The Tao of Chris

Upcoming concert Apr 23

2011-03-18T13:47:00.000-04:00

Here's the poster for my next concert. PDF link can be downloaded here too.

Poetry Series #6: The Bridge Builder, by Will Allen Dromgoole

2011-03-14T16:45:00.000-04:00

The Bridge Builder
by Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

This poem really inspired me to think about building a legacy, and not just doing things for simple and personal pleasure. It got me thinking about how what I do can be an influence on people not just now, but for many years and hopefully even decades to come. It makes you think about the bigger picture in life and how even as a single person, we can do something meaningful and inspiring, even if it as simple as building a bridge for the next person to pass through

February 2011 Review

2011-03-03T00:14:00.000-05:00

Another month has passed, and it’s time for another update. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past 28 days.

1. Lots of Great People Are Doing Amazing Things
A shout out to my friend Selena Flood for introducing me to the Social Entrepreneurship Empowerment Series. In this series 41 leading entrepreneurs involved in the social enterprise sector came together to share their expertise and knowledge. While I didn’t get a chance to listen to all the live seminars, the ones I did listen to were super inspiring and motivating me in working on my businesses. The first seminars I believe are free and available, however some of the later ones are a paid download.

To register and download the seminars, click here (affiliate link) or here (non affiliate link)

2. You Can Bargain Almost AnythingI was ordering some new business cards this month and ended up going with an online organization called Vista Print. Now, let me preface this by saying if you’ve ever signed up to their mailing list or tried to navigate their site - it is a veritable labyrinth of pages, promos, upsells, cross sells, free sells, and almost every trick imaginable from a sales perspective (lesson #2a, don’t sign up for their newsletters!). I was having some issues uploading a file, and decided to give their customer service line a call. To put it briefly, it was the most hilarious and entertaining call I had that entire week. It is probably wroth of a blog post in and of itself, but to put it briefly, the sales rep I spoke with despite speaking in the most monotone voice ever, was either very well trained or had a very good script they were following. Being a salesperson myself, I immediately caught on to every sales trick they tried to throw my way, and responded with a number of counter gambits of my own. Using a combination of strategies, of which the most effective was the walk away technique (used it twice to great effect), I was able to bargain down the price of the cards I wanted to order by probably 35% or so. All this with a simple phone call!

For negotiation tips, I'd highly recommend this book, Secrets of Power Negotiating, by Roger Dawson.

3. The Internet is Fantastic
I’ve come to embrace my inner nerd, especially as I spend a fair chunk of my time in front of a computer screen these days. Despite all the junk and overload of information floating around out there, there are a number of hidden or not so hidden gems. Some of my favourite sites that I read fairly regularly include:

Lifehacker: lots of daily posts, but good to skim for the articles that interest you the most
A smart bear: fascinating insight about the business/startup world
Well preserved: preserving, dehydrating, freezing, or storing local Ontario produce
The Art of Noncomformity: I feel like the posts are starting to lose their oomph like they had about a year ago, but it allows me to vicariously travel the world and plan for my next trip with some of the travel hacking techniques he outlines on his blog

4.Talk Is Cheap
Over the past year or so, I’ve probably talked with countless people who tell me about how passionate they are about their ideas, goals, dreams, business ideas or other lofty ideals. These ideas are great and inspiring, but unfortunately most people have not taken any steps towards outlining a plan or taking any action to achieve this plan. Talk is cheap - anyone can talk up a storm and tell you about their brilliant idea or plan. The real secret is going out there and taking action and working consciously towards your goals.

5. The Journey Is More Valuable Than The Final Destination
As I continue taking my own advice from #4, I’ve discovered that the journey is more valuable than the final destination, and sometimes we don’t realize how far we’ve come until we stop and look back. Being on a journey is exciting; it has its own energy and forces you to change, adapt, and grow according to whatever life throws your way. I’m a believer that life won’t throw anything your way that you won’t be able to handle - so embrace the journey, enjoy the ride, and stop to smell the flowers every once in a while. Life is meant to be fun, and not all work drudgery.

6. There Are Some Terrible Resumes Out There
At the beginning of the month, I hired a new sales rep. Screening throuhg some of the resumes, and as a general observation from past screening - there are some really terrible resumes out there. I’m talking worse than blatant spelling and grammar mistakes. There are people who don’t read the job posting instructions; lazily copy and paste old job applications (complete with the wrong company name in the header), don’t know how to format a resume or list irrelevant things from 10+ years ago. Do yourself and everyone a favor - go to a resume clinic, do a search for how to setup your resume, and get with the program. At least now in the digital age less paper is wasted, though it still doesn’t make up for the fact that you’re wasting the recruiter’s time.

That’s it for this month. Until next time....

Poetry Series #5: Life, by Josh J Dafft

2011-02-24T23:01:00.000-05:00

Life
By Josh J. Dafft

Life is avery special gift,
given from one greater than ones-self.
You only get it once,
because once is all you need.
You can't replace it,
but at any time anything can take it.
So many times souls abuse it,
but when in need no-one will refuse it.
You live life in such a short time,
so live it long and don't be blind.
For life is a special gift,
so live it to the fullest,
for you have such little time.

January 2011 Review

2011-02-02T23:04:00.000-05:00

January 2011 Review
Happy 2011! As hard as it is to believe, we’ve rounded the corner into a new year and have already closed the books on the month of January. And as I’m sitting here reflecting and thinking back on the past 31 days, paradoxically it seems like a lot has happened, yet very little has changed. I don’t know the best way to describe it other than things are moving along, but there's still a lot to do before this year is over. I’m thinking back to something one of my mentors said to me many years ago. “It doesn’t matter if you succeed or fail. As long as you keep on moving forward, making progress, trying new things, and working towards your goals, you’ll be a winner”.

As I’m sitting here writing this update, I’m going to take a different approach and focus on some of the things I learned this month. The idea behind this is to continually think about how I’m changing and growing as a person rather than in the past being too self centered around the things I did. While these updates are written more for my benefit, I’ve decided to put them online for people who want to keep up with where I am and what I’m doing these days.

So without further ado, here are some of the things I learned this month:

Everyone Has a Bestselling Story to Tell:
I had a chance to spend a weekend out of town with fellow members of the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council. It was a weekend of strategic planning, but also a chance to spend a bit of time and get to know the other council members as most of us don’t get too many chances to interact outside of formal meetings. One of the most valuable things I took away from the meeting is learning about the diversity of experiences, background, and personalities of the different members. Everyone has such interesting backgrounds, stories, and personalities that I’m sure a bestselling novel could be written on any of the council members. The lesson - spend some time really getting to know people - they’ll surprise you with the most interesting stories you can imagine.

I Really Enjoy Cooking New Things
This month, I experimented with a few new recipes: kimchi, slow-cooker mulled cider, and apple kolbasa tapas - all of which turned out to be quite tasty and delicious. My strategy when deciding upon which recipes to try is to spend a bit of time researching different recipes or recipes around certain key ingredients to get my initial inspiration. I then try to find a recipe a suits the audience / mood / style I’m going for and use that as either the recipe or inspiration for whatever it is I’m going to cook. I use my judgment as what I think will taste good as the final litmus test, which can take up to 10-15 minutes figuring out what I’m going to make, and which recipe to use (rather than searching for and using the first recipe that pops up). The lesson - good food is definitely worth the extra few minutes it takes to find a recipe you like - and even the extra time it takes to cook/prepare and event the potential extra cost to purchase the ingredients.

I Enjoy Going to Various Events, But Also Enjoy My “Downtime”
No surprise here, but January featured a number of fun and interesting events (Guelph organic conference, beer club, and a couple of networking events). And while I enjoy being social, meeting new people, and trying new things, I also really enjoy my “downtime” or personal time where I can sit and reflect (and write this blog) and dream and gather my thoughts.

The Competitive Spirit Inside Me Needs Some Rekindling
I think competitive spirit is the wrong phrase. The words I think that best describe this feeling is “the drive to excel” or taking things to a higher level. What really put it in perspective was an ultimate game just over a week ago. It was the end of the fall indoor league and we were in the “championship” game. I say championship because while it was technically the last playoff game, it felt very much like a regular game. Not that we took it lightly, and we played well and ended up leading for almost the entire game. The other team however, seemed like they were putting their heart and soul into the game, especially as they started making a late charge towards the end. When time ran out, we were all squared, so it came to down universe point for the championship. I wasn’t so much disappointed that we lost on universe point, but actually more disappointed that we missed out on getting the championship discs that TUC gives for each of its league champions. Talking about it after the game, we realized we could’ve put just a bit more effort into the game, and that probably would’ve made all the difference.

Extending this idea out to other areas of my life, I realize that the “competitive spirit” inside me is still there, and just needs a little coaxing for those times in life when we need to step up our game

I Work Well When There Are Lots of Things Happening
January 1st marks the beginning of the a new month, and also the beginning of a new year. As I started to settle into a new routine for the new year, it actually took me several weeks to really get into a new groove. And ironically, as things started to get busier, I started to get more productive, and that’s when I realized that I tend to work better when there are lots of things happening and I tend to focus when there are multiple projects and tasks to juggle. I’m happy to say that I’ve settled into a new fitness routine, I’m starting to set aside a bit of time to practice for my orchestra concerts (outside of the weekly practices), there’s always time for frisbee, and of course work activities will be at the top of the list for upcoming projects for this year.

That’s all for now. More lessons coming in February I’m sure.

You learn something every day if you pay attention.

-Ray LeBlond

Poetry Series: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

2011-01-18T13:54:00.000-05:00

We return again to an ongoing series of some of my favourite poems. These get published every so often. Do you have a favourite poem you want to share. Let me know in the comments!

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

How to Make Homemade Kimchi

2011-01-04T18:57:00.000-05:00

About a week ago, I got a box full of napa cabbages from my aunt's farm and was thinking of ways to use them up. Many were given away to friends and family, but a good number of them, I decided to set aside and 5 of them and make some homemade kimchi. It's actually much easier than I thought and doesn't take too long either. Here's the "recipe" that we used, based on Evelyn's grandmother's recipe.

