Hasta La Ideas

London designer Nick Fraser presents these faceted terracotta plant pots at Clerkenwell Design Week in London this week.

Called Herb, the design for growing herbs on a kitchen windowsill will be on show with food and design collective DesignMarketo in association with the Barbican at the Farmiloe building.

Visit our latest Dezeen Watch Store pop-up at the same venue – more details here.

Clerkenwell Design Week takes place 24-26 May.

More about plants on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from Fraser:

Over the next three days, we will be joining the Barbican, in partnership with DesignMarketo, at Clerkenwell Design Week to introduce our new product, Herb, as well as showcasing Three Oak Trees. The Barbican has a room on the second floor of the beautiful Farmiloe building, the central hub of the festival.

Herb gives a fresh take on the classic terracotta pot, finding a perfect balance between striking contemporary design and traditional material.

When displayed in multiples, Herb’s irregular form gives the illusion that each pot is unique, creating a landscape of contrasting shapes.

Ideal for growing herbs and other small plants, Herb was designed with the windowsill garden in mind and will soon be available to buy.

See also:

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Hall Stand by Nick Fraser	Crystal Collection by Pour les Alpes	Plant pot by Uli Budde

San Francisco designers fuseproject have designed packaging and a grating tool for hardened pure cacao, which is farmed among the natural ecosystem of the Costa Rican rainforest.

Called Talamanca Cocoa, the product is packaged in hessian bags and has a grater that hooks onto the side of a mug for making hot cacao.

The farming process helps to conserve the natural state of the land used.

The design is on show at the Design for the Living World exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago, which opens today and continues until 13 November 2011.

More about fuseproject on Dezeen »

Here’s some more information from the designers:

The Nature Conservancy Talamanca Cocoa

In Costa Rica, the Bribri women of Talamanca are making organic cacao and chocolate. Unlike monoculture farming, their cacao plants grow in the natural ecosystem, surrounded within rich biodiversity, and conserve the nature and land they inhabit… As their cocoa farms expand, so does the conservation of native rainforest. Their main product is ground cacao patties, which capture the essence of their production. Hockey-puck in size and formed by hand, they are 100% cacao – no sugar added – and the only ingredient needed to make the wonderful hot cacao drink.

This cacao patty could be a great opportunity, but it needed a design effort to showcase the product – from packaging and storing the cacao, to brewing hot cacao, while making the entire experience and process ceremonial.

We created a product ecosystem which included a logo, resalable packaging (inspired by the burlap sacs used to store raw cacao beans made locally, natural and biodegradable, reusable, organic), and an accessory tool used to break-down the hardened patties and brew the hot cacao drink.

The tool is custom built to grate the cacao and then to stir the hot cocoa drink. A built-in hook allows the tool to hang on the rim of a mug before and after use, and it self-cleans as it brews.

Our hope is project that this will bring awareness to the positivity of organic cocoa production, as well as entice and educate viewers. Whether they be consumers or partners, at the end of the day this effort tells a story: organic cacao farming saves rainforest.

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Jambox by Yves Behar	Peel Fruit by Yves Behar	GE WattStation by Yves Behar

NYC’s supper clubs offer an impromptu dining cart serving up a six course meal in the subway

In a theatrical culinary feat, passengers aboard NYC’s L train were recently treated to a six-course lunch as they rolled across Manhattan, under the East River and into Williamsburg, each stop adding to the food frenzy. Cooked up by the crafty chefs behind A Razor, A Shiny Knife, the luncheon included an elegant array of dishes, including foie gras and filet mignon, as well as a pyramid of chocolate panna cotta, dusted with gold leaf. Guests—who paid $100 for a reservation—were given no information apart from “the promise of a clandestine dining experience.”

Michael J. Cirino and Daniel Castaño began A Razor, A Shiny Knife several years ago with an interest in experimental cooking, determined to create new ways for “people to interact with food and each other.” Hosting the luncheon on the L train is just one example of how the team challenges themselves with gastronomic adventures, with timing and execution at the crux of the daunting task. The challenge that put the duo the map though was their 20-course recreation of the $1,500 dinners Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller were serving at their restaurants, which they executed for $300 a meal with the help of A Razor, A Shiny Knife “PHD/Cook” Andrew Rosenberg and “Self-Appointed Master Sommelier” Jonny Cigar.

The ingenious event was also aided by Studiofeast‘s Mike Lee, who brought the entree on board at the Morgan Avenue stop. With more than 50 people involved, the group effort really demonstrated the power of a well-planned idea.

via The New York Times, pictures by Yana Paskova for The New York Times

“Cow to cone” ice cream from America’s heartland

Family owned and operated, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream’s‘s bold seasonal and signature flavors are a neo-cottage industry success story. The American-style, artisinally-blended ice cream truly lives up to the name. Made from a combination of homegrown ingredients and whole cream from the freely grazing cows at nearby Snowville Creamery, every batch is “pasture to table, cow to cone” fresh.

While picking favorites among flavors like a milk chocolate flecked with single-origin Askinosie chocolate or a spicy coconut and peanut concoction takes some tough palates, after some serious taste-testing we narrowed in on a few.

“Salty Caramel” quickly disappeared after the container’s seal was broken. The creamy consistency delivers rich vanilla notes and a smooth caramel finish, described by some CH tasters as phenomenal.

Another overall winner, Jeni modeled “Buckeye State” after Ohio’s classic chocolate-and-peanut butter treat. Rich but not overpowering, the peanut butter tones blend seamlessly with strong dark chocolate to create a perfect balance of salty and sweet.

“Influenza” sorbet earned a nod for a wild taste and its unusual flu-fighting mission. With intense flavors—including cayenne pepper, Marker’s Mark bourbon, honey, lemon, and orange juice—this nurturing mix has everything you need to make you better whether you’re sick or not.

To get your hands on a freshly-prepared pint, use Jeni’s store locator to find these delicious flavors and more in supermarkets across the U.S., or swing by one of their four (soon to be seven!) Ohio locations. If you happen to live far from a supplier, Jeni’s ships door-to-door nationwide as well.

Olive oil chocolates made by a local Italian community (nuns too)

With chocolatiers known simply as “Ivan and Michele” and packaged by local nuns, Nudo‘s new olive oil Cioccolatini are a community project from top to bottom. Based in Italy’s Le Marche region, Nudo (a family-run operation itself) tapped Ivan and Michele to take their astounding olive oil in a sweet direction—but not without a few road bumps along the way.

Because the word nudo translates to naked in Italian, the nuns (based in the nearby town of Tolentino) had to receive special permission to work with the brand—which actually is named for its honest approach to harvesting olives. Known for their adopt-an-olive-tree program which gives anyone a chance to own one of their trees, Nudo oil comes from 100% Italian, hand-picked olives that go straight from the grove to pressing.

That delicious ingredient translates into handmade dark chocolate truffles filled with three flavors of ganache—lemon, mandarin and chili—which is where the oil comes in, nicely complimenting all flavors involved. Like Nudo’s other products the confections come in packaging that’s as appealing as what it contains, and the design keeps it in the family. The work of Nudo co-founder Cathy Rogers’ sister Madeleine, she’s the driving force behind the adorable paper projects at London studio Mibo.

Nudo Cioccolatini sell online where $11 gets you a box of twelve chocolates.