My new YouTube "TV" show- Charlie Says

Hi Friends!

I know I've barely posted to this blog, but now it will be even less often (although not stopped completely, I still have ideas and commentaries on these topics), but the GOOD NEWS is, you can now WATCH ME on YouTube!

I have been working on a personal project that I am very excited about! This week I am launching my YouTube "TV" show called "Charlie Says".
It's a 'Dear Abby-style' advice program. I think of it as: love-life advice for the battle-weary woman.
The website is here: http://www.charliesays.ca/
The weekly episodes will be posted here: http://www.youtube.com/user/CharlieSaysTV
...where right now I have posted a request for questions!

I hope you visit!



p.s. You can also subscribe to me on Facebook as "Charlie Irene Resilience"

Cowboy quote of the day:

"Always take a good look at what you’re about to eat. It’s not so important to know what it is, but it’s critical to know what it was."

I know why the caged farmer sings

Some days I like my Farmville life better than my real one.

Yes, I confess, I am addicted to Farmville. I KNOW it’s not an even remotely realistic portrayal of the life of a farmer, NOR does it foster any kind of understanding about crops, soil, or animal husbandry, but it does do something strange that farming also does – build community. And, let’s face it -like any good game- it brings joy.

Here’s what a ‘day in the life’ is like on my farm.

I start off my day with a stroll through my Olive groves, saying hello to my Arborists who have dropped by to do a little harvesting. On my right are my two Duck Ponds, filled with Swans, Belted Ducks, Orange Ducks, and yellow, red and brown ducklings. My grey Ugly Ducking swims by and quacks a hello. He knows he’s my favorite.

I step lightly around my magic fairy ring, marked by a circle of mushrooms with a beam of sparkly light emanating from it, and walk up to the first of many animal pens-this one containing my two grey Baby Elephants. I toss them a handful each of peanuts and then look down to see a Gentle Longhorn nuzzling my leg-holding a rose in its mouth. I gratefully accept.

Suddenly a lovely smell catches my nose, and I realize that my cotton candy tree is in bloom. So I take a shortcut through my cupcake field and head over to my ‘fun orchard’ filled with giant cotton candy and snowcone trees. My Mint Candy and Chrome Cherry are also ready, and my two Giant Bubble Gum trees are just starting. The purple one has one nice fruit within reach, so I grab a big bobble and pop it into my mouth. On the way back out I also stuff some Starfruit, Ruby Grapefruit and a Hass Avocado into my satchel for later.

In my Farmville life I am also a light-skinned blue-eyed blond, but unlike my real-world street self, I am wearing a Visigith costume consisting of a belted furry brown tunic, thigh-high brown leather boots, fur trim on my shoulders and a broadsword slung over my back. I have a large thick arm tattoo on my right arm, my hair is in high pigtails and I’m wearing sporty sunglasses. I have a castle, a winery, a trading post, and various animal housings. In one corner of my farm I have a little memorial graveyard where my grandfather and cat have a tombstone, and tree (respectively). There is a golden plum tree planted next to my grandfather’s grave (like he used to have on his farm) and I leave him fresh lilacs every two weeks because my grandmother loves mauve.

I take a quick stop by the nursery barn, marveling at the Holstein calf and new Disco Pony (complete with fro, white jumpsuit and funky purple sunglasses), and suddenly I hear a voice calling my name. My new friend Erin drops by to leave me a white truffle that her pig found on my farm, and we go for a quick stroll. A silke chicken dodges between our feet as we take a quick stroll to see how my crops are coming along. For the next 12 hours I am growing cotton, cupcakes, electric roses, purple heirloom carrots and ginger. I have 5 market stalls, still selling my last crops of sugar cane, white grapes, raspberries, purple grapes and bunches of homegrown crystals (some kind of spiky rutilated white quartz.) Erin takes 3 bushels and takes her leave.

Suddenly I realize I am a bit peckish, so I hop into my airship and pop over to my English farm where I partake in (homegrown) black tea and barley crumpets (homebaked in my bakery there). I sit at a table (decorated with my prize winning English roses), joined by the county Duke and young Henry who is picking his brain about sheep breeding. We spend a few hours sitting leisurely under my Honey Locust Tree next to the east wall of my Moat as the conversation floats between the village news of the day to when my White Pegasus will finally foal. Then as the sun begins to sink into the sky, I (in 2.5 seconds) pop back into my airship and land at home just in time to find that a friend has left an order for my ginger crop. Nice.

My Farmville friends are a lovely, motley crew. Some of them I have known in the real world since I was 5 years old-and others I have never met, but have been referred to me by friends on the merit that they are also active players. In the world of online gaming, three things seem to be important. Being actively engaged; the more friends you have the better; and the more you give, the more tends to come back to you. In Farmville, when you harvest, you share; and your friends can use those ingredients in their wineries, bakeries or spas. Then they make products and give out samples, and you can buy their products. The products you buy can then be turned into fuel, thus saving you money and fuelling your equipment to facilitate your farming. A similar process happens with animal husbandry. It doesn’t take a village to raise a Ewe, but it sure makes it go faster! In a funny, skewed way, it’s the great circle of life, reflected back to us every day. Farmville is a wonderful, peaceful, fertile escape. …and frankly, any chance to walk around in fur boots and a Viking helmet is just fine with me!

