Egg

Rescued hens enjoying a dust bath at Farm Sanctuary in upstate NY; August 2005.

I sometimes joke with my friends that if I ever started eating animal products again, it would be Popeye’s chicken. However, I’m quite sure I will never go back to eating animals again because the pleasure of being vegetarian is far greater than the immediate pleasure such a thing could ever provide.

For people looking to go vegetarian, Erik Marcus believes that the first food to give up should be eggs. A strange choice to many as cows, pigs, chickens, fish, etc. require the killing of these animals to be turned into food. However, many do not know certain types of chickens are bred specifically to produce large number of eggs; unfortunately a byproduct of this process are male chickens. They grow too slowly to be profitable to raise for meat so they are immediately put to death. In the US, I estimate the number of male chicks killed each year is pegged at 300 200 million male chicks and 50 million in the UK.

If they are lucky enough to be female chicks, they can endure the following injustices in their life:

• Beak searing or debeaking – removing part of the beak to prevent birds from pecking each other – something that happens in confined conditions;
• Confinement – they are confied to a battery cage and get about get about 67 square inches of floor space (that’s about 8×8 inches/20cm square) – less than the size of a sheet of paper;
• Forced molting – a process to increase egg production; hens have their food taken away for seven to fourteen days, lighting is dimmed to mimic winter conditions stressing the body in anticipation of spring. This kills the weaker birds.

Most grocery store eggs come from such practices. Free-range eggs are usually derived from chicks obtained from the same source as where the factory farms obtain their chicks. Free-range chickens are usually without a battery cage, but not excluded from over-crowding in a big pen, called yarding. The conditions in Canada aren’t much different that in the US or elsewhere in the world. Food for thought.

Update (6.2.08): Jamie Oliver shows an audience what happens to the male chicks.

Dimsum

Generally, I’m not into eating vegetarian dishes that resemble traditional animal-based dishes. Several years ago, I tried vegetarian dim sum in a restaurant north of Toronto and didn’t like it very much and never returned. However, last year, I tried vegetarian dim sum in a Vancouver restaurant, Bo Kong, that does an excellent vegetarian version of dim sum. I think an improvement over the original versions because they are not as greasy and it all seems to smell better too. I’d go back to Bo Kong.

A recent trip in May to Bo Kong. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Closed

As the signs say, closed. Actually, it is only the steeper runs that are closed because there is a greater risk of avalanches because of the warm weather. May 17th was too warm for even clothes at 18c in the alpine and 31c in the village. Blackcomb mountain is open until June 20th and the glacier is open until the end of July. My ski pass is valid until the end of May, but I think this is the end of my season. I’m ready for summer now!

Avalanches as seen on Seventh Heaven from one day to the next. Near the right side of the photo, you can see a new avalanche.

Here are my images from my last day of the season on Blackcomb mountain. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Spring

My fancy is always skiing and spring skiing definitely exists at Whistler in May. This was the latest in the season that I have ever skied. On Friday, it was 28c in the village and 18c at the top of the mountain. I was without a jacket, but was still over-dressed. One could have worn a t-shirt and shorts and it still might have been too warm.

Tourists and skiers co-exist in different uniforms on the snow on Blackcomb mountain.

Here is my Flickr photo set from Friday at Whistler; on Blackcomb mountain. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Tired

I’ve skied four days and I’m going to ski three more before the week is out. I think I’m tired because I’m living in two time zones – I wake at 5a and go to bed at midnight. I’m going to bed early tonight! However, I did find time to upload the latest photos from the past two days.

Today on the mountain. On each set, click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Yesterday.

I can’t wait until tomorrow!

Half

I got half of my act together – I nearly did not get enough sleep and I left a ton of things behind in Toronto – like Bugs (sorry!) and my memory card reader for my camera! I’ve got about four of these things in Toronto. I’m going to step out and buy one and leave it in my camera bag – this way I won’t forget again!

A teaser of Vancouver today; it is supposed to reach a high of 21c – Toronto apparently is somewhat cooler today.