Section » Grains
Tracking the co-evolution of grass and humanity
High on grass: "We live in the age of grass," writes Olivia Judson, a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London, on the New York Times' Opinionator blog. Indeed, some of the crops that helped make humans an agricultural creature and create our complex civilization are grasses: wheat, rice, sugar cane, and corn, to name a few. Over the course
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Buckwheat and see: Growing my own grain
When it comes to my gardening, I tend to have a lot of big ideas and not nearly enough space in which to implement them. And the more I try to source my food locally, the more I want to try growing things myself to fill in the gaps of what I can't find at the local farmers market. Last fall, when I picked
Asia could teach U.S. some new corn tricks
Thanks to fertile Midwestern plains, commodity-focused agricultural policy, a foreign policy that makes cheap petroleum a high priority, and an innovative agricultural industry, Americans are truly the 'people of the corn.' As the film "King Corn" and the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" have well documented,
Well worth the wheat: Gene Logsdon’s “Small-Scale Grain Raising”
As the price of flour and other grain-based foods has risen, creative-minded people have begun to consider growing their own wheat, corn, rye, and other grains. Groovy
Loafing in a cold climate
Winter weather has provided us with a never-ending topic of conversation lately: the storms pummeling the upper Midwest, the guesses as to how much those storms might repeat themselves here in northern Ohio, how
Snapshot from Slow Food Nation: Native American plants in the Victory Garden
I had intended to do some "man in the garden" interviews while I hung around the Victory Garden watching the crowds come through. But my first set of victims were so interesting I talked to them for the entire half hour
The Cereality show, coming to a college town near you!
This guest post is by Tracy Lerman, who likes to cook food from the Santa Cruz farmers market and ride her bike by the ocean. In her spare time Tracy works at the Organic Farming Research Foundation doing policy advocacy and organizing. Recently
Digest - News: Scary wheat fungus spreading, food prices climbing, don’t blame the soda (right)
When it grains it pours: A dangerous new fungus with the ability to destroy entire wheat fields has been detected in Iran, says the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Up to 80% of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus, which can be transmitted across continents by wind.
Bread rises, and not just from yeast
Around the world there’s growing talk about food crisis as
Bake on the wild side: Part 2, the bread
In part 1 of "Bake on the wild side," I wrote about how to create a sourdough starter and some of the science behind it. In this post I'll tell how I used the starter to make loaves of bread. There are many
Exploring the pastabilities
I love pasta. There's just no getting around that simple fact. Others may avoid carbohydrates like the plague, but I find that a meal isn't quite complete without something a little starchy to hold everything together. An old-fashioned trencherwoman, that's me. And pasta ranks at the top of the list
In defense of corn
It's cold, gray, and raining buckets here in Northern California, causing me to feel distinctly snacky. Problem is, the SOLE food lifestyle doesn't really support the quick, salty, fatty comfort food like I crave right now. I eyed a persimmon – too healthy. A couple of walnuts failed to satisfy.
Bake on the wild side: Part 1, the sourdough starter
I love to bake bread. It can be a messy process, requires a lot of patience, and rarely results in bread as good as what Bay Area bread wizards like Acme and Vital Vittles sell at many nearby markets. But that's OK with me — the process is as important as the product. Bread making can be nearly
Pharmaceutical rice stirs little dust in Kansas
A frustrated Dan Nagengast, executive director of the Kansas Rural Center, said after a recent forum on pharmaceutical crops that opponents needed to take the fight somewhere else. Some 35 to 40 people attended the forum in Topeka on Nov. 14, which provided
Digest: The scoop on China’s corner-cutting, Mexico goes GM, chocolate label reasoning
NEWS Be afraid. Be very afraid: The New York Times goes to Zhangqiu, a fast-growing industrial city southeast of Beijing, and gets some hair-raising real dirt on China's practices regarding the chemical that probably killed hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. pets. For years, producers of animal feed
