Category Archives: Food

A Recipe for Community: No-Knead Bread

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Winter is on its way to Toronto.  The signs are here.  The last tomato flowers were brushed by frost last week.  The fair-weather runners have vanished from the streets.  Our cat has re-mastered her skill of sleeping under blankets.  And our farmers’ market has moved to winter hours, now only open every second week.  That means that the supply of amazing artisan breads from St. John’s Bakery has been cut in half.  And the rest of what our neighbourhood has to offer bread-wise is pretty dismal in comparison.  So rather than suffer with disappointing grocery store loaves, I’ve just started making bread again.

Making bread isn’t new to me.  As a grad student I made bread a lot, even keeping a sourdough starter for a while.  But my schedule was more flexible then, I often worked at home and could adapt my schedule to the rhythm of whatever bread I was making.  That isn’t the case now that I work a regular 8:30 – 4:30 job.  Add in a morning run, commute time, and making dinner and there isn’t much flexibility or time left over to accommodate most bread recipes.  Bread needs to fit my schedule, not the other way around.  And that is where this no-knead bread recipe fits in.  I can mix the ingredients before work, let it rise during the day, shape it for a second rise when I get home, cook dinner as it rises, and it bakes as I’m relaxing. Most of the work is doen by time.  The recipe has been around for a while and was introduced to me a few years ago by a friend in Kingston (who does a bread CSA).  And it wasn’t like it was from an obscure source; it was originally published in the New York Times.  So I am by no means that first who blogged about it (go ahead, Google “no knead bread” and be amazed by the reviews and variations), but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. 

So why is this bread a recipe for community?  First of all, it is accessible.  There isn’t any complicated skill involved in getting amazing bread with this recipe.  You need to know how to stir, fold, turn on an oven, and wait for intervals along the way.  Kneading, which is the hardest and messiest part of a lot of bread recipes, is cut out of the equation.  Second, it connects us with our past.  Not that long ago, a lot of bread was made at home or locally in smaller batches.  And that is how it has been for most of the 10,000 years or so that people have been making bread.  The process of turning the basic ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water into bread and witnessing the steps of that transformation has inspired and astonished us for millennia (like in Christianity, where bread represents the body of Christ).  And thirdly, this bread is one that you can share with your community.  Sure, you won’t believe this when you’ve devoured the first few loaves before they’ve had a chance to fully cool off.  But, as it becomes part of your routine, you will begin to share the bread you’ve made and the recipe with your community.  Enjoy!

No-Knead Bread – New York Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

VanValley is delicious!

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I signed up for the VanValley Buyers Club in July and it’s been such a fabulous experience, I had to share.  We paid about $600 up front for 17 weeks of amazing produce.  Each week, we’re pretty much set for fruit and veggies except for a few extras here and there, like California grapes and avocados from Chile.  I’ve always supported the philosophy of community supported agriculture (CSA), but this is the first time I’ve been directly involved.  And it’s been awesome to be a part of.

From their website, the focus of VanValley is to provide buyers club clients with the best LOCAL produce at competitive pricing. We believe that through food and supporting sustainable LOCAL food systems we are also building relationships and community (http://vanvalley.wordpress.com).  VanValley started this year and from my perspective, it’s been a smash hit.

We’ve signed up for weekly delivery of organic produce before and I didn’t love it.  No matter how many cool-packs were included in the bin, the produce would always be a bit sad by the time I got home from work to fetch the delivery from our sunny front step.  Unfamiliar produce would often end up in the compost as I didn’t know what to do with it. And it was expensive.

In contrast, VanValley offers value, convenience and fun.  Volunteers staff a pick-up table at our local coffee house from 4 to 7pm once a week.  That means we can peacefully make our way there after work.  Most evenings, we go as a family and end up chatting with neighbours and the amazing volunteers while we’re there.  And usually, we munch on farm-fresh cucumbers from Surrey or peaches from Keremeos on the walk home.

