Been at it again this month. Bread making, I mean. You knew that from the image, right? Several efforts so far this month and March isn’t even half-way through its course. Winter remains firmly entrenched here, and spring – or any time without a thick layer of snow – looks
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Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Oil Putting Food on Families
Pardon the Bushism. The CPC’s spin regarding the oil crowding out grain shipments by rail must be inspired by Dubya. @saskboy @LHubich That's an odd argument. Isn't grain literally the food?— Stefani Langenegger (@SLangeneggerCBC) March 07, 2014 Elizabeth May provides some sanity on the issue. “The current rail cars used
Continue readingThings Are Good: Decrease Blood Pressure By Simply Changing Your Diet
I love knowledge and it’s exciting that a meta-analysis in JAMA Internal Medicine has concluded that a vegetarian diet is perfect for decreasing blood pressure!Meta-analysis of research data is the assessment of a multiple research papers related to the same issue and sometimes the meta-analysis can disprove existing assumptions, in
Continue readingThings Are Good: Indigenous Food and Cultural Protection
Food and ecosystem knowledge which has been passed down for centuries is constantly threatened by the modern mechanical market. To stymie this change in food (and knowledge) consumption there is a global effort to protect the sanity of food and related support systems. The significance of sacred foods. Many indigenous
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Chili Cook-Off in Uptown
I take my chili seriously. One of the nicest things anyone ever did for me occurred a number of years ago when a colleague brought a container of his chili to work – and his recipe. He used coffee, cocoa, beer, cumin and oregano in his chili. I have been
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Raisin and sourdough this week
While I haven’t tried to make a sourdough raisin bread yet, that idea occurred to me while I was making my latest breads, this week. I’m sure it would be a good mix, but I’ll have to build my levain up again, since I used all my countertop levain in
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Corn and other breads
The last loaf of January, 2014 was a machine-made corn bread, made using a recipe from Washburn’s & Butt’s 300 Best Canadian Bread Machine Recipes book that I’ve mentioned previously. It’s a good book for bread machine users. Unlike my previous efforts to tinker with bread recipes, I used the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Valentine’s Day’s Dirty Chocolate Secret
While you’re stocking up on chocolate, as the stores fill with it for Easter and Valentine’s Day, consider only treating yourself and others if the candy is labeled Fair-Trade. Fair-Trade chocolates come where the supply chain has been verified to be ethically providing a living wage for the workers growing
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Cooking with Bob Marley, on a snowy winter’s day
The cooking is rocking along to Bob Marley’s mellow groove, on this fine winter’s day. “The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory”…. “There’s a natural mystic blowin’ through the air…” “Soul captives are free.” The sweet potato pie, turnip casserole, pumpkin pies and banana bread are done, ready and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Vertical farms see rapid growth around the globe
Read this Jan. 16 story from the New Scientist on the growth of vertical farming around the world. URBAN warehouses, derelict buildings and high-rises are the last places you’d expect to find the seeds of a green revolution. But from Singapore to Scranton, Pennsylvania, “vertical farms” are promising a new, environmentally
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Water, water, everywhere
Hydration matters. Not just to athletes and long distance runners. It matters to bakers. How much water is in your dough is crucial to how the crumb develops. It’s amazing how a few grams more or less of water can make a real difference in the resulting loaf of bread.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Site C review panel changes mind, asks for ALC’s input on farmland
The Peace River Valley is home to some of BC’s best farmland (Damien Gillis) Read this Jan. 23 Globe and Mail story by Mark Hume on the Joint Review Panel for the proposed Site C Dam’s last-minute reversal of an earlier decision not to seek the input of BC’s Agricultural Land Commission on the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada taken to court over approval of GMO farmed salmon
Comparison between fast-growing Aquabounty farmed salmon and regular farmed salmon (Aquabounty) Read this Jan 20 story from sustainablepulse.com on a legal challenge led by law firm Ecojustice and several Canadian environmental groups over the federal government’s approval of controversial GMO farmed salmon. Environmental groups want a court to decide if
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Short and the Tall of It
This past week saw several new experiments in my bread laboratory. Okay, it’s a kitchen, but sometimes it feels like a lab, what with all the tinkering and testing I do. I just can’t seem to stop trying new things in bread. It would fee even more science-like if Susan
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Peace Valley’s “extraordinary” farmland could feed a million people, agrologists tell Site C Dam review
The Peace River Valley is one of Canada’s most fertile regions (Damien Gillis) A pair of highly-respected agricultural experts made a compelling case this week for sparing some of BC’s best farmland from a proposed dam on the Peace River. Together, veteran agrologist Wendy Holm and soil scientist Evelyn Wolterson argued that
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Toronto sushi shop is first Ocean Wise 100% sustainable restaurant
Some of Just Sushi’s Ocean Wise creations (photo: Just Sushi) Read this Jan. 10 Toronto Star story by Michele Henry on the world’s first restaurant to be 100% certified by leading sustainable seafood label Ocean Wise. Just Sushi looks like any other Japanese take out counter — spare, zen décor,
Continue readingcartoon life: Ideas Stuffed
Ideas Stuffed I’d like to clear up one misconception right from the start. The usual suspects are eating more and moving less, but the truth is, since 1980, it’s been all about eating more.” – Jill Eisen Filed under: art Tagged: food, Obesity
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Two more loaves, new lessons learned
Following up on my desire to make homemade raisin-cinnamon bread for Susan, I spent several hours collecting recipes online and entering their ingredients into a spreadsheet so i could compare them. Quite a range in the amounts of some (like cinnamon and sugar). Then an Amazon order arrived, which included
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: What, no raisin bread?
I have a large – and growing – stack of books about bread. So many that I’m running out of shelf space for them all. Some are for artisan bread, some for regular homemade bread (traditional recipes, usually with lots of kneading), others are for bread machines. A couple are generic
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: A Tale of Two Loaves
An interesting experiment this week: using the same basic set of ingredients to make bread, but one made by hand, the other in the bread machine, both made the same day. I’ve been curious about this ever since I got the machine. Would the two methods create similar breads if
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