Agriculture
Inviting Writing: Eating With Your Fingers
For this month's Inviting Writing series, we asked you to tell us about the most memorable meal of your life. A pattern emerged from the stories we received: nothing focuses the mind on a meal like hardship, hunger or disgust. Today's entry reminds us that meals don't have to be traumatic to be mem...
April 18, 2011 |
By admin
Kae Sa Luk: The Original Edible Arrangements
At a Thai restaurant last week, my dining companion convinced me to forego the tantalizingly spicy offerings in favor of a chicken dish served with ginger, pineapple chunks and cashews in a sweet and sour sauce. When the dish came out, I was thrilled to see that it was served in half of a hollowed-...
April 12, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
What Is the "Right to Farm" and Who Has It?
A few years ago, while driving through rural Washington County, New York—a picturesque area that has attracted retirees and city-weary escapees—I noticed a sign declaring it a "right to farm" area. A city person myself until recently, it struck me as strange that anyone would feel the need to decla...
April 06, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
The Funniest Fruit: A Brief History of Banana Humor
Earlier this week Anthony Bourdain, the chef-turned-memoirist-turned-cleaver-witted-TV-personality, used his blog to criticize the James Beard Association's food writing awards, sparking a lot of chatter about the difference between food journalism (which involves research, interviews and verifiabl...
April 01, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Diary of a Neurotic New Gardener: The Best-Laid Plants
Urban "farming" is trendy—so much so that when a friend who lives in Berkeley, California (a hotbed of guerrilla gardening) was recently wandering around Home Depot looking clueless, an orange-vested employee cheerfully, and correctly, guessed that she was trying to build a chicken coop.Having rece...
March 30, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Ways to Eat Lemons
In spring a Northerner's fancy turns lightly to... anything other than the same old starchy winter vegetables I've been eating for months. I don't remember if this used to happen to me when I lived in a snow-free climate, but now that I live up north the only things I'm craving more than balmy bree...
March 25, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
How Can Seedless Fruit be Fruitful and Multiply?
If fruit trees grow from seeds, how do you grow seedless fruit? It's not unusual for plants to produce mutant fruit that lacks seeds, but these fruits are usually the end of their line. Naturally occurring hybrids can also make sterile fruit. The varieties that we eat are specifically hybridized to...
March 24, 2011 |
By Laura Helmuth
Chugging Maple Sap
If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you may have noticed that we've given a lot of the-stuff-formerly-known-as-ink to maple syrup. We've written about how it's made, how to turn it into a sticky taffy by pouring it on snow, maple creemees, vodka made from fermented maple sap, even an entir...
March 10, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Sprouting Seeds and Beans: The Gardener's Gateway Drug
The first thing my city friends asked when I told them I had bought a 19th-century farmhouse on several acres was, "what are you going to do with all that land?" The idea of owning acreage is alien to a lot of urbanites, who consider even a small patch of grassy yard a luxury. But for the last year...
March 04, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Farmer/Writer Kristin Kimball, Author of The Dirty Life
City person moves to the country, takes up farming, can't believe how much work it is, writes a book: a healthy stack of titles along these lines has come out in the last decade or so, as a new wave of back-to-the-landers and locavores has discovered the joys and perils of small-scale agriculture. ...
February 15, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Q&A: Foodscape Artist Carl Warner
I have always been a fast eater, and even as a kid I was not picky. So I never really built log cabins with my carrots or sculpted my mashed potatoes into gravy-spewing volcanoes.With the exception of scrawling smiley faces with his catsup, says Carl Warner, he didn't play much with his food, eithe...
January 21, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
Inviting Writing: Tomato Surprise
Our final installment of this month's Inviting Writing challenge, "First Tastes," comes from Kim Kelly of Carlsbad, California, who writes the Liv Life blog.Stay tuned for the next round of Inviting Writing, which we'll announce on Tuesday, January 18.A Slice of HeavenBy Kim Kelly
Tomatoes are a ne...
January 10, 2011 |
By Laura Helmuth
Inviting Writing: Romancing Guava Paste
Our theme for this month's Inviting Writing series is "first tastes": foods that were a revelation the first time you tried them. This week's entry comes from Elizabeth Bastos, who shared a scary food story about artichokes last year. She blogs about "humor, food, home, parenting and cheese" at Goo...
January 03, 2011 |
By Laura Helmuth
Five Ways to Eat Leeks
All the hubbub about Wikileaks has me thinking about another kind of dish from an underground source...leeks!When my father-in-law sent us home from Thanksgiving with a bag full of fresh leeks from his garden, I thanked him (diplomatically, of course), but was secretly befuddled. Having seen leeks ...
December 09, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five Colorful Ways to Eat Fresh Cranberries
Fresh cranberries abound at this time of year, and you may even be ambitious enough to slog through a bog to pick your own, as my friend Bryn did in Massachusetts. (It was fun, but next time she'd prefer to try it without a 30-pound toddler on her back, she said.) After baking all afternoon, she st...
November 16, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Wild Mushrooms of Fall
I know I am probably in the minority, but I despise mushrooms—at least the little white button ones you get at the supermarket. They rank up there with cilantro on my short list of ingredients I wouldn't want to meet in a dark restaurant, or a well-lit one, for that matter.Raw mushrooms are relativ...
November 03, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
The Magic of Kale, and Five Ways to Eat It
If Lisa's post about the connection between chocolate and child labor has made you reconsider your Halloween candy-buying habits, here's an alternative for you to feed the trick-or-treaters: kale!Yeah, you're right—that's probably not a good idea unless you want your house egged. But did you know t...
October 26, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five Ways to Eat Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi isn't the coolest kid in its class. It has a weird name, and looks even weirder. I admit I've always ignored it in favor of prettier, more popular vegetables. Why befriend it now?Well, because kohlrabi is nutritious: no fat, lots of fiber and vitamin C, even some protein. It's cheap and in...
October 21, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
A Showcase School Garden in D.C.
When I was new to D.C., many people gave me the same advice, "Avoid Anacostia."Separated from the District's heart by the Anacostia River, the southeast swath of the city loosely known as Anacostia has long been associated with high rates of violent crime and poverty.But after finally venturing acr...
October 14, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
In Praise of Pears (and Five Ways to Eat Them)
I've got no beef with apples. They have earned their position as the go-to fruit. But why should they hog all the fall glory? Why don't people go pear-picking, or bobbing for pears, or bake pear pies? In my opinion, pears are just as versatile as their cousins in the Rosaceae family, and have a sub...
October 08, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
