The Healthy Footprint

Colours of Fall

2011-11-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

I went for a walk

I took some pictures of stuff

Ooh, pretty colours!

Apple Chips

2011-11-03T12:38:00.001-04:00

A couple of days ago, I moseyed on over to my local grocery store and stocked up on two of my favourite apples, Mutsu and Spartan, since they were in season, not coated in that waxy stuff, and less than $1/lb. Mmm, fresh, waxless, Ontario apples...

But a girl can only eat so many fresh apples in a week. What was I going to do with the rest of them? I'd heard good things about making baked apple chips, so I thought I'd give it a go.

DIY Apple Chips: Although any kind of apple can be dried, slightly tart varieties with crisp, white flesh seem to work the best, e.g., Empire, Granny Smith, McIntosh, Mutsu (a.k.a. Crispin), and Spartan.

Here's what you do:

Wash and core the apples (2–3, medium-sized). Peeling is not necessary.
Slice the apples using a mandolin or sharp knife, no thicker than 2–3 mm.
Lay out the apple slices in a single layer on parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake/dry the apple slices in a 225°C oven for 2 hours, turning them once.

After they cool, they should be nice and crispy, not pliable or chewy (if they are, pop them back in the oven for another half an hour).

Mmm, so good... they're actually a lot like potato chips except that they, you know, taste like apples. Although apple chips lack vitamins A and C (since the baking process breaks them down), they contain decent amounts of iron, potassium, calcium, vitamin B6, and fibre.

Drying Dilemma: Apple chips are a nice treat, but making them in the oven is definitely not very energy efficient; oven-drying (electric) has been found to be 9–12 times more costly than canning. If you're serious about drying large amounts of produce, investing in a dehydrator is probably a good idea since it's much more efficient and eco-friendly than using the oven and gives more tasty and consistent results.

What will you do with your apples this season?

Fall Colours

2011-10-15T12:06:00.003-04:00

This week may be the last opportunity to see some beautiful fall leaves before the rain washes them away. But where to go? And is it already too late?

Leaf-Watching Made Easy: Ontario Tourism publishes its Fall Colour Report twice a week, which "provides information on the colour change and the best viewing locations across Ontario." For example, here is the October 14th entry for the Greater Toronto Area:

"There are some nice pockets of colour now in the Toronto region with a 60% colour change to this point. A good location for a fall colour walk over the next couple of weeks includes High Park just off the Gardiner Expressway. Conservation areas such as Bruce’s Mill off Stouffville Road and the Kortright Centre for Conservation near Kleinburg are great spots for fall colour hikes. The colours along the Don Valley Parkway region are always excellent during the fall and we are also seeing some pockets of nice colour now in the York Region, just north of Toronto."

So grab a coat and camera and head outside before all the leaves are gone.

Happy fall!

Canning Peaches

2011-10-02T13:46:00.003-04:00

My first attempt at canning peaches in syrup was both easier and harder than I thought it would be.

Let's break it down.

Easier: When I preserve fruit, I usually make jam because that's what I'm used to doing. However, making jam is sticky, messy, scalding hot, and time-consuming. Canning in syrup is comparatively easy, since you just drop your halved/pitted fruit into a jar, pour hot syrup over top of it, screw on the top, then boil the whole caboodle for 15 minutes. Easy, right?

Harder: Sadly, it's not so easy to do it right. There were some tips and tricks I could have used to make the whole process more successful. You'll notice that the peaches are floating about a third of the way up the jar. That's because fresh peaches are light and full of little air pockets that don't come out until you cook the fruit.

Cold Pack vs. Hot Pack: The process I described above — adding fresh fruit to a jar and then pouring on hot syrup — is called a cold pack because the fruit is "cold" and raw prior to the final 15-minute boiling step. In a hot pack, the fruit is cooked before the final boiling step.

Tips & Tricks: To prevent floating fruit, lightly cook the peaches in your syrup water (1 cup sugar : 4 cups water) for 5 minutes. This helps to drive out the air and shrink the fruit so that (a) the fruit will become denser and not float as much, and (b) you can pack more fruit into your jar, which also cuts down on floating. Also, use a lighter syrup, e.g., 1:4 sugar:water ratio, rather than 1:2, as recommended by some recipes, so that the liquid will exert less buoyant force on the fruit.