Administration has been seamless from the start, which I must admit was a pleasant surprise.  I’m not sure why, but I expected a period of working out the kinks.  There wasn’t one and I’m still impressed by how efficient the process is.  Members of the Buyers Club receive a weekly newsletter that includes a list of the produce we’re getting, recipes featuring that produce and news from the farmers.  Plus, there’s a trades box at the pick-up location and I love that.  We have lettuce in our edible garden, so we can swap out greens from our weekly box and replace it with something that another member passed on (like blueberries – yum!).  It’s such a simple idea and it makes for an even better experience.

It’s been wonderful to eat seasonal produce.  We loved the radishes and stone fruit through summer, the tomatoes and potatoes as we approached Labour Day, and now the deep purple beets and beautiful green squashes as we settle into fall.  It’s such a natural way to eat and so incredibly satisfying because the food matches the season.

The beauty of supporting local producers and sustainable food systems has become somehow less important than the experience of participating in community in this way.  We signed up because of our politics, but interestingly, our ideological motivations have sort of faded into the background because the practice makes perfect sense and the experience is just so darn great.

Like most Vancouverites, I’m already looking forward to next summer.  And our next summer will definitely include VanValley.  In the meantime, I’ll go back to shopping on the Drive for my organic produce.  And I expect that I’ll buy California grapes and avocados from Chile less often than I did before.

Masthead photo courtesy of Augapfel.

Vacation Planning – Community Style

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As I write this I am between vacations. Yesterday I was basking in an unseasonably warm fall day in Algonquin Provincial Park. Tomorrow, I’m heading to Cape Cod and later in the week to Boston. It is my reward for a September void of days off, as work gobbled up every weekend between Labour Day and Thanksgiving.

Once the Lonely Planet or some other off the shelf travel guide was my only tool to plan trips. But increasingly, the paper books have given way to the Internet. Odds are by now you already know about the many travel websites offering deals and feedback from a community of previous vacationers. If not, you should look into it. This is increasingly the way most people I know make their travel decisions. But beyond the basics of the where to stay and what the key attractions are the Internet is offering way more. For Jim and I this means that we are getting to know and even starting to contribute to online communities around two of our current main vacation interests: canoeing and beer.

The traditional guides for canoeing in Ontario are park maps and a single prolific author on canoe routes, Kevin Callan.  These are still great resources to access, but choosing the right trip at the right time of year is the key challenge in planning a successful trip. Online paddling communities, such as Canadian Canoe Routes offer a forum to share trip routes, provide advice, and learn about seasonal differences in a region. Other sites like Virtual Algonquin and Algonquin Map provided more specific details on Algonquin for our trip planning this summer and fall. These resources have meant we were able to get off the beaten track in August when some parts of the park get booked to capacity and let us know when to check out the most popular lakes, like Canoe Lake, without being steamrolled by the crowds.  As new canoeists, it meant were were able to have multiple great vacations in our first year.

Travel guides for good beer seem to be few and far between in published form. But online there are thriving beer communities offering advice on the best places to get pints in whatever town you might be in.
My favourite is Beer Advocate – offering listings and user ratings for breweries, eateries, bars, retailers and u-brews. It offers a crash course in great craft beer no matter what city in North American you are in.  Another great resource is The Beer Mapping Project, helpful for thirsty travelers to get acquainted with the local beer landscape.  And there are what seems like countless more resources, recommendations, and reviews out there to guide the way to better beer rather than large scale commercial brews that I could just as easily find in the bar around the corner from where I live.

The Internet is now my main gateway to traveling. It lets me get closer to communities that share my interests and gain more intimate knowledge of a space that I will only be in for a short period of time. And very little of this knowledge, advice or tips would be available to me without the previous travelers or generous locals that took the time to share and document their experiences. Bon voyage!

Fresh Turkey: Breaking Thanksgiving Tradition

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Thanksgiving traditions are treasured. Thinking back though, I realize that it has been a very long time since I had a traditional Thanksgiving. Hearing people discuss their plans for the upcoming weekend of feasts had me feeling a bit dejected for the past few weeks. If you share this circumstance or have occasionally caught your lower lip jutting out towards self-pity in recent days, take heart. I am here to tell you that missing out on all the usual trimmings really isn’t the same thing as missing out on all the fun.

