So, I just heard the weather forecast and looked it up on the most reputable forecast site that all New Englanders rely on and I’ve come to agree that it just is not cool. You can see for yourself, but I don’t know if there’s anywhere else to put all that ____. And although they say its a farm, I don’t think its really that sustainable.

Although the apocalypse might be coming, people still don’t believe their actions are heating up our environments around the world. It has been such a cold winter and I haven’t seen the ground in over a month, but that still doesn’t mean we can just throw our trash in the streets, jump in our cars and blast the heat while idling in grid lock traffic, and just hope someone else is going to care enough to pick up after us and fix our mistakes. So, with that being said, the Arctic is warmer by about 20 degrees this winter, with the colder air just switching with us. So… get out your shovels cause the snow’s a comin’ and please respect your environment and your community. We all live here and just need to learn how to share.

Hey locals, I was taking a break from the ride this morning enjoying a lovely carrot cake cupcake made by the bakers at Petsi Pies and drinking a splendid cup of coffee roasted and brewed by Equal Exchange here in MA and I took a look at their in-house books and I came across The Better World Handbook where I found a great amount of useful information about the “stuff that makes the world go round.”  Unfortunately it is mostly about money, but it gave me some insight on what to look for and which sources to trust when it comes to buying things. I spend most of my money on food, which I focus on local goods anyways, but I feel everyone could get some good info from it. Check it out here. The best thing it does is give statistics and facts about which companies are working for a better world and which ones could care less. Please don’t end up looking like this. Everyone complains about the cost of goods and that’s why they’re driven to buying at huge corporations with pre-sliced apples, soaked in pesticides, bleached clean and never been touched by a human hand until the consumer…  but that brings us into a whole different story of America’s fear factor of just about everything. All I’m saying is the extra dollar or two consciously spent here stays here and gets exchanged around the neighborhood, the town, etc. and never leaves on that private jet to a board meeting across the globe to pay for the research on how to eliminate more american jobs. By the way… rumor has it that places like CVS are going to carry more processed foods because that’s where the money is at these days. And you have to feed your money into a machine because they are smarter than us now. I can’t wait till I have the 5G so I can look up on my new App if there is a chance of me slipping on the ice outside my door or if my mail has arrived yet. Whew, way too much sarcasm and criticism for this post. Please think about where you spend your money and who its actually benefiting. Thats all. And be safe riding out there. The cars are all over the bike lanes because there’s nowhere else to park and we can’t live without our machines. I would enjoy sending you all this handwritten but you just wouldn’t read it anymore.

Yours truly,

Bike Courier Brett

Cambridge

Hello Boston and surrounding communities. Seeing that you are snowed in and it’s just freaking crazy out there, I suggest you sit down, snuggle into that favorite chair of yours and open a good book. If you don’t have one on hand, you should look HERE. MetroPed and Harvard Book Store as a team are bringing you fresh reads delivered by bike to Boston and the surrounding suburbs. You don’t have to drive around to get a good book these days, and you don’t have to order from the big online retailer that is puting local bookstores out of business. Harvard Bookstore has just completed building some great interactive features on their new website – personally, I love the HBTV: they have lots of interesting podcasts and videos from the author talks and special events that they host in their store. I recently got to stop by to pick up some fresh reads to some customers seeking green delivery and as always… I loved the ride. [Read the rest of this entry...]

We had a pretty intense blizzard on Wednesday, complete with thunder and power outages and downed trees all over the place. I had made the decision to close down business for the day (first time ever). It seemed best for people to stay off the roads, stay home and then, of course there was lots of shoveling to do, fallen tree branches to clear out of the streets and hot chocolate to drink :)
Thursday morning found the roads passable, although, in my opinion, too many people were just rushing out to get back to “business as usual” – lots of cars riding on the street with huge piles of snow still on top of their cars that they had not finished clearing off. You know the ones that speed down the street and the chunks of snow and ice fly off the tops of their cars and land on whatever is behind them, they don’t care. Ever been hit by one of these chunks of snow? I have. Why is there no law against this? Well, perhaps if we just accepted that things take longer when we are buried under a foot of snow in the dead of winter, if we weren’t so pressured to get everything done and get the kids to daycare and get to work, maybe we could take the time to properly shovel our damn sidewalks, maybe even help our neighbors shovel theirs. Perhaps if we were more relaxed, fights wouldn’t breakout over parking spot rights.
So it was slow going yesterday. I could see a lot of frustration and not as many smiles as I would like to see on the road as I made my way through downtown, dropping off a couple of packages and then over to a scheduled meeting at Equal Exchange’s new secret coffee-trike headquarters.

