I’m way behind, cuz I’m still posting ’bout St. Louis, where I was during T-giving weekend.
Still, St. Louis held some real surprises. I checked out The Loop on reader recommendations, and lo and behold, found a cute fair trade shop right on Delmar!
The store: Plowsharing Crafts. The plus: All fair trade goods, with free fair trade coffee readily brewing for customers. The minus: Rather crunchy.
I sorta wanted the store to take a tip from the awesome Ten Thousand Villages store in Pasadena, putting the sleek and sexy goods up front and not focusing on the odd woven stuff so much.
Then again, I can’t say I know the aesthetic tastes of the average person living in St. Louis.
And in any case, there were some cute whimsical things I wanted, like this eyeglasses holder that makes me smile. Those are my bro-in-law’s glasses perched there :)
Perhaps most importantly, Plowsharing Crafts had some very yummy coffee from Just Coffee, Equal Exchange, etc. Fair trade chocolate bars, hot chocolate, teas, and the like were also present :)
On reader recommendations, I went to 
Another cool thing about the museum: While I’m sure the museum used a lot of new materials, it also re-used a lot of old stuff in creating its exhibits. 
Never underestimate the utility — and the fun-ness — of found objects :)
Safely in St. Louis’ Central West End, visiting my sis now :)
I was kinda disappointed to discover that Northwest Coffee only offered one fair trade blend — an organic Guatemalan — which I got an lb of for my sis (and also for me for the duration of my stay). 
In any case, it’s great to see that an indie coffee culture seems alive and well, in St. Louis :) Support local coffee shops! And if you drop by Northwest Coffee, buy the fair trade, organic Guatemalan coffee — and let ‘em know you’d love to have more fair trade coffee options :)
A series that runs every Tuesday, where I ask questions unrelated to the environment, fair trade, or local politics that I’ve been wondering about but haven’t been able to google the answers to. Any advice is appreciated.