The Best Composting Video

 Richard Perkins, King of Compost and other things

This video is a perfect supplement to Perkins' video

New England Baked Beans

From America's Test Kitchen with input from Chef John too!

Brining the beans overnight helped jump-start hydration and also softened their skins so they cooked up tender in the oven, with few blowouts. Uncovering the pot for the last hour of cooking ensured that the liquid reduced sufficiently to coat the beans in a thick sauce. Flavorings such as molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard, bay leaf, onion, and salt pork, plus one nontraditional ingredient (soy sauce), gave the beans rich flavor.

Notes for 2.5 lbs (big batch!) of beans, which is 3 cups of dry beans.

• soak in brine overnight to make skins softer
• cover in water, add a tsp of baking soda, bring to a boil for 10 mins.
• drain cooking water but keep handy
• add 2 halved onions, bay leaf, 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 3/4 cup molasses, 2 tsp dry mustard powder, 3/4 cup brown sugar (optional maple syrup)
• add meat
• cover with cook water and bake covered for 1 hr at 300 F
• check for water coverage, add more if needed, bake for another hour
• when soft enough, remove lid, bake for another hour (max) at 350 to brown and condense.
• re-lid to steam off fondant on side of pot and scrape into beans

Photograph by Ed Sheeran

We keep this love in a photograph 

We made these memories for ourselves 

Where our eyes are always open 

Hearts are never broken

And time's forever frozen, still

Inside theses pages you just hold me

And I won't ever let you go

When I'm away I'll remember how you kissed me

The Best Take on Why Canada Is Not Getting Vaccinated

 

Taken from The Line

Yard Tour 2021 Springtime

This property is located in Hamilton which is at the west end of Lake Ontario. The soil is clay-based ancient lake bottom. There once was a rich and wild forest here for thousands of years after the glaciers receded. 

Indigenous peoples called the Mississaugas and Haudenosanee travelled to and fro over the forested area to hunt and to fish in the waters of Ontario which means "sparkling water". 

Next the area was transformed by piecemeal settlement in the late 1700s when United Empire Loyalists moved in after being granted land rights by the British Crown. Deforestation began and agricultural activity ramped up along with it. 

An early industrial town called Dundas was established at the mouth of Spencer's Creek based around a mill at Crook's Hollow, but the town's growth and long term success was hindered by the expense of building and maintaining a canal to reach the lake. 

Eventually the city of Hamilton overtook Dundas due to its more favourable location on the shore of the beautiful natural harbour now called Hamilton Harbour. The industrialization of Hamilton Harbour during the pre-War and post-War period is a sad tale of pollution and short term consumption. The entire shoreline of Hamilton Harbour which included miles of wetlands has been lost to coal piles and slag from steelmaking. 

The area is beginning to recover so I'm trying to do my little tiny part starting where I live, and starting with the soil under my feet. 

With that said, welcome to Hamilton. This is my dwelling place. My home is a small post-war house constructed on a former farmer's field. The land may have had orchards or other crops on it for a hundred years or so before they plunked my house down here. Let's see how much goodness I can coax out of this little bit of Earth!