- Author: Marissa (Palin) Stein
Nutritious food is an essential part of healthy growth and a healthy lifestyle. What we eat greatly influences how we feel and how happy we are. Nearly every community in California contributes in some way to food production, from large farms to backyard gardens. But even though California is the No. 1 agricultural state in the county, many residents feel far removed from their food sources, often not even recognizing them in their own backyard.
With demand for food supplies increasing, it's becoming more important for all of us to recognize exactly where (and what) fresh food is being grown around us.
Lend a helping hand
On May 8, 2014, we need your help populating our California food map. Get...
- Author: Cynthia Kintigh
It's early spring, and that means one thing: I am once again drowning in lemons. This year with our tree well established, we had a bumper crop. Even as an espalier, our tree produces more lemons than we can use. And as anyone with a lemon tree knows - it's almost impossible to give away lemons. Lemons are the zucchini of winter.
With a pantry full of marmalade, a batch of salted lemons preserving, and all of the copper gleaming, I was looking for a new way to use my harvest. A...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
It would be hard to forget a couple of kidneys singing the blues, or a disembodied heart demanding more exercise. That's what UC Cooperative Extension nutrition educators are banking on. The educators are pilot-testing a curriculum called “The OrganWise Guys” to help children remember healthy eating messages.
“The kids are really retaining the information because it is brought to life,” said Shawna Rogers, UCCE nutrition program coordinator. She and her colleagues take a four-foot doll to schools and peel open the chest to reveal plush toys representing all the organs. “Each time we go into the classroom, we focus on one organ and how they can keep...
- Author: Donald Hodel
- Author: Rachel A. Surls
From lemons to loquats, it's common to see fruit trees with an abundant, but unpicked, harvest. Urban fruit often goes to waste, whether on a neglected backyard tree or in a public setting. Under-utilized urban fruit trees have gotten some attention in the Los Angeles area in recent years, with projects like Fallen Fruit, a collective that maps fruit trees growing in public spaces, and Food Forward, a non-profit that harvests unwanted fruit and donates it to food banks.
One fruit, though, is not on the radar of foodies and foragers. Yet it's crunchy, sweet, flavorful, often seedless, and very common in Southern California landscapes. It's the fruit of...
- Author: Diane Nelson
Doctors say we'll live longer if we exercise and eat right. Okay, but what does that mean, exactly? You hear so much about super foods and super diets that knowing how to “eat right” can be super confusing.
It doesn't have to be. Liz Applegate, a nutrition and fitness expert from UC Davis, has teamed up with Nugget Markets (a chain of nine markets which serve the greater Sacramento Valley) to present a “21-day Healthy Eating and Exercise Challenge,” an easy plan for making health a permanent part of our lives.
“This isn't about starving yourself or biting off more than you can chew at the gym,” Applegate...
