Here we go Again…

I know you haven’t heard from me in quite a while, but school had taken every bit of my time and even more of my energy.  So even when I had a little downtime, the desire to do more writing was not there.  Also, some events in the surrounding blog community had some influence as well – specifically the disappearance of Amar’s World.  On my list of links, I have added a link to a mirror site set up shortly after Amar went offline.  I have been reluctant to encourage this, since there may have been a reason Amar’s World was taken offline rather than continuing to stay up with no more posts.  But the overall good the site has done outweighs the other concerns, especially since nobody has requested this site be taken down.  The posts are a great source of hope and possibility so I continue to provide this legacy link.

The academic portion of my studies are now complete and I have begun my internship (a paid one!) in Toronto.  To save money (and quickly get my debts paid off) I have moved back home with my family again.  What this means though, is a very long commute to work every day.  However, the good side of this is that I have three hours sitting on the train every weekday.  I think this is a good opportunity to add writing time back into my schedule, so I will now try to restart the blog.  Just so everyone is aware, one thing you will not see here is anything about my work.  The company I work for has many clients with strong privacy requirements and my employer takes privacy and security very seriously.  My supervisors are also aware of my blog so it certainly can’t be hidden (in fact I used one of my posts as a writing sample during my interview!).

As before, I do not know how frequent my posts will be, or even if this new dedication to my blog will continue, since I have made similar promises before.  And of course I have no idea how frequent the posts might be, so we will all have to just wait and see.

I wonder how many of my old readers are still here and even no I am writing again?  Amar’s Brotherhood used to be my largest reader base and that source has been cut off, in addition to my not posting for 6 months.  Yet my daily hit totals are not much below what they were last year, so I wonder who my readers are.  Regardless, I will continue to write primarily for me as opposed to for whomever I believe to be reading.  Stay tuned for more posts…I hope.

The Mega-Quarry is Dead!!

For more than a year now, from Foodstock to Soupstock, I have brought you news of the fight against a giant quarry planned for rural Ontario that would be devastating to the environment. Environmentalists, community leaders and chefs have all been involved to save this prime Ontario farmland and ensure that our land and water remains secure.

Now I have found out that Highland Companies has withdrawn their application for the mega-quarry, specifically referencing a lack of community support for the project. They also expressed displeasure that an environmental assessment had been ordered.

Victory! In an era when large corporate interests always seem to carry the day, it is wonderful and heartening to see a grass-roots community based movement take down a damaging plan from a powerful corporation. And it is clear that the end of the mega-quarry is DIRECTLY tied to these grass roots efforts.

28,000 people attended Foodstock on a remote farm on a cold and windy day last year and a similar crowd converged on Woodbine Park in Toronto last month for Soupstock. And the community groups that rallied around the cause took up as their first challenge lobbying for an environmental assessment for the mega-quarry despite the fact that provincial law did not require one. Fortunately the governing Liberal party was facing an upcoming election and decided to order one to appeal to their base. Then they survived the election and actually carried through on that promise. Now Highland finds the approval process asking many more questions and that they have no community support, so they drop the project and withdraw the application. As they still own that huge tract of land, it is not fully dead, and Highland has not ruled out applying to start a smaller quarry at some future time, still the massive impending disaster of a mega-quarry will not happen. This would not have been possible without so many people mobilizing against it and making their voices heard.

Since I never got around to reporting on Soupstock, despite attending the event, I will write a little and post a few pictures in this post. It was an absolutely beautiful day, a little warmer than average for late October and sunny all day long. This time, we had to buy tickets to get servings of soup, with 3 servings costing $10. I found that this was worth it, as each serving of soup was actually a full portion. Like last year, I attended the event with my mom, and we had about 6 servings each. As this was a month ago, my memories aren't quite as clear as I would like, but some highlights were an onion soup with braised Cumbrae Farms lamb, a hot and sour soup prepared by Susur Lee, a potato, leek, and sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke) soup with bacon, and a peach soup with granola and yogurt. Almost every soup we had was excellent and offered something noteworthy. As this was a park in Toronto, many people brought their dogs along, which added to the friendliness of the atmosphere.

