Most coffee drinkers do not think twice about the energy needed to make their hot beverage. But new Oxford eco-cafe The Hog Roast aims to change that and make customers more environmentally-aware.Sounds great fun! Who doesn't love a little eco-rant while you're waiting for your coffee?
Its kettle, oven and lighting will be powered by an onsite wind turbine and vegetables grown nearby, including carrots, beans, potatoes and broccoli, will be used in its soups and sandwiches.
Any food not grown on the cafe’s doorstep will come from local ethical suppliers and all waste food will be composted, to fertilise fresh crops.As Tory Aardvark notes, I can't help but think you've got in on the last rung of a very rickety and about to collapse edifice there, love...
But then, this is Oxford:
The founder of The Hog Roast is second-year Oxford University student Madeleine Ellis-Petersen, 20, who said: “The cafe aims to encourage more people to come down and enjoy the beauty of Hogacre Common and to strengthen the existing community of people who visit the common.
“Money generated by the cafe will be used to support work at the common, thereby enabling more people to enjoy access to the exciting opportunities of the eco-park.
“I'm hoping the cafe will act as a hub for lots of environmental projects.Doesn't sound as though you're hoping it'll turn much of a profit though. Why is that?
About £6,000 of grants have been raised since the project started in March to fund the conversion of a former college sports pavilion into a cafe.Ah. Of course...
Ms Ellis-Petersen, who is studying history and politics at Magdalen College, hopes to get a wood-burning stove for the winter to make the cafe fully self-sufficient.Or to draw in 'Guardian' readers?
She added: “The cafe will highlight the importance and viability of local food and low-carbon life choices and create a space everyone in the community can enjoy.”Really? More like a tiny minority. Everyone else'll be in Tesco...
10 comments:
Yes, because if everyone in the country had a wood burning stove presumably we would look something like the steppes of Russia with not a tree or hedge for miles and the country would be covered in a wood smoke induced smog presumably...................or would that be wood burning stoves for our eco-overlords and shivering in our shacks for the rest of us peasants (the ones that have survived the famines and freezing winters that is)?
Yes, because if everyone in the country had a wood burning stove presumably we would look something like the steppes of Russia with not a tree for miles and the country would be covered in a wood smoke induced smog presumably...................or would that be wood burning stoves for our Oxford educated eco-overlords, while the rest of us peasants (the ones that had survived the famines and freezing winters that is) shivered in our shacks?
How would this help save the planet? Surely it'd be more environmentally friendly to simply not bother? Besides, I doubt Oxford is short of coffee shops....or students studying useless subjects to fill them.
How does she propose to make coffee when the wind isn't blowing? wind generator - no wind=no electricity.
Apologies for double post!!
Ivan has cunningly spotted the flaw in this otherwise ecologically laudable plan ;0)... it'll be a bit of a bugger if the wind drops in the middle of baking a sponge cake too I imagine!
But fear not, my engineering brain has come up with a possible solution ... supplement the windmill with a set of tread mills, all connected in to the electrical circuit. If the wind drops you can earn your self food or drink! so, for example, five minutes gentle stroll on the treadmill might get you a free Coffee, whereas a half hour's brisk jog might earn you a veggie burger or a slice of macro-biotic fruit loaf (with low-fat spread, naturally)
It's just a cynical, guilt-tripping ploy to justify charging an extra £5 or so for the price of a cuppa.
Probably it will be mostly Guardianistas, greenie sympathisers and tree-huggers who will be daft enough to fall for it.
How does she propose to make coffee when the wind isn't blowing?
Worse, she's going to need it to be blowy on one specific day of the week too.
The Hog Roast: Open Sundays 11AM-4PM
There is a photo in the article, with an example output for a 20m high 10KW turbine. Clearly the one depicted isn't mounted at 20m. I suspect the Hog Roast turbine generates much less than 6KW. It's also likely they are still drawing from the grid and selling back their own excess generation rather than being entirely self-sufficient. Cost of turbine? Around £25000 installed.
The Hog Roast aims to change that and make customers more environmentally-aware.
And financially aware?
We're paying for hippy cafes now?!!
"...or would that be wood burning stoves for our eco-overlords and shivering in our shacks for the rest of us peasants (the ones that have survived the famines and freezing winters that is)?"
I suspect you're right.
" Besides, I doubt Oxford is short of coffee shops..."
Which reasonably-sized town is, these days?
"Ivan has cunningly spotted the flaw in this otherwise ecologically laudable plan ;0)"
I guess on those days, you have a nice glass of room temperature water instead?
"It's just a cynical, guilt-tripping ploy to justify charging an extra £5 or so for the price of a cuppa."
Damn! You've revealed her trade secret! ;)
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