Chickpeas, The Grapes of Wreath, and Granola Earth Muffins.

Today I will be talking about the first time I encountered a chickpea. But first, some background. When I was a teenager, I was very interested in environmental causes and I became involved in the environmental movement of the times in several avenues. I guess this would be starting in around 1990, and I can't remember the exact timeline, but most certainly it was my involvement in our school forestry program that was the stepping stone to more public events. I could talk forever about how awesome the Inter-A program I attended for high school was, but maybe that is for another time. Sustainable Development was the catch-phrase of the day, and an advisory group of 31 people from a broad representation of the BC society - industry, indigenous, environmental groups etc called the BC Roundtable on the Environment and Economy was established to get input from British Columbians on how to solve the looming crisis. Although I can't find it online, it would have been in 1992, when I was still 15, that they hosted a conference to gather information from youth in the province, and my teachers applied from me to participate, as I was the resident expert on Sustainable Development, a concept I had taken great interest in. We weren't quite calling it Sustainability then, but I the concept of balance was key to me. That all things need to be considered because the world economy isn't going away, despite the environmental damage that is happening. I wasn't old enough to be a participant of the conference, but we lied about my age and me and another boy a couple years older than me ventured into Vancouver to participate in this event. I remember basically nothing about this event except this:

This isn't entirely accurate, the album was These Days, but I didn't just score that record at the record store last weekend. These Days was what all the alt kids (from BC) were listening to in 1992, and this was the group I wanted to be a part of. At home, after getting These Days on CD, we added Now and Again and September Bowl of Green to the collection, and I have listened to them all so much I have no idea which songs are on which albums. To tie into my art section, one of my ideas is "The Grapes of Wreath!" It will have no connection with the band because umm - how?

I will continue with my story though. After the unmemorable conference, we were invited to participate in a follow up conference some time later, comprised of both the main group and the youth group. I want to say there were about a dozen kids, but I have no idea. They were going to put us at our own discussion group for youth only, and we protested and said it would be more appropriate if we split up between the adult groups, and it was agreed that this was more inclusive way for us to be able to make a contribution. I was extremely passionate at this time about the issues, although I was a shy young woman, lacking confidence, I was quite an active participant to the discussion at our table. I impressed one person enough that he invited me to be a speaker at the Truck Logger's Association AGM, which was amazing! The speech was based on Forestry in Education, and if I read it now, I find it embarrassing, but it went over well, and I was asked to participate as a speaker for the Interior Lumber Manufacturers Association AGM in Kelowna. Although my speech there was not as good, I learned some great public speaking tips from another fantastic speaker that have always stayed with me. Additionally, I was contacted by a former Minister of Agriculture asking if he could use a portion of my speech in his upcoming book. When I received my copy of the book, I was surprised that he included the entire thing - it was supposed to be a 15 minute talk, although I doubt it was more than 10, but it still took up a lot of pages and it was a great honour to me. Plus I bet 10 people read that book - talk about publicity!

I had decided when I was about 8 that I wanted to study forestry, I was inspired by The Big Trip, a guided hike at Alice Lake focussed on what you could eat in the forest, the mandatory forestry unit in grade seven at Green Timbers Forest Centre and my participation in the school forestry program starting in grade 8. With my involvement in these events, and "running" the forestry program, I was certain that I wanted to get my degree in Forest Resource Management. My theory was that if one truly wants to affect change, rather than chaining oneself to trees, it is far more effective to be educated and make changes from within. The FRM program was a professional school, which meant, unlike many bachelors programs, that when complete, students were trained for a job, rather than sent out to the world with information but no guidance as to how to use it. I didn't work much in forestry, but I love my degree, and I'm proud to have completed it.

Hey Laura, I thought you said something about chickpeas.

Yes, I did, and thank you for asking!

