Section » Fruits and vegetables

The pie’s the limit! Get baking for Pi Day, March 14

By Jennifer M. aka Baklava Queen • on March 13, 2010

Back in my (much) younger days, I used to enjoy math class. I especially got a kick out of geometry and the formulas used to calculate area, perimeter or circumference, and volume. My mother and I used to have fun with one formula in particular: "What's the formula for the area of a circle?" she would ask. "Pi r squared," I'd say. "I always thought

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The spirit is willing, and the fresh is weekly: Review of “A Year on the Garden Path”

By Jennifer M. aka Baklava Queen • on February 28, 2010

For the past few weeks, I've been watching the snow drift down with deceptive lightness, only to accumulate in deep piles (18" and counting here in northeastern Ohio) that have well and truly buried any remotely green thing on the ground. While it's lovely to sit inside and watch winter's show, I also

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Souped-up meals to warm up snow days

By Jennifer M. aka Baklava Queen • on February 14, 2010

Every time I've looked out the window this week, I've felt a childlike glee at the sight of all the snow piled up. A whopping 18" dropped in 24 hours last weekend, a few more inches covered that earlier this week, and more is in the forecast. I really sympathize with the folks further south (south!)

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Grow-hio: Midwestern farmers rely on Eliot Coleman’s advice for cold-weather farming

By Jennifer M. aka Baklava Queen • on December 28, 2009

As winter approaches, even the most knowledgeable of local-foods-loving shoppers have wondered what fresh produce they will find over the winter months, and the opening of a year-round market here in Wooster has only increased the frequency of that musing.

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Apple days are here again

By Jennifer M. aka Baklava Queen • on October 18, 2009

As the weather turns colder here in northeast Ohio, harvests are tapering off and farmers markets are dwindling, both on the farmer side and the shopper side. We're approaching that time of year when the only local produce you can expect to find for months consists of potatoes, onions, cabbage, and squash. For

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Meet your greens, part 3: Taking the stand against the veggilantes

By Elanor • on October 4, 2009

This is the third in a series about the USDA hearings on an industry proposal for a food-safety marketing agreement for leafy green vegetables. My first post describes what marketing agreements are and do; my second

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Meet your greens, part 2: Industry seeks to outfox FDA

By Elanor • on September 28, 2009

This is the second in a series of posts on my week in Monterey, CA, where I attended the first of seven USDA hearings around the country on an industry proposal to create a national

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Meet your greens: National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings, Week 1

By Elanor • on September 25, 2009

This is the first in a short series on the National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings held September 22-24 in Monterey, CA. I packed a suit for three days of USDA hearings over an industry-proposed

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This space is preserved: Checking out “Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest”

By Jennifer M. aka Baklava Queen • on August 29, 2009

Come summer, I dream of the carefree days of my childhood, when endless sunshine meant days spent outdoors or trips to the lake or just a general sense of freedom from drudgery. I dream of those, of course, because I now work through the summer and spend a good deal of my free time working in the garden

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School lunch reform: A pipe dream or a deluge?

By Ethicurean • on August 20, 2009

The kids will have their... whole wheat roll?: The momentum is building for big changes to the national school lunch program, reports Kim Severson in the New York Times. Ann Cooper, the chef who famously transformed lunches in the Berkeley school system and has since moved on to Boulder, Colorado, is

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NYT mag on obesity: Don’t punish, politicize

By Ethicurean • on August 18, 2009

Who paves the road for the responsibility bandwagon?: Were it up to him, Cleveland Clinic heart surgeon Delos Cosgrove would amend the clinic's wellness policy--which already bans the hiring of smokers--to include a ban on the hiring of obese people. His is a hard-line approach linking obesity to personal

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Do I dare to eat a peach? Not a conventional one, says Tribune study

By Elanor • on August 13, 2009

Another day, another facet to the debate over whether organic produce is worth the extra moolah. Unless you've been living on a remote mountaintop with no wireless, you've probably witnessed the recent frenzy over a UK

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Michigan food processors turn groundwater orange

By Ethicurean • on August 10, 2009

Orange you glad I didn't say arsenic?: It's common practice among Michigan's fruit and vegetable processors to spray their untreated wastewater, heavy with sugars and salts, onto nearby fields. After years of putting up with the spraying, nearby residents are complaining that large processors like Birds

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California’s tree crops are screwed, says new report

By Ethicurean • on July 22, 2009

Things heat up in the nation's produce basket: Tree crops like apples, cherries, pears, walnuts and almonds rely on a chilly winter to set the stage for a productive spring and summer. But in a study released today, UC Davis scientists report

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Glean a little goodness: California groups forage for fresh food

By Guest • on July 16, 2009

This piece about gleaning and foraging groups in California first appeared in the most recent e-newsletter from the Northern California chapter of Buy Fresh Buy Local Campaign, a project of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. To sign up for the monthly e-newsletter, visit the Buy

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