- Author: Ann Senuta
![Cleaned strawberries ready to be prepped](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/food/blogfiles/3718small.jpg)
I’m lucky enough to live about a mile from a small, family-run strawberry patch in Yolo County. From some time in April until October, the Laotian family members pick berries in the mornings and sell them from their small wooden stand until they run out of fruit for the day.
Flats of 4 or 6 baskets are the most economical to buy. I carefully place the flat on the floor of the passenger seat; by the time I have walked around to the driver’s seat, the fragrance of the fresh berries has filled the car with instant summer.
Once home, I don’t wash the berries unless I plan to eat them right away. Instead I keep the berries in their baskets and cardboard flat and just...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
![NewsWatch](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/food/blogfiles/3744small.jpg)
There are a number of short (two-minute) NewsWatch segments on the UC Davis YouTube channel on various aspects of food. These timely and straightforward videos are easy to view and educational. Some food-related topics of interest include:
- Author: Diane Nelson
![Jorge Dubcovsky, Assaf Distelfeld and Cristobal Uauy discovered a key mutation in a gene in domestic](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/food/blogfiles/3637small.jpg)
The ever popular pasta salad is sturdy and economical, but is it nutritious?
It sure can be, and research from UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences professor Jorge Dubcovsky is helping to make that so. Dubcovsky’s team discovered a gene in domesticated wheat that had been damaged, a gene that controls the distribution of nutrients to the grains in healthy grain plants. What’s more, they discovered a copy of that damaged gene in wild wheat, enabling them (and others) to breed new varieties with substantially increased levels of protein, iron and zinc.
Wheat provides about 20 percent of all the calories people consume worldwide. In other words, we eat a lot of...
- Author: Alec Rosenberg
![tray300](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/food/blogfiles/3682small.jpg)
The University of California’s campus-run dining halls and restaurants are offering a healthier and more environmentally friendly menu to diners.
For years, many campuses have offered organic food choices or engaged in practices such as using locally sourced products and composting that cut waste and conserve resources. Trayless dining halls, which also reduce waste and water use, are emerging as a trend at universities across the country and are highlighted in a UC Newsroom story about UC’s systemwide foodservice...
- Author: Alec Rosenberg
Carl Winter has been called the “Elvis of E. coli” and the “Sinatra of Salmonella,” but you won’t find him headlining a lounge act in Las Vegas. Instead, the UC Davis food toxicologist crosses California – and the United States – to sing about a subject near and dear to him: food safety.
Combining science-based information with a synthesizer, Winter performs food safety music parodies such as “You Better Wash Your Hands” (from the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand”) and “Don’t Be a Gambler” (from Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”). He also has created animated food safety music videos such as “Stomachache Tonight,” a parody of the Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight” that, ironically, recounts a time he got sick in Georgia while on tour...