title: The Calling (band)

text: While the RCA deal was a huge boost, it also created a new problem for Band and Kamin: they had no solid band and, thus, had hardly toured and built a fanbase. Rather than putting them out on the road and building regional support, Fair worked intensely with Band and Kamin for over two years perfecting the debut album. The Calling's first album was recorded from 1999–2001, with Sean Woolstenhulme (formerly with Lifehouse) (rhythm guitar), Billy Mohler (bass), and Nate Wood (drums). The Calling's first album, "Camino Palmero", was issued in July 2001 and quickly became a hit due to the strength of its single, "Wherever You Will Go", which was named the No. 1 Adult Pop song of the decade by "Billboard" magazine. The song was featured prominently in the television series "Smallville's" first-season episode "Metamorphosis". It was also featured in the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly" with the group performing in the background in the first club scene, and in early trailers in 2001 for the "Star Trek" prequel series "". In an episode of the CBS television drama "Cold Case", "Frank's Best", the song is played at the end of the episode. "Camino Palmero" ultimately sold more than five million copies worldwide and was certified gold in the United States.


title: The Calling (band)

text: In June 2002, Woolstenhulme left The Calling. His replacement was Dino Meneghin. Mohler and Wood left in October 2002. In November 2003, former members Wood and Mohler sued Band, Kamin, and the group's management, accusing them of mismanagement, fraud, and asking for an audit of the money that was spent during their tenures in The Calling. They claimed that they were promised a share of the royalties and profits from touring and merchandise. Band and Kamin claimed that the two were not entitled to any records of the royalties.


title: The Calling (band)

text: In February 10, 2003, The Calling recorded a track for the superhero movie Daredevil, titled "For You". It was released as the third single for the soundtrack album, while also appearing in the EP version. It was used as the closing credits to the film. The band performed the song live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the February 13, 2003 episode. While the song failed to enter the US charts, it did fairly well in Italy, just past the Top 20 at #19.


title: The Calling (band)

text: The Calling announced that they began work on their sophomore album in 2003. In March 29th 2004, they released their lead single Our Lives which made its debut on hot adult contemporary radio the same day. It was featured in the 2004 Olympics ceremony, it was used as the opening song of the 78th annual Academy Awards and used as the theme song to the short lived series "Clubhouse" on CBS. The song was well received and charted at number 34 in the Billboard Top 40. It also reached the Top 20 in countries like Denmark and Italy.


title: The Calling (band)

text: In June 2004, the group returned with their sophomore album titled "Two". However, "Two" had disappointing sales compared to their first album and failed to live up to expectations, charting at number 54 on Billboard Top 200.


title: The Calling (band)

text: A final single, "Anything," performed decently with little promotion, charting at number 23 in the Adult Top 40.


title: The Calling (band)

text: After a lengthy world tour in support of the album, despite the lack of support from the label, Kamin and Band decided to disband The Calling and go on hiatus. They played a farewell show in Temecula, California on June 6, 2005. Alex then began pursuing a solo career and played occasional shows.


title: The Calling (band)

text: On August 15, 2013, Alex Band reformed The Calling with new members. The band performed their comeback gig at Bally's Atlantic City on August 17. On August 18, Band was reportedly abducted by two men that robbed him, beat him severely, and dumped him on train tracks in Lapeer, Michigan. He was taken to an emergency room at a nearby hospital, where he was treated and released. After only a few shows, the group broke up again.


title: The Calling (band)

text: In October 2016, The Calling reformed with a new lineup and performed in Manila, Philippines the following month. The Australian company ""Unbreakable Touring"" announced that the band were to perform in areas such as Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Fremantle along with the rock band Juke Kartel and newcomer Mike Waters, but this was later postponed due to visa issues. In July 2017 it was announced that The Calling would be joining Lifehouse as support acts for Live's Australian leg of their world reunion tour.


title: The Calling (band)

text: Band said in an interview with Australian music website "may the rock be with you" in November 2017 that The Calling will be releasing new music soon.


title: The Calling (band)

text: Whilst on tour in February 2020 Band spoke in a video interview presentation with Welsh podcast SteegCast, in the video Band speaks of his future music plans and talks of new material, including even at some point releasing orchestral workings of some of The Calling's best known songs.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Irish cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with the island of Ireland. It has evolved from centuries of social and political change and the mixing of different cultures, predominantly with those from nearby Britain and other European regions. The cuisine is founded upon the crops and animals farmed in its temperate climate and the abundance of fresh fish and seafood from the surrounding waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Chowder, for example, is popular around the coasts.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The development of Irish cuisine was altered greatly by the Tudor conquest of Ireland in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, which introduced a new agro-alimentary system of intensive grain-based agriculture and led to large areas of land being turned over to grain production. The rise of a commercial market in grain and meat altered the diet of the Irish populace by redirecting traditionally consumed products (such as beef) abroad as cash crops instead. Consequently, potatoes were widely adopted in the 18th century and essentially became the main crop that the Irish working class (which formed a majority of the population) could afford.


title: Irish cuisine

text: By the 21st century, much traditional Irish cuisine was being revived. Representative dishes include Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, boxty, soda bread (predominantly in Ulster), coddle, and colcannon.


title: Irish cuisine

text: There are many references to food and drink in Irish mythology and early Irish literature, such as the tale of Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Salmon of Knowledge. They contain many references to banquets involving the heroes' portion and meat cooked in cauldrons and on spits. Irish mythology is a Celtic Indo-European tradition and shares many foods with other cultures' stories. For example, honey has always been valued and was used in the making of mead, a drink featured in many ancient Indo-European myths and rituals, from Ireland to India.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Prior to the Neolithic period in Ireland and advances in farming technology, archaeological evidence such as the discovery of stone tools, bone assemblages, archeobotanical evidence, isotopic analysis of human skeletal remains, and dental erosion on the remains of human teeth indicate the Mesolithic Irish were a hunter-gatherer society that ate a diet of varied floral, and faunal sources. Discoveries of food byproducts such as bone fragments and sea shells are key indicators of the dietary habits of the Mesolithic Irish, as immediate food products have long since decomposed —especially in the presence of Ireland's largely acidic soils. However, available archeological evidence of food remains, together with discoveries of Mesolithic food-harvesting tools and the relationship of local environments with settlement sites, provide an understanding of what may have eaten. Settlement sites, in particular, have supported notable insight into the dietary habits of the Mesolithic Irish. For example, the proximity of Mesolithic settlements to water systems point to groups or individuals who ate marine species. The predominant location of Mesolithic Irish settlements are close to water systems, and therefore suggests a diet rich in vegetation, marine life, and smaller mammals, as distinct from their British and Native American contemporaries whose settlements further inland influenced a diet more substantive with meat. For example, deer features minimally in archeological discoveries, thought to be particularly due to the infrequent presence of deer along coastal regions, bays, and estuaries.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The deliberate positioning of such settlements also suggests a cultural preference for particular foods. Also unique to settlements positioned close to water systems are large mounds of bivalve shells known as middens, which provide concrete evidence that shellfish played a role in the dietary practices of the Mesolithic Irish. Shell middens are frequent Mesolithic discoveries in Ireland, which for their majority, were predominantly composed of oyster and limpet shells. The coastal town name of Sligo (in Irish "Sligeach)" which means "abounding in shells", references the area's historic plenitude of shellfish in the river and its estuary, as well as the middens common to the area.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Additionally, Ireland's position as an island and thus the unique composition of biodiversity and geography suggests its Mesolithic people enjoyed a somewhat dissimilar diet to their proximal contemporaries. For example, prehistoric Ireland's paucity of small mammals, and its absences of species important to other Mesolithic communities, such as red deer, wild cow, and elk would have contributed to unique dietary habits and nutritional standards. The persistent evidence of certain species, such as boar in contrast with the scarcity and/or uncooked nature of other animal remains such as bear and birds of prey (remains of which have been found in Mesolithic bone assemblages, but are otherwise absent in isotopic analysis of human bones) suggests a particular understanding of certain animals as sources of food, others that served symbolic or medicinal purposes (as they were in other parts of Europe), while others still, such as dog, which are not supposed to have been consumed at all.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Due to Ireland's geography and the locations of Mesolithic settlements, the variety of food sources available to the Mesolithic Irish was consequently unique. Outside of boar, large predators including the wolf, the brown bear, and lynx, are scarce in archaeological assemblages, and understood to have been generally avoided as a source of food, as they were in most contemporary Mesolithic Europe. Likewise, while cereals were unlikely to have been yet consumed due to the processing required to make them digestible, fungi, roots, leaves, stems, flowers, nuts, seeds, berries and fruits were all otherwise simple to harvest and eat and would have substantiated the Mesolithic diet with nutritional variety and a diversity of flavour.


