Healthy vegetables: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Naperville area vegetables start Friday

By SUSAN FRICK CARLMAN scarlman@stmedianetwork.com May 18, 2011 03:52PM

I have a little confession to make: I’m kind of a local-foods geek.

There’s no good explanation for this. Sure, I like a nice ripe avocado as much as the next guy, and it’s difficult to envision morning without my good friend Joe — the one who turns up steaming, and in a mug. And let’s not even start on the swoon-inducing power of good chocolate. But most things that appeal to me most can be raised or produced somewhere close to home.

Some of the draw lies in the relative lack of gas fumes that come with these edibles. You’ve probably heard that most of the food showing up on the dinner table has trekked about 1,500 miles or more to get there. Seeing how much damage all that incredibly expensive gasoline does to the air we breathe, and knowing how much tastier a truly fresh tomato or tossed salad or strawberry really is, it just feels sensible to source it nearby.

Although places like Chicago’s Green City Market and the off-season market held Saturday mornings at Inglenook Pantry in Geneva offer luscious tastes of local flavor throughout winter’s gloom, the opening of the main season is still a couple weeks off.

The Naperville Farmers Market debuts on the first Saturday in June every year. It’s a really good one, attracting beekeepers and bakers, orchardists and ranchers, cheese mongers and floral types. Oh, and people who raise vegetables too. You can find a list that gives details about it, and all the other local markets of summer, on our website.

While we always have to wait until later in the warm weeks for yummy sweet corn and those fabulous slicing tomatoes, the season is likely to see an unusually slow start this year. A woman at Keller’s Farmstand on Knoch Knolls Road told me this week that there will be asparagus one of these days, but it’s slow going. Blame April.

“April is the month that really defines what you see in May and June,” Green City forager Dave Rand said recently. “So when it’s cold and rains a lot, it can really push back the date you start seeing produce.”

Well, I guess we’d best not be impatient. April’s brutality still has me in a state of mild shock.

Luckily, there meanwhile are ways to satisfy a hunger for hometown grub. The summer’s first really local market is open now.

Farmer Jeremy Mayne outwits Mother Nature by raising a lot of tasty things in structures that look sort of like translucent Quonset huts, set up on his land at Mill Street and Bauer Road. They allow him to capture the warmth from the sun (when it feels like coming out) and hang onto it, so the seedlings can get ahead in life.

Starting Friday, he’ll be bringing his honestly fresh goods to Edward Hospital every week from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., or until the goodies run out. For now, think strawberries, asparagus, radishes, spinach, lettuces and baskets full of flowers (they’re also sold in a pole barn at the farm that’s been open on a limited schedule for the past few weeks). As the days warm up, assuming that will happen someday, there will be more delicious things showing up. Mayne and his fresh things will be found just outside the hospital cafeteria on Fridays until sometime in October.

If you have a veggie garden — and you braved the elements and planted lettuce as soon as the ground could be worked, as the seed packet told you to — there might already be some tasty greens out there. Good for you. Really. But if not, there’s hope. Maybe I’ll see you over there.

And we can always hit one of the local coffee shops if we’re missing Joe too much.

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Fresh vegetables and stronger ties

HILLSBOROUGH — Ask Nancy Rabinowitz what she and her husband, Paul, are planting in their garden, and she?ll pull out a neatly printed plan, complete with illustrations.

Tomatoes, melons and zucchini are among their choices. The plot itself is one of about 200 at the new Duke Farms Community Garden, which opened earlier this spring to gardeners who registered and won a parcel through a lottery.

?We had a very large garden at our house, but what?s happened over the last 10 years is the trees have grown up to a point where they block the sun,? said Paul Rabinowitz. ?It became very frustrating. We got sun until mid-May, but when the leaves were all there, forget it.?

At Duke Farms, their garden has full sun about 10 hours a day, plus a high fence to protect their crops from foraging deer.

The Rabinowitzes are two of many gardeners who have taken advantage of a growing group of community gardens in Central Jersey. In addition to the garden in Hillsborough, community gardens exist in Branchburg, East Brunswick and other locations in Somerset and Middlesex counties.

?They seem to be very popular,? said Paul Smith, director of designed landscapes at Duke Farms. ?Every community garden that has opened up in all the towns we?ve talked to have literally filled their plots. They have waiting lists.?

Duke Farms consulted the organizers of gardens in Lawrence Township and Flemington, as well as the Wagner Farm Arboretum Foundation in Warren Township.

?I really think that every town should have one,? said Dave Moskowitz, president of the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, which started that township?s garden. ?It?s been a fantastic experience for us.?

