Do’s and Don’ts of Food storage – tips for the following fruit

One of my favorite quotes is “you weren’t born knowing it.” The hidden meaning in life is that you have to learn things. Sometimes it is over-and-over again and sometimes knowledge sticks. The older I get the more I am keenly aware that once you have an appetite for knowledge it never is completely satisfied and I mean that in a good way.

I am almost 41 years old and didn’t begin to pay attention to food spoliage until I had children. Guess it was the abundance of “new” foods into our house and the doubling of our food waste that caused my attention shift.. We are now well past the diapers and formula ages and onto the real foods.  Work smarter not harder when trying to stretch those food dollars. Prevent food spoilage and eat the rewards.

Quickly refrigerate the fruits listed below as they do not ripen any more after they have been picked.

• Apples
• Blueberries
• Cherries
• Cranberries
• Grapes
• Pomegranates
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Tangerines
• Watermelons
• Oranges
• Lemons
• Limes
• Blackberries
• Gooseberries

Some fruits that you can ripen at home (outside of the refrigerator) are listed below.

• Avocados
• Papayas
• Bananas
• Persimmons
• Cantaloupe
• Honeydew melons
• Mangos
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Plums
• Pineapples
• Tomatoes

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/FreezerChart.htm

Honeybees and humans – an ancient love affair

Honeybees and humans – an ancient love affair. I have taken the classes and am waiting on the right time to expand and invest in becoming a full-blown bee keeper. During this time I will patiently wait & continue to expand landscapes providing food sources for pollinators. If you keep up with this blog you will see bees and pollinators as a repeat subject of interest. They are the canary in the coalmine. We depend on them and in return they depend on us. Pay attention.

“Every single person on our planet has a diet that includes food made possible by pollinating insects. When this connection is threatened, all of humanity is threatened.”

—Dino Martins

Dino Martins works as busy as the bees trying to prove that insects are the sustainable solution to decreased pollination, and that saving them would mean increased biodiversity and more food for humans. He is an entomologist and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer working in Kenya.  An accomplished naturalist, author and illustrator, Dino graduated in 2011 with his Ph.D.  from Harvard’s Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, under the direction of Prof. Naomi Pierce.

US Drought Monitor

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Officials from the National Drought Mitigation Center are saying that more of the United States is in moderate drought or worse than at any other time in the 12-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor. I would hardly say a 12 year time peroid of record keeping offers enough data points to draw conclusions but it sure has been hot & dry (until this week). Cooler and showers daily. Generally weird and unpredictable weather.

Analysis of the latest drought monitor data revealed that 46.84 percent of the nation’s land area is in various stages of drought. Previous records were 45.87 percent in drought on Aug. 26, 2003, and 45.64 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.

Looking only at the 48 contiguous states, 55.96 percent of the country’s land area is in moderate drought or worse.

The monitor uses a ranking system that begins at D0 (abnormal dryness) and moves through D1 (moderate drought), D2 (severe drought), D3 (extreme drought) and D4 (exceptional drought).

Moderate drought’s telltale signs are some damage to crops and pastures, with streams, reservoirs or wells getting low. At the other end of the scale, exceptional drought includes widespread crop and pasture losses, as well as shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells, creating water emergencies. So far, just 8.64 percent of the country is in either extreme or exceptional drought.

The U.S. Drought Monitor is a joint endeavor by the National Drought Mitigation Center at UNL, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and drought observers across the country.

To examine the monitor’s current and archived national, regional and state-by-state drought maps and conditions, go to http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu.

Cool for the kids – the App Store opens door to gardening

A new electronic game from UNC-TV and North Carolina Cooperative Extension is designed to get kids interested in spending time outdoors growing their own fruits and vegetables.

FREE and made for the iPhone and iPad, “Read-a-Roo’s Fabulous Edible Garden” allows you to grow your own virtual gardens and, along the way, learn how to grow, harvest and cook a variety of real plants and vegetables.

I would suggest starting the game by uploading your own picture rather than use an avatar…….then prepare the soil, dig the holes, pick your seeds and then PLANT!You’ll be ready to grow your very own garden in no time!

 

download at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id516395967.

Lead content advisor Dr. Lucy Bradley, a Cooperative Extension horticultural science specialist at N.C. State University, said the goal was to “go where children are and then get them interested in being outside.”

The videos, Bradley said, help tie the world of imaginary play to what it takes to garden successfully. The interactive games are simple but educational. For example, through a bug game, kids learn that not all insects they find in the garden are pests, Bradley said. If they remove lady bird beetles, which prey on other insects, the number of bugs in their virtual garden multiplies.

“It shows,” Bradley said, “that some bugs are your allies, helping you manage pests and if you kill those natural predators your pest problem will become worse.”

The game also promotes an understanding of the life cycle of a plant – from seed to produce – and encourages healthy eating. “There’s lots of evidence that children who grow food are much more likely to eat it, so if we get kids interested in gardening and growing their own food, we create an important connection to nutrition,” Bradley said.

Recipes came from Cooperative Extension’s Produce Lady, Brenda Sutton of Rockingham County; and Leah Chester-Davis, a communication specialist at the Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis.

The game was developed thanks to a grant from PBS, which takes seriously the challenge to develop games that help children gain needed literacy and math skills.

A whole suite of free games featuring well-known PBS children’s characters is available at http://pbskids.org/lab

Terrain Theory – it’s just that simple

This post is related to companion planting and I recently came across it in review of my notes. Thought it worthwhile to share.

Back to the wise ramblings of an old teacher & farmer friend of mine on the topic – Terrain theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrain_theory

This guy was real-deal-old-world-wise. Hard not to respect him and what I remember most from class and what I enjoyed weekly was the constant back and forth friendly battling over organic and non organic farming.

As preached, the terrain theory is the theory of disease proposed by Antoine Béchamp that a diseased body, the “terrain”, will attract germs to come as scavengers of the weakened or poorly defended tissue. Béchamp believed that the pH of the body is important, and that an acidic pH will attract germs and an alkaline pH will repel them.

He would then so refreshing say “folks, its just that easy. Take care of your soil.”