The Gumboot proclaimed winner of the ‘war of the holidays’ earns its crown for many reasons. Many of those things that make Thanksgiving so favored are conspicuously absent from what has become my atypical Thanksgiving.  If upholding tradition is an option, it is still probably the best option but, if not, there is still hope for your Thanksgiving weekend to be full of all the warmth and happiness it’s meant to bring.

Coming from a large matriarchal family, my Italian grandmother and her many daughters (my mom and aunts) have always been counted on to orchestrate incredible feats of holiday gatherings where food and family take center stage. Thanksgiving, however, has become the exception to this rule since the year my family elders decided they would rather roast themselves in the Palm Springs sun than roast turkeys to feed 40 people.

Since the first abandonment occurred, I have been launched from my cozy continuum of consumption and into an experiment of creating my own holiday rules. Each year a new occasion has been invented or discovered. One year was an Oregon art gallery where many new friends were eagerly introduced to the Canadian version of a holiday they also love. Another year was a potluck pool party with all the fixins. Another was simply a long table in a tiny apartment packed with close friends. Whether they were spent with old friends or new, these deviations from the thanksgiving norm that I grew up with have been filled with good company, delicious food, and the thrill of breaking free from the norm and creating something new.

The emptiness left by a tradition lost can seem much more difficult to fill than that of a hungry belly. But losing one isn’t always an occasion to grieve. It can also be an opportunity to create new experiences that will stand out from the repetition of other holidays and to create something truly memorable and soul filling. The hunt is on for this year’s adventure. I’m still not sure what it will be, but I am certain that I will find a sense of community, if not a sense of tradition, wherever I wind up.

October – the best month of them all

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Ok. I admit it. I’m biased. I happen to have a birthday that falls right at the beginning of the month. But that’s not why I like – no scratch that – love October.

Let’s start with the season itself fall. Fall seems to come into its own in October. The leaves start to change colors and here in Vancouver, that means a little more rain. The temperature cools. For Gumboot Editor-in-Chief John Horn, that means it’s time to bust out a geeky sweater. For me, it means I get to get decked out in my comfiest clothes. No more baking in the sun. When it isn’t rainy, the air is crisp and refreshing. Soon leaves will begin falling all over the city, creating a klaidescope of colour.

Weather isn’t the only thing to make October so special. The month’s also got a monopoly on some of the best holidays. October is the month of not one (Thanksgiving), but two (Halloween) great holidays! One holiday is devoted to eating and celebrating our good fortune. For anyone who loves big family meals, it doesn’t get too much better than this. Rather than the marathon that is Christmas, Thanksgiving gives you all the bounty in a far more low-key way. Then there’s Halloween. Since I was a wee-little Kurt, I enjoyed this special day. Gorging on candy, dressing up as a ghoul? Talk about awesome. As I get older, the day stays special with the help of Vancouver festivals like the Parade of Lost Souls. This year, I’ll be attending a ghost tour to really get in the Halloween spirit. There we’ll learn of the haunted tales of Vancouver’s Gastown. Muhahhahaha.

Finally, there’s the food. It’s become a bit of an annual event for me and my partner to head out to the farms surrounding Vancouver to pick fresh harvested squash, artichokes, onions and pumpkins. Decked out in gumboots, warm sweaters and scarves, it always makes fall that much more real. The bounty we take home with us allow us to cook up some of our favorite foods. Squash puff-pastry pizza, wild-mushroom pot-pie, caramelized onion soup are all favorites. It’s a great run up to the deliciousness of Thanksgiving and a reminder of all that we have to be thankful for.

*Cover photo courtesy of leopardsarespotty

Vote for Community, Provincial Edition

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Ontario is on the cusp of a provincial election.  It is one of a number of provincial and territorial elections that will be happening before the end of 2011, including Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Yukon, and Northwest Territories.  In Ontario the Liberal party has had a majority in the province for the last 8 years.  Before that the Conservative Party was in charge for just over 8 years and before that the NDP for just under 5.  Polling for this election indicates a close race between the Liberals and Conservatives, with the possibility of a minority government.

