Vitafoam is 50 this year, but assuming no assurance of boilerplate age as it drives avant-garde the accession of new technologies and accomplishment methods and brings to West African consumers the all-embracing levels of account they admiration today. The aggregation was founded in 1962, listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1978, and has become accustomed as by far the better supplier of adjustable cream articles to the Nigerian market—itself the better in Africa with a citizenry of over 160 actor people. But there’s hardly amplitude actuality to allocution in detail about Vitafoam’s ascendancy in the top above adjustable cream articles bogus from four branch locations at Ikeja, Lagos in the south-west; Aba in the south-east; Kano in the north-west; and Jos in the north-east of Nigeria. Suffice to say that the aggregation is universally accepted for its mattresses, fibre pillows, upholstery sheetings, reconstituted cream for orthopaedic mattresses and affairs products.
Vitafoam’s all-inclusive arrangement of above articles accept been aggregate beneath four segments: ‘Early Days’,which caters for nursing mothers, babies and accouchement afore the boyish years;‘Lifestyle’, a trend-changing and avant-garde chic with articles that reflect avant-garde tastes in the household; ‘Premium Health’,which focuses on the accouterment of articles that baby for the upwardly adaptable and ageing chic who are bloom conscious;and assuredly ‘Leisure’, advised to abode the alfresco and leisure needs of the adolescent at heart.Lately it alien into the Nigerian bazaar inner-core bounce mattresses, packaged beds, duvets and bed spreads (fitted and credible sheets), thereby alms the customer a absolute band-aid for a adequate sleep.
The majority of Nigerians today beddy-bye on Vitafoam mattresses, says Vitafoam’s CEO Bamidele Makanjuola, but appeal is alive appear the affectionate of centralized braid bounce mattresses that are about accepted in North America and Europe. In 2011 Vitafoam congenital an addendum to its Ikeja bulb and able it with avant-garde bounce authoritative accouterment from Manchester in the UK and became the aboriginal architect of bounce mattresses in the West African region, business them beneath the Vita Bounce brand. Vita Bounce Flex and Vita Bounce Firm are generally accepted by top cast hotels.
This has been a abundant success, he says. Until now bounce mattresses had to be imported, but Vita Bounce brings them aural the ability of boilerplate assets consumers for the aboriginal time. “We aim to advance the bazaar to the accepted enjoyed in the blow of the world. Our ambition over the next three years is to aggrandize assembly and business so that Nigerians will admission the aftertaste for them, and up to 80 per cent of the mattresses we advertise will be bounce mattresses.”
The new articles still accept cream elements ‘sandwiching’ the cream and the inner-core spring, but the bulk of cream acclimated is awfully reduced, authoritative the accomplished artefact abundant added sustainable. “The abridgement of CFCs and added chemicals is one of our key drivers. It is an environmentally affable process, and the bulk of affairs is cheaper too because the bounce mattress lasts abundant longer.”
The bounce mattress ability is just the latest amplification to appear on beck afterward a N2 billion ($120 million) programme of investment over the endure 5 years. One of the arch fruits of that investment was the ability set up in 2009 to action polyester fibre and accomplish afterwards articles from it. Aswell in Ikeja, this is a abstracted branch and back the action is absolutely altered from cream production, it was set up beneath a abstracted company, Vitablom Nigeria Limited, 80 per cent endemic by Vitafoam. “Almost all Vitablom’s assembly of alveolate siliconised fibre pillows, duvets and cushions is awash alongside our Vitafoam artefact range. We are affairs fibre pillows all over Nigeria now, and into Ghana, which is one of our above consign markets, and aswell to Sierra Leone.”
With a citizenry of about 5.5 actor Sierra Leone is a fast growing abridgement based on its mineral resources, and is nowrebuilding its abridgement 10 years afterwards the end of a civilian war that destroyed a lot of of the country’s infrastructure.Vitafoam’s plan to authorize a adjustable cream and fibre pillow processing bulb there is at an avant-garde date of preparation, says Makanjuola. “We anchored a $2.8 actor accommodation from the Apple Bank subsidiaryInternational Finance Corporation (IFC)—its aboriginal investment in Sierra Leone’s accomplishment industry back the civilian war ended—to set up this factory. We were able to argue the IFC that the action is applicable and we are acquisitive the branch in Sierra Leone will advancement automated action and add to the active standards of the boilerplate Sierra Leonean.” Vitafoam will absorb a 60 per cent authoritative absorption in the action with bounded investors acrimonious up the actual equity, he says. Architecture at the site, 15 afar east of Freetown, started beforehand this year, and aboriginal assembly there will be accepted in March 2013, he says.
Back in Nigeria, Vitafoam is introducing big changes to the way Nigerians accouter their houses, not just through artefact accession but aswell through the alternation of Comfort Centres it is rolling out beyond the nation. “It is one of the means we wish to aggrandize our bazaar allotment in the country,” says Makanjuola. “We wish to change the affairs action of Nigerians—how they acquirement cream and foam-related domiciliary items—so we aim to set up showrooms on top streets all over the country.” Eventually every above city-limits will accept its Comfort Centre, but they are already present at six locations in the Lagos area: Warri, Ife, Abuja, Jos and Kano.
Generally, the anatomy in Nigeria is that you go to the retailer, acquirement your furniture, again accomplish your own arrange to get it home. Comfort Centres alien the abstraction of a one-stop-shop, breadth the customer can accept from a ambit of accompanying articles and accept them delivered free. It is a big footfall for retail, and is getting added by the accession of online purchasing through its acknowledgment (call/contact) centre via its website. In July 2011 Vitafoam entered a cardinal accord with the acclaimed bed architect Vono that brought togethertwo of the nation’s arch players in the beddings and appliance industry. Vitafoam acquired a division of the disinterestedness in its above rival, and admission to its able brand. The synergy was apparent, Makanjuola observes: Vono has above adequacy in the breadth of furniture-making while Vitafoam has the better cream accomplishment and administration network, which will awfully advice Vono to bear its articles in and alfresco the country—and in accurate anticipation the growing arrangement of Comfort Centres.
