The science of soap is more complex than one might imagine, requiring at least a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry. Even the most basic ingredients of soap rely on key reactions with other ingredients - a give and take that makes you wonder that we ever figured out how to make soap in the first place. It makes some sense then, that the creation of cleansing products was supposedly discovered by accident.
Ivory Advertising with WWI Soldiers, 1919 (Click on Image to Read Copy)
Since I am still in search of a good butcher in LA (alas, none to be found!) - I am finding myself delving further into the dissection of strange and exotic cuts of meat - at home. A recent purchase of a meat grinder (more on that soon!) has lead to a whole lot of chopping and cutting, slicing and dicing and a new search - for a superior place on which to cut.
American Meat Institute Advertising 1940s
Founded in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1880s, J.A. Bauer Pottery originally specialized in containers for the most popular of local products… whiskey. Manufacturing stoneware crocks and bottles – John Andy Bauer built his business on traditional earthenware techniques, thick and sturdy liquor and water jugs which meant to follow function more than form. It wasn’t until Bauer relocated to Los Angeles in 1909 that his innate creativity began to take root.
J.A. Bauer Pottery Bowl, Circa 1940s
Alice Waters (born 1944) is one of the unrivaled pioneers of California cuisine, owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, among the first US restaurants to promote locally grown, seasonally available, organically produced ingredients. While this now might seem a given, this philosophy was groundbreaking in 1971, when Waters first opened her restaurant.
Alice Waters at her Restaurant 1975
Dishtowels, with their no-nonsense pattern design (that blue/white or red/white check or plaid or stripe has endured for decades) and soft texture (the finest are usually 50 percent cotton/50 percent linen), are not only nostalgic (lay one over that apple pie while it cools!) but well… handy. You can clean up messes, dry things, spray your cleaner and wipe away stains.
50% Cotton-50% Linen Kitchen Towel
‘The good life is never stable, never secure, never easy and never ended. It is a series of steps or stages, one leading into the other and all, in their outcome, adding, not subtracting; augmenting, not diminishing; building, not destroying; creating, not annihilating.’ - Scott Nearing, 1965
Helen & Scott Nearing
The advent of Kindle may be a boon for techies and a fine way to carry around a library in your luggage - but it certainly takes some of the romance out of reading. What about the pleasure of turning a page, the dusty, nostalgic smell of old paper, the scattered notes and underlining left behind by past readers? If you’re like me, you like nothing better than the feel of a heavy hardcover or a tattered paperback and half the joy of reading is gazing triumphantly at the stacks of conquered pages against the wall. Book darts are another bit of class and old school style that come in handy, the perfect accessory for the avid reader.
Bronze Book Dart
Much noise is being made lately about the possible disappearance of the honey bee and the hoopla is certainly for good reason. The bee - as they say, IS busy - an essential in the natural cycle of life, growth and decay - an industrious, multi-tasker whose absence would most certainly be missed. One of the most incredible contributions of the honeybees is that of beeswax.
100% Pure Beeswax
It may be called “hǔbiao wànjīnyóu” in its native tongue, but it’s just Tiger Balm to me. I’ve been using this since my hippie mom rubbed it on my chest during the cold New England winters of my youth. The burn on my skin still has a calming, comforting effect on me.
Invented by Chinese herbalist Aw Chu Kin in the 1870s using the healing combination of menthol, eucalyptus, clove, cassia and mint oil. Kin’s two sons - Aw Boon Haw, a hell-raiser known for street fights and mad business skills, and Aw Boon Par, the gentler of the duo - made their father’s tincture a global phenomenon in the early 1930s, mostly just by being good guys.
Aw Boon Haw in China 1949
Spawned from the unlikely mind of an expat German scientist - the Chemex coffeemaker is a brilliant melding of design and convenience, a thermal carafe drip-system consisting of lab grade borosilicate beaker glass and a filtration system using laboratory filter paper.
Peter J. Schlumbohm, Ph.D, had moved to New York City in the mid-1930s and was desperately searching for a great cup of coffee amid the city’s stale automats and late night diners.
Peter Schlumbohm (Check Out his Cigarette Holder) / LIFE Magazine 1949
Vinegar
First there was wine, beloved by the ancients. Then there was wine gone bad - a mishap of leaky casks or stashes gone past their prime that mutated into one of the most versatile products in the world. “Vin aigre” (which roughly translates to “sour wine”) is a combination of acetic acid (aka ethanoic acid) - an organic compound which is the result of the miracle of fermentation - chemical reactions activated by the slow decay of everything from grapes to beets, malts to grains.
Chemical Formula of Oxidative Fermentation: Making Acetic Acid
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