What fun Al and I had posing for photos with our friends at Tricklebee Café! They really liked us! The kids picked me up and danced with me! They even kissed me! I’m sure they would have kissed Al too, but, up on my head, he was too high to reach. The food was...
Written by Hippo (a hippopotamus) and Al (a bird) As the premier farm-to-table restaurant in Milwaukee, a culinary school, a restaurant supported agriculture business, and a home delivery service, Braise is a keystone player in the local food community. “Have I mentioned, Al, that hippos are a keystone species? We are, in fact, known...
Written by Hippo (a hippopotamus) and Al (a bird), but mostly by Al “Hippo!” said Al as he landed upon my head. “I’ve met someone!” “Yeah?” I said, thoughts of a love story filling my head. “I met Charlie Koenen, the beevangelist, on a rooftop! He spreads the gospel of the bees in and...
Written by Hippo (a hippopotamus) and Al (a bird) “Hippo!” exclaimed Al. “Look at this! David and Leslie Meuer won the Leopold Conservation Award for Meuer Farm! Remember Aldo Leopold?” “How could I forget?” I replied. “He wrote The Sand County Almanac where we learned about the land ethic.” Ethics direct all members of...
Written By: Hippo (a Hippopotamus) with help from Al (a bird) Ono Kine Grindz North Avenue Storefront There I stood, in the middle of North Avenue; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; head spinning, ears ringing, heart racing, and Al (under my hat, as usual) pecking on my head while automobiles honked and squealed from all directions,...
Ever since Al and I visited the supermarket and saw all the bottles of vegetable oil, standing in neat row after neat row upon the shelves, we knew this was a commodity of great importance in the world of humans. It must have something to do with the heart, we surmised, because of the...
by Hippo (a hippopotamus) with help from Al (a bird) Tricklebee Café is a pay-what-you-can community café that offers healthy meals, food-service training, and spiritual nourishment. We are a ministry of the Moravian Church in America. After completing her twenty hours of community service at Tricklebee Café, Lakeya, a 17-year-old girl from a single-parent...
Back under the Baobab tree, the animals listened with wide eyes to our true tales of whales in the oceans and invisible creatures under our hooves, but few believed our plan would work. “A leopard never changes its spots,” said the gazelles and the wildebeests. “That’s true,” said the leopard. “We are not trying...
“They have to eat!” I blurted. “What are you talking about, Hippo?” “They have to eat!” I repeated. “There are a lot of humans and they all have to eat!” “There are 7 billion,” said Al, “and, of course, they have to eat. Isn’t that the problem?” “Don’t you see, Al? As Wendell Berry...
Inspiration arrived in the form of an article about fellow African Wangari Maathai (1940-2011), known fondly as “Mama Trees.” In the 1970’s, Maathai saw that her native Kenya was in trouble. The sparkling streams she had known as a girl had dried up. The tadpoles were gone. “My own child could not play with...
