The three “R’s” of ecology (Recycle – Reduce – Reuse) all get together in this home project that I found in today’s news featured in The Star online (Malaysia). The article has you take the classifieds (or any newspaper section!), fold, weave and “sew” the sides with string, and what do you have? A basket just the right size to for you to put in – what else?- your newspaper!

Dr. David Shapiro, Professor of Economics (Penn State University), featured basket weaving among his amazing collection of photos from a 2004-2005 trip to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa).

Baskets as an “uber-commodity” are available under the Longaberger brand name. They are still hand crafted in the corn fed state of Ohio, and I’m having a Longaberger basket Home Show! Soon! If the consultant calls me back.

Basket-weaving is also an idiomatic example of a “really easy” college or university major or class at any level.

The flavoured milk drinks are available in chocolate, strawberry and banana flavours and are sold in schools and colleges, as well as at 500 retail outlets across the UK.

On the heels of the international reports (also here) that organic food is better, Health Patio wishes we could serve all the “flavours” ourselves.

The backstory on the company was outed today by Steve Dube of Western Mail . Where a family farm may be prohibitively difficult to run physically as well as financially, a farm of families has met with great success with 3000 acres and 23 employees– a size that gives everyone a good standard of living and time off for holidays. The employees are mostly young families in the fertile countryside of this Wales (UK) community. The farm manager is newly returned from the United States, and it looks like Three Farms Milk co-operative – Llaeth Tair Fferm – faces the future with confidence.

In the spring of 2007 in London, look for these organic milk products as stars of the International Food and Drink Event- and read what the company says about itself:

Daioni (Welsh for goodness) is a range of flavoured organic milk drinks from a family run farm in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Produced from organic semiskimmed milk it is low in fat (98.4% fat free) and sugar (<4.5%). All the ingredients are Soil Association and Vegetarian Society approved and meet Government nutritional guidelines for schools drinks. There are no artificial additives or colourings. Packaged in a handy 250ml and 125ml TetraPaks, with straw attached and an ambient shelf life of at least ten months, Daioni is ideal for lunchboxes, vending machines or just as a healthy alternative drink.