Tip Jars for Baristas

We've opened up a little espresso & crepe cafe. It's a take out place; people place their orders at a little window, we make their coffees and crepes to go, or to stay on the patio, but they do take their food and drinks to their tables themselves.

It never occurred to me *not* to have a tip jar. We aren't making enough money to pay more than minimum wage, and I've always tipped at coffee shops, so I assume most people do. I decided to have fun with our tip jars and went online to look for silly tipping quotes to attach to it. I was surprised when I encountered a whole lot of blog posts and published articles by people who strongly disagree with tip jars at takeout places of any kind, including espresso coffee shops where a barista is making their coffees. I found a couple of articles by people who believe making coffee is no different than flipping burgers at your typical fast food chain. These articles were written by people who clearly have no personal experience working in these kinds of places, and who have little understanding of what goes into making an exceptional cup of coffee. So, being the do-gooder that I apparently am, I'm going to put this out there to try and help some readers understand why tip jars at a take out window where a barista is making coffee is a given.

First of all, why do we tip, at least here in North America? To Insure Prompt Service. To take it even further, I would say that people should tip wherever they hope for excellent service involving food or beverages, and where they hope for any degree of special attention to their product. My husband and I both worked in the bar industry; most bars offer waitress service, but many bar patrons essentially "take out" their drinks from the bar counter, and yet bartenders almost always have tip jars and expect to get tipped for the drink they make. In the bar industry, tippers are treated better, their drinks are poured stronger, made better, the bartender will try and remember what the regular tipper likes to drink and how they like it. The tips earn that customer special treatment, faster service, something extra. If things get really busy the tippers will get served first, and the non tippers will have to wait.

Well, the making of an espresso coffee has much in common with the making of a martini or cocktail. I had no idea, until I watched our incredibly talented baristas, how much goes into making these coffees! There are international barista competitions, there is a precise way to tamp the grounds to avoid bitterness, elaborate techniques to adjust the grinds/water temperature/steam the milk, there are barista magazines, endless barista courses and seminars they can take to master their skills. These are things the general public may not realize, unless you've worked as a barista in a coffee shop that prides itself on providing excellent coffees, or unless you're a customer who appreciates an extra good coffee. If a barista puts extra care into your coffee, the coffee will taste a million times better than if the barista doesn't care and just slaps it together. If we tip bartenders even though we carry our own drinks to our tables, we should absolutely tip baristas who make each individual espresso coffee, particularly if we appreciate an excellent cup of coffee vs. any old cup of coffee.

Now, I've worked in the service industry for a long time off and on and I have no problem with tipping in general, though I can agree that there are tip jars in a few places that have me lifting my eyebrow. However if it's students working there, or, if I get excellent friendly service by anyone anywhere I shop and there's a tip jar I don't mind tossing in some change. So in general, I have no hostile feelings towards tip jars in any variety of places really, but I want more people to understand that with coffee specifically, custom made espresso coffees are on par with the making of martinis and cocktails, or pouring the perfect tap beer, or serving a soda and sandwich to a table. Tip your barista~!

Playground Politics

As a mom of three young kids in this era of hyper parenting, I've recognized two categories of parents at public playgrounds/play places.

1) There are the parents who believe that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should ANYONE, ANYWHERE dare to EVER, E-V-E-R go up a slide, slides are ONLY for going DOWN on.

2) Then there's everyone else, who fit somewhere on a sliding scale of reasonability.

Our rules on this matter are that we only allow slide-going-upping if no one else is on it, waiting to go down. We understand that slide-going-downers have priority. It's happened in a few instances where my children are happily climbing UP a slide, as that first category of parents loudly proclaim to their children, with voices aimed in our direction, that slides are ONLY FOR GOING DOWN ON. Then they have given us the hairy eyeballs; for not following their rules, and for demonstrating to their over-controlled children that SOMETIMES their parent's rules are not absolutes.

Thankfully it seems that in most places we frequent, we encounter the second category of parents, and it's simply a matter of finding our mutually reasonable solution if we need to step in and help the kids to play safely and kindly.

I was inspired to write this by Dani's "Parents That I Can't Stand Series". Hers is a hoot because I figure most of us fit in there somewhere, I found myself in there as the Burnout Mom. Don't go in there if you're feeling easily offended, but otherwise, she has 6 KIDS and a great sense of snarky humor.

Any of you get the hairy eyeball at the playgrounds for anything like this? Or, are you a firm believer that no one should ever EVER go UP a slide?

Capture Spring Time - Dandelion Flower Massage Oil

Find a big patch of big joyful springtime Dandelions and pick lots of flowers. Try and be grumpy while you do this, I did. It doesn't work. These spring-time dandelions are so big, soft and bursting with sunshine that it's impossible to avoid catching their cheer.

