An apple by any other name
Would Red Delicious have taken over the world if it was still called the Hawkeye? A nice little piece from Edible Grande Traverse (who knew?) on the evolution of the apple that now dominates the American apple market.
I do love a good graph
This one, courtesy of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State, shows the number of crops and livestock produced for sale on one percent of Iowa farms between the years 1920 (far left column) and 2002 (far right). Kurt Meine passed it around the other night as part of his apple talk. For … Continued
Fresh blog for the rolls
Karen Lehman and the Illinois Fresh Taste Initiative have launched a blog, the practically titled Good Food for All. In their own words (because I have to get back to work): “Good Food for All is a resource space for all those in the Greater Chicago Foodshed and beyond wishing to learn and engage with others in … Continued
Go, Mike, go!
My former colleague and sometime dining companion Mike Sula is a finalist for a James Beard award, for the Whole Hog Project — a yearlong chronicle of the care, feeding, and, yes, eating of a mulefoot pig. The multimedia project was a collaborative effort, with culminating in a terrific two-part video by Sky Full of … Continued
So many apples, so little time
I left the UW-Madison arboretum last night with a head so full of apple facts and figures that it’ll take a few days here to sort it all out. I now know how to do a graft and why you might want to seal it with paraffin; the difference between native crab apples and imports; … Continued
White House garden is go
The Obamas are planting a vegetable garden. Standing by for press conference at which Alice Waters takes all credit. 🙂 UPDATE: The NYT has more. Of course this is shaping up to be Sam Kass‘s baby.
All about apples
I’m heading to Madison this weekend to learn everything there is to know about heirloom apple preservation. Or at least that’s what it seems like. The occasion is a loose collection of apple-related activities put together under the auspices of RAFT, a Slow Food USA program/cabal of heirloom food freaks. The acronym stands for Restoring America’s Food … Continued
Spring in the Mission
(photo from GRG) The blog Green Roof Growers has a nice post about the Greenhouses of Hope at the Pacific Garden Mission. I work here once a week but wasn’t around for the planter project. I did spend most of last Monday sanding down some nice new worm bins, though — so if you’re in the market for a worm … Continued
More tales from the vodka front
From the Business section of last Sunday’s NYT, on the recent boom in sales of cheap vodka: Reaching for the Bottom Shelf . (See also: this’n and those’n.) [snip] “Of course, some boutique vineyards and craft distilleries create exceptional beverages, even if the price is sometimes hard to justify. But much of the high-end liquor bubble was … Continued
David Simon breaks it down for you
There’s been a LOT of ink–stained handwringing over the crisis in journalism of late. Some of it is great; some of it is, IMHO, a bit of self-interested windbaggery — on the part of both the old fogies longing for the good ol’ City News Bureau days and the young webheads jacked by the pipe … Continued