title: Irish cuisine

text: This in combination with the prevalence of settlements along waterways suggests key dietary staples of the Mesolithic Irish were marine and floral sources of food. Additionally, that boar was brought to Ireland by early Mesolithic colonists and features frequently in archeological assemblages of faunal bones, points to another noteworthy staple in the Mesolithic Irish diet. Despite the scarcity of plant-based artifacts in light of Ireland's wet weather and acidic soil, biochemical assessments of human bone have been used to provide evidence for a variety of floral sources, including apples, crowberries, raspberries, blackberries, water-lily seeds, tubers, and hazelnuts.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The sizable presence of hazelnuts in many archaeological assemblages in both Mesolithic Ireland and Britain suggests the nut was important, and may have even been used as a form of currency, as acorns were for Native Americans of California during the same period. There is an indication that these nuts, in particular, were stored underground during the winter months. Elm bark is also suspected to have been a prized source of food for being particularly rich in nutrients, as well as featuring in the diets of other northern Mesolithic European communities, the Scandinavian in particular.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Despite Ireland's coastal geography, there is no evidence of seaweed collection among the Mesolithic Irish in archaeological remains, as well as little evidence of deep-water ocean species. However, the presence of shellfish and in-shore fish—particularly salmonids—in the Irish Mesolithic diet is impressive. The absence of evidence for seal is a notable contrast with Mesolithic Scotland, where archaeological sites demonstrate the significant exploitation of seals.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Though the Mesolithic Irish were a hunter-gatherer people, such assemblages as middens, discoveries of lithic tools and technologies, and seasonal organization of animal remains alludes to understandings of environmental management to meet subsistence needs. For example, the transportation and management of boar through selective hunting and culling techniques suggests a food source potentially purposefully semi-domesticated, as well as a species important to the Mesolithic communities of Ireland. Research into the composition of middens, as well, suggests that these Irish communities understood tidal behaviours, and optimal harvest periods for respective marine species. Different species of shellfish require different environmental conditions, such as intertidal flats for mussels and cockles, and rocky shorelines for limpets so different harvesting strategies would have been required to harvest and profit from different varieties of shellfish. As well, that freshwater, coastal, and in-shore marine life features greater than deep-sea species in archaeological evidence of the Irish Mesolithic diet inherently points to the use of in-shore fishing techniques such as traps and nets, in lieu of off-shore or deep-sea hunting techniques.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The recovery of stone tools in specific sites and vogue technologies of the period such as blade-and-flake likewise suggests their roles in the construction and maintenance of basic food procurement technologies like fish traps. There is even some suggestion of the Mesolithic Irish being actively engaged in land snail farming.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The fundamentally seasonal nature of the Mesolithic diet and the various seasonally-conscripted food-gathering activities affected the time and social organization of the Mesolithic Irish during the year. Such activities would have consisted the hunting and foraging of seasonal plants and animals when they were at their most abundant, as well as storage-related activities such as preserving meat and seafood through smoking, and caching nuts and seeds. As various plants are fertile only biannually, and the migratory patterns of animals can change over time, these food-gathering activities would have been significantly varied and as such, would have required attention and understanding of environmental and animal behaviours.


title: Irish cuisine

text: While most foods would have been eaten raw and out-of-hand, archaeological evidence has provided insight into Mesolithic food processing techniques, such as crude forms of butchery, the soaking of seeds, and thermal processing to directly heat or smoke foods. At a site in Kilnatierney where ash, burnt shells, fish, and pig bones were discovered in a dug-out depression, the diminutive size of the fish bones suggests they were cooked on skewers or directly on hot rocks. The presence of burnt mounds of stones indicate cooking methods likely focused on direct heating methods such as roasting on spits constructed on tripods over open flames, and in earthen hearths.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Understanding the details about the foodways of the prehistoric Irish can be difficult to capture, especially given the island's temperate climate and prevalence of wet, acidic soils that are quick to erode organic material, but thanks to extensive evaluation of biochemical and isotopic signatures recovered from human bone and pottery sherds, there is insight into Neolithic dietary habits. Biomarkers such as lipid and plant residues preserved in the clay matrix of pottery vessels observe a diversity of plant- and animal-life in the diet of the Neolithic Irish, including berries, leafy vegetables, tubers, legumes, meats, seafoods, and nuts. These in combination with the agricultural developments of the Neolithic period such as field systems, farming tools, and animal husbandry begin to describe the dramatic changes in the dietary practices and eating behaviours of the prehistoric Irish people, distinct from their Mesolithic ancestors.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The cultivation and processing of cereals, as well as the maintenance of livestock in farming scenarios saw the significant consumption of new foods, particularly emmer wheat, barley, beef, pig, and goat, which coincided with a steep decline in the consumption of marine life. Emmer wheat was assumed to be a preferred crop for its resilience to wet Irish weather and soil, but evidence of other cereals such as rye, einkorn and barley have been recovered, albeit at a lesser degree. Sugarcane, maize, sorghum, and dryland grasses were introduced to Ireland in only recent centuries, and were therefore absent from the diet of Neolithic Irish. Likewise, although the remains of oat were discovered, their minimal quantity at sites indicate that it was a wild plant, and not yet cultivated. New domestic livestock including beef and sheep are understood to have been brought to the island from continental Europe, in addition to red deer, which marked new and increasingly significant species in the Irish diet. For example, evidence of enclosures couching large assemblages of charred cattle bones suggests the cooking and consumption of large quantities of beef, potentially during large communal gatherings. As they were during the Mesolithic period, hazelnuts were still prevalent discoveries at many Neolithic sites, though their presence declines toward the Bronze Age.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The introduction of agricultural management greatly influenced new dietary staples of the Irish communities. While attention on farming crops witnessed a decline in the consumption of wild forage, changes in the landscape also offered new foraging opportunities for wild plant life which would have thrived along the edges of cleared agricultural land.


title: Irish cuisine

text: While radiocarbon dating of Neolithic fish nets and weirs suggests the consumption of marine life, what archeological evidence of food has been recovered points to a sharp decline in the consumption of aquatic species, converse to the notable consumption of marine life by the Mesolithic Irish. The advancements of farming during the Neolithic period are assumed to have influenced this decline, in tandem with the heightened consumption of farmed animals, cereals, and the very influential introduction of dairying, which coincided similar advancements in other Neolithic societies.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Approaches to agriculture, like those elsewhere across northwestern Europe, were focused on long-term plot management rather than rotational methods, and implemented manure as fertilizer. The emergence of new technologies in cooking, water, and waste management is evidenced by an increasing frequency of crescent-shaped mounds of burnt stones, called "fulachtaí fia" in Irish, that are understood to be the remnants of burning and/or cooking sites. Yet, despite all such advancements, there was a noticeable absence in the presence of cutlery, cooking, or other eating implements among recovered archeological artifacts.


title: Irish cuisine

text: It is understood that both direct and indirect cooking methods were important features of Irish cuisine during the Bronze Age (2000—600BCE). The former used open fires to cook foods supported by ceramic vessels, spits, or surface griddles, while the latter used methods to heat surrounding mediums of earth, air, or water to cook foods within. Radiocarbon dating of crescent-shaped mounds of burnt stones, called "fulachtaí fia" in Irish, are understood to be the remnants of cooking sites in Ireland that emerged in the early Neolithic Period but came to prominence during the Bronze Age. While the word "fulacht" in medieval texts refers to the direct cooking of food on a spit, it is thought that its origins reside in such Neolithic sites that may have been chiefly used for indirect cooking methods involving hot stones, suggesting at least that the term and its derivatives refer to the activity of cooking.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Contrary to Mesolithic sites featuring burnt mounds, post-Mesolithic sites are significant for featuring significant remnants of flint, charred mounds of stones in close proximity to the remains of domesticated livestock, in addition to being accompanied by pits understood to have held water. Stones belonging to these mounds, the majority of which are large pieces of sandstone, are understood to have been heated and then submerged into these pits of water or buried underground as heat conductors used to boil, steam or bake food.


title: Irish cuisine

text: While burnt mounds of similar natures have been discovered around Europe, Ireland hosts the greatest number of these sites, which suggests that indirect cooking methods were significant in Irish cuisine during the time. These mounds tend to feature a notable amount of stones, thought to be due to their repeated use over hundreds of years, and for the volume of stones needed to heat water to adequate cooking temperatures. Such technology could likely have facilitated a dual purpose for the use in building steam lodges, which were common in parts of Europe at the time, but "fulachtaí fia" typically feature significant assemblages of charred faunal remains, which argues they were used predominantly as cooking sites. It has been considered that these sites were impromptu cooking locations used particularly by hunters, but most "fulachtaí fia" were established in low-lying agricultural lands and similar environments not supportive of optimal hunting conditions. As well, the faunal remains recovered from such sites are typically feature the long, upper limb bones of domesticated livestock, archeologically associated with animal exploitation for meat, and also suggestive of animals being previously processed, or slaughtered, butchered, and eaten on site.


title: Irish cuisine

text: As "fulachtaí fia" emerged alongside developments in animal husbandry in Upper Palaeolithic Europe, pyrolithic technology emerged in response to the newfound importance of livestock. This is further compounded by the scarcity of game animal remains throughout all sites, and otherwise prevalence of sheep, pig, and cattle bones. This is not to discredit the lesser though still significant presence of red deer bones. Likewise, the absence of marine life at "fulachtaí fia""," also suggests a greater consumption of domestically farmed animals, and might also imply fish were cooked differently or respective of livestock. Many sites feature indications of stake-hole clusters that may have once supported tripods and spits used for draining the blood from- or cooking recently killed animals.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Archeobotanical evidence from the Bronze Age is hard to recover due in part to Ireland's temperate weather and acidic soils, but fossilized hazelnut shells have survived at sites, as well as evidence of elm bark, which is supposed to have been used as feed for livestock and people alike.