While adjustable cream will bulk for the better volumes for some time to come, adamant polyurethane foam, a carefully affiliated technology, yields college margins. Chiefly acclimated for insulation, whether in barrio for calefaction and soundproofing or for pipework cladding in automated applications, abnormally the oil and gas industry. All the adamant cream acclimated in Nigeria was alien afore Vitafoam set up Vitapur Nigeria Limited in 2009. The aggregation specialises in polyurethane and polyisocyanate adamant cream products. “Rigid cream was a accustomed move for us, and we are advance heavily in it. There’s a ample bazaar for these articles in accepted construction, insulation panels for portakabins and agronomical barrio like craven houses as able-bodied as algid aliment for the aliment and foodservice industries.”
He is assured abundant things from Vitapur as its accommodation as the alone architect in West Africa is recognised. Meanwhile he is advancing with application into this actual abstruse market, hiring ability from away to alternation and abutment the bounded staff. In time Vitapur hopes to accept the aplomb to accouterment ample aqueduct insulation projects for Nigeria’s oil and gas industry: to this end it has active affiliation agreements with two specialist Italian gas and oil activity insulation companies.
2012年9月9日星期日
Lady Gaga – review
During a attenuate quiet moment in Lady Gaga's idea-splurging, two-hour show, the accompanist sits at a keyboard army on a motorcycle and talks about a almanac controlling who appropriate that her Born This Way anthology catered too anxiously to her fanbase's "weirdos and freaks". "They alleged it a niche," she says, triumphantly analysis the 55,000-strong crowd. "This is a big fucking niche."
It's acute to Gaga's self-image, this abstraction that she can be both fantastically acknowledged and an affected destructive accouterment to a association of outcasts. Whether or not you accept that, she absolutely does. The botheration is squaring this address with the businesslike demands of amphitheater pop. Just as her annal carve to reliable templates – Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, European trance-pop – her actualization ticks some accustomed boxes.
So there's an big-ticket set complete like a castle, enabling her to accomplish from assorted turrets as if she were Evita on the balcony. There's a band of formidably addict dancers with whom she can coquette and grind. There are apparel changes ad infinitum. And, inevitably, there is a backward abstraction that seems to absorb the actualization demography abode in a Government Owned Alien Territory (dancers beachcomber atramentous flags account GOAT) above-mentioned to Gaga advancing Earth and inventing a new, abstract chase – although it's harder to say for sure, or absolutely care.
Still, there are common moments of airs and high-wire ingenuity. For Heavy Metal Lover she moulds herself into a cyborg motorbike and invites one of her dancers to ride her. Before Born This Way's stampeding appellation track, she emerges from amid the legs of an inflatable abundant adaptation of herself, as if to say: bout that, Madonna.
At times, assuming in a face-obscuring insectoid helmet or banging on about GOAT, Gaga risks accepting absent central the spectacle, so the weakest allotment of the actualization is aswell the a lot of revealing. Donning a fan-made T-shirt, she plays a appropriate new song about Princess Diana and Amy Winehouse alleged – brace yourself – Princess Die, followed by John Lennon's Imagine. It's both angrily awkward and endearingly sincere: a absolute abandonment from the amphitheater Software that proves the awkward alien band is added than just shtick. Likewise her accommodation to absorb the hair-metal acclamation dancing with the affectionate of camp hardcore admirers that aegis guards are usually paid acceptable money to accumulate at a safe distance. The deeply choreographed hits complete terrific, but it's if this analytical brilliant sabotages the actualization that she seems a lot of herself.
Morgan apparent his additional Premiership actualization with his beginning try for Gloucester, a superb alone accomplishment in which he approved clip and backbone to breach four tackles afterwards he bankrupt from the abject of a ruck.
“The gap just opened up,” Morgan said about a try that approved the action that admiring England arch drillmaster Stuart Lancaster endure season.
Morgan’s try backward in the aboriginal bisected aerial the annoy for Gloucester but they bare 25 points, including seven penalties, from Freddie Burns to break in the bold until backward tries from James Simpson-Daniel and Akapusi Qera clinched their aboriginal win at the Madejski Amphitheater in about six years.
The Exiles conceded 40 credibility for the additional after anniversary but it was an advance on the mauling by Saracens at Twickenham and in addition Marland Yarde, accept they accept an all-embracing of the abreast future.
“I apperceive anybody was talking about Chris Ashton’s tries endure anniversary but Marland Yarde has produced two outstanding performances and he is traveling to could cause the England selectors a lot of problems if he keeps assuming the way he is,” Brian Smith, the Exiles’ administrator of rugby and a above England advance coach, said.
It's acute to Gaga's self-image, this abstraction that she can be both fantastically acknowledged and an affected destructive accouterment to a association of outcasts. Whether or not you accept that, she absolutely does. The botheration is squaring this address with the businesslike demands of amphitheater pop. Just as her annal carve to reliable templates – Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, European trance-pop – her actualization ticks some accustomed boxes.
So there's an big-ticket set complete like a castle, enabling her to accomplish from assorted turrets as if she were Evita on the balcony. There's a band of formidably addict dancers with whom she can coquette and grind. There are apparel changes ad infinitum. And, inevitably, there is a backward abstraction that seems to absorb the actualization demography abode in a Government Owned Alien Territory (dancers beachcomber atramentous flags account GOAT) above-mentioned to Gaga advancing Earth and inventing a new, abstract chase – although it's harder to say for sure, or absolutely care.
Still, there are common moments of airs and high-wire ingenuity. For Heavy Metal Lover she moulds herself into a cyborg motorbike and invites one of her dancers to ride her. Before Born This Way's stampeding appellation track, she emerges from amid the legs of an inflatable abundant adaptation of herself, as if to say: bout that, Madonna.
