- Author: Rose Hayden-Smith
I was recently given a copy of the Prince of Wales’ speech “On the Future of Food,” offered at a conference of the same name, held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in May 2011. Rodale has reproduced the speech in a small pamphlet with a foreword written by Wendell Berry, and an afterword provided by Will Allen and Eric Schlosser (all super writers and superstars in the sustainable food system movement). GRACE Communications, which helped sponsor last year’s conference, has created a website – www.ontheFutureofFood.org – to serve as a central site where individuals can learn more about the topic and this speech.
The pamphlet or tract format of this publication was...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Children can eat a healthier diet by making some easy substitutions in their food choices, avoiding "sometimes food," like candy, soda and chips, and instead eating "anytime food," like fruits, vegetables and low-fat milk.
UC Cooperative Extension nutrition educators in Fresno County staged a skit at the Fresno County Food & Nutrition Day March 23 to reinforce these healthy eating messages. The event drew nearly 2,000 third-graders to the fairgrounds.
"Scarlet Strong," played by UCCE nutrition educator Nath Say, battled it out with "Rhonda Rotten Tooth," brought to life by UCCE nutrition educator Shawna...
- Author: Penny Leff
Tomatoes grow fine in my Sacramento backyard. I can usually count on plenty of basil, more zucchini than the neighbors will take, some snow peas, chard and kale, a few small peppers and eggplants and whatever salad greens survive the slugs (in other words, lots of arugula). We have oranges and grapefruit, but I wouldn't even try to grow peaches or apricots. It takes a farmer to grow peaches. It takes a good farmer to grow good peaches. It takes a good farmer and good weather to grow Blenheim apricots.
Instead of planting a peach tree, I joined a fruit community supported agriculture (CSA) program, promising to pay $15 a week for a...
- Author: Suanne Klahorst
I attended the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco in January and I was delighted with the offerings from local companies near UC Davis. Since I attended this vast international exhibit, I have purchased several local products that I discovered at the show. The exhibit was so large, I was only able to see half of it in a day. I met Matthieu Kohlmeyer, the French CEO and General Manager of La Tourangelle, whose walnut oils are processed 15 minutes away in Woodland.
I was also impressed with Mezzetta pasta sauces from Napa. I have purchased their olives and fire-roasted peppers for years, so why did I fail to notice their pasta sauce among the endless...
- Author: Pamela M. Geisel
Tomatoes are the No. 1 garden crop in America. Everyone who has a summer garden grow tomatoes. There are more blogs, forums, tweets, and garden club and café talks about tomatoes than any other garden vegetable. Tomatoes are used in so many recipes, and can be preserved so easily into so many products it just makes sense to grow them in your garden. The garden lore about growing tomatoes successfully abounds. And the really good new . . . the failure rate for tomatoes is pretty darn low. You may not get as many as you like but you will get some pretty much guaranteed even with the low yielding heirloom varieties.
The really hard part about growing tomatoes is trying to select the variety for your location, the preferred size of...