Kootenay Environmental Video Contest

Great opportunity! Hope to see lots of entries.

In a Pickle

When was the last time you checked how far your pickles have traveled? I'm not sure about where you live, but around here, it seems that most pickles come from India. Surprisingly, the pickles from India are considerably cheaper than those from closer countries including Canada and the US. Sure, labour is cheaper in India, but do I really want to buy a jar of pickles that has a larger carbon footprint than I do? Not only that, but many developing nations still use certain agrochemicals that have long since been banned in these parts. The risk just doesn't seem worth it, and with many of us trying to eat locally where possible, the supermarket pickle just doesn't factor into the 100 mile diet. So imagine my thrill when I happened to luck upon some pickling cukes a couple weeks ago.

I've always wanted to give gherkins a go, but was never certain whether or not I should risk it. I've tasted some great homemade pickles and then there were the others. But 7 lbs of free cukes had to be a sign that the planets were properly aligned for success in this endeavor.

Around these parts, there are many who make their pickles in the washing machine. Yes, you heard me right, the WASHING MACHINE! Not only was I intrigued, I had to try it. I admit, I felt a little odd throwing 7 lbs of pickling cukes into my washing machine and starting the gentle cycle. The feeling that this had the potential to go very wrong loomed heavy in the air. I twiddled my thumbs nervously while listening to the clunking of something akin to washing running shoes in the machine. Finally, the machine stopped. I held my breath as I opened the door. And there they were, 7 lbs of very clean, firm cukes. At this point, I knew that all would turn out well.

If you dare, this is approximately what I did:

1. Put cucumbers in the washing machine and run through the gentle cycle.
2. Put cucumbers in kitchen sink, cover with cold water and soak overnight.
3. In the morning, drain the water.
4. Sterilize mason jars (the amount you need will depend on how many cukes you have).
5. Boil the required number of lids for a min. of 8-10 minutes to soften the rubber ring.
6. Make brine: Approximately 4 cups of pickling vinegar, 12 cups of water, 3/4 cup of pickling salt, sugar to taste if you want a little bit of a sweeter pickle.
   
7. Bring brine to a good boil.
8. Fill jars one at a time. I stuff dill, mustard seed and chopped onion in the bottom of mine and then pack in the cucumbers. Pack the cucumbers tight. It's amazing how many can fit in one jar.
9. Cover with simmering brine.
10. Clean the rim of the jars to ensure there isn't any salt or other residue to prevent the jars from sealing. Put on lids and tighten rings.
11. Process jars. If any don't seal, keep them in your fridge where they will keep for quite some time.

Wait at least a couple days before trying them to ensure the flavours have time to meld. When making the pickles, make sure you find the brine palatable as it determines, in large part, the flavour of the pickles.

Tree Planter's Waltz

A little snippet of BC mountain culture for you. This was apparently filmed May 2009, however, if I didn't know better, I'd guess the filming in the Merritt night club took place sometime in the eighties. But then again, I have passed through Merritt, the culture is its own. Warning, the song will grow own you despite all protestations.

Preservation

"How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? ...This we know; the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know; all things are connected like the blood which unites our family. All things are connected."

~Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe states - 1848

A Sad Tale

Cherries are legend here in these valleys. Back at the turn of the century, and when I say that, I still mean the one before last, the cherries grown here were reported to be as large as plums and equally sweet and juicy. They were famous for being the best in all of North America, even better than the Okanagan which now grows many of our cherries. They were famous right across the country. J.T. Bealby, a Nelson fruit rancher, was quoted as saying:
"One of the most wonderful sights in a British Columbia orchard, and more especially a Kootenay orchard, is the cherry-trees when laden with their snow-white blossoms. Every branch, from its divergence from a large limb or the main trunk, right away to the outermost twig, is thickly feathered with clusters of blossom, and tufts of bloom cling even to the main trunk and large limbs. This is true of every variety of cherry alike, sour as well as sweet. The crops are, as a rule, enormously heavy -- so much so that the trees, and this applies to apples, pears, and plums, as well as to cherries -- have to be well supported with props to prevent them from breaking down under the loads they carry, and even then it is not an unusual thing for one or more branches to split off before the fruit can be gathered."

Indeed that bit about props is true. My parents have two very old apple trees in their yard (well over 100 yrs by now...they were put in shortly after the house was originally built) and last year that is essentially what happened. One of the branches on one of the trees was so heavy with fruit that the branch broke and my father had to prop it up and mend it hoping to save the apples on that particular branch long enough for them to ripen. But it is an old tree, so some years it takes a rest, but then there are years like last where there is a real bumper crop. Not bad for an old tree whose trunk is almost completely hollow that it totally baffles us that there is any fruit at all. But back to the story of the cherries.

