chromedome

When grinding large carcasses, replace the hand crank with your impact wrench. The neighbors will be jealous.

Ah, to be a researcher in the age of microbiomes and genetic sequencing. Everybody knows there are a few Nobels to be had from it, but it'll take a few decades to see which lines of inquiry take the field into entirely novel directions. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02778-8

Not as inspiring as what's immediately upthread, but before heading down to NS for this month's trip I managed to crank out a dozen pints of dill pickles. I got the timing right, this year, and my dill and cucumbers are both in "overdrive" mode at the same time. They're just run of the mill quick dills using white vinegar, but I did lay my hands on some "pickle pipes" for my mason jars at off-season clearance pricing, so when I get home I'll probably make at least a few pints of lacto-fermented dills for my own satisfaction. I also have a glass fermentation crock my GF bought me as a surprise gift. I don't have it in front of me right now (because I'm out of province) but IIRC it holds about 4 litres/1 gallon. I'll probably do a small batch of kraut in that one.

"Ick factor" indeed. https://undark.org/2024/08/21/plastic-waste-transformed-into-food-for-humans/

This is Ontario only, but the European Butcher brand of back bacon is being recalled for Listeria. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/european-butcher-brand-back-bacon-recalled-due-listeria-monocytogenes?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

So Anova has been making friends and influencing people, I hear... https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/smart-sous-vide-cooker-to-start-charging-2-month-for-10-year-old-companion-app/

I'm not sure off the top of my head. I worked it out last year, I'll see if I can find that post. Each kind of beans is in a bed that's roughly 3'x6', IIRC, and I plant them thickly so they'll crowd out the weeds once they hit a certain size. It's a bit more work "beating the bushes" to find the beans, but I can grow a lot in a small space. Pole beans apparently give greater yield for a given space, but I haven't had much success with them yet in this garden. This year I haven't planted any at all, though I'm hoping to still get some in before it's too late.

I'd be the only one in the house eating them if they were made with black pudding (sadly) but I like the Scotch eggs idea. I get lots of quail eggs (and we have 24 of 'em in an incubator that are due to hatch within 24 hours) so I'm always up for finding things to do with them.

A story in two pictures:

Another hasty catch-up post. Harvested my garlic a couple of weeks ago, and this year's "jungle o' beans" is in full swing. This picture shows over 10 lbs from last night's picking (filet beans on the left, regular bush beans to the right) to go with the 20 that are already in my freezer. Need to find time today to plant another bed for a late harvest. About 5 pounds of cukes barely visible in the back left, and a big pile of lettuce (mostly Grand Rapids) at the back right. The first handful of pattypan squash and 4 pounds or so of tomatoes in the front right (they're just starting to hit their stride). Between the tomatoes and beans you'll spot the last handful of peas from my early planting. The new bed is beginning to push out blossoms and I should see pods any day now, so I somehow timed that just about right. Tomorrow I'll run through the greens again and harvest another big shopping bag of kale and chard. I have my first few pounds in the freezer, but I'll be going hard on the greens in the second half of the gardening season to try and build up the winter stash in my freezer. A few years ago I managed 30 lbs of blanched and frozen greens, which lasted us just about to my first harvest the next year. Given that we now live with the stepdaughter and grandkids, I'll need a bit more this time to get us through the winter. Also last year's 50 pounds of beans were gone by February, so I'm hoping to do better this year. I've done late plantings of Early Wonder beets (which I grow primarily for the greens), a lacinato-type kale called Black Magic, and also spinach and cauliflower. I've never had any luck with early plantings of those last two (our springs just aren't long enough) but I had modest success a few years ago with a late planting of cauliflower so I'm trying it again. So far, so good. Also my broccoli were late getting started, because I had a bed wiped out early in the season, but they're cold-hardy and I'm hopeful to still get a decent yield. My handful of pepper plants are bearing, but not heavily. I forget the name of this year's cultivar, but next year I'll definitely go back to last year's Red Knight hybrid which was sturdier and bore more heavily. I have lots of dill and cukes, but haven't done much pickling. I have a batch of Lady Ashburnham started, which I'll finish and can today (Lady A is a local variation on mustard pickles, made with diced mature cucumbers). I may have enough small cukes for a tiny batch of dills, and I'll use a few of the mid-sized ones for bread & butter pickles.

This isn't the kind of "food science" we normally post here, but I found it fascinating. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/kitchen-science-how-mayonnaise-is-advancing-nuclear-fusion-research/

Back here in Canada, the Hai Yen Ocean Swallow brand of frozen, shredded young coconut has been recalled for salmonella. Currently affects BC and the Prairies. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/hai-yen-ocean-swallow-brand-frozen-shredded-young-coconut-recalled-due-salmonella-0?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Alfred, Lord Tennyson/ lived entirely upon venison. Not cheap, I fear/ 'cause venison's deer. (An example of the form known as a "clerihew," if you're curious)

...and another, affecting Gerber. I don't know if they're related, but given they both contain oats and both involve cronobacter it seems a definite possibility. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/gerberr-brand-oat-banana-mango-baby-cereal-recalled-due-cronobacter-spp?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

There's been an update on the baby food recall, though it seems relatively minor. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/baby-gourmet-organic-brand-banana-raisin-oatmeal-organic-whole-grain-baby-cereal?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Huh. Now here's an interesting take on how to mitigate the health impacts of excessive sugar consumption... https://www.wsj.com/science/biology/healthier-sugar-fiber-enzyme-harvard-scientists-a8bb2dce?page=1

Yup, that's the short version. When I lived in Vancouver in the 80s, my best friend was a first-generation Italian-Canadian and these were a frequent drinking snack. Just drained, and sprinkled very lightly with salt (if they're not already salty enough). You'll see that one end of each bean has a small opening. Place that against your lips, squeeze the hull, and the bean will pop into your mouth leaving the leathery husk behind. Chew, swallow, drink, repeat.

This one goes back a little farther than most of our links on this thread. It's less about the cooking as such than creating a baseline for other archaeologists to use as a reference point, but still fascinating. One of my fellow vendors at a farmer's market years ago knapped a range of replica flint arrowheads and spearheads, and I've often thought about tracking him down in search of a few flakes that I could experiment with myself just for personal interest. I had a notion to be an archaeologist at one point in my childhood (probably driven at least in part by a show-off desire to demonstrate that I could spell it, as a kindergartner). https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/hand-me-that-flint-flake-archaeologists-butcher-cook-fowl-like-a-neanderthal/

Send this link to your kids/grandkids and anyone else who has an infant: "Baby Gourmet" brand organic banana raisin oatmeal is being recalled for cronobacter contamination. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/baby-gourmet-organic-brand-banana-raisin-oatmeal-organic-whole-grain-baby-cereal?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23