- Author: Jim Coats
Harvest time in California is almost a year-round affair in one area or another: winter lettuce and spinach in Salinas, early spring strawberries along the South Coast, summer squashes, herbs, and tomatoes galore, hays and grains as long as the dry season lasts, and countless other food and fiber crops through the year.
Like grapes, walnuts, apples and olives, the almonds get their turn in autumn. On the right day, you can watch as a Rube Goldberg-like machine rolls through a local nut orchard, grabbing hold of tree trunks one by one and shaking them so hard it'll rattle your bones, but just hard enough to knock loose practically every nut on the tree without damaging its trunk. A sweeper follows next, gathering up nuts in their...
- Author: John Stumbos
A new winery, brewery and food-processing complex began operations this fall at UC Davis. Part of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, the technologically sophisticated facilities will be used to teach students, conduct research, and solve practical problems related to foods, beverages and health.
The south wing of the new complex is home to the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory, which includes the brewery, general foods-processing plant and milk-processing laboratory. The complex’s north wing houses a new teaching-and-research winery. The complex is adjacent to a 12-acre teaching-and-research vineyard and across a courtyard from the departments of Food Science and Technology,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The season of sweets begins for many children at the end of October with a large bag of trick-or-treat candy, and then continues in earnest with the traditional candy-giving holidays of Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter. Children's access to so much candy has many parents asking how much is too much.
Candy occupies a very tiny slice of MyPyramid, the USDA’s dietary guideline. MyPyramid places candy in a category called “extras.” For children aged 2 to 8 years old, it recommends no more than 170 calories per day of “extras” – which would be two-thirds of a Snickers bar, one pack of Starburst or 17...
- Author: Janet Byron
Senior citizens may have trouble eating and accessing healthy foods due to physiological changes in their gastrointestinal systems, physical problems that limit the ability to shop for and prepare food, or limited incomes that prevent the purchase of adequate and nutritious meals, according to Mary Blackburn, the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Alameda County.
Blackburn and her colleagues shared these observations in an article in the current issue of California Agriculture journal titled "Research is...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey, sometimes described as the soul of a field of flowers, seized the spotlight at a recent benefit in Sacramento for UC Davis honey bee research.
The occasion: The Bee Informed event.
The site: The historic ballroom of the Citizen Hotel, Sacramento.
“Honey is one of my favorite ingredients to use in desserts because of its beautifully nuanced flavors and gorgeous colors,” said Bee Informed coordinator Elaine Baker (top left) of the Citizen Hotel/Grange Restaurant. “It’s just magical.”
The event, open to the public, raised $600 for the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the...