Membership in the Duke Farms garden is open to people who live or work in Hillsborough, Somerville, Raritan Borough or Bridgewater ? close enough that they can reliably tend their plots.

The garden is entirely organic. Gardeners can?t use pesticides.

?Our mission is to inspire people to become stewards of the land. This was a way to give people an opportunity to grow produce, but also in a way that?s healthy to the environment,? said Holly Dunbar, a spokeswoman for Duke Farms.

The Rabinowitzes, who live in Bridgewater, said they were happy with the soil and plants that Duke Farms provided to its inaugural group of gardeners at the grand opening on April 30.

Branchburg?s two-year-old garden includes both an organic and inorganic section. Township Clerk Sharon Brienza said eager gardeners began reserving summer plots in early December.

Community gardens often make a variety of plots available at different prices. In Branchburg, for example, gardeners pay $30 for a 10-foot-by-10-foot plot ? or $20 if they?re seniors. A similar sized plot in East Brunswick or in the Duke Farms garden costs $10. Larger plots are also available in some gardens.

The gardens can be a way to reconnect with nature. Ed O?Neill, chairman of the committee that oversees Branchburg?s garden, said one gardener put down a brick walkway and installed a bird bath and bluebird house. A garden situated in a large field, like Branchburg?s, reminds its users what wide-open spaces look like.

It?s one thing to see a hundred fireflies in your own yard ? but ?stand out there and see a million fireflies across the fields,? he said.

?There?s also the whole concept of getting the kids out there so they can see how food is actually grown. It doesn?t come in plastic,? he said.

In addition to its 172 individual plots, East Brunswick?s garden includes shared areas, where all the gardeners work together to maintain herbs, asparagus and other crops.

Moskowitz said they then share in the bounty when the harvest comes. This year, the garden is putting in shared raspberries and sweet potatoes, paid for by a $2,500 grant from The Home Depot.

In addition, East Brunswick donates large quantities of produce to a local senior center and a crisis center ? more than 600 pounds last year. The gardeners have also established a ?sister garden? relationship with community gardeners in East Brunswick, Australia, near Melbourne, exchanging news, information and gardening tips. Moskowitz said there?s even a plan for a joint cookbook.

?It sounds kid of pat, but the truth is we always wanted to build a community of gardeners, and not just a community garden,? Moskowitz said.

At Duke Farms, some gardeners are similarly making plans to share some of their produce with the less fortunate. And they?re enjoying a growing sense of community, even in the garden?s first few days.

Linda Bolton, gardening with her husband, Ken, said she enjoys working alongside other gardeners. They can take care of each other?s plots during vacations and trade growing tips, she said.

?Everyone is so knowledgeable and helpful and friendly,? said Bolton, who lives in Green Brook but works in Somerville. ?It?s community in the strongest sense of the word.?

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Monday, May 30, 2011

New Hereford Central Market to feature fresh produce from Pennsylvania farms

North County residents can buy organic vegetables from 75 farms in Lancaster County, Pa., as well as fruit from a 350-acre farm in Pennsylvania, without ever leaving the Hereford Zone.

Hereford Central Market will open June 1 in the former Hereford Seafood building on York Road, next to the Hereford Library.

Sue Carbaugh, of Monkton, will run the new market. She spent last summer under a tent next to Hereford Seafood, where she sold vegetables from Brad's Produce in Harford County.

This year, she'll move into an air-conditioned store and sell goods from Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative and Three Springs Fruit Farm in Wenksville, Pa.

"I tried multiple farmers in Baltimore County who had a credible product, but I needed quantity, quality and a willingness to deliver," she said. "These two in Pennsylvania were big enough to do that."

She is also offering shares in a Community Supported Market where participants get 21 weeks of vegetables and fruit for $550.

CSM shareholders pay up front and then stop by the market on either Wednesdays or Saturdays to pick up an order.

Carbaugh said participants can choose six to eight items each week. An item could be a quart of string beans or a container of tomatoes. CMA members receive $25 to $30 of vegetables each week, and they receive a 10 percent discount over market price.

The deadline to participate in the Community Supported Market is May 25.

Hereford Central Market, located at 16938 York Road, will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. during the week and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. It will be closed on Tuesdays.

For details, or to register for the CSM, call Carbaugh at 410-472-4096, 410-404-3501, or email her at smcarbaugh@gmail.com.

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Eating vegetables, fruits increases natural glutathione, says DOH expert‏

MANILA, Philippines (PNA) – Eating vegetables and fruits like asparagus, broccoli, spinach, tomato, watermelon and avocado increases the body's natural glutathione, an anti-oxidant and immune booster, according to a Department of Health (DOH) expert.