We are very excited to hear the the first mobile café will be stationed at the new Charles/MGH T station starting next week!

[Read the rest of this entry...]

The best thing about riding bicycles, trikes and other pedal powered vehicles out there is the pace of life just slows down and whomever is behind the handlebars gets to think about all sorts of stuff. After understanding the bicycle itself and the traffic laws, etc. it is really easy to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, really anything out there. I mean, there are a lot of bad things that you encounter as a cyclist, but for the most part it is quite enjoyable. In fact, a quote by Einstein himself is “I thought of that while out riding on my bicycle.”  See? One of the smartest human beings out there still being studied by us chimps, rode the bicycle and had the time to think while out riding. Today, I thought of all the things I need to get done that can’t actually be done while on the bicycle but… it is very effective in getting me from place to place to get those things done. 

One thing that irritates me and i’m sure it does for the rest of you all season cyclists is the a amount of snow and ice plowed into all the bike lanes. Its only going to get worse. With this being done, us cyclists are being forced into the lanes with cars and for cyclists that rely on the bike lanes to step on a bicycle in the first place, this is a major problem. What its causing me to do is get in traffic more often, which unfortunately irritates car drivers to the point where they use their horns more than they talk on their cell phones and make radical movements, speed around me at 50 miles an hour and endanger more than a few people. Whew, can’t wait till gas prices soar through the roof. I’d be happy to pay 5 bucks a gallon and an extra dollar for my overprocessed food from another planet run by machines to get more motorists off the road. How do you feel?

To rub in the local flavor for you… I made yogurt last night, cooked up some amazing winter vegetable chili and went out and had a beer at Cambridge Brewing Co, one of my favorite places.  Happy riding!!

Sometimes, especially in the hardest, coldest months of January and February, I ask myself WHY. Why am I doing this?

Sometimes I wonder if I am a moron or just completely insane. Sometimes it is difficult to maintain confidence that what we are trying to do is worthwhile or that this business can be profitable or compete in the current market against the big, scary corporate giants. I honestly don’t know. Just as I don’t understand the universe or humans place in it, so I do not know, except by a leap of faith, that I am ever doing the right thing.
This morning, I hopped on the trike and did our Recycling pickups around Cambridge. As I pedaled out of the Casella recycling facility, above the soft, slow, steady sound of my crank and chain turning, all I could hear was the sound of oil burning. Motors burning oil. Motors burning oil. Motors burning oil. If I listened more deeply, I could also make out the underlying “black-noise” of rubber on bituminous ground. As I pedaled along Cambridge St, under the I-93 overpass, I thought of how much easier our lives are now in the oil age. Where we just flip a switch and push a gas pedal and can “effortlessly” move thousands of pounds in an instant. Wow, that’s nice. So easy and convenient. Anyone can do it. It levels the playing field, in a way. You do not need strength or guts or determination or even good health. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Today I took a nice ride out to Jamaica Plain to deliver farm shares from Enterprise Farm. I got to pick up the shares from City Feed and take the next hour or so riding around the hilly and still snowy streets of JP. It was quite a nice day out there if you ask me. I always enjoy the winter because it just seems so much quieter and peaceful. While going through downtown Boston the traffic still sucked and I heard a fair share of horn blasts and angry motorists, but all in all I am enjoying winter in Boston. It also seems like people are staying in a bit more and having their groceries delivered. Whole Foods (Prospect) is getting a bit busier with home grocery delivery and we are taking on the task. I just want to take a moment to thank all of you fellow cyclists for staying out there on the streets through the winter and making the bicycle your first choice for transportation. Its not easy out there with snow plowed into all the bike lanes and the streets clogged even more with snow and cars. I’ve found out that the people whom I do encounter seem a lot friendlier and I don’t know if its just the slower pace or we respect the situation more because we can talk, make eye contact and enjoy the cool winter air. Well. That’s it for now. Headed to Dave’s Fresh Pasta to Deliver some Tea and bring back a new shipment for deliveries all around Boston tomorrow!