So, great news for Ontarians and all those who care about the environment and sustainability. This may not be over forever, but it still a victory and a sigh of relief.

Soupstock 2012 - Still Fighting the Mega-Quarry

Hello again.  Now I know the answer to what starting school would do to my posting.  This has been such a huge workload that I really haven’t had time to write posts, with all the writing I have to do for my classes and all the time the program occupies – both in and out of class.  But when time allows, I will continue to make posts, and this one is important.

It has now been a year that I have been following the fight against a mega-quarry in prime farmland in Melancthon Township.  Last year I attended Foodstock, a fundraiser on a potato farm in the region that had over 70 local chefs providing tastes of their cuisines.  While the mega-quarry is not a reality yet, the application is still alive and making its way through the various permit processes.  The Canadian Chefs Congress along with the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce (NDACT)  continue to fight the project and are still raising money for legal representation to be sure the voice of sustainability is heard.  This year, there will be another big event, and this one will be in the city, with the expectation of more participation and a crowd that could top the 28,000 that attended Foodstock last year.

Now the cause has a large additional ally, the David Suzuki Foundation, perhaps Canada’s most respected environmental organization.  This year the event is Soupstock, and it will be held Sunday, October 21, 2012 at Woodbine Park in Toronto, Ontario, from 11am-4pm.  

View Larger Map

 As the name suggests, all the chefs will be serving soups, something I’m pretty sure was inspired by that cold, windy and rainy day we had at Foodstock last year.  The cost of the event is also being handled in a somewhat different way.  While last year it was a $10 suggested donation to enter, this year entry is free but the servings of soup will be pre-purchased with tickets.  $10 will buy three servings of soup.  Similar to last year, participants will be expected to bring their own bowl and spoon.  Seeing as they are charging $10 for only 3 portions, I am guessing the servings of soup may actually be full, or close to full, servings as opposed to tiny tastings that they had last year.  There are well over 100 chefs this time, I’m sure a result of relocating to Toronto.  Notable attendees include returning chefs Michael Stadtlander, Jamie Kennedy and Brad Long, and other chefs joining include Susur Lee, perhaps Canada’s most talented chef, and Greg Rennet, the chef from Painter’s Hall right here in Barrie, the subject of one of my posts this summer.  The set list for the musical portion of the day is also considerably more extensive.

I will be attending this year as well.  While I am very busy, Soupstock is taking place during my reading week, when I will not be in Barrie and will have access to transportation.  Furthermore, this time I have a larger network of friends and colleagues and I will make an effort to spread the word and suggest to many of my classmates that this would be a worthwhile event.  Since some of them live in the Toronto area and might be home for reading week, I hope some of them may be able to attend and lend their support to this cause.

Again, I ask any of my readers who live in the Greater Toronto Area to please consider attending this event and lend your support to this very important cause.  You can taste soup of some of the best chefs in the country and keep up the fight against the mega-quarry.  For information about the mega-quarry visit the Soupstock website or refer to my post from last year.  And in addition to my voice, I include this message from David Suzuki of the David Suzuki Foundation.

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Oh, and of course, one more thing.  Happy Birthday to me!!  I'm 31 now, and at least I'm finally making some progress towards my future.

Beer Can Chicken

A long time ago I wrote a post about how to roast chicken.  Click here to find that post.  It was a general post that explained what I termed the best way to roast any form of poultry.  Well, in the summer you don’t really want to use the oven very much.  Fortunately there is an even better way to roast chicken, this time on the barbecue.  Though this is cooked on a barbecue, it has a taste less like the typical BBQ chicken, and more like a rotisserie chicken with some smoke flavour.  This is actually a very easy method and even easier than the roasting method I described before.

