On hot chili sauce and wood oven dried tomatoes - ie. the simpler things in life.

My journey in France has recently come to an end (hence the change in the title to my blog) and I have come back to Canada with fresh perspectives, knowledge that is new to me and unique experiences that I will never recreate in my lifetime. It seems that this has little to do with the title of my blog post but despite the lack of obvious links, it all has to do with a shift in my perspectives. I believe that I've evolved. No, evolving - into a human being who wants to have time in their life for the simpler things in life, like making a damn fine hot chili sauce from the garden or drying the excess garden tomatoes in a wood oven, to have a garden, to have friends, to have kids, among so many other things.
Now of course food has been on my mind for years in one way or another and I find myself being less attracted to the service side of the industry (one reason being that the lifestyle just seems unrealistic for me at times - although I still do believe that there are alternate routes to every challenge) and more attracted to the production side of food, where the quality of the food is nurtured literally from the ground up.
I am secretly nursing an urge to start a farm. A pig farm actually, with vegetables of course and perhaps some other animals as well. While I am still working on the route to take in order to get there (and whether I'll end up there is another question entirely) I have found some interesting resources in my internet travels. Throughout Canada there are many programs that promote apprenticeships on farms so that a person can get a real, hands in the earth experience of what it is like. SOIL is one program that is Canada wide and offers a wide range of apprenticeship opportunities on a variety of different types of farms. Of course there is WWOOF -ing, the international organization of Willing Workers on Organic Farms. The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada offers a large resource of interesting information on training, apprenticeships, jobs, volunteer opportunities and research links. FarmStart is an interesting program based out of Ontario that, among other things, offers mentorship programs and even "incubator farms" where people can start there project before getting there own land! Another website I happened along was PlanetFriendly.net , which, while not being focused on farming and agriculture, is a really interesting resource for environmental information, "green" jobs that are available, and other related links.
Now, that is enough said for one day I do believe.
Let me end on a recipe.

Hot chili sauce

6 large hot chili peppers
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper


*The quantities of onion and garlic are a bit of an estimation so taste is really, always the best guidance to what you like.

To start, char the skin of all the peppers on a gas flame or if you only have an electric stove, char the skin under the broiler. Remove the skins, the seeds and the stem of the pepper.
Place the peppers in a food processor and puree. Add the onions and the garlic. Slowly add a stream of olive oil to the mix. (This is where the tasting begins, so forewarn your taste buds!) Add salt and pepper to taste.
The mix will become thick and a fairly homogenous puree.
Place in a pot and heat over a low flame until it simmers. Simmer for five minutes or so.
Remove and store in airtight container in the fridge. Keeps well. If you want to can it in glass jars, have your jars ready after you heat the mix and put it directly in them. Seal the jars and turn over on their lids until cool so that a good seal is formed.

As for the wood oven dried tomatoes, that will have to wait for another opportunity.