5 napa cabbages - halved
2 cups Korean hot red pepper powder
1 cup Korean fish sauce
5 heads garlic
2 bunches green onions
1 large bunch chives
1 lb ginger
3/4 cups salt
1/2 cup sugar

As a side note, these are all estimates as we just started chopping and mixing and tasting the mix as we went. You want a good balance of salty and spicy to go along with the flavours of the other ingredients. Think about kimchi that you eat at various Korean restaurants - what does it taste like? Do you prefer it saltier? Spicier? Use that as a general gauge of how the sauce tastes.

Process:
1. Slice cabbages in half and soak in a large container/pot/bowl for several hours or overnight. The leaves will start to soften and wilt from the salt. The water should be salty, and mine was almost like sea water salty.
2. Chop veggies and combine with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine. A few tips - cut veggies "diagonally", so you get long thin slices of the green onions and chives. I used a food processor for the garlic and ginger.
3. Using your hands (get gloves if you don't want your hands to smell and turn red from the sauce), mix the ingredients together.
4. Drain cabbage and carefully start rubbing the sauce all over the cabbage halves and in between each of the leaves. You want the sauce to try to coat all surfaces of the cabbage. Squeeze cabbage together and pack tightly in a jar. I used 2 large pickle jars for the cabbages.
5. Place any leaves that fall off at the top of the jar once all the heads are packed tightly in the jar.
6. Seal and leave the jar at room temperature overnight, then in a cool refrigerated area.
7. I found local Ontario garlic at the Korean grocery store, and the napa cabbages were locally grown from my aunt's farm just north of the city. I can also grow the chives and green onions and chili peppers for a more locally sourced dish - though the fish sauce, salt and sugar I'm not so sure about.....

Notes:
1. I also threw in a few of my backyard grown and dried cayenne peppers.
2. I think the Korean red pepper flakes use cayenne peppers judging from the picture on the packaging ,but I'm not sure. This, along with the fish sauce (the ingredients were listed as anchovies and salt) are the secret sauce that give kimchi and a lot of Korean food their distinctive flavour.
3. Feel free to taste and eat the cabbage as you go to get a sense of how the sauce tastes.
4. Go to a Korean grocery store for the ingredients - especially the red pepper flakes and fish sauce. I found a whole shelf devoted to fish sauce and soy sauce at mine.
5. Enjoy - the kimchi should last for several months in the fridge or cool place - I plan on keeping mine in our unheated cold room
6. When jamming the sauce in between each of the cabbage layers, start from the middle outward. It is much easier than working from the outside in.

And now for some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

mise-en-place (of the raw ingredients at least)

a food processor makes for a great time saver in the kitchen

diagonal cut chives and green onions

round one of the sauce (we ended up making it in 2 batches)

shoving the sauce into all parts of the leaves

hard at work in the kitchen

rubbing that oh-so-delicious kimchi sauce into the cabbage leaves

the final product - two large pickle jars worth with a clementine in the foreground for perspective

2010 Review: Posts from the past year

2010-12-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

2010 Review: Posts from the past year

As I look back on 2010, it was definitely a busy year. I kept up with my monthly reviews and was able to write a number of other unrelated pieces that both challenged me intellectually and expanded my writing style/repertoire. I'm currently conducting my annual year-end review today and one of the first things is to take stock of this past year.

One of my goals that I set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year was to write at least 2 blog posts per month. While I didn't manage that specifically, I did exceed my goal of writing at least 24 blog posts this year (total of 25 and counting). Here is a recap of every single blog post I wrote this past year with a one sentence highlight/summary.

January:

Some Thoughts on 2009
-a synopsis of my review of 2009
Moving Outside My Comfort Zone
- it's the journey that matters most, not the final destination
Poetry Series
-When Death Comes, by Mary Oliver
January Review
-"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." - Woodrow Wilson

February:

Developing my Code of Ethics
-The Golden Rule is one of my guiding principles: do unto others as you would have them do unto you
The Right Frame of Mind
-I'm an optimist at heart, and view the world as an inherently good place

March:

February Review:
-gratitude
Vintage Seeds
-a flashback in time to some vintage seed packages from several decades ago

April:

March Review
-the month of soup

May:

Poetry Series:
-Desiderate, by Max Ehrmann
Poetry Series:
-To Risk, by William Arthur Ward

June:

No blog posts in June

July:

April and May Review

-features in the Globe and Mail

More Finding, Less Seeking

-click through and read the quotation, you won't be disappointed

June Review:

-June was the month of cherries, cherries, and even more cherries

August:

July Review
-playing tourist for a couple of days
Conscious Food Festival
-lots of delicious and tasty food
August Review
-the month of day trips and events

September:

Orchestra Update:
-an advertising for an upcoming concert
September Review
-mmmm, pig roast

October:

The 2010 Picnic at the Brickworks
-quite possibly the biggest/best/tastiest food event I've ever been to. I can't wait to go again next year
New Orleans Initial Thoughts:
-what a great city!

November:

October Review:
-mmmmm, garlic
My Review of the 14th Annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference (New Orleans)
-one of the best decision of the year was to go and attend this conference
Poetry Series:
A Psalm of Life, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

December:

November Review:

-more food related events

A December update should be coming soon - stay tuned.

November 2010 Review

2010-12-03T17:44:00.000-05:00

November has been another hectic month. On one hand, things were lighter as we wrapped up the last of the gardens still needing some work. On the other hand, administrative tasks and backburner projects have now come to the fore and are taking up a lot of my time these days.

It’s been good catching up on a lot of office work, and nice to know that I don’t have to be out and about as much in the cold weather these days. There’s nothing quite like a big, hot mug of steaming tea to keep you company while you go about your work day.

I’ve been thinking about changing around the stye of my monthly updates (again). A while ago, I tried inclulding more reflections on the months activities rather than just a summary of the activities, but found it to be very long and time consuming to write. While I want to continue writing a summary of the fun and interesting activities that happened over the past month, sometimes I feel this monthly review post isn’t the right forum for it. Some of the bigger events deserved a post of their own like the recent one I done on the CFSC conference (not to mention finding the time to write is always challenging) and some events which were really fun I find don’t always warrant a place in these updates. I have yet to figure out a good system or way to write these reviews, so if any of you have any suggestions, I’m all ears! For now though, I’ll stick with my trusty method of posting about the fun and exciting things this past November.

1. So You Think You(th) Can Cook Content
Through my involvement with the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, I had the chance to act a judge for the 2nd annual So You Think You(th) Can Cook contest held at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at the Exhbition Place. Along with renowned Toronto chef Brad Long, last year’s winner Hudson Bernard, and Jeff ODonnell of Foodland Ontario, we were treated to cooking demonstration of 3 young people and their original recipes incorporating Foodland Ontario products.

This was the first time I’ve ever had the chance to judge a cooking contest and was very excited for it. Each of the participants had 20 minutes to prepare one dish (prep work could be done in advance) for the judges to taste and assess out of a 40 point scale. 20 points went to taste, 10 points went to creativity and 10 points went to a third category - something about food knowledge or something like that.

Overall, it was a great event, with the 3 finalists cooking up 3 very different dishes. You can find a link to the recipes and a video of the first part of the cooking contest.

There’s a lot more I would like to write about my thoughts and experiences (such as cooking styles, presentation styles, tasting notes, judging notes, and more on the contest as a whole, but in the interest of brevity, we’ll leave it here for now.

2. Foodie networking event
Near the beginning of the month, I was invited to a foodie networking event by Wayne Roberts. I forget the exact name of the event, but a whole bunch of people involved in the local food scene and eco-friendly scene were there. It was inspiring to meet and connect with some familiar faces, but also with a number of people I hadn’t met before. One person in particular who I had the chance to meet in person (we had emailed back a forth a couple times several months ago) was Candice Batista. It was great to connect with her, and that meeting eventually turned into another opportunity for me. Which brings me to item #3.

As a random aside, I’m not a big fan of the word “foodie”. I used it in this case more out of laziness, rather than spending the time to finding another suitable word.

3. My First TV Interview
After re-introducing myself to Candice, she mentioned that she was filming a tv episode the following week and was looking for local food initiatives to be featured in it. There was still a spot she needed to fill and invited me to participate. So the following week, I headed out to the local tv studio at recorded a short segment for an upcoming episode of @Issue, which airs on the television station iChannel (aka Intelligent Channel). While the studio was quite small and very unassuming, it was a fantastic experience and I saw a whole bunch of other people involved in the local food scene there for the taping as well.

While I don’t believe this program puts their program online, they did say they will send me a DVD copy of the interview and the tentative idea plan is for the piece to air sometime in the new year.

4. Feature in the Queen’s alumni magazine
This November, I was also featured in the Queen’s alumni magazine. They actually did a whole article about us for the online version of the mag, and a small text box/photo in the print copy. It was great see the article finally go live as I think we got interviewed for it during the summer months, and only now was it going to print.

I’m getting ahead of myself here, but my non-profit organization also was featured in blogTO: link

5. Remembrance Day
November 11 is Canada’s Remembrance Day where we honour and remember our members of the armed forces who have served on duty since WWI. I think I mentioned this briefly in another post, but every now and then, I stop and think about how lucky we are to live in a free and democratic society. It truly is a priceless gift for the countless opportunities we have and something we too often take for granted.

6. Tour of the Ontario Food Terminal
As a followup to the cooking contest, all the judges and participants had the chance to take a tour of the Ontario Food Terminal. The food terminal is usually closed to the public, and is the primary clearing house for fresh produce across Southern Ontario. While this was my second time here, this time, we had a chance to meet with the general manager and learn about the history, key statistics, challenges, environmental initiatives, and general story of the terminal. I've been meaning to put together a blog post on this (probably won't happen), but you can see another review by another person here.

