chromedome

In my neck of the woods home-raised eggs sell for $5/dozen, perhaps because I'm in the country and a lot of people have chickens. As of my most recent shopping trip, the price of supermarket eggs has risen from $4.69 to $5.03 (?) at both Sobeys and Superstore.

The good news: researchers have developed a method for perfect soft-boiled eggs. The bad news: you spend a half-hour fussing over them. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w

Google outdoes itself...

From the "not good" files, Jean Perrin brand's Morbier de Scey and Raclette de Scey are being recalled for potentially containing pathogenic E. coli. The current recall name-checks the three western provinces plus Quebec, but other provinces or territories may yet prove to be affected. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/jean-perrin-brand-morbier-scey-and-raclette-scey-cheeses-recalled-due-possible?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

When the company you're looking for has a name that can be misconstrued as a general search term, enclosing it in quotation marks (which tells Google "I want this exact word or phrase") is a useful way to weed out extraneous results. In this case, I Googled "gouter patisserie" and it worked just fine. Often the big thing with Google results is just finding ways to get rid of results you don't want, which at times can be challenging. I'm sure we've all had the experience of trying a search for that one particular chocolate cake recipe (or whatever) that we thought we'd bookmarked, but hadn't.

There's a community garden on the grounds of my mother's nursing home, consisting of individual 4'x8' planters. Those were originally made of wood, but were replaced last with recycled plastic faux-wood manufactured by a local company, which should be much more durable. They seem to have good uptake, with the majority of the beds tended diligently until the end of the season, though a few inevitably end up going wild as the summer wears on (people tend to underestimate how much work even a small garden can be). I see a nice mix of flowers and vegetables among the plots. A few grow only one or the other, but a surprising number mix-and-match within their single bed. It's a win-win for the community and the nursing home, because a few of the residents still love to garden and for those who don't it provides a lot of seasonal interest to do along with the facility's own landscaping. Whenever the weather cooperates, I'll usually wheel my mom around the grounds for at least an hour a day so she can enjoy it (she still walks fine for short distances but tires quickly, so our long walks are long rides for her). I've talked shop with several of the gardeners, and was surprised to hear several of them grumble that people seem to genuinely believe that "community garden" means "free for anyone in the community to help themselves." The nursing home isn't open to fencing in the garden area (it would utterly spoil the aesthetics of the grounds), so some of the gardeners now put protective mesh around their individual planters, and have put up discreet signs explaining that they pay to have a plot in this garden, and that it is not for public consumption.

A couple of recalls that hit my inbox yesterday, but that I had no time to post. Swiss Chalet-branded chicken nuggets are being recalled nationally for potentially containing pieces of bone: https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/swiss-chalet-brand-chicken-breast-nuggets-recalled-due-pieces-bone?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23 ...and two varieties of Palm Bites brand date squares are being recalled for potential salmonella. This mainly affects Ontario, but they were also sold online and may turn up in other provinces. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/palm-bites-brand-date-squares-recalled-due-salmonella?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Some good news on this front: the USDA has granted provisional approval to a vaccine to inoculate poultry against the avian flu. https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-conditionally-approves-vaccine-protect-poultry-avian-flu

It's good to see you back in the (metaphorical) saddle.

LOL "The 'Man Fork,' anyone?" https://www.foodandwine.com/why-in-the-world-does-this-creepy-fork-exist-8778646 Commenter on Bluesky: "It was the best of tines, it was the worst of tines..."