Update on Pavlovsk experimental station in St. Petersburg

Hello Friends!

This is an update to my July 26th post about the Pavlosk Experiment Station. You may recall that this treasure trove of about 5,000 varieties of fruit and other seeds was in danger of being demolished and turned into land for private homes.

According to Cary Fowler, the Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the public outcry is having a tremendous effect. You can read the official posting of the announcement here. BUT, the battle is not yet over. President Medvedev still needs to hear from you! President Medvedev remains under pressure to turn the land over to developers, and I therefore encourage you to keep tweeting your messages to @KremlinRussia_E in support of Pavlovsk.

Thanks. Every voice helps!

With peace, optimism & love,
Charlie

The Evolution of the Farmer’s Market

Well, dear friends, sorry for the delay, but I decided to pack up my life in Ottawa and move back to the Canadian Prairies. Now that I am settled, I am starting to rediscover the active, vibrant, and progressive scene that is the grassroots agriculture ‘landscape’ in Manitoba. Coming home can be a wonderful thing.

I recently had the great pleasure of being invited to attend a consultation on the growth of Winnipeg’s most prominent farmers market. The market is flourishing, and the meeting was called to brainstorm possible strategies for its future growth. The timeline was approximately the next 5 to 20 years.

Over the past 22 years I have watched the market grow. First it was just a few vendors with some tables and trucks, eventually the site added large white canopies and some signage, and later it grew to include a section for picnic-table dining, even more vendors, and a platform for entertainers like musicians and fire eaters. The growth has been very organic and gradual…and the market has maintained its integrity –not only as a place you could go to get fresh strictly local produce– but as a place where you could go with your family, and everyone would find something to enjoy.

My favorite vendor has always been Phil the honey guy.
Phil always struck me as a quiet guy, certainly we never exchanged more than a handful of words over the years, but his honey was top quality and his beeswax candles -which I bought as often as I could- were a staple on my yearly Christmas wish list. In the early years I watched Phil stand there alone, smiling contently. Later he was occasionally joined by a pretty lady… and slowly there appeared little photos of a baby boy, followed by a girl. This summer his little boy, now around 8, was playing violin for pocket change next to his Dad’s honey truck. I felt a connection to Phil, so when he asked me to attend this consultation, I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d been a customer of the market for so long, or because I had travelled internationally (and I’d seen a lot of different farmers' markets)…but I was thrilled to go.

The presentation was made by what appeared to be a professional marketing firm. They unveiled a three-phase plan for the market. It included a permanent open-sided structure (modelled after a market in a nearby American city), and then two phases of add-ons. It included an orchard and the possibility of a permanent commercial tenant – to financially support the market infrastructure in the months of the year when the farmers market was not active.

After the initial presentation, we broke off into a series of groups and had round-table discussions around each possible phase of development-allowing everyone to express his or her concerns and ideas. The mix at the event was interesting… members of the Market Board, vendors/farmers, representatives of nearby businesses, a couple politicians and a sprinkling of interested patrons like myself. The facilitators -of which there were three- were a blend of A) the “idea” guy/team lead, B) the keen young guy who genuinely wanted our thoughts and C) the ‘warm-fuzzy woman’, who was a slightly disturbing blend of concern for political correctness (given the cultural sensitivity of the historic site) and corporate mentality about the concept of “brand.”

The afternoon was a mixed bag of concerns. Would there be increased access to water and electricity for the vendors? What about bathrooms? Parking? How much more is it going to cost us? There were small side conversations about how people felt about dogs at the market, and would they have uniform stall-coverings or was there still room for self-expression? Would they control how many people sold non-food products, and how would vendors be grouped (if they should at all). And of course, the issue of loading and unloading…the romantic vision of a farmer pulling up his rickety old beater and unloading a dusty crate of potatoes isn’t exactly the way these things work anymore…

I found myself wondering…if the trend in Canadian farming is that more and more yard lights are going out across rural areas, (the 2001 census indicated that over one-third of Canadian farmers were 55 or older and approaching retirement)…should we really be planning for growth at all? Is it possible that this is the golden age of the market? And even if we can expect growth, would it really make the market better? It’s already really great! Yes, there’s a waiting list to be a vendor, wonderful! Let them replace ones that leave! The lady Irene, who made the most amazing vinetarte and krystike (someone who can make good Icelandic AND Ukrainian delicacies is forever on my respect list), had not been there for a while…but someone was in her ‘spot’.

They discussed maybe expanding the days of the week that it was active (it is presently only a full market on Saturday, and a partial market one evening a week)…and that is when I heard the most important things I would hear that day. “If I have to be here more than once a week I will not have time to farm.” “I don’t want to hire someone to work here for me.” It wasn’t that they were being cheap, but that expansion would mean the loss of the farmer-customer relationship. I go to the farmers market because I want to ask them if they use chemicals, or if the bees were affected by the colony collapse crisis, or what wood they use to smoke their pickerel with. I want to pick up something weird and ask how I cook it, and I want to watch the man or woman, with the rough, calloused hands, glow as they tell me that it’s best steamed or baked or fried with butter and garlic. I cherish the moment when they grab handfuls of freshly picked pea pods, plop it onto their manual scale-tap the lever to the side, and then tell me the bag is only $2…and then they throw in a couple more peas and smile-just because. It’s so…real. Real people, real food, real…life.