7. Frisbee
Frisbee started again for me this month, and I forgot how intense indoor speed point can be. Even though our games are only an hour, I felt that I was running hard almost non stop. I’m excited for this indoor season as there’s a mix of new and old players on the team. In an interesting turn of events, I figured out where my indoor turf shoes had gone after I thought I had lost them many years ago. It turns out that when I moved out of University, I had left a whole bunch of things in my old apartment including my old turf shoes. The next tenants were friends of ours who also happened to play frisbee, and Steve (the new tenant) just so happened to hang on to the shoes, also happened to be on my team, bring them out to the game, and mention that he thought those shoes might be mine. It looks like the shoes are still in good shape as I don’t think he wore them much - not to mention that I don’t think they fit him all too well anyways. It’s like Christmas came early with an unexpected surprise

8. Chocolate fondue
I just had to write about this. I mean, who can't resist a chocolate fondue - with all that melted chocolate-y goodness. I must have dipped anything and everything I could find in it including chocolate cupcakes (yum!), mixed fruit (double yum!), veggie sticks (not so yum), pretzels, marshmallows, graham crackers, and more. Thanks to Mike and Wing for hosting us that evening and setting up this delicious fondue.

9. YSEC Pitch Competition
On a bit of a whim, and as spur-of-the moment decision, I entered my non-profit organization into a pitch competition. The competition was put on by a group called the Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada (YSEC), whose mission is to promote social enterprises. A week or so after we applied, we were notified that we had been shortlisted as one of the final candidates and were invited to attend the final competition.

In total, 5 finalists were short listed to compete for 2 "prizes". I put prizes in quotation because the winners end up receiving a $1,000 grant. It was actually quite nice knowing that when we entered the competition, we went in not having an urgent need for the money. Despite that, there were many other reasons why we entered into the competition

for the publicity and exposure (especially as a new organization) (featured in BlogTO and maybe another upcoming media mention)
for the networking and contacts we would meet (have arranged a number of coffee meetings as a result of the event)
for the practice (it's always nice to brush up and practice your presentation skills)
and to refine our story (I can now give off a clear, concise, 30-60 second elevator pitch w/out hesitation)

I kind of gave it away already, but we were selected as one of the winners of the pitch competition. Ron and I went out to celebrate afterward, and it was a nice escape from all of the office/computer work I'd been doing all that previous week.

I'm sure more updates on this and other related things will be coming soon.

10. Speaking Engagement for Food Forward Event
Also a last minute event, I was asked to participate and share my thoughts on entrepreneurship and creating your own opportunities in the food world at an event put on by a new organization, Food Forward. I didn't really have too much time to prepare, and ended up sharing a lot of my thoughts on entrepreneurship and why everyone should take this initiative. Again, it was a great opportunity, and chance to practice and refine my public speaking skills.

11. Meeting up with old friends
November was also interested in that I met up and saw some friends I hadn’t seen in a while - 1 since high school, and several I hadn’t seen in a year or a couple of years. In all cases, it was nice to catch up and hear what everyone is up to.

That's it for now. There is probably a lot more I can write about, but I'll leave it here for now

Parting Quotation:
This month's closing quotation is about one of my favourite topics: food.

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art

-La Rochefoucauld

Poetry Series: A Psalm of Life, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2010-11-21T15:27:00.001-05:00

We return today to my sporadic postings of inspiring poetry. Enjoy.

A Psalm of Life

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

---------
*Hat tip to the blog "The Art of Manliness" for introducing me to this

My Review of the 14th Annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference (and New Orleans Food)

2010-11-15T23:36:00.000-05:00

It’s been about a month since I arrived back from the CFSC conference down in New Orleans and I’ve finally had a chance to put together some of my notes and thoughts on the experience. Overall it was a fantastic experience and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to go.

While it's difficult to compress all the experiences, notes, thoughts, and impressions down into a short (ok, long) post, here goes:

CSFC Opening Plenary
The opening plenary featured 3 great speakers who I believe collected set the tone and the scene for the rest of the conference. The key points I noted from Brenda’s message is that this is a hopeful and inspirational community out there. Together, we are here to share our ideas, wisdom, knowledge and take it back to our respective communities to make it a better place. Lolis continued on with this theme, talking about food as culture, and sharing a story about the locals who felt most at home with their red beans and rice, even if they had migrated to another State or country. His message reminded me of one of the program’s The Stop put on by growing ethnic food from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Because, if we are to connect and engage all communities, the easiest (and maybe best) way, is to start by understanding their food, their culture, how it is shared, and how people are connected to it. Finally, Pam concluded the panel discussion talking about connecting to people through stories and how food can serve as a tapestry for these stories. Continuing on with this metaphor, she went on to say that the more interconnected and woven together we are, the stronger the bonds and the communities we work in.

One of the things that really resonated with me was this: food security is not about avoiding starvation. It is as much about security - a tangible feeling, a safe environment, or regular access to food - as it is about the actual food itself.

The Workshops:
There were so many interesting workshops, it was very difficult to choose. My rationale in choosing which workshop to attend was based on the following criteria and in trying to maximize the net benefit from each session (yes, that’s business school training/thinking at work here). For example, how much of this stuff do I already know or can learn easily through online research? What kinds of networking opportunities will be available with the presenters and other participants?

Credit/Capital Workshop
The first workshop I went to was about credit/capital as a business tool for farmers. The presenters were extremely knowledgeable, and shed insight on the credit system and how it relates to farmers. For example, loans are based on asset value and what the bank can get in the case of foreclosure. They don’t really care about your cash flow, your reputation, or other issues. It’s about the cold, hard facts. Farming is also very different than your typical desk job. There are many initial production and pre-season costs, and the farmers are at the mercy of many factors such as weather, the global market, and their skill that it is impossible to predict the yields/finances of the farm at the end of the season. Despite that, farmers are critical to the functioning and well-being of our society. And those that are doing things differently (ex. CSA’s, new and emerging markets), are being failed by the current system. It is an extremely difficult industry to be starting out in, and many people are faced with a choice between the lesser of two evils - scale up or get out when it comes to surviving and making a living out on the farm.

In this session, I really enjoyed they had a female fisherman come out and talk about the similar challenges facing the fishing industry. I think they have an even harder uphill battle as so many people view fishermen as rapers and pillagers of the sea. And as year-round demand for certain fish rises, we are starting to lose touch with the cycles of the ocean and catching/eating specific fish during different parts of the year. With the advancement of technology, we are no longer limited to how hard and how fast we can row, but rather by the supply and demand of the global market that don’t take into consideration

There is so much more that can be discussed (this was the session I took the most amount of notes in), but in the interest of brevity (well my attempt at it anyway), I’ll leave it here for now.

Youth Food Policy Councils: Engaging Youth Within the Food Policy Framework Workshop:
This was the session that Tracy, Michelle, and I were facilitating. The workshop featured a short overview/presentation on food policy councils and the local scene in Toronto before breaking out into small group discussions using a format called Open Space Technology. You can read more about the workshop and participant notes here. We had a total of 32 participants and everyone gave us really positive feedback. In fact, one woman stood up towards the end of the workshop and said something to the extent of “until now, I thought all young people were lazy and not doing anything interesting, but you guys proved me wrong and this has been the best workshop of the conference so far”.

We gave a recap presentation to the TFPC, who helped fund us in going to the conference, and the thing that I mentioned that really resonated with me is that while we’re working away here in Toronto, this conference and this workshop focused on the bigger picture. That is, how can we help, empower, and motivate other young people to go into their communities to start their own youth food policy council, and how can we inspire, collaborate, and support other young people working across the country in other similar and worthwhile initiatives. Well, through this session, the networking, the website, and personal connections that were formed, I think we’re off to a great start so far.

Foraging for Funding: Is Social Enterprise Right for Your Non-Profit Workshop:
During this workshop time slot, I was debating between this session and one on creating healthy soils. I’m happy I ended up at this one because of the chance to experience a new way of group brainstorming and problem solving using the format of the World Cafe, but also in meeting some interesting people and getting some great resources on social enterprises.

Engaging Youth in Food Justice and Community Building Networking Session
This was the second workshop of the first day, and turned out to be quite similar to the session that we were going to be presenting on the third day of the conference. They used the same ice breaker activity (foodie bingo!) as we did, and also used small breakout group discussions to get people talking about different issues.

Emerging Technologies and a Just Food System
This could have been the most informative session of the conference as I knew very little about what is actually going on in the world of bio-tech, genetic engineering, cloning, and nanotechnology. While the presenters only scratched the surface of what is going on, it was a great primer and introductory session to start understanding the facts presented by people passionate about “traditional” food.

Here are some other interesting things I learned. Companies who promote and engage in the above practices do not view protein as living animals - they view it as amino acids, which can be constructed in a lab environment. They use terms like “we’re the FDA, you can trust us” and we have “the best science”, yet look the other way when communities are emptied out, economies suffer, and the environment, workers, and animals get treated like parts of a machine, rather than a dynamic, interconnected ecosystem.

One thing that really shocked me was learning about a new genetically engineered salmon. The shocking thing is that not that it has genes from a deep sea eel, but the fact that it is labeled as an “animal drug”, which lowers the bar in terms of standards, and allowing the business to without tests/data about the product, and gives the public no input and not official public process to even begin to assess the potential risks/benefits of this new GE salmon.

Another interesting point was brought up about cloned animals (which the government has no way of knowing if it gets into our food system). One audience member suggested that these animals actually really are not “clones”, as they have many more health problems, a significantly shorter life span, and only 5% survive through the birth process. Doesn’t sound like a clone to me if the parent and offspring are so different.

Again, there’s lots more that could be written about these subjects, but we’ll leave it here for now.

Local Business Clusters
The last breakout session I went to was about local business clusters, which gave two case studies about cities rallying around, you guessed it, local business clusters. The argument that was made is that business clusters are like a multiplier, in terms of social connectivity, financial exchange, knowledge sharing, and so much more. In the example of Detroit, they formed the Detroit Market Development Project which has niche processing, innovative distribution, enhanced retailing, and a business incubator that turned a liability (old rundown building), into an asset (local business cluster). Just like the American craft brewery industry has proven a similar initiative to be a success, he hopes to spread this model to other communities.