Now let's take a moment to admire the picture of the purty peaches. Mmm, peaches...

Next up, sauerkraut!

Links:

Simple Bites: Canning 101: The Basics
Simple Bites: Canning Stone Fruits
Putting Up with the Turnbulls: Peaches in Syrup

Fruit Picking in Niagara

2011-09-09T15:44:00.010-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I took a day trip to the Niagara Region to pick some peaches with my husband and his friend. Oh deliciousness! We picked about 20 pounds of Red Haven peaches, 12 of which I canned and 8 of which I stuffed into my eager maw. Now there's only one lonely peach left rolling around my fruit bin and I'm itching to go back to the farm to get some more.

Cherry Avenue Farms: The farm we went to was Cherry Avenue Farms, a family-owned orchard that specializes in pick-your-own fruit. They grow an assortment of cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, and pears on their 126-acre property, which is open to the public between July and September. The fruit is ridiculously easy to pick since the trees' branches are low to the ground and absolutely laden with beautiful, perfectly ripe fruit. No, they did not pay me to write this blog post for them — they're just really nice people who clearly love their farm.

Pick Them While You Still Can: Peach/plum season lasts until the end of September and pear/apple season has just begun. This weekend, why don't you a few friends and family load up a car and drive out to Niagara for a picking spree? Be sure to haul away a few bushels to justify the trip out! If you can't eat all of the fruit while it's still fresh, you can always jam, dry, freeze, can, or pie-ify the excess for the winter months.

My next blog post will be about my experience canning peaches for the first time. See you in a few days!

The S.W.A.P. Team: Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days

2011-08-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

It's a scorcher out there! Dressing appropriately can be a challenge, especially when you want to shield yourself from the sun's burning rays but still feel the breeze against your skin. Check out my blog post over at The S.W.A.P. Team for ideas!

Background: The S.W.A.P. Team is a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially conscious clothing consumption.

(I know, I know, I've been away for quite some time, but now I'm back and ready to start blogging regularly again!)

The S.W.A.P. Team: Just Add Colour

2011-03-31T11:21:00.001-04:00

A shot (or two) of colour is just what the doctor ordered to fight this grey, rainy weather. Check out my blog post over at The S.W.A.P. Team!

Also, there will be a Toronto swap happening at Trinity Bellwoods Community Centre in May! You can find details here.

Background: The S.W.A.P. Team is a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially conscious clothing consumption.

Worm Composter

2011-03-16T15:30:00.000-04:00

This blue bin has changed my life. Can you guess what's inside?

Worms. WORMS! All happily munching and pooping away. Don't worry, the squiggly things aren't worms. That's actually shredded newspaper for the worms to chew on. The worms are in the next picture.

Yes, I've finally acquired a worm composter as per New Year's Resolution #1. The entire kit—bin, bedding, and red wiggler worms—was generously provided by Evergreen staff, who were able to distribute free worm composters via a grant from Live Green Toronto.

What's Inside: The composter itself is a perforated 40-litre Rubbermaid bin filled with a mixture of shredded paper, coir (coconut fibre), and compost. There's only a handful of worms in there right now, but their numbers will grow quickly as long as I feed them properly.

Feeding Time: Worms like to eat all sorts of green scraps, including veggie and fruit peelings, bread, tea leaves, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, and plant clippings. However, they shouldn't be fed meat, dairy products, or oils because these foods attract flies and rodents.

To ensure I have enough worm food on hand, I collect food scraps in 750-ml yogurt containers then pop them in the freezer; this helps to break down the food. After checking that the worms have eaten almost everything from the last feeding, I defrost a container of scraps and bury them in a corner of the composter, making sure I rotate corners every feeding. I've had the worm composter for 3 weeks now and I've been feeding the worms once per week.

Maintenance: The worm composter is very low maintenance and most of the time I forget it's even there. In terms of upkeep, I feed the worms 1–2 times a week, spritz the bedding with water every few days to keep it moist, and (will) add new bedding every few months. Oh, and every so often, I sprinkle crushed eggshells on top of the bedding to keep the acidity down. If I run into any problems, I just use my common sense and/or google.