I don’t care if the market expands. I want the farmers to do whatever will make them happy. Maybe the achievement is not in expanding, but in increasing satisfaction. Increasing happiness. Keeping it real.

That’s why I go to the farmers market. Sure, buying local seasonal food is stellar, but for me, it’s also about relationships. Connecting with people, buying real food, and sharing real, beautiful, life.

Open letter to Honorable Mr. President Medvedev of Russia

Please Save Pavlosk Experiment Station!
UN Biodiversity Year should celebrate Vavilov Institute heroism, not see destruction of this legacy.

The Pavlovsk Station houses a huge collection of unique and diverse apples, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, currants and many more - more than 5,000 varieties in all. The Pavlovsk Station matters because humanity needs crops to survive. As the climate changes, and new threats to existing crop varieties appear, the ones we have now need to adapt, and the diversity found at the Pavlovsk Station provides this adaptation potential for a broad range of fruits and berries. We need to grow new breeds of all kinds of crops - grains, fruits, vegetables - to feed ourselves and our children. To do that, we need the rich diversity of characteristics like those found at Pavlovsk. It's one of the oldest collections of fruit and berry diversity in the world, and the largest in Europe.

I beg of you, please do not destroy this precious resource for a housing development!

I wish you much health and prosperity and I hope you will do what is right for the Motherland, and Earth and its people.

Sincerely,
Charlie Resilience
Ottawa, Canada

---

Dear Reader,
In case you are not aware, the background information can be found here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/worlds-biggest-collection-of-berries-and-fruits-faces-axe-2011015.html

I was made aware of this by Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cary-fowler/kremlinrussia-stop-the-de_b_659123.html


Excerpt from Independent.co.uk article "World's biggest collection of berries and fruits faces axe" By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

Botanist who died for his beliefs

*Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943) was a Russian botanist and one of the first scientists to try to establish the origins of crops such as wheat. While working on his theories he made expeditions to various parts of the world and brought back seeds of other plant varieties which could be used for crop improvement; his collection of seeds in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) became the world's largest.

*The collection survived the German siege of Leningrad during the Second World War, even though one of Vavilov's assistants is said to have starved to death while looking after it – surrounded by edible seeds which he declined to eat.

*By then, however, Vavilov himself had fallen foul of Trofim Lysenko, the agronomist who became director of Soviet biology under Stalin and founded his own unconventional theory of genetics.

*Vavilov was arrested in August 1940 and died in prison in 1943. Today, his memory is honoured and the Vavilov Institute in St Petersburg maintains one of the largest collections of plant genetic material in the world; the Pavlovsk station's collection is part of this.

The Topsy-Turvey Rabbit Hole in Farmer Tom's Field

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”-Alice in Wonderland

I never wanted this quote to make sense… but right now it sums up how I feel about present-day agriculture. Like we’ve somehow toppled into the rabbit hole, and nothing is right-side-up anymore.

Here's how I see it: Chemical-laden or “conventional” agriculture is now the norm, whereas “organic” -aka how it has been done for thousands of years- is niche, harder to find and more expensive. In Canada (where I live) the guidelines for qualification as an “organic farm” are very strict: not the least of which includes proving the state of the land within a certain distance around the land in question- (not just their own), and then the privilege of paying the thousands of dollars to be certified.

As for animals, we are probably more cruel to our livestock than any other time in history, and yet rather than making changes to accommodate a better quality of life for them, we change THEM. The pig (for example) is being genetically modified to withstand the cramped, disease-ridden, toxic conditions, AND this sweet little freak has been patented. It’s called “EnviroPig.” Pardon my french, but WTH? (Don’t even get me started on the patenting of life.)

The crops we are modifying/engineering are not turning out the highest yields expected (beyond the showboating of the first couple of years), and require extensive, increasing, expensive chemicals to ‘produce’ as promised by the label. Farmers are drowning in debt, seed companies are being bought over the chemical companies, and farmers are being given less and less choice of what they can grow. Saving your own seed is becoming illegal, and ratting on your neighbors who practice traditional seed-saving (an action that might get you a brand new baseball cap or a high-quality embroidered jacket!) is a tragically growing phenomena. The fabric of farm communities is unraveling and the yard lights are going out - as the young people move into the city to pursue sexier, better paying jobs. Heirloom varieties are being kept barely alive by small pockets of brave and noble gardeners, but the general public doesn’t get to enjoy them, because grocery stores have deals that make it cheaper to import a gas-ripened tomato from Mexico or China then one that has been sun-ripened down the road. And, as it turns out, some of these chemical-ready grain crops are actually creating superweeds that are requiring many farmers to return to the painstaking work of pulling them by hand or dusting off the old ploughs again!

So we’ve come full circle, only to leave in our brilliant experimental wake a legacy of toxic waterways, hermaphroditic fish, deformed frogs, mutant bulletproof plants (many of which are used to grow plastics and pharmaceuticals rather than food-good luck telling them apart though) and –if you’ll indulge me– sick people. And nutrient-rich, immune system building, “deformities” of nature like huitlacoche (or “Corn Smut”)? We’ll just modify that right out of the crop…it’s pretty yucky to look at, after all, and it’s likely not important.