Similar to my previous post on the federal election I feel that these elections will have an impact on your community.  Provincial governments provide, support or influence a number of services including health care, education, welfare and intra-provincial transportation.  The government will make important decisions about things like how electricity is generated, how our cities grow, how much university costs, and how our healthcare system works.  They also have a lot of influence on municipal governments, deciding their areas of jurisdictions and which services or powers will be “uploaded” (responsibility shifted from municipal to provincial jurisdiction) or “downloaded” (responsibility shifted from provincial to municipal jurisdiction).

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has been lobbying all parties to consider the current division of service delivery and seeking a funding model to make it easier for municipal governments to deliver front-line community services.  In particular AMO determined a top 12 list of priorities and provides assessments of each of the mainstream parties’ platforms against these 12 priorities.  This allows voters to assess where the parties stand on the services and investments that are made into their local government. 

But municipalities are not the only part of our community that will be impacted by the election.  A number of organizations aiming to improve the sustainability of our communities have launched campaigns to inform voters and garner the support of politicians.  My two favourites are Sustain Ontario’s “Vote ON Food & Farming” and the Heart & Stoke Foundation’s “Healthy Candidates”.  The Sustain Ontario campaign is to raise awareness around food and farming among both candidates and voters.  It is focused on the positive impacts that a sustainable food system can have on the economic, health, environment, education and community well-being of Ontario.  As well, it offers questions to ask candidates to find out more on where they stand on food and farming issues.  The Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Health Candidate Campaign is focused on getting every candidate in Ontario to pledge to invest in health promotion.  It makes it really easy to see which of your candidates has made the pledge (as seen below for my riding).  As well as offers a tool on their website to encourage your candidates to sign up.

The point of this post is not to promote a particular party, but to encourage everyone heading to a provincial election this year to consider how that election will impact what is important to them in their community.

 

Harvest!

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Harvest is in full swing. To kick it off Jim and I attended our CSA’s (Community Shared Agriculture) annual harvest party. We’ve been CSA members of Kawartha Ecological Growers for three years now and this is the second time we’ve made it out to the farm(s) for their annual party. The KEG Harvest Party brought together many of the people from my food community, including a number of the vendors from my local farmers’ market, the Apple Tree Market. We were treated to a potluck, tomato tasting, free camping, a wild light show from nature (that didn’t turn into rain until after we went to bed), and a samba band around a giant campfire – Samba Elegua. We woke up to hot chocolate from ChocoSol and handmade tortillas for breakfast topped with tomatoes and jalapeños.

But this only marked the start of the harvest season for us. We brought home a bushel of heirloom tomatoes from the farm to preserve and after a few hours had jars of yellow, green, orange and red tomatoes. Their seeds have also been saved for next year. We have since canned another bushel of roma tomatoes, including our annual batch of ketchup. Still on deck are plans for salsa, pickled roasted red peppers, a batch of pumpkin beer, and saving a few more tomato seeds, enough to keep us busy to the more official harvest party: Thanksgiving. With all this on the go the past couple of weeks I’ve slacked on my Gumboot writing duties and decided instead to share a few pictures.

CLJ Reviews Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

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What We Read

This month, Vancouver’s Circle of Literary Judgement read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (with Steven L. HoppKingsolver) and Camille Kingsolver. The story – a non-fiction narrative that follows the path of the Vegetannual through the seasons – chronicles The Kingolver Clan’s locavore experiment, which saw the family live from the local culinary bounty produced by their multi-acre farm (and revenue generated by two decades of best-selling novels) in Virginia. Barbara Kingsolver (BK herein) provides the – ahem – meat of the story, revealing her passion for food, her instructive advice on how to grow/raise food, and her commitment to changing the way people (specifically educated women who are over 45, have healthy disposable income, and who probably live in a rural community) think about food and where it somes from. BK’s stories of asparagus, tomatoes and turkeys are nicely supplemented by info-boxes about sustainable local food procuring from Steven Hopp and recipes from Camille Kingsolver (CK herein).

