Whoa! Down the rabbit hole I tumbled this week. I started reading about tea in several books I recently purchased. What a story. What a delight! Many hours spent between the pages absorbing culture, history, types, classifications, production, terroirs and marketing.* I’ve read bits and pieces about tea before; mostly
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Scripturient: Blog & Commentary: A Cup of Dragon Well
Legend has it that, in the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong (1711-1799 CE), the grandson of the Emperor Kangxi, went on a holiday to the West Lake district, in the Hangzhou area of Zhejiang province, China. He stopped at the Hu Gong Temple, nestled under the Lion Peak Mountain (Shi Feng Shan).
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: May and June Breads
The past month I haven’t done as much baking as usual – just been too busy to do much, plus I was away for a long weekend holiday in Toronto. So June saw a mere two loaves baked. I made a few others in late May, however. The two most
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: David Suzuki: Time to save bees and ban neonic pesticides
Neonic pesticides “pose a serious risk of harm to honey bees and other pollinators,” a new study warns. Bees may be small, but they play a big role in human health and survival. Some experts say one of every three bites of food we eat depends on them. The insects
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Food Babe and other nonsense
She’s been called the “Jenny McCarthy of food.” That’s not a compliment and should warn anyone with half a brain to beware of her. She’s a New Age wingnut helping turn the public from science to superstition. She’s also been described as the “latest quack making a name for herself on
Continue readingTrashy's World: Greekonwheels
In Ottawa – timing sux. Don’t recommend. Seriously. 1.5 hours on a Sunday night. #poorservice #noexcuses #takeout #ottawa (0) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Leaked emails reveal old plan to plow ALR, disdain for First Nations
Former Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm is drawing fire for racist comments about First Nations Read this May 28 Globe and Mail story by Justine Hunter and Mark Hume on a series of emails involving former Liberal Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm and Energy Minister Bill Bennett, revealing longstanding plans to open up the Agricultural Land Reserve to the energy
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Failure and Redemption
The past month has seen the rise, fall and rise again of my bread making efforts. Mid-month, in April, I was having some success making sourdough breads and was looking at trying some experiments with herbs and other ingredients. Maybe look at other specialty breads, too. But late in the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Corky Evans: How YOU can help save the ALR in 5 min
Former BC Environment Minister Corky Evans (Photo: RichardHughes.ca) An Open Letter to Almost Everybody: My name is Corky Evans. I garden and farm in the Kootenays of B.C. Many years ago I was the Minister of Agriculture. I do not understand popular culture or electronic communication. I have not learned
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Still hot and getting hotter
It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a decade since I last updated my web page on hot sauces, and about 15 since I first wrote it. My, how times flies. So many years, so many hot sauces since then. I’ve been a hot sauce aficionado for much longer
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Random grumblings for a Sunday afternoon
Why can’t I buy Yorkshire Gold tea in town? I can buy Barry’s tea, from Ireland, and Morse’s tea packaged in Nova Scotia locally. As well as other brands. Surely someone can bring in Yorkshire Gold… Barry’s tea is nice: a bit on the robust side, which we like, but the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Beach
Boogie boarded today in the Pacific. The water was very cold but I went in a couple times. Supper last night. Tonight was El Indio, a fish taco.
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Pseudo-patriotic madness
This is news, right from the CBC, not April Fool or The Onion: The Massachusetts House of Representatives has finally granted initial approval to a Bill naming the Fluffernutter the official state sandwich. The bill was filed in 2006 by then Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, in response to a motion by
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rapper plants seeds of food security awakening
“If ferries stopped running to Vancouver Island, our grocery shelves would be completely empty after 3 days,” says food security activist-turned-rapper Jeremy Loveday. Watch his 3 min spoken word essay on the shocking state of Canada’s food security. According to a seminal BC Ministry of Agriculture report in 2007, the province produces just
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: The truth unshelled about the shrimp at the table
Shrimp farming (Photo: Jughandle’s Fat Farm). Read this Jan. 14th article by TreeHugger about why you should stop eating shrimp, wild and farmed: Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the United States, with Americans eating an average of 4.1 pounds per person annually. As delicious as shrimp may be,
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: April’s early breads
April has begun with three loaves of bread; generally successful efforts, although there’s still some tweaking to do with the recipes. As always. But I’m encouraged to try more – and of course experiment more with recipes and ingredients. The first loaf of the latest batch was an artisan loaf
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Is this the end of the gluten-free fad?
Last November, when I first wrote about the gluten-free diet fad, I bemoaned how an everyday protein, a staple in human diets for many millennia, had become demonized by the diet fad crowd. In fact, the gluten-free fad rapidly grew into a multi-million-dollar industry in Canada to accommodate that
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The late March breads
A couple more loaves were made this month and a third will be started later this week. Both were made in the oven, not the machine, at 425F for roughly 35 minutes. Neither rose very high, but both were edible and tasty. Only about a third of the second loaf remains,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: NASA study: Inequality will lead to famine, collapse of civilization
Hungry for change: Tunisian bread riots led to a government overthrow in 2011 Read this March 18 National Post story on a new NASA-funded study that predicts the utter collapse of human civilization will be difficult to avoid without a major course correction. After running the numbers on a set of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Food Tank is a Think Tank for Food
Food Tank is a new initiative to bring attention to the complexity of food systems. They aim to educate people about how foods gets from the ground to your table – and how that process relates to the world at large. Here’s a recent release of their’s looking at the
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