To Be Fair...

Barry Callebaut recently introduced Fairtrade-certified versions of their chocolate the 35.1% milk, 55.3% and 70% dark chocolate with no recipe adjustment. I hear Fairtrade a lot, but thought I might do a quick delve into what it actually means, so you can determine if it’s something you would like to support. To start, a definition off a webpage I found on the Green America website helpful; "Fair Trade is a system of exchange that honors producers, communities, consumers, and the environment. It is a model for the global economy rooted in people-to-people connections, justice, and sustainability”. It encourages women to participate in the work force and leadership roles, and strictly regulates human rights and child labor laws alike ensuring safe working conditions and finally a chance to take a small business that may have otherwise gone unnoticed and allow it to become part of the global market. Fairtrade certification ensures the product being sold is bought meets particular economic, social and environmental standards providing workers with fair pay for their labor, goods and empowering them to receive an honest ability to sustain themselves and the earth.  Barry Callebaut will have agreed to pay a fair price for the chocolate, an amount that would cover cost of production, wages, and the basic necessities of living including food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education. Fairtrade items include coffee beans, cocoa pods and chocolate, sugar, rice, flowers, olive oil, tea, vanilla beans, wine, crafts, bananas and…sports balls. You learn something new everyday!  Fair Trade is monitored by World Fair Trade Organization, a global community consisting of over 350 organizations committed to the principals of Fair Trade and they operate in over 70 countries and in five different regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North American and the Pacific Rim. And for clarification, there is Fair Trade and Fairtrade. The difference is Fair Trade is the movement to make the world better. Fairtrade is the actual labeling stamp you see on products, like if you are ever in a Whole Foods, they are amazing with this. The Fairtrade Labeling Organization puts this stamp only on products that meet the standards from the supported producer.For more information, check out the following links and share what you learn!

http://www.bakingbusiness.com

http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/fairtrade/whattoknow/index.cfm

http://www.fairtradetowns.org/about/faq/

I'm Going Bananas!

I have literally, pounds of over-ripe bananas in my freezer. I buy bananas with the very good intention of eating them, but I’m a picky banana eater. They have to be perfect. I like them yellow. Not yellow with green…not yellow with brown spots. Just yellow. This leaves me a window of approximately 15 minutes in the life of a banana. Why I ever buy more than one at a time is really unclear. They get too ripe, I don't eat them and they end up in the freezer. This week in a ProChef Smart Brief they published an article that was originally in the Chicago Tribune written by Monica Kass Rogers (See the link below). In it she highlights a number of banana recipes,that all sound amazing! Finally…something more to do with bananas than banana bread! Which if I do say so myself, my recipe is really good, thanks to Betty Crocker Cookbook circa the 1970’s. The book and recipe has been updated since, but at my house we don’t stray from the 70’s version…but speaking of the 70’s and retro recipes it’s amazing how simple and delicious some banana recipes are, like banana bread and banana pudding and how far some chef’s have taken them! Tony Maws who is the chef at a Cambridge, MA restaurant called Craigie takes that same banana pudding recipe and turns it into sour-milk panna cotta with muscovado sugar-banana puree, cashew-coriander granola and brown butter dust! That’s a far cry from Nilla Wafers, Cool Whip, bananas and pudding! Want to see some more and check out a few great recipes? Check out the article, here! pic from www.sxc.hu

I almost forgot!! You know what else goes great with bananas...? Chocolate chips! Barry Callebaut announced at the “All Things Baking” show a brand new 50,000 count chocolate chip! Hooray for the mini’s! Thanks to it’s teeny tiny size, it fits through piping tips and manufacturing equipment! Read more here.