Pumpkins in Niagara

This must be pumpkin festival weekend.  Halloween is this week and there are a number of big pumpkin farms in Niagara.  A few years ago I was doing on the escarpment and came upon a traffic jam and gridlock.  It was Howell's Family Pumpkin Farm.  This is a farm amusement park, with sand boxes, bunnies, animals, tractor tire play area, hay play area, straw ump barn, haystack jumping pillow, a tricycle track, the giant maze, and so on.  These are all activities for little ones. Their website is ahowlinggoodtime.com  At Warner Ranch and Pumpkin Farm in Welland, there is something every season - for  winter activities there are horse drawn sleigh rides of various sizes of sleigh. For autumn, their pumpkin patch is extensive, and they distinguish themselves from Howell's with free admission to the park.  Various activities have prices - pony rides $4.00, petting zoo and corn maze, $2.00 and so on. They have Rainbow the Unicorn for birthday parties.  Here's what they say:  "Rainbow does not live here at the farm, being a Unicorn he resides in the enchanted forest and can be reached at 289-673-1729. And close to us is Puddicombe Farms, right on Highway 8 with a train around the orchards and fruit wine production.  The train ride is a "scenic 30 minute ride around our 100 acre estate".  Here are two of the models from the Minneapolis Show this year.

Grimsby Breaking News

Grimsby is in the news today - I know the headline is there every day to catch 'your eye'.  But Grimsby's hospital will lose its surgical facilities and obstetrics because they don't meet current standards.   That would likely mean it becomes an urgent care centre/emergency unit only. Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) runs the Grimsby hospital, and informed staff that it has applied for funding to upgrade the surgical department.  This is $8.6 million in provincial funding needed. The Medical Director, Gary Benson, has resigned.  There hasn't been  board approval for the move of the Obstetrics, Surgery and Endoscopy programs over to HHSC.  He says he was blind sided in a meeting with HHS where it was announced as a done deal. There is a meeting tonight for townspeople to organize a response.  The meeting is organized by the Medical Director of Niagara West Palliative Care Team and McNally House Hospice - Dr. Denise Marshall. This little hospital has been an orphan for decades.  As hospitals got organized into regional systems,  Grimsby resisted for many years.  It raised many millions of dollars - there is $15 million in the fund - to rebuild the hospital, only to be refused the go ahead every time.  This has happened as recently as 2011 when it was number 2 on the list for rebuild approval.   And then Grimsby has always been a Conservative riding - during the many Liberal years it had an uphill battle politically.   This seems to be a Ground Hog Day scenario - a never-ending process to get approval to rebuild.   The news articles are Here and Here.

Tootsie Rolls!

Today's topic is how to make Tootsie Rolls: Ingredients: 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 Tablespoon coconut oil OR butter, melted 1/4 cup powdered sugar  pinch of fine sea salt 1 cup tapioca flour (may need slightly more or less) 1/8 teaspoon of orange extract (optional- it gives that “fruit-flavor” which is reminiscent of traditional Tootsie Rolls) Tootsie roll's popularity was due to the fact that it didn't melt in the heat, and was a low cost candy.  Who came up with the tootsie roll recipe?  Leo Hirschfeld - a poor Austrian immigrant with some family candy recipes.  This was at the turn of the last century.  The story varies about how Leo got to being a wealthy candy industrialist.  One version as he made Tootsie Rolls, named after his daughter's nickname, in his Brooklyn shop in 1896, and then 'merged' with Stern & Saalberg   The one he gave was that he worked his way to the top of the Stern & Saalberg company, invented the Tootsie Roll along with other candies and machines for which he he had U.S. Patents.  However, mergers and changes pushed him out of the company, and he wasn't as successful on his own.  He committed suicide in 1922.     He is in the Candy Hall of Fame.  Did you know there is a Candy Hall of Fame - candyhalloffame.org?  It looks like they had their 2018 event this past weekend.  Inductees come from companies like Jelly Belly Candy Co and IT'SUGAR.   The glorious days of candies seem to be past to me. We may have seen the rise and fall of sugar candy:  sugar content is now the subject of controversy - articles like 'war on sugar' indicate demand for sweet snacks has dropped and that sales are slowing with a bleak outlook ahead. We'll find out. On to our rust pictures today.  These were taken at Calamus Winery last year - macro images of  the rusty shed.  Such delightfully new rust.