In fact the only thing we are doing right is the creation of seed banks like the Doomsday Vault in Svalbard (and the related smaller seed banks scattered all over the globe in which the sample are duplicated), but even then it may not be enough to save us. Seeds must be allowed to germinate and grow every few years in order to stay viable, or else they will simply die out. As we continue to manipulate soil conditions (e.g. salinization) and burn the soil microorganisms with chemicals, as the climate changes and warms and the pollen from genetically engineered crops flies around on wind, water and pollinators’ feet –inevitable settling on their pristine relatives– can we ever guarantee that the crop coming out to be ‘refreshed’ will be the same as it was last time it saw the light of day?

I'm sorry to be so depressing friends, but I just don't know how we got here, and how to resurrect the "nonsense" ideas that I hold so dear. The earth, the seeds, the water, and the soil need our help. We've done so much damage in the past 50 years...it's heartbreaking to try to figure out where to begin.

Solitary confinement hits the Jackpot

When I heard that Canada was going to close its prison farms my first thought was “Wow, we have prison farms?!?” I’d heard they had a garden at Gitmo, but I didn’t know we had them here! Well, it turns out we have six of them-one in New Brunswick, one each in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and two in Kingston Ontario, which is just a couple hours from Ottawa. Or at least we had prison farms - they are about to be shut down. Correctional Services of Canada has stated that the farm program does not give inmates employability skills, are not ‘up with times’ of “technologically reliant agriculture”, and that the farms lose $4 million dollars annually (although, according to the National Farmers Union, no clear accounting of the prison farms had been made public). So basically, surprise surprise, it’s about money.

Now, I don’t know anyone in prison, nor had I given Canadian prison life much thought really… but the news that these farms would be shut down awakened uneasiness in me. It was because of something I’d heard recently in a sharing circle at a sweat lodge.

This summer I had the immense privilege of participating in a sweat lodge that was hosted by the region’s Algonquin people. It was one of the most physical and emotionally grueling things I have ever done. It was also a remarkable learning experience-and one that has forever shaped my feeling about governance, community, and the role of communication in healing. If you’ve ever been part of a sweat you know that it is an amazing place where people reveal immensely personal information as a way to share their ‘personal medicine.’ The Shaman leads the conversation carefully, so no one ‘bleeds’ or accuses, but everyone gets to say what they feel the need to share and, in my case, a ragtag group of strangers learned some heartbreakingly intimate things about the people sitting across from us-in a matter of 45 minutes. One of the gentlemen had survived the German Nazi camps only to come to Canada and find himself isolated and alone. Another man felt that he has just never fit in anywhere on the planet. One young man said a prayer for the mother of his child and asked that her wounds are healed, and one man talked about his time in prison. He didn’t go into why he was in prison, but it was clear that many of the others knew that he had somehow “pissed off the Queen”… so we could draw our own conclusions. But he said that when he spoke with the other men in prison, they had two distinct things in common: 1. they had difficulty relating to women, and 2. they had become disconnected with the land. He spoke of the importance of the connection to mother earth (again, a woman-his words), and how it is only through the ability to work the land that men can create and nurture life-on their own terms. He spoke of the humbling experience of watching something he planted sprout up from deep in the soil, grow strong and tall, and the joy of harvesting and tasting the fruits of his labor. It was pitch black in the sweat, but I could feel the pride radiating from him. I wonder if the people proposing to shut the farms down actually asked the inmates what they thought-and had any idea of the medicine that the experience contained.

I can appreciate the government’s efforts to help the prisoners find more training in “relevant employment for today’s economy”, but couldn’t they also consider expanding/modifying the role that prison farms play in adding value to the communities and therefore nurturing the healing AND the economy?

Book Announcement

Hello Wonderful Readers! I'm excited to announce the launch of "Passwords: Passing on Words of Wisdom and Hope, Volume 1," to which I contributed a story. My story is called "From the Frontlines of Hope," and it's about activism, hope, the power of community, and finding your life's purpose.

The book's website is: http://www.passwordsthebook.com

The collected stories are truly awe inspiring. I am tremendously grateful to have been part of the experience. I hope you check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!

What's in my head

This post is actually going to be a bit unusual-it's not really about food, and its not pretending to contain any answers. In fact, it’s a series of questions that have been kicking around in my mind…

If I had to describe the rule of law in today’s global society, what would it be? That “more is better”?

Is more control better? Does it depend on what it’s control of?

Is there any correlation between the radical rise in gluten allergies and the irradiation of flour? (Food irradiation has been regulated in Canada for more than 40 years - flour since 1969! “Regulated,” hmm-does that means it’s proven to be safe ‘regardless’ of the dosage, and safe on what criteria? How often is that revisited? How was that determined? Are the studies ongoing?)

Winnipeg, Manitoba has one of the highest rates of Multiple Sclerosis in the world. Is there any chance its connected to the (so-highly-concentrated-that-it’s-palatable) fluoride in the water? How about the Malathion (a known neurotoxin) that is sprayed into the city air every year in the fight against mosquitoes? What about the agricultural chemicals? What if you combine them all? Who tests that for safety?

