BETH BOWER One of the greatest improvements to my quality of life between first and second year has been access to a stove and a fridge. Liberated from the nar- row confines of my old food card’s point system, I am now free to shop and cook for myself. Now don’ t get me wrong, for the first few months of first year I was g rateful to have someone else dealing with all that. It was enough to know that if I could manage to get up for Biology 100A, somebody else was providing the toast. But as the months sped by, I started to realize that there are onl y so many VG’s stir fries one can eat. Te difference be- tween the taste of caf cuisine and mymother’ s delicious home cooking would always shock my numbed taste buds when I went home. So you can imagine my delight when I unlocked the door to my new cluster unit in September and saw the kitchen. However, shopping for myself proved to be a bit of a learning curve. You see, I was raised by parents who are big on organic, free-range, and local. All that tastiness went to my head as well as mytummy , and I’m now an Environmental Studies student who is wholeheartedlyon board with the family food values. But as my roommate helpfully points out as my shopping basket fills: “Uh, Beth, you’re poor now.” She’s right – I’ve had to learn to balance a budget with my environmental conscience. Tat said, I’ve found that if you knowwhere to look, having a reasonably sus- tainable diet doesn’t have to be an elitist privilege. Te following are four of myfavourite food finds. Beets Beets are dirt cheap. Last time I checked I was paying 1.54/lb at Am- brosio’s for locally sourced ones. Tese freakish purple nuggets are seriously un- dervalued. Probably because they looklike freakish purple nuggets. Beets are nutritional power houses; chock full of betacyanin, a powerful cancer fighting antioxidant. Just be forewarned: all those antioxidants are what give beets their bright colour which can leave some serious stains – just ask myBroadview Anthology of Romantic Literature whose pages were tattooed magenta after my beet salad leaked all over my backpack. he best way to eat beets is to roast them. Pop them in the oven for an hour at 400F while you’re studying. Ten let ‘em cool. Peel, and enjoy in sandwiches, salads, or just on their own. Vancouver Island Hazelnuts I was poking around For Good Measure (bulk food store next to Pepper’s in Cadboro Bay) when I spied these local nuts. I bought a bag as a treat, and they’ve become a staple of my diet ever since. Eat them raw, toasted, on porridge, in cookies, on yogurt. . Babes Balsamic Vinegar Brought to you by the same wonderful people who make the honey, Babes Balsamic Vinegar is derived entirely from fermented honey, not grapes. It’s a little pricey, at $18.99 for a 250 mL bottle, but it’ s a great option ifyou’re concerned about the carbon footprint created by shipping in all the good stuff from Italy. Now if you’re speci fically craving balsamic vinegar this might no t quite cut it. Te Babe’s version has a different, more floral taste than the grape original. But honey vinegar is also a tasty product to enjoy in its own right – not just as a substitute. You can find it at both For Good Measure and Peppers. Free Range Local Eggs Both Ambrosio’s and Peppers always carry a few dozen local, free-range eggs. Tey cost about one to two dol- lars more than what you’d pay for an anonymous industrially produced batch. But to me, a toonie is not too much to pay for the assurance that the hens have enjoyed a few ocean breezes ruffling thei r feather s. Admittedly, this article’s had a strong Cadboro Bay bias – because well, that’s what’s in walking distance of where I live. But in keeping with this issue’ s theme of re-imagining the future, I’d like to make it a goal for myself to branch out and start exploring other shops. Not to mention all those Farmer’s Markets which will start to fill out again as summer inches closer. In fact, the prospect of all that fresh local pro- duce makes spring seem like the ideal time to start re-imagining our dinner plates. Re-Imagining Dinner PHOTO BY MILA CZEMERYS EMILY ANDERSON Driving home down McKenzie Ave, two lanes of t raffic set the stag e for a so- cial bifurcation of communal patience and assertive individualism. Around rush hour, traffic heading west on McKenzie Ave starts to congest close to Highway17 because tr affic in the righ t lane is do- ing one of two things: turning right onto Burnside Ave or crossing Burnside to merge onto Highway 1. With resignation do I join the string of red taillights marching like ants in the right lane of McKenzie Ave, as earlyas possible. However, there are always drivers who feel they have the right to plough ahead in the left lane as if intend- ing to cross Highway 1 to access Admirals Drive. Tese drivers maliciously bypass all the patient drivers waiting their turns, speed through the light at Burnside Ave, and then expect to be let into the High- way 1 merge la ne. Tis sel fish act i s a classic display of egocentrism polluting our social networks. Te matrix of roads that compose our urban centers dictate how we get around, where we can and cannot go, where we end up, and who accompanies us. Soci- etal institutions, as well as the advertising industry, have worked hard to convince people that social independence, trans- portation independence, and economic success are intrinsically linked. Tis is evident in the 2010 Buick La- crosse commercial, which depicts a suc- cessful white man driving, and uses the slogan, “the new class of world class. ” Te image of the individual, aggressive driver, who literal ly stops traffic and turns heads in the commercial, represents the power of socio-political figures in influencing consumption patterns and lifestyle choic- es in areas such as transportation. Are the passive drivers and passengers then the fifth estate – the commons – marginalized for following the rules? Further marginalized are the users ofpublic transportation systems. Manypeople rely on the efficiency of public transportation to commute to and from work every day, either to accommoda te a financial budget, or to reduce their envi- ronmental footprint. Aggressive drivers disrupt t his efficiency, making for s lowand unpleasant commutes. I live in a community outside the mu- nicipality of Sooke where our access to public transportation is limited. I am a fifteen-minute drive from a park-and-ride ing into the city of Victoria daily, and I know I am not the only driver who sees the inefficiency of our current commuting patterns and habits in single-occupancyvehicles. Terefore, I have a visio n for a commuter traffi c solution which would not only be environmentall y friendly but would also give people an opportunity to have a stress reduced commute. Te City of Victoria could benefit from a light rail commuter train. We alreadyhave the suburban population to support a major commuter network, and as more people continue to move to the island we will require innovative solutions for transportation expansion that do not in- volve annexing peoples’ yards and delicate ecosystems. Ideally , the stops would accommodate major malls, hospitals, schools and e xist- ing BC ransit bus routes. Te imple- mentation of a commuter train would take sufficient traffic off the roads, in- crease the efficiency of existing BC ransit bus routes, and even allow for BC ransit to cut back on funding for proposed newbus routes. BC ransit currently plans to increase fares as of Spring 2010, but they could be obliged to decrease their fares if faced with the competition of a commuter train. Furthermore, an increase in options for public transportation would reduce parking issues and community carbon footprints at the same time! As to the question of where the trackwould be laid, I would suggest alongside or even on the Galloping Goose Regional rail. Although developing public parkspace would be controversia l, historicallythe trail actually was a commuter train line! A site like “Te Goose,” with the route and infrastructure already in place, would be f ar more cost -efficient than a t- tempting to install an underground rapid transit train or a sky train. he other option, incorporating the train into the road system like in San Francisco, does not solve the problem oftraffic congestion on our already crowded streets. However, by drawing the average driver off the roads and onto a light rail commuter train, we would increase space on the roads for alternate green commut- ers. ransportation is important as we all have places to be in our daily li ves. Te notion of individual wellness is also im- portant, and I am not suggesting that we abandon it completely, but egocentrism has no place in the healthy functioning Off-Setting Omnipotence on the Roads: A Vision for Equitable Commuting Jazz Jargon Answer Key PHOTO BY JULIA BENNETT March 17, 2010 ESSENCE 11
