A Word in the Woods

When was the last time your grocery store gave you a hug, a handshake, and inspired you for the week’s cooking? That’s exactly what your market can do for you — there are people whose skills, hard work, and pride in their craft put quality food on your table, and I enjoy being reminded of that every Sunday that I can make it down to my local market.

Extra love goes out to friends I’ve met, Zach from Highmark Farms, Christian from Monforte Dairy, and especially the lovely Janaki for putting together the wonderful Leslieville Farmer’s Market! Thank you for a great first season!

And although the market season is over, I’ll be sure to pick up my winter produce box (pictured above) from Le Papillion on the Park every Sunday.

Tags: farms, fresh food, leslie market, local, market, produce
Posted in Conservation, News, Personal | No Comments »

On January 15, 2011, I had the distinct pleasure of spending the day with Pinock Smith, a master builder, known for his traditional canoe-building methods.

I first heard of Pinock in the second season of Ray Mears’ Bushcraft, where he and Ray built an authentic birchbark canoe in a week. They worked on screen again in Northern Wilderness, to build a set of snowshoes. They are both great shows, but nothing can come close to meeting and talking with someone with that knowledge in person, and being able to ask the questions that are important to you.

(more…)

Tags: algonquin, building, Canoe, first nations, native, pinock smith, ray mears, traditional
Posted in Canoe, HowTo, Personal, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Perhaps not something that everybody likes to hear, but I, for one, found myself nodding along with many of the points in Don Tryon’s Leave-A-Trace editorial page.

He makes the point for a common-sense approach to camping, and takes issue with the extremes that some enthusiasts have gone through to erase our existence on the land. I agree with much of the spirit of leave-no-trace in preserving the land for future enjoyment, but, like Don, I find some practitioners take it too far.

(more…)

Tags: camping style, editorial, ethics, Leave no Trace, LNT, opinion, purcell
Posted in Conservation, editorial, Personal | 4 Comments »

I haven’t posted in a while, and for that, I’m sorry. I’ve been busy at work with a new job, and a lot of busy weekends, so I haven’t had much outdoors about which to write, but I get the feeling I’m back for a bit. It’s going to be a good year with lots of opportunities to try new things.

It’s May, and in Canada, that means Victoria day (pronounced \’tü fər\) is on everybody’s mind. At the very least, it’s on mine, and although it’s falling early this year, it looks like (for a change) we’ll have sun for most of it. I enjoy camping all year ’round, but two-four is a milestone. It starts off the summer camping and cottage season. It’s the time to get scrounging into the couch for spare change to fill up the Oldsmobile for a road trip, to play some guitar outside without freezing off your fingers, or just enjoy lying under the sun in the back of your buddy’s Jeep with the top down.

So I’m going to head home from the office in just a bit, hop in the Rover (new wheels, new brakes, new suspension to come), and sleep by the lake tonight. Here’s hoping you’ll do the same.

Tags: 24, may two four, nostalgia, victoria day
Posted in Personal | 1 Comment »

It was a bit of a rainy weekend on our favorite Algonquin park lake, but fun nevertheless. The unfortunate and undesirable part of camping is the drying out of gear after you get back. Right now, I’m just going to throw it all on the balcony, and hop in the shower.

I’ll update with a full trip report when I get a chance – it may be a bit of a busy week.

Tags: algonquin, rain
Posted in Personal | No Comments »

Here’s a wonderful little comment I got on a past article:

“I found your blog via Google while searching for camping and your post regarding camping store Marathon having end-of-lease sale |  A Word in the Woods by Michael Zimmermann looks very interesting for me. I go camping every weekend during the summer months and I have found your site extremely valuable in some camping tips. Thanks!”

Now what bugs me is that they could have promoted their site quite nicely by actually posting something useful, and (well, let’s face it, not from my traffic) would have legitimately interested readers as potential customers. Instead, they manage to fill the internet with useless noise that makes everything harder to find, do, and learn. Along with the comment was a link to a site that I will now never endorse or promote. Good going. I’m sure everybody would be comfortable with the ethical promotional tactics they use, and I’m sure they conduct all aspects of their business with the same approach.