title: Irish cuisine

text: There is thought that hazelnuts were used to produce oil, whereupon the nuts would have been boiled in the heated waters of "fulachtaí fia" for the purpose of extracting their natural oils which would have accumulated atop the water's surface, then skimmed and used or stored. Boiling is thought to have been a choice cooking method during the Bronze Age; the method provided good retention of calories in foods. Boiling meat, for example, is thought to have been a preferred cooking application for both helping to retain moisture in lean meats, for rendering fatty deposits in coarser cuts, as well as extracting marrow from bones.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The aforementioned long, shallow pits that accompany most "fulachtaí fia" are typically found lined with insulating materials like stone, timber, and other organic materials, and divided with partitions suspected to have been intended to separate the hot stones from edible materials, or to divide different types of foods. It is thought that the use of clean, fresh water was a preferred medium given the placement of troughs over or near natural springs, and for their close proximity to irrigation channels carved into the earth which could have assisted in draining the pit after it was used. Other pits, such as those dug into sand or removed from water sources, are thought to have been used as subterranean ovens.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The typically large scale of these mounds and their perpetuity in the landscape not only suggests that individual "fulachtaí fia" were returned to and used often, but that they were fixtures of social gatherings both large and small. This is furthered by the presence of large assemblages of animal bones, as well as the mounds' notable distance from developed settlements, and the substantive size of the troughs—expected to have held large quantities of food. The laborious nature of preparing food, in addition to that of building these hearths would likely have required multiple actors working over long periods of time to finalize a meal, which suggests that cooking food would have been a social activity, likely with roles of responsibility distributed among the workers and hence a social structure.


title: Irish cuisine

text: As ritual sites were often marked by the production and display of commemorative items, the suggestion that these sites were sometimes spaces of notable communal gathering is further substantiated by the discoveries of monuments, stone circles, and other non-funerary artifacts. Likewise, that "fulachtaí fia" are structures made principally to facilitate the indirect cooking of food—methods significantly slower and longer than direct heating applications—provides further reasoning that these mounds were places for special occasions where people chose to spend long periods of time eating and communing together.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Hospitality was compulsory on all free landowners to welcome kings, bishops, or judges into their homes, with a wider superstitious fear held by the Irish of the consequences of turning away anyone. Much evidence for early Irish food exists in the law texts and poetry which were written down from the 7th and 8th century AD onwards. The arrival of Christianity also brought new influences from the Middle East and Roman culture.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The main meal was eaten in the afternoon or evening. A daytime meal was termed "díthat". A meal at night, and especially a celebratory one, was called a "feis" and was often accompanied by beer. The main cooking utensil was the cauldron ("coire") in which a variety of broths and stews were made.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Meals consisted of a staple of bread, fresh milk, or a fermented variety such as "bainne clabhair," yoghurt or cheese accompanied by an "anlann" or "tarsunn" (relish, condiment) usually of vegetables, salted meat or honey, but could be any variety of seasonal foods. At the public guesthouses ("bruiden") a person of high rank was entitled to 3 "tarsunn", a lesser person only one.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century, grains such as oats, wheat and barley, cooked either as porridge or bread, formed the staple of the Irish diet. The most common form of bread consisted of flatbread made from ground oats. These flatbreads could be wafer thin, like "chapati", or thicker like the oatcakes still popular in Scotland.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Household equipment included a kneading trough "lasat", a kneading slab "lecc", a griddle "lann" and a griddle turner "lainnéne". While oats were the most commonly used grain, bread made from wheat was regarded as a luxury of the aristocratic class. Bread and milk formed the staple of the Irish diet for millennia. From Latin came "tortine" meaning a small loaf.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Traditional porridge was cooked from oats, barley or wheat meal mixed with water, buttermilk or new milk and cooked to a smooth consistency. This was accompanied by either heavily salted butter, fresh butter or honey.


title: Irish cuisine

text: A fermented mixture of cracked wheat and heated milk was prepared as some form of frumenty or product similar to Turkish "tarhana" or Middle Eastern "kashk". This could have other ingredients added such as egg yolks making a highly nutritious food that could also be dried and stored over winter.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Another grain preparation known as "menedach" was made by kneading grains and butter together into a type of paste and was known for its medicinal qualities, especially for monks on strict penitential diets. It may have been an early form of roux or perhaps a type of polenta. It could be spread on bread. It is described in the 12th century Icelandic saga Landnamabok in which Irish slaves prepare the food claiming that it will cure thirst. ""The Irish thralls found the expedient of kneading meal and butter and said it would quench the thirst. They called it minapak"."


title: Irish cuisine

text: The meat was generally cooked fresh and unspiced, or salted and was boiled in a cauldron. Sometimes it was flavored with honey, sometimes supplied at the table in a dish for dipping. There are many descriptions of meat boiled in a cauldron in a form of stew. One recipe appears to have used "purple berries" to color the meal. There are also descriptions of meat being parboiled and then roasted over a fire on wooden spits somewhat similar to shish kebab.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Consumption of meat was forbidden twice a week on Wednesday and Friday and during Lent. "Céadaoin", the name for Wednesday in Irish, means first fast and "Aoine" the name for Friday, means fast. Orthodox Christian churches still maintain this practice.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Both domestic pig and wild boar were eaten. The pork was probably the most common meat consumed in Ireland. Pigs were fattened on acorns in the forests. The flitch of bacon suspended on a hook is frequently mentioned in sources. Sausages made of salted pork are mentioned. Two types of sausage known as "maróc" (from a Norse loanword) and "indrechtán" (a sausage or pudding) are mentioned.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The dominant feature of the rural economy was the herding of cattle. Cows were not generally slaughtered for meat unless old or injured, but male cattle, if not destined to be oxen, were often slaughtered at one or two years.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Salted beef was cooked in a cauldron where different forms of stew were commonly made. The meat was also barbecued on spits ("bir") made of either wood or iron. The poem Aislinge Meic Con Glinne describes the roasting of pieces of beef, mutton, and ham on spits of whitebeam. The meat was marinated in salt and honey first.


title: Irish cuisine

text: In the Irish religious diet, horse and crane meat were forbidden. Fowl in general does not seem to have featured much in the diet. There is also evidence for taboos related to totem animals amongst certain groups or tribes for whom consumption of these animals was forbidden.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Ireland, with grass growth ten months of the year and no need to shelter cattle in extreme winter conditions, has always produced quality dairy products. Dairy was an important part of the ancient Irish diet, and this is backed up by archaeological record.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Dairy products were known as "bánbia" (white foods) and milk, butter, curds, and cheese were staples of the diet. "Táth" was a form of pressed curds, perhaps similar to "paneer" or cottage cheese. "Tánach" referred to hard cheese, and "mulchán" was skimmed milk cheese. Milk or soft sweet-curd was heated with butter to make a sweet drink called "milseán or millsén". Milk diluted with water was termed "englas".


title: Irish cuisine

text: The practice of bleeding cattle and mixing the blood with milk and butter (similar to the practice of the Maasai people) was not uncommon. Black pudding is made from blood, grain, (usually barley) and seasoning, and remains a breakfast staple in Ireland.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Honey seems to have been a precious but abundant commodity, with beekeeping particularly associated with the church and much used in medicine.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Bog butter was stored for safety and allowed to ferment by being buried in bogs which provides a stable temperature in an anaerobic environment facilitating the aging process. The end product may have been something similar to "smen", a North African ingredient in many dishes.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Vegetables grown and eaten in Ireland included onions, chives, cabbage, celery, wild garlic and leeks. Fat-hen ("Chenopodium album") is often found on pre Norman archaeological sites and appears to have been an important part of the diet, as it still is in Northern India. Skirret ("Sium sisaram"), in Irish "cearrachán," appears to have been grown as a root vegetable, but this is no longer used. Watercress, sorrel, parsley, and nettles were picked wild and eaten raw or added to broth.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Pulses such as peas, broad beans, and lentils were grown and dried since early medieval times, becoming common with the Normans. Berries and nuts were extensively eaten. Hazelnuts were of great importance. Bilberries, known as "fraochán" in Irish, were traditionally picked on the festival of Lúghnasa in August. blackberries and other wild fruit were also picked and consumed.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The fruit of the strawberry tree ("Arbutus unedo"), known as "caithne" in Irish, is associated with religious establishments and may have been used to make or flavour medicine.


title: Irish cuisine

text: A four-handled wooden cup called a "meadair" was used, or a drinking horn for high status individuals.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Beer was a prerequisite of a noble's house and was usually brewed from barley, although a wheat beer was also made. Malting kilns are a common find in archaeological digs in Ireland and appear from early Christian times on.


