When I first saw this, I scratched my head and wondered … why?
Well, what I’m about to show you may not be at the top of your Christmas list,
but it has a certain novelty all the same.
Take a look:
Photo courtesy of Maya Weinstein via Co.EXIST
Your eyes do not deceive you.
This lovely wooden case indeed contains an undeniably artisan make-your-own high fructose corn syrup kit.
Photo courtesy of Maya Weinstein via Co.EXIST
It includes hard-to-find ingredients such as Yellow Dent #2, glucose isomerase, and sulfuric acid.
Nope, you won’t find those in the baking aisle, girls.
This kit is more “chem lab” than “kitchen.”
You’re wondering, too, aren’t you?
Why on earth would I want to make this sordid sweetener?
As you may have guessed, this is more of a tongue-in-cheek affair, but it doesn’t come without a dose of seriousness.
“The Kit provides the user with a way to directly interact with an ingredient that is typically only produced in large-scale factories behind closed doors,” explains designer Maya Weinstein. “The kit allows everyone to be a citizen food scientist and take control of the mysteries behind industrial food production.”
See what I mean?
Weinstein says that her kits could be used to educate both kids and adults about how processed foods are fabricated, while simultaneously satisfying the mad scientist in us all. “It’s really meant to show you something that you don’t already know—what industrial products are made of.”
It might make a crafty Christmas gift after all!
Weinstein is also contemplating a cookbook with recipes for other industrialized ingredients like food dyes and MSG. Watch her unconventional cooking show below. Do you think it has a chance on the Food Network?
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sherrilyn Askew!!!
Sherrilyn Askew (#1350) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning an Intermediate Level Heirlooms Forever Merit Badge!
“Thirteen of the 20 different plants I grew in my garden this year were from heirloom seeds. As I am harvesting this year’s crop, I am saving a sample of seeds from the best of the plants. My goal is to eventually have seeds from plants that grow well in the Pacific Northwest and are prolific. My chosen reference for this project is “Seed to Seed” by Suzanne Ashworth.
This book has been invaluable in my quest for heirloom seeds that will do well in our growing environment by helping me to understand what characteristics I need to look for in each plant and what environment each plant needs in order to produce such as temperature ranges and number of hours of light or dark. My tomatoes, broccoli, kolrhabi, and other heirloom plants turned out to be super performers!!!!!”
Well, after years of being snubbed in jolly old England, it’s no wonder that a handful of red-capped garden residents might find pleasing refuge in the unsuspecting green spaces of Overland Park, Kansas.
Photo by Sassy Gardener via Wikimedia Commons
The Midwest is famous for its hospitality, after all.
But who are these mysterious immigrants?
Perhaps we’ll never know.
They aren’t answering their doors …
Photo courtesy of KSHB.com
According to news network KSHB in Overland Park, “Gnome homes are popping up all over the city.”
That’s right, gnome homes.
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,518 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—7,451 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Aprons Merit Badge, I was super psyched to earn my Expert Level Badge. I had the perfect opportunity for it, too: a couple of my girlfriends were opening a bakery downtown and my plan was to make us matching aprons (the frillier, the better) and have us all wear them as we gave out their mouth-watering, moist, decadent, frosted cupcake samples, thereby luring in customers for life with our yumminess and our farmgirl style.
Lest you think I was only there for the cupcakes, I assure you … I am all about aprons and the movement to bring them back to everyday fashion.
And incidentally, I do enjoy the occasional cupcake.
Or three.
But anyway, I had a grand time picking out my fabrics. That, in itself, would have fulfilled the three-hour time commitment this badge requires, but perhaps you are not so shoppingly indecisive as I. I finally (and I do mean finally) quieted my inner voice that kept telling me the even more perfect calico was just around the next clearance table, and happily
Professional photographer Jaime Moore, feeling the influence of mainstream girls’ adulation of Disney princesses, decided that when her daughter turned five, she wanted to celebrate her birthday a bit differently …
And I love it!
Here’s her daughter, Emma, all gussied up (or down!) as real, strong female heroines throughout history, in his photo series titled “Not Just a Girl.”
Susan B. Anthony
” … forget conventionalisms; Forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; Think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval. I had rather … make history than write it. Failure is impossible.” – Susan B. Anthony
Amelia Earhart
” … now and then, women should do for themselves what men have already done—occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action. Some such consideration was a contributing reason for my wanting to do what I so much wanted to do. – Amelia Earhart
Coco Chanel
” … in order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different. Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself. A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants … ” – Coco Chanel
Helen Keller
“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.” – Helen Keller
Jane Goodall
“My family has very strong women. My mother never laughed at my dream of Africa, even though everyone else did because we didn’t have any money, because Africa was the ‘Dark Continent,’ and because I was a girl. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
Emma for President, 2044!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