General Conference Notes:
Overall, the conference featured lots of really cool people doing really interesting things. If there’s one regret that I have during the conference it was that I made just average use of the networking times and opportunities. It would have been nice to connect with more people and learn more about the cool things happening across the country. I gained insight into what makes a good presentation (tell good stores, use slides with lots of pictures and little text, and engage the audience as much as possible), being on both the presenting and listening side of the room. I realized that I got the most out of presentations that were contrary to my existing viewpoint, or on topics that I knew little about (so many of the presentations seemed like they were preaching to the converted).

Finally, while I believe we’re up to some great things in Toronto, I think we need to continue pushing local food initiatives, continue innovating, continue engaging people and getting them involved, and using tools like social media to push the agenda forward on a variety of food issues. It can be tough work sometimes, but it’s important and well worth the efforts.

Some notes on the food from both the conference and around the city
Being a conference about food and more specifically, food security, many people (myself included) went into the conference hoping for something more than your typical conference fare. I’m happy to report that they didn’t disappoint as the conference organizers worked very hard in collaborating with Sodexo such as allowing non-standard items (Ex. organic milk for the tea/coffee) for the event AND with local farmers who planted crops specifically for this event. Talk about dedication and good planning!

For the conference food, some highlights included the opening reception of roast goat and fresh, delicious produce, as well as the vegetable fritata for breakfast the first morning of the conference. And the thing that capped it all off was a party and gumbo competition where such delicious things like duck gumbo, seafood gumbo, and many other gumbos were served.

Outside the conference, New Orleans offers up lots of great food. We tried the obligatory oysters (raw and grilled) at Acme Oyster House, and beignets at Cafe du Monde, which did not disappoint. Po-boy sandwiches, blackened alligator and crab cakes also featured predominantly in our meals in the Big Easy. Other food highlights included fresh pecans/pralines (the freshest and tastiest I’ve ever had), local beer from Abita brewery, jambalaya, and of course more gumbo. I want to include a special mention for the website roadfood.com (with recommendations almost exclusively in the lower 48 States) as their recommendations were spot on. I’ve been meaning to go to a few of their suggestions (road trip to Buffalo anyone?), and have enjoyed their segments on a podcast I listen to called “The Splendid Table”

French cuisine and styles are a big influence on the food, and you can see it in the coffee shops, po-boy sandwiches (on French bread), and in all the butter and roux sauces they use in their dishes.

I could go on about more of the food and beverages of the city, but that’s probably a post for another time. Overall, I didn’t feel any hesitation eating the seafood in the city, especially after the oil spill, though that may be because some of it was not from the gulf area. For the rest of this post, I'll just leave you with a visual treat of some of the food.

pulled pork po-boy sandwich

Mixed plate of jambalaya, red beans and rice, and an etoufee I believe

Deep fried softshell crab

Another mixed plate, with a salad, gumbo, and something else

Beignets at Cafe du monde

Char-grill oysters (and some raw ones too)

Fried turnip greens

October 2010 Review

2010-11-02T00:31:00.000-04:00

October 2010 review
October featured a Lot of food related events. Again it was a busy month (I think I’m starting to sound like a broken record), and staying on top of work, emails, and personal stuff was a struggle. I’m glad the month is over, and we’re now in the home stretch as we start to wrap up the year with just 61 days to go. Here’s a recap of some of my memorable and interesting events of the past 31 days.

1. Evergreen and Slow Food Picnic at the Brickworks
This was a fantastic event I’m really happy I went to. You can read my post about this here

2. Soupalicious
Another food event that I had the chance to go to. I’m just finishing up my review for it and should be posting that up shortly.

3. Food Security Coalition Conference in New Orleans
From October 15-18th, I had a chance to attend the 14th annual Community Food Security Coalition’s conference. This year the host city was New Orleans, and I’m really glad that I went. Again a more lengthy blog post is in the works (we’ll see if and when I get a chance to pump it out, though I did write a brief post while I was down there with some initial thoughts here

4. Speaking opportunities
October also gave me the chance to practice my public speaking skills at a couple of different events. The first one was with the Willowdale Green Party and ended up being attended by only a handful of people. Regardless, it was a great chance to hone my presentation skills in an intimate setting, and prepare myself for the next talk with the North York Garden Club. This presentation was almost entirely visual, with lots of pictures showcasing the various gardens that we had setup. It turned out to be a great hit and there were many great comments on the photos we took (the club was doing their own photo contest that evening too!). Who knows - this may end up providing more speaking engagements at other garden clubs across the city.

5. Thanksgiving
As the name implies, a chance to slow down and give thanks for the harvest and for all the wonderful “things” (not material possessions, but things like family and friends, living in a free and democratic country, etc) we have in our lives. It’s something I think we should all do more often - and enjoying some delicious turkey with all the fixings while you’re at it wouldn’t hurt either.

6. Landscape Ontario’s Garden Expo
This was just the show I was looking for and needed to go to! Featuring suppliers, growers, nurseries, and all sorts of other contacts from Southern Ontario, I’ve now got lots of new connections to followup on which will help in my business for next year.

7. Orchestra Concert
Since joining the orchestra in September, we’ve been preparing for our first concert on October 30th. With a large repertoire, few rehearsals, and not much time to prepare, I really didn’t know what to expect going in to our concert. Compounding this was my poor attendance (I made it to less than half of the few rehearsals we did have) and it’s a miracle I/we made it through the entire performance. I’m embarrassed to mention this, but the actual performance had a lot of “firsts” for me.

It was my first time I knew there was going to be video to go along with our performance in the first half
It was my first time playing with our guest conductor (I didn’t know we had one until he walked out on stage!)
It was my first time playing through some of the pieces with the orchestra (thank goodness for youtube and being able to play/follow along with the music to know how my part fit in with the rest of the orchestra!)
It was my first time to meet and chat with some of the other members of the orchestra

While most of the audience enjoyed the music (the selection of songs was one very favourable point), I had a chance to listen to a few of the recordings of our performance and have to admit some parts sounded the way it felt - needing a lot more personal and group practice. The orchestra is still relatively new (this is the 3rd year), and it’s still finding its groove, and I’m sure it’ll get even better with time. For our upcoming Christmas concert, we’ve got a much easier repertoire (though still very interesting), and the majority of the pieces were performed at last year’s concert, so it should be a MUCH better performance overall.

8. Garlic tasting event
In addition to planting garlic for a number of my customers in October, I set aside a number of unique varieties to be cooking up and sampling. I invited only a small group of people over due to my limited quantities of garlic, and cooked up the garlic 3 different ways

dry roasted in the oven
stir fried with firm tofu and a dash of olive oil
minced and raw

The original plan was to have 2 sets of 4 different varieties (total of 8 different varieties), however after the first set of 4 varieties, we were all garlic-ed out and couldn’t take any more. When I get a chance, I want to write up a more detailed review including some of our thoughts and notes, but that’s a project for another time.

Odds and Ends
In October, Toronto elected a new mayor - Rob Ford. While I’m not that thrilled about his election, I do still love my city and hope that the next 4 years go smoothly. I had another article published on Food Trotter - this time about the Chinese banquet meal. You can read about it here,

Looking forward
I’m excited for November. It’s looking like it will be that time of year to knock off a bunch of those important but not urgent projects I’ve been putting off for too long. And finally, I'll leave you with a quotation that I've been meditating on recently.

Happy is the man who finds wisdom and understanding
for the gain from it is better than gain from silver and profit better than gold.

- Proverbs 3:13,14

New Orleans Initial Thoughts

2010-10-17T20:17:00.000-04:00

I’ve been in New Orleans for almost 48 hours now and found a bit of time for this quick update. Overall, the city is a lively place with an almost palpable atmosphere I would describe as that warm fuzzy feeling you’re having a good time surrounded by people who know how to enjoy life. Maybe this is what people mean when they talk about Southern hospitality. People here are friendly and never seem to be in a rush (except maybe the tourists).

For some background information, the reason I’m in New Orleans is to attend the 14th Annual Community Food Security Conference. I’m helping to represent the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council in leading a workshop on Monday afternoon on “Engaging Youth Within the Food Policy Framework.” While much of the time so far has been taken up with the conference, I did have some time to explore the town after I got in Friday night and a bit on Saturday afternoon.

For the most part, food, beverage, and jazz have been the dominating themes of the past little while. In fact, as I’m writing this, there is a marching band walking down Canal St (one of the main streets in New Orleans).

Food

In regards to food, Southern food is full of rich, fried, morsels of tasty goodness. Some of the interesting things I’ve had while here is blackened alligator, gumbo, red beans and rice, crab cakes, Rockefeller oysters, cochon au lait , and biegnets. Things I have yet to try are jambalaya, crawfish, crabs and po boy sandwiches. Yes, eating and food is a passion of mine and I’m glad my metabolism still allows me to enjoy all of this without too many ill effects. Pictures, descriptions, and tasting notes coming soon. Food here seems to be more expensive than other cities (ex. a street dog cost around $5 or $6 from the French Quarter).

Drinking

In regards to drinking, Friday night was by far one of the wildest nights I’ve had in a while. We started off with a local beer Abita www.abita.com. I tried one of their “harvest” beers, a Sasuma Belgium Wit, which features local Louisiana ingredients. It was surprisingly tasty. An interesting side note is that it appears to be the case that open beverages are allowed and openly consumed while wandering the streets.

One of the more interesting things we tried to liven things up was a local cocktail named “The Hand Grenade”. It comes in a special plastic cup that the Lonely Planet describes as “a mix of melon liquer, grain alcohol, rum, vodka, and God knows what else. Suffice to say, two or more will destroy you”. It was a seriously strong drink. A few other things I want to try are the chicory coffee from Cafe du Mond, and some more local beers.