title: Irish cuisine

text: "Uisce beatha" (water of life) or whiskey is an invention of the Gaelic world and was developed after the introduction of distilling in the 12th century.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Vegetarian diets were known among the strict monastic orders, but it was not compulsory. However, those that did eat meat were only permitted to eat wild pig or deer. Monks lived on a staple gruel made with water or milk and meal known as "brothchán". This, on Sundays and festivals had seasonal fruits and nuts and honey added, and it has been suggested that "brothchán" may have been an early form of muesli.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The Pale was the small area around Dublin in which English influence was strongest, here a hybrid food culture developed consisting of Norse, English and Irish influences.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Excavations at the Viking settlement in the Wood Quay area of Dublin have produced a significant amount of information on the diet of the inhabitants of the town. The main meats eaten were beef, mutton, and pork. Domestic poultry and geese as well as fish and shellfish were also common, as was a wide range of native berries and nuts, especially hazelnuts. The seeds of knotgrass and goosefoot were widely present and may have been used to make a porridge.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Ovens for baking were used in the towns. Evidence for cherries has been found in 11th century Dublin. Bread was sometimes flavoured with aniseed.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The Norman invasion brought new additions to the diet, introducing rabbits, fallow deer and pheasants in the 12th century. They may also have introduced some freshwater fish, notably pike.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The Norman invasion marked the beginning of both the English and French presence in the country which continued as a unique Hiberno-Norman culture developed in the Norman settled areas and towns. The Norman cuisine characteristically consisted of spicy meat and fowl along with potages and broths, roasts and sauces. The Normans may also have introduced the making of cider. Oysters and scallops were another favourite of the Normans.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Distinct from preceding eras, the Middle Ages ushered the development of dense urban centers that dramatically affected preexisting food systems by changing both physical and societal infrastructures. The spread and increasing normalization of a new type of civilian who did not produce or hunt their own food and was thus reliant on foreign market trade and import from rural farms made the need for accessible and consistent sources of food vital.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Uniquely to Ireland, the emergence of Norse towns in the 9th and 10th centuries and their subsequent growth during the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th and 13th centuries ushered a population boom that brought with it new foods born of foreign trade and new methods of production. The Anglo-Normans in particular propagated a commercial economy that encouraged urban settlement and the steady trade of local and foreign commodities by holding festive market fairs and attracting settlers with offers of burgage plots replete with space for a house and garden.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Documentary data such as medieval law tracts, literature on the lives of saints, as well as early records of land holdings provide insight into how food was grown and distributed among society. As such documents were generally concentrated on the literate upper classes of Ireland, additional archeological data offers broader insight into food consumption habits of peasants, commoners, and Irish Medieval society as a whole. Together, these findings and records play a significant role in interpreting urban food consumption behaviors of Medieval Ireland.


title: Irish cuisine

text: During the Middle Ages in Ireland, laws were written to allow only certain foods to certain classes of people. As the accommodation of guests and its embedded acts of hospitality including the offering of food was a strong social convention of Ireland during this time, people entertained at the homes of others expected the service of specific foods. Consequently, if a guest was 'entitled' to a certain food and did not receive it during their accommodation, they could justly accuse their host of failing to meet their obligations of hospitality which was a punishable offense.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The law tracts articulating the designation of certain foods to certain classes generally focused on free male landowners with some minor attention to free married women, but they do not describe what foods were entitled to peasants. This is because peasants were considered only semi-free (accommodated and thus 'owned' by their landlords) and were therefore not entitled to hospitable offers of food or beverage. There is some description of a 'poor diet' which references what was permitted to criminals and monks.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The specificity of these foods was precise and provided such laws that decided, for example, to whom individual sections of beef were entitled, or in what quantities food was expected to be given and to what kind of person. These 7th- and 8th-century law texts describe 7 grades of commoners and 3 grades of semi-free peasants—with these grades often further subdivided—in order to help guide judges through cases based on customary law. As it was often difficult to distinguish one's class based on looks alone, food was used as a social cue so people could distinguish another's social position, and therefore accommodate them with the appropriate reception.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Prescribing class status to certain foods consequently constructed the perspective of certain foods as being luxurious, and others as being common, but also created distinct nutritional staples for different levels of this stratified society. For example, the lowest-class free commoner was liberally entitled to barley, oats, and dairy products, whereas then penultimate low-class commoner was allowed this in addition to baked breads, though neither were permitted to goods derived of rye or wheat as such cereals were rare in Ireland (and thus privileged only to upper classes of people). Venison and other game meats were likewise considered low-class foods as wild animals derived from ungoverned lands were considered accessible to all classes and thus common. This was contrary to cattle which belonged to the lands of respective lords and made beef a privatized, restricted, and thus more coveted food. The same was said for wild fish, as any commoner was entitled to a fish net or trap, albeit modestly-sized ones.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Based on dietetic rationale, certain foods could travel between ranks under special conditions, such as during injury, pregnancy, menstruation, and illness, when individuals were understood to require more substantial nutrition. All free people during sickness were, for example, permitted garden herbs and small amounts of butter. Free married women were generally entitled to half of what their husbands were entitled to, but it was considered a punishable offense to deny a pregnant woman of any food she craved. This was thought to have been designed in part to protect women from miscarriage. Further dietetic rationale within these laws deemed only soft foods permissible to feed children, including soft eggs, porridge, curds and whey, and garnished only with ingredients (such as honey or butter) that their father's class was permitted to eat.


title: Irish cuisine

text: As religious doctrine heavily influenced these law tracts, Sundays were observed with greater leniency and some foods typically reserved for higher classes were shared with those of lower status. Cow, goat, and sheep milks were staple foods in all classes, from the lowest free commoner to the highest-ranking nobleman, though cow and goat milk were considered higher-ranking milks than sheep's. Common and small birds were afforded to be eaten by commoners, whereas larger or rarer birds such as swans were reserved for royalty (queens, particularly, in the case of swans). Larger eggs of larger birds species were also permitted only to high class individuals for the basic reason that things of greater quantity or volume were given first to people of higher class status.


title: Irish cuisine

text: As written records generally focused on storehouse inventories and staple commodities, archeobotanical remnants recovered from urban cesspits offer further insight into less-common foods such as wild forage, foreign imports, and garden-grown goods that supplemented the diets of upper-class people, and substantiated those of whom could not afford food from the market.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Both written record and archeological data indicate that sheep, cow, and goat milks made for the staple source of protein for most people, while oat, barley, and rye cereals comprised the typical source of carbohydrate, consumed usually as ale, in pot-based dishes, and breads.


title: Irish cuisine

text: As beer-making would only surface later in Ireland during the 14th century, and because ale had a short shelf-life that did not import or export well, ale-brewing was a significant industry in urban centers for providing what was then valued as a nutritious dietary staple. Cheap and widely available, oat was the preferred grain for this industry up until the 14th century until it was replaced by barley which was considered superior, though not as good as wheat.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Wheat was difficult to grow in Ireland's wet, acidic soils, but the Anglo-Normans nonetheless worked to intensify its production as it was a coveted grain to the upper-classes, and vital in the creation of the Catholic sacramental Host; a thin, white wafer. This monastic bread was typically made from barley, oat, and pulse flours baked on ashes or dried into biscuits, but the making of a special wheat-based wafer was reserved for Sundays. As a sacred and rare food, wheat production was a heavily monitored and controlled operation, and wheat products were sometimes used as currency.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Contrarily, while highly-accessible oats were considered 'poor' food, they were also valued as nutritious and easily-digestible, and thus made a staple for children, as well as cheap fuel for horses. Oat gruel, however, was considered inferior in quality and was thus unacceptable to share with travelers. Likewise, pulses, legumes and flours made from them were generally reserved for animal feed and for times of food scarcity. Beans, typically a food of the poorer classes, were often eaten in sweet puddings, according to recipe books of the 13th and 14th centuries. Pulses and legumes also did not grow well in wet, acidic soil, and were generally avoided as a crop, but the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, their new method of crop-rotation, and the coinciding increase of pulse production in Ireland at the time signals the growing of pulses as a means to improve conditions for wheat crops (a crop which thrives in the nitrogen-rich soils left over by a previous crop of pulses or legumes).


title: Irish cuisine

text: Quickly-perishable foods, and those not grown at a commercial scale, such as fruits, nuts, and vegetables are underrepresented in historical records, but archeological evidence suggests such foods were nonetheless important seasonal supplements to the Irish diet. As evidence suggests most urban dwellings were furnished with gardens, the growth and harvest of a variety of fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables would have provided variety of the diets of urban dwellers.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Fragile plant life erodes and disappears quickly compared to grain chaff that fossilizes easily, what evidence is recovered may present a distorted assessment of what ratio of cereals to plant life was consumed at the time only because there is no empirical data of such eroded materials. The presence of vegetables, in particular, is therefore minimal in archeological assemblages, but fruit—via fossilized seeds and pits—consequently features more frequently, with evidence of cherry, strawberry, sloe, rowan, blackberry, bilberry, apple, and haws as present in Medieval cesspits. Apples are frequently mentioned in Medieval texts of various kinds, particularly in reference to sweet varieties as valuable and rare offerings to nobles and lords, and sour breeds as used to make cider, verjus, vinegar, and medicine. That theological and dietetic discourse affected these texts also affected the corresponding behaviors by which certain foods were consumed—to eat apples raw, for example, was frowned upon by medieval physicians and so apples were generally cooked into puddings, or fermented into drinks.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Fruit and herb consumption in the medieval period was particularly encapsulated in a medicinal fervour as unique fruits were prescribed and avoided for reasons concerning health.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The perishable nature of fruits and vegetables also changed the ways in which they were consumed by challenging consumers to develop methods of preserving them. Cooking and fermenting are already examples, but fruits were also commonly dried, pickled, or made into relishes using brine and honey. Their omnipresence consequently precipitated the convention of eating many sweet and savory foods with jams, jellies, chutneys, and relishes.


