chromedome

Has he tried the ones from Superstore? I haven't had the ones from Costco or TJ's (or the ones from Superstore, for that matter) but President's Choice would be readily available for pretty much anyone in Canada.

I haven't had it in years, but ate a lot of it in childhood (Mom used to keep it around...she made her own sporadically through the year, but this was the backup). FWIW, it's the "reference" brand of pea soup up here, in the same way that Heinz is the "reference" brand of ketchup. You'd probably want to jazz it up a titch with your own bacon or ham, and/or any other garnishes you like, but the basic soup is...a good basic soup.

LOL I had difficulties getting the locals to try lamb...I can just imagine their response to "pig intestine rolls."

They sell the entire archive in USB form, updated every year (currently includes 51 years' issues). I ordered two copies of the the 50th-anniversary version, one for myself and one for my stepdaughter.

My father grew up in northern Newfoundland in the 40s and 50s, when the old-school "truck system" was still in place. Those of you from coal country would know it as the "company store/town" scenario: the merchant you sold your fish to was also the guy who brought in any/all supplies from outside, and set the prices for both fish and merchandise. The more you were able to grow yourself, the less likely you were to end up irretrievably indebted to the local merchant. We moved around a lot when I was a kid so my father never had much opportunity to live out his ideal of self-sufficiency (for one thing, he was at sea for months at a time and a big garden was a lot for my mom, my little sister and I to deal with). He subscribed to Organic Gardening & Farming (as it was then) in the late 60s and early 70s, before it became a lifestyle magazine, and Mother Earth News from about its second year right up until he died. OGF and Mother were literally some of my earliest reading, and I may have been the only 2nd-grader in the province who could have given you a detailed off-the-cuff explanation of, say, Ruth Stout's no-till gardening method. When he got out of the navy we moved to Newfoundland, and he took a serious run at the whole self-sufficiency game. When we moved in the only bits of our 7 acres that were cleared had a house and driveway on them, except for a few meters between the woodpile and the door. We cleared a couple of acres ourselves, and "hired" a pair of pigs to dig out a bunch of stumps for us in another section, and enlarged the little pond/large puddle that was already present not far behind the house. We had ducks in the pond, chickens up behind the pigs, and a pretty big garden. We grew enough potatoes for us and our extended family for the winter, with enough left over to feed the next year's pigs (Dad scaled back a bit, the second year...), as well as cabbages and sturdy root vegetables (carrots, rutabagas, parsnips, beets), and peas and beans and a few other random things. Dad quickly learned that northern Newfoundland is not necessarily the best place for subsistence homesteading, given that you can have a killing frost as late as early July or as early as, say, Labour Day weekend. Eventually he decided it wasn't the right time or place, so he put that notion on the back burner for a while. My folks moved to Calgary for several years, then back home to look after my grandmother in semi-rural Nova Scotia (it's now all subdivisions, but then it was still on the cusp). They gardened and kept a few chickens at this stage, and then bought themselves a property out in the central part of the province. It was part of what was once a large farm a century ago, and Dad built them a small off-grid shack which eventually morphed into a compact but fully-fitted on-grid house. They started gardening seriously again when they sold off their bakery to look after my grandmother full-time (she was well gone in dementia by then); they had relatives come in on the weekends so they could take a break and go to their property. They grew pretty much everything they needed except for pantry staples (flour, sugar, coffee, etc) and meats. They gave thought to having chickens again, but decided that animals were more work than they wanted to take on again at that point in life (hitting 60-ish). Also animals would have limited their ability to visit my mom's family elsewhere in NS, grandkids in Alberta, Dad's family in Newfoundland, and me in NB. They lived there until Dad passed away 4 years ago. Mom hung in through the summer and harvested the garden one last time, then moved into town. So this is the context for my own intentions (previously laid out elsewhere on the site) to build a home on a small acreage at some point over the next couple of years. Like my father I've picked away at gardening pretty much everywhere I've lived, without having the opportunity to really take it on in a serious way. I've learned from my father's various experiments (high tunnels and greenhouses, thank you very much) and hope to keep it up for a couple of decades, as he did, through some forethought and good design decisions. Nothing as formal as a family history of farming or a standalone family business (most of my immediate ancestors were fishermen and boat builders) but that's my legacy.

