Dallas gay pride parade celebrates theme ‘It only gets better’ !

The Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade. Our 28th Edition.
Sunday, September 18. Parade steps off at 2:00 pm.
This year’s theme is “It Only Gets Better”.
Multiple announcer’s stands along the route.

Special Guest VIP   Ben Cohen , English Rugby Star  STAND UP FOUNDATION

The Parade travels down Cedar Springs Road from Wycliff Avenue to Lee Park on Turtle Creek Blvd. Entries line up on Wycliff Avenue.   Festival right after parade!

 GET ALL THE DETAILS  ONLINE!

Sunny Meadows Flower Farm is operated by Steve and Gretel Adams and is located 6 miles from downtown Columbus, on the city’s southeast side. “Currently we farm about 7 acres of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. We use organic practices and although we are not certified, this still means no chemicals are used, just lots of love!

Our mission is to educate the public about the quality and vase life of local flowers. Although you can get flowers for dirt cheap flown in from the equator, the workers do not have the same rights and protections, and there are fewer restrictions on chemicals. So, who knows what you are really buying into? As a farm specializing in all naturally grown fresh cut flowers, we are trying to show people just how important supporting your local flower farm really is.” –  I fell in love with Gretels Soap! Gretel’s natural soap is formulated for the health of one’s mind, body and soul.

Perfect for everyday use or as a gift, every ingredient in these hand-made soaps serves a purpose and has been carefully harvested and selected. A balance of coconut oil, palm oil, beeswax, and soybean oil provide a great lather and keep your skin moist. Additional ingredients, like herbs or coffee, provide a brilliant texture to gently exfoliate the skin. I have a bar (Sweet Earth)  sitting on my bathroom sink, and it makes the room so fragrant!  ORDER YOURS ONLINE.

Roughly 150 years later we came to the realization that the water on our farm is almost identical in mineralitiy as the water found in Wallonia. How convienent! This was the primary inspiration for our four brews. Our water combined with all organic yeast, hops and malt is what gives our brew the aromatic qualities and taste that it does.”

His four brews are currently available at restaurants and retail outlets in Ohio, and he is having  a hard time keeping up with  the growing demands – but he plans to grow and take his product all over the country, very soon!

Not every city can boast a truly local micro-distilled spirit of choice, but Columbus has one : Short North-based Middle West Spirits makes a vodka called OYO (“O-Why-O”), the original Native American word for the Ohio River Valley.

Founded and run by Ryan Lang (left) and Brady Konya ( right), the company uses grain from within a local 50-mile microclimate, and relies on small batch precision and drop-dead gorgeous German-made artisanal equipment to produce a superior product.

WE HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED in America.  That vodka should have NO TASTE. The common American idea is that vodka needs to be as tasteless as possible.


Rather than fix their product on the back end with flavor additives or over filtering, OYO works almost like a single malt Scotch producer, using carefully controlled distilling and blending to hit their target flavor profile. OYO is not anything like your standard, made for the American market, vodka. “Big distillers, because of how they produce, aren’t able to cut bad stuff out up front, so they have to filter it,” says Konya. “So you’ll see a lot of smart marketers talk about filtering — lava, ceramic, diamonds — six times, eight times, 20 times distilled — all of that is marketing.” – Can you believe that?!

The Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) is a marketing service company that provides reviews for spirits, wines, and beers. It uses numerical scores and publishes books of its test results. BTI gave OYO  Vodka  a 92 last fall!  90-95  is EXCEPTIONAL.  (Dan Akroyds Crystal head is a 89, Effen is an 84, and Vox is a 96, to give you some comparisons).

In just one year, OYO is spreading all over Ohio –  and soon, to a State near you!
Weekly tours and tastings – check their site for details. They have a storefront with their three main drinks as well as cool t-shirts and things. 1230 Courtland Ave , Columbus OH, 43201

Mead Wine? Simply put, mead is  wine made from honey. It takes 6 months to 2 years to make a mead, depending on the recipe.  The longer mead is aged in tanks and in bottles, the more amazing. “Our mead is meant to be aged like the finest artisanal products and enjoyed leisurely,”  says  BROTHERS DRAKE owner Woody Drake.  Brothers Drake makes award-winning mead in Columbus, Ohio using pure honey and the best locally-sourced ingredients.
 
Since 2008, “We continue to grow and expand a selection of exquisite meads made locally in Columbus, OH from as raw local wildflower honey as we can get and all natural ingredients sourced as organically as is possible in Ohio. ” Mead is arguably and understandably one of the oldest beverages known to mankind on every continent. Over the many centuries, people have modified the recipe and, with over 150 meaderies in the United States, the current century is no exception.

Brothers Drake is open for Open for Tastings, Tours, & Sales. 26 E. 5th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201



More to come soon, from Columbus Ohio!

Best Gay Cities.com

The state’s capital and nation’s 16th largest city, Columbus is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States and currently has a population of just over one million.

Mayor Michael Coleman, says he actively promotes Columbus as a gay-friendly market to the rest of the country. He welcomes the LGBT Community in ColumbUS. ” Where the US, means all of us,” he said recently, as 14 LGBT journalists from around the world were invited to Columbus. 

Gay Travel.com  named Columbus its Most Underrated Gay City and 
Gay Cities.com  named Columbus as the Up-and-Coming Gay City of 2011.