title: Irish cuisine

text: An herbal broth called "brothchán", made with oatmeal and herbs served to sick was one such dish accompanied by a fruit relish, notably on Sundays. The recovery of several fruit presses also suggests that fruits were pressed into juices, though only at a domestic scale.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Hazelnuts, having been an important Irish food from prehistory, were still common in the medieval era, and ground into a meal called "maothal".


title: Irish cuisine

text: There is also documentation of a wine trade between Ireland and Biscay from the 7th century, as well as early Irish texts that reference a wine imported from Bordeaux specifically for church feasts, bolstering substantial evidence of wine trade between Ireland, France and England between the 12th and 15th centuries.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The situation changed for the poor, who made up 75 percent of the population of around nine million by 1840. Potatoes formed the basis of many Irish dishes and were eaten both by the Anglo-Irish gentry and the mass of the people.


title: Irish cuisine

text: This was unusual as the potato was shunned in most of Europe for centuries after its introduction, particularly by the elites.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The potato was first introduced into Ireland in the second half of the 16th century, initially as a garden crop. It eventually came to be the main food crop of the poor. As a food source, the potato is extremely valuable in terms of the amount of energy produced per unit area of crop. The potato is also a good source of many vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin C when fresh. Potatoes were widely cultivated, but in particular by those at a subsistence level. The diet of this group in this period consisted mainly of potatoes supplemented with buttermilk.


title: Irish cuisine

text: At this time Ireland produced large quantities of salted (corned) beef, almost all of it for export . The beef was packed into barrels to provision the navy, army, and merchant fleet. Corned beef became associated with the Irish in America where it was plentiful and used as a replacement for the bacon in bacon and cabbage. However, it was not traditional fare in Ireland.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Fresh meat was generally considered a luxury except for the most affluent until the late-19th century. A pig was often kept for bacon and was known as the "gentleman that pays the rent". Potatoes were also fed to pigs, to fatten them prior to their slaughter at the approach of the cold winter months. Much of the slaughtered pork would have been cured to provide ham and bacon that could be stored over the winter.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Chickens were not raised on a large scale until the emergence of town grocers in the 1880s allowed people to exchange surplus goods, like eggs, and for the first time purchase a variety of food items to diversify their diet.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The over-reliance on potatoes as a staple crop meant that the people of Ireland were vulnerable to poor potato harvests. The first Great Famine of 1739 was the result of extreme cold weather, but the famine of 1845–1849 (see Great Irish Famine) was caused by potato blight which spread throughout the Irish crop which consisted largely of a single variety, the Lumper. During the famine approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Tea was introduced during Ireland's time as part of the United Kingdom and became increasingly popular, especially during the 19th century. Irish people are now amongst the highest per capita tea drinkers in the world. Tea is drunk hot and with milk at all times of the day. Slightly stronger varieties are preferred than in England.


title: Irish cuisine

text: In 1845, the Great Famine began when many potato crops in Ireland had been infected with the mold that causes potato blight. This had turned their potatoes diseased and useless, putting many who are already in poverty into deeper poverty . The crop had failed due to potato blight in 1845–46, had little success in 1847, and failed once again in 1848.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The starving people tried eating the potatoes, and became extremely sick from eating them. They began eating a diet of eggs, birds, and plants like nettles and chickweeds. Many farmers bled their cattle out and fried the blood rather than eat their meat. With the cattle as malnourished as the people, the meat wasn't fit for consumption, so they resorted to using the blood mixed with herbs, garlic, oats and butter, to use as a subsistence meal. The extremely desperate and malnourished ate rats and worms found off the street.


title: Irish cuisine

text: After the famine, many Irish women migrated to America to escape poverty, and were exposed to new ingredients and foods not common in Ireland, such as a greater variety of meats and produce. Entering domestic service in America, they had to adapt their cooking to please the upper-class in America.


title: Irish cuisine

text: This was problematic at first due to Irish women clinging to foods and ingredients common in Ireland. This caused much prejudice towards Irish women and many would mock the Irish's lack of cooking skills without considering the famine and poverty Irish women grew up with.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Newspapers, including the "Women's Journal", published articles which contained prejudice towards Irish women for seemingly being unable to know how to cook.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Irish women in domestic service later gained the experience with ingredients abundant in America and altered Irish cuisine to be foods for pleasure. In Ireland food was designed based on caloric intake, instead of for pleasure, such as foods in America. Traditional Irish dishes started to include more meat and fruit and allowed for Irish food to stray from the stigma of being bland.


title: Irish cuisine

text: In the 21st century, the modern selection of foods familiar in the West has been adopted in Ireland. Common meals include pizza, curry, Chinese food, Thai food, and lately some Central European-Eastern European (especially Polish) dishes have been making an appearance, as ingredients for these and other cuisines have become more widely available.


title: Irish cuisine

text: In tandem with these developments, the last quarter of the 20th century saw the emergence of a new Irish cuisine based on traditional ingredients handled in new ways. This cuisine is based on fresh vegetables, fish (especially salmon and trout), oysters, mussels and other shellfish, traditional soda bread, the wide range of cheeses that are now being made across the country, and, of course, the potato.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Traditional dishes, such as Irish stew, coddle, the Irish breakfast, and potato bread have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Chef and food writer Myrtle Allen—an early protagonist of such attitudes and methods—went on to play a crucial role in their development and promotion. Schools like the Ballymaloe Cookery School have emerged to cater for to associated increased interest in cooking.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Fish and chips take-away is popular. A fish and chip in Ireland is most commonly referred to as a chipper. The first fish and chips were sold in Dublin in the 1880s by an Italian immigrant from San Donato Val di Comino, Giuseppe Cervi. His wife Palma would ask customers ""Uno di questa, uno di quella?"" This phrase (meaning "one of this, one of the other") entered the vernacular in Dublin as "one and one", which is still a common way of referring to fish and chips in the city.


title: Irish cuisine

text: In much of Ulster (especially Northern Ireland and County Donegal), fish and chips are usually known as a "fish supper". The restaurant from which the food is purchased and the food itself is often referred to as a "chippy" throughout many northern regions of the country.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The proliferation of fast food has led to increasing public health problems, including obesity, and it was reported in 2012 that as many as 327,000 Irish children had become obese or overweight, and in response the Irish government considered introducing a fast-food tax. Government efforts to combat obesity have also included television advertising campaigns and educational programmes in schools.


title: Irish cuisine

text: The consumption of seafood, despite Ireland's enormous coastline, is not as common as in other maritime countries. Irish people eat seafood well below the European average. It may have been more common in the past but declined markedly in the last few centuries.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Irish-owned shipping was severely restricted under English governance from the late 16th century on. Ireland was traditionally a cattle-based economy and fish was associated with religious fasting. It was the traditional food of fast on Fridays, in common with other Catholic countries. Also, seafood—particularly shellfish—became associated with the poor and the shame of colonisation. However, seafood has remained an important part of the diet in coastal communities, and the consumption of fresh fish and seafood is now undergoing a resurgence all over Ireland.


title: Irish cuisine

text: In Dublin, the fish seller is celebrated in the traditional folk song "Molly Malone", and in Galway the international Galway Oyster Festival is held every September. An example of a modern Irish shellfish dish is Dublin Lawyer (lobster cooked in whiskey and cream). Salmon and cod are perhaps the two most common types of fish eaten. Carrageen moss and dulse (both types of red algae) are commonly used in Irish seafood dishes.


title: Irish cuisine

text: Seaweed, by contrast, has always been an important part of the Irish diet and remains popular today. Two popular forms are dillisk (known in Ulster as dulse; "Palmaria palmata") and Irish moss (carageen moss, "Chondrus crispus", "Mastocarpus stellatus").


