July 2nd, 2008 writerspice
Every now and then, at dinner parties, over hors d’oeuvres and desserts, I like to raise the question: what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? The answers are memorable. One friend snacked on groundhog in Ecuador while another sampled rotten shark, a delicacy in Iceland.
And then there are the bugs.
It seems a lot of people have eaten bugs while traveling. While in South America, I snarfed down a giant maggot sauteed with wild onions before being baked in a banana leaf.
A long-time later, I don’t exactly crave it, but the taste-test wasn’t so bad. And lots of people have tried chocolate ants or crunchy locusts.
Since only some twenty percent of the world doesn’t eat bugs as part of their regular diet, eating creepy-crawlies while on vacation is a common “when in Rome” activity. But some enterprising cooks, biologists, locavores and environmental activitists are starting to point out that a snack of insects is actually a very smart source of plentiful and sustainable protein.
I go into depth in my latest piece for Celsias.com, a story that made me ask myself ‘could I do it?’… What do you think? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten and could you do that dish on a daily basis?
Posted in Food, Going Green | 10 Comments »
June 11th, 2008 writerspice
Never mind all the questions – where’s it grown, how’s it grown, is it grass-fed or corn? You can leave those at home for this trip to market. Entirely made up of local ecological farmers (many members of the Simcoe County Chapter of Ecological Farmers’ Association of Ontario) the annual Eco-Farmers’ Market is all organic and ecological, all the time.
Now in its fifth season, the market operates on the grounds of Hempola Farms, just north of Barrie (from Highway 400, take the Forbes Road exit or take Highway 93 north from the intersection with Highway 11, just past Barrie. Hempola is at the corner of Highway 93 and Forbes Road).
A bustling collection of health-conscious farmers and shoppers milling around food-laden tables, the market features fresh non-chemically treated vegetables pulled from the ground or plucked from their bushes as soon as they’re ready.
Start with radishes, greens, peas and strawberries or potted perennials ready to be planted and move into tomatoes, carrots, green onions and corn as the summer season moves along. Simcoe County meat farmers also sell healthy and hormone free animal products like grass-fed beef and free-range pork. Dandelion and lavender jellies, herbs, baked goods and cheeses round out this selection of fresh, local, healthy food.
Opening this Friday, June 13th at 3:30 p.m., the market runs until about dusk and continues all summer, until Thanksgiving weekend.
Photo by Julia Manzerova
Posted in Food, Going Green, Simcoe County | No Comments »
June 8th, 2008 writerspice
Rising gas prices have finally raised the question. Should we stay or should we go?
It’s not an easy one to answer, but since airplanes deliver one of the worst doses of carbon, it’s long overdo that we stop treating travel like it is sacrosanct in the discussion about climate change and start thinking about what staying home can give us.
Read more about this – “the first real end of the exciting and engaging world that those of us in the more prosperous part of the planet (who are prosperous enough to afford it) have learned to enjoy over the past hundred years” – in my most recent post on Celsias.com
Photo by Malias
Posted in Contemplations, Going Green, Issues | No Comments »
June 6th, 2008 writerspice
On my way home from the library last night, yet another bit about the collapsing airline industry was on the radio.
Dubbed the “airline armageddon” by blogger Lou at The Cost of Energy, it seems like passenger costs for plane trips are rising faster than anyone can book their tickets. Despite the disappointment for travelers (or would be travelers – I think of my 7 and 11-year-old nephews who might miss out on seeing very much of the world as they grow up), anyone with half a brain knows this is inevitable.
Back in May, David Suzuki said it himself:
Air travel leaves the heaviest carbon footprint among all modes of transportation and skyrocketing fuel prices are already having explosive effects…. Economists think tourism can continue to grow into infinity. But we have to realize that nothing can grow forever. This unchecked growth only accelerates us on a suicidal path.
