Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Crabbing at Belcarra
As part of expanding our access to local food year round, Brian and I have taken up fishing in the last year. Lake fishing, mostly trout so far, but we’re interested in expanding into saltwater – and I’ve got a nascent interest in flyfishing that I might investigate this fall when I accompany Brian on some hunting expeditions (I don’t hunt, but I’m thinking it’s the perfect opportunity for some fishing and photography).
So! In keeping with the get-out-and-learn-new-stuff-about-food theme, we went to Belcarra on Saturday with our friend (who just bought a crab trap) Leung and spent the afternoon on the sunny dock getting nicely toasted (read: burned) while waiting for the crabs to take our bait. In general, I would not recommend Belcarra on a sunny Saturday as the pier is overcrowded – but for a first time it was excellent because 1) they have a park employee and volunteers out there on the weekend to answer all your questions and 2) there are so many people crabbing that you get a real feel for the variety of traps and techniques out there.
While we didn’t catch anything we could keep (all female and/or undersized), I did come away with a lot of confidence for doing more crabbing in the future. If you are interested in heading out for an afternoon of crabbing in the lower mainland, here are some things worth knowing:
- By law you must carry a tidal waters fishing licence issued by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. If you intend to also fish for salmon, you must also purchase the salmon conservation stamp – total cost is $30 for the year.
- Crabbing is best done at the turn of the tide, about two hours after the low tide point when the crabs are moving in with the water.
- Crabbing may take place from shore, from a pier, or from a boat. If you are working from shore, you will want a lightweight trap that is easy to throw a long distance – I like the half-circle traps in particular and will probably invest in one of those even though they require more tending than the larger traps that are dropped from the pier or a boat. Traps can range from $20 (for the square traps at Army and Navy) upwards to a few hundred for commercial traps. The $20 traps work fine if you’re dropping them off a pier.
- Dungeness and Red Rock Crabs are what you’re after in BC, and it is against the law to keep females and those which don’t meet a certain size across the carapace.
- Crabs are most often found in bays and estuary zones, so plan your trip accordingly.
- If you use fish for bait, seals will eat it – chicken is attractive to crabs without attracting the marine mammals.
As with anything there is lots ot know about trap types and locations – but it turns out that the crabbing itself is really very simple. Bait trap, drop or throw it in the water, wait (15 minutes with the half-circle traps, one hour or longer with the drop traps), pull in and discard whatever you aren’t allowed to keep. You can use tongs or work gloves to minimize risk of being pinched, or simply pick the crab up from its back end so the claws are out front. Also picking it up from the top of its carapace and turning it upside down is another way to avoid claw injuries.
Obviously this is a popular time for outdoor activities, so crabbing anywhere on a weekend is bound to be busy. We’re hoping to take advantage of my Mondays off work, and our willingness to go out in the dismal months of late fall to get some quieter and more productive crab fishing done.
What fava beans are good for.
One has to really like fava beans to grow them in their annual veggie garden…. despite being incredibly simple (watch out for the aphids!), they take up a lot of room for a yield that might get you three meals at best. Still, nothing beats the buttery wonder that is the fava… and especially in the Egyptian breakfast-stew Ful.
It occurred to me yesterday that this is a great use of seasonal foods, and after I shelled my basket-harvest of beans I got right to experimenting with a recipe using what I had on hand. The garlic scapes, parsley and beans came out of my yard, and everything else was local (except the olive oil and cumin seed) – which satisfied my inner-locavore greatly. This dish may be prepared and served in a variety of ways (tahini is the actual ingredient in traditional Ful but all I had on hand was almond butter) – but essentially it is a hash based around fava beans cooked in a stew of tomatoes.
Since I make no claim to anything approximating real North African cooking, I will call this one:
Breakfast Beans, Egyptian-style
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seed
8 garlic scapes (or one large onion if you don’t have the scapes)
1 yellow bell pepper
3 field tomatoes (3 cups diced)
2 cups shelled fava beans (1 15 oz can if you don’t have fresh)
1 cup parsley
juice of 1-2 lemons
salt to taste
2 tablespoons almond butter
* Because I made this with fava beans from the garden, I had to do the extra steps of preparing them before starting this recipe. After shelling the beans, drop them in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and plunge them into ice-cold water (to stop them from further cooking). Peel the tough outer shell from the beans to reveal the sweet green bean inside. This is not required as the outer shell is totally edible, but for this dish I would recommend it.
