What a week we've had! Earthquake, hurricane... phew!   

We hope you enjoyed Green Drinks last week, on "earthquake day." Our theme was great, yummy, good-for-you, local food, just the specialty of the Metropolitan. They present a menu of farm-to-table cooking, striving to source ingredients from local farms and purveyors and incorporating sustainable, Earth friendly, grassfed and healthy into their philosophy. We thank owners Gavin Buckley and Jody Danek for their hospitality.  

As you may have heard, the City of Annapolis recently announced its "Green Plate Special Program" through which the city encourages local eateries to source food locally |

press release | A representative of the city's Environmental Programs was to have joined us to say a few words about their Green Plate Special Program, but they were all busy with post-earthquake duties. When we get more information about the program, we'll share it with you.

Annapolis Green has been advocating Buy Local/Eat Local for years with our Green Foodie Challenge. We encourage local sourcing and sustainable operations within the hospitality community and hold our events at venues that support that philosophy. Read more.      

Highlights:

Rita Calvert attended with the book she co-authored with Michael Heller, The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook Fires It Up!The ultimate guide to grilling, smoking, and barbecuing pasture-raised meats from America's small farms. She sold and signed copies and graciously gave us one for our raffle! Thank you, Rita!

Sharon New of Local Food Beat was on hand to speak about good nutrition and the classes she offers, including on the thyroid/adrenal glands. She was generous enough to provide, for our raffle, a consult session --a $55 value--in which she will take the winner on a highly informative tour of the Annapolis Whole Foods store. She'll show the winner what she buys and why, what not to buy, how to read labels, a review of the supplement aisle, how to find grass-fed products (dairy and beef). Thank you, Sharon!

Our third raffle item was $25 in Market Money to be spent at The Fresh Farm Market in Annapolis - open Sundays at the Donner Lot, foot of Main Street, 8:30 a.m. to noon. Thank you to Tara and her colleagues for that!   

Bo of Atami Day Spa on Maryland Avenue, which features organic, paraben-free, green & eco-friendly products, provided all with a 20% off card for spa services. Thank you!

Our "partner in clean-up," John Nicklin of WasteStrategies, joined us to give us a preview of our brand-new trash and recycling duo containers that will debut at several events coming up, including the Maryland Seafood Festival. 

Several Green Drinkers stayed for dinner and reported that it was terrific. We encourage you to support our local, sustainable restaurants, like Metropolitan.

Did you see our First-Timer stickers? We hope you reached out to those who were new to Green Drinks!   

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Looking ahead: We're already gearing up for September's Green Drinks! It will be at Quiet Waters Park, in the visitors' center, on Wednesday, September 14. Our theme is "Environmental Education Makes Good Green Neighbors." Our event will be sponsored by Clean Currents, our wind energy supplier. We'll have details on our event for you soon. Save the date to join us at Quiet Waters, a jewel of a green sanctuary right in town.