But yesterday, when I was cruising through back blog posts at Celsias.com, a wee bit of hope for future adventures sprang up in my soul. I caught sight of a piece by George Monbiot (the writer of Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning
and, the newest, Bring on the Apocalypse: Collected Writing
) discussing the feasibility of relaunching airships.
I know what you’re all thinking. I know because I thought it, too. Starts with H and ends with G, right? Here’s what George says:
The word airship elicits a fixed reaction in almost everyone who hears it: “what about the Hindenburg?”. It’s as if, every time someone proposed travelling on a cruise ship, you were to ask, “but what about the Titanic?”. Yes, there was a spectacular disaster – 71 years ago. It has lodged in our minds because, like the Titanic, the Hindenburg was bigger and plusher than any craft built before it, and it was carrying rich and prominent people. The conflagration was witnessed by journalists and broadcast all over the world. It also become the technology’s funeral pyre: the Hindenburg was doomed long before it burnt, as airships were already being displaced by aeroplanes.
Granted, the solution isn’t perfect. In one of these contraptions – and four companies are working towards getting them off the ground (who knew?) – it would take about two days to get from New York to London. And the resources they would need, writes Monbiot, are somewhat scarce. But nothing in this global quandary – apart from using less and staying home (more on that in days to come) – is infallible.
Despite all our questions and confusion as we face these challenges, the article makes for an interesting read and a bit of black-and-white mental imagining of a future that might have been dreamed up by our great-grandparents, in the days before the airplane industry became the only way to go.
Photo by TeecNosPos
Posted in Going Green, Issues, Recommended | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2008 writerspice
Last year I spent some time chatting with a few local farmers to produce an article about the importance and ease of eating from the fields in the county I call home. Called Think Fresh, Eat Locally, the article is in the May/June issue of Simcoe Life magazine.
With my ever-burgeoning interest in growing food and using wild edibles and herbs (my newly-planted veggie garden is sprouting and a batch of mullien from a neighbour’s driveway is drying in the dehydrator as I type), I poured my heart and soul into this piece.
Unfortunately, in the print issue, it ran with the wrong byline.
Although this has never happened to me before, it is a fairly common occurrence for lots of writers (a few colleagues were quick to share their own tales of woe when I released my sorrows in a forum).
But do me a favour. Should you live somewhere within Simcoe County and come across the magazine, take out your pen, cross out the wrong name and write mine in. That would make me feel a whole lot better.
Chef Doug Porter puts together some locally-grown greens at Collingwood’s Simcoe County Restaurant (photo by Lauren Carter)
Posted in Food, Going Green, Issues, Ontario, Recommended, Seasons, Simcoe County, World, Writing Life | No Comments »
April 30th, 2008 writerspice
I don’t know if it’s because I recently finished re-watching the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or all the bad news lately but if ever there was a time when I was tempted to grow a long, white beard and hoist a sign on the street corner, this is it.
The end, I told Jason this morning, is nigh.
I know, I know, it’s my own damn fault. As mentioned last week, I’ve started writing a post here and there for Celsias.com, a gig that’s keeping me increasingly invested in the chaos steadily creeping across the world.
My first piece was on Bill C-517, currently in the House of Commons, to enforce labelling of Genetically Modified Foods (for those of you Googling, as I was unsuccessfully, to find the date of the final debate and subsequent vote, it is May 6th, with voting on the 7th – had to call my MP for that information, as the issue hasn’t made even a squeak in recent mainstream media).
This led to a teary-eyed viewing (the last scene is a killer) of The World According to Monsanto (pour a stiff drink grab the bottle and stay away from all sharp objects for the duration of this film) and the compilation of an epic amount of information to try to convince my MP to vote in favour of the bill, despite his opposition. After all that, exhaustion set in.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not apathetic. I care. I’ve even been a tireless activist. In fact, for a long time I was out there standing against stupid environmental ideas like Adams Mine, getting people to sign a petition for free Toronto transit on smog days, running a neighbourhood newspaper, organizing peace rallies and lots of other stuff. But after awhile, I realized that I could feel my soul pooling on the floor beneath me. And I decided I needed it, all to myself. I had no quiet corners. And, practically speaking, it is, in my experience, impossible to be a writer without them.