Chicken on Tap

Do you remember it was just last week and food would be scarce by 2050?  This week I saw a story on PBS about cultured meat.  This is synthetic meat that is produced by in vitro cultivation of animal cells instead of from slaughtered animals. I turned to Wikipedia and found out that the formal name for this is cellular agriculture. And there is a lot happening right now in this area.  New Harvest is the world's first non-profit organization dedicated to supporting in vitro meat research. Jason Matheny authorized a seminal paper in the early 2000s and progress has been made ever since. Dr. Mark Post produced the first cultured beef burger patty that was eaten at a demonstration for the press in London in 2013. How much did it cost the burger to be made in 2013 and how long did it take to produce it?  $300,000 and 2 years. Now skip forward to February 2017.  How much did it cost to make?  $11.36. Are you curious about what the experience was to eat it?  I certainly am. Here is critic Hanni Rutzler's experience in 2013: "There is really a bite to it, there is quite some flavour with the browning. I know there is no fat in it so I didn't really know how juicy it would be, but there is quite some intense taste; it's close to meat, it's not that juicy, but the consistency is perfect. This is meat to me... It's really something to bite on and I think the look is quite similar." Both fat and muscle cells are now produced, giving a closer result, and the prediction is that 'test tube burgers' could be on sale by the end of this year - 2018.  That would be in time for Christmas dinner, or perhaps celebrating 2019 with a 'clean meat' start on New Year's Day. Here's the conclusion of a recent article at Fast Company HERE.  “That’s not to say that there are not going to be specialty restaurants producing meat traditionally–more expensive restaurants–but I think the burgers that we’re going to put on the grill, and the chicken nuggets that we’re going to eat at McDonald’s, and the barbecued chicken that we’re going to eat in Chipotle is mainly going to be cultured meat decades from now,” he says. Our picture today shows the Third Street Overholt orchard.  It has been demolished.  The same has occurred along a section of Victoria Ave in Vineland at the Cherry Lane orchard. They are planting new trees.  The Cherry Lane orchard across from the United Mennonite Home on Twenty-Third Street has also been demolished.  It is sorry to see the ancient, gnarled trunks disappear, though.  They do make great pictures in the spring with their wonderful blossoms.

Exit Code Autumn Leaves

Our fall colour is on track according to Ontario Parks.  The little map with the peak viewing tells us most of the province is at peak colour. It is an impressive representation. You can find it at ontariopark.com/fallcolour HERE.  Here is the entry for Killbear Park: Killbear - Report Date : October 11, 2018 Dominant Colour : Yellow/Orange Colour Change : 80 - Leaf Fall : 20 Best viewing : Yellow and orange are dominant with occasional splashes of brilliant red set off nicely against the dark green of our pines. The best colours are along the Recreation Trail, the Lookout Point Trail and near beaver ponds. Killbear should reach peak colour over the next week, but lots of fall colour (mostly shades of yellow) will remain until the end of October. Killbear is open for camping and Day Use until Sunday October 28th. We're at the migration time here in Grimsby with the bird count taking place at ebird.org. It has a chart that shows the hotspots.  St. Catharines - Port Weller east pier has the highest species count at 249, with Beamer Conservation Area (that's us in Grimsby) at 227.  One of Dezi's favourite walking places is Happy Rolf's in St. Catharines and the count there is 92. In total, there are 100 locations identified with bird counts. Yesterday's visit was to Charles Daley Park to catch a bit of the locust colour before the wind takes most of it away.  Being on the shore, these trees don't get to show off for long. I was happy to catch the colour that was there.  The picture below is the interpretation from 2012.

The Glistening, Glittering, Shiny!

What is shiny? This is a word that was first recorded in 1580 - 90 -  a smooth surface reflecting light, typically because very clean or polished.  I wonder how many shiny things an ordinary person saw in a day in 1580 - even those who lived in the Royal Palace? this topic came about as Gerry's car was perfectly polished this past week and became exceedingly shiny. Doesn't the star on the front gleam 'shiny'? This word has taken on sizeable proportions in our current usage - movies, music, video games, software development frameworks, Pokemon, and all manner of things.  Fro example, one headline is "How to build R Shiny apps that update themselves". In the wiktionary definition, there is a slang usage of the word that points to its current usage.  It is a contraction of a disparaging term "Shiny arses",  originating during World War Two to describe a desks worker. We might look to Shakespeare as giving us this insight into things that are 'shiny'.   “All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life has sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms enfold Had you been as wise as bold, Your in limbs, in judgment old, Your answer had not been in'scroll'd Fare you well: your suit is cold.' Cold, indeed, and labour lost: Then, farewell, heat and welcome, frost!” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare's words have been referenced over time.  All that shines is not gold - has become a well-known phrase.  So we come to how shiny is used today.  It seems similar to Shakespeare - though hundreds of years have passed. "A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last. Jeff Bzos "I think that wealthy white people would like to have a country that resembles the Fifties, when all the minorities were tucked away in ghettos and paid in very low wages but on the surface it was very bright and shiny and free and the rest of the world would look on it longingly. Alice Walker "I'm not a particularly shiny, happy person. I'm fairly cynical, and that's what draws me to comedy. Elizabeth Banks "Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? Jack Kerouac These come from brainyquote.com So we look at Gerry' shiny car - while that beautiful shine won't last, it's been captured forever.

From 2 billion to 7 billion and then...