Unfortunately, about 1933 a mysterious cherry disease hit destroying the thriving industry. The first symptoms were noticed at Willow Point, just around the bend from where I live. At the time, it was called, "Little Cherry Disease." Most disheartening was that infected trees only became obvious about two weeks before harvest. By this point, the damage was done, the cherries were small, lacked taste and sweetness, and were for the most part wormy. Once a tree was infected, there was nothing to be done but to cut it down, as the cherries from then on would be as such. By about the 50's the disease had decimated the industry and all cherry trees were ordered to be cut down to try to stop the spread which by now was determined to be transmitted by infected insects.


At the time, the source of the outbreak was not known, but it has since been determined that Japanese Ornamental cherries were carrying the disease in symptomless form. There were three specimens of these trees growing not far from the original outbreak on the property of Selwyn Gwillym Blaylock, the rich vice-president and general manager of a mining smelting company which later became known as Cominco (this property is just a ways down the road in the other direction from me). He had a passion for gardening and had beautiful grounds surrounding his estate. The grounds purportedly featured one of every species of tree native to Canada as well as many other ornamental trees and flowering shrubs. Blaylock encouraged frequent guests, including foreign dignitaries to bring gifts of trees and shrubs from their native land to add to his collection. But this was not how he had acquired the particular trees in question. They had been imported by Blaylock himself. He had officially inquired about the importation of Japanese Ornamental Cherries and had been told that the trees were diseased and not to be imported. He decided to smuggle them in anyways.

So thus is the story of cherries in the Kootenays. Infected trees were to be removed, but it was tough as there were and still are so many wild cherries growing out in the woods which of course, by this point has probably also been diseased. Cherry orchards have since been re-established around Creston, the far end of Kootenay lake, and indeed the cherries are good. But the industry has never gone back to what it once was.

Lost Generation

This really is quite brilliant and gives us all reason to hope. We can put faith in those who will come after us.

Fireworks

The day before last, nature gave us her own personal rendition of a symphony of fire. It had been a hot day with the mugginess mounting and reaching its peak by late afternoon. Then warm winds started rolling through the valleys with dark, ominous clouds dominating the skies, a sure sign that convection currents were at play.

Not long after, with darkened skies, the thunder started rolling and rumbling its way through the valley. It didn't take long for the storm to follow. I caught a couple pictures of the lightning striking the top of the mountain and in two instances flames and smoke roared up immediately. Luckily the rain seemed to be enough to quench the fires.

The choppers were flying about the next day scoping the area for any flames that still might be quietly smoldering, but we seem to be okay. It's still early in the season and we've had a cool and wet spring. Still, it all made for a good show and cooled off everything nicely.

The Meatrix

I listened to an interesting discussion today on CBC regarding the family farm. It was a rather loose conversation regarding the decline of the family farm, land being taken out of the Agricultural Land Reserve and being sold to developers at astronomical prices; farmers (this time particularly in the Okanagan) who can't compete with the subsidized fruit that floods our market, so they are pulling out their orchards and replacing them with vineyards or again selling their farm; and farmers who can't afford to own their land so they either lease it or eventually get out of the farming business. There are many different issues that are at question here, but the one that bothers me most is that we are making ourselves more and more dependant on agricultural giants, huge factory farms that are just in it for the profit, they don't practice sustainable farming, and don't provide the highest quality produce (and by this, I don't necessarily mean the product that looks the nicest, but rather, the one that is fresh, has a high nutritional value and is flavourful). Also, with all of the talk about global warming and individuals changing their lifestyles in an effort to try and make a difference, it seems silly to eat something that travels more kilometres (or miles) to get to our table than some of us travel in a year.

While looking for further information on the Internet, I happened upon these facts: According to Farm Aid every week 330 farmers in the U.S. leave their land. There are now nearly five million fewer farms in the U.S. than there were in the 1930's. According to EPA, 3000 acres of productive U.S. farmland are lost to development every day. Between 1974 and 2002, the number of corporate-owned U.S. farms increased by more than 46 percent.

To become better informed about the major ramifications of this disturbing trend and what we as individuals can do, I recommend you watch the highly entertaining very informative video the Meatrix (available to watch online). Although specifically focused on what agri-farms have done to the meat and dairy industry, they shed some light on the problems of factory farming and provide suggestions for finding healthier food for our families. Or to learn more about sustainable food and the problems with factory farming, check out the Sustainable Table.

