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.

Thunderstorms 101

Winter thunderstorms do happen, but they are rare because the air is more stable. Strong updrafts cannot form because the surface temperatures during the winter are colder.  Did you know that a winter thunderstorm is called a thundersnow? That's my Severe Weather 101 learning for today.  Or is it?  What about summer thunderstorms? There is a lot to learn there. We had rain last night with lightning and a little thunder, and it has started again just now.  That signals summer for me - that's when we get our thunderstorms.  Lightning is generated in clouds with strong vertical updrafts. Thunder is the acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere.  Thunderstorms can line up in a series and become what's known as a trainband or squall line.  Where would we live in the world to experience the most thunder? Venezuela, Zulia is the world leader in thunderstorms; "The most persistent and most spectacular thunderstorm in the world is Catatumbo Lightning. This is nearly continuous thunderstorm with up to 20,000 flashes of lightning per night, seen 140 - 160 nights per year and lasting approximately 10 hours long. It produces approximately 10% of tropospheric ozone in the world." Located along the Andes Mountains, it is the largest lake in South America and is situated in such a way that mountain breezes tangle with warm lake air. treehugger.com lists the top ten hotspots ranked and listed by average lightning flashes per square kilometre per year.  It looks like the Republic of Congo is the dominant location for this weather phenomenon: 1. Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela: 232.52 2. Kabare, Democratic Republic of Congo: 205.31 3. Kampene, Democratic Republic of Congo: 176.71 4. Caceres, Colombia: 172.29 5. Sake, Democratic Republic of Congo: 143.21 6. Dagar, Pakistan: 143.11 7. El Tarra, Colombia: 138.61 8. Nguti, Cameroon: 129.58 9. Butembo, Democratic Republic of Congo: 129.50 10. Boende, Democratic Republic of Congo: 127.52 Our weather highlights say that showers and thunderstorms are skimming through southern Ontario Monday night and Tuesday.  Then we're on to a warm weekend. Our Niagara orchards on on display today.

What Every Mother Wants

I often find funny jokes in Boys' Life Magazine.  They seem to get all the jokes.  Girls' Life Magazine is an American teen magazine similar to other magazines directed to women - advice about friends and familiars, stories on popular culture, fashion, and celebrities.  Boys' Life is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America for boys from 7 - 17. It began in 1911 and when it started was edited by 18-year-old Joe Lane.  Fast forward to today and Boys' Life is targeted towards older boys and features buying guides, video games, things to do, sports,  and still features scouting activities.  It still contains jokes in every issue.  I looked through the Boys' Life Mother's Day jokes.  And then I found this one - it is NOT in the Boys' Life Compendium of Mother's Day Jokes. Boys' Life Magazine remains a general interest and wholesome magazine - it describes its style as crisp, punchy writing in relatively short, straight-forward sentences.  So as you read this joke, it would clearly not appear in Boys' Life Magazine. Three sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.  The first said, "I built a big house for our mother."  The second said," I sent her a Mercedes with a driver."  The third smiled and said, "I've got you, both beat. You know how Mom enjoys the Bible, and you know she can't see very well. I sent her a brown parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took 20 monks in a monastery 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000.00 a year for 10 years, but it was worth it. Mom just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot will recite it."  Soon thereafter, Mom sent out her letters of thanks: "Milton," she wrote the first son, "The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."  "Marvin," she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel. I stay home all the time, so I never use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"  "Dearest Melvin," she wrote to her third son, "You were the only son to have the good sense to know what your mother likes. That chicken was delicious." I stopped at Sunnybrook Winery on the Lakeshore in NOTL, and took this picture of the orchard on Lake Ontario. Our second picture is the Weeping Cherry tree on Niagara Street.