What We Did

With food at the centre of the book we made food the centre of book club! An hommage to Iron Chef was our activity of choice. Team Kitchen took on Team BBQ in a battle to build creative, delicious, local, fair, and organic dishes that reflected key themes from the book. The cooking took about 90 minutes and the final products were absolutely exceptional.

In terms of ingredients, I provided some basics (potatoes, tomatoes, herbs and spices, flour, yeast, water, milk, etc.) and then each team had to select twenty dollars worth of items from another list of options (eggs, fruit, alcohol, cheese, fish, etc.). The secret ingredients were chicken and rabbit (from my parents’ home in Merville on Vancouver Island). But enough writing, here are some photos that tell the tale:

This is the menu for Team Kitchen - written on Stew's back, for some reason...

In the end, Team Kitchen edged Team BBQ, as their pizza, rabbit stew (made by a guy named Stew) and sangria were as delicious as they were creatively presented. When dinner wrapped up, though, we sat at a table of winners; very full and satisfied culinary winners.

What We Thought

This was interesting. The table agreed that food is important and that it will become more important – and more politicized and businessified – in the future. That was about all we agreed on. One person had no time for the message or the book’s style, citing the recipes as the only piece of value in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – this person scoffed at any local food projects, too, stating that the economics of oil would eventually make our world smaller simply because of the cost and that BK got nowhere near the hardship of farming. If it was so easy, everyone would do it. Another person has actively changed her shopping habits based on BK’s insistence on eating seasonally. And many of us thought that the message was old news. Not many of us cared for BK, CK or Steve’s style, either; however, we agreed that our table was jealous that they got to the project before we did and that people don’t like our writing as much as they like the narratory trinity from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Another interesting part of the discussion came out of our material conditions and our upbringings. I am the only member of our nine-person book club who grew up in a rural community. And my parents refer to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as “the bible” for locavores everywhere. I was surprised and impressed by how passionate and opinionated a book about food – and an activity with very strict financial and menu parameters – made everyone. People chided my choice of book, complained about the Kingsolver Clan’s unabashed pretentiousness, asked to use out-of-season and non-local ingredients, and three people repeatedly warned me that we wouldn’t have enough food. Needless to say, last weekend’s book club experience was a wonderful case study of urban local food experimentation. Thanks for the inspiration, Barbara, Steven and Camille, and for the deliciously lively dinner, members of the CLJ community!

Labour Day – BBQ Style

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Some things go well together. Peas and carrots. Redheads and green (at least according to Theo Lamb) and of course, BBQ and Labour Day weekend.

This weekend I was lucky enough to get an invite from BBQ-lover Mike Worth. Pitched outside the Waldorf Hotel, Re-Up BBQ was cooking up a storm for a lucky 150.

The menu started with pork shoulder green pepper chili, BBQ-chicken thighs, smoked brisket and the mother of all BBQ – slow cooked BBQ pork ribs. Each course came out 45 min after the next, allowing you to savor the meat and anticipate the next offering. Felt like seconds, thirds or fourths? No problem, just head on back to the buffet table.

The meats were accompanied by Re-Up’s own coleslaw, green-chili mashed potatoes and a bacon and nut infused spring salad.

While we hung out with friends, servers circulated the area serving up watermelon slices topped with salsa and small pulled pork tacos. The tacos were right up there with the ribs in terms of taste. But then i have a soft spot for pulled pork.

The only complaint of the evening was the decision to serve only wine. I get that there was a partnership between Tantalus Vineyards and Re-Up to put on this little event, but is BBQ really true BBQ without a nice cold craft brew?

Aside from that minor point of criticism, I have to say everything else was great. Food was scrumptious and posted a distinct challenge for anyone seeking not to be glutenous. It was a challenge I (sadly?) failed. At $20 bucks for admission, you’re likely to not find a better deal for endless Southern BBQ treats.

Certainly a great way to end the Summer in style!