Jazz

For jazz, I’d had the most excellent fortune of being in the right place at the right time (though that never is too hard for a city known for its live music culture). On Saturday, I followed my nose to Lafayette Square where a Blues fest was rocking away. Two stages were set up, and locals and tourists came prepared with their lawn chairs for an afternoon of blues music. Another very cool venue I stumbled onto was at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park. Free concerts happen on a regular basis, and I was lucky enough to catch the last one of the day and also the last one playing while I’m here in New Orleans and was treated to a concert by a brass jazz band. The musicians alternated between singing and playing their instruments and it was a great break from the extensive walking tour I took around the city that afternoon.

That’s about it for now. Pictures, better descriptions, and notes on the conference coming soon! Stay tuned.

The 2010 Picnic at the Brickworks

2010-10-03T22:26:00.000-04:00

This afternoon, I had a chance to celebrate the harvest with Slow Food Toronto (http://slowfood.to/) and Evergreen Canada (www.evergreen.ca/ ) at their 5th (?) annual picnic event. This year’s event / fundraiser was held at the newly renovated and revamped Brickworks near the heart of downtown Toronto and featured over 60 chefs / restaurants / producers from throughout Southern Ontario. This post is sort of like my review of the event and chance to put my thoughts in writing while all the delicious food memories are still fresh on my taste buds.

With 1000+ guests, 80+ volunteers, and 60+ exhibitors, it was an amazing celebration and coming together of people around local food in the province. I saw a number of familiar faces nestled amongst the various organizations / restaurants and for the most part went around enjoying and gorging myself on the variety of dishes being served.

(the lineup for the event stretched waaay back, doors opened at noon)

The way it works is that you’re given a glass at the beginning of the event (don’t lose it as it’s your ticket to enjoying all the tasty beverages on offer) and you go around to the different tables sampling as many dishes as your stomach can handle. Most people, myself included, had to take a couple of breaks from the food in order to 1) make space in your stomach for more, 2) give your taste buds a rest before another onslaught of deliciousness and 3) take in the festive atmosphere and live music of the event. You’re welcome to take as many as you want, though in practicality you wouldn’t want to as it would be almost impossible to try everything if you did go for multiple samples. The portions are quite small in size - some one bite samples, while others were a little larger with multiple opportunities to taste the delicious flavours.

Today’s event was a little on the chilly side and I’m very glad I dressed warm enough with several layers for the weather. Even though it wasn’t super cold, being outside for several hours or rather in unheated areas definitely can get to you. Everyone who came was in a joyful mood, being very patient and cordial in lining up and taking the time to really slow down and enjoy the food (it is a Slow Food event after all!)

The event was grouped by region, with the following regions being represented (see map below for details).

Muskoka, Peterborough / Kawarthas, Simcoe County, Grey / Bruce, Perth, Stratford, Guelph, Wellington, Hamilton, Norfolk County, Niagara, Toronto, Durham, Northumberland, and Prince Edward County.

So without further ado, here’s a visual feast for those of you who want to see what it was like of only some of the things I sampled at the picnic.

I don't remember what it was, but it was one of the first things I tried and was super tasty. I believe it was from the Hamilton region.

This was from the cheese boutique in the West end of Toronto. The blue cheese they had on a thin triangular shaped cracker was mild, creamy, and delicious.

Belgium-style waffles. Yes, dessert dishes were interchanged with mostly savoury dishes.

I think this was pork with a apple cabbage slaw on top. It was one of the best dishes at the picnic.

Mini blueberry and raspberry crumbles.

Country style Berkshire pork and liver terrine on fennel flat bread. Garnished with Ontario peach chutney and pickled apples. As a side note, I noticed most of the food was presented on long thick slabs of wood - some quite fancy and intricate.

I realized that in order to remember some of the food, I needed to take a picture of the description of the food, and not just the food itself. This was also delicious. I could taste it was made with real butter and had excellent taste, texture, moisture content, and overall deliciousness.

Another dish that escapes my memory of what it was. This was created by the folks at the Culinarium

Red Fife graham cracker with Monteforte Dairy Sheep's cheese with Bizjack Farm dansom plums. A beautiful showcase of local food in a bite-sized cracker. The balance of tastes, textures, and flavours all in this one cracker was stunning.

Milford Bay Trout with micro greens and I think a vinaigrette dressing. One of the best seafood dishes here, though the sturgeon caviar (not pictured) and sturgeon ceviche (also not pictured) was my favourite.

Squash and baby leek risotto with wild boar. Interesting meats were featured in a number of dishes at this event. I like how it was presented in hollowed out mini squash.

Organic spelt pizza bites with tandoori chicken, organic mozzarella, and pear salsa.

I don't remember what this was, only that it was delicious,

The description for this was Timbale of homeplate organics. Beef and carron forms, root vegetables, horseradish carrot slaw. The leaf that this dish was presented on was also edible and quite tasty. I'm going to email the chef and see if I can grow it for next year,

Peanut crusted belly of Tamworth pork with Niagara concord grape compote. Garnishedwith shaved french radish, calendula and seedlings.

These were the majority of the pictures that I took. Some other delicious things that I tasted that I remembered include:

-Oviinbyrd Inn / Moon Bay Shiitake: This place had a scrumptuous shiitake mushroom topped morsel as well as some tasty chocolate (separate from the shiitakes). This was one of the best shiitake dishes I’ve ever tasted.
-Chocosol fried blue corn tortilla filled with chocolate
-The Gladstone hotel’s chicken spring rolls. Tasty with just the right crispiness
-An interesting risotto with another interesting non-mainstream meat (forget what kind it was thouh))
-Fifth Town Artisan Cheese. Tasty, though I liked the sample plate they had better at the conscious food festival event
-Pork belly on a stick. Mmmmm, pork belly
-Hot chocolate from Soma.Very rich, thick, creamy, and was like drinking some of the best chocolate in the world

Other Beverages:
There were lots of wineries and breweries at the event, and unfortunately wasn't able to try every one. Some of ones that I remember were:

-Pumpkin ale. Made with roasted pumpkin, cinnamon, clove, and allspice. The pumpkin taste was good, coming through in more of a mellow way towards the end of each sip
-Cranberry blueberry wine. A little sweet for my liking, but good nonetheless

2 hours of sampling later, and going around to almost every food table (I think there was only one or two that I missed), my stomach felt like it was about to explode. Ok, not literally, but full to the point where you just want to sit down for a couple hours and just let the food digest. Let's just say I was one of the happiest people at the picnic at that point bursting with so much beautifully crafted and carefully prepared local food.

For someone who almost never skips a meal, I was too full to even think about eating diner, though I did have a small salad from one of my gardens for my dose of greens to help balance all the rich and delicious meats and proteins I had during the day. This was definitely a fantastic food experience and one that I hope to experience again next year.

September 2010 Review

2010-09-29T23:54:00.000-04:00

September has been a fun month full of social activities, mostly revolving around food. It saw the end of my summer ultimate season, stuffing my face on several occasions, hanging out with old and new friends, and seeing the weather transition into fall. Here’s a (not so quick) recap of some of the interesting things I did this September.

1. Pulled Pork and Sangria BBQ
For the Labour Day Weekend, I decided to host a BBQ at my place. Though no actual grilling or BBQ'ing took place, instead I ended up making pulled pork in my oven, and a creamy coleslaw (not in the oven) to go along with it. After a bit of research, I decided upon this recipe from the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/oven-roasted-pulled-pork-sandwiches-recipe/index.html. Overall it was a good recipe, though if I were to make it again, I would probably lower the cooking temperature and increase the cooking time to get the meat more tender and juicy. When I cooked the pork, my oven has a fancy probe attachment that you stick right into the meat to determine the internal temperature and found that cooking at 300 brought the meat up to an internal temperature of 170 much, much faster than the recipe suggested (like 3.5 hrs vs 6 hours). The only other time I made pulled pork, I cooked the meat at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, and the meat seemed to be much more tender and juicy. I think the moral of the story is, low an slow for best results.

A couple days later, I discovered that I used the probe wrong by sticking it in horizontally into the meat. I was right in sticking it in to the thickest part of the meat, but I should have put the probe in vertically as the horizontal approach allows for more of the tender juices to leak out the side vs. from the top.

A huge batch of sangria was also made, which helped to balance out the rich and heavy feeling of the slaw and pork. Overall, I would definitely do this again. It was a simple meal to prepare, cook, and cleanup, the food was tasty, company was fun and entertaining as expected, the pork shoulders were a surprisingly inexpensive cut, and I ended up with some extra bottles of wine as well.

2. Hispanic Fiesta
Early in the month, I went to go and check out the Hispanic Fiesta happening at Mel Lastman Square (http://www.hispanicfiesta.com/). Despite a threat of rain, there was live music from a variety of performers, interesting food from vendors featuring hispanic dishes (think lots of grilled meat, pulled pork, churros, grilled corn, etc).

3. End of the Summer Ultimate Season
September marked the end of the summer frisbee season with a day of playoff games early Saturday morning. While I was pretty disappointed that we weren’t seeded in the championship bracket (despite being ranked higher than another team who was in the bracket), it was still a fun day nonetheless. We ended up winning our first and last game, though lost our second one. I was a little surprised by the caliber of the Tuesday West division as it was much higher than the Tuesday East we normally play in. While the outdoor fall season has already started, I’m taking a bit of a break until the indoor fall season starts for me mid-November.

4. Pig Roast celebration
In honour of finishing another ultimate season, we decided to have a team pig roast after the tournament to celebrate. While I have to admit we didn't roast the pig ourselves (we had a Philippino restaurant in Scarborough roast it for us), we did make sure the pig came whole for us to chop into individual portions. It was definitely a bargain too, weighing it at 40lbs and costing only $140.
The pig came stuffed with lemongrass, and a few of us spent some of the previous day preparing some other side dishes. When it came time to cut the pig, I “generously” stepped up to volunteer my services. I say generously because at first it seemed no one really knew what to do or where to start. Not that I knew any better, but I tried to look like I knew what I was doing and before long, individual pieces/portions started to get cut away from the back of the top. Now comes the generous part (though it really just happened this way and was not something I had planned at all, promise!). After everyone had gotten their first portion, I decided that it was time to get in on some of this little piglet for myslef and allocate some of the choicest cuts of pork including the belly, cheek, and ribs. Since we were cutting from the top (back) of the pig, and no one had requested any of the other cuts, all of the best areas were still ripe for the picking! Not wanting it to go to waste, I decided to scoop some of them up for myself. And man oh man, was it ever tasty! I can’t even find the words to do this justice in how good it was.

