Forestry Fun

My new article in ClimateEdu is out. I pitched the topic for this one--far more fun than taking an assignment!

Cap the Coal

Woot! Nova Scotia is considering a cap on emissions from coal-fired electricity. It's a step in the right direction, at least. Now to push Emera to solve their problems by turning to solar and wind power, rather than just marginally cleaning up their dirty operations...

Theological Tidbit #1

"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false." - Bertrand Russell

I love this quote. When I get the book of my theology together, this will be listed under axiom #2: "We Don't Know Shit".

Notes from a dinner

Pan friend scallops with truffle oil, fleur de sel, and black pepper. $12 a pound at this time of year, $7 in season. They're hours off the boat. Varied in size, but none small--regular ocean scallop to golf ball. Jimmy talked up the cod; Vietnamese fried cod tomorrow.

Kurt Wentzell's potatoes, simply baked.

Green chard and mild onion bisque. A little fresh-grated parmesan.

A few hours later, a barely-sweet baked apple pastry from Boulangerie la Vendeenne. Lovely, and--

Spring is just around the corner.

Whoopsie

Found 'em. Blogging about it was, to borrow a metaphor from my early 20s, like lighting a cigarette to make the train come. Huzzah!

Corm Quandry

My inner Martha Stewart has been whining up a storm lately.

"All I want to do for Christmas is give my friends and loved ones a beautiful little glass vial full of hand-harvested saffron. Is that too much to ask?"

Yes, Marty, apparently it is. And not because I'm unwilling to grow the lovely purple crocus sativus whose teeny, tiny stigma comprises a thread of saffron--I actually think they would be perfect set against the purply-blue foundation of the house--but because I can. not. find. them to save my life. Not in Canada, anyway, and US seed companies can't ship the corms (like a bulb) across the border.

What to do? I'm about to start spamming gardening forums and Craigslist across Canada in hopes of finding a saffron grower with too many darn corms on his hands. Wish me luck. Or, if you have a fairy godmother complex, send me corms. ;-)

Corn Free Betty

I've been considering eliminating corn from my diet for a while, and I think it's time to take the plunge. Sound easy? Well, you might be surprised at where corn hides on the grocery shelf. Here's a fairly complete list I'll be using. Lots of luck finding--well, any processed food that doesn't contain at least one of these ingredients. Good thing I sure like cooking from scratch.

Why eliminate corn? Because I think that genetically modified crops are a really, really bad idea--and make no mistake, virtually all the corn used in contemporary food science is GM. And because I want to see if I can do it. It will be very difficult. And that, in itself, is pretty scary.

The good news? I can still eat corned beef. I think.