Tarzan of the Apes

Yesterday Brian Cole reminded me of the best-known feral child: Tarzan. Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 25 sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized. Burroughs created an elegant version of the wild man figure largely unalloyed with character flaws or faults. Tarzan is described as being tall, athletic, handsome, and tanned, with grey eyes and long black hair. He wears almost no clothes, except for a loincloth. Emotionally, he is courageous, intelligent, loyal, and steadfast. He is presented as behaving ethically in most situations, except when seeking vengeance under the motivation of grief. Was there a real person that Tarzan was based on?  Did it spring from Burroughs' imagination. An article in the telegraph.co.uk addresses the question.   "According to journalist Thomas Llewellan Jones in a 1959 article for Man’s Adventure magazine, the 14th Earl of Streatham, William Charles Mildin, spent 15 years living in the wilds of Africa between 1868 and 1883. The earl’s story came to light only when family documents were made public following the death of his son in 1937.   Supposedly Lord Mildin left 1,500 pages of memoirs, which begin: “I was only 11 when, in a boyish fit of anger and pique, I ran away from home and obtained a berth as cabin boy aboard the four-masted sailing vessel, Antilla, bound for African ports-of-call and the Cape of Good Hope…” Doesn't this seem so enticing?  But alas, no evidence was ever found to verify the story.  Our landscape today looks like these pictures taken almost exactly a year ago.  The little yellow flower is Witch Hazel, one of the spring blooming shrubs that can handle snow.  Can you see the red tips on the trees in the orchard?  Todays snowy landscape likely validates what makes March a least favourite month.  It consists of snow, green, snow, green, then out pops April!

Witticisms

It is easy to find humour on the internet. Here are some sayings from witty-quotes.com The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. House Guarded By Shotgun 3 Days A Week. Guess Which Days. Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege. War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left. And famous people have said very humorous, entertaining things. Here are some from tk421.net "Don’t be so humble - you are not that great." - Golda Meir (1898-1978), to a visiting diplomat "Give me a museum and I’ll fill it." - Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) "The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time." - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) "I have an existential map; it has ‘you are here’ written all over it." - Steven Wright "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Here are some of the images from the Series Niagara's Blossom Trail, 2017.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

What is the feast of the seven fishes?  It is Italian and is celebrated as a Christmas Even tradition.  Mario Batali says that it is what Italians do when they say they're fasting.  Course after course of luxurious seafood dishes - often as many as seven, ten or even thirteen.  Some do seven for the sacraments, some do ten for the stations of the cross and then there are the 13 for the apostles and Christ.  Seven is a number well-known in the Bible.  One article says that the number seven occurs more than 700 times in the Bible.  Can you imagine that in every region of Itality - 20 regions - there is a different culinary tradition for Christmas Eve dinner.  So much diversity.  This is an ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve - dating from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of some holidays.  The tradition is now considered an Italian-American one with people sitting down to La Vigilia - "The Vigil".  There is a long list of what Central and Norther European Cultures eat for Christmas Eve, with many traditions. This tradition commonly has 12 meatless dishes representing the twelve months of the year. The variety of the dishes is fascinating - some start with sauerkraut soup and finish with poppy seed desserts. Sauerkraut Christmas shows up in a lot of European cultures.  There's Swedish, Slovak, Polish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, and even a Christmas Kraut with a bit of cinnamon or cloves. Christmas Eve in the U.K.  This is considered a free-for-all without culinary traditions dating from ancient times.  Why is that?  Take the example of Christmas in Scotland - it was banned after the Reformation, and Presbyterian ministers visited their 'flock' to check that they had no festive foods in the house.  Christmas wasn't a public holiday in Scotland until 1958.  So close geographically, but so distant culturally from European customs. This is last Saturday's picture of the ancient apple trees in front of the Daniel Lenko winery in Beamsville.  I finally stopped to get some pictures.  Today, the scene will be the winter orchard with the apples will be covered in soft, fluffy snow.