Willie Ong, a cardiologist and DOH consultant, says eating these foods is cheaper and is a more natural way to increase natural glutathione in the body.

According to Ong, eating at least two cups of fruits and vegetables daily reduces the risk of getting cancer from about three to 10 percent.

Ong urges the public not to be easily swayed in anti-ageing promos or the so-called fountain of youth, and to instead choose safer ways such as eating healthy foods.

In a press conference Friday, Suzette Lazo, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-DOH director, also warned the public against the use of intravenous (IV) glutathione as it poses danger to one's health.

Lazo said the glutathione IV is only used as a treatment for cancer patients and not for skin whitening.

She said the side effects of glutathione IV may range from simple skin rashes to potentially fatal Steven Johnsons Syndrome, thyroid malfunction, kidney failure, and severe abdominal pain.

Unsafe use of needles (recycling, sharing) can result in the transmission of hepatitis B and even HIV, she also said.

The intake of glutathione pills, on the other hand, Lazo said, serves as vitamin supplements and there is no study to prove that it can be a skin whitener.

The two health experts issued the statements as the intravenous glutathione has become popular in whitening the skin.

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Sunday, May 29, 2011

FreshPlaza: Fruit and vegetables keeping setting new price records in Ukraine

HILLSBOROUGH — Ask Nancy Rabinowitz what she and her husband, Paul, are planting in their garden, and she?ll pull out a neatly printed plan, complete with illustrations.

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Saturday, May 28, 2011

Woolies refunds fresh food from any store

MONEY BACK: Woolworths has promised to provide a refund all fresh fruit and vegetables if consumers find a problem, no questions asked, even if the item was purchased from a competitor. Source: The Australian

Woolworths to give refunds for bad produce No receipt needed, no questions asked Policy an 'extension' of fresh food promise

WOOLWORTHS has promised to refund your bad fruit and vegetables with "no questions asked" - even if you didn't buy them there.

From today, consumers can return fresh fruit and vegetables to Woolworths store without a receipt and they will be offered a refund or product exchange with no questions asked.

"We are actively encouraging any customer who is not completely happy with the quality or freshness of their Woolworths fruit and vegetables to return them to us," Greg Foran, director of Woolworths Supermarkets told The Courier Mail.

Customers unhappy with produce from a store are already protected by the Australian Competition and Consumer Act which says they can demand a replacement or a refund, but this usually requires some proof of purchase.

Woolworths spokesman Simon Berger told news.com.au the company wasn’t worried about customers who could exploit the policy by asking for money for bad produce bought elsewhere.

"We trust our customers because at the end of the day we want them to trust us and that means delivering the best fruit and vegetables every time," said Mr Foran.

"What's more important to us is that people have confidence that they get the best and freshest food from Woolworths and if they're not completely happy with that they can return it and we can make it right for them."

It comes amid a supermarket war between Woolworths and Coles, which introduced its aggressive 'Down Down' campaign to slash the price of Coles-branded household staples including milk, eggs and chicken.

Outgoing Woolworths chief Grant Luscombe last month denied a supermarket price war was breaking out, saying rivals were fighting to give the "impression" of price leadership.

But Mr Berger would not be drawn on whether its recent move was in response to the war, which is currently the subject of a Senate inquiry that is due to release its findings in a report in October.

He said the policy was an "extension" of the promise delivered in Woolworths' tag line "the fresh food people", which refers to its aim to deliver produce from farms to stores quickly.

"Customers have always had choices and they always will we're only successful if we deliver what customers what and do it better than others," he said.

"The fresh food guarantee is building on something we’ve been focused on for 20 years…that's what we're sticking our neck out on today."

This comes after Woolworths completed a year of consumer evaluation about the company's fresh fruit and vegetables as well as a revamp of its distribution and supply chain.

"In the last year we've had a customer sensory taste test panel. They want them fresh both at the time they buy them off the shelf and a few days later when they're still in the fruit bowl," said Mr Berger.

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AVA lifts suspension of fruits and vegetables from Hyogo, Shizuoka prefectures

SINGAPORE: The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has lifted the suspension on the import of fruits and vegetables from Shizuoka and Hyogo prefectures.

This after investigations by the Japanese authorities showed that samples of the contaminated vegetables were not from these two prefectures.

Import of vegetables and fruits from Shizuoka and Hyogo prefectures was suspended after AVA detected radioactive contaminants in samples of Japanese mustard spinach and cabbage that were declared to be imported from these two prefectures.

But after investigations by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan, it has been confirmed that the samples were actually from Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures.