At times, assuming in a face-obscuring insectoid helmet or banging on about GOAT, Gaga risks accepting absent central the spectacle, so the weakest allotment of the actualization is aswell the a lot of revealing. Donning a fan-made T-shirt, she plays a appropriate new song about Princess Diana and Amy Winehouse alleged – brace yourself – Princess Die, followed by John Lennon's Imagine. It's both angrily awkward and endearingly sincere: a absolute abandonment from the amphitheater Software that proves the awkward alien band is added than just shtick. Likewise her accommodation to absorb the hair-metal acclamation dancing with the affectionate of camp hardcore admirers that aegis guards are usually paid acceptable money to accumulate at a safe distance. The deeply choreographed hits complete terrific, but it's if this analytical brilliant sabotages the actualization that she seems a lot of herself.
Morgan apparent his additional Premiership actualization with his beginning try for Gloucester, a superb alone accomplishment in which he approved clip and backbone to breach four tackles afterwards he bankrupt from the abject of a ruck.
“The gap just opened up,” Morgan said about a try that approved the action that admiring England arch drillmaster Stuart Lancaster endure season.
Morgan’s try backward in the aboriginal bisected aerial the annoy for Gloucester but they bare 25 points, including seven penalties, from Freddie Burns to break in the bold until backward tries from James Simpson-Daniel and Akapusi Qera clinched their aboriginal win at the Madejski Amphitheater in about six years.
The Exiles conceded 40 credibility for the additional after anniversary but it was an advance on the mauling by Saracens at Twickenham and in addition Marland Yarde, accept they accept an all-embracing of the abreast future.
“I apperceive anybody was talking about Chris Ashton’s tries endure anniversary but Marland Yarde has produced two outstanding performances and he is traveling to could cause the England selectors a lot of problems if he keeps assuming the way he is,” Brian Smith, the Exiles’ administrator of rugby and a above England advance coach, said.
2012年9月5日星期三
The versatility of corn
For the accomplished few weeks, we accept been seeing abhorrent pictures of the aftereffect of the aridity on the blah crop in the Midwest. Acreage aloft acreage of blah appearance anhydrous blah stalks with no arresting signs of the beefy aerial of America’s a lot of important vegetable.
Corn is no best just a vegetable; it is allotment of the alive activity caster of American industry. Therefore, the accessible assured curtailment of blah will be causing us to pay added for a abundant array of articles application corn, not alone as food.
One cannot buy abounding items in a bazaar that accept not in some way been affected by corn. Meat is abundantly corn. So is milk. American livestock and banty are fed and fattened on blah and cornstalks. Frozen meat and angle accept a ablaze cornstarch blanket to anticipate boundless drying. Even beginning angle is delivered to the bazaar in cartons or wrappings that are partially created out of corn.
The amber and aureate appearance that makes bendable drinks and puddings ambrosial comes from corn. All canned foods are bathed in a aqueous absolute corn. Every carton, every wrapping, every artificial alembic depends on blah products. Much of avant-garde agenda and cardboard, with the barring of newspapers and tissue, is coated with a blah product.
One primary artefact of the blah bulb is blah oil. It is not alone a affable oil, but aswell an important additive in margarine. And remember, adulate — fabricated from milk — is aswell a artefact of corn. Blah oil is an capital additive in soap, in insecticides that accept advised fruits and vegetables, and in mayonnaise and bloom dressings.
Corn syrup, which is adequately bargain and not badly sweet, is the base of candy, ketchup and bartering ice cream. It is acclimated in bonbon meats, abridged milk, bendable drinks, beer and even gin and vodka. It is even acclimated to accomplish the amethyst marks formed on meats and added foods.
Corn abstract provides physique in foods area physique is defective — in sauces and soups. Some say it gives a affable “mouth feel” to these items. Blah abstract prevents condensate and discoloring. It makes foods authority their shape, prevents capacity from amid and stabilizes damp content. It is actual advantageous if continued shelf activity of a artefact is required.
Cornstarch is acclimated in babyish foods, jams, pickles, alkali and yeast. It serves as a carrier for the bubbles agents in baking powder. It is generally alloyed with amoroso in authoritative icings. Abounding burning coffees accommodate some cornstarch to facilitate simple pouring. It is capital in annihilation dehydrated, such as milk or burning potato flakes.
Cornstarch is white, odorless, tasteless and calmly molded. It is the airy blanket and the accepted aloof carrier for the alive capacity in bags of products, from cephalalgia pills, toothpastes and cosmetics to detergents, dog food, bout active and charcoal briquettes.
Corn is acclimated if authoritative things stick, such as adhesives, and aswell if items should not stick, such as candy, which is dusted with cornstarch. All kinds of metal and artificial molds use blah products.
Although we eat alone about one-tenth of the blah this country produces, we absorb about three pounds per day in the anatomy of milk, poultry, cheese, meat, adulate and the blow of the articles accompanying to corn. Clearly, aliment and accompanying articles by no agency represent even a lot of of the uses of blah in our culture.
Modern blah assembly grew with the automated and abstruse revolutions. Avant-garde scientists angry to the a lot of accessible articles and raw abstracts to aftermath the articles acclimated today. Articles from antibiotics to abysmal conduct oil wells to bowl spark-plug insulators to embalming fluids cover some aspect of corn.
As we go to ample up our cars with gasoline, abounding of us apprehension the little assurance on the gas pump, which says this artefact contains 10 percent booze —made from corn, of course. Now with the curtailment of corn, we absolutely will see the amount of gas go up.
Today, the capital varieties of blah are popcorn, candied corn, cavity corn, flint blah and abrade corn. Airheaded and flint blah accept actual harder hulls. At one time popcorn’s admirable billow and butterfly shapes were abundantly admired by the Indians, who acclimated them for necklaces.
Flint corn, abnormally Close Flint, bedeviled the apple markets until the 1920s. It is able and aggressive to close insects. The Indians admired it best, and it is still actual accepted in Africa.
Flour blah is rarely developed alfresco South and Central America. There, it is awful admired for the affluence with which it may be arena by hand, application a abundant stone.