What's It Really Like? Is it strange, disturbing, or smelly to have a worm composter sitting in my kitchen? No, no, and no. It doesn't emit weird noises or make a mess on the floor, doesn't attract flies as long as the food is properly buried, and smells like fresh earth. Do the worms wander into my bedroom at night and bite my toes? No.

Benefits: Having a worm composter (and the resultant poo) means that I can significantly decrease my garbage output and grow my own food without having to rely on synthetic fertilizers. Instead of being just a consumer at the end of a food production chain, i.e., consuming without producing or giving anything back, I'm now a useful link in my own little food chain—as a facilitator of compost production and as a small-scale food grower.

Big thanks to Rebekka and Ryan at Evergreen for putting together the kit for me and teaching me about worm composting! To learn more, click on the links below.

Note: I didn't talk about harvesting the worm poo. Basically, you just push back the bedding and scoop out the black stuff underneath. I'll post pictures when there's enough to collect, probably in 2–3 months.

Links:

Worm Composting Canada: Homepage
Cathy's Crawly Composters: Homepage

Evergreen Brick Works: Indoor Plant Projects

2011-01-30T15:55:00.006-05:00

It's cold and snowy outside, but it's warm and green inside ... at Evergreen Brick Works!

Last Saturday, I attended an indoor plant workshop led by Evergreen staffers Claire Ellenwood and Stuart McPherson. We began with a quick go-around of our interest in the workshop, then delved into the benefits of indoor plants: they improve air quality, elevate your mood, cool and humidify the air, and beautify where you live and work. To get our creative juices flowing, Claire showed us some inspiring pictures of indoor living walls and innovative terrariums. My favourite image was of a tiny lightbulb terrarium.

Living Walls: We then moved over to the demonstration tables. Claire and Stuart showed us the interlocking panels from ELT Easy Green that we'd be using to create a living wall for Evergreen's office. The panels (which are made up of cells) fit together so that you can customize your living wall to be any shape you like. Water is added at the top of the array and slowly drips down through small holes in each panel. Excess water collects at the bottom of the array, so you don't have to worry about puddles on your floor!

Adding the Plants: After the demo, it was time to break up into groups and get our hands dirty. Each group had their own ELT panel to fill with a variety of plants, including maindenhair, club moss, baby tears, and sedum. It was actually challenging to choose and arrange the plants so that they could grow in an aesthetically pleasing manner without having to fight each other for light and water. Or maybe we were just overthinking the whole thing...

Tropical Terrarium Lamps: We finished up our panels and moved on to the next part of the workshop. Claire showed us how to make a tropical terrarium lamp from inexpensive and easy-to-find materials. First, she filled a large, wide-mouthed jar with a few handfuls of coarse gravel and added a few inches of soil. Then, she planted a couple of small tropicals into the soil, added a few tablespoons of water, and sealed up the jar with a thick piece of cork. Her final step was to attach a desk lamp to the cork so that the terrarium would have a reliable source of light. And that was that. Easy!

Evergreen's Indoor Plants: To finish up the workshop, Stuart took us around Evergreen Brick Works to show us the innovative plant projects already in place. He showed us a hydroponic window farm spilling over with veggie plants, a rusty old electrical box converted into a vertical planter, and a tubular ladder filled with small seedlings.

Thank you to Claire and Stuart for running such a fun and educational workshop, and to Brad Long and ChocoSol for warming our bellies with delicious hot chocolate!

To find out more about living walls and Evergreen's plant projects, click on the links below.

Links:

ELT Easy Green: Equipment for living walls
Woolly Pockets: Soft, breathable living-wall systems
Evergreen Brick Works Blog: Woolly Pocket Gardens and Window Farms

The S.W.A.P. Team: Borrowed from the Boys

2011-01-20T18:22:00.000-05:00

My third guest blog post for The S.W.A.P. Team is now up! You can read it here.

Background: The S.W.A.P. Team is a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially conscious clothing consumption.