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Cannabis in Canada is legal for both recreational and medicinal purposes. Medicinal use of cannabis was legalized nationwide under conditions outlined in the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, later superseded by the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations,<ref name="Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (SOR/2016-230)"></ref> issued by Health Canada and seed, grain, and fibre production was permitted under licence by Health Canada. The federal "Cannabis Act" came into effect on 17 October 2018 and made Canada the second country in the world, after Uruguay, to formally legalize the cultivation, possession, acquisition and consumption of cannabis and its by-products. Canada is the first G7 and G20 nation to do so.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Cannabis was originally prohibited in 1923 until regulated medical cannabis became legal on 30 July 2001. In response to popular opinion, the legislation to legalize cannabis for recreational use ("Cannabis Act", Bill C-45) was passed by the House of Commons of Canada on 27 November 2017; it passed second reading in the Senate of Canada on 22 March 2018. On 18 June 2018, the House passed the bill with most, but not all, of the Senate's amendments. The Senate accepted this version of the Act the following day.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The federal government announced that recreational use of cannabis would no longer violate criminal law as of 17 October 2018. This legalization comes with regulation similar to that of alcohol in Canada, limiting home production, distribution, consumption areas and sale times. The process removed cannabis possession for personal consumption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act; while implementing taxation and stronger punishments for those convicted of either supplying cannabis to minors, or of impairment while driving a motor vehicle.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: As of January 2019, online sales of cannabis for recreational use were well underway across Canada, via the provincial or territorial governments. Most provinces also had storefront operations selling cannabis, either operated by the government or private enterprise.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Drug prohibition in Canada began with the Opium Act of 1908. Historians often point to the 1922 publication of Emily Murphy's "The Black Candle" as the catalyst for the addition of the three extra drugs to a list of prohibited substances. Although Murphy's anti-drug screeds were widely read and helped spread the drug panic across the country, historian Catharine Carstairs disputes that the seven-page chapter "Marahuana – a new menace" inspired the inclusion of cannabis as a restricted substance.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Cannabis was made illegal when it was added to the country's Confidential Restricted List in 1923 under the "Narcotics Drug Act Amendment Bill" after a vague reference to a "new drug" during a late night session of the House of Commons on 23 April 1923. According to one government official, cannabis was outlawed after the Director of the Federal Division of Narcotic Control returned from League of Nations meetings where the international control of cannabis was broached. Cannabis did not begin to attract official attention in Canada until the later 1930s, and even then it was minimal. The first seizure of cannabis by Canadian police was not made until 1937. Commercial cultivation of industrial hemp was forbidden in 1938. Between 1946 and 1961, cannabis accounted for only 2% of all drug arrests in Canada.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: In the 1960s, cannabis arrests began to increase rapidly in Canada. For the entire period of 1930–1946, the RCMP recorded only 25 cannabis arrests, but this rose to 2,300 cases in 1968, and to 12,000 cases in 1972. In response to the increased popularization of marijuana and the increase in criminal charges against middle class citizens, the government formed the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, usually referred to as the Le Dain Commission, in 1969 to investigate non-medical cannabis use in Canada. The commission's 1972 report recommended removing criminal penalties for cannabis possession, though not legalization, per se. While the subsequent two federal governments discussed the recommendation, no steps were actually taken to change legislation.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: In 2001, the country started a medical marijuana program, managed by Health Canada. The program originally offered people access to home grown cannabis or sales directly from Health Canada. This was replaced with new regulations that set up a more traditional commercial sector for cannabis cultivation and distribution in 2013.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: After he was elected Prime Minister in 2015, the first significant step that Justin Trudeau took was the creation of a federal-provincial-territorial task force to discuss a jointly suitable process for the legalization of cannabis possession for casual use. This Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation released a 106-page report to the public on 13 December 2016, with various recommendations. Those were provided for consideration by the federal and provincial governments, but they were not binding. Sales for recreational use were not to commence until 1 July 2018, at the earliest, based on legislation (Bill C-45, the "Cannabis Act") passed by the federal government in June 2018.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The substance remains controlled: sold only at government licensed retailers, and grown only by licensed producers. During the federal election campaign, the Liberals had promised "new, stronger laws" against sales to minors, driving while impaired, and sales through channels not specifically authorized to do so.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Until 17 October 2018, cannabis remained illegal (except with a physician's prescription, for medical purposes), as Trudeau reminded police forces across the country in late 2016. He insisted that they "enforce the law": criminally charge illegal storefront dispensaries. Trudeau also explained that the intent of the legislation is not to encourage recreational use of cannabis. The intent is "to better protect our kids from the easy access they have right now to marijuana [and] to remove the criminal elements that were profiting from marijuana", he told the "Toronto Star" on 2 December 2016.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Police forces took the Prime Minister seriously, and in March 2017, raided five locations of the Cannabis Culture retailer in Toronto, one in Vancouver, and another in Hamilton, Ontario. They also searched homes in Toronto, Stoney Creek, and Vancouver. Multiple charges were laid against Marc Emery and Jodie Emery, owners of Cannabis Culture, a company that franchised pot dispensary shops. The couple was convicted in December 2017 of drug-related charges, including possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking; fined; and placed on two years of probation. Drug-related charges were laid against three others who were also subsequently convicted.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Toronto Police had told the media that the unlicensed cannabis dispensaries are linked to "high-level drug traffickers ... often tied to organized crime, given the amount of marijuana sold".