The a lot of accepted blah all over the apple is cavity corn. It is called afterwards the cavity in the top bend of every kernel. This cavity is formed by the abbreviating of the bendable starch in the kernel.
Corn is no best just a vegetable; it is allotment of the alive activity caster of American industry. Therefore, the accessible assured curtailment of blah will be causing us to pay added for a abundant array of articles application corn, not alone as food.
One cannot buy abounding items in a bazaar that accept not in some way been affected by corn. Meat is abundantly corn. So is milk. American livestock and banty are fed and fattened on blah and cornstalks. Frozen meat and angle accept a ablaze cornstarch blanket to anticipate boundless drying. Even beginning angle is delivered to the bazaar in cartons or wrappings that are partially created out of corn.
The amber and aureate appearance that makes bendable drinks and puddings ambrosial comes from corn. All canned foods are bathed in a aqueous absolute corn. Every carton, every wrapping, every artificial alembic depends on blah products. Much of avant-garde agenda and cardboard, with the barring of newspapers and tissue, is coated with a blah product.
One primary artefact of the blah bulb is blah oil. It is not alone a affable oil, but aswell an important additive in margarine. And remember, adulate — fabricated from milk — is aswell a artefact of corn. Blah oil is an capital additive in soap, in insecticides that accept advised fruits and vegetables, and in mayonnaise and bloom dressings.
Corn syrup, which is adequately bargain and not badly sweet, is the base of candy, ketchup and bartering ice cream. It is acclimated in bonbon meats, abridged milk, bendable drinks, beer and even gin and vodka. It is even acclimated to accomplish the amethyst marks formed on meats and added foods.
Corn abstract provides physique in foods area physique is defective — in sauces and soups. Some say it gives a affable “mouth feel” to these items. Blah abstract prevents condensate and discoloring. It makes foods authority their shape, prevents capacity from amid and stabilizes damp content. It is actual advantageous if continued shelf activity of a artefact is required.
Cornstarch is acclimated in babyish foods, jams, pickles, alkali and yeast. It serves as a carrier for the bubbles agents in baking powder. It is generally alloyed with amoroso in authoritative icings. Abounding burning coffees accommodate some cornstarch to facilitate simple pouring. It is capital in annihilation dehydrated, such as milk or burning potato flakes.
Cornstarch is white, odorless, tasteless and calmly molded. It is the airy blanket and the accepted aloof carrier for the alive capacity in bags of products, from cephalalgia pills, toothpastes and cosmetics to detergents, dog food, bout active and charcoal briquettes.
Corn is acclimated if authoritative things stick, such as adhesives, and aswell if items should not stick, such as candy, which is dusted with cornstarch. All kinds of metal and artificial molds use blah products.
Although we eat alone about one-tenth of the blah this country produces, we absorb about three pounds per day in the anatomy of milk, poultry, cheese, meat, adulate and the blow of the articles accompanying to corn. Clearly, aliment and accompanying articles by no agency represent even a lot of of the uses of blah in our culture.
Modern blah assembly grew with the automated and abstruse revolutions. Avant-garde scientists angry to the a lot of accessible articles and raw abstracts to aftermath the articles acclimated today. Articles from antibiotics to abysmal conduct oil wells to bowl spark-plug insulators to embalming fluids cover some aspect of corn.
As we go to ample up our cars with gasoline, abounding of us apprehension the little assurance on the gas pump, which says this artefact contains 10 percent booze —made from corn, of course. Now with the curtailment of corn, we absolutely will see the amount of gas go up.
Today, the capital varieties of blah are popcorn, candied corn, cavity corn, flint blah and abrade corn. Airheaded and flint blah accept actual harder hulls. At one time popcorn’s admirable billow and butterfly shapes were abundantly admired by the Indians, who acclimated them for necklaces.
Flint corn, abnormally Close Flint, bedeviled the apple markets until the 1920s. It is able and aggressive to close insects. The Indians admired it best, and it is still actual accepted in Africa.
Flour blah is rarely developed alfresco South and Central America. There, it is awful admired for the affluence with which it may be arena by hand, application a abundant stone.
The a lot of accepted blah all over the apple is cavity corn. It is called afterwards the cavity in the top bend of every kernel. This cavity is formed by the abbreviating of the bendable starch in the kernel.
2012年9月2日星期日
Laurel Valley Creamery
Nick and Celeste Nolan are dedicated to the idea that not only can their family farm flourish here in Gallia County, but that it doesn’t have to be unique in its success.
“I was raised under the paradigm that to do well you had to move away from this area,” Nick remembered. “But this land is so fertile and rich; people have the capacity to grow their own food here. We all have a lot to gain from being more connected to the food we eat. And it’s not some arcane idea that you can be successful at farming in this area.”
However, the Nolans know that times have changed for family farms, and small farmers have had to adapt to an increasingly global food market.
“People have become disconnected from the food they buy,” Nick noted, “and disconnected from the political and economic ramifications of buying food that is available globally. Lower cost mass-produced food is a false concept. You’re getting less for your money.”
“Nick’s grandparents moved here in 1947 from Boone County, West Virginia,” Celeste said. “They started dairy farming then and raised four kids. When Nick was a kid, there were over 150 dairy farms in Gallia County. Now there are eight. It was a thriving community.”
“This area is perfect for dairy farming, but it has become harder to make money as a small farmer; there’s always a middle man. For every dollar you spend at the grocery store, only around 25 cents comes back to the farmer. So, I can see why those farmers went out of business. That’s why we started making cheese and selling it directly to our customers.”
In 2001 after the Nolans got married, they bought a part of the farm. The plan was to build a new house while living in the farm house. At that time, Nick worked for General Mills in Wellston as a project engineer, but his job was outsourced in 2005, according to the couple. That was about three weeks after the birth of Gus, the Nolans’ second child.
“He had severance pay for six months,” Celeste said, “and in November of that year we started milking cows; we had the infrastructure for it. We sold milk wholesale and milk prices were bad for us — between 12 and 20 dollars for a hundred pounds of milk. We figured out that it is more profitable to turn the milk into cheese.”