I’m going to continually mark these people as spam, and my apologies if you get a legitimate comment flagged – just don’t make it an obvious script-generated bunch of text (love the title in the above quote?), and you should be fine.

Please note that SPAM, the lunch meat, is quite a different story, and this is as good a place as any to applaud their great sense of humour when it comes to the unfortunate direction their trademark has taken with the internet. I’m sure many a family has much fondness for this wonderful loaf of meat in a tin, and the role it has played in many a car-camping trip.

Tags: blacklist, spam
Posted in Personal | No Comments »

I was inspired by my last camping partner’s prolific use of the fishing rod, and have decided to try catching my breakfast, lunch or dinner, and cooking it over the coals. I normally like things that need slow cooking to get into the coals, like potatoes, corn, and more recently, prime rib, but this time, I think I may try to do something with planking, à la BBQ cedar planked Tilapia. Lucky for me, I think at some point, I’ll be dragging the gastronomical obsessive from the previous link into the woods with me, so I’ll leave him to do the heavy lifting. I’ll hopefully be able to bring home the fish, if not the bacon.

Tags: cooking, fishing, food, menu
Posted in Personal, Things to try | No Comments »

I originally used the term “Mickey” instead of flask, but it seems that it’s a bit more of a Canadian-specific drink-related term than I thought, like May Two Four (TwoFer), A cube (12-pack of bottled beer), and many others.

From Wiki:
“# Mickey, a term for a 375 ml bottle of alcohol in Western Canada and Ontario. In Eastern Canada a mickey is a single shot of alcohol, packaged in an individual bottle.”

Don’t confuse this with a Texas Mickey, also a Canadian term.

I’m thinking of something to just bring a standard few shots of whiskey with me every time I go on an overnight, no matter the trip. I don’t get drunk when I go camping, and I’m disgusted at finding broken beer bottles in the middle of the wilderness that I love, but I love a bit of Irish cream or whiskey in the evenings.

I missed it this time, and in the absence of cigars and apple cider, I found myself wanting a bit of a taste around the fire.

I don’t care how old this post is when you read it, if you’ve got a suggestion, please let me know.

Something slim, and not too much capacity, around the 200-300 ml range should do me fine.

Or should I just get a small drink canister, like a Nalgene-style or the fuel-bottle type ones?

Oh, speaking of which, there’s an interesting post I came across on the whole Nalgene/Lexan thing.

I think I’ll hang on to my old beat-up 1.8L bottle myself.

Tags: alcohol, comfort, containers, luxuries, nalgene, whiskey
Posted in Personal, Questions | No Comments »

I’m off to Algonquin for the first backcountry trip of the year (actually, I’ve done some winter hikes, so it’s the first canoe trip of the season). I’ve taken the canoe out for a quick spin already, but I find the first trip always to be the toughest… I spend all winter forgetting what it’s like. Invariably, I’ll have forgotten something, and I know I’ve taken too much with me again. This winter seems particularly bad, as I just spent it cocooning.

I’m going with someone new, and it’s his first time in the backcountry, so I’ve basically brought enough for three people… I’m sure I’ll pay for it in my aching back, hauling all of that stuff out.

(more…)

Tags: Canoe, canoe pack, newbie, trip
Posted in Canoe, News, Personal | No Comments »

In about a week and a half, I’ll be headed out to a bit of crown land with a friend of mine. It’s going to be an interesting experience, since I’m not used to letting someone else plan a route for me. I’ll be going in essentially blind, but that’s fine. I’m going with a standup guy, and we’ve both got good heads on our shoulders.

I like to make sure that every time I head out into the bush, I learn something. If I don’t, then all it means is that I wasn’t paying attention. For each trip, I also like to try and give myself some goals. They’re nothing crazy – sometimes they’re restrictions I place on myself, like not bringing a tent, or using a flint striker to start all my fires, sometimes they’re just an attempt to focus, like trying to keep my stuff together when portaging.

This time, navigation is key, so I’m going to set my sights on the orienteering skills I remember learning in junior high, about two decades ago.

Wish me luck. (more…)

Tags: general, learning
Posted in Personal, Things to try, tips | No Comments »