Why do we write people off or ridicule them for being paranoid/conspiracy theorists about the effects of EMF (electromagnetic frequencies), when former members of the US military have written a paper which lists dozens of “Non-Lethal Weapons,” including a category for “Acoustic, Infrasound. Very low-frequency sound which can travel long distances and easily penetrate most buildings and vehicles. Transmission of long wavelength sound creates biophysical effects; nausea, loss of bowels, disorientation, vomiting, potential internal organ damage or death may occur.”

Is lettuce really safe to eat? Between the pesticides or herbicides and the acid rain…how thoroughly do we need to wash it anyway? Likely a lot more carefully than most of us do…

When I accidentally leave my computer speakers on (and the machine is powered off)-why do they randomly (but loudly) crackle and buzz? Is it my neighbor’s wireless? Is someone in my building getting a phone call? How is that affecting my body at a cellular level? Does the hydro wire that hangs outside of my apartment give off waves? Maybe individually they are considered “safe”, but what about the combined effects?

It’s amazing to me how many products go into our landfill that should not-like batteries. Do you drop your AA (alkaline) batteries off at a depot? Most people don’t. Why aren’t the manufacturers of highly toxic products held accountable for proper disposal? Why doesn’t every package of batteries come with a postage-paid label for mailing back your use ones? The packaging could be used for mailing both ways! Wouldn’t it be cheaper for some manufacturers to receive products back then to have to get the new supplies to recreate the packaging etc every time? Is glass the only thing worth reusing?

When the first automobile was designed they must have known that the exhaust contained poisonous chemicals. Why didn’t they care? Why was “progress” more important than health, safety, and the air we breathe?

The planet has little more than 3 feet of topsoil spread over its entire exposed surface. That’s where our food comes from. That’s all we have. We are poisoning and abusing it. Yes, someday the technology may exist to clean it up, but they truth is, it doesn’t. The technology to repair the present damage - to our bodies, the air, the water, the soil…just doesn’t exist. I used to take comfort in adding the "yet”, but the reality is, anyone who adds the “yet” is trying to sell you something.

How is Canada poised to handle the War that will ensue when the world runs out of fresh water. It’s no longer a matter of if, but when…

Maybe…
Let’s add a few more Rs the big 3: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. How about Revaluate, Reconstruct and Reclaim. In the future, fixing the problem isn’t going to be about “fixing the system”…the dis-ease is far too ingrained and systemic. The only way to fix it is to start viewing it through a completely new paradigm. At this point in history we are just starting to ride the new waves of technological revolution (of the combined “promise” of nanotechnology and synthetic biology)-where manufacturing, trade and in fact the creation of artificial life (google Craig Venter sometime) are being manipulated and re-envisioned according to their quantum properties.

But in the midst of all this scary shit may lie a gift. An opportunity to look at it all with fresh eyes. To ask the question: just because we can, does that mean we should? Is technology always the answer? Does social justice play a role? How can I say "No"- who do I say it to? Is technological progress inevitable? (Of course not-sometimes it's not even progress!) What do I value? What do I want my future to look like? Can I keep living like this? What will I have to sacrifice, and -more importantly- what is the hidden sacrifice if I don’t. How long will it remain hidden?

I wish to live in a new reality in which “balance” -in all the ways that it can be conceived- is the new rule of law.

A Rose by any other name…would be a Peruvian Sardine?

I’ve spent the majority of this weekend sorting through papers, which, as devastatingly boring as that sounds, finally inspired me to pick up on this long neglected forum.

Many of the research papers will present themselves in future posts, but one group fell together on my pile of ‘look-at-me-now’s…and the theme, funnily enough, was not nutrition, taste or science, but branding.

The articles were: “What’s in a Name: Anchovy Promotion” by The Fish Site News Desk, from a site of the same name; “A Slimehead by any other name” by Tara Kimura of CBC news; and a Newsday news story about PETA’s new campaign to rename fish “Sea Kittens”.

Our story starts in Peru, where the major exporters association (ADEX) is suggesting the promotion of anchovies (Engraulis Ringeris) as “Peruvian Sardine” to increase its international demand. Which of course sparked my thought: are sardine and anchovies the same thing? Happily, a Washington Post article “A Tale of Two Fishes” By Robert L. Wolke, confirmed what I had believed. No, they are not. “There is no single species named sardine. Sardines are born the moment a label reading "Sardines" is affixed to a can of small fish. They were named after the Italian Mediterranean island of Sardinia, which, like most islands, has a long-standing reputation for being surrounded by fish. A sardine can be almost any small, fatty fish, but most often is related to the herring.” And as for the anchovy: “There are about 125 species of anchovy, but only one dominates the culinary scene: the Mediterranean Engraulis encrasicolus.” So not only are they a completely different animal (pardon the pun), but do the ADEX folks really think the gastronomic world won’t care?

Then again, maybe they won’t…the CBC story revealed that the ‘dogfish’ has been renamed ‘Rock Salmon’, ‘slimehead’ is now ‘Orange Roughy’, and the popular ‘Chilean Sea Bass’ is actually ‘patagonian toothfish’… and these rebranded beauties have been flying off the shelves to the extent that demand has lead to overfishing!