The exporters had made a wrong declaration.

Both Saitama and Ibaraki had already been suspended from exporting food products to Singapore on March 26 and March 23 respectively following the nuclear fallout in the country.

Japanese authorities have done follow-up samples of vegetables from Shizuoka and Hyogo and found them to be safe for consumption.

-CNA/ac

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Corn Relish makes best use of summer vegetables

This recipe for corn relish comes from "The Dutch Cookbook" by Edna Eby Heller. The recipe, like many traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipes, almost certainly is German in origin. This is an easy dish to make and a great way to use summer corn and other fresh vegetables. It tastes great with a wide variety of foods and can be used as a side dish or as a condiment. The recipe makes a large quantity, but you can easily cut it in half and still have plenty for yourself and plenty to give away.

CORN RELISH

20 ears of corn, shucked

6 green peppers

6 red peppers

4 large onions

1 large head of cabbage

5 cups vinegar

4 cups sugar

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons dry mustard

2 tablespoons mustard seed

1 tablespoon turmeric

Cook corn in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drop in cold water to stop cooking and cut kernels from the cob.

Chop the peppers, onions and cabbage into small pieces and add to the corn.

Mix vinegar, sugar, salt and other spices in a large heavy-bottomed stockpot and heat to boiling. Add the corn and other vegetables and boil until tender, 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour into sterile jars and seal. Will keep four to six weeks refrigerated. Makes 10 pints.

-- The Baltimore Sun

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The Stir: 7 Delicious Desserts Made From Vegetables (Yes, It's True)

GET UPDATES FROM The Stir Like67 Delicious Desserts Made From Vegetables (Yes, It's True)Posted: 05/16/11 03:50 PM ET React

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For most of us, vegetables are something we reluctantly scarf down before dessert. But imagine what would happen if the two courses were combined into one?

Before you turn your nose up at the very thought, consider this: Professional chefs and home cooks have long been experimenting with vegetable-based desserts -- many with delicious results. After all, savory desserts are popular the world over. So, aren't veggie desserts essentially a not-so-distant cousin of things like bacon, ice cream, and salted caramel cupcakes?

Check out these seven desserts that call for vegetables as a main ingredient, and go way way beyond the classic carrot cake and pumpkin pie. We bet you never realized vegetables had this much sweet potential!

Of course, the vegetable-dessert that's getting the most attention of late is the Neopolitan Eggplant and Chocolate dish served up at Del Posto in New York. It's eggplant crostada served with stracciatella ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate. You can combine the two deliciously bitter flavors yourself in these Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Cauliflower and Raspberry Cheesecake sounds frightening, right? Well, not if you think about it: When paired with homemade ricotta cheese, the cauliflower lends a really light, not-too-sweet essence to the dessert -- it's the perfect way to break out of your boring cheesecake routine.

Chocolate and avocado is a popular combination particularly in pudding because the avocado adds creaminess. Take this idea one step further and freeze the pudding for refreshing Chocolate and Avocado Fudgesicles. The best part? They're dairy-free!

Sweet Potato Cupcakes would remind you of a traditional spice cake flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and other autumnal spices -- except they're better! Ice them with tasty Toasted Marshmallow Frosting.

Don't be disgusted by this suggestion, but beets can go a long way in terms of making your dessert very moist and rich. This recipe for Beet Chocolate Bundt Cake With Ganache Glaze sounds absolutely velvety and divine.

Bakers have been putting black beans in chocolate brownies to make them more decadent and fudgy. This particular recipe for Really Awesome Black Bean Brownies gets the ratio of bean-to-chocolate just right!

Would you eat vegetables for dessert?

Written by Kim Conte for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Chart: Fruit and Vegetables Only for the Rich?

A few weeks ago the USDA in conjunction with the ERS released a map of food deserts in the United States, low-income areas with little access to healthy food. In most cities the signs are unmistakable, the grocery stores turn into liquor stores, the supermarkets disappear. The chart above from the USDA details what may be the effects--or the causes, as it's hard to tell--of these neighborhoods: the closer people get to the poverty line, the less they spend on healthful foods, in the form of fruits and vegetables.

Houses with incomes above 300 percent of the federal poverty line, spent over 50 percent more on fruits and vegetables per person than households with incomes below and just over the poverty line. The breakdown amounts to a difference in dollars a week, as the group earning up to 130 percent of the poverty line spends $3.09 per person on fruits and vegetables, while those earning over 300 percent of the poverty line spent $4.98. This may be indicative of another trend as well, a Gallup report from last fall quotes the CDC to show that a majority of all American's still fail to meet government goals in terms of fruit and vegetable consumption overall.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

AVA lifts suspension on imports from 2 Japan areas

THE Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) has lifted the suspension on fruit and vegetables from Shizuoka and Hyogo prefectures in Japan.