Community on a European Vacation

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As it turns out, the recipe for Community is very simple; Singing in public, beer, and a little dash of wild animal. Surprisingly, I am not talking about drunken nights of karaoke (exclusively). I recently spent 6 weeks studying in Copenhagen, Denmark and followed that up with a two week northern European Vacation. Below is a selection of the top five community building places and activities I encountered in my travels. These are the things that made me think, “Man oh man, I wish I could do this at home!”

 

1. Mauerpark Market and Bearpit Karaoke (Berlin)

Late on a Sunday morning we headed over to Mauerpark for the Berlin’s local favourite flea market. After several hours of exploring the winding stalls of the outdoor market, with several stops to rest in mini-manufactured-beach beer gardens, we had had our fill of bargain hunting and novel snacks. So, made our way over to Bearpit Karaoke just outside the market gates. We were lucky enough to arrive just in time to hear a rousing rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way performed by a bearded, German, older gentleman. I was not entirely surprised to find out that this was not his first time in the Bearpit. The only performer who gave him a run for his money was this little girl who made the crowd fall silent before we all joined in to clap along with her song. It was a gorgeous day and the hill over the stage was stacked with people of all ages and walks cheering on the performers. The organizers turned an umbrella, a wagon, a laptop, and some speakers into one of the best boundary breaking, community-building events I have been to.

 

2. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark)

This was my favorite museum and is a great example of how to make art an accessible and fun experience for a wide range of people. Before I made the trip myself I had heard from many people who couldn’t speak highly enough of the museum and one who said he took his kids there as often as possible. After spending several hours exploring the facility, all that I felt was missing was that feeling of backache that usually accompanies long walks on hard museum grounds. These grounds were not the usual museum grounds though and moved the visitor almost seamlessly between in and outdoor exhibits. There was even one point when we got to use a slide for transportation! (A transportation method that should be adopted on a much wider scale.)  Exploring the outdoors was a refreshing way to discover Louisiana’s impressive collection of sculptural works against a backdrop of the beautiful Øresund beach front and manicured hills that are perfect for a picnic on one side of the property and a beautiful lake nestled into a wooded area on the opposite side.

 

3. Midsummer’s Eve Celebrations (June 23, Copenhagen)

People go out en masse, not just to one spot but basically to any park, beach, or barge in town. They eat hogs, drink beer, and laugh and chat until someone lights a huge bonfire with a scarecrow/witch on top. That’s when they start singing in unison. Amazing.

 

4. A la Mort Subite (Brussels)

Founded in 1928, this was a stunningly beautiful Belgian bar whose name translates to  “At the Sudden Death”. Well if sudden death were to strike, there are plenty worse places you could be. Picture soaring ceilings, golden yellow walls and pillars, and locals enjoying a selection of Belgian beers so flavorful that it is probably impossible for anyone to claim they don’t like the taste of beer after trying these variations. This place had an incredible community atmosphere. We sat down at one of the long communal tables next to an older couple from Brussels who were only too happy to share with us the secret of the Brussels classic brew called Gueuze (it has to do with a reaction between the yeast and a bacteria that is only found in the air in Brussels) and their life long dream to travel to Canada. A perfect Belgian experience.

 

5. Elephants in the Park (Frederiksberg, Denmark)

Anyone who remembers when the Vancouver Zoo had a place in Stanley Park is not likely to have forgotten how awesome it was to go and watch the polar bears from the zoo’s outer confines. The Copenhagen Zoo has elephants that you can get within about 40 meters of from the surrounding park without paying the zoo’s hefty entrance fee. They play and throw dirt and swim and splash and break sticks and lift logs and sit on each other. Watching gigantic, beautiful, social creatures makes for easy conversation with the other observers and was a perfect place to chat with the very friendly Danes who always seem to out for a leisurely afternoon. The elephants were a mere five-minute walk from my apartment so I made a practice of visiting regularly.

If we can’t travel to Europe or have elephants in our backyards at least we can get together to drink some great craft brews and sing about it. Anyone got a karaoke machine?