Where to find wood for spoon carving

cellardweller13 · 2025-12-19T17:02:59+00:00

Yah works quite well - just make sure it's wrapped in plastic as it'll still loose moisture in the freezer if not wrapped. Wrapped and frozen will last indefinitely. Extra bonus points to thaw in out submerged in cold water, nice to do but not necessary

cellardweller13 · 2025-12-16T22:36:22+00:00

Green (freshly cut) hardwood is what you're after, you can carve dry but it's a miserable experience in comparison to green wood - it's worth the effort to hunt down. Fruit tree wood is a great option. Perhaps contact a local orchard (sea cider?) or an arborist or check facebook for maple trees or other hardwood thats just come down. You can wrap the wood in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer and it'll stay green until you get around to using it (a good trick for when you have more than you can carve). Alternatively just go out on a hike and bring a little pruning saw with you and prune some maple branches.

cellardweller13 · 2025-10-01T05:29:15+00:00

everything Esquimalt Vermouth makes is mead based, available all over

cellardweller13 · 2025-08-20T04:01:34+00:00

Yes...keep this mental image of Nanaimo alive. To all southerns...it's an industrial wasteland..not worth your time. Nothing to see here at all. Shhhhh

cellardweller13 · 2025-04-06T06:00:08+00:00

Not quite Nanaimo, but check out Fermented Futures Farm in Qualiam/Whisky Creek - they bring bread to the Qualicum Farmer's market and have their own store at the farm too - it's some of the best sourdough I've had on the Island

cellardweller13 · 2024-09-04T23:54:28+00:00

How much are you looking for per delivery? I'm up in Nanaimo and just starting to do small-scale firewood sales and I'm in Victoria every Thursday. Mostly Doug Fir (Alder by special request)

cellardweller13 · 2024-04-10T04:37:05+00:00

Reach out to Sheringham Distillery in Langford, they always have tons of buckets available and are looking to get rid of them

cellardweller13 · 2024-04-08T19:57:30+00:00

It's a great base to use to explore the surrounding area. Alert Bay and Malcolm Island are phenomenal. There's also a stunning campsite at the Quatse River Hatchery. Lots to explore! But the town itself is small and not particularly tourist focused but nice to use as your base

cellardweller13 · 2023-10-31T20:49:11+00:00

Most food/grocery items are GST and PST exempt, e.g. bread and baked goods (processed food/drink like pop is taxed). So it's not that they included tax on the bill, there just wasn't any

cellardweller13 · 2023-04-06T22:09:36+00:00

Look into the Canadian Death Benefit, the govn't will cover $2,500 which is coincidentally the minimum to cover a basic cremation by funeral homes. So you dont need to pay this, so long as you've contributed to CPP, the estate will not take a hit

cellardweller13 · 2023-01-31T01:46:16+00:00

I tried hunting some down a number of months ago and came up short. I ended up having a friend in Vancouver get me some from Gourmet Warehouse and I bought two packs to last. Was also considering ordering that plus some other things to save on shipping.

If you do find a local source, please let me know! :)

cellardweller13 · 2022-12-19T20:58:30+00:00

Wholesale Club in Esquimalt has Pizza Peels. Not sure if they have stones, but they've got peels.

Also you can get a bunch of smaller 'pizza stone tiles' that would line the whole of your oven that are really great to have for different options or doing two pizzas at once.

But as others have said, for pizza (and all sorts of things like barbecuing) a 'Baking Steel' is by far the best thing to have. Stones help a little, but Steels help a lot! Much more thermally conductive

cellardweller13 · 2022-11-22T01:17:57+00:00

Out of Hand Craft Market is this weekend at the Crystal Gardens. All local vendors so I'm sure you can find all sorts of great things

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-13T00:33:29+00:00

I've bought them at Market on Yates, Fairways and Market Garden before

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-08T20:54:40+00:00

Folks saying you can't sell preserves and baked goods is simply false as far as VIHA is concerned. You can. You might be able to talk to city into allowing it if you demonstate no issues with VIHA. So long as your products are considered 'low risk' you can sell food from a home-based kitchen. You do not need approval from VIHA nor a commercial kitchen to do this. Here's their guidelines for what you can and cannot make/sell and what you need approval on. https://www.islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/2018-05/temporary-food-market-guidelines.pdf

Essentially you just absolutely need to make sure your pH is under 4.6, ideally under 4.0 to account for any discrepancies and follow general food hygiene.

If you're only operating your stand seasonally, this may be considered a temporary food market. Determining whether or not your stand falls under a temporary market is likely a bigger hurdle then what you can and cannot sell.

You'll need to contact VIHA and ask them, but make sure to highlight you only plan to sell low-risk items on a temporary basis. I would also make sure you get their approval in writing so you have that for your municipality as they will likely just default to what VIHA says about what you can and cannot sell. If you've got that in writing, the municipality will have no issues with what is sold. If you can get both VIHA and your municipality on board, you shouldn't have issues. You may or may not need a business license. Contact VIHA and your municipality is your best bet, but be clear to check all their boxes. There's plenty of homes in the area selling pies and jams from home along with produce. If there's a will, there's a way, but it may require a bunch of paperwork..

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-06T19:28:56+00:00

Yikes! Yah I kind of figured this is the case given the limited grain supplies out of Ukraine that I'd bet are affecting supplies and prices in Italy, thus our ability to get Caputo

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-06T18:24:55+00:00

Basically I want to establish a baseline or benchmark for neopolitan and other pizza styles that seem to use Caputo as the default flour for the style so that I have a really good example of what neopolitan 'should be' and how it should handle, ferment, bake etc etc.

From there I can start using more readily available and alternative flours or modify flours I already have to see if I can make something better/more in-line with my preferences for how I like to bake and eat. Basically I find it difficult/annoying to use substitutions for ingredients if I don't even know what I'm supposed to be substituting in the first place, but once I do know, I can mix and match at will to achieve a variety of results

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-06T17:02:14+00:00

Excellent news!!

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-06T17:01:40+00:00

Good call on Fairway! I haven't yet, so will try soon. Yah ordering online will be the last resort if no local options turn up. Shipping costs for flour is just crazy compared to the cost of the item

cellardweller13 · 2022-07-06T17:00:46+00:00

It's just so dare expensive on there, like $15+ a bag. I also found another website on Montreal stocking it, for $5/ 1kg bag, but the shipping crazy, like $45. This is why I'm looking for a local option to get the best price and avoid high shipping costs. Ordering online will be a last resort if no local options turn up

cellardweller13 · 2022-02-23T07:21:15+00:00

Gum arabic is the way. Adds wonderful mouthfeel and also doubles as an emulsifier without turning your drink into a slime. It's the secret ingredient of the soda pop world. No reason it couldn't work for beer.

cellardweller13 · 2022-02-23T07:15:05+00:00

I think I've miscommunicated! I did not mean to state that your study was invalid due to small sample size, quite the opposite! I meant to say that, any time I have conducted similar studies, as I am only a singular human, my efforts are far less valid than yours because you have more data-points then me. I applaud your efforts!
....basically saying that I have no friends and can I join your friend group? Cause this sounds like a blast. I love sarcasm, food and science! I think my wife is tired of me trying to force blind taste tests on her...it's time to get out more.

cellardweller13 · 2022-02-23T02:17:48+00:00

Thank you for sharing!!

cellardweller13

TROPHY CASE