Its about time. Looks like all I have to do is talk about the dry winter and BAM! Yep, there it is. Well, still not too bad out there. A few snowflakes in the eyes and some slush here and there, but it was quite peaceful riding through the snow at 5:00 this morning. I am still aggravated with the lousy drivers out there. Please just stay calm. Everything is going to be OK. I also got to watch some guy scrape frost and snow off his windshield as his car warmed up. Every time I see stuff related to the car, it seems so unfamiliar to me and I am glad it isn’t a major part of my life anymore. He looked kind of miserable and soul-less like the car had won and it was now the boss of him.

I was thinking of starting a “Click & Clack” style of bicycle commentary. So if you’re interested, how about you comment on yer’ good ol’ facebook page or whatever you do out there and fulfill me with your bicycle issues and I’ll try to give you advice on how to fix them. Please no “heated seats” questions or anything involving an electric or gas motor attached. I’m not really educated on the electronics and I don’t like gas and such. Simple bicycle talk/advice.

Hope everyone is enjoying the snowy holiday season!

I still don’t really know what the term locavore means or even if I spelled it completely right, but a big thanks to all of you still using our human-powered trucking services around Boston.

We enjoy doing business with you! For those of you who came out for the last (late fall) CSA pick up, thanks for your patience and understanding. I guess it is a little easier patching a bicycle tire out on the road than a farm truck. But if we had a full load of veggies, it would have been a little trickier. I could only imagine how much a fully loaded farm truck with the heaviest vegetables of the season would weigh. Basically… we took extra care in prepping for a really busy day and something out of everyone’s control happened and we had to wait, wait, wait then scramble.

When you’re out there visiting your local establishments eating produce from Red Fire Farm (Granby, MA) savor the flavor!!! and take an extra moment to think of how it ended up on your plate.

So where is the snow? Don’t worry, it will come. But I am enjoying the clear streets and crisp air. Are you still out cycling? I hope so.

I have been noticing angrier motorists out there lately. I believe it has something to do with them being in their cars. I am extremely frustrated at the motorists who drive more recklessly during the colder months. Just because we know how to adapt to the crazy “outside world” in any condition, doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk to us and threaten our lives. These are still our streets and we have every right to them as you do!

I have particularly noticed how motorists think they always have to be going faster than cyclists. No you don’t! I can manage a good 18mph average on most common routes throughout the city and I know how much it frustrates you that I am in front of you getting to my destination as fast as you. I was recently cut off when a car sped way too close to me on my left and proceeded to cut me off on a right hand turn when I was trying to go straight. Did you hear my elbow deflect off your right rear window? It may have helped if you looked at your speedometer and saw I was going about 20 mph AND was trying to go straight. At least 3 other motorists saw the whole thing and looked in fright as I almost got knocked off my bike and rolled over the back of your car. Note to you: I can’t wait till the day you can’t afford to pay for gas, maintenance and insurance.

Ok, enough of that. Thanks to those of you still cycling, shopping locally (that doesn’t mean dunkin’ or starbucks), slowing down to look around and a big thanks to those of you asking for bicycle delivery!

Here they Come!!! Red Fire Farm is on its way and we are about to distribute thousands of pounds of Local Veggies. We will be out in full force so, give us room and share some smiles. Complaining about the cold? We are ready for it; not the complaining, but the cold. Its all about a great ride on a cool winter day if you ask me. Visit your local establishments, ask for some local food, enjoy bicycle delivery!