Somewhere during this time, I have no idea how, I was involved in some event with the Environmental Youth Alliance. I have absolutely no idea what the objective of this event was, but this contained the true activists in the young community. The real granola eating, Birkenstock wearing, Greenpeace in training, flower children of the early 90s. I am pretty sure one of the participants there threw out the term Granola Earth Muffins and I've always found it funny. Before you all come down on me for being some kind of bad "ist" please know I am playing with stereotypes - I truly respect and admire young people - all people - who fight for the care of our planet and other causes. It takes a lot of gumption for teens to stick with things that might affect their social life and (unfortunately) status among their peers, free time, and typically selfish priorities or lack of them. Still, despite my experiences, I was out of my league. In fact, this was the kind of activism which I avoided, as I mentioned earlier.

This was the first time I had ever heard the word vegan - the meal we would be served was going to be vegan, so it would be inclusive to all participants including those had chosen to eliminate the use and consumption of animal products in their daily lives. Well, I only remember the flavourless - or maybe dirt flavoured - chickpeas contained in the gruel that we were served. And the texture. Ewww. Perhaps there was some mild curry? Maybe rice? I truly don't remember anything chickpeas, infesting the conglomeration served en mass to a large group if teenagers. I'd never heard of chickpeas before this, and I was pretty sure that's because they aren't meant to be consumed by humans (except in hummus, but it took until 1995 before I experienced that). Anyway this lead to a lifelong resentment of vegan food. Obviously there are countless delicious dishes and I am ridiculous. Plus I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that a marshmallow is a non-vegan confection comprised of sugar and the rejects from wieners. (Probably other stuff, but this isn't one of those fucking cooking blogs where you go looking for a recipe and have to scroll through pages of pretentious food monologue looking for it - this is far worse.) I mean the point is how could someone possibly want to follow a vegan lifestyle when that was the shit you had to eat??!! Honestly, to this day, if I see something labelled "vegan" I generally avoid it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, I will just always imagine those chickpeas. And just so you know, chickpeas are an ingredient of vegan marshmallows, so don't blame me for being suspicious of the connection of vegan food and garbanzo beans - because yes, when you don't go for a cute name like "chickpea" maybe you'll prefer them better if you get to say "garbanzo!". In the case of marshmallow, they brine the damn things and call it aquafaba just to throw you off track! What the actual fuck!

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Dammit, I went way down the rabbit hole with my chickpea rant! Let's talk about art!

I have been making wreaths these days, following the success of my Christmas Wreaths and the large spring wreath I was commissioned to make. I am having a fantastic time with this.

I first made this one, which reminds me of a sunbeam on the forest floor. You can imagine me a scholarly young student learning about forest ecology as I describe the preschool level of understanding I have retained. Light is the limiting factor for growth in the forest, and different plants have different strategies to get the light they need to survive. Some may learn to do a lot with very little light, and others are sprinters to grow as tall as they can, as quickly as they can to create the canopy and bask in the sun. Some are slow survivors - like the giants rising above the canopy, bark blacked with fire scars, majestically overlooking the landscape in all directions. Some plants quietly wait, stunted by the shadows, until a tree or branch falls and a hole in the canopy becomes available, and they race to the light. If you live in southern BC and taken a simple forest trail, you have doubtless seen places where the forest floor alongside the trail contains little but sword fern. Ferns are an ancient and primitive species who have evolved to surviving in challenging situations. Growing with little light, growing on rocks, growing on other plants ... Anyway, I just think the imagery this information puts in my mind is so beautiful that I am rambling again, but hell, when don't I ramble?! Better to blog with enthusiasm about the things that inspire me than to dwell on things that don't!

Sunbeam on the Forest Floor 14" frame

When I got started on the next wreath and was spending a ridiculous amount of money on supplies, Kyle told me I should make a "Wreath of Khan," which is clever and funny. However possibly a challenge to make a marketable interpretation. I think he next suggested "Wreath Witherspoon", and I was sold. I shot out "Awreatha Franklin" the idea was solidified. Many of the best ideas seem to start with Kyle and I give him full credit. He inspires me and I create beautiful things with the little gems he gives me.

Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul. Green was her favourite colour because she said it was the colour of nature. She loved flowers and ordered many for people she cared about, giving her florist vague information which required a lot of research to get them to the right people. There were thousands of flowers at her funeral.

Anyway, this is Awreatha Franklin 20" frame

I just finished this one last night, and I didn't research like I did for the previous one, which is a little unfair to Reece Witherspoon, who has done a great deal more that Legally Blonde's pink clad Elle Woods. However, it is so pretty I hope Reece will forgive me for going in that direction.

