Yesterday I ranted on about modern battery chicks vs. mature free
range birds. Well pork doesn't have to be overly lean either if you
know a small time farmer. My buddy Bill, who runs a market garden
operation, can raise a dozen hogs for free from the scraps and
waste. He sells 10 (to discerning customers in Ottawa at a premium
price) and keeps 2 for his own table. Commercial hogs are
slaughtered at around 24 weeks when they are 220 to 280 pounds. They
are young, mild tasting and lean. Bill's swine are somewhat free
ranging and get to live to close to Christmas, so they run 8 months
old and close to 400 pounds. The extra 120 pounds is almost all fat.
I had a leg roast at his place once that had a 4 inch fat cap! The
cracklings were amazing, the meat rich and juicy even when well done
and the pan drippings of course saved.

We had some chops from Wild Harmony Farm
(the name makes me cringe), which is run by
Rosemary's granddaughter and grandson-in-law.
There's not a federally licensed abbatoir in
Rhode Island, so they have to truck their
swine across two sets of state lines to get
to one, but at least the place cuts to their
specifications, and we had a 1" fat cap, which
made for terrific cracklings in whose rendering
I cooked the chops to just pink inside. The
result was absolutely delicious. But you know
what, instead of spending $10 on meat for two,
we could have gotten pretty okay pork, albeit
fed on corn grits and maybe fishmeal, instead
of the acorns and mushrooms that the free-range
Harmony pigs got, from the likes of Swift or the
now-hated Smithfield for $3 and doctored it with
20c worth of onions and soy sauce and gotten
almost as much pleasure.

We've gone from near-record cold to near-record
heat in the space of a few days. Worldwide it's
averaging out above average (for recorded history)

The above normal heat patterns are most noticeable in the northern
latitudes. All five of our last five winters have been the five
mildest ones since we started tracking weather here in 1942. We are
setting new records again this week with daytime highs in the -2 to
-4 C range vs. a historical average of -25 to -27.

Even in the south. Though much is made of the
cooling trend of East Antarctica, there is a
general increase of energy for the continent
as a whole, with unstable weather patterns
pretty much guaranteed throughout our lifetimes
and potentially interesting consequences to
coastlines everywhere. I'm looking at you, Florida.

In the past 30 years Yellowknife has been invaded by coyotes, deer
and magpies which are now mingling with and competing with our native
wolves, caribou and ravens.

I noticed southern species marching north as
early as the 1970s. Now we have subtropical
flora up as far as New England. Of course the
monster fluctuations might kill them off for a
while, but they will be back.

Roslind's Kugluktuk people have seen (and hunted and eaten) moose
locally in the last 3 years for the first time in 4000 years. And I
have the proof in my freezer!

Of course we tend to draw our conclusions
based on evidence that we have witnessed
locally; drawing universal conclusions is
a riskier proposition. It takes worldwide
data to draw worldwide conclusions.

75% of the the arctic ice pack has disappeared in the past 30 years.
And there are plenty of other obvious changes too, more bad than
good.

So is it too late to help ourselves?

Lord Mountararat. It's our fault. They couldn't
help themselves.
Queen. It seems they have helped themselves,
and pretty freely, too!
- Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe

... Climate Scientists Quietly Looking for Different Planet to Live On

The sad thing is that some people are seriously
advocating trying to take a mulligan and starting
fresh on some other planet. Why not try fixing
what's wrong here first?

Kim Crawford rose sorbet
categories: booze, airline
yield: 1 batch

3 oz sugar
3 oz water
1 bottle rose wine

Bring the water and sugar to a boil. Simmer
5 min until sugar is dissolved; cool. Stir
in wine. Process in an ice cream maker according
to manufacturer's directions. Or freeze in a
loaf pan, breaking up occasionally until frozen
solid; process in a food processor until smooth
and then freeze until firm.

Serve ir keep frozen in a well sealed container
up to 1 week.

Kim Crawford, via Virgin Australia magazine October 2018
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