Last week I got an email from the Ontario Craft Brewers about a new "Ambassadors" program that they have going. So I clicked on the link to check it out, and decided after seeing it to sign up. I figure I already consider myself a Beer Ambassador, so why not, right? Wow, I had no idea what would happen next! This morning a huge box arrived by courier on our front step, and it contained a whole bunch of swag, shown here!

Those of you who know me well know that I'm a bit of a cloth diaper nut. I was rather sad when #2 finally toilet-trained, as it meant packing away all that beautiful fluff for an indefinite period of time.

In the few years since then the cloth diaper market has exploded and they've become much more accessible to the average consumer. Accompanying this demand, natural laundry washes, soaps and detergents have multiplied on store shelves -- increasing consumer options and leaving me feeling, at times, as though I went to university just to be able to read the ingredients labels on cleaning products.

Brining meat takes us as humans right back to basics in terms of some of the first things we as a species learned both to store food, and ensure it was healthier to eat in terms of killing germs and other bugs which could not survive such a high saline solution. Basically here is what you want :

• 1 US/UK gallon water (4 liters)
• 1.5 cups non-iodized salt (kosher, pickling, sea)
• 1.0 cups white or brown sugar, maple syrup, honey or whatever (I always use honey from a local apiary)
• herbs and spices to your preference

You simply mix this ideally first in a pot on the stove and bring to near-boiling just for the sake of fully dissolving the sugars and salts.

Yesterday evening I was sitting the backyard with my wife when it became apparent that the folks diagonally over the fence were having one of their huge parties. Actually, they don't have them often - I'd say only once a year which would make sense in hindsight after what I found out. This year I decided I was going to go over and introduce myself, so around 8pm I grabbed a 2 litre bottle of homebrew and away I went. I decided it was time to meet more of the neighbours and what better time than at their party?

So I hopped the fence directly behind me, and walked over to the next house where the party was - and what a party I found! There had to be 40 or 50 people inside and out. They had a bar set up in the shed, and a huge spread of professionally catered food which occupied a good 1/4 of their tiny yard. I quickly met the owners and said "Where I come from, if you can hear the music, you are invited. So I invited myself". As it turned out, he was pleased-as-punch to hear that, and over the course of the evening made sure I was well taken-care-of for both food and drinks. He told me he was celebrating his birthday - and wow he sure was celebrating in style with that huge spread.

I'm sitting here at the computer watching game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals on CBC Sports online. That's hockey for those not in the know. It's around this time every year where I get a bit of a hankering for TV. In fact it is kind of ironic that I now miss TV for the sake of hockey, because when I was a young kid I actually quit minor hockey at about the age of 7 because I was so addicted to TV that I did not want to miss my Saturday morning cartoons, and that is when hockey practice was. And I went through pretty much most of the rest of my life majorly addicted to the Tube - watching it for the sake of watching it.

Until we had our first kid. Actually it was a bit by accident how we decided to turn of the Tube for good. Most of you in North America at least will recall the massive east-coast blackout we had in 2003. Our youngest son was about 15 or 16 months old at the time, and we'd already been discussing the possibility of just cancelling our dish and getting rid of TV because we did not like the idea of our kids being exposed to all that advertising, not to mention the addiction. When we were forced to go a day or so without TV because of the blackout, we realised and were actually very surprised how easy it was to do. So without any 2nd thoughts we called and cancelled, and sold the dish. And have not looked back.

So far this year I've been brewing mainly German-style beers with a quick stop in Belgium, so today it is something British inspired. I've still got a half keg of Belgian Wit, most of a keg of a German Dunkles that has been lager for a good 5 weeks already, and 4 kegs of Koelsch-eh, 2 in the fridge already and 2 not. So time to change things up a bit.

Normally I stick with very simple grain bills, but had a bunch of odds and ends to use up so this is what I came up with. I don't expect much character from the small amount of Smoked malt that I used - used it mainly because I needed more base malt and did not want to use up any of my 2 Row because I have other plans for it next weekend. Note to self - buy more base malt.

• 4.6 kg pale ale
• 2.3 kg Weyermann Dark Munich
• 400g Fawcett Malted Oats
• 400g unknown base malt :-)
• 500g Caramunich III
• 1.7 kg Weyermann Rauch/Smoked

For a total of 10kg

Why do leaf blowers even exist? Honestly. The only good use I've seen for them is using one as a bellows to stoke a bonfire. Other than this, I've seen some truly nonsensical uses - even for blowing leaves. In every single case I've seen them used for cleanup, they are far slower and less efficient than using a rake or broom. Really, they are just a sign of being lazy.

But this one really takes the cake. On the construction site across from me they are refurbishing the apartment buildings and insulating them on the outside - great news for saving energy! The owners should be applauded!

However, the guys doing the actual work need a few lessons here, and I hope to be the one to teach them one. I've contacted the City and demanded that my yard and all my neighbours yards be cleaned of this junk. In this video you can clearly see them kicking up huge clouds of styrofoam and just blowing it away into the wind - into MY yard! These guys need shop vacs, not leaf blowers. You can see them very clearly walking on the scaffolding, and hear the leaf blowers going. In some shots you can even see it all around me in the air as it blows into my yard.

Wow, I truly am speechless. BPA was the "big plastics scare" last year. It is found in the liner of almost all canned goods, and is linked to a host of health problems, especially in young. They wanted to hire a pregnant woman to consume large amounts of products containing BPA, and get her to be a champion for it. Some of the wonderful corporate citizens who are setting a good example for us : Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Crown, North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Inc., Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), American Chemistry Council, Del Monte

During the Great Depression it was common for people to get together to can up large amounts of food - many hands make light work. While the driving factor was simply a matter of survival, it had a really great side-effect of bringing communities together and forming bonds that would far outlive the economic troubles.

Today we find ourselves once again in the midst of economic troubles, and it may or may not be a coincidence that canning is becoming more-and-more popular. Just last week the New York Times newspaper did a feature article on this new trend - which is not really so new for many of us - that seems to be getting a lot of coverage in the alternative blogosphere. I think it would be a stretch to suggest that it is a matter of survival for most folks this time around, but I do think that people in general are becoming more concerned with their food chain, and are wanting to become more directly connected with it.

This is a good thing.

... how about we do something useful with it?

Please read this article carefully, and if you agree - which I think will be difficult not to - please write to your elected representative for action, NOW!