For fun, I also tried the ear (a little burnt on the tips and very fatty near the base) and the tongue (a bit chewy and actually very good). A couple other observations about the pork. The belly was by far the most tender and delicious. The cheek was not as tender as the belly, but also quite good. The ribs (and other bony areas like the shoulder legs) were meaty and delicious, though not quite at the “fall of the bone” stage of tenderness. Most people on their first serving got cuts from the back of the pig (blade end, center loin, and sirloin) which is much leaner than some of the other areas. I would say 90% or more of the pig was eaten that glorious and gluttonous night.

6. Orchestra Practices
September also marked the beginning of the orchestra season. I wrote about it earlier (http://thetaoofchris.blogspot.com/2010/09/orchestra-update.html), and forgot to mention that we’re also playing some music from “The Chronicles of Narnia” in addition to other Halloween-themed music. For anyone interested in coming to my first concert in probably 5+ years, book off the afternoon of Saturday October 30th for a goblin and fairy inspired music.

7. Gladstone Harvest Wednesday
Right in the middle of the month, I went to participate the Gladstone Hotel’s Harvest Wednesday event where executive chef Marc Breton takes fresh produce from local farmers and showcases it along with local meats, cheeses, wines, and beers from other local vendors. We setup a table there are participated in most of the samples, though I was a bit underwhelmed by the food selection (or maybe it was just that lots of people showed up and it was difficult to get some of the food before it was all snatched up). Either way, it was an interesting experience that I’m happy I had the chance to attend.

Reflections
As I think back on September, it has really been a month of food. Unfortunately I missed the boat on mooncakes from Chinese New Year, though had a delicious Chinese banquet meal with my family and family friends to celebrate my Grandma’s 80th birthday to make up for it. Oh yeah, and if I haven’t talked enough about food, I wrote an article for Food Trotter that got published at the beginning of the month too. Did I mention I like eating food?
Alright, that’s it for this month and enough about food for now. In parting, I’ll leave you with this quotation by Virginia Woolf, the early 20th century British novelist and essayist.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

An Orchestra Update

2010-09-21T18:58:00.000-04:00

I think I mentioned this in an earlier post that I joined a community orchestra for this upcoming season. It's a a new activity for the next year (Sep-June), and a decision I'm really happy I made to brush the dust off my cello and get playing again. How exactly I managed to skip the audition process is another story, but more relevantly, this week I went to my first orchestra practice. I didn't really know what to expect or how it'd go, but I did manage to hack my way through most of the music and not play too badly out of tune!

This practice was a read through of the new music we'll be playing for our first concert coming up at 3pm on Saturday October 30th (mark your calendars if you want to come!). It's a Halloween themed concert, titled "Goblins and Fairies". I didn't really know what to expect of the music, but was pleasantly surprised by a relatively extensive and fun list of songs.

Here's the repertoire for the performance and links to some youtube videos if you want a preview of what it will sounds like. Most of the music should be familiar to most people.

Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite #1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRpzxKsSEZg)

Paul Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98VVhvfadYw)

John Williams - Harry Potter Symphonic Suite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaMqnYvzE2Q)

Antonin Dvorak - The Noon Witch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-NdI7kjbGk)

Stephen Schwartz - Highlights from WICKED (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON5ZX7VAoF0)

Sergei Prokofiev - Peter and the Wolf (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtns6R757i8)

More details on the orchestra can be found here: http://www.rhpo.ca/

August 2010 Review

2010-08-30T23:52:00.000-04:00

Another month has passed and that means it's time for my monthly review. As I come to write this review, sometimes it feels a bit weird to be putting some of though thoughts, activities, and ideas in such a public forum. The way I see it though, the main person I'm really writing for is myself as a sort of diary/journal and because of that, I don't mind putting in the time it takes to do these updates every month. And while I have no idea how many people actually read this, for people who do want to keep up with what I'm doing, this is the place. So without further ado, here's a recap on my very eventful month of August.

1. Jimmy's Taco Party

One of the fun things I did to kick off the beginning of the month was to celebrate Jimmy's birthday at his taco party. It was a tequilla and taco themed event and both of them did not disappoint. Let's just say I gained a new appreciation of the taste and smoothness differents between a variety of types of tequilla.

2. Shooting Stars Trip to Lake Simcoe

On August 12th, a bunch of people from my Tuesday frisbee team made the late night trek up to Lake Simcoe to catch the shooting stars of the Perseid Meteor Shower. While we got ushered away from hanging out and watching the stars right by the lake, we did find another suitable location nearby to hang out and watch the meteor shower on full display that evening. While it was a late night and a bit of a drive away from the city, it was definitely worth it for the clear skies that we got. On top of that, we made some cool light pictures with a tripod, super long shutter speed and trusty iphones. http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/08/perseid_meteor_shower_2010/

3. Day Trip to Guelph

One of the more random things I did this month was take a trip up to Guelph. A fellow member of the Toronto Food Policy Council invited me to join him and a couple other people for a trip up to Guelph to learn more about some of the OMAFRA funding initiatives. While the program being discussed didn't really end up being relevant for me, we did get a chance to tour one of the green roofs on campus, meet with researchers who are working extensively on green roof designs, meet with a local professor, and check out some of the space-age experiments (literally!) they were conducting in conjunction with NASA there. There were a couple of chambers setup that are completely sealed off in an attempt to grow food in a completely closed environment. This is because if astronauts are to make extensive voyages into space, they will need a source of food and nutrition and growing food is one of the things they are experimenting with. Also very randomly, I ran into one of my volunteers who is now a research assistant for the professor I was speaking with earlier. All in all, it was a random, but also highly interesting trip.

4. Trip to Haliburton / Muskoka

Another day trip I ended up taking was up to the Haliburton and Muskoka region. I visited a FSC certified lumber yard and saw first hand how logs get transformed into the finished wood pieces we know and utilize today. It was also a chance to meet with one of my suppliers and start planning and forecasting for next year.

5. Conscious Food Festival

On the 14th, I found myself at the Conscious Food Festival at the historic Fort York. I wrote my experiences there in my last post here: http://thetaoofchris.blogspot.com/2010/08/conscious-food-festival-2010.html

6. Newmarket Garlic Festival

The weekend after the Conscious Food Festival, I thought I would go and check out the Newmarket Garlic festival. Unfortunatley, the website (http://www.garlicisgreat.com/) where I saw the information about the festival was not up to date and mentioned that the festival ended at 4pm, when in fact it ended at 1pm. While we did catch a few of the vendors who were and buy a bit of garlic, it was still quite a disappointing trip and we were probably expecting too much even if we did make it to the festival on time.

7. CSA Panel Discussion

Through our non profit Young Urban Farmers CSA, we held the 3rd workshop of our summer series. It was a fun night to hear about what other people are doing with urban ag across the city and country. Our next event is on growing native edibles with Lorraine Johnson. More info can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=107102596014642&ref=mf

8. Fresh movie screening

If that one panel discussion wasn't enough, there was another panel discussion happening the following week following the film screening of the movie "Fresh." Organized by local food activist Allison Savage of http://radishesandrhubarb.blogspot.com, I was asked to speak on the panel along with several other individuals involved in the local food scene: chef Brad Long of Veritas restaurant, Debbie Field of Food Share, and Tammara Soma of Sustain Ontario. The panel was moderated by Wayne Roberts.

9. Live Green Toronto Festival

Towards the end of the month, the City of Toronto hosted it's Live Green Event at Yonge/Dundas Square. Featuring over 100 green-themed vendors, it was a fun event to see what other initiatives are happening in the city (lots of clothing related organizations, a few solar related groups, and a mixed bag of other vendors) and help spread the word about what we do.

10. Other odds and ends

Some other interesting things that happening. I met up with some interesting people at a monthly mastermind meeting. Along with another friend, our goal is to bring together other entrepreneurs in the city to share ideas, resources, and to network with like minded people. It's still a small group, but something I hope we can continue to put together in the future. I'm also pretty excited to setup an irrigation system a friend gave to me. I've unofficially joined a community orchestra for the 2010-2011 season (and somehow bypassing the audition process), and started reading some interesting food-related books too (http://amzn.to/KwTdu, http://amzn.to/9HSP9O, and http://amzn.to/by5KVF).

That's it for this month's review. As usual, there's lots more exciting things on the agenda coming up in September. And in parting I'd like to leave you with this poem from one of my favourite childhood authors Shel Silverstein:

Anything Can Happen

Listen to the Mustn'ts, child,

Listen to the Don'ts

Listen to the Shouldn'ts

The Impossibles, the Won'ts

Listen to the Never Haves,

Then listen close to me --

Anything can happen, child,

Anything can be

Conscious Food Festival 2010

2010-08-15T22:51:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I had the chance to check out Conscious Food Festival at historic Fort York in downtown Toronto. Thanks to Jonathan from Savouries.ca for hooking me up with a free ticket to the event. Overall I found it to be a well-organized event with lots of interesting vendors and a great theme to draw people together who are interested in local, sustainable food to the event.

Samples

Pretty much all of the vendors had samples - some were for a small fee ($1-2 typically), while others were giving away samples for free. Two of my favourite samples were the cheese plate from Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co which featured 3 different cheeses from 3 different animals (goat, sheep, and cow), and in 3 different styles and the poutine from another vendor (can't remember off hand which one).

Other vendors and interesting things included local wineries/breweries, a gourmet tofu company, an iced kefir dessert (just like how you'd think it tastes), cooking demonstrations, a chip company from the West coast, live bluegrass music, and a taste test between "conscious" ice cream (with organic cream, real sugar) versus "modified milk ingredient" ice cream (with modified milk ingredients, artificial sweeteners).

