Footnotes to a Conversation, December 6, 2021
Greetings! My first Christmas season in Victoria got off to a fine start with the Royal Victoria Yacht Club’s Sea of Lights, Lighted Ship Parade. Hundreds of us watched from the shore from Cadboro Bay to Willows Beach and we were treated to a visit from Santa and a small dance as the boats twirled in place on their return. The yachts and small boats were led by a naval vessel and accompanied by paddleboarders. [short video clip, Royal Victoria Yacht Club]
I really like the galley kitchen in my new apartment. Its compact layout makes it easy to move from fridge to stove, there are lots of cupboards, and it’s out of the way so I don’t have to look at my dirty dishes when I’m in the living room. The galley kitchen as we know it was born in “postwar Europe, when Austria’s first female architect was tasked with designing one of the earliest user-focused kitchens at the dawn of a new, modern era. Before Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, home kitchens were often slapdash and improvised—a freestanding range here, a chest of drawers for storage there, maybe a table in the corner, and no natural light. Her creation, known as the ‘Frankfurt kitchen’ and designed as part of a mass housing reconstruction project in post–World War I Germany, was a complete departure. It’s considered one of the first ‘fitted’ kitchens, with built-in cabinets, bulk bins modeled after the storage containers used in munitions factories, and a dedicated workstation (with adjustable stool!) beneath a nice-sized window.” [Taste]
A small, round, wooden lunchbox from 2-4,000 years ago is proof that people in prehistoric alpine communities carried food for the journey just as hikers do today. Researchers are excited to find proof that wheat or barley was being grown during that period in the valley between Switzerland and Italy. [National Geographic]
Sam Calgione, the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, is renowned for recreating ancient beer recipes. He believes it’s important for brewers to have the opportunity to put their “creative thumbprint on this world with the same omnivorous passion for recipe development as any chef.” He goes on to say that what really excites him about these projects is “that they give people the context that brewers have been using their imaginations literally since the dawn of civilization.” [Atlas Obscura]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.