chromedome

That goes way beyond charitable endeavours, and represents a real issue for the local food movement in general. Here in New Brunswick, where I live, three of the province's major urban centres (Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton) form a triangle, with Fredericton just under an hour and Moncton just over an hour from Saint John. Agriculture is still important here, though much reduced from a generation or two ago. Local-food enthusiasts have been trying to establish some sort of regular run between the three cities, which would enable producers to collectively get their products to restaurateurs, schools and independent grocers in those centres. There's a lot of interest, but so far the idea hasn't hit critical mass. There are only a few producers large enough to circulate trucks between the three cities on a regular basis, and the logistics of arranging numerous pickups and dropoffs have so far been insurmountable. When my restaurant was open, I had to drive all over the place myself to secure my lamb, boar, sturgeon and local produce from their respective growers. I was already working 100+ hours/week, so that was a real impediment.

When I was going to culinary school, Michael Smith was one of the country's most visible "celebrity chefs" and had recently opened a very successful restaurant in my hometown of Halifax. Speaking to my classmates and I, he expressed frustration that, even with his high profile, he absolutely could not crack the $30/entree glass ceiling. Today, reviewing the recent release of the Top 50 Restaurants list, the National Post blames the lack of international recognition for Canadian chefs/restaurants on this same attribute, basically explaining that we're a nation of cheap basta- unnecessarily frugal diners who are more interested in bandwagons than supporting our homegrown culinary traditions.

I'm not personally familiar with the characteristics of buffalo milk, but I'd be inclined to try reducing it as Plan A. I don't know if adding fat would be as effective as reducing water, but it's something to think about while you wait for someone with actual expertise to chime in.

I can't answer for Elsie D's exact sale, but typically in my neck of the woods BSBs go on for $3.99 and once or twice a year for $2.99 (chicken isn't subsidized up here the way it is in the US). Pork is usually the big bargain up here. I just picked up a pair of whole boneless loins (one for home, one for at my mother's place) at $1.99/lb. It's not my favorite cut, but at that price it's a hella lot of chops and stir-fry for a very small dollar.

Does your fence extend underground? I hate to rain on your parade, but rabbits and their ilk (we get a lot of groundhogs up my way) can zip underneath a ground-level fence in the time it takes you to go inside and pour that coffee.

Beans are certainly easier to store, but if they're going to be processed into ready-to-eat food there's still plenty of opportunity to get things wrong. If the food is to be stored and handed out as-is for people to prepare at home, it is (sadly) also true that many people have no idea how to cook dry beans. I've had that conversation many times at my cooking classes. A more important point is that the food bank isn't catering solely to vegetarians, and being herded involuntarily into something because it's "better for you" is the kind of thing that raises hackles, and rightly so. A friend of mine, who'd been in and out of the foster system throughout his childhood, bitterly defined "social worker" as: "The person who tells you to eat the yellow snow because it's got more trace minerals." (Disclaimer: If any social workers happen to read this, please don't be upset. I've known several -- have a few in my family -- and have nothing but respect for the difficult job they do. This particular friend had been through all seven circles of hell with the ones who ran his childhood, and his opinion was, sadly, well earned.)

Personally, I suspect the Easter Bunny.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/04/04/hamilton-police-ask-public-to-romaine-calm-after-45k-lettuce-heist.html

Ugh, yes. We cleaned the floor-level coils of the fridge in our rental a month or so ago, and they were packed tightly with the felt-like corpses of ancestral dust bunnies. We had to empty the vacuum three times (!!) before it was cleaned out. We plan to do this every 3 to 6 weeks...or at least, will do so once the vacuum is replaced. I don't *think* cleaning the coils was what made it crap out after just a few weeks, but wouldn't care to hazard a firm opinion on the subject.

Freezers run best when chock-a-block. Refrigerators require air circulation, otherwise you get unfortunate warm and cold spots. Thermal mass might be useful if you have young 'uns deliberating over their snacks for extended periods with the door open, but I don't know how you'd do that effectively. In an ideal situation, your most perishable items would be surrounded by the milk cartons (or whatever receptacles you ultimately use to hold the water).

Or as it's known in my house, "Crap! How can we be out of sauerkraut again? I wanted a Reuben, dammit!"

I remember trying this once, the last time it was in fashion.* I wasn't especially enamored of the texture, and went back to doing it the traditional way. Now I cook up several days' steel-cut oats at a time (one cup oats, 4 cups water) and just microwave my morning portion. *The 80s, perhaps? I'm picturing Wilfred Brimley television commercials, so I suspect it was the oat bran ("right thing to do") era. I always thought someone should have made an oat bran whisky, and hired ol' Wilf to promote it. "It's the right thing to do...(slurs) an' a damn' tasty way to do it!"

With respect, that's marketing copy. Freelancers like me write that kind of stuff for hours on end. Favorable reviews from people like yourself and the others here, in actual field use, hold more weight with me.

Good call. I haven't seen pre-tested sprouts anywhere here in Canada, but admittedly I haven't been looking. They don't seem to be much in demand anymore, at least here in New Brunswick.

LOL In Calais, ME, there is a hotel restaurant called "Ceasar's," and it raises my hackles every time I drive past it.

As it should be. I like mint and I love lamb, but could never come to grips with the combination. To my mind, the mint simply obliterates the delicate flavor of the lamb. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it originated as a way of masking the muskiness of mature mutton, which makes perfect sense to me.

The Neilsen-Massey seems to consist of ground-up vanilla beans with an anti-caking agent. Most others apparently incorporate varying degrees of sugar.

I'm unfamiliar with the powder, but I would be cautious in assuming it retains more flavour after baking than any other natural vanilla product. I've tried fresh bean vs. natural extract vs. artificial extract in baked goods, and found little/no benefit to using the natural product (this was the opposite of what I'd expected/hoped to establish, just for the record). My "take" was that the flavour compounds themselves are volatile, whether they are contained in the original bean or extracted in an alcohol solution. It might be interesting to pursue this as a group experiment, perhaps.

I'm confused...it gives them crunch, but ruins their crunch?

It's good just used as a syrup. I eat it occasionally on homemade bread, instead of molasses. Both are old-school tastes acquired from my parents.

I didn't believe it either when I first read it, several years ago, but tried the experiment myself and was surprised to find it accurate. That being said, there's some pretty nasty artificial vanilla out there.

Oh, you betcha. Many years back, as a culinary student, I posted a question about an obscure Middle Eastern ingredient. PW responded within hours (from an internet cafe in Istanbul, yet...), to my delight and amazement. I was already a fan of the writer, but her interactions here made me a fan of the person as well.

Those are all good suggestions. McGee is my own touchstone. I probably crack my Larousse a bit more than Smokeydoke does, but yeah...it's a great doorstop, and I've also used it overnight to apply weight to furniture I've recently glued (my "compact" OED works pretty well for that, as well). If you want to have classic French cuisine at your fingertips but in a more pocket-friendly format, the "Repertoire de la Cuisine" is a good choice. It gives you a terse description ("like x, but with quenelles of fish") and it's then up to you to either know it or Google it from there. I'd maybe suggest Pepin for technique, if you want basic knife skills etc in dead-tree form rather than a YouTube video.

(Sigh) Another 2 or 3 weeks before I even start any seeds. More snow last night, and another snowfall for tomorrow night. There's a reason the Victoria Day weekend (right around Memorial Day, for Americans) is our traditional planting time.

I'm in the non-brownie camp myself. Though I've found that a small bit of leftover batter, stirred into walnut halves (just enough to hold the walnuts together, basically) works pretty nicely when baked.