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: First Nations chiefs attending the Assembly of First Nations widely agreed that the distribution of cannabis on reserve lands should be governed by First Nations governments, and not provincial legislation.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Immediately after legalization, licensed growers often had difficulty accessing financial services. Alterna Savings and Alterna Bank were among the first financial institutions to make loans to businesses focusing on cannabis in Canada, providing primary banking services for approximately two-thirds of the hundred licensed growers in 2018.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: After the House of Commons passed Bill C-45, it was sent to the Senate. On 1 June 2018, the Senate passed an amendment to C-45 outlawing cannabis "brand-stretching". The amendment, which passed 34–28 in the Senate, would have outlawed the sale and display of cannabis-related merchandise once legalized. The amendment was rejected by the House of Commons.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: On 19 June 2018, the Senate finally passed the bill, without the rejected amendment, and the Prime Minister announced the effective legalization date as 17 October 2018. Canada became the second nation (after Uruguay) to legalize the drug.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: As expected, the use of cannabis for recreational purposes became legal across the country on 17 October 2018, under the "Cannabis Act" which "creates a legal and regulatory framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada", according to a Government of Canada web site. Persons aged 18 or older can possess up to 30 grams of dried or "equivalent non-dried form" in public. Adults are also allowed to make cannabis-infused food and drinks "as long as organic solvents are not used to create concentrated products". Each household is allowed to grow up to four cannabis plants from "licensed seed or seedlings", although Quebec and Manitoba chose to be excluded from this aspect of the legislation. There has been a legal challenge against Quebec's decision by a citizen who contested the ban on growing because the federal government allowed growing up to 4 plants per household. In June 2019 the Quebec Superior court agreed and declared once again in June 2019 that Quebecers could possess and grow as many as 4 plants. The Quebec government appealed that decision and it was declared by the Quebec Court of Appeal the previous decision was incorrect and that the province had the power to ban Quebecers from possessing and growing any cannabis plants with a simple fine imposed. Presently some Canadian lawyers are in the process of challenging the Manitoba ruling and following that will move on to challenge Quebec, this appears to be a joint effort between TOBA "grown" and NORML.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Each province set its own procedures for retail sales, and these vary as to ownership or retail outlets (by the provincial government or private enterprise), but all include an option for online sales. Since marijuana is illegal in the U.S. per federal legislation, the government warned that "previous use of cannabis, or any substance prohibited by U.S. federal laws, could mean that you are denied entry to the U.S." Canadians travelling within the country (but not internationally) are allowed to carry up to 30 grams of cannabis. Naturally, driving under the influence of drugs remained illegal. It was announced that on 1 May 2019, Canada would introduce excise tax on all products containing THC, and introduce three new product classes for recreational sale: cannabis edibles, cannabis extracts, and cannabis topicals.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: On 17 October 2019, edibles were made legal in Canada, but with restrictions. The intent was to not allow any products that would be "appealing to young persons", probably including the colourful "gummies" candy which was popular on the black market.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Since 1997, public opinion polls have found an increasing majority of Canadians agree with the statement, "Smoking marijuana should not be a criminal offence". In June 2016, a national poll conducted by Nanos Research showed that 7 in 10 Canadians were in favour of legalization.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: By 2006, a high percentage of the population was using cannabis, in spite of the risk of police charges for possession, and especially for selling it without the required licence, according to statistics gathered by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Nearly half (44%) of Canadians admit to trying it at least once; no statistics were provided as to the percentage who use it frequently. The CAMH report also indicates that by the last year of high school, nearly half (46%) of Ontario students admit to having used marijuana in the past year. The CAMH discussion includes warnings about the negative effects of cannabis. Other groups also warn about the risk, including the Canadian Automobile Association whose 2016 poll indicated, "Almost two-thirds of Canadians are concerned that roads will become more dangerous [due to impairment by the drug] with the legalization of marijuana". An October 2016 national poll by Forum suggests that about five million adult Canadians now use cannabis at least once a month; this is expected to increase by 19 percent after marijuana is legalized. Canaccord Genuity analysts Matt Bottomley and Neil Maruoka released a research note with a more moderate estimate of the number of users. They predicted that approximately 3.8 million persons will be recreational users (presumably on a frequent basis) by 2021. A report by Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) is more bullish, estimating that by 2021 some 5.2 million adults may be users. The Canadian government's Canadian Cannabis Survey 2021 found that 17% of Canadians aged 16 and older reported using cannabis in the last 30 days.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Growers that currently produce marijuana are licensed by Health Canada under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR). As of late 2016, there were 36 authorized producers across the country in Health Canada's list. Sales were allowed only by mail order, but by late 2017, some major retailers had applied for a change in the rules to allow them to also sell the product. By 21 December 2017, 82 licences had been issued under the ACMPR, but not all of the producers had been licensed to begin selling medical marijuana. The vast majority of these companies were located in Ontario. At that time, no licences had been issued yet for producing recreational cannabis; the producers already licensed were hoping to be added to that list after it is created. Between 1 February and early April 2018, some 89 additional applicants were approved as cannabis growers by Health Canada; at the time, the agency was considering the merits of another 244 applications.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Statistics indicate that, as of September 2016, nearly 100,000 Canadians had bought medical marijuana legally, a significant increase over the 30,537 in September 2015, presumably since it is becoming a mainstream drug and since supplies are becoming more readily available. According to a StatsCan estimate, Canadians may have spent roughly CAD$6.2 billion (US$4.8 billion) on marijuana in 2015, although the agency admits that there is no scientific method of accurately measuring illegal consumption.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The report by the Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation had recommended that recreational cannabis growers should be licensed at a federal level, separately from the producers of medical marijuana. The expert panel also recommended that the process ensure competition by licensing both large and small producers. While licensing should be federal, each of the provinces should be allowed to determine how and where the product will be sold.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: After the plans for legalization became well-publicized, industry analysts reported that some of the producers who had been licensed for medical marijuana, including Aurora Cannabis, were already increasing the capacity of their operations for future sales to the distributors of recreational cannabis.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: A report in late November 2017 by Ernst & Young suggested that there would be mergers, leaving fewer players in this industry. "Many believe that consolidation is inevitable, leaving a few large players post-legalization." Also in late 2017, Deloitte predicted that the recreational cannabis market would be worth close to $23 billion. Lately, US Alcohol companies have been showing interest in the Cannabis business in Canada. US Cannabis producers are afraid that Canada is going to be the prime dominator in the market.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: On 17 October 2019, alternative cannabis products such as drinks, edibles, and topicals became legal for production, and were expected to be available for sale two months later. Deloitte has predicted that the alternative cannabis product market will be worth close to $2.7 billion.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Due to illegality of cannabis federally in the United States, crossing the international border from Canada into the United States while carrying cannabis is still illegal. Past consumption of cannabis can also lead to a permanent ban on entry to the U.S.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: An October 2019 report stated that total cannabis sales for the first seven months of the year were only C$524 million when C$4.34 billion (US$3.29 billion) was forecast a year ago. Sales were modest because of the limited number of retail operations in Ontario and Quebec where some 23 million people resided; each province had only 25 outlets, as of October 2019. The relatively high cost of the legal product – almost double that of the black market – and the limited types of product (dried flower and oils) also worked against retail sales. In late 2019, more stores were being opened and a wider range of legal cannabis was becoming available, including edibles, topicals, and vaping products.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Profitability was a problem however, according to a report in early November 2019 which stated, "pot stocks down nearly 60 per cent since March highs". This was leading companies to sell off real estate holdings as a method of raising capital to finance expansion.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: A report in October 2019 by Bloomberg News painted a bleak picture of the legal cannabis industry. Because of the relatively few retail outlets, especially in Ontario, and the high retail prices, the black market remained persistent. An independent cannabis research firm estimated that the black market accounted for 86% of cannabis sales. On average, on a Canada-wide basis, legal cannabis was selling for about $10.23 per gram versus $5.59 found on the black market according to StatsCan. The province of Ontario tooks steps in 2020 to increase the number of retail licenses issued per month to increase the availability of legal cannabis, in order to combat the illicit market. The market share of legal cannabis products has since risen rapidly, with a Statistics Canada analysis suggesting that Canadians were spending more on legal than illegal cannabis products by the third quarter of 2020, with the amount spent in the black market having dropped by nearly half since immediately prior to legalization. In response to Statistics Canada's 2021 Canadian Cannabis Survey, 64% of cannabis users reported that they usually purchased cannabis from a legal storefront or online store, up from 54% in 2020 and 37% in 2019.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Under the "Cannabis Act" passed in 2018, only producers licensed by the government are allowed to grow the product. As of early October 2018, there were at least 117 such licensed producers.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Although consolidation of the cannabis market in Canada is expected to the point where "a handful of companies will control the majority of the market", many claim that there is an important need for smaller craft cannabis producers that are "more able to adapt to consumer demand". The craft cannabis industry has been compared to the craft beer industry – smaller producers who are able to experiment more and provide a wider variety to the larger companies, which will likely try to please as many consumers as possible. However, the difference is that the relatively new rise of craft brewers in a mature market is different than craft cannabis starting at the same time as larger producers (for recreational cannabis). This will give larger producers the edge in the short term since those companies have more money.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The expected buy-in for craft cannabis producers is perhaps slightly higher than craft brewers, but there are other barriers to launching a craft cannabis company including the ability to market product. Cannabis marketing will be closer to tobacco marketing (which is prohibited in Canada with few limited exceptions) cannabis will be sold in plain packaging and traditional advertising such as TV commercials will be prohibited. They will likely not even be able to mention things that could be important to the consumer such as where it's grown (i.e., "buy local") and if it's organic.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Further, simply selling their product may be difficult. The supply chain is still not entirely clear as it is in the beer industry, but there are ways for craft cannabis producers to sell their product through selling to other micro-processors – and potentially larger producers – or applying for a micro-processing licence themselves. As of the legalization date, consumers cannot sample or purchase product directly from a craft cannabis producer's storefront as you can with craft beer or buy cannabis from a stall on the side of the road as you might from a farmer. However, British Columbia's Public Safety Minister Mike Farnsworth said that the province wouldn't rule out farmers selling direct to consumer.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Still, most craft cannabis producers are optimistic. One craft cannabis producer told "The Globe and Mail" that "I think there is a real opportunity there for small independents." Craft cannabis producers are seen by some as the "artisans of the industry" who will experiment with strains, increase variety, and produce a quality product that it can sell at a premium.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: From the early planning stages, the government indicated that the substance would be taxed. An estimate in late 2016 suggested revenues of $618 million per year from a federal tax initially, and eventually, billions, according to a report by Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). (A recent government estimate indicates that the illegal marijuana industry is worth $7 billion per year.) The Task Force report recommended that high-potency cannabis (with a high THC content) be taxed at a higher level than the conventional product to make it less attractive to consumers.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The federal government had announced in October 2017 that its budget would include $546 million over five years to prepare the "legal framework to strictly regulate and restrict access to cannabis" and another $150 million over six years to enforce the restrictions on drug-impaired driving. Health Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will receive a share of the funds. Of this amount, municipal and indigenous police services should receive $81 million to offset the increased cost of training and resources.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: On 10 November 2017, the government announced that the federal excise tax, to be shared 50/50 with the provinces and territories, should not exceed $1 a gram or 10 per cent of the producer's price, whichever is higher. The government's press released did not specify higher tax on high-potency products. In December 2017, after demands from provinces for a higher percentage, a two-year agreement was signed to provide a full 75% of the tax; as well, the maximum to be taken by the federal government would be $100 million per annum, with any excess paid to the provinces and territories. The final retail price of the product will include provincial sales tax, ranging from 5% to 15% depending on the province. This arrangement will be discussed again in December 2018 to determine whether the five months of experience indicated that the 75/25 tax splitting scheme had proved to be appropriate.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: In Canada, regulation varies province to province, though there are some general rules regarding promotion, packaging, and advertising. Adult-use cannabis can only be sold in packages of a single colour without graphics other than the logo and a health warning. Cannabis companies in Canada will not be allowed to promote themselves through TV commercials, billboards, or glossy magazine ads, sponsor people or events, or put their names on sports and cultural facilities. To address these advertising challenges, some brands are connecting with popular media influencers like Gene Simmons and the Trailer Park Boys.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The "Cannabis Act" (2018) gave provinces the power to determine the method of distribution and sale and whether cannabis use will be legal inside private residence or homes if children are present in the home 12 or more hours in a day, and each will also establish the legal age for cannabis use. An excise tax will be levied, to be shared with the provinces and territories. According to the federal government, estimated annual sales will be $4 billion (US$3.2b).


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The "Cannabis Act" (2018) also allows householders to grow up to four cannabis plants, but Quebec and Manitoba announced that they would not permit this option. New Brunswick is specifying indoor growing only in a separate locked space, but will also allow outdoor growing for plants that are up to 1.52m (5 feet) high.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: The minimum age to purchase and consume cannabis in most of Canada is 19 years old with the only exceptions being Alberta which has it at 18 years old and Quebec where it is 21 years old (the highest in the country). Manitoba and Quebec are currently the only provinces or territories where the legal cannabis age is not identical to the alcohol and tobacco purchase age (19 for cannabis in Manitoba and 21 in Quebec vs. 18 for alcohol/tobacco in both provinces).


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: Under the newly elected Coalition Avenir Québec government, the Deputy Minister for Health in October 2018, Lionel Carmant announced that the Government will tighten the rules on cannabis consumption, including increasing the legal age to consume to 21 from 18. In 2019, CAQ announced Quebec will also ban the sale of cannabis candies and desserts, including chocolate, because federal cannabis regulations don't go far enough in protecting children from accidentally consuming the drug. However recently in 2022 the SQDC (Quebec) are marketing an edible two-pack of 2.5mg THC and 5mg CBD per piece.


title: Cannabis in Canada

text: In early September 2018, the Canadian government released a directive stating that service members will be allowed to use cannabis following legalization in October, but with restrictions on use depending on the individual's duties. Per the new regulations, service members may use legal cannabis, but must cease usage:


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber is an elastomer (rubber-like material) composed of silicone—itself a polymer—containing silicon together with carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Silicone rubbers are widely used in industry, and there are multiple formulations. Silicone rubbers are often one- or two-part polymers, and may contain fillers to improve properties or reduce cost.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber is generally non-reactive, stable, and resistant to extreme environments and temperatures from while still maintaining its useful properties. Due to these properties and its ease of manufacturing and shaping, silicone rubber can be found in a wide variety of products, including voltage line insulators; automotive applications; cooking, baking, and food storage products; apparel such as undergarments, sportswear, and footwear; electronics; medical devices and implants; and in home repair and hardware, in products such as silicone sealants.