Does it really matter what the fish is called? It does when the rebranding is an attempt to sidestep regulations…and more importantly, as a food lover I would argue, it matters when what I am buying is not what I think it is.

But today’s gold star for rebranding goes to PETA. Their new campaign to rename fish as “Sea Kittens” is truly creative. On their website -among other fun things (like bedtime stories)- you can “create you own Sea Kitten”, picking from 4 different species of fish (trout, salmon, tuna, and flounder) which you can dress in anything from a tiara to a leather biker jacket. I am a bit skeptical that this will be more effective than simply watching “Finding Nemo” a bunch of times...but I applaud them for coming up with such an amusing way to make people aware of both species-consciousness related to overfishing/eating high on the food chain and the fact that fish can feel pain.

Long live the butcher!

I was watching a news story the other day about the 'apparent' general freak-out of the country’s parents who no longer know what to give their children for school lunches (thanks to the infamous and tragic Maple Leaf Foods fiasco)… I’m paraphrasing, but the lady being interviewed said something like “we can’t send them to school with peanut butter, and now no ham...we’re kinda running out of options.” The next story was a nutritionist proposing some alternatives-and the camera cut to a can of black beans, some nutri-something soy chunks ‘that you can stuff in a pita or flavor with chilies or whatever your child likes’)…good lord! Are those the only options? From over-processed nitrate-ridden meat (some of which I also miss dearly) to mind bending (at least for some pickier little ones), possibly time consuming, nouveau (and maybe GMO) headache-producers?

I agree that getting more black beans into a child’s diet is an excellent idea (Go taco night!), but everything that nutritionist proudly displayed on her table made me go “ugh, too much work…next!)-and I’m a single with time to kill!

Here’s my suggestions folks (and if you need recipes/tips, for gods sake, email me):
Roast your own beef
Make your own meatloaf
Cook your own chicken or turkey breasts
…cut ‘em up thinly, and voila...crisis averted!

I promise you, with the possible exception of the meatloaf (which is worth jazzing up), we’re usually talking something as simple as unwrap x meat, wash it, throw salt and pepper on it, and bake (or hell, slow-cooker the bugger if you have to go out.)

Not to mention, Maple Leaf is not the only meat supplier in the world. No longer trust the multinational to supply you safe food? Go see a butcher-I promised every city will have one…better still, find a farmer…they still care what they put in front of their hungry families, and they know their stuff.

And here’s my handy–dandy tip of the week.
Precooked your own bacon.
(This one’s so easy you’ll wonder why you haven’t always done it!)
Spread the whole package of bacon on a cookie sheet (its ok if they overlap, but better if they don’t), turn on the oven to 350C, pop it in, and set a timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, check it. If they’re not crispy enough, put ‘em back in and set the timer for another 5. Remember to undercook them just a little because when you reheat them you can finish the cooking. When you’re happy with them, take them out, let them cool, and throw them in a long flat container in the fridge. They’ll keep in the fridge for at least a week, but the temptation of having 2-second bacon every morning may not allow them to last that long. (When I do this its toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches daily until the piggies run dry).

…but if you’re still stuck, email me. Healthy, tasty food need not be scary-and that’s what friends are for.

If I can’t get organic, can I at least get humane?

I was watching my favorite new show on Food Network called “In Search of Perfection”-hosted by one of the godfathers of molecular gastronomy- Heston Blumenthol -and he was making fish pie. Now, where I come from, fish pie is unheard of, but I gather in some parts of the world its a comfort food, so I watched to learn. In gathering the many elaborate ingredients he went on a fishing troller and caught fresh langoustines. These are part of the lobster family-though they look more like prawns, but they don’t change color when they are cooked. There is a time, however, when they do change color-and its when they are stressed! In the episode they compared a stressed langoustine to one that was not stressed-out, and they found that the stressed one not only changed color but also developed a more bitter taste.

Which reminded me of another story I saw in New Scientist entitled: “Laughter improves breast milk's health effect”, (From issue 2608 of New Scientist magazine, 18 June 2007, page 23). The Japanese researchers showed breastfeeding mothers “either a feature length Charlie Chaplin movie or bland footage of weather information, and took samples of breast milk at regular intervals afterwards.” What they found was significantly higher levels of melatonin in the laughing mothers' milk. Melatonin is, of course, associated with relaxation-but what surprised me was that the babies also showed reduced allergic reactions to dust mites and latex, and overall milder symptoms of eczema. (All participating babies and some of the mothers suffered from mild atopic eczema - the most common type.) Does happier = healthier too?

As I mentioned before, I grew up on a farm, so I know a bit about cows. When I buy meat in the grocery store, and the meat is tough (excluding a tough-by-nature cut like round steak), it can usually be for a few reasons: length of ageing time after slaughter, the cow was old, or the cow was stressed. After the mad cow/beef border crisis a couple of years ago I know that cows don’t get to be very old before being slaughtered in Canada these days, so I generally rule that one out. Ageing-whether ‘dry’ or ‘in-the-bag’, is also well-documented process... but stress… who monitors that?