Apple Jam

2011-01-17T22:46:00.003-05:00

Back in the fall, I had an apartment full of fresh apples and some time on my hands, so I decided to make a batch of jam. The recipe I used was Honey Lemon Apple Jam by Marisa McClellan, who writes the amazing blog Food in Jars. (Be sure to check it out!)

It's now well into January, and I'm still enjoying the jam on bread, pancakes, french toast, crackers, and cookies. But even as I gleefully munch on the latest carbohydrate item smothered in apple-y goodness, I really wish I had done more jamming and canning this past fall so that I could be eating more local food during these long winter months. One more item to add to my list of New Year's Resolutions...

And now for the obligatory foodie shot: French toast topped with plain yogurt, sliced bananas, and a generous dollop of delicious Honey Lemon Apple Jam. Yummy...

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-05T18:15:00.004-05:00

Aaaand... after a few days of extended napping, we're back from the holidays!

As the title indicates, I've made some new year's resolutions. Usually, I don't make any at all, but I thought I'd make an exception for this year. Here they are:

1. Start up a worm composter at home.

I've been meaning to do this for quite some time, but I just haven't gotten around to getting all the components together. I am resolved to make this project happen in the next two months! My goals are to significantly decrease my overall waste as well as decrease my reliance on store-bought fertilizers and soil. Also, since I'll only be putting healthy food scraps into my worm composter, I'll be motivated to buy more local and organic food to make sure I'm feeding my worms as few pesticides and as many nutrients as possible.

Having a worm composter leads to my next resolution, which is...

2. Grow more of my own food.

Right now, I'm growing a small batch of baby arugula and a little lemon tree. I want to bump up my food production to 3 or 4 good-sized containers of veggies, so that I can incorporate home-grown produce into at least 2 meals per week. I've already got seeds for bok choy, baby carrots, and herbs, but I may experiment with green beans and radishes too. Of course, I'll be using the worm poo from my worm composter to feed my plants.

Growing more of my food leads to my last resolution, which is...

3. Recycle less.

Now, I don't mean that I want to recycle fewer things that can be recycled. Rather, I want to buy fewer things that need to be recycled. For example, I want to avoid buying 750 ml containers of yogurt and instead make my own or buy yogurt in returnable glass jars. I also want to buy fewer baby greens and berries that come in clear containers (which can't be recycled anyway).

What are your new year's (eco)resolutions?

Links:

City of Toronto: Composting With Worms
City of Toronto: Top 10 Bin Sins

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

FoodShare: Compost Build

2010-12-16T22:51:00.029-05:00

Last Saturday, I dusted off my cordless drill and hammer, moseyed on over to FoodShare, and helped to build compost bins for some Toronto schools!

Here's what happened:

After a quick rundown of the project from Rachel and Meredith (FoodShare staff), our team of volunteers broke into four groups; two groups worked on the lids and front panels, and two groups worked on the sides and frames. The goal was to finish two three-section compost bins by lunchtime.

We made good time and finished the bins in about two and half hours. Then we huddled around one of the bins for a group photo. Just look at all those happy faces...

Thank you to FoodShare for organizing this terrific volunteer event (and for providing us with a delicious lunch). High fives all around!

The S.W.A.P. Team: Altering Thrift Store Finds

2010-12-13T10:54:00.002-05:00

My second guest blog post for The S.W.A.P. Team is now online! You can read it here.

Background: The S.W.A.P. Team is a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially conscious clothing consumption.

Terra Madre Day in Toronto

2010-12-12T17:06:00.003-05:00

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending Terra Madre Day 2010 presented by Slow Food Toronto (with support from The Stop Community Food Centre). The venue was Barn 2 of Artscape Wychwood Barns, which was bursting at the seams with chefs, farmers, butchers, bakers, cheesemakers, caterers, non-profit organizations, and many, many hungry people.

As I squeezed myself through the crowds and stuffed my face with incredibly delicious food, I managed to snap a few pictures of the lovely tidbits being served. Enjoy! (I know I did.)

Guest Blog Post for The S.W.A.P. Team

2010-12-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

I am officially a guest blogger for The S.W.A.P. Team! My first post is on Style vs. Fashion, which you can read here.