Beer can chicken is a chicken cooked slowly on a barbecue standing up perched over a can of beer.  While this sounds like some bizarre hillbilly cooking experiment, this is actually a very sound culinary technique that actually roasts better than in an oven.  The first reason is that this allows the bird to be cooked standing up, so all sides receive the same amount of heat, assuring even cooking.  And the can of beer performs an absolutely critical role; providing a constant source of moisture inside the chicken throughout the cooking process.  So this avoids the ever-present problem of dry breast meat, which I addressed in that earlier post.  And finally, cooking chicken on a barbecue will provide some smoke flavour to the chicken.  Like in my previous roast chicken post, this technique will also work with other birds, however your barbecue will need enough clearance underneath the lid to be able to cook larger birds.

1 medium chicken, about 1.7 kilos

smoked paprika

paprika

granulated garlic

salt

pepper

cayenne

olive oil

1 can dark beer

Set up your barbecue for indirect cooking.  This procedure will vary depending on what type of grill you are using.  When I posted about BBQ brisket I described how this is done for a charcoal grill and suggested that a gas grill might be more troublesome.  For this application, a gas grill will work just as well and the set up would be easier.  Since the cooking time is shorter you shouldn’t need to worry about running out of gas and a gas grill has the added benefit of being easier to control the amount and location of heat.  For a charcoal grill, set up coals on the outsides of the grill and place a drip pan in the centre, underneath where the chickens will sit.  You will most likely not need to add another batch of coals as they should last to some degree for the entire cooking time needed.  But you should still keep an eye on things because conditions can always vary when using charcoal.  On a gas grill, put a drip pan under where the chicken will go, and do not light that section of the grill.  Usually you will only need to turn on one section of the grill to generate sufficient heat (though this may vary depending on your specific grill).  On a gas grill, remember that there are often small racks above the main cooking surface - these will need to be removed.

Combine the spices to make the rub.  Again, I am not really giving you any proportions, but paprika should make up a large component.  Lightly coat the chicken with olive oil, then coat with most of the rub, leaving about a teaspoon aside.  Massage the rub into the chicken on all sides and some inside the cavity.  Then take the dark beer (in most cases, darker beers are better for cooking as they have a lot more flavour to impart) and empty half the can (what you do with that half is up to you!)  Then add the reserved teaspoon of the rub to the half-full beer can.   It will foam up a bit but that’s OK, it will subside.  Then, when the coals are ready, add a foil-wrapped packet of soaked wood chips (on a charcoal grill, split the wood chips into two packets and add one to each side) and prepare the grill for cooking.  Then insert the beer can into the cavity of the bird and stand it up on the grill over the drip pan.  You will need to push the legs forward so the two legs and the base of the can form a tripod that will allow the chicken to remain upright.  Then close the lid and leave it alone for about 1hour and 15 minutes.  For a chicken of the size called for, this should be enough time to cook the bird through.  Carefully remove the chicken to a platter, still standing up, tent with foil and all the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes.  Then, using tongs, remove the can.  The liquid that remains in the can makes a nice gravy for this dish, though it may be a little thin for some tastes.  Carve the chicken (check my roast chicken post for instructions) and serve with a side dish of your choice and the gravy.

It's Been A While

Here we are again, such a long time without posting.  But then this has been a very busy time for me.  In less than two weeks I will be moving out again – this time to Barrie – and will be beginning my studies at Georgian College as I enter the field of marketing research.  So this month has been about finding housing, figuring out my finances, and just getting mentally ready to go back to school and be ready to work at a level I haven’t been at in years.  I have been looking forward to this for quite some time now and it is almost here.

My new school

Now how will my starting school affect the blog?  Honestly I’m not sure.  On the one hand, I will be busier than I have been in a very long time, so I might well be too busy to write posts most of the time.  But on the other hand, I have a feeling that this move might actually motivate me to write more often.  Almost immediately after I moved back home over a year ago, the frequency of my posts dropped off dramatically, even though for much of the time I was not particularly busy.  I now believe part of the reason was that, as I am living with my parents, I talk to them every day and discuss various issues, and consequently have less need to write for the blog.  Now in Barrie I will again be living on my own, so I hope that will mean I will want to write more so I can share my thoughts with people, since my family is no longer living under the same roof.    So maybe more posts will be coming soon.  Or not.  But I have plans for more posts and at least one that should be coming up quite soon.  So keep checking and see what happens.