I knew a guy that used to work in an abattoir (cattle killing/processing factory), and he said the process was so unprecise and inhumane that he would now rather personally hunt and eat deer than eat a factory-processed cow. And he does.

But in my neighborhood grocery store, I cannot find any meat that is labeled “humane”. I can buy organic, air or water-packed, halal, or…unlabeled (usually cheapest and I guess conventionally treated-whatever that means). With chicken you can at least often buy free range/free run-which I think is pretty much as humane as you can get. But nothing is ever labeled that way.

Is it because “humane” is too close to “human”?
Is it because we don’t want to believe these animals feel pain? Or fear?
Is it because we don’t want to believe that they are treated any way BUT humanely in the first place?
Is it just ‘out of sight out of mind’?

So how can you get 'humane' meat anyway?

If you want to buy humane meat, buy directly from a small farmer. My grandfather sings to his cattle when they are upset or injured, and my friend Colleen knows her children’s cattle by name. Small farmers respect their animals.

Now I’m sure the animal would prefer not to be eaten at all, but if they must sacrifice their lives so that we can be nourished, the least we can do is demand that for the time they have on this earth, they are treated with love and respect.

Note: If you really want to “get what you pay for”, try Kobe beef. It is said that they are fed special grains, dine on beer and or sake (rice wine), and are massaged daily. Of course you have to go to Japan to get it, but I betcha that meat is stellar!

The secret lurking on the candy shelf

As people in North America become more health and body conscious (and have less children), candy consumption is lessening. Sales of sugar confectionary dropped by 4% between 2001 and 2006, [while energy-drink sales rose by more than 400% to $3.23 billion in the period, according to market research Mintel.] (from WSJ article “Stimulus Plan for Candy: Pack it full of Caffeine”, Feb 13/08). The industry is trying to recapture some of that lost revenue by introducing a small herd of new cash cows (in a kind of alternative-medicine-so-it-can-be-sold-on-the-shelves kind of way): energy drinks, enhanced cough/cold and preventive-care lozenges (not a new concept), and ‘medicinal’ energy candy or chocolate bars. This article is about the third.

I’m sure you’ve seen them. Oh Henry Pro, for example, sitting right next to the regular Oh Henry in the Walmart checkout line. Same price, very similar packaging...and if you’re not paying attention, there’s a good chance you’d pick it up and not even give the bar a second notice...until you took the first bite. Not the same taste. Not far off, but slightly more grainy, and it has more ‘body’ somehow. But even then, my friend said he couldn’t really tell the difference. To my knowledge, this was Hershey’s first test-run of a new type of ‘high protein candy”-and it sat quietly among its peers, undetected.

There was a time when ‘energy’ bars could only be purchased in stores oriented toward athletes or adventurers-available through gyms or special retail stores. Then they moved into our grocery stores, although often in their own section, possibly near the vitamins or health food (which still screamed: these are different, will probably be expensive, and likely won’t taste good). But now, between Hershey’s Oh Henry Pro, Mars’ Snickers Charged, and Jelly Belly’s Extreme Sports Beans, its becoming clear that what I call ‘medicinal candy’ is moving quickly onto the mainstream shelves.

I’m not in the health field... but it seems to me that this might be a problem. Are these supplements in mainstream candies really a good idea? What is the long-term effectiveness of guarana in the shelf life of a product anyway? Can it go bad? What if a person eats three of them? Is anyone allergic to it? (when Nutchos added rice crisps into their chocolates this Christmas as a filler, I gave them a piece of my mind for not reflecting the recipe change clearly on the label. “Marketing decision” my ass. Talk about cheaping out, and being too chicken to admit it, while possibly putting lives at risk. I guess someone has to die before the labeling of confectionary recipe changes are mandated by law…)
When its introduced this month, will the Snickers Charged have a warning label that it is equivalent to a cup of coffee and will it be large enough for parents to notice at a glance?

I miss sugar. I can’t even chew gum anymore. Even Juicy Fruit is being pulled over to the darkside of unpronounceable sugar-like substances. I should start a “Bring Back Sugar” campaign. (At least until GE sugarbeets are introduced next year, then it will have to be a “Bring Back Sugar that’s Labelled and Non-GE campaign”-ugh-I’m tired just thinking about it.)

But before you go on thinking that I hate all things “new”, I have a confession. I’ve tried a chocolate energy bar that I like. To its credit, it is not a commercial bar-in a sense that the packaging is energy-bar-like which is a sleek black wrapper with a dragon on it-so you won’t get it confused with any existing brand of conventional bars. (Please note: I am not endorsing this product, because I don’t like to endorse any chocolate that I’m not sure won’t kill you when mixed with red wine). But its called “Red Rush”.
It contains caffeine, taurine and guarana, and yes, it tastes like old good chocolate. The lovely sample lady said that 1 bar = 1 cup coffee; so I was tasting it with my most critical tongue, and I was surprised. But when I compared its composition with another bar I like, I was not surprised why.