title: Silicone rubber

text: In its uncured state, silicone rubber is a highly adhesive gel or liquid. To convert it to a solid, it must be cured, vulcanized, or catalyzed. This is normally carried out in a two-stage process at the point of manufacture into the desired shape, and then in a prolonged post-cure process. It can also be injection molded or 3D printed.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber may be cured by a platinum-catalyzed cure system, a condensation cure system, a peroxide cure system, or an oxime cure system. For the platinum-catalyzed cure system, the curing process can be accelerated by adding heat or pressure.


title: Silicone rubber

text: In a platinum-based silicone cure system, also called an "addition" system (because the key reaction-building polymer is an addition reaction), a hydride- and a vinyl-functional siloxane polymer react in the presence of a platinum complex catalyst, creating an ethyl bridge between the two. The reaction has no byproducts. Such silicone rubbers cure quickly, though the rate of or even ability to cure is easily inhibited in the presence of elemental tin, sulfur, and many amine compounds.


title: Silicone rubber

text: "Condensation curing" systems can be "one-part" or "two-part" systems. In one-part or "RTV" (room-temperature vulcanizing) system, a cross-linker exposed to ambient humidity (i.e., water) experiences a hydrolysis step and is left with a hydroxyl or silanol group. The silanol condenses further with another hydrolyzable group on the polymer or cross-linker and continues until the system is fully cured. Such a system will cure on its own at room temperature and (unlike the platinum-based addition cure system) is not easily inhibited by contact with other chemicals, though the process may be affected by contact with some plastics or metals and may not take place at all if placed in contact with already-cured silicone compounds. The crosslinkers used in condensation cure systems are typically alkoxy, acetoxy, ester, enoxy or oxime silanes such as methyl trimethoxy silane for alkoxy-curing systems and methyl triacetoxysilane for acetoxy-curing systems. In many cases an additional condensation catalyst is added to fully cure the RTV system and achieve a tack-free surface. Organotitanate catalysts such as tetraalkoxy titanates or chelated titanates are used in alkoxy-cured systems. Tin catalysts such as dibutyl tin dilaurate (DBTDL) can be used in oxime and acetoxy-cured systems. Acetoxy tin condensation is one of the oldest cure chemistries used for curing silicone rubber, and is the one used in household bathroom caulk. Depending on the type of detached molecule, it is possible to classify silicone systems as acidic, neutral or alkaline.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Two-part condensation systems package the cross-linker and condensation catalyst together in one part while the polymer and any fillers or pigments are in the second part. Mixing of the two parts causes the curing to take place. A typical filler is fumed silica, also known as pyrogenic silica, which used to control the flow properties of the sealant.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Once fully cured, condensation systems are effective as sealants and caulks in plumbing and building construction and as molds for casting polyurethane, epoxy and polyester resins, waxes, gypsum, and low-melting-temperature metals such as lead. They are typically very flexible and have a high tear strength. They do not require the use of a release agent since silicones have non-stick properties.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Peroxide curing is widely used for curing silicone rubber. The curing process leaves behind byproducts, which can be an issue in food contact and medical applications. However, these products are usually treated in a postcure oven which greatly reduces the peroxide breakdown product content. One of the two main organic peroxides used, dicumyl peroxide (compare cumene hydroperoxide), has principal breakdown products of acetophenone and phenyl-2-propanol. The other is dichlorobenzoyl peroxide, whose principal breakdown products are dichlorobenzoic acid and dichlorobenzene.


title: Silicone rubber

text: The first silicone elastomers were developed in the search for better insulating materials for electric motors and generators. Resin-impregnated glass fibers were the state-of-the-art materials at the time. The glass was very heat resistant, but the phenolic resins would not withstand the higher temperatures that were being encountered in new smaller electric motors. Chemists at Corning Glass and General Electric were investigating heat-resistant materials for use as resinous binders when they synthesized the first silicone polymers, demonstrated that they worked well and found a route to produce them commercially.


title: Silicone rubber

text: The term "silicone" is actually a misnomer. The suffix "-one" is used by chemists to denote a substance with a double-bonded atom of oxygen in its backbone. When first discovered, silicone was erroneously believed to have oxygen atoms bonded in this way. Technically correct term for the various silicone rubbers is polysiloxanes (polydimethylsiloxanes being a large subset), referring to a saturated Si-O backbone.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Corning Glass in a joint venture with Dow Chemical formed Dow Corning in 1943 to produce this new class of materials. As the unique properties of the new silicone products were studied in more detail, their potential for broader usage was envisioned, and GE opened its own plant to produce silicones in 1947. GE Silicones was sold to Momentive Performance Materials in 2006. Wacker Chemie also started production of silicones in Europe in 1947. The Japanese company Shin-Etsu Chemical began mass production of silicone in 1953.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber offers good resistance to extreme temperatures, being able to operate normally from . Silicone rubber has low tensile strength, poor wear and tear wear properties. Some properties such as elongation, creep, cyclic flexing, tear strength, compression set, dielectric strength (at high voltage), thermal conductivity, fire resistance and in some cases tensile strength can be—at extreme temperatures—far superior to organic rubbers in general, although a few of these properties are still lower than for some specialty materials. Silicone rubber is a material of choice in industry when retention of initial shape and mechanical strength are desired under heavy thermal stress or sub-zero temperatures.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Organic rubber has a carbon-to-carbon backbone which can leave it susceptible to ozone, UV, heat and other aging factors that silicone rubber can withstand well. This makes silicone rubber one of the elastomers of choice in many extreme environments. Silicone is considerably more permeable to gasses than most other rubbers which limits its use in some areas.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber is highly inert and does not react with most chemicals and isn’t available to participate in biological processes allowing it to be used in many medical applications including medical implants.


title: Silicone rubber

text: It is biocompatible, hypoallergenic, which makes it suitable for baby care products, and food contact in general.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber is a reliable solution (as opposed to rubber and thermoplastic elastomers) for migration or interaction problems between the main active ingredients. Its chemical stability prevents it from affecting any substrate it is in contact with (skin, water, blood, active ingredients, etc.).


title: Silicone rubber

text: To make silicone, the silicon atoms must be isolated from the silicon dioxide compound silica. This is done by heating large volumes of quartz sand to extremely high temperatures, often up to 1800 °C. From here, there are several processes where silicon is combined with methyl chloride and heated. It is then distilled into a polymerised siloxane known as polydimethylsiloxane. The polydimethylsiloxane can then be polymerised. This is done using a variety of techniques depending on the use of the final product. The raw silicone compound is combined with any desired additives, which may include pigments, and the catalyst. It is then injection moulded, extruded or 3D printed. Curing is the final stage in the production process.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Polysiloxanes differ from other polymers in that their backbones consist of Si–O–Si units unlike many other polymers that contain carbon backbones. Polysiloxane is very flexible due to large bond angles and bond lengths when compared to those found in more basic polymers such as polyethylene. For example, a C–C backbone unit has a bond length of 1.54 Å and a bond angle of 112°, whereas the siloxane backbone unit Si–O has a bond length of 1.63 Å and a bond angle of 130°. The siloxane backbone is a more flexible polymer than the basic carbon chain backbone because the side groups are spaced farther apart. Polymer segments can move farther and change conformation easily, making for a flexible material. Polysiloxanes tend to be more stable and less chemically active because more energy is required to break the silicon-oxygen bond. Although silicon is a congener of carbon, having the same electron bonding configuration, silicon analogues of carbonaceous compounds generally exhibit different properties. The difference in total charge and mass between carbon with 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and silicon with 14 protons and 14 neutrons causes an added layer of electrons and their screening effect changes the electronegativity between the two elements. For example the silicon-oxygen bond in polysiloxanes is significantly more stable than the carbon-oxygen bond in polyoxymethylene, a structurally similar polymer. The difference is partly due to the higher bond energy, the energy required to break the Si-O bond, and also because polyoxymethylene decomposes formaldehyde, which is volatile and escapes driving decomposition forward, but Si-containing decomposition products of silicone are less volatile.


title: Silicone rubber

text: There are many special grades and forms of silicone rubber, including: steam resistant, metal detectable, high tear strength, extreme high temperature, extreme low temperature, electrically conductive, chemical/oil/acid/gas resistant, low smoke emitting, and flame-retardant. A variety of fillers can be used in silicone rubber, although most are non-reinforcing and lower the tensile strength.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber is available in a range of hardness levels, expressed as Shore A or IRHD between 10 and 100, the higher number being the harder compound. It is also available in virtually any colour, and can be colour matched.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber is used in automotive applications, many cooking, baking, and food storage products, apparel including undergarments, sportswear, and footwear, electronics, to home repair and hardware, and a host of unseen applications. It is usually processed and shaped with the following methods.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Once mixed and coloured, silicone rubber can be extruded into tubes, strips, solid cord or custom profiles according to the size specifications of the manufacturer. Cord can be joined to make O-rings and extruded profiles can be joined to make seals.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber can be moulded into custom shapes and designs. Manufacturers work to set industry tolerances when extruding, cutting or joining silicone rubber profiles. In the UK this is BS 3734, for extrusions the tightest level is E1 and the widest is E3.


title: Silicone rubber

text: Silicone rubber can be 3d printed (liquid deposition modelling LDM) using pump-nozzle extrusion systems. Unfortunately, standard silicone formulations are optimized to be used by extrusion and injection moulding machines and are not applicable in LDM-based 3D printing. The rheological behavior and the pot life need to be adjusted.


title: Silicone rubber

text: 3D printing also requires the use of a removable support material that is compatible with the silicone rubber.