Our Clothes Tell Secrets

Italians love to air their laundry...not their dirty laundry ;), well, at least not in my personal experiences, but rather their clean laundry.

I was recently in on a conversation where a friend was utterly incensed that the neighbourhood into which she was moving had a bylaw against clothes lines. My surprise, however, came when another contributor to the conversation considered my friend lucky to be moving into such an area. This woman said that without fail whenever she had company over her neighbour would have her laundry out hanging, and "who wants to look at that!"


Well, I don't know. I personally find the stockings hanging in the photo above or other delicate unmentionables rather charming when they are strung out on a line. Perhaps it's a voyeuristic tendency, or simply a desire to have a peak into the lives of others. In any case, I don't think it's something to get particularly uptight about. Besides, I am sure that there are many environmental arguments for drying your laundry 'au natural.'

Ecological Footprint

What's your footprint? For any of you who have not already assessed the amount of resources that you use and whether or not these levels will contribute to the sustainability of our planet, there is a fun, easy to take quiz at the Earthday Network website. This Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard, giving you a rough idea of your ecological footprint relative to other people in the country in which you live. It is not highly detailed and they suggest not being discouraged if you score high but are already living a sustainable lifestyle as there are some factors that don't have anything to do with what you consume, i.e. where you live and the size of city in which you live.

As you can see from my test results, although I am below my national average, I still have a ways to go to contribute to the sustainability of this planet.

CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.5
MOBILITY 0.2
SHELTER 1
GOODS/SERVICES 0.9
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 3.6

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 8.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2 PLANETS.

So what am I going to do?

• Well, I've been thinking for quite some time about the 100 mile challenge. This is a challenge to only buy food products that have been produced within 100 miles of where you live. Not only does this cut down on the distance your food travels to get to your table, but has the added health benefit of better nutrition as your food is more likely to be vine ripened. For more on the 100 mile diet check out this website.
• I already compost and recycle absolutely everything, but where I probably fall short is I don't always remember to bring my cloth bags to the grocery store. I need to make more of an effort here.
• Now here is the big one...I need to free myself from junk mail and flyers. Can you imagine how many trees we would save if everyone refused flyers. With the internet these days, I figure I can check out the specials online, or have a quick look upon walking into the store. This would also greatly reduce the amount of paper I take to recycling each week.

I'm sure that there are a ton of other things that I can do...but one small step at a time. I challenge all of you to take this short quiz and decide what you can do to make our earth a better place. Good luck!

Indoor Use of DDT a Clean Bill of Health?

I was shocked to read in the paper today that on September 15th the World Health Organization endorsed the indoor use of the pesticide DDT for malaria control in poor nations (I'm still not quite sure how I missed that anouncement when it first came out) . The shock came primarily from the article being a backlash against environmentalists for succeeding to create the ban 30 years ago in the first place. The gist of the article was that environmentalists created a unfounded / unresearched alarm to the pesticide resulting in large protests which in turn put enough pressure on governments to quit using the product. The article went on to say that none of these claims against the pesticide ever had any scientific basis. Upon doing a little more research, I discovered in a WHO press release that they do indeed now take the view that, "extensive research and testing has since demontrated that well-managed indoor residual spraying programmes using DDT pose no harm to wildlife or to humans."

Now I'm sure that malaria is a horrible disease and I would hate to see it go unchecked, however, I must wonder what a "well managed programme" looks like and who is responsible for overseeing that the use of this chemical remains "well managed." I also wonder who is really behind the push for the increased use of DDT as there seem to just as many on the opposite side of the fence who claim that there are better alternatives that are just as efficient for controling malaria. On one website it was stated that Mexico, who committed to ending the use of DDT by 2007, has been so successful in the use of alternatives that its DDT manufacturing plant has ceased production owing to lack of demand. Further, Jorge Mendez, Mexico's director of their malaria control programme, declared that it is 25% cheaper for Mexico to use alternatives. The Pan American Health Organization even went so far as to express reservations about the effectiveness of broadscale application of DDT for malaria after one of its studies showed that in the late 1980's and early 90's, malaria rates went up in Brazil even as spraying of houses with DDT increased, but rates dropped after Brazil shifted to alternative control methods.

Despite the WHO claiming that indoor residual spraying programs pose no risk to wildlife or humans, it seems that researchers in both Mexico and South Africa have found that humans living in areas where spraying took place have raised concentrations of DDT and it was estimated that breastfed children in those areas were being dosed at levels exceeding those recommended by WHO. Despite the fact that not all the dangers of exposure to DDT have been proven, I need to wonder if we want to be part of this massive experiment until they are.