Background: The S.W.A.P. Team is a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially conscious clothing consumption.

Mission:

Provide good quality clothing to charities, who then use the clothes for their local community programs
Provide communities with an alternative to new clothing consumption
Promote eco-friendly and socially conscious clothing consumption
Develop upcycled items from used clothing, textiles and waste materials from the garment industry

I will be guest blogging regularly for The S.W.A.P. Team, so stay tuned for more posts!

Homemade Soap

2010-11-25T08:32:00.003-05:00

On Sunday, I made some lovely soap with my friend Bridey, who is an amazing DIYer, terrific cook, and experienced soapmaker, to boot!

Castile Soap: We made a castile soap, which is an olive oil-based soap, using the following ingredients: water, lye (sodium hydroxide), beeswax, coconut oil, olive oil, and glycerin. First, we added the lye to water and let the two ingredients react -- you should have seen the steam! Then, we melted the beeswax in a big, heavy-bottomed pot, added the coconut oil, olive oil, and glycerin, and finally the lye and water. We thoroughly blended the mixture with a hand-held stick blender until it reached the "trace" stage; this is when the soap has the consistency of runny pudding.

Fragrance and Colour: I decided I wanted to make lime-scented soap, so we added lime essential oil and natural green and yellow pigments as the final step. Once the mixture was blended, we poured it into a big wooden soap mold lined with wax paper, then covered the soap with more wax paper. After 24 hours, Bridey popped out the soap block for me, and I brought it home and cut it into little bars. I ended up with 32 good-sized bars that look and smell amazing, and cost about $1.17/bar.

Curing: The soap bars will need to sit in a cool, dry place for the next 3-4 weeks to finish the saponification process (i.e., the transformation of oil and lye into soap), but after that, I'll be using all-natural handmade soap for the next year! My skin says thank you in advance.

Soapmaking is a lot of fun and very rewarding. If you ever get the chance to do a soapmaking workshop or have any friends who know how to make soap, be sure to give it a try. It does take some expertise and special equipment (digital scale, meat or candy thermometer, glass bowls, wooden spoons), and is a tiny bit dangerous (lye is caustic) so make sure you know what you're doing before you start.

Happy soapmaking!

Links:

Wikipedia: Traditional soap making
About.com: Soap making basics

Upcoming Events

2010-11-22T20:23:00.003-05:00

The bunny has nothing to do with this post. It's just cute and fuzzy.

Livable Communities Workshop

Where: Evergreen Brick Works, BMO Atrium (550 Bayview Avenue)
When: Saturday, November 27; 10am–5pm
Cost: Free – lunch included!
Website: Evegreen: Livable Communities Workshop

Evergreen Brick Works will join forces with the Toronto Cyclists Union and 8-80 Cities to host the Livable Communities Workshop, a free event open to all Torontonians.

This one-day workshop, facilitated by Gil Penalosa of 8-80 Cities, will explore the world’s best practices in creating vibrant public spaces with safe walking and cycling infrastructure. RSVP to Shaji Kangapadan at skangapadan@evergreen.ca.

Whole Life Expo

Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre (North Building, 255 Front St. W.)
When: Friday, November 26 – Sunday, November 28
Cost: $8 (Exhibit Pass) or $15 (Lecture Pass)
Website: Whole Life Expo

The Whole Life Expo is Canada's largest showcase of natural health, alternative medicine, and eco-friendly lifestyles. There will be 60 speakers and over 200 exhibitors, including Larabar, Bullfrog Power, Harmony Organic Dairy Products, and Canadian Organic Growers.

Terra Madre Day

Where: Artscape Wychwood Barns (601 Christie Street)
When: Friday, December 10; 6–9pm
Cost: $15 – children under 12 free
Website: Slow Food: Terra Madre Day

Slow Food Toronto will be celebrating Ontario’s local food communities as part of Terra Madre Day! Attendees will be able to sample delicious local food, meet farmers, fishers, cooks and food artisans, buy ingredients and prepared foods for the holiday season, learn to make informed food choices, and connect with a community of conscious eaters. $5 from each admission will go to support Slow Food's Thousand Gardens in Africa project.