Christmas Weaths

The wreath has been a sign of honour or victory from Greek times.  Bay Laurel Leaves date from Greek mythology.  Other leaves that made wreaths included oak leaves - symbolizing wisdom, and were associated with Zeus.  We also think of wreaths as arrangements for funerals.   The Etruscan's made wreaths - they were stamped in thin metal and attached to an ornamental band.  They included ivy, oak, olive, myrtle, laurel, wheat and vines. In Christianity, the Christmas wreath was used to symbolize Christ. The circular shape, with no beginning or end, represents eternity or life never ending. The evergreen, most frequently used in making Christmas wreaths, symbolizes growth and everlasting life.  The wreaths were typically decorated with four candles, three on the exterior and one in the middle. The middle candle was lit on Christmas Eve to symbolize the arrival of the Light of the World - Jesus Christ. A tradition began in the early 19th century to lay evergreens shaped into wreaths or crosses on graves to honour the dead. Family members would bring them home to use as part of their Christmas decorations during the holiday season. So there is our wreath tradition.  Our first snow fall was yesterday, and I took pictures of the orchards across from the United Mennonite Home and on John Street.   This summer the Cherry Lane orchards got signs with their orchard names. I've included a picture from the spring - what a contrast with those soft colours in the last image.

Surrounded by Water Sort Of

Niagara isn't really a peninsula.  Even though we call it that.  One article says it is  an isthmus - a relatively narrow tract of land joining two larger pieces of land - that is, connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. Our two expanses of water are two of the Great Lakes - Erie and Ontario.  The Niagara River is the separator in the east, and the peninsula somehow 'ends' at Hamilton - there's no definitive 'join' place.   A peninsula is a piece of land that is almost surrounded by water or projecting into a body of water.  So Niagara isn't a peninsula. References to the isthmus of Niagara are considered rare.  I found a wonderful scholarly article titled "When the Mountain Became the Escarpment" on the history.  It says that prior to the 1820's there was no peninsula as such - it was not recognized as a geographical feature.  There are many references to Niagara, Niagara District, Niagara Falls, etc, but no references about the Niagara Peninsula.  While the Niagara River created a political peninsula in addition to a geographical one, it wasn't until the Welland Canal in 1827 that the Niagara Peninsula became known as an entity in its own right.  The Niagara Escarpment - a term we take for granted - came about in the 1840's.  Previously it was called a mountain, ridge or slope.  Escarpment as a geological term - a mountain on one side - came into use then. It is interesting that the Niagara River flows north - Oscar Wilde had words on this: “Endless water falling the wrong way,” sniffed Oscar Wilde when he visited in late winter of 1882. The legendary Irish wit is also said to have claimed that the legendary honeymoon destination “must be a bride’s second-greatest disappointment.” Our pictures today show the November orchards of the lower Niagara Escarpment.

Who is the Wisest?

Albert Einstein Quotes come under wisdom quotes. He is synonymous with wisdom.  Here is a sampling from wisdomquotes.com True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. When I examine myself and my methods of thought I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and a roaring lion when he discovers a mistake of others. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Is there an answer to who is the wisest person?   Here is Quora's answer- a list which starts with Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Pearl S Buck, Maya Angelou, and Steve Jobs.

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Blossoming!

The news last week said that the asteroid that is coming 1.1 million miles distance from Earth is 'a reminder that somewhere out there an asteroid may have our name on it'.  It made me think of silly expressions, such as: "Don't worry if plan A fails, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet." We have arrived at Spring in Niagara.  We had warm weather on Sunday and Monday and the earliest blossoms opened.  Grapes, on the other hand, open with the lengthening days, so won't bloom for a few weeks yet. Our first picture of the blossom trail is shows migrant workers pruning the orchards.  "Migrant Dreams" is a documentary that profiles their plight - wages lower than our minimum wage, lack of health care, and living conditions that can be unsafe.  The circumstances are described in this article. I became aware of this because of the tireless work by Michael Hahn for the migrant workers.  Centred in Beamsville, he started out providing bicycles for transportation and now has expanded to clothing, a doctor's clinic, and other services they have difficulty accessing. A few weeks ago, I was part of the Grimsby Rotary Club's dinner for Niagara area migrants.  They come to Mike Hahn's home base - St. Albans church - on Sunday each week for a church service in Spanish, to visit the doctor in the one-room clinic, and to have a home-cooked meal.  It is very rewarding to be of service for an evening.  It goes a step towards awareness of the issues.  So now everywhere I go, I am so aware of our migrant workers and how many there are. our last two pictures show the row of corkscrew willows in spring sunshine vs fog - what a great demonstration of light creating emotion and story.