In 1951, the year of my birth, there were 2,58 billion people.  Today it is 7.6 billion.  No wonder everything is crowded and resources are being used up.  I had wondered if I should have a more positive view towards the future, but this seems to say it all.  This many people today are not doing a good job of living 'with' the planet.  Can you imagine how much better or worse it will go with more people? The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their Climate Change report yesterday. It is what brought my attention to the population plight. That report gave 2030 as the defining year by which action must be taken. The well-used number for the maximum population that the earth can sustain is said to be 10 billion people.  It is based on food resources.  The common statement is that 2050 is the year that will happen. The statement goes:  "By 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.1 billion, and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that at that point, the world would need to produce 70% more food than today to feed all those people." This is considered contentious by the American Council on Science and Health.  They are pro-industry, but fact-based, and they think the 70% increase is an inflated number, along with the prediction discounting the advances in technology, and that it disregards the drops in population that are happening. The Economist says it is not time to panic yet - that the number of hungry people has fallen, that eliminating waste will raise food production by 60% or more, and so on. So the pros and cons for the maximum population are debated. Yet isn't that date looming near for those who will be alive in 2050? Anyone 18 years old today will be 50 years old then - perhaps just over half way through a typical lifespan.  And think of 2030 - those born in 2000 will only be 30 years old.  I wonder what our young people think of these urgent messages and concerns and how they will deal with them as the urgency grows. We are looking at the Sunnylea garden in an August rain.

Weather Report x 2

I was checking out the Weather Report for Grimsby - warm summer temperatures for the next few days.  At the same time, a Weather Report song was on the radio on JazzFM.  They regularly play two of the jazz fusion band's songs -  "A Remark You Made" and "Birdland".  I think it is Jaco Pastorius' bass lines that draw my attention to the songs every time I hear them. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is concluded - and what does every Thanksgiving meal finish with?  Of course it is pumpkin pie - it has to be one of the delicious desserts. Pumpkins are a member of the gourd family and are also considered winter squash.  Pumpkins have been grown in North America for about 5000 years Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and healing snake bites  Pumpkins are 90-percent water The world record for giant pumpkins remains in Germany! For the second time in 3 years, the world record for giant pumpkins has fallen at the European Weigh-Off in Germany. German grower Mathia Willemijn brought this behemoth pumpkin weighing 2,624.6 pounds to the weigh-off on October 9, 2016. Here is a picture of a person paddling on a pumpkin in the water as part of the world record pumpkin pictures.  I thought I should insert it as you might not believe it could be true. Our picture is shows the garden rendezvous with night lighting, part of my experiments for "The Night Garden".

Wasps' Favourite Songs

We had to have a wasp nest removed - it was in the soffits at the back porch where people walk.  A tiny hole was their entrance door.

A wasp's stinger is smooth, like a needle, so it can sting your skin many times.  Why would it have that capability? It preys upon other insects for food or as a host for its parasitic larvae.  The venom in wasps contains a pheromone that causes other wasps to become more aggressive and so many stings can happen.

The only wasps that survive the winter are young fertilized queens.  They emerge from overwintering in the spring to build new nests.  Initially the queen lays up to a dozen eggs and when they hatch into larvae she feeds them until they become workers. The workers then forage for food, feed the new larvae and defend the nest.

In late summer, the colony produces males and new queens.  They fly away to mate and the queens then find a place to hibernate.

In the world of wasps, here are a few jokes:

What is a wasps favourite film?
– Sting-ing in the Rain!

Who is a wasps favourite singer?
– Sting!

What is a wasps favourite song?
– Sultans of Sting!

What sport do wasps play?
– Sting-pong!

What is a wasps second favourite film?
– Lord of the Stings!

Dezi doesn't have anything to say about wasps in her house rules.

What I know about scurvy

What do we know about vitamins? What grade in school would we learn about them? Mission Nutrition has lesson plans for grades 4-5. Other sites have plans for grade 9 to 12.  The lesson plans identify the 13 essential vitamins, what their purpose is, and what foods contain them. I can imagine today that there might be common vitamin deficiencies if people eat processed rather than fresh foods and vegetables. The vitamin I am most acquainted with is Vitamin C. We  learned about scurvy in history class.  It was a problem throughout the period of exploration and settlement in Canada.   I remember the cure was drinking coniferous needles boiled in water.  The explorers didn't stay with the cure, and significant numbers of scurvy deaths continued throughout the period. In the 1950s, mass production and marketing of vitamin supplements made them readily available.  Governments mandated supplementary vitamins in staple foods - flour and milk were the two common ones. So Vitamin C came into our houses in pill bottles. Our lesson plan today is to learn about Vitamin C. You will need: 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch 1 cup water iodine More water Eye dropper Medium sized bowl Several smaller bowls Crushed vitamin C tablet dissolved in 1 cup water Various beverages orange juice, orange soda, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, punch, etc. Mix 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch into 1 cup cold water; dissolve mixture by heating. Measure 1 cup water into a bowl add 1 teaspoon of the cornstarch mixture. Using an eye dropper add 4 drops of iodine and stir. The mixture should be a pale blue. Put 2 Tablespoons of the mixture into several small bowls. Using a clean eye dropper add the vitamin C solution to one of the blue mixtures. In another bowl add orange juice, another orange soda, etc. Make note of how many drops it takes before the blue color disappears. Discussion: Only foods with vitamin C will make the blue color disappear. The punch and orange soda do not have vitamin C.  If a food does not have vitamin C the solution will not change color. And today's picture makes me think of England with the beautiful setting of the Conservatory in Minneapolis.