-mmmm, conscious poutine

A Hidden Gem

My thoughts on the hidden gem of the event was visiting the community garden on site. Tucked in behind one of the stages and away from the main festival area, the garden featured a number of raised beds (at least a dozen and of various shapes and sizes) that are assigned to various community members. Tomatoes seemed to always be the popular thing to grow in almost all of the boxes and some of the surprising things were corn and winter squash being grown. Unfortunately, pretty much all of zucchinis and some of the cucumbers had powdery mildew (seems to be a common theme across the city this year) and it was interesting to see how other people set up their garden and the various stages of organization within the garden.

Some of the other things I learned from one of the gardeners there is that they have a shared herb box, and had funding from the Trillium Foundation a couple years ago to help them get the beds up and running.

-a shot of the community garden

July 2010 Review

2010-08-01T22:08:00.000-04:00

July felt like a long month. With all the hot summer weather and long days we've been having, it seems like there's been time for so many different activities. And without further ado, here's a recap of some of the interesting things that went on during my July.

1. Weilin Visiting from Australia

Early in the month, I had a friend from Australia come and visit. We had met a couple years ago from a cultural exchange trip to China, and it's been nice to keep in touch (even if sporadically) over the years, and pickup our friendship and fun times from where we left off. It was also nice to have a chance to play tour guide and show off the fantastic city I get to call home. Some of my favourite experiences were going on a tour of the Steamwhistle brewery, riding the Maid of the Mist ferry in Niagara Falls, and taking lots of comical photos.

2. Swimming

This month, I decided to return to part of last year's morning routine - which is waking up early to hit the pool and get some exercise. The schedule that I've set up for myself is to go on Mondays as well either Thursday or Friday. The first day getting back in the pool after a several month layoff felt quite rough. I was much more out of breath than I remembered and everything just felt awkward. On the bright side, by the end of this month, I feel like I'm really getting my form back and getting back up to where I left off. There are a couple of things I'm going to focus on for the next couple weeks. They are: balanc ein the water, stronger kicking, and more distance per pull. I think after that I'm going to seriously start working on my flipturns.

3. Celebrating Wing's Birthday on Centre Island

Another highlight of the month was celebrating Wing's birthday on Centre Island. I got introduced to a new frisbee-related game, got a chance to play some disc golf, and spend an enjoyable afternoon outside.

4. Biking

In the middle of the month, I finally got around to fixing the flat tire on my bike. I've had it since last fall, and unfortunatlely the first replacement patch that I put on the inner tube didn't hold and then the new inner tube that I bought had a really slow leak that ended up not being very usable. Finally, I had enough of not being able to bike around and hastily one Saturday morning decided to finally get out and get my inner tube fixed. I was in a bit of a rush to get going, but luckily, I manager to swing by the bike store, get a replacement inner tube, rush home, and in 20 minutes flat change the inner tube, pump it up, and go for a quick test ride to make sure all was A-OK. It was a bit of a mad scramble, but it got done, and now I have a bike back in riding shape. Anyone up for a bike ride in August/September?

5. Rooftop tour of Royal York

As part of our non-profit organization YUF CSA, we organizaed a tour of the rooftop gardens of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. They've got a whole variety of stuff growing up there, inculding lots of herbs, a few grape vines, and even a number of bee hives. It was really interesting to see what they've got growing up there, and it even gave me a few inspirations for things I'd like to try to grow in the future.

6. Crab Apple Cider

As another of my random summer experiments, I decided to try making crab apple cider. I picked about a quater of a bushel of crab apples one day and proceeded to spend the next couple of hours washing, coring them, and simmering them over water and a moderate amount of sugar. After the simmering, I strained the resulting liquid through a cheesecloth and was left with a beautiful pink coloured liquid. Because I didn't add that much water when making the cider, there was a very strong astringent after-taste of the crabapples. Besides the after-taste, it is actually really tasty and refreshing. The way I ended up using it was to dilute it with water, and mix it with a cold-brewed pot of green or black tea for a refreshing iced crab apple green tea beverage.

7. Shiitake Mushroom Harvest

July also marked the month for my second harvest of shiitake mushrooms. After soaking the logs in ice water overnight (you need to literally add a bunch of ice to your container) and then "shocking" the logs by smacking each end with a hammer, each log produced a handful of large, earthy, beautiful shiitake mushrooms. They were probably the best mushrooms I've ever had, stir fried with butter, and a litte salt and pepper. Yum!

8. Strategic Planning Session

July was also the month where we had some time to sit down for some strategic planning sessions. We've got a couple of ideas we're looking to implement going forward, so look for new things happening in the future.

9. CBC Metro Morning Interview

Right near the end of the month, I had a chance to speak again with Matt Galloway on the CBC Radio program Metro Morning. It was a fantastic opportunity to promote my business spread the word about what I do. Originally they wanted to do a program more geared towards the early harvest of the summer fruits, but since we don't really have a focus on summer fruit, we ended up talking about the early harvest of veggies and how we help people in the city grow and connect with the freshest, locally grown food.

10. Eat-in at City Hall

Also at the end of the month, I went for an "eat-in" event at City Hall. Designed to bring people together to talk about food as an election issue, it was a nice chance to network and meet with other people involved in the local food scene. As a bonus, it also drew out a couple of the mayoral candidates and/or their representatives.

11. Frisbee

As many of you know, frisbee is one of my favourite sports. And July just seemed to be the month where my throwing game has really started to tighten up and become more consistent. While I've usually been one of the main handlers on my Tuesday team, it's been nice to be able to step up my game for my Wednesday team as well when some of the other guys haven't been on top of their game.

After many years and thousands of throws, my consistency and accuracy has gone way up, I'm comfortable hucking the disc my game-time throwing decisions have improved, making a variety of break throws aren't anything to get nervous about, and being able to place the disc in the hands of the receiver at the right speed, at the right angle, and right place has also improved as well.

That's it for this July update. It's been a busy, but good month.

More finding, less seeking

2010-07-29T18:37:00.000-04:00

"When someone seeks, it can easily happen that his eyes only see the thing he is seeking and that he is incapable of finding anything, incapable of taking anything in, because he is always only thinking about what he is seeking, because he has an object, a goal, because he is possessed by this goal. Seeking means having a goal, but finding means being free, open, having no goal. Perhaps you, venerable one, are indeed a seeker, for in striving after your goal, there is much you fail to see that is right before your eyes."

- except from Siddharta, by Hermann Hesse

I finished reading the classic novel Siddhartha recently and this was one of the passages in the book that really resonated with me. After I read this passage, I literally stopped, put the book, and started to reflect on this passage. I think that in many aspects of my life, I'm more of a seeker and not a finder. Yet when I think back to some of the most interesting memories I've had, the majority of them came from finding.

Maybe there's a balance that needs to be struck between seeking and finding, or maybe certain things require more seeking rather than finding, or more finding rather than seeking, but whatever the case, I don't want to miss what's out there "right before your eyes."

April and May 2010 Review

2010-07-02T18:46:00.000-04:00

**So I had this update written for the beginning of June, but just forgot to post it. Here it is, a month late, but better late than never.**

Another month has passed and it's time for my monthly review. Since May of last year (2009), I was on a pretty good streak of keeping up with these updates, until this past April when I was just too busy to even think about writing an update. So here goes a double header update for both April and May.

April Review

Lots of things were happening, with the majority of my time focused on my business in terms of going out on sales calls, prepping materials for our upcoming jobs, and networking within the local food community. It was a busy month

1. Elected to be a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council

First up, I got nominated to become a member of the TFPC. This is a volunteer council, though there are a couple paid staff members, which is part of the Toronto Board of Health, that advises the city on food policy and related issues. The council is primarily made up of people who have been involved in the local food movement for many years now, and have lots of experience in a whole variety of sectors. I had a chance to skim some of the bios of the other members, and they have a long list of accomplishments which I think seriously overshadow some of the things that I've done in the past. Despite the wealth of experience of council members, they are bringing in some more young people to voice their opinions, and it is through the relatively new Toronto YOUTH Food Policy Council (which I am also a member of), I got nominated to be one of the two youth representatives on the council.

More information on the council canbe found here (http://www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm), though I've been told the website is many, many years old and is not regularly updated

2. Spoke with Matt Galloway on CBC Radio's Metro Morning

Towards the end of the month, I got a call from one of the producers of Metro Morning asking if I'd be interested in going into the studio to speak about my involvement in the local urban agriculture secene. Not wanting to turn down such a great opportunity, I accepted wholeheartedly. It was a whirlwind experience where everything happened very quickly. I got a call on Monday asking to see if I'd be interested in participating, got a call back the next day to confirm the time, then on Thursday morning, I found myself sitting in the studio with Matt Galloway as well as with another urban farmer Daniel Hoffman. The interview took place early on Thursday morning (around 6:45am), I arrived at the studio around 6:30, the interview lasted less than 10 minutes, and then I was out the door and on my way for the rest of the day right afterwards. It was a cool experience and I'm happy to say that we got some more business for both the CSA and our private service out of this interview.

3. Grant approval for our non-profit

One of the most exciting news to share this month was that our non-profit Young Urban Farmers CSA got approved for a grant from the Big Carrot. Lots of time and effort went into preparing the application, and this wouldn't have been possible without the help from many of our great volunteers. I know I definitely breathed a sigh of relief knowing that we have some funding to help sustain our operations for this year. As with most non-profits, funding is always an issue and it's nice to see that all of our costs will be covered through our shareholders and this grant for this year.

4. The Drake Hotel

Another piece of exciting news was that we landed a pretty high profile commercial account. While the garden that we set up for them is tucked away in a back alley behind the hotel and not very visible, it is still a great opportunity for us to expand to more commercial customers in the future.

5. Online store sales orders

Back in March, we launched an e-commerce store as a way to help get our brand out there and service more people than just in our current geographic reach of the GTA. Not really expecting too much, I was pleasantly surprised as many people somehow were able to find our website and placed a couple orders with us. No SEO or web optimization or anything was done (which is on my to-do list once things start to settle down) to draw people to our site, and some of these customers mentioned that they found us through a simple web search. Maybe this is just one successful example of the phrase "build it and they will come".

