I thought my gooseberry harvest was scant a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, yesterday I went out to check on the shrub and found a bounty. I picked up maybe 2 or 3 quarts of gooseberries, and there is still more ripening. Gooseberries have a firm texture, a thicker skin and I guess the only way I could describe it is an “apple” sort of taste. And they look so pretty green, and ripe red too. This batch of berries went into three and half half pint jars of jam. I’m so glad I decided to harvest my gooseberries this year.

More gooseberry pictures on Flickr!

This is a picture of brownies I made sometime last year, using this delicious recipe from Vegweb.   I revisited this recipe again a little while ago and was going through the comments. I particularly love the comment “They’re just like the real thing…” Hmm, pet peeve of mine, particularly when I once in a while indulge in baking: that vegan products are somehow the “fake” version of the other products that contain dairy/egg.

This is sort of why I think naming anything “vegan” does more harm than it does good. It instantly puts weird associations and prejudices in different people’s heads.  And when you do mention that something you made is “vegan”, instantly people are looking for the differences between that and the other recipes they’re used to… hence comparisons like “it tastes just like the real thing!”.     I’m not a big baker person, but when I do bake, I usually try to make it as vegan as possible… that is no dairy, no eggs, no other animal products. It’s simple, and if you follow a good recipe you come out with a product that is tasty and delicious. If it’s not delicious, scrap the recipe, make something else.   So let’s see… what makes a brownie? Chocolate - check. Square or rectangular shape - check.  Cake-like texture - check. More chocolate - check. Deliciousness - check. That seems to be a brownie in my definition. It’s not a fake brownie just because it’s vegan.  It doesn’t “taste just like the real thing”. It is the real thing.  It has nutritional value. It’s fattening. It’s yummy. Put it in your mouth, eat it, it’s fun!

Anyway, I’m off to have my fake dinner.  Rant done!

A while ago, I bought a canning pot and a bunch of supplies. The idea was, if I had enough gooseberries, I’d make some jam. Unfortunately, my gooseberry harvest last week was literally a handful, and I don’t think I’d be able to harvest the whole bush in a single batch.  So I went to the market today and bought way too many blueberries (harvested in Pelham, ’cause i’m into the local food thing).

While it stormed outside today, I made my first batch of blueberry jam.

I ate it. It was delicious!

Last night, I decided to do some solo fun with my weekend and took off on a bike trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake. The town is about 20km away, and at least there’s bike lanes for most of it. By the time I got to NoTL, my butt was totally sore, and my feet were numb. But the ride in was nice and totally worth it.

So, I picked up some sustainance in the form of walnut and maple cream tarts, dried mangos and papayas and a cafe latte. I spent a couple of hours in the park reading and relaxing. By about 4pm, I really didn’t want to leave. It was such a nice day.

The trip back was actually pretty sucky. It rained and the wind was against me. But I made it home and now i’m exhausted. Dinner tonight is frozen pizza. Wheee!

There’s a handful of these already on my cherry tomato plants and even more flowers. My Romas are flowering too and look ready to fruit. In other garden news, my cucumber plant keeps getting torn up by some animal and every time, I diligently replant it. It’s struggling, and doesn’t look like it’ll survive even if it doesn’t get dug up again.

Anyway, I was on my bike when some dude on a motorcycle pulled up beside me.

“Hey,” he said. “It’d be a lot easier if you had a motor!”

He said it pleasantly, jovially and all i could do was give him a big smile. Because after grumbling about having asthma, what else could i say as he zoomed off. But as always, it comes to me like, five minutes later…

“You’re looking at the motor, dude, and the motor’s running fine!”

Yeah, that’s the best I got.

In other news, I was totally in a very crammed elevator with Dalton McGuinty today. That’s all I have to say about that.

While the power was out, i went to check on the garden. The tomato plants need a bit of pruning, but I tied up stems in some attempt to organize them. But I’m so happy that they’re thriving. Even my basil is doing well. I’ve been able to use the basil for salads and stuff lately too.

