- Author: Judy Sams
On a recent trip to the East Coast, our first in almost 13 years, I reflected on our differing coastal experiences with agricultural diversity. Our travels took us through most of the mid-Atlantic farming region – Delaware, District of Columbia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania – where we lived for almost 35 years.
We saw the familiar vast fields of corn, soybeans and alfalfa throughout most of the region. There were occasional pockets of other crops: apples, pears and grapes in the more northern parts; sorghum, sweet potatoes, peanuts and tobacco in the more southern states. We also saw occasional plots of sweet corn, green beans, oats and barley. But mostly we saw corn, soybeans and alfalfa.
We...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When Bill Clinton was president in the 1990s, his Council on Food Safety identified eggs as a food that poses a risk to children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. The Clinton administration launched a safety plan that aimed to eliminate Salmonella contamination in eggs entirely by 2010.
Unfortunately, the goal was not met. This month, a vast outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning prompted the recall of half a billion eggs produced in Iowa. In California, UC Cooperative Extension worked with other agencies and the egg industry to create the California Egg Quality...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
To whom it may concern, the letter-writer began, I find it appalling that $6 million is being spent to study something that any 3rd grader should be able to figure out.
The writer continued: "It is virtually impossible to enhance the flavor of an industrial farmed tomato because the flavor has been bred OUT of the varieties grown by big agriculture in favor of disease resistance and shelf stability. I can pick a green tomato from my yard and let it ripen on the counter...
- Author: Pam Devine
Umami is difficult to describe in just one word; it is a pleasant, hearty, savory, tongue-coating sensation. And because it is so complex - a taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products - the taste blends well with other tastes to round out the flavors. This is why it’s hard to describe the delicious flavor of...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If those pollen-packing honey bees were to board an aircraft, they’d be charged for their carry-on luggage.
Fortunately they don’t and they’re not.
And if we were a bee, we’d have to visit two million flowers to make a pound of honey.
Fortunately we’re not, and we don’t.
The honey bee, brought to America by the European colonists in the 1600s, will be celebrated on National Honey Bee Awareness Day, Saturday, Aug. 21, but this insect should be celebrated every day of the year.
Revered for her indispensable pollination services, she also provides us with that liquid gold we call honey. Wonderful, delectable, soothing honey.
“Honey is nature’s miraculous...