I've also been curious about that over the years, and have looked sporadically for an answer. Every other membrane inside the shell seems to have a specific name, but that one doesn't. It apparently has two layers, with the prosaic (and unsatisfying) designations of "inner" and "outer" membranes.

https://www.eater.com/22315684/vegan-cheese-history-ingredients-process-grocery-brands

Several years ago I futzed around with microwaved eggs for a while, and got to the point of separating them, starting the whites only, stirring them, doing the whites for another brief increment, stirring them again, adding the yolk, cooking for a brief interval, leaving it sit for a carefully measured minute or two for the temperature to equalize, then finishing it for juuuuust a few more anxious seconds.... And then, just as I was close to getting the whole rigmarole dialed in perfectly, I gave my head a shake and went back to doing them in water. Now I only nuke 'em on the infrequent occasions when I want a hard-cooked egg quickly for a breakfast sandwich or similar usage.

There's a Holodomor memorial in Edmonton, where I used to live, just outside City hall. Winnipeg and Toronto have their own monuments as well (there are a LOT of Ukrainian-Canadians).

I was not previously aware of that tradition. Another rabbit hole yawns before me... (ETA: I guess real rabbit holes are probably too small to "yawn" impressively, but Easter is after all a time of rather unnatural rabbits)

This Commonwealth country uses the "tartar" spelling, though only on the English half of the label of course. The exception that proves the rule, I guess.

I've not had it happen with par-cooked potatoes (pretty sure it inactivates the enzymes responsible for browning) and I expect being covered in sauce (ie, not in contact with the air) would furnish additional protection.

I've just had something arrive from North Carolina that I'd ordered in early October. In fairness, this was the third attempt and it only actually took 17 days.

Now there's a phrase I never expected to read:

My parents always netted their blueberries. Enough branches grew through the netting each year to give the birds a fair share, but my parents got to harvest most of them. Just about the last thing we did before she left the country place for the last time was to pick another couple pounds of blueberries. There were still lots for the new owner, of course. On an unrelated note, the young 'un who bought the house mailed her a letter recently inviting her to come out some day this summer at her convenience (COVID permitting) and see the changes he's made with the place. We both felt that was rather nice of him.

I actually splurged on a genuine, authentic germination mat just a few days ago. I expect the seed tray fits the mat better than it would my IP...

Anywhere she damn well chooses.

I used to buy their lobster-flavored potato chips as a novelty for visitors from out-of-province. Haven't seen them for a while, though, so they may have stopped making them.

In Nova Scotia you'll see three distinct styles of blood sausage/pudding from three separate waves of European arrivals. One is Acadian-French, one is Scots-style, and the third is German. The French and Scots parts of our history are well known, the German bit perhaps less so...the crown wanted white, Protestant European settlers, so ol' King George just shuffled a few of his German subjects to his New World holdings (more or less as a modern CEO would transfer a few hundred employees to or from a newly-acquired subsidiary after a merger). The town of Lunenburg, otherwise best known as the home of the Bluenose, was a center of German settlement and still produces the region's best sauerkraut (M. A. Hatt & Sons, of Tancook Island) and a German-style blood sausage, aka "Lunenburg pudding."

Yeah, what you're remembering is "creamed coconut," which is something entirely other.

It probably would have been A Good Thing to take an actual temperature when it arrived, but that ship has sailed. I'd screenshot the tracking info, tell 'em it was at or barely below room temperature, and then direct them to the USDA's 2-hour guidance. If that doesn't work, MAKE THE NEXT EMAIL IN ALL CAPS!!!! One a more practical note, you might direct them to this article at Food Safety Magazine, and ask them pointedly how they determined that a single gel pack was sufficient for the quantity of food packed, and the anticipated delivery time. Did they test this? In real-world conditions? More than once? Are they confident enough in their packing and preparations (and insurance) to accept liability in the event of illness, and/or face an audit from their state's health authorities? The onus is absolutely on the vendor to have the *right* answers to those questions (and clearly, in this case, they did not).

Oh, don't think for a moment that the potential for comedic malfunction hasn't occurred to me...

This one's Ontario only, but it's botulism: Kolapore Springs brand smoked trout products. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-03-26/eng/1616817283977/1616817313215?utm_source=r_listserv

A cancelled order, perhaps? Who knows...but I'm sure all that food will be deeply appreciated.