- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
UC’s Food Stamp Nutrition and Education Program, or FSNEP, has officially changed its name to University of California CalFresh Nutrition Education Program, or UC CalFresh for short.
In 2008 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service changed the name of the food stamp program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Last year, the California Department of Social Services updated to CalFresh, the name of the state program that issues monthly electronic benefits that can be used to buy food.
“Since food stamps are no longer used nationally, and the name...
- Author: Pamela M. Geisel
I have this huge grapefruit tree in my garden. It is at least 30 feet high and just as wide. It must be at least 70 years old and yields hundreds of pounds of grapefruit annually. The variety is an old standard variety called "Marsh." Marsh grapefruit were introduced in Florida in 1860 and it has been in the industry ever since. It is relatively cold hardy variety and has survived many hard freezes here in northern California. Even though our grapefruit tree gives us a lot of fruit and it has a very long harvest period (February to August), I have to say it isn’t the best tasting variety of grapefruit I have ever had. No, that honor would go to some of the more recent grapefruit introductions. There are several hybrid...
- Author: Suanne Klahorst
On a recent Sunday night I went to see Charles Bamforth, the University of California's only professor of brewing, speak at Sudwerk Riverside in Folsom, hosted by the Sacramento Chapter of the UC Davis Alumni Association. The standing-room-only banquet room had an empty seat next to a winemaker and a food scientist; a married couple who came back early from a weekend in Santa Cruz for some edutainment and local brew. Bamforth can pack ‘em in on most of his speaking venues.
Bamforth teaches in the UC Davis food science department. Brewing is fermentation science, which is a food science, and Bamforth’s book on Beer and Health is proof that beer is indeed food. He claims beer is...
- Author: Mary E. Reed
Each fall I am delighted by the vibrant color of the pomegranates on display in the produce section of the market. I succumbed to their ancient beauty a few days ago, and purchased two. They added their glistening jewel tones to the fall leaves and dried corn cobs that graced our Thanksgiving table. “Help yourself,” I told our guests. “Please enjoy eating them, that’s what they’re for.” But no one took advantage of the offer, and the lovely pomegranates languished in our post-holiday fruit basket. That got me to wondering what fun things I could do with them before they were neglected too long and ended up in our green barrel as compost.
Mentioned in ancient literature, the name pomegranate is derived from the French words...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's almost Thanksgiving, and time to contemplate the turkey and all the trimmings. But wait, shouldn't we be thinking about homemade rolls?
Not just any rolls. Yeast rolls!
On the UC Davis research front, Kyria Boundy-Mills serves as the curator of the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, one of the world's largest collections of wild yeast. She maintains the collection, distributes strains to academic and industrial researchers around the world, conducts contract screening research for companies and does research on yeast ecology.
One of her current research projects is developing new yeast-based lures for agricultural insect pests.