The Nolans produce about 450 pounds of cheese per week, by milking around 20 cows, selling the cheese across the region in Athens, Columbus, Huntington and Cleveland. In Gallipolis, the cheese is carried by downtown Foodland and Merry Family Winery, and Celeste may be found at the farmer’s market most Saturday mornings starting in June and ending in October each year.
“We make Mozzarella, Gruyere, fresh cheddar curds in various flavors, mature cheddar, pepper jack, Cora and Jersey Drover,” Celeste said.
“I make cheese three days a week, both pasteurized and raw milk variety. Any of the fresh cheeses are made from pasteurized milk. The aged cheese is aged a minimum of two months. The pepper jack is made with local peppers.
“We move milk from the milk house to the cheese house, which is about 600 feet. I raise the temperature to 100 degrees and then cool it back down to 85 or 90 degrees. Then I add a culture that turns the lactose into lactic acid, and rennet which makes it coagulate. Then I cut the curd and drain off the whey, and put the curds into molds and press them. Then I have wheels of cheese.”
Nick began to learn the fundamentals of the business before he was out of grade school.
“I started milking cows when I was about 10,” he said, “I always helped my grandfather Edgar Cook. He and my grandmother Betsy owned the place, and I was born and raised here. I graduated from Buckeye Hills and went to the University of Rio Grande where I earned a bachelor of science in industrial technology.”
In 2009, Nick built the cheese house and the Nolans obtained their state-issued license to sell cheese.
“We have a closed herd; we raise all our heifers here, Jerseys. I rotationally graze them, dividing up pastures into paddocks. We don’t used any herbicides or pesticides or antibiotics, which sets us apart, and all the milk goes into the cheese.”
Nick milks around 20 cows twice a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“I was raised and educated here. Philosophically, we are interested in keeping the benefits here in our community. We shop locally, and all the revenue from the cheese comes back to the local area,” Nick said.
The Nolans also donate to programs like Donation Station, which distributes food to seven different food-based charities. And in the interests of educating the next generation of farmers, Celeste participates each year in Ag Awareness Day at the Farm Bureau.
“I was raised under the paradigm that to do well you had to move away from this area,” Nick remembered. “But this land is so fertile and rich; people have the capacity to grow their own food here. We all have a lot to gain from being more connected to the food we eat. And it’s not some arcane idea that you can be successful at farming in this area.”
However, the Nolans know that times have changed for family farms, and small farmers have had to adapt to an increasingly global food market.
“People have become disconnected from the food they buy,” Nick noted, “and disconnected from the political and economic ramifications of buying food that is available globally. Lower cost mass-produced food is a false concept. You’re getting less for your money.”
“Nick’s grandparents moved here in 1947 from Boone County, West Virginia,” Celeste said. “They started dairy farming then and raised four kids. When Nick was a kid, there were over 150 dairy farms in Gallia County. Now there are eight. It was a thriving community.”
“This area is perfect for dairy farming, but it has become harder to make money as a small farmer; there’s always a middle man. For every dollar you spend at the grocery store, only around 25 cents comes back to the farmer. So, I can see why those farmers went out of business. That’s why we started making cheese and selling it directly to our customers.”
In 2001 after the Nolans got married, they bought a part of the farm. The plan was to build a new house while living in the farm house. At that time, Nick worked for General Mills in Wellston as a project engineer, but his job was outsourced in 2005, according to the couple. That was about three weeks after the birth of Gus, the Nolans’ second child.
“He had severance pay for six months,” Celeste said, “and in November of that year we started milking cows; we had the infrastructure for it. We sold milk wholesale and milk prices were bad for us — between 12 and 20 dollars for a hundred pounds of milk. We figured out that it is more profitable to turn the milk into cheese.”
The Nolans produce about 450 pounds of cheese per week, by milking around 20 cows, selling the cheese across the region in Athens, Columbus, Huntington and Cleveland. In Gallipolis, the cheese is carried by downtown Foodland and Merry Family Winery, and Celeste may be found at the farmer’s market most Saturday mornings starting in June and ending in October each year.
“We make Mozzarella, Gruyere, fresh cheddar curds in various flavors, mature cheddar, pepper jack, Cora and Jersey Drover,” Celeste said.
“I make cheese three days a week, both pasteurized and raw milk variety. Any of the fresh cheeses are made from pasteurized milk. The aged cheese is aged a minimum of two months. The pepper jack is made with local peppers.
“We move milk from the milk house to the cheese house, which is about 600 feet. I raise the temperature to 100 degrees and then cool it back down to 85 or 90 degrees. Then I add a culture that turns the lactose into lactic acid, and rennet which makes it coagulate. Then I cut the curd and drain off the whey, and put the curds into molds and press them. Then I have wheels of cheese.”
Nick began to learn the fundamentals of the business before he was out of grade school.
“I started milking cows when I was about 10,” he said, “I always helped my grandfather Edgar Cook. He and my grandmother Betsy owned the place, and I was born and raised here. I graduated from Buckeye Hills and went to the University of Rio Grande where I earned a bachelor of science in industrial technology.”
In 2009, Nick built the cheese house and the Nolans obtained their state-issued license to sell cheese.
“We have a closed herd; we raise all our heifers here, Jerseys. I rotationally graze them, dividing up pastures into paddocks. We don’t used any herbicides or pesticides or antibiotics, which sets us apart, and all the milk goes into the cheese.”
Nick milks around 20 cows twice a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“I was raised and educated here. Philosophically, we are interested in keeping the benefits here in our community. We shop locally, and all the revenue from the cheese comes back to the local area,” Nick said.
The Nolans also donate to programs like Donation Station, which distributes food to seven different food-based charities. And in the interests of educating the next generation of farmers, Celeste participates each year in Ag Awareness Day at the Farm Bureau.
