Thomas Maloney Online

I was in Minnesota just in time for the Ely Winter Festival, combining the Ely ArtWalk, where local artists display their work in space provided by the windows of Ely’s downtown merchants, and also the really awesome snow sculptures carved from square blocks of snow in the town park. Each block is created by filling and packing snow into a square wood fence. I got to see the snow scultping as it happened and the final pieces were fantastic. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of this year’s sculptures but you can find pictures from last year’s festival on the Ely Winter Festival website directly in the Gallery section.

Along the ArtWalk, I stopped by the gallery of Jim Brandenburg, a well-known National Geographic photographer, and I was impressed by his photographs of the outdoors. Check out his web site to peruse some great shots. Link.

As anyone who knows me, I like chocolate and have been learning about it and have even made it from scratch in a home kitchen. A February 10, 2007 Wall Street Journal article on chocolate provides some interesting details:

Mass-market players are going after the specialty-chocolate business because, while overall chocolate sales have gone up only 1% to 3% annually for the past 20 years, premium chocolate sales grew 28% between 2003 and 2005, according to analyst Mintel International. Dark chocolate was a $1.62 billion business in 2006, up 29% from 2003.

Companies are attempting to cultivate “a more educated consumer who is not just going to reach for a generic bar, but the one who is going to spend a dollar an ounce” or more, says Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior research analyst at Mintel. Premium chocolate bars start at about $8 a pound, Ms. Mogelonsky says, while supermarket candy bars can cost as little as $4 a pound.

On the topic of the cost of chocolate, another February 10, 2007 article from the New York Times reads

If you are still seeking the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, have you considered a box of Noka chocolates?

Both you and the recipient may be in for a surprise. A 12-piece box costs $39 before tax and shipping. And for that you will get 0.9 ounce of chocolate. Not 0.9 ounce a piece, but 0.9 ounce in the entire black and silver box.

Do the math and that comes to $693 a pound. Buy just four pieces in the Signature stainless steel box and you are paying more than $2,000 a pound, making the Noka chocolate more expensive than delicacies like caviar, saffron or black truffles.

That’s pretty ridiculous. Consider this older December 3, 2003 NYT article citing Clay Gordon, who heads up The NY Metro Discover Chocolate Meetup which I attend monthly, saying:

“Chocolate is a relatively affordable obsession,” Mr. Gordon said. “The most expensive bottle of wine is way out of most people’s reach; the most expensive bottle of balsamic vinegar costs more than a thousand dollars. But the most expensive chocolate bar costs only $9.”

One thing I’ve learned is that if all you want is good chocolate, it’s relatively inexpensive.

I went to Minnesota for the six days and I had a bunch of firsts. In the vicinity of Ely, MN lies the Voyageur Outward Bound School, approximately 20 miles south of the Canadian border. There I went dogsledding, skied on a frozen lake, and sweated in the dry air of a sauna heated to 190° F. When I went in at night, the air outside was -10° F (a few days later it dropped to -30° F).

The goal is to sit in the sauna until you can’t take it anymore, then run outside and dip yourself in a frozen river with a hole chipped out of the ice. Alternative actions include rolling in the snow.

Imagine running outside when it’s -10° F and dipping yourself in a frozen river. It’s possible, I did it.

And it was fun.

There are wolves in Minnesota.

In other news.. mushing is exciting and it’s very much a collaborative effort with the dogs. The dogs are amazing. Turning on a trail is pretty tricky. Here’s a picture of the of sled dogs and a picture of the cabin where I slept.

I baked chocolate chip cookies at Homebase, the main campus building. Homebase has an amazing kitchen with much similarity to the kitchen at my college co-op, 660 Stewart Ave. at Cornell.

Restaurant recommendation: Buca’s in downtown Minneapolis.