Farming
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
Is Your Local, Organic Food Neither Local Nor Organic?
I hate to be a cynic, but I suppose it was inevitable: With consumers today increasingly willing to pay a premium for local and/or organic food, it was only a matter of time before the scam artists of the world exploited shoppers' good intentions.Just in the last couple of weeks, two separate inves...
October 06, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Ways to Eat Lima Beans
Lima beans used to remind me of a line in a Josh Ritter song: "I'm trying hard to love you / You don't make it easy, babe."You know what I mean, right? That wan, wrinkled skin; that wet-sawdust texture; that hospital-cafeteria smell...those are the lima beans I recall picking out of the "frozen mix...
September 30, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Food in the Raw at the U.S. Botanic Garden
After almost three years of working right down the street, I finally made time to explore the U.S. Botanic Garden on a recent lunch break. I expected mostly flowers, but found a food nerd's Eden: So many of my favorite edibles, in their purest forms! So many tidbits of culinary history and science!...
September 29, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five Ways to Eat Ground Cherries
What tastes like a cherry tomato injected with mango and pineapple juice, and looks like an orange pearl encased in a miniature paper lantern?No, I'm not just trying to cram as many fruit references into one sentence as possible. It's a real plant: Physalis pruinosa, aka the "ground cherry."I'd nev...
September 02, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five Ways to Eat Okra
Okra's a strange little vegetable, the kind of thing you might not guess was edible if no one told you. Its prickly skin can sting your fingers, and slicing into it reveals little more than seeds and slime. I admit, if okra hadn't been included in our CSA share these past few weeks, I would probabl...
August 26, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five Ways to Eat Cucumbers
Lately I have acquired a troop of cucumbers from various friends and acquaintances trying to unload their late-summer garden bounties. I like to toss a few cucumber slices in salads or on sandwiches, but I would have to eat them morning, noon and night to use them all up that way. What else can be ...
August 20, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
A Culinary Tour of "Eat Pray Love"
"I'm having a relationship with my pizza." As Julia Roberts looks over her Neapolitan pizza at her Eat Pray Love co-star, Tuva Novotny, I too feel a pang for the thin, cheesy, luscious display that nearly outshines the Oscar winner. As it turns out, this particular scene was filmed at the famous L’...
August 19, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Popeye Makes Kids Eat More Vegetables
Remember Popeye? Mr. "I'm strong to the the finish cause I eats my spinach?" The cartoon hasn't aired in the U.S. for several years now, but I bet you know who I'm talking about.Apparently, the classic tough guy can inspire kids to eat their spinach, too. A paper just published in the Australian jo...
August 12, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Farmers Market Finds: Purple Long Beans
Walking past a farmers market on my lunch break last week, I did a doubletake at what looked like a basket of baby snakes for sale.Getting closer, I was relieved to see that the tangle of dark and sinuous shapes was in fact a lone quart of unusually long beans. I picked one up and held it up to the...
August 10, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Surprising Origins of Fried Green Tomatoes
The first time I, like a lot of Americans, heard of fried green tomatoes was when a movie by that name came out in 1991. Based on a novel by Fannie Flagg called Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, it starred Mary Louise Parker, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy in a fe...
August 06, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