The cucumber plant was torn apart a few weeks ago by some animal. This bothered me, but I tucked the plant’s roots back in. The leaves were all torn up, but the roots, cotyledon leaves and the stem seemed fine. I had pretty much left it for dead, but miraculously it’s still going. New leaves have grown in to take the place of the tattered leaves. Lettuce and carrots are also growing in nicely.

Anyway, pictures:

More on Flickr!

The entire evening was pretty neat. I took off from work early so I can catch a bus and be in Toronto by 5pm. The boy was running late, so I had about an hour to hang out in front of Union Station. It was a great day, the sun was out and it was neither too hot nor humid.  I ate a street vendor veggie dog… no corn relish. I should have gone to the vendor that had corn relish.

In any case, there was a guy feeding the birds. I find it fascinating how birds seem to have crumb detection from crazy high altitudes and from behind buildings. A little girl in a pink dress started chasing the birds around in a gleeful bout of cuteness. A hippy-ish ragged looking guy walking by gave a random pretty girl on cell phone a blue silk rose then simply walked away, which I thought was really sweet. A group of goth kids started waving to a bunch of bored tourists on a double decker, then shouted DETHKLOK RULES! And that made my day up to that point right there.

We had a nice dinner at the Mill St. Pub in the Distillery District. I was fascinated with the area. I worked in the neighbourhood about ten years ago, and it never looked like this. After that, we walked over the Koolhaus.   I managed to plead to security for the survival of my homemade cookies (made from scratch the night before!) She OK’ed them when I finally told her it was homemade and I had come straight from St. Catharines and had nowhere to stash them.   Yay for being whiny!

Dethklok was so much fun! Being that it is a fictional animated band, you’re not really supposed to take them and the music seriously. But me and the boy love the music and there was so much energy and enthusiasm from the audience.  The live performance along side of big screens showing Dethklok videos was just brilliant.

Today, I’m tired and sore. Doing yoga the night before, getting to bed at 3am because I’ve been playing Sims 2, and then being on my feet pretty much all night last night would do that to me. I got up really early because the boy had to catch a flight to Nashville for NAMM, which his job is sending him too. He’s in the air right now. I’m on his macbook (/gasp!) typing this post out.  In the next hour, I’m going to head over to Mississauga to visit my family.

If you’re not into the fixed gear culture, you probably won’t get it. The first “Fixed-push” video is a satire of the subculture of cyclists who ride fixed-gear bicycles.

Technically, I’m a fixed gear cyclist. Except, not really because I don’t own an industrial size messenger bag that could fit beer fridges, I don’t play bike polo, nor have I ever been employed as a bike messenger (or competed in bike messenger competitions.. apparently you don’t have to be a messenger to compete in one :p). Nor did I build my bike from some ultra cool retro frame I pulled out of someone’s old school garage sale and fitted it with stuff that has weird italian and japanese names that I have no clue why it matters. My bike was sold to me “off the peg”… what i see is what i got. Though it doesn’t have a top tube pad, it reviews well, and I kept the brakes on it and even had it equipped with … *gasp drama* … fenders! I do, however, own skinny pants. I don’t think I look so skinny in said pants, but they’re practical for cycling with and they go with everything.

The only thing I’m disappointed in about not belonging to the “fixed gear culture” is that I cannot skid stop for the life of me, and I cannot maintain a trackstand. I wanted to ride fixed for the ability to do trackstands, and so far, I’m not getting it. I guess I’m not so zen with the bike.

Marigolds in the back, cherries along my makeshift bamboo trellis, roma plants next and sweet basil plants in the foreground.

In the 2nd veggie patch, my one cucumber seedling is doing well. The lettuce and the carrots have come up  and need to be thinned.  I may take the spinach out and plant a pepper plant instead. I’m not that big of a fan of spinach anyway.