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Saturday, February 10, 2018

The Weekend Roundup: F

This weekend's prompts from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with F, Flower, and Favourite.

Starts with F
Fish starts with F.  We recently joined a weekly delivery program for a sustainable seafood company called Afishionado (yes, the spelling is correct!)  Each week, we receive a pound of a sustainably-fished species of fish from Canada, most often locally fished.  We get information on the name of the fishing boat, the method of catch (mostly line caught for sustainability), and the captain of the vessel.  I like supporting local businesses and environmentally sound fishing practices, so it's a win-win for us!  This week's fish is albacore tuna, and right now it is marinating in an orange ginger soy marinade.  

It will make a lovely supper.  Other fish we've had recently from this program include smoked mackerel, cod, and steelhead trout.  

Flower
Tom sure was posing a challenge for northerners with this prompt!  There aren't any flowers to bee seen in my snowy landscape.  The best I could come up with is this little flower on my indoor rosemary plant that sits on my windowsill.  Not very big but still, it is a flower.

Until at least May, that's all the flowers I'll be seeing around here except for this lovely print on my kitchen wall, a gift some years ago from my parents.

Favourite
I recently finished knitting this cute little mouse - definitely one of my favourite knitted items so far!  It was good practice for me on the colourwork part of his sweater.  Here he is inspecting some of this week's eggs.  A number of people commented last week that they hadn't seen an egg skelter before.  I think that is probably because in North America, for the most part, people keep their eggs in the fridge, whereas in other parts of the world, they are kept at room temperature.  North American eggs are washed, which removes the protective surface coating, therefore requiring them to be refrigated.  In some countries, it is illegal to commercially sell washed eggs because the coating protects from bacteria and they are considered safer when unwashed.  In any event, it's a useful item if you keep your eggs on the counter, as I do!  Here's some more information on the history of egg washing and chilling:  https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/why-the-u-s-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt

7 comments:

porkpal said...

What a perfect little egg inspector. Beautiful knitting!

The Old Gray Egg said...

Wow. I never knew that Americans were unique in their egg washing and chilling. We harvest both duck and chicken eggs, and always get old and new eggs mixed up in their cartons. Your post will change the way we do it now. Thanks.

Michelle said...

I knew about washing eggs but still hadn't seen that neat egg-holding device. Not that I need it; my hens haven't produced a thing in two weeks!

Tom said...

...Claire, Afishionado, what a wonderful name for a fish business! For living in the frozen north you did a great job with flower. Interesting information about eggs. We always store eggs in the fridge, over here on Maui eggs come from California and the shells are reinforced so that cracking is reduced. Now that's a might nice sweater, do you take orders? Thanks so much joining in this week, I hope to see you again.

Mrs. Sew and Sew - Karen said...

I wish I could buy fresh eggs here. I do buy organic. I have gotten some nasty ones though. I did know they should not be washed or refrigerated. Yes, I do live in the the US. Also I have never seen an egg holding device like yours. It is very neat.

Jim said...

Good to have weekly fish coming in. We had some come monthly, from Alaska I think. I like the mouse, he can guard the eggs.
And I learned agsin, Claire. About the covering around the egg. Mom didn't wash her eggs unless the hen had made them messed. Then we washed those eggs with vinegar. I say we, Mom went through and crated her eggs late at night. We'd finish after midnight some nights. We got a lot of talking in that way.

Ralph said...

That tuna looks divine - and it hasn't even been cooked yet! The mouse is cite, its whimsy so clear. Nice knitting! I am awaiting Spring and the emergence of new flowers too...