Food, glorious food

Todd and I really laid on the food today at the Veggielution workday, especially Todd, with his penne with pesto, homemade bread, and stuffed zucchini blossoms redux. I made a soup with the shelly beans that had been growing up one of the huge cornstalks in the original plot. I told Amie she should include a menu with her emailed exhortations inviting people to the workdays.

Today’s big drama was the revelation that Chloë might be a boy.

Of course, that was just the opinion of someone who had already gone through the heartbreak of finding that her own chicken wasn’t going to be laying any eggs. Ever. At least Monica Lisa got to take another chick home, ambiguously named Caligula by the rangers. (No photo, sorry.)

And I came across a link I just have to share today. Evidently, the nitrogen and phosphorus left after Calgary’s four-stage water treatment makes the Bow River into perfect (introduced) trout habitat.

The infusion of nutrients into the Bow’s clean, cold water from Calgary’s two wastewater treatment plants — Fish Creek and Bonnybrook — are most responsible for elevating the river to blue-ribbon status. The inflow, from car-wash leftovers to bathroom water, goes through a four-stage treatment process. The effluent that is released back into the river is quite clean, although it has just enough phosphorous and nitrogen to foster a rich aquatic ecosystem. Wastewater spurs on plant growth, which encourages insect growth, which in turn feeds trout.

Gives you another reason to push for streamflow augmentation with recycled water, doesn’t it?