After your fava beans are prepared:
- Cut the garlic scapes into small pieces and throw them in a medium-sized pot with the olive oil and cumin seed. Cook until the scapes are softened (or the onion is browned), add diced yellow pepper and cook further.
- Add 3 diced field tomatoes and juice of one lemon plus salt to taste. Cook until the tomatoes are easily crushed and mash them around a bit.
- Add 2 tablespoons of almond butter and spread it around the stew so that it breaks down and makes a nice tomato-almond base.
- Add the fava beans and parsley. Cook on medium temperature until everything is reduced and there is only a little liquid left in the pot.
Serve warmed with feta cheese sprinkled on top, or with sliced hard-boiled egg (a low-carb breakfast option), or with pita breads.
This is remarkably good, and I am so pleased to have a batch made up for my breakfasts this week. Sadly, those were my last garden favas and the plants have been pulled up and composted to make way for winter scallions. I’m already looking forward to next year…. and in the meantime I guess I’ll have to go to the dried lima beans in my cupboard when I want to make this dish again.
Conversation and Kale Salad
Last night’s union talk and dinner at our home was crazy-successful….. an event that started out early and went late, ending with some hot-tubbing and cherry pie at midnight. About twenty people crammed into our small living room, and it was apparent to me that disenchanted as some of our activists may be, there is still a deep desire to explore the possibilities a new union and/or union movement…We already have agreement from someone to come and talk in September, so we will be working out the details of that shortly and going ahead with a little intimate series of discussions (and dinners) in our home.
Dinner last night was burgers (beef, lamb and veggie) with all the fixings, potato salad and pickles… plus a new kale recipe that I whipped up in an effort to use up the snow peas from the garden that were about to get too big for their own good. This turned out to be a definite keeper:
Conversation and Kale Salad
2 cups of shitaake mushrooms
5 garlic scapes
5 mid-sized curly Kale leaves
1 pound of snow peas
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
black sesame seeds
Dressing: rice vinegar, sunflower oil, sesame oil, juice of one orange
In advance, cut into pieces and cook the shitaake mushrooms and garlic scapes in sesame oil and a touch of soy sauce. Let cool.
Kale leaves should be cut very thin, with the ribs taken out. Snow peas may be cut into two or three sections.
Mix cooled mushrooms and scapes, shredded kale leaves, snow peas and sunflower seeds in a big salad bowl.
Mix dressing to your taste – the base is rice vinegar and sunflower oil with sesame oil being added in very small quantity for flavoring.
Toss the salad in the dressing, sprinkle black sesame seeds and a little salt on top – and you will have a pretty amazing salad to go with your summer grilling!
Making hope possible (a salon series?)
To be totally honest, I’m not particularly keen at being back in the office today. After a week of holidays and three days of training (in conflict management), my inbox is piled high and my motivation to tackle it is low. But still, I am brought back to the computer and to this blog after it all – and I rather miss posting here.
I’ve got friends in town for a week, and because one of them has some particular insight into the new union being formed by the CEP and CAW, we are having a small private salon (and dinner) at our home this evening. The talk is titled “A New Union?” and we will be exploring what this new organization might look like and what opportunities a new direction could raise for Canadian labour. Being a bit of a political geek, I’m looking forward to welcoming others of my ilk into my home for discussion. Even more than that, Brian and I are thinking of hosting a regular salon series out of our home starting with this event and carrying on into the fall. Perhaps a bi-monthly affair with a donation for dinner – we’re hoping the next one will involve a new book that’s just come out on reslience and localizing our economy (more info once the author responds on that).
Going back to school has reminded me just how much I enjoy the whole dinner and intellectual conversation equation – and although I will have more of that in my grad program this fall – I really don’t think there is such thing as too much engagement with others!
I’m thinking too, that such a series could put into practice something I think the labour and progressive movements fall far short on: rather than making hope possible, we too often focus on convincing the world of despair*. With that in mind, a salon series focussing on possibilities and visions could draw out some potentials for direction that we don’t see otherwise.
We’ll see how it goes tonight of course – a dinner of burgers and salads, and some insight into Canada’s new industrial union – not your normal party fare, but perhaps a new project for our home in 2012/13?
* A paraphrase of Raymond Williams “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing”.
Island pizza party
Last night was pizza and live music just around the corner from where we are staying. By the time we got our pizzas all of us were famished as evidenced by this photo of the girls wolfing down a pizza between them. Incidentally, I had no idea that traveling with two fourteen-year-olds could be so much fun.
Red Cedar 