Why is there antifreeze in my kitchen?

A found poem:

coconut

icing sugar, sugar

water

propylene glycol

salt, sulphites

If I were hearing the words instead of reading them on a food label, I'd feel a pulse of pleasure over the syncopation in icing sugar, sugar (which no doubt has a name--one of those confusing poetic devices involving repeated words). The juxtaposition of sugar and water would recall high school science lab with its beakers full of mystery solutions, or maybe harken further back to the days when mothers handed their kids bottles of sugar water to shut them up. And that final line, with its soft hiss of alliteration: salt, sulphites. A sigh seeded with a suggestion: You, preserved.

Let's skip the over the sulphites and excess sugar and go straight to the propylene glycol. Why is there antifreeze in my kitchen? I only wanted to make a batch of granola. Silly me. I let another (non-label-reading) person do the shopping and this adulterated product landed in the baking drawer. I noticed the label after the fact.

Propylene glycol is the active ingredient in antifreeze and yummy products such as paint, dog food, cosmetics, brake fluid and aircraft de-icer. Which brings us back to antifreeze. Real food advocates decry this additive, and even pop culture has noticed: check out the Dr. Oz website, for example. Regulators appear to believe that propylene glycol is safe at approved levels. It's allowed in North American food processing as a stabilizer, humectant, solvent, and other uses that are difficult to imagine alongside food. The Europeans are the holdouts, as ever: the EU has not given blanket approval, but regulates the use of propylene glycol in food through a specific directive.

This link to a major manufacturer's sales literature might have, but didn't actually, answer my question: why is there antifreeze in the coconut I just used in baking? Here's a short excerpt that describes our additive precisely:

Dow PG USP/EP is a clear, colorless, practically odorless, slightly viscous, water-soluble and hygroscopic liquid. It is synthesized from hydrocarbon raw materials. 

Materials of plant or animal origin, genetically modified organisms, solvents, catalysts, additives or stabilizers are not used in the manufacturing process or added to the final product.

Anybody find a poem in this? 

Cycling Plans

I was going to write about food again, since everyone needs to eat and I have new Unprocessed Project creations to share, but then I saw this gizmo on my way to a much-needed yoga class earlier today. Isn't it lovely?

Wait, what is it?

This, my friends, is a public DIY bike repair stand, newly installed outside the Trent University Athletic Centre. Note the ample free bike parking, too. Anyone who has paid more than her fair share for Trent AC parking tickets at $20 a pop should consider biking.

Throughout May the good folks at Peterborough Moves are running a "transportation competition and campaign" called Workplace Shifting Gears, a challenge to walk, cycle or take public transit instead of driving to work. I signed up last week for my employer, promising to cycle-commute at least twice a week. Except, hmm. That may not have been wise, seeing as a) it's far and hilly--about 25 km; b) my bike is ancient and clunky and still in winter storage; and c) I'm ancient and clunky and still in winter storage. But even if I manage a few shorter trips around town, I can log them on the Shifting Gears site and reap untold physical and mental benefits. 

When we lived in Toronto, I commuted by bike except for the extremely pregnant months. I find it therapeutic to jump from work into rush-hour traffic, dodging all the assholes uptight drivers racing home. In fact, a guy in a black convertible BMW with the top down--a detail that meant he could see me--once clipped my bike as we drove together along a narrow downtown street. His side mirror hit my handlebars. I stayed upright and screamed abuse at him (uncharacteristically: it was the adrenaline screaming). The best Rx for bike/car rage? More yoga, NOW! when it is available to me. But we don't have anything like Toronto traffic here in the hinterlands, and people are supernice, and I'm a safety-conscious rider who signals and everything, so no worries. 

Other than being out of shape. I'll let you know if I totally humiliate myself when I take a test ride this weekend.

Here are a few more shots of the apparatus. Not that I'm handy, but it's a comfort to know that you can use the pump and these other thingies should the need arise. The Shifting Gears initiative also includes free bike repair classes. (Get the themes here? Free. Public. For the good of all.)

B!KE, the non-profit Peterborough Community Cycling Club, has brought us this sublimely blue Fixit station and three others just like it, strategically located around the city. Find more details here.