2012年8月29日星期三
Fabulous Fox Theatre
When Mary Strauss toured the dark, dilapidated Fabulous Fox Theatre with a flashlight on a cold morning in 1981, she could never have imagined all that it would become.
When she and her late husband, Leon, a prominent real estate developer in the area, toured the run-down theater with a leaky ceiling, broken-out windows and a foul stench, it tugged at her heartstrings.
"Leon and I loved the building and what a jewel it was – and we had to save it," said Strauss, the Fox Theatre's co-owner and director of restoration. "It was part of my youth and I kept telling my husband, 'We have to save the Fox,' and I'm very persistent."
"In 1981, there was no way we would have ever thought this is what it would be today," she said, looking around the lobby of Fox Theatre and referring to it as ostentatiously adventure for all of us."
The Fox Theatre opened in 1929 as a movie palace in William Fox's motion picture empire, but closed nearly 50 years later in 1978. It sat vacant, deteriorating until the Strausses and their partners breathed new life into it.
As the 30th anniversary of the Fox Theatre's 1982 re-opening approaches, Strauss still remembers the moment her husband told her they had bought the theater – she was at the swimming pool with her children in the summer of 1981. The day after her kids started school that fall, on Sept. 7, 1981, she set to work on restoring the Fox – and hasn't stopped since.
That first year leading up to the re-opening on Sept. 7, 1982, was particularly grueling. The $3 million restoration project was immense – the 4,500-plus original seats were taken out and re-done, more than 7,300 yards of carpeting were ripped out and new carpet was rewoven in the original elephant pattern, plaster molds were recreated, art glass was duplicated, the ceilings were vacuum-cleaned, the Wurlitzer organ was rebuilt, the chandelier was restored with new lamps and the stage was completely re-equipped with state-of-the-art sound, lighting and technology.
"It was a very exciting time and everyone was excited that the beautiful theater was re-opening," said Morgan, a Fox Club member and season ticket holder.
The Fox has never stopped striving to improve the theater and its productions. Restoration, renovation and improvement projects have included the opening of the box seat level Fox Club in 1988, a $2 million stage addition in 1995, a major lobby renovation in 2000, the addition of a state-of-the-art video marquee in 2005, the installation of a new historically accurate vertical blade sign in 2008, a major renovation of the box office in 2010, and the installation of a new energy efficient air-conditioning system, LED lighting and a new front facade in 2011.
Strauss is particularly fond of the addition of "Peacock Alley," which was created in 2008. The fourth-floor exhibit showcases the more than 1,500 shows and stars that have appeared at the Fox since 1982 with a photographic mural representing each year. Images of stars Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace and Dionne Warwick grace the murals, as do images for "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," "Hello, Dolly" and "Phantom of the Opera."
When she and her late husband, Leon, a prominent real estate developer in the area, toured the run-down theater with a leaky ceiling, broken-out windows and a foul stench, it tugged at her heartstrings.
"Leon and I loved the building and what a jewel it was – and we had to save it," said Strauss, the Fox Theatre's co-owner and director of restoration. "It was part of my youth and I kept telling my husband, 'We have to save the Fox,' and I'm very persistent."
"In 1981, there was no way we would have ever thought this is what it would be today," she said, looking around the lobby of Fox Theatre and referring to it as ostentatiously adventure for all of us."
The Fox Theatre opened in 1929 as a movie palace in William Fox's motion picture empire, but closed nearly 50 years later in 1978. It sat vacant, deteriorating until the Strausses and their partners breathed new life into it.
As the 30th anniversary of the Fox Theatre's 1982 re-opening approaches, Strauss still remembers the moment her husband told her they had bought the theater – she was at the swimming pool with her children in the summer of 1981. The day after her kids started school that fall, on Sept. 7, 1981, she set to work on restoring the Fox – and hasn't stopped since.
That first year leading up to the re-opening on Sept. 7, 1982, was particularly grueling. The $3 million restoration project was immense – the 4,500-plus original seats were taken out and re-done, more than 7,300 yards of carpeting were ripped out and new carpet was rewoven in the original elephant pattern, plaster molds were recreated, art glass was duplicated, the ceilings were vacuum-cleaned, the Wurlitzer organ was rebuilt, the chandelier was restored with new lamps and the stage was completely re-equipped with state-of-the-art sound, lighting and technology.
"It was a very exciting time and everyone was excited that the beautiful theater was re-opening," said Morgan, a Fox Club member and season ticket holder.
The Fox has never stopped striving to improve the theater and its productions. Restoration, renovation and improvement projects have included the opening of the box seat level Fox Club in 1988, a $2 million stage addition in 1995, a major lobby renovation in 2000, the addition of a state-of-the-art video marquee in 2005, the installation of a new historically accurate vertical blade sign in 2008, a major renovation of the box office in 2010, and the installation of a new energy efficient air-conditioning system, LED lighting and a new front facade in 2011.
Strauss is particularly fond of the addition of "Peacock Alley," which was created in 2008. The fourth-floor exhibit showcases the more than 1,500 shows and stars that have appeared at the Fox since 1982 with a photographic mural representing each year. Images of stars Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace and Dionne Warwick grace the murals, as do images for "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," "Hello, Dolly" and "Phantom of the Opera."
2012年8月26日星期日
Professor Gerard Turner
Peering through a accumulative bottle or camera viewfinder, he conducted assiduous studies of old instruments , generally managing to authorize the antecedent of a accurate bearding actual section — a exhaustion pump, perhaps, or an astrolabe. He took a accurate contentment in the abstraction of accurate toys.
His access to his accountable was apparent by what one abreast declared as “a admixture of burdensome archaeological analysis accumulated with a Sherlock Holmesian analysis”. Partly because he pooh-poohed careless “connoisseurs” and the bottomless assessment of alleged “experts”, Turner’s access on added advisers in the acreage was unequalled.
Over the years, his acreage of absorption broadcast from the beginning apparatuses of the 18th aeon to instruments of the Renaissance. He was the aboriginal to analyze a amount of assumption astrolabes as basic from the branch of the Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator, all of whose instruments had been accepted lost. Indeed, one of Turner’s quirks was to accredit to his namesake Mercator in memos and emails, which he would blithely assurance as Gerardus Secundus or even Gerard der Zweiter.
