForest is looking super great! I love your alphabet for peace drawings.
Also, I for one would buy the T-shirt for sure. And I would really, really buy the hoodie.

We had fantastic travels and it was good to take a break from it all, but so good to come home.
And now that we're home, we can get down to the vital business of eating lots of sushi. It seems that no matter where I travel--even to France, the very heart of gourmand rapture--all I crave, seek, downright require is Japanese food. Which got me to thinking....Surely your devoted SuperForesters would agree that nothing covers the Japanese/lunchtime sustainability bases like a hearty bento box. So then, a this-and-that celebration of the ultimate this-and-that apparatus, the mighty bento box:


For a truly tiny bit of this-and-that on the go, it's wise to pack an itty-bitty snack in your essential bento box ring, from the excellent CRAFT blog.

For an awesome kick in the the creativity pants, be inspired by the daily outpouring of one mother's love, creativity, and bento artistry to be found on e-bento. Edible froggies, and octopi, and samurai, Oh my!

To join the whole universe of daily bento blogging, check in with one of the many suggested at cookingcute.com!


If it's the bento accoutrements, (say a hand carved and lacquered Japanese elm bento box,) rather than the contents therein that really get you a-drooling, justbento.com has what you're after.

Might there be something for SuperForest here?

Hope you are very well indeed.
Love!
Cass!"

-Cass,

Indeed there is! Thank you so much for the post!
Love,

Jackson

Gravel & Gold: Levon Helm, Musical Thrower Downer

Just found an amazing post on Gravel & Gold about the amazing Levon Helm.

Take it, Cass!

Levon Helm, Musical Thrower Downer

"Sev turned us on to Levon Helm’s album Dirt Farmer when we were up at Dovetail Farm, and those songs have been churning through my head ever since. Levon was the drummer for The Band, and in my opinion, the best voice in their crowd.

Since those days, he’s whipped up quite a reputation as the gracious host of The Midnight Ramble Sessions, a monthly musical throw down in the barn/studio at his place in Woodstock that has seen the likes of Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Levon’s daughter Amy Helm of Ollabelle, lots of stoked attendees, and many other marvels. This release, his first solo studio album in over twenty-five years, was well worth the wait. It came out late last year, and I’m not the only one who thinks it’s really, really good. It won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. And Nile loves it, too. What better credentials need you?"

Indeed!

Endangered Ugly Things Blog!

Just got a great email from SuperForester Cass!

"Hiya Jack, Niki, and the rest of the Team!

Here's a SF post just waiting to happen—

A friend of mine recently directed me to an essential blog, Ugly Endangered Things, where ungainly species under threat of extinction get top billing, for a change, instead of their cute, fuzzy fellows.

So often when it comes to saving endangered species, beauty dictates where we focus our attention—it's all cute Siberian Tiger this, adorable Giant Panda that. When really, who's to say which dwindling critter is more vital to our ecosystem or more worthy of our preservation efforts? It seems that in the game of conservation, the campaign for survival all comes down to the swimsuit competition, so to speak.

However one look at these "ugly endangered things" drives home the truth that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Now in my view, diversity, adaptation, and blue speckled bills just so happen to be totally gorgeous—more gorgeous that a gazillion conventionally cute critters hogging up every preservation postage stamp, coffee cup, and tote bag in sight. I prefer the cause of Purple Burrowing Frog, the Wartyback Mussel, the Shoebill, the Ohio lamprey, and all the rest of these cute-to-me creatures any day.

And on the off chance that it's really the cuteness of the T-shirt, not the critter, that counts, I expect those awesome UET shirts have made all the difference for the Australian Lungfish and the Li'l Tuatara.

Yay SuperForest!
LOVE
Cass

Great intel, Cass-Master!

Endangered Ugly Things is sweet.

I'd never before heard of the Purple Burrowing frog



Yeesh.

And wait a minute... Look at the L'il Tuatara!



It's ADORABLE. Like a mini lizard. It's the pug of lizards. Correction, it's the puggle of lizards.

SuperForester Cass runs an amazing shop in San Francisco called Gravel & Gold, and writes an incredible blog to boot.

Love!

Gravel & Gold: Granny Socks Just For You!

Yeah, we have original ideas, but when you find something as cool as the Net Granny post on the Gravel & Gold blog, all you can really do is quote, quote, quote.

Take it, Mama Cass!:

"When we were first preparing to open the shop, the Ladies and I compiled a big list of items that we had always imagined carrying in some shop we owned, sometime down the line, somewhere in the world. And, lo and behold, many items from that first brainstorm did indeed make their way to our shelves — Mimi bags from London, 5-Year Diaries like the one Lisa has been keeping for a while now, Medimix soap just like they have in all the hostels in India.

One fantastic item idea on that list that remains totally shop-worthy, but is unlikely to ever make the cut, is to carry hand-knit socks made to order by the Swiss granny of your choice. That’s right. You go on to NetGranny, select a granny from their stable of fierce granny knitters, select a color and size, and a few weeks later, your very own pair of custom sockies arrive in the mail. Brill!

For those of us bereft of grandmas, or those whose grandma was always way more into needlepoint than knitting, it’s a dream come true. Plus, you’re supporting a group of women who might otherwise have a tough time picking up some extra work and who, by the look of their photos, seem real stoked to spread the warm, wooly love far and wide. Good news for these chilly July nights in SF.

***Update***It seems the grannies are taking their well-deserved summer break, in a land where summer does mean fewer opportunities for wooly socks. Well then. Look for them this fall!"

Net Granny rules. What a great idea! We can't wait 'til they end their Summer break so we can haunt the sockenshop. Sockenshop. German is hilarious.

Sockenshop!

Love,

Team SuperForestsockenshop!

A Treat for Gravel & Gold: Gwen Verdon Walks it Out!

The following video is a special shout out to the amazing ladies of Gravel & Gold, San Francisco's finest bewonderment dispensary. Truly, a marvelous store.

If you find yourself in the Bay Area, why not drop in on G & G?

Here's Gravel & Gold's address:



And their site: Gravel & Gold
And definitely check out their amazing blog!

So, Mama Cass, Nilecat, and Miss Lisa, this is for you.


(wonderful video remix by youtuber FunWithStuttering)

P.S. For something really mind-blowing, check out the video with it's original music. Scary.

P.P.S. Special thanks to SuperForester Claire for hipping us to this video in the first place!