The Tilsons

Granville Magazine has spread the urban farming gospel in their latest issue. The online story doesn’t have any of the great pictures that we’re displayed in their print version. I’ve attached it as a pdf for those who don’t have access to a print copy.

The more I dig into the unreported details of peak oil and how dependent our current agriculture system is on petrol the more I see the necessity of vastly expanding urban agriculture to put every sunny piece of ground, grass, balcony and rooftop to use. With our food system 100% dependent on oil for farming, fertilizers, transportation, cooling, processing and disposal we can expect to see food prices inflate as oil prices do. Perhaps it won’t be 1:1 but it will be a significant amount, significant enough to make it prohibitively expensive to maintain the system we have built. The system is already failing and the media is just starting to report on it. If you haven’t started your “victory garden” yet, I think it’s time to dig in.

It was our first anniversary last night so we decided to celebrate with the first dinner I ever cooked for Lisa. This was by far the best batch of Phai Thai we have ever made so I thought I would post the recipe. It’s not from any particular book. Numerous years of practice and experimentation have finally paid off! All ingredients are approximate values. Buy organic! Sorry locavores, this recipe relies on ingredients from farther away than we usually indulge in.

Ingredients

• 1 package medium rice noodles
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/2 block medium or firm tofu cut into small cubes or your favourite shape
• dash or two of Braggs
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 - 1/2 lb small shrimp
• handful of match-stick carrots
• 1/2 - 2/3 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1 - 2 shallots
• 1 - 2 handfuls of green onion stems
• fresh cilantro
• dry roasted, unsalted, ground (not too fine) peanuts

Sauce Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 3 - 4 tbsp tamarind paste (or a sizable chunk)
• 2 - 3 tbsp canola or other cooking oil
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp sambal olek (red chilli sauce)
• juice from 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper

Directions

Preparation

1. Soak egg noodles in cold water prior to cooking (30+ minutes).
2. Place tamarind paste in a pot with water (2 cups) and simmer. Mash with a fork over time break up the super viscous paste.
3. Scramble eggs in a dish and set aside
4. Brown up tofu in a frying pan with a bit of oil, crushed garlic, Braggs, salt and pepper & set aside
5. If peanuts are raw, dry roast them in a toaster oven at 300F for 20 minutes (ish). Watch them so they don’t burn. Once cooled, either chop up or run through a mini prep blender/chopper. Set aside for garnish.
6. Chop up enough cilantro and set aside for garnish

Sauce

1. In a 2 cup measuring glass mix:
2. Oil, fish sauce, lime, paprika, sugar, crushed garlic, sambal olek, salt & pepper
3. Add approx 1 3/4 tamarind water with mashed up tamarind

Cooking

1. In a medium-high heat pan with a bit of oil, add egg noodles. Because, they will be dripping with water and will make a lot of noise as the cold water drips into the hot oil. Do this part quickly.
2. Turn heat down to medium.
3. Add carrots, celery, shallots, tofu, shrimp.
4. Pour scrambled eggs over everything.
5. Add approximately 1/3 sauce and gently mix sauce, noodles and other ingredients.
6. Cover. The noodles will absorb moisture quickly and much will evaporate.
7. Let cook for a couple minutes making sure it’s not sticking or burning to the bottom of the pan.
8. Add another 1/3 sauce and stir.
9. Cover for a couple more minutes.
10. At this point you are getting close. It’s done when the noodles are el dante (cooked through but not mushy) and the veggies are the same. You want to take it off the heat when the noodles look a little too saucy because they will continue to absorb moisture and can actually be dry by the time you get to eating them in a few minutes.
11. Add green onion stems and stir once more.
12. Use the last 1/3 of the sauce if you need to. The noodles may dry out a bit in the pan while juggling everything.
13. Add Phad Thai to large plates and cover with a thin layer of cilantro and crushed peanuts
14. Enjoy!

This recipe is a bit of work and takes a little practice to get the coordination and timing right but is well worth the effort. When it turns out perfect, its unforgettable.

Last year Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) mysteriously arrived in North America, devastating upwards of 80% of some honey farmers’ bees. My father lost about 3/4s of his hives over the winter. The significance of this event may not register for many. For the uninformed, bees provide far more than just honey. They are the most efficient pollinators on the planet. So many plant forms and the animals that rely on them (including us) have evolved because of the work bees do. Many of the fruits and vegetables that we rely on simply wouldn’t exist without bees. There are no conclusive answers about what has suddenly caused CCD.

Maryam Henein, a Canadian Filmmaker has decided to get the word out and is traveling North America to create a documentary called Vanishing of the Bees. She is funding the production of the documentary with donations and a matching grant. Please donate if you can as it is incredibly important for the message she is working to share, gets out to the masses. The film’s trailer and donation page are on her website.