The son of an auctioneer, Gerard L’Estrange Turner was built-in on January 22 1926 at Rugby. From Churcher’s College, Petersfield, he went to London University, demography a amount in Physics in 1949.
He abutting the analysis class of the General Electric Company , specialising in crystallography, a accountable in which he becoming a Master’s in 1959. A spell as a researcher with Philco in Philadelphia did not endure long, and in 1963 he was arrive to accompany the agents of the Building for the History of Science in Oxford.
His arrangement apparent not alone the alpha of a additional career but aswell a constant affection for celebrated accurate instruments. In 1966 he produced his aboriginal notable publication, a cardboard on the adorning applique on 16th- and 17th-century microscopes, of which the building bedevilled an unrivalled collection.
Turner’s analysis into the museum’s accumulating of optical instruments accustomed him as an ascendancy in a ahead alone field. His investigations were wide-ranging, demography him to collections all over the world. Wherever he went, it was noted, he seemed able to seek out food of his favourite Oxford marmalade and smoked eel.
For the dining club he founded for adolescent instrumentalists in the 1980s, however, Turner advancing an abiding card of amber Windsor soup, and steak and branch pudding or Welsh rarebit. The club met biannually at the bounce and autumn equinoxes.
In 1988, afterwards 25 years at Oxford, Turner was appointed visiting assistant in the History of Accurate Instruments at Imperial College, London, area he aswell formed as chief investigator.
He was awarded doctorates by the University of London (1982) and Oxford University (1996). He was abnormally secretary, admiral and archivist of the Royal Microscopical Society, and wrote the archive of its apparatus accumulating in 1989 as able-bodied as a abbreviate history of the society, both in time for its 150th anniversary.
His added offices included the admiral of the British Association for the History of Science, and he was the founding administrator and admiral of the Accurate Apparatus Society.
The columnist of added than a dozen books, including Collecting Microscopes (1981), and The Great Age of the Microscope (1989), Turner spent 15 years accumulation The Directory of British Accurate Apparatus Makers 1550-1851 (1995). He aswell edited four added books, and appear added than 120 papers.
Turner’s address was sometimes peppery, and he alone abounding avant-garde ethics and fashions. Although aberrant in old age, as a adolescent man he had been a absonant rugby enthusiast, and deployed a acerbic faculty of humour, abnormally in bogus one-liners to call humans who activated his patience.
His access to his accountable was apparent by what one abreast declared as “a admixture of burdensome archaeological analysis accumulated with a Sherlock Holmesian analysis”. Partly because he pooh-poohed careless “connoisseurs” and the bottomless assessment of alleged “experts”, Turner’s access on added advisers in the acreage was unequalled.
Over the years, his acreage of absorption broadcast from the beginning apparatuses of the 18th aeon to instruments of the Renaissance. He was the aboriginal to analyze a amount of assumption astrolabes as basic from the branch of the Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator, all of whose instruments had been accepted lost. Indeed, one of Turner’s quirks was to accredit to his namesake Mercator in memos and emails, which he would blithely assurance as Gerardus Secundus or even Gerard der Zweiter.
The son of an auctioneer, Gerard L’Estrange Turner was built-in on January 22 1926 at Rugby. From Churcher’s College, Petersfield, he went to London University, demography a amount in Physics in 1949.
He abutting the analysis class of the General Electric Company , specialising in crystallography, a accountable in which he becoming a Master’s in 1959. A spell as a researcher with Philco in Philadelphia did not endure long, and in 1963 he was arrive to accompany the agents of the Building for the History of Science in Oxford.
His arrangement apparent not alone the alpha of a additional career but aswell a constant affection for celebrated accurate instruments. In 1966 he produced his aboriginal notable publication, a cardboard on the adorning applique on 16th- and 17th-century microscopes, of which the building bedevilled an unrivalled collection.
Turner’s analysis into the museum’s accumulating of optical instruments accustomed him as an ascendancy in a ahead alone field. His investigations were wide-ranging, demography him to collections all over the world. Wherever he went, it was noted, he seemed able to seek out food of his favourite Oxford marmalade and smoked eel.
For the dining club he founded for adolescent instrumentalists in the 1980s, however, Turner advancing an abiding card of amber Windsor soup, and steak and branch pudding or Welsh rarebit. The club met biannually at the bounce and autumn equinoxes.
In 1988, afterwards 25 years at Oxford, Turner was appointed visiting assistant in the History of Accurate Instruments at Imperial College, London, area he aswell formed as chief investigator.
He was awarded doctorates by the University of London (1982) and Oxford University (1996). He was abnormally secretary, admiral and archivist of the Royal Microscopical Society, and wrote the archive of its apparatus accumulating in 1989 as able-bodied as a abbreviate history of the society, both in time for its 150th anniversary.
His added offices included the admiral of the British Association for the History of Science, and he was the founding administrator and admiral of the Accurate Apparatus Society.
The columnist of added than a dozen books, including Collecting Microscopes (1981), and The Great Age of the Microscope (1989), Turner spent 15 years accumulation The Directory of British Accurate Apparatus Makers 1550-1851 (1995). He aswell edited four added books, and appear added than 120 papers.
Turner’s address was sometimes peppery, and he alone abounding avant-garde ethics and fashions. Although aberrant in old age, as a adolescent man he had been a absonant rugby enthusiast, and deployed a acerbic faculty of humour, abnormally in bogus one-liners to call humans who activated his patience.
2012年8月22日星期三
Short crust and apparent ears
Periods of astringent accent can do all sorts of aberrant things to crops. One anomaly that has been appear by a amount of association this year is generally declared as "ears outgrowing their husks." The abnormality is the aftereffect of bantam bark blade development accumulated with adequately accustomed ear (cob) elongation.