A New Way to Dive

For those of you interested in new scientific innovations or who like to SCUBA dive, this post is for you.  There is a coming development that will change the way diving safety is managed by offering a new way of calculating the risk divers face from Decompression Sickness while SCUBA diving.

I should let you know from the start that I do have a personal interest in this project.  The man behind these innovations is Dr. Saul Goldman, PhD, my father.  And I have also been working with him in constructing a website to publicize his findings.  This is in fact the major project I am undertaking until I start my graduate program in the fall.

Very briefly, Decompression Sickness (DCS) involves a set of physical and/or neurological symptoms that sometimes arise when diving underwater and breathing compressed air, then resurfacing without giving the body adequate time to safely eliminate the gas dissolved in blood and tissues.  For over 100 years, there have been protocols used to avoid DCS using various techniques such as slow ascents, and stops at shallow depths.  Originally this took the form of mathematical tables that divers had to understand and use when receiving their SCUBA certification, and is still part of the certification process.  Now this is all computerized, but the algorithms used are based on the same assumptions from decades ago.  I am not even going to go near all the details of how the current models are deficient, as I will probably get things wrong, and my dad would insist on complete (and VERY thorough) accuracy, which would involve a whole lot of stuff some people may have difficulty understanding.  But Dr. Goldman, being not only an avid and experienced SCUBA diver, but also having very strong backgrounds in chemistry and physics, was able to create an algorithm that not only better reflects the rates at which the body actually eliminates these gasses, but also conforms better than current models to actual data gathered regarding cases of DCS.  This new development, the Safe Advanced Underwater aLgorithm (or S.A.U.L. - clever, huh?) is fast becoming the talk of the scientific community, as he has presented his developments at conferences around the world and has published both in scientific, peer-reviewed journals and in diving magazines.  The next step will be to incorporate this into a dive computer and take this to market.  This is what the world will use to dive.  A better, safer way to dive.  Again there are many more details on the website, moderndecompression.com, you can click either on the link here or on my sidebar.  The website features publications containing all the scientific details, as well as plenty of readable and understandable information about what the SAUL model is and why it is so important.

While it is not my intention that this blog becomes a forum for promotions and advertising, I am keenly aware of the importance of using what means I have at my disposal.  The field I will be studying and eventually working in is Marketing Research, so the project of designing a website and generating traffic is some interesting practice for me before I start my studies.  The experience I got in learning how to build a website was very useful as well.  Putting up a blog here on blogger (or a similar free platform) is a very different experience that is little like the real thing.  While having this blog was useful in that I already was familiar with using CMS programs to post information online, building a site from the ground up and having full administrator controls is something else.  First, though I decided to run the site using WordPress software, it is not primarily a blog so I had to figure out how (and whether) I would be able to customize the setup sufficiently to deliver what was needed.  I have also begun to learn just a smattering of HTML and CSS coding, because I know there will be things that I want to customize further than the templates make possible.  And I am even delving into SEO tactics, though that appears to be quite a bit harder, though so important.  A website is not of much use unless people are able to find it, especially those who don’t already know it is there.

Also, if any other bloggers out there have an interest in this area, feel free to either link to this post or even repost it on your own site, with appropriate attribution of course.

