- Author: Diane Nelson
I don’t know if plant scientists make better chefs, but knowledge of plant science can certainly improve our cooking. Take, for example, understanding how to handle oxidation, the interaction between oxygen molecules and all the many substances they may contact. Oxidation is what makes your fender rust and your copper penny turn green. As it relates to plants, oxidation is what causes fresh-cut produce to turn brown and wine to lose its flavor when left too long in an open bottle.
Perhaps you know how to thwart oxidation when preparing potatoes and serving sliced apples (and if not, we’ll get to that in a minute) but here is a less-common food that often falls victim to oxidation: pesto. Has this happened to you? You gather an...
- Author: Cynthia Kintigh
One of the great things about living in California is the year-round farmer's market. Winter brings an array of winter squash, kale and chard, pomegranates, and citrus - including my favorite, the Satsuma mandarins that can be eaten like candy.
And of course, chestnuts. When we make it to the Sunday Sacramento farmer's market, one of my favorite stops is for roasted chestnuts.
Fun as it is to buy freshly roasted chestnuts, you can do it yourself and you don't need an open fire. They're incredibly easy to roast in your oven.
Preheat your oven to 450º and place the oven rack as close to the bottom of the oven as possible.
The next very important step is to cut an "x" into each chestnut to...
- Author: Chris M. Webb
A wonderful example of community coming together in partnership to grow good food has taken root in Oxnard, Calif.
Last year, in an effort to reduce costs while improving the taste and nutrition of meals, the Senior Nutrition Program began growing their own tomatoes. They set up their garden with the help of UC Master Gardeners on a quarter-acre behind the Juvenile Justice Center.
The program began when the County of Ventura Area Agency on Aging, which serves over 200,000 meals annually through senior nutrition programs, collaborated with the Probation Agency Juvenile Justice Facility staff to create this positive program. As word of the project has spread many business and organizations have come forward to donate...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Very few people wash their hands adequately prior to preparing or eating food. Most of us don’t even know how to wash hands properly.
There are many good reasons to wash hands:
- Pathogen spread – from yourself, from others, from one contaminated food to another (meats, produce, etc.)
- Chemical spread – whatever chemicals are on your hands can go directly into the food being prepared. This can include pesticides, hand sanitizers (ick), cleaning products, hand lotions, etc.
- The ick factor – “Ick, what’s that slime on your hands and do I really want that in my food?”
The most memorable item I learned about hand-washing is that we need to wash for at least 20 seconds...
- Author: Pat Bailey
When looking for good answers to big problems, you better make sure you’re asking the right questions – especially when you want to put food on the global table for 9 billion people.
That’s exactly what a team of 55 agricultural and food experts from the world’s major agricultural organizations, scientific societies and academic institutions did recently when they identified the top 100 questions that must be answered if the world is to increase food production by 70 to 100 percent by 2050, when the world’s population is expected to reach 9 billion. Their list appears in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. A PDF of the article is linked at the end of this post.
The top...