6. Easter

Easter was a bit of a low-key time of year for me. My parents were out of town, but I had the chance to be there for my friend Derek's baptism. It was also great to see a bunch of old Queen's people I hadn't seen in a while too.

That about sums it up for the month of April. I'm sure more things happened that I've forgotten about, but that's all for now.

May review

May has been a hot and dry month. I was able to get my farmer's tan on, setting up a ton of gardens this year (I've actually lost track of how many I've put in so far). I'm glad things are starting to slow down a bit more as I can't keep up the same pace of work for so long.

1. Three Feature Articles in The Globe and Mail

Over the past year, we've been very fortunate to have a number of high profile media outlets speak and profile us in their publications (Toronto Life, Toronto Star, CBC Radio). This month, several opportunities came up where YUF was profiled in the small business section, I was profiled in the May 24 gardening special, and our CSA was also talked about in the same paper on the same day as well. I know it's been huge in terms of generating awareness and will only help business in the future.

2. Selling Seedlings at the Withrow Farmers Market

Also in May, we had the chance to sell lots of seedlings at the Withrow Farmers Market. Not knowing what to expect, I would say we did quite well selling lots of plants each time we were there. We definitely learned a lot being at the market as well. And it was more of the little things that we learned like arriving early to setup, having a banner and some sort of tent cover to help protect us from the elements, knowing which plants to bring, and more.

3. Avoided 2 parking tickets

There was one day during the middle of the month where I almost got 2 parking tickets. In both places, I knew I was parked in a spot where I shouldn't have been, and both times I was getting back to my car just as the parking officer was showing up to write a ticket. One of the parking officers was really nice about it, and the other was a real jerk about it. I know they are just doing their jobs, but unfortunately they're in probably one of the professions where most people don't like it when they do their job well.

4. Start of the Ultimate Season

May also marked the start of our frisbee season. I'm playing on two teams again this year (Tofuriuos and Slam Dunks) on Tuesday and Wednesday night. I forgot how much I missed playing frisbee until I stepped on the pitch for the first time this season. There's been a bit of turnover on both of my teams, but there are still lots of fun people on both teams that I know it's going to be a great season!

5. Felix and Boris back in town

Coincidentally, two of my high school friends were back in town in May at the same time and I had a chance to catch up with both of them. It was nice getting together and going for a delicious Chinese vegetarian dinner

6. TFPC retreat and strategic planning session

After being elected to become a member of the TFPC (Toronto Food Policy Council), I had a chance to attend my first meeting with the group and it was a strategic planning session. Surprisingly, this was the first time in the council's almost 20 year history. I had the privilege of meeting many of the esteemed members of the council (people who have definitely been around the food world and done lots of great things) and contribute to the future vision of the council.

Also, for the first public meeting of the council in June (on Wednesday), I'll have an opportunity to be a part of a panel discussion about the future of the Food Connections Report recently passed by Toronto Public Health and which should be moving on to the main city council for a vote in the future.

7. Interesting Plants

This year, I'm trying out a number of new and interesting plants. As with all plants, it's about experimenting and seeing what works for you and what works in our Toronto climate. Here are some of the interesting ones that I'm growing this year:

Purple snow peas
French lavender
Ginger mint
Globe basil
Thai basil
Cantaloupe
Tomatillo
Climbing nasturtiums
"Curry" herb (smells just like Indian curry!)

Looking forward, I'm sure June will bring more interesting events (I'm never one to just sit idly around) and more things to write about. I want to take some time to reconsider the direction of the blog as there hasn't been any plan or direction so far. All of our gardens should be wrapped up very soon, and it'll be time to start reaping the rewards of the harvest.

June 2010 Review

2010-07-02T18:26:00.002-04:00

June has been a great month and like most months - filled with a variety of interesting activities. My work schedule has been varied with the first part of the month still quite busy, but then things started to taper off towards the mid-end of the month. Here's a quick recap of some of the more memorable things that happened.

1. Spring BBQ

My second annual spring BBQ got kicked off was a great way to kick off the summer. We had great weather, good food, cold beer (well it needed a bit of time to chill first), and most importantly good times with friends. I made some burgers (thanks to Costco =P), but also whipped up a grilled pineapple marinated with rum, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Still warm and dripping with juice from the grill, this was a delicious finish to some of the other grilled food from the day. I think I'll be making this again in the future.

2. A Cottage Weekend

For one of my weekends in June, I had the chance to spend it up at a friend's cottage. It was a nice escape from the city, and I had the chance to do lots of open water swimming, catch up on some summer reading, and enjoy good food and time in nature.

3. Cherries

June was a month full of cherries. I picked cherries from 4 different trees, and probably came away with over 150lbs of cherries. Many of the cherries went towards our CSA participants, however the bulk of the cherries came from the tree in my backyard. It was definitely a bumper crop year, with the cherries seeming to be never ending. In fact, there is probably still another 20 or so lbs of cherries still on my tree waiting to be picked before they go overripe.

I think 3 of the tree were of the sweet bing variety, while the other tree was also a sweet cherry, but the fruit was not as large and not as sweet. Despite many similarities, each tree had several unique characteristics. For example, one tree had extremely flexible branches, meaning that you could literally pull the branch towards you so that you could reach the cherries at the outer reaches of the branches. Other trees had much more rigid branches, making it much more difficult to reach some of the cherries. For some trees, the growth of the cherries occurred mainly on the smaller branches, while other trees like my tree had cherries growing not only from the smaller outer granches, but also from larger branches. Finally, some of the cherries came in large clumps (8 or more per clump) on the branches while other trees had fewer berries per clump (but more spread out .

For the cherries from my tree, unfortunately because of the heavy rain we had the past week, this caused the cherries to really swell in size and burst their skins. While they are still great to eat, this means that they are more susceptible to go bad (since the skin isn't intact) and that they aren't as sweet (due to all the excess water). From these cherries, many of them have been eaten and picked by friends and family, many are now in my freezer awaiting some future use, some of the them have been juiced, some have been turned into juice, while still more have been juiced and are now fermenting in another experiement of mine to create some cherry wine. We'll see the results of what of this are in about a year (yes it takes a while to age, but the majority of the work has been done already).

4. Garden update

I thought I'd take a couple paragraphs about the status of my personal garden. This year, I'm experimenting with a variety of new plants. I put in tomatillos, kale, lemon balm, arugula, lots of tomatoes, a hungarian sweet wax pepper, purple beas, beans, a couple kinds of basil, cantaloupe, and still lots more. Here are some pics of things are looking like

Overall June was a good month. July I think will be a bit of a transition month, but I'm sure lots more interesting things will come from another 31 days.

Desiderata

2010-05-16T18:20:00.000-04:00

Continuing along in my semi-regular poetry series, here's another poem that I was sent a while ago by a friend. To me, it speaks of living a life of joy, beauty, and passion.

Desiderata - Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

To Risk

2010-05-02T23:25:00.000-04:00

To Risk

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and
dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because
the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing,
has nothing, is nothing.

– William Arthur Ward

March 2010 Review

2010-04-02T01:14:00.000-04:00

This is only going to be a short update as I've been swamped with a ton of stuff to do recently, so here goes my shotgun approach to this month's review

Recap

1. Seedy Saturday Scarborough

It was a great event, though not nearly the same turnout as the main Toronto event.

2. Homemade wine

I'm in the process of making my own wine (though not with grape). It's sitting in my basement doing a bit of aging and should be ready in about a year

3. Volunteered at Canada Blooms

The City of Toronto had one of the best displays and I was inspired by their beautiful inter-planting of veggies and flowers in ornamental and tasty ways

4. Fitness swim time trial

Not knowing what I was capable of doing, I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up swimming 100m in 1min28sec.

5. Soup, soup, and more soup

I went on a soup making binge this month making 3 large pots: lentil soup, a butternut squash soup, and also a mixed veg curry soup. Let's say that each pot was enough to feed at least 10 people with leftovers

6. Grant writing.

I was involved in submitting our first grant for our non-profit organization-submitted my frist grant. Let's hope this is just the first of many we apply for, and receive funding for.

7. TYFPC Food Systems Fair

We participated at the inaugural Food Systems Fair at UT campus. Great turnout, cool speakers, good food courtesy of the Hot Yam, and more.

8. First garden setup of 2010

I helped setup the first garden for the 2010 growing season

9. More public speaking

I gave a school presentation to an elementary school (some grade 7's and some grade 3's) on food security. Unfortunately, I think I ended up boring the kids for pretty much the entire time I was up.

Review

A lot of things happened in March, much of which isn't ready to be shared just yet (or in such a public forum). There were triumphs, defeats, lessons learned, character-building moments, opportunities seized, and more. With time, I'm sure many of these (positive) things we've been working on recently will come to fruiting and the other (negative) things will come to pass.

Parting Quotation

Our achievements of today
are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday.
You are today where the thoughts of yesterday have brought you
and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you.
Blaise Pascal

The Tao of Chris

Upcoming concert Apr 23

Poetry Series #6: The Bridge Builder, by Will Allen Dromgoole

The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole

February 2011 Review

Poetry Series #5: Life, by Josh J Dafft

January 2011 Review

Poetry Series: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

How to Make Homemade Kimchi

2010 Review: Posts from the past year

2010 Review: Posts from the past year

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

November 2010 Review

Poetry Series: A Psalm of Life, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Psalm of Life

My Review of the 14th Annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference (and New Orleans Food)

October 2010 Review

New Orleans Initial Thoughts

The 2010 Picnic at the Brickworks

September 2010 Review

An Orchestra Update

August 2010 Review

Conscious Food Festival 2010

July 2010 Review

More finding, less seeking

April and May 2010 Review

June 2010 Review

Desiderata

To Risk

To Risk

March 2010 Review

The Bridge Builder
by Will Allen Dromgoole