Local Food Fest

Guelph is a city that takes environmental stewardship seriously.  Guelph often takes the lead in green innovations to waste management and champions local food producers.  I think part of this is because the University of Guelph is home to an agricultural college, a veterinary college, and a food science department.  There are many farm and garden co-ops in Guelph and nearby and several festivals that celebrate local food.  Back on June 24, I attended the Local Food Fest, held on the grounds of the Ignatius Jesuit Retreat.  This is quite an interesting institution right on the north edge of Guelph that does a wide variety of things.  First it is a religious retreat, where people can get away and take part in spiritual workshops and other activities.  The Ignatius centre is also a farm that grows a wide array of crops, mostly on a small scale.  It is also a Community Shared Agriculture co-operative, where people can buy shares in the farm and receive a regular basket of the various foods grown there.  They also have many plots devoted to community gardens, where local residents can cultivate a small garden plot with whatever they wish.  There are also various community initiatives that the centre undertakes, mostly involving the environment and community service.

Part of the Ignatius property.  The garden plots are community garden plots (click to enlarge)

One thing that impresses me about the Ignatius centre is that, while they obviously have a particular set of religious beliefs and this is meant to be a religious and spiritual centre, they do not seek to impose their beliefs on anyone, even those who attend the spiritual retreats.  They claim to welcome people of all religions and beliefs and from what little I was able to see, they live up to that.  The most obvious values and purposes they seem to espouse are not so much their religious principles, but more the concepts of environmental stewardship and responsible, sustainable agriculture.  Everything they do reflects on being environmentally aware.  So it is a natural that this is the location for the Local Food Fest.

While this was not a particularly huge event, there were many different things going on.  One aspect was like a one-day farmer’s market, with local food purveyors selling their product. As this was late June in southwestern Ontario, there were strawberries, some lettuce, radishes, green onions and only a few other things that were fresh from the ground.  Also many restaurants set up booths, and provided various good lunch and snack options.  There were other stalls selling bread, honey, preserves and other stuff.  There was even a local kitchenware store represented.

The tents for the market stalls

There were also workshops where people could learn how to start up various gardening-related projects.  I sat in on part of a workshop about growing your own food on a small plot, designed for urban dwellers with only a small backyard to use.  Other workshops included raising backyard chickens, hobbyist beekeeping, building and maintaining organic soils, and other things.  There were also several cooking demos throughout the day.  Two that I watched were making kimchi and making sourdough, in which I was particularly interested.  This past winter I have started experimenting with making sourdough bread, and was definitely interested in picking up some more pointers.  The presenter was from a local bakery I like very much and sells at the local farmer’s market and he gave some interesting advice and gave some useful tips on maintaining a sourdough starter and how certain details in the breadmaking process affect the finished product.  It gave me some valuable insight and some strategies for the next time I do baking.

The two white tents were for the musical acts and the cooking demos

There were also tours of Ignatius farm available.  There were wagon tours and you could also walk their network of trails on your own.  There was also information about the programs run by the Ignatius centre.  Finally, there were also several live musical acts and play areas for the kids.

One aspect I like about this, and about any event that is supposed to be for the public good, there was no set admission fee.  Like foodstock last year, this was a pay-what-you-can event, with the suggested donation set at $2, which I think was sensible given what was offered.  The wagon tours carried an additional suggested donation of $2 and, of course, the farm and restaurant booths set their own prices for their products.  You could still get to this event, located on the edge of the city, even if you did not have a car.  The local airport limousine service partnered with the event and offered a free shuttle from downtown and a community centre.  I was thinking of using this myself but, since the weather was unsettled and I thought I might want to leave at a different time than the shuttle was scheduled, I did take the car and found there was plenty of parking.

I can certainly see why this centre is a spiritual and meditative retreat.  It is just on the very edge of the city so, even though it is quite easy to get to and close to many people’s homes, it is such a peaceful area on a large expanse of land.  There are hiking trails through their large property, including one through a wetland and another past ruins of historical significance.  Seeing the property for the first time gave me a great deal of perspective on a local furor over a development issue several years ago.  I might write a post about this, but several years ago, Wal-Mart decided they wanted to open a store near here and the way everything went down is one of the reasons I refuse in all circumstances to shop at Wal-Mart.

Anyway, it was quite the enjoyable day and a celebration of Guelph’s agriculture and environmental awareness.