Agriculture
Kicking off CSA Season
It's finally here! The first batch of seasonal produce we'll be getting every week from now through October, through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. This is the first year that my fiance (who shall henceforth be referred to as Mr. FAT, because it makes me chuckle) and I have partic...
May 27, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Etymology of Food, Part I: Why Nothing Rhymes With Orange
One of my college history professors once claimed that the reason there is no English word that rhymes with orange is that it is one of the few words derived from Persian. He was only partly right; according to the Dictionary of Word Origins, by John Ayto, the word entered our language in the 14th ...
May 08, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Learning About Heirloom Tomatoes
Amy Goldman talks about heirloom tomatoes the way oenophiles talk about fine wine. She discusses the acidity and sugar content of various varietals, and raves about nuances of texture, taste and aroma. The Orange Strawberry oxheart tomato "makes (her) heart sing," and the muddy color of the Purple ...
May 06, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Food Matters on Earth Day
Lately I'm reading a book called "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating," by Mark Bittman (a.k.a. NY Times' "The Minimalist"), and Earth Day seems like the perfect time to tell you about it.Bittman's thesis is simple but sobering: What you choose to put on your plate has a direct impact on the...
April 22, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Insulation Made Out of ... Mushrooms?
If having fungus inside your home's walls sounds like a bad thing, the judges of the 2008 PICNIC Green Challenge would disagree. In October, Eben Bayer, a 23-year-old from Troy, New York, won 500,000 euros in the second annual Dutch-sponsored competition for the best solution to reducing greenhouse...
April 17, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
The Plate as Palette
When I was in New York City recently, I noticed a listing for an intriguing event that combined art and cuisine (two of my favorite things) at Monkey Town, an art venue and restaurant in Williamsburg. For the Color Palate Project, ten international artists were invited to create a monochromatic wor...
April 14, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Remote-Controlled Cattle
This piece of news isn't directly about food, but I find it fascinating. I mean, I don't run across too many press releases that manage to combine satellites, computers, stereo headsets, and...cows.The USDA's Agricultural Research Service recently licensed a new method of cattle herding, something ...
March 30, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Spring Flavors: Ramps, Morels and Fiddleheads
I’ve always loved spring, even when I lived in the mild climate of California, because that’s when wild flowers dusted color over the usually brown hillsides. Now that I live where the winters are harsh, my appreciation for spring verges on rapture.
One of the reasons, as always, is food-related:...
March 23, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Hot Off the Presses: What's So Hot About Chili Peppers?
As someone who considers hot sauce a kitchen staple, I've been especially looking forward to the April issue of Smithsonian magazine—it includes this feature by Brendan Borrell about an American ecologist who studies chilies in Bolivia to deduce nature's method behind the spicy madness. It's a live...
March 20, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
A Brief History of the Potato
You know how sometimes, strangers on the plane or train will seek matter for chatter by peeking at what you're reading? It usually works. But I've discovered the perfect conversational stumper: "Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent," a new hardcover by Yale University Press.As they stare at...
March 17, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
A Week Without Groceries
Well, I haven't seen the inside of a grocery store almost a week now, since joining the "Eating Down the Fridge" challenge issued by Kim O'Donnel of A Mighty Appetite. By the way, she's hosting a live chat on Washingtonpost.com at 1 p.m. (ET) today, check it out if you get a chance!Are any of you d...
March 12, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Where Our Food Comes From
I just finished reading a new book by the prolific Gary Paul Nabhan, whose resume astounds me: He landed a half-million-dollar MacArthur Fellowship (aka "genius grant") early in his career, and has written some 30 books since then, in addition to several teaching gigs and founding a movement or two...
March 02, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Cooking the Tree of Life
Tomorrow is the final day of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday month. Most people only get a daylong birthday celebration, but most people didn’t put forth a revolutionary theory that’s influential two centuries later, now, did they?
One of the more interesting food-related events commemorating the ...
February 27, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
What to Eat when Chewing is a Pain
One of my best friends, a newish mom, asked a while ago if I could post something about baby-friendly foods—things that don't require a lot of teeth. Ew, I thought, no thanks! I'm finicky about food texture, and I like my vegetables crisp, my pasta al dente, and my bagels chewy.But in the throes of...
February 05, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Wolves and the Balance of Nature in the Rockies
After years as an endangered species, the wolves are thriving again in the West, but they're also reigniting a fierce controversy
February 2009 |
By Frank Clifford
Swiftlet Nest Farming Proves Good for Business... Maybe Too Good
Up there on the weirdest-things-you-can-eat list has to be bird's nest soup. It would be weird enough just to eat your standard twiggy-grassy robin's nest, but this predominantly Chinese delicacy is made almost entirely from the goopy spit of a southeast Asian bird called a swiftlet (check out a co...
January 15, 2009 |
By Hugh Powell
Food Stuck in Teeth for 8,000 Years Alters View of Early Farming
Close on the heels of news about Ötzi the iceman's final meals come revelations about a diet even more ancient. New findings show that about 8,000 years ago, the inhabitants of the Nanchoc Valley in the lower Peruvian Andes were eating beans, peanuts, domesticated squash, and a fruit pod called pac...
December 15, 2008 |
By Hugh Powell
Turkeys Are Having a Pretty Bad Month
The NYTimes ran a story last week about the latest animal-abuse scandal reported by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The group has released what it says is an undercover video of a turkey-breeding farm in West Virginia where workers punch, kick and generally bully the birds in th...
November 26, 2008 |
By Amanda Bensen
A 'New Dawn' for Ugly Vegetables
Crooked carrots, rejoice! The European Union has peeled away the layer of bureaucracy that once kept cosmetically imperfect produce off store shelves. Marketing standards regarding the size and shape of 26 varieties of fruits and vegetables (complete list here) will be scrapped starting next summer...
November 24, 2008 |
By Amanda Bensen
Wish They All Could Be California Chicks...
You may have missed it in the frenzy of election-related news this month, but Californian voters just approved a proposition that could make your omelette more expensive (as well as more ethical). Pregnant pigs, veal calves, and egg-laying hens will all gain more rights in California under the Prev...
November 21, 2008 |
By Amanda Bensen