Fill some jars with them, then fill the soaces around them with oil (I used cheap canola, it's all I had on hand), then put the jars into some sunshine. Let them sit for a couple of weeks, then strain the oil. Store it somewhere dark and cool, and then use it up within a year. Some say it's better to dry the flowers out a bit before infusing in oil, but I'm skipping that because time to do these kinds of things is limited for me - I had a moment to do this and I went for it. I do see, looking a the pic that I need to add more oil so that the flowers are totally immersed, to avoid molding.

Dandelion oil is an external pain reliever excellent for arthritis, sore joints, and sore muscles. It's perfect for warm massages on sore spots in the winter, and the scent of spring is good for the spirits in the dark season too. Apparently it's very good for massaging sore pms breasts, and for decreasing cellulite. I plan to give small bottles away as gifts for the holidays, who wouldn't want to receive a small bottle of springtime?

To read from more sources about the benefits, uses and methods of making this oil let me google that for you

Chickweed

Chickweed. This plant is so common, we've all stepped on it, weeded it, and seen it pretty much anywhere in the world not covered in snow. It's an incredibly useful medicinal herb, but it's also one of the most nutritious green vegetables you could find, and it's available for free, in all likely hood right outside your front, or backdoor somewhere.

Where I live I see it pretty much all year round, and same with wherever it is that Susan Weed lives. It's so common I was hesitant to identify it, thinking, I see plants that look like this all over the place, it can't be the extremely useful, health giving and legendary chickweed, can it? But yes it is.

I first handed a sprig of it to Hammy the Hamster



Hammy knows the good stuff. I tossed some in our salad, and the texture is wonderful, it's a succulent which means the leaves hold a lot of water; in a salad it's crisp and crunchy like perfect spinach, but with a milder taste.

Here is some of the good stuff I found out about Chickweed:

Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Coumarins, Genistein, Gamma-linolenic-acid, Flavonoids, Hentriacontanol, Magnesium, Niacin, Oleic-acid, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Selenium, Triterpenoid saponins, Thiamin, and Zinc. The whole plant is used in alternative medicine as an astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary. A decoction of the whole plant is taken internally as a post-partum depurative, emmenagogue, galactogogue and circulatory tonic. It is also used to relieve constipation, an infusion of the dried herb is used in coughs and hoarseness, and is beneficial in the treatment of kidney complaints. as an astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary. A decoction of the whole plant is taken internally as a post-partum depurative, emmenagogue, galactogogue and circulatory tonic. It is also used to relieve constipation, an infusion of the dried herb is used in coughs and hoarseness, and is beneficial in the treatment of kidney complaints. New research indicates it's use as an effective antihistamine. The decoction is also used externally to treat rheumatic pains, wounds and ulcers. It can be applied as a medicinal poultice and will relieve any kind of roseola and is
effective wherever there are fragile superficial veins or itching skin conditions. Folklore Chickweed water is an old wives' remedy for obesity. (SOURCE)
Traditional Chinese medicine regards chickweed as sweet, moist and cool as well as vulnerary (wound healing). Stellaria dichotoma [yin chai ha]: In Chinese medicine the root of this plant is used to make a decoction which is employed as a febrifuge, emmenogogue, lactogogue, to stop noseleeds, to control heavy menstrual bleeding, and as a tonic for undernourished children.
Stellaria saxatilis [di jin cao]: A decoction of this plant is used in Chinese medicine for aching bones; is cooked with pork for cough and hemorrhage; is steeped in wine for rheumatism; is used as a poultice for rheumatism.

Google for yourself if you're interested in learning more, there's bountiful information on this plant that grows abundantly whether in fields, gardens, or cracks in the sidewalks.

There is no reason that lack of money or lack of decent produce for sale in the stores should hinder families from eating healthy, fresh vegetables on a regular basis. Between sprouting, and wildcrafting (gathering wild plants to eat, like chickweed!) there is ample cheap and ultra healthy vegetation available to anyone for mere pennies in the case of sprouting, or for free in the case of wildcrafting. Whether one is poor or not, eating greens fresh from a garden, or fresh from the earth is eating vegetables at their peak of healthfulness. Chickweed is free for the taking almost anywhere people live. Watch for this little green treasure wherever you may walk, wherever in the world you are reading this from.

Links about Chickweed:
http://www.herbalcuisine.com/Chickweed.html
http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/chickweed.html
http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/Chickweed.php
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Chickweed.html
http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1651
http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=871&bhcd2=1233443833
http://herbalistpath.blogspot.com/2007/04/chickweed-itch-oil.html

Clothing sizes belittling women and girls. Bad bad Garage!

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