Red Rush*	Bounty**
Bar summary: 50grams and 280 calories	Bar Summary: 57 grams and 270 calories
29% fat	20% fat
66% trans fat	50% trans fat
10mg cholesterol	5mg cholesterol
4% fibre	8% fibre
but on the vitamin front
Vitamin A 2%	Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 2%	Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 2%	Calcium 4%
Iron 10%	Iron 6%

*The website also provides a comparison between three major brands of energy drinks and the bar, which states that the bar has twice the caffeine of red bull!
**Bounty has no “energy value” in the same sense; and was chosen as a comparison merely because it was sitting on my kitchen counter.

So I guess my lessons for today are:
1. Chocolate bars aren't just 'candy bars' anymore.
2. Energy bars aren't necessarily good for you.
and
3. If it looks like a duck and talks like a duck..it still might not be a duck.

Whey? ...Way!

So lately I've taken to making my own cheese. It's kind of like ricotta, not very 'firm', but uber yummy (if you're into that kinda thing). It only takes about an hour, and at the end you are left with a big ball of curd, and you guessed it, whey. I don't really know what to do with whey, and although the recipe said I could freeze it and save it for soup stock, I opted for the less savvy pour-it-down-the-drain route.

But the other day I saw an article in the Daily Green that gave me a whole new appreciation for this magical juice. "Alternative Fuel: Could Cheese Run the Cars of the Future." Of course, they don't literally mean cheese, but in fact, whey is rich in lactose sugar (sugars are one of the key ingredients in ethanol too), so it seemed kind of a no-brainer. Why are we trying to grow things and put them through costly processes to break them down, to harness something that might already be easily available elsewhere? Even WORSE, why are we trying to grow genetically modified things (which are sold as 'more productive'/better 'designed'), that are at risk of screwing up our ecosystem and our bodies, when we could be using low tech, preexisting options. Of course, that's simply not profitable-silly me. But I digress.

So let's start with cheese, why not! Then once we've figured that out, why not other "normal" household bio-waste like kitchen garbage! I admit, being an apartment dweller, composting is an activity that I do not partake in. I know there are apartment-sized composters, but I hear they also involve worms...so thanks, but no thanks. But what I can get into is having a brown bin, just like my blue and black ones, for organic matter. The city could add it to its regularly scheduled pickup and reduce landfill contribution by tonnes. There's gotta be a better use for this stuff...let's use our imaginations here people. I proposed adding a fourth R to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Rethink.

Coconut water..the new sports drink?

Read em and weep Gatorade. Coconuts rule...

Ode to baby bok choy

Oh baby oh baby oh baby bok choy
Your sulfurous freshness brings me such joy

Wilst thou wilt for me
if I put you in a steamy situation?

Wilst thou wilt for me
if I flavour you with libations?

Be not afraid, little stem
you will not grow cold
as you, dearest sprout
will never grow old.

Food that are not/do not contain what they say

Dragon Sausages (see previous post)
Farmers Sausage
Hot dogs
Kraft Dinner (I mean really, what does THAT mean, Corporations Meal?)
Crêpe Suzette
Pigs in a Blanket (admittedly, this is more of a metaphor, just don't expect squiggly tails)
Deviled Eggs (can't you just see em dancing around with pitchforks?)

The Brits have given us too many to name, like Bubble and Squeak, Spotted Dick etc...not to mention alligator pears (which we call avocado)..but I digress...Email me to add your suggestion to the list!

fat bees-my last words on this

Unless something really shocks me, I won't comment on the bee situation anymore-there's plenty of coverage elsewhere. I was intrigued, though, to read an organic beekeeper, Sharon Labchuk, say that:

"One, we would not be so dependent on commercial non-native factory farmed honey bees if we were not killing off native pollinators. Organic agriculture does not use chemicals or crops toxic to bees and, done properly, preserves wildlife habitat in the vicinity, recognizing the intimate relationship between cultivated fields and natural areas.

Two, factory farmed honey bees are more susceptible to stress from environmental sources than organic or feral honey bees. I know alot of people think beekeeping is all natural but in commercial operations the bees are treated just like livestock on factory farms. Bees have been bred for the past 100 years to be much larger than they would be if left to their own devices. If you find a feral honeybee colony in a tree, for example, the cells they lay eggs in are about 4.9 mm wide. This is the size they want to build, the natural size. The foundation wax that beekeepers buy have cells that are 5.4 mm wide so eggs laid in these cells produce much bigger bees. It's the same factory farm mentality we've used to produce other livestock - bigger is better. But the bigger bees, for alot of easy to understand reasons, do not fare as well as natural sized bees. It's now possible to buy foundation with these smaller sized cells but most beekeepers in Canada don't have a clue, or aren't willing to put the effort into going organic this way. Certified organic honey, as in the President's Choice brand, still allows chemicals to be put in the hive."

Food for Agrifuels

I will not go into detail on the use of food for fuel, as it is also being extensively covered elsewhere, (and its not the intended spirit of this blog), so I'll boil down my thoughts: The production of food for agrifuels is bad because:

1. We're sucking at feeding the hungry as it is, lets just stick with wind or solar powers and leave the plants to the consumption of people and animals. The same amount of 'grain' can fill an SUV tank or feed a person for a year... then we can get back to the bigger issues of supply and distribution..
2. GM crop use is going to skyrocket, and likely more chemicals will be used. See a great article here.

Don't even get me started on the modification of food and animals for
medicine...Designer Hens Lay Anti-Cancer Eggs