So now I just write. Every now and then I leave the house. But for the most part, I am in my chair, trolling the net for the latest in travel, environmental and other news. Practicing my craft. This solitude is probably part of my problem vis-a-vis the whole end-is-nigh thing.
When I get out of the house, it’s nice to learn I’m not alone. This past weekend, J. and I went down to Toronto. We spent Friday evening and Saturday morning with friends. It was a great time; so nice to reconnect with people we hadn’t seen in a long while and just to hang out in the city.
Over local organic beer, I found myself talking about GMO foods. Quickly, my friend Lina’s boyfriend put his hand up. “I’m too worried we’re going to run out of water,” he said. “I can’t really go there.” The next day, my friend Phil interrupted the start of my sermon over diner eggs and homefries on the Danforth. “I’m on peak oil,” he said. “Sorry.”
Maybe I could have an end-is-nigh party, I thought.
This weekend, Jason and I are going to rent some, um, funny movies.
I’m going to try to remember how to laugh.
With that on the agenda alongside the first sail of the season and the opening of my mom and stepdad’s joint art show at the quaint Coldwater Gallery (if you’re in the neighbourhood…), it should be a fine last weekend should the hellmouth decide to stretch itself open anytime soon.
Photo by Jason Cartwright
Posted in Contemplations, Going Green, Issues, Writing Life | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2008 writerspice
Lately my interests keep moving towards food – how it’s produced, where it comes from, the costs in creating it, the sometimes hidden science behind it, the often invisible threats to our health that occupy many of our supermarkets.
Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t that I’m obsessed with my own health. It’s that I like a good mystery and food making in this day and age is rife with them.
Last week, for example, I spent a good two hours trying to find out exactly who supplies the organic fruits and vegetables to one of Canada’s main grocery chains. Do they come from California or Chile and what are the actual costs of buying organic in this way?, I wondered, imagining exposés a la Mother Jones. I rooted around in Google for awhile but never did figure anything out before setting it, still steaming, on the back burner.
As of today, I’ve combined my interests in this area with an increasingly bitter-sweet love of travel (have you seen the price of gas?) and started writing for Celsias, a wonderful blog out of New Zealand that covers everything from our country’s ban on BPAs to the current food crisis to the foolishness of biofuels (dubbed ‘the great biofuel hoax‘ by ecologist Eric Holt-Giménez).
My first post went live today, on Earth Day. How appropriate! I thought I’d let y’all know before I jump on my newly refurbished bike to head out for work – an act that may or may not prove insignificant in the grand scheme of things, writes Michael Pollen in this excellent article, perfect reading for the day.
Photo by Lauren Carter
Posted in Food, Going Green, Recommended, Writing Life | No Comments »
December 6th, 2007 writerspice
A couple of odd bits of news from Miami, Florida popped into my in-box today, sent by TravelMole. Together, they summoned an image of that strange ocean-side world, so different from the wintry view out my window. How fun!
The first is a newly offered guarantee from Catalina Hotel & Beach Club. They’re promising a free indoor tanning session to any visiting tourist if it rains for more than two hours during “prime tanning hours.”
I’m sorry, but did you say prime tanning hours? Into my head popped an image of that cute little sun-bronzed Coppertop girl with the puppy dog pulling on her bathing suit, revealing a white bottom beneath. As in, uh, the 1980s. Forgive me, but I thought that decade was the last time anybody actually made an afternoon of lying under the sun.
But I suppose this is Miami Beach. And what do I know? I’ve only been there once, at the age of 13, in the backseat while my dad drove the family down the beach in our very uncool minivan. South Beach probably lay somewhere far to the south of us, but my sister and I were too busy looking for Sonny Crockett to care.
I wouldn’t mind going back – especially with all that Art Deco and Cuban flare. And with the hurricanes keeping their distance and winter continuing to pound the northern half of the continent, tourist season is looking up for Florida.