Wreath Witherspoon 14" frame

The most fun part of making these is the paintings. They are tiny, but I just love how they make the wreath special and connected with my art. For me it's about finding inspiring ways to use acrylic pouring off canvas. I don't paint canvases as much these days, and while I really love doing them, I think little things like this are part of my creative process. I make things I like making, and as I have spoken about, this doesn't necessarily translate to a saleable product, but I hope that these will sell because they are too pretty to sit in the crawl space.

Sadly, I have lost the list of our other funny ideas, but I am currently working on Wreathes Piethes. The lisp thing is cute to me because I grew up having a lisp.

Of course I have ideas about Wreath of Khan (not sure how far to take this - subtle or over the top), Lord of the Wreaths (lots of gold), Christopher Wreath (blue and red?), The Grapes of Wreath (wine themed). I just know I am missing a couple fun ones from that first brainstorm. It's okay, there is always another brewing.

So guess what, you made it to the recipe! Thanks for sticking with me. I reward sticking with sticky. Get out your magnifying glass folks, grab your brine, and let's spend six hours making 30 fucking vegan marshmallows! Shit, that's like 6 for every reader! It's gonna be amazing!

Vegan Marshmallow Recipe

Prep Time40 minutes Total Time 6 hours

Servings30 large

Ingredients

234 g aquafaba -this is chickpea brine you guys!

50 g powdered sugar (icing sugar) plus extra for storage, see notes

50 g cornstarch (cornflour) or arrowroot starch, plus extra for storage

250 g granulated sugar or caster sugar separated into 200g + 50g, see notes

260 ml water separated into 60ml + 200ml

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 teaspoons agar-agar powder not flakes, or 2 tsp agar PLUS 2 tsp carageenan, *see notes

Instructions Preparation

Start by reducing the aquafaba, add it to a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow it to simmer until it has reduced to half a cup in volume. After 5 minutes of simmering, check the volume by pouring the liquid into a measuring cup. If there's more than half a cup of liquid continue to simmer until it reduces to the required half cup. Pour the reduced aquafaba into a jar and refrigerate. This can be done the night before or at least one hour in advance of making the recipe.

Line a 9-inch pan or similar with parchment paper, creating a sling to make it easy to lift out the marshmallows once set. Very lightly grease the pan with a neutral oil. To a small bowl, add the powdered sugar and cornstarch and whisk to combine.

Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust a layer of the sugar-cornstarch mixture on the base and sides of the lined pan. Set aside and reserve the remaining sugar-cornstarch mixture for later.

Make the marshmallows

Take a large clean bowl, making sure it's completely dry and free of grease. Add the aquafaba and cream of tartar to a large bowl and whisk on high speed for 10 minutes until soft peaks form.

Add 200g sugar and 60ml water to a saucepan, gently stir and allow the mixture to sit for a minute until the sugar dissolves into a paste.

Place the saucepan on medium-high heat and allow the mixture to come to a simmer and bubble. DO NOT STIR throughout the entire process. Place your candy thermometer into the syrup and continue to simmer until the mixture reaches 116°C (240°F) - about 10-12 minutes.

Once the sugar syrup has reached the correct temperature begin to add it to the whipped aquafaba. Slowly drizzle in a little at a time and continue to whisk until the mixture is incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and whisk for another 5 minutes.

To a saucepan, add the remaining 200ml water, 50 g sugar, and agar-agar powder and whisk well to combine. Place over high heat and bring to a simmer, cook for 3 minutes while whisking contiuously.

Slowly drizzle the agar mixture into the whipped aquafaba, a little at a time, and continue to whisk until the mixture is incorporated.

Transfer the marshmallow mixture to the lined and dusted cake pan. Cover loosely with a clean tea towel or paper towel and allow it to set at room temperature for at least 6 hours (overnight works well).

Once set, dust the marshmallow with some more of the sugar-cornstarch mixture. Carefully lift the marshmallow out of the pan and cut it into servings. You can roll the individual pieces in any leftover sugar-cornstarch mixture if desired.