How Deep?

Our Earth Day celebration starts with the question:  What tree has the deepest roots?  Our answer came from Rochester's Neighbourhood Research Centre and they listed all kinds of records referenced from Trees are Good website:   The Oldest Tree known is a Redwood named Eternal God. The tree, found in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in California, has a height of 238 feet and a diameter of 19.6 feet. It is believed to be 12,000 years old, but this figure is disputed; others believe the tree to be only 7,000 years old, still a world record. The Most Massive Tree ever known was the “Lindsey Creek Tree”, a Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) with a minimum trunk volume of 90,000 cubic feet and a minimum total mass of 3630 tons. The tree blew over in a storm in 1905. The living tree with the greatest mass is “General Sherman”, a giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in Sequoia National Park in California. It is 275 feet tall with a girth of 102 feet and 8 inches. The Tree Network with the Greatest Mass, a network of Quaking Aspen, (Populus tremuloides) growing from a single root system in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, covers 106 acres and weighs about 6600 tons (13,200,000 pounds). This clonal system is genetically uniform and acts as a single organism, changing color and shedding leaves in unison. The Greatest Girth of a tree was recorded in the late 18th century on Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy. A European Chestnut (Castanea sativa) known as the Tree of the Hundred Horses, had a circumference of 190 feet. It has since separated into three parts. The Tallest Deciduous Tree currently known in America is a Pecan in Mer Rouge, Louisiana. It stands over 160 feet tall and over 95 feet in spread. Deepest Roots. The greatest reported depth to which a tree’s roots have penetrated is 400 feet by a Wild Fig tree at Echo Caves, near Ohrigstad, Mpumalanga, South Africa. The Greatest Spread of a tree occurs on a Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. It has 1,775 prop or support roots, a circumference of 1,350 feet, covers three acres, and dates from before 1787. The Tallest Tree known to have existed is an Australian Eucalyptus at Watts River, Victoria in Australia. It was reported in 1872 to measure 435 feet tall, but probably measured over 500 feet at some point in its life. The Tallest Living Tree is a Coast Redwood known as the “Mendocino Tree” found in Montgomery State Reserve, Ukiah, CA. It is about 367 feet and 6 inches tall with a 10.5 foot diameter and is over 1000 years old and still growing. The Fastest Growing Tree is an Albizzia falcata in Sabah, Malaysia. In 1974 it was found to have grown 35 feet and 3 inches in 13 months–about 1.1 inches per day. The Slowest Growing Tree is a White Cedar located on a cliff side in the Great Lakes area of Canada. At 155 years old, it is less than 4 inches tall. The Most Isolated Tree known is a solitary Norwegian Spruce on Campbell Island in the Pacific. Its nearest companion is over 120 nautical miles away in the Auckland Islands. The Most Dangerous Tree is the Manchineel Tree, Hippomane mancinella, of the Caribbean coast and the Florida Everglades. This species has had an evil reputation since the Spanish explorers first feared it in the 16th century. The entire tree exudes an extremely poisonous and caustic sap that was once used as arrow poison. Contact to the skin causes an eruption of blisters, contact to the eye can blind a person, and one bite of the fruit causes blistering and severe pain. The majestic Magnolia is blooming in Niagara.  This one is in Queenston, the historic town just downstream from Niagara Falls.