But for those who are about to make the ultimate trip, TravelMole and assorted media today reported on an interesting option.
In a sandy, barren area just off Miami, an artist-designed underwater city is being established by the Neptune Society. Set up to restore fish habitat and reestablish coral reef, the concrete lions, columns and other architectural features are also available as enclosed receptacles for anyone looking for a unique burial option for their ashes.
From guaranteed tanning to underwater burial in a recreated Atlantis. Fitting, in an odd sorta Florida way.
Photo by Mike Schinkel
Posted in Going Green, Just For Fun, United States | No Comments »
December 5th, 2007 writerspice
When I was a kid growing up in Northern Ontario, getting a Christmas tree often involved bumping down some icy back road, breaking trail into the forest and cutting one down. That might make some environmentalists cringe, but not as much as plastic. The verdict has long been out and it’s pretty clear. Buy real.
Plastic trees have a lot of strikes against them. They’re made from petroleum products, will never, ever decompose, are mass produced in what must be somewhat unsavoury conditions in overseas factories, use lots of fossil fuels just to get here and, simply, do not smell as nice.
Real trees, on the other hand, have more than just that bewitching aroma. They also provide oxygen, local jobs (five to six million are grown in Canada) and are biodegradable. In my town, discarded Christmas trees are mulched at the landfill, a product then sold back to gardeners in the warmer months.
Besides, getting a real tree can be a great reason for a family outing. And if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the regions now fully embraced by snow, the experience this year will be truly traditional. At tree farms around my area, the work horses won’t have to drag their jingling sleighs through the mud and that much-needed hot chocolate will steam in the crisp, cold air.
In Central Ontario, Drysdale’s, near Alliston, is the big draw, with 400 acres of balsam, pine, fir and spruce trees. With wagon rides, face painting and other activities, it’s so popular that Santa even drops by with the Mrs. on December weekends.
But there are lots of other tree farms to choose from. Close to Orillia, Gillespie U-Cut is down a rolling country road in rural Oro-Medonte while Hawkins Tree Farm (705-325-0277), near Casino Rama, sells Scotch Pine.
And for the ultimate in earth-friendly accessorizing in your living room, as Forest Ethics suggests, buy a potted tree that can be replanted later or purchase one from an organic farm that doesn’t use pesticides like Orchard Hill Farm in St. Thomas, Ontario.
Posted in Going Green, Seasons, Simcoe County | 3 Comments »
November 22nd, 2007 writerspice
Like a bunch of bullies, the current Canadian power mongers government in power has decided not to invite anyone out of the in-club to the upcoming major important meeting on climate change in Bali, Indonesia.
The reason? The last time they invited opposition MPs to an international environmental conference, they were held accountable for their crappy policies and others – like the French environmental government guy – also got in on the critic’s game.
Seems the Conservatives didn’t like what they were saying. This being that, um, you guys might want to rethink a plan that has Canada meeting our emissions cuts by 2020 or 2025. By then, who knows what kind of burning, drought-ridden, flood-prone, hurricane-haunted world we’ll be living in. THAT’S 18 YEARS FROM NOW. NEARLY AN ENTIRE GENERATION.
Last week, some serious faces at the U.N. stepped forward to say things like “irreversible”, “frightening”, “defining challenge of our age” and to call for much tougher action to mitigate this dire and urgent problem which is already causing record numbers of droughts, floods and fires.
But instead of embracing all the help and dialogue that they can get and trying to move toward, uh, the opposite of ANNIHILATION, our government is crossing their arms, barring the door and firmly shutting down the debate.
All so they can avoid being criticised and keep a firm grip on their flimsy power.
Makes sense to me. After all, when I’m being an idiot and my husband calls me on it, sometimes I just leave him at home, too. But then again, the two of us aren’t holding the FATE OF THE WORLD in our hands.
Posted in Contemplations, Going Green, Issues, World | No Comments »