In keeping with the theme for Terra Madre 2010 in Italy, “Indigenous Cultures and Languages”, Slow Food Toronto will highlight wild and farmed foods produced by First Nation communities in Ontario.

10-Minute Meal: Quinoa, Peas, Eggs, and Tomato

2010-11-09T14:50:00.010-05:00

10-Minute Meal will be a new section of my blog where I'll share healthy and inexpensive meals that only take 10 minutes to prepare! I'll break down the ingredients, cost, directions, and nutritional information for each meal, so that you can decide for yourself whether you want to try the recipes. Here's the first meal (which I made for lunch today):

Ingredients

1/4 cup quinoa = $0.50
1/8 cup peas = $0.25
2 eggs = $0.70
1 tomato = $0.25

Total Cost = $1.70

Directions

Boil 1/4 cup of quinoa in 1 cup of water until cooked (about 9 minutes total).
Add frozen, rinsed peas to the boiling quinoa at the 5 minute-mark.
Boil 2 eggs in water for 5 minutes (concurrent with the quinoa, but in another pot)
Slice up the tomato while waiting for the quinoa and eggs to boil.
Drain the quinoa and peas. Drain and peel the eggs.
Serve everything together with a dash of salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information

Calories		294.5
Total Fat		12.5 g
	Saturated Fat	3.3 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.6 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	4.2 g
Cholesterol		424.0 mg
Sodium		175.9 mg
Potassium		452.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		27.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	4.4 g
	Sugars	3.4 g
Protein		18.5 g

Vitamin A	41.3 %
Vitamin B-12	18.5 %
Vitamin B-6	13.2 %
Vitamin C	31.3 %
Vitamin D	0.0 %
Vitamin E	7.9 %
Calcium	6.4 %
Copper	7.4 %
Folate	20.4 %
Iron	22.9 %
Magnesium	8.1 %
Manganese	13.8 %
Niacin	7.3 %
Pantothenic Acid	17.5 %
Phosphorus	42.6 %
Riboflavin	78.3 %
Selenium	45.6 %
Thiamin	15.4 %
Zinc	9.7 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Links:

SparkRecipes: Recipe Calculator (nutritional information)

Guest Blog Post for Food Foward

2010-11-07T00:00:00.001-04:00

I originally planned to write a blog post about the urban agriculture workshop here at The Healthy Footprint, but I happened to meet Darcy Higgins at the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council's bimonthly meeting last week.

Darcy is the Executive Director of Food Forward, "a registered non-profit organization in Toronto that provides a people's voice for a better food system." He invited me to write a guest blog post about the workshop on his organization's blog, which I was more than happy to do. Here's the link.

Thanks for the invite, Darcy! Thank you also to Stewart, Rebekka, and Lorraine, who provided with me the opportunity to facilitate the workshop, and to Rod, Debbie, Ian, Justin, and Rhonda for your time and involvement in filming the video.

Video: Urban Agriculture & City Planning in Toronto

2010-11-01T22:29:00.021-04:00

On Friday, I helped to facilitate an urban agriculture workshop presented by Evergreen staff and author Lorraine Johnson. The workshop was part of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute's two-day symposium on healthy communities and food.

We showcased a lot of interesting and ground-breaking urban agriculture projects in North America, so I will be posting more details about those projects later this week. Until then, here's a video that I created for the workshop, about urban agriculture and city planning in Toronto!

Links:

OPPI 2010 Symposium: Healthy Communities and Planning for Food

T.H.E. Series: The Age of Collaboration

2010-10-22T22:35:00.009-04:00

On Tuesday morning, I attended Evergreen's inaugural session of T.H.E. Series featuring Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, and most recently, Macrowikinomics.

But what's T.H.E. Series, you ask?

