The Tour de Fat, or Why I Love New Belgium

The Tour de Fat is one of the reasons why the New Belgium Brewing Company is on my top five list of great companies. Some of the other reasons may be found here.

Basically, the New Belgium Brewing Company was created after the founder was inspired (divinely perhaps?) while on a bike trek through Belgium visiting some of the best breweries in the world. Upon returning to the US, he made it his mission to recreate the best of the Belgian beers right here in America. He named his new brewery New Belgium, and named its first official beer after the mountain bike with "fat tires" he had used to ride across the country of his inspiration.

Now that the name of both the brewery and its flagship beer are known from coast to coast, conventional wisdom states that the company should have sold out its original intentions and realized its full potential as a money making enterprise. Not so. Fortunately for everyone involved, while the company is making more money than a 32 year old dude on a bike trek across Belgium ever could have imagined, it is still 100% true to its roots. And that means bikes.

For instance, some of the great perks of being a New Belgium employee (in addition to all the fat tire you can drink) include a free geeked out cruiser bike after you've worked there for one full year, and a parking lot with almost as many spots for bikes as there are for cars. But the coolest thing us non-employees get to enjoy (in addition to all the paid for yet delicious beer we can drink) is the Tour de Fat.

The Tour de Fat is essentially a traveling carnival dedicated to bikes. It begins with a community ride around an area, similar to Critical Mass except that it is actually licensed by the city, and then ends at a fairground complete with a corral filled with awesome art bikes for everyone to enjoy and a giant stage where bands play, contests are held, and a mock New Orleans style funeral is held for car culture.

Now, this is all free. The only thing that isn't is the beer. And when it comes to beer sales, in each major city the tour goes to, it partners with a local bike friendly non-profit (in my fine city that is the SFBC) and gives a portion of all profits to that organization.

The moral of this story? New Belgium is awesome, and everyone reading this should go to a Tour de Fat event if one is taking place near them. To all my SF brothers and sisters, that event is tomorrow, Saturday the 25th of September at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.

See ya there.

Images provided by New Belgium Brewing Co. and The Green Dude

You got that WHERE?

Chances are you've heard of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) before. In case you haven't, it is where you buy "shares" in a farm in return for a getting a portion of what that farm grows. Sometimes this is all done upfront, which gets money to farmers when they need it most -- before the growing season starts. Sometimes it is done on a weekly or monthly basis. Sometimes you go to the farm to pick your share up, and sometimes it is delivered to your door. There are many versions of this model, but what they all have in common is that they give farmers some reasonable idea of how much of their crop they will be able to sell, and let customers know they will be getting local, fresh produce all year round (or at least for as long as they bought shares for).

Sounds pretty awesome right? Well it is (I personally get a CSA from Planet Organics every week) but there is a new version making headway in the SF Area which really piqued my interest. Let me introduce the CSF, or Community Supported Foraging.

Basically, Community Supported Foraging combines the principles of a CSA with the reality of urban foraging. So instead of getting organic corn and fresh pink lady apples in your basket, you may find your box filled with mushrooms collected in a local forest along with some nettles or sea beans. When it comes to fruit, the foraging takes place in local backyards whose owners have agreed to let the foragers in to pick their crop in return for getting to keep a portion of it. This portion then gets passed along to everyone who bought into the CSF. It doesn't get more local than that.

And no, foraging is not the same thing as freeganism.

Image provided by ScottDMoose