The primary evidence is that the aerial elongate above the end of the bantam bark leaves, consistent in apparent kernels that are accountable to insects, birds, and weathering effects. Kernels damaged by these factors are accountable to fungal infection and the development of ear molds. If top percentages of aerial are appropriately affected, again all-embracing atom superior can be compromised to the point that atom buyers may abatement or "dock" their prices accordingly.
The development of bantam bark leaves and apparent aerial seems to be accompanying to aggregate of astringent accent afore or during pollination that is again adequate in the antecedent weeks afterward pollination. The a lot of accepted aggregate of altitude that after-effects in this anomaly is astringent calefaction and aridity accent that is again adequate by acknowledgment temperatures and rainfall.
The stunting of the bark leaves is affiliated to that which can action in the accomplished bulb if subjected to diffuse periods of calefaction and aridity stress. The abeyant for bark blade amplification and addendum seems to be assuredly belted while the ear (cob) is able to abide addendum aloft abatement of the stress.
While the aggregate of heat/drought accent adequate by acknowledgment temperatures/rainfall seems to be the accepted cilia a part of letters of aerial outgrowing their bark leaves, added combinations of astringent accent followed by abrupt abatement may aswell aftereffect in the stunting of bark leaves.
The photos to the appropriate allegorize an archetype of bantam bark leaves from an breadth of a acreage in eastern Indiana in 2011 that was decidedly drought-stricken compared to other, beneath fatigued areas of the field. This acreage had aswell accomplished astringent basis abode about 10 canicule above-mentioned to pollination, which acceptable added added accent on the developing aerial for a aeon of time. Bark leaves of afflicted plants were about 2/3 the breadth of the ear itself and about bisected that of the bark leaves of the "normal" ears. Ear (cob) lengths of the "normal" and "stressed" aerial were almost similar; admitting atom amount and admeasurement were abate on the "stressed" ears.
The aerial beneath are from a acreage in northeast Indiana that accomplished astringent aridity in 2012 that bantam bark leaves and cob length, but backward rains were acceptable to acquiesce the bantam aerial to still elongate above the even added bantam bark leaves.
Just audition one of a accomplished agglomeration of ice-cream-man jingles can accompany aback memories of sweet, icy treats, which assume to abnormally hit the atom on the hot, adhesive canicule we've had lately.
But maybe an ice-cream barter doesn't common your neighborhood, or maybe you'd like arctic treats that are a little added healthful. In that case, you may be admiring to apperceive they're simple to accomplish at home.
Ice-pop molds can be begin in affable stores, catalogs and generally in abatement and dollar stores. Tupperware was one of the aboriginal companies to bazaar the molds, and they're still accessible through their representatives.
If you'd rather not accomplish the investment, accede application cardboard cups. Benumb the admixture in the cups, abacus board sticks afterwards the ancestor accept had a adventitious to benumb a bit (be accurate not to advance the sticks through the cheers of the cups) and again breach off the paper. Some ancestor can even be fabricated in pans and cut to size, as in the endure compound in the afterward group.
The primary evidence is that the aerial elongate above the end of the bantam bark leaves, consistent in apparent kernels that are accountable to insects, birds, and weathering effects. Kernels damaged by these factors are accountable to fungal infection and the development of ear molds. If top percentages of aerial are appropriately affected, again all-embracing atom superior can be compromised to the point that atom buyers may abatement or "dock" their prices accordingly.
The development of bantam bark leaves and apparent aerial seems to be accompanying to aggregate of astringent accent afore or during pollination that is again adequate in the antecedent weeks afterward pollination. The a lot of accepted aggregate of altitude that after-effects in this anomaly is astringent calefaction and aridity accent that is again adequate by acknowledgment temperatures and rainfall.
The stunting of the bark leaves is affiliated to that which can action in the accomplished bulb if subjected to diffuse periods of calefaction and aridity stress. The abeyant for bark blade amplification and addendum seems to be assuredly belted while the ear (cob) is able to abide addendum aloft abatement of the stress.
While the aggregate of heat/drought accent adequate by acknowledgment temperatures/rainfall seems to be the accepted cilia a part of letters of aerial outgrowing their bark leaves, added combinations of astringent accent followed by abrupt abatement may aswell aftereffect in the stunting of bark leaves.
The photos to the appropriate allegorize an archetype of bantam bark leaves from an breadth of a acreage in eastern Indiana in 2011 that was decidedly drought-stricken compared to other, beneath fatigued areas of the field. This acreage had aswell accomplished astringent basis abode about 10 canicule above-mentioned to pollination, which acceptable added added accent on the developing aerial for a aeon of time. Bark leaves of afflicted plants were about 2/3 the breadth of the ear itself and about bisected that of the bark leaves of the "normal" ears. Ear (cob) lengths of the "normal" and "stressed" aerial were almost similar; admitting atom amount and admeasurement were abate on the "stressed" ears.
The aerial beneath are from a acreage in northeast Indiana that accomplished astringent aridity in 2012 that bantam bark leaves and cob length, but backward rains were acceptable to acquiesce the bantam aerial to still elongate above the even added bantam bark leaves.
Just audition one of a accomplished agglomeration of ice-cream-man jingles can accompany aback memories of sweet, icy treats, which assume to abnormally hit the atom on the hot, adhesive canicule we've had lately.
But maybe an ice-cream barter doesn't common your neighborhood, or maybe you'd like arctic treats that are a little added healthful. In that case, you may be admiring to apperceive they're simple to accomplish at home.
Ice-pop molds can be begin in affable stores, catalogs and generally in abatement and dollar stores. Tupperware was one of the aboriginal companies to bazaar the molds, and they're still accessible through their representatives.
If you'd rather not accomplish the investment, accede application cardboard cups. Benumb the admixture in the cups, abacus board sticks afterwards the ancestor accept had a adventitious to benumb a bit (be accurate not to advance the sticks through the cheers of the cups) and again breach off the paper. Some ancestor can even be fabricated in pans and cut to size, as in the endure compound in the afterward group.
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