Rundown: "T.H.E. Series is a brand-new speakers’ series that explores Technology, Health and the Environment and the new and critical ways in which they intersect. Led by some of the most interesting thinkers in the world, T.H.E. Series will challenge our views and inspire innovation." (pulled from Evergreen's website, here)

The Speakers: Gill Deacon moderated, while health educator Dr. Mike Evans and Evergreen's Executive Director Geoff Cape sat on the panel. The topic of the day was Technology, Health, and the Environment for the Age of Collaboration. Although there was plenty of food for thought, here are some of the meatiest ideas from the session:

Collaboration for Change: The three established agents of change in society—government, civil society, and corporations—have fallen short in dealing with serious problems such as the economy, health care, and climate change. But through the power of the internet (insert echoing voice), there is now a fourth agent of change in society: like-minded individuals working together on a massive scale toward a common goal. Linux, Wikipedia, and the human genome project are just a few examples of incredibly successful internet-based collaboration. The contributors are motivated not by making money or gaining voter support, but rather sharing knowledge and contributing to social good. This collaborative approach to public service, business, and innovation, where transparency and integrity are key, can be a new and transformative model for government, corporations, and other changemakers.

Personal Connection to Nature: Traditional environmental groups have often failed to effectively involve people in nature. We're told we need to save the environment, but it's treated as something removed and separate from everyday life. For example, buying an acre of the Amazon rainforest doesn't allow us to connect nature in a deep and lasting way—we temporarily feel good about ourselves, but our behaviour doesn't undergo any change, nor is our connection to nature strengthened. By bringing nature into the city and getting involved in our own backyards, we can change the way we think about the environment and see first-hand the results of our actions.

Technology, Health, and the Environment: Throwing technological solutions at health and environmental problems can be counterproductive. We could invent a huge machine to suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and continue driving around in our hybrid SUVs, but what if we instead conserved our ancient, carbon-storing forests and just walked more often? That's not to say that technology does not have a huge role to play in solving our problems, but if we're blinded by our love of flashy technology we may be missing the simpler solutions.

Further down the road, Evergreen is planning to have Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the internet, to guest in T.H.E. Series. Exciting! Where do I click to sign up?

Gardening: Arugula

2010-10-10T15:28:00.004-04:00

Although I have a south-facing balcony, I completely missed out on the spring/summer crop-growing season -- I blame it on the pigeons and their delightful leavings. Luckily, I have pretty big windows, so I'll be trying my hand at some indoor gardening during the next few months.

Veggies that do well inside include lettuces, leafy greens, herbs, radishes, and carrots. I chose arugula (Eruca sativa) as my first crop, since they grow fast and can be harvested leaf-by-leaf rather than all at once.

First, I washed out a broken collander (the bottom fell off) with some bleach and soap. I filled it with potting soil and mixed in some bone/feather meal that I picked up from the hardware store. Then I planted the arugula seeds 1 cm deep with about 2" between each seed, and tamped down the soil over top.

After 3 days...

... up came the seedlings! (Disclaimer: the seedlings in the picture are actually 10 days old, and 3 of the 16 seeds didn't germinate.) It will probably be another month or so before I can harvest any good-sized leaves, but it'll be satisfying to watch the seedlings grow up until then.

Next up... mini carrots!

Links:

Suite 101: Grow vegetables indoors
Virginia Tech: Vegetable gardening in containers

Recipe: Curry Butternut Soup

2010-10-05T16:12:00.006-04:00

Squash are in season! They're inexpensive, nutritious, and delicious, and available at most farmers' markets and grocery stores. Here's an easy soup recipe I whipped up to warm your stomach as the weather gets colder.

Butternut Squash
Milk; unsweetened almond, coconut, or dairy
Onions, Garlic
Vegetable Oil
Curry Powder
Salt, Pepper, Butter
Garnish

1. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, brush the faces with oil, and roast the halves face-down on a baking sheet at 400ºF until tender (45 minutes to 1 hour; you can poke it with a skewer to check). Scoop out the squash, smash it up a bit, then add it to an equal volume of warmed milk, e.g., 2 cups squash : 2 cups milk.

2. Dice the onions (half an onion per cup of milk) and mince the garlic (two cloves per cup of milk), then sauté them in oil until tender. Add the curry powder (half a teaspoon each per cup of milk) and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

3. Throw everything together with some salt, pepper, and butter to taste, then purée with a hand blender or mixer. Serve with whatever garnish you like. I went for sweet and sour: a dollop of yogurt, some tangy pomegranate sauce, and pear slices. Fancy!