This follows investigations by the Japanese authorities, which had ascertained that samples of contaminated vegetables were not from these two prefectures.

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Studies Link Coffee, Vegetables to Decreased Risk of Some Breast Cancers

Two new studies published in the journals Cancer Prevention Research and Breast Cancer Research, respectively, have shed light on some previously overlooked superfoods that may help reduce a woman's risk of getting breast cancer. The studies looked at the lifestyle choices of women in regards to coffee consumption and the consumption of certain vegetables to determine what, if any, impact they had on the likelihood that a woman would develop breast cancer.

The coffee study, published in the journal Breast Cancer Research, was conducted in Sweden by researchers working through the Karolinska Institute. The scientists concluded that women who regularly drink coffee had a lowered risk of developing estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer.

The other study, conducted by researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri and published in Cancer Prevention Research, used lab rats to determine whether or not a certain compound, apigenin, when introduced into the body, affected tumor formation. Apigenin is found in various fruits and vegetables, including parsley, apples, celery, and some nuts, among other foods. In their study, apigenin appeared to both slow the development of tumors and reduce the number of tumors that developed overall.

Following are some numbers related to the two studies.

51: The average age that a woman in the United States experiences menopause. Researchers in the coffee study pointed to the age that a woman hits menopause as being another heavy factor in regards to their risk of developing breast cancer.

1 in 8: The number of women that will have breast cancer in their lifetime.

More than 200,000: The number of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the United States.

6 million to 10 million: The number of women who are prescribed HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) every year in the United States. The Apigenin study was specifically looking at ways to reduce the increased risk of breast cancer linked to HRT.

45: Percentage of women diagnosed with breast cancer when they are pre-menopausal who have estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer, the type studied in the coffee research.

30: The Body-Mass Index (BMI) at which women are generally considered obese, another risk factor identified in the coffee study and other research.

50 to 74: The age range of the women who participated in the Swedish coffee study.

5 or more: The number of cups of coffee that the women drank who had the greatest reduced risk of breast cancer in the Swedish study.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and former freelance journalist based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and physical fitness.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Bad apples new weapon in grocery war

SUPERMARKET giant Woolworths has fired another shot in the supermarket competition wars with a campaign to weed out bad apples in store.

From today, consumers can return fresh fruit and vegetables to Woolworths store, without a receipt, and they will be offered a refund or product exchange with no questions asked.

“We are actively encouaraging any customer who is not completely happy with the quality or freshness of their Woolworths fruit and vegetables to return them to us,’’ Greg Foran, director of Woolworths Supermarkets, said.

A company spokesman said the move follows a year of consumer evaluation about the company’s fresh fruit and vegetables as well as a revamp of its distribution and supply chain.

Consumers unhappy with produce from a store are already protected by the Australian Competition and Consumer Act and can demand a replacement or a refund, however, this usually requires some proof of purchase.

Coles said that the Woolworths offer was just playing catchup.

"We would always offer customers a replacement product or, if they prefer, a refund. They would not need a receipt," a Coles spokesman said.

"This is part of our 100 percent satisfied promise and applies to fresh produce just the same as any other Coles brand product," the spokesman said.

"We've been doing it for some time so it's nothing new about what Woolworths have announced. They are simply catching up."

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Transplant help success

Home ? A&E? Gardening
Loading… BY PATRICE POWERS-BARKER
SPECIAL TO THE BLADE

Some vegetables will grow directly from seed in the garden such as? radishes, peas, carrots, beets, and beans.

Some vegetables can be planted as seeds or transplanted as “seedlings” (little plants) such as lettuce, squash, and okra.

Warm weather plants such as tomatoes and peppers have to be transplanted into the garden as seedlings because they need a longer growing time than our spring and summer will allow.

If you are purchasing transplants, here are a few characteristics to look for when browsing the greenhouse or garden shop.

A general guideline is to look for short and stocky dark, green plants. If they are too tall or leggy they will not be as strong in the garden. A stocky plant will hold up better under the outdoor weather conditions. It will not be as damaged in strong winds or hard rains, compared to a leggy, thin plant.

Also, unless the plant is supposed to be another color, a dark green color usually indicates adequate nutrients in the plant. If you purchase warm weather fruiting plants such as tomatoes, peppers, or squash you will not need to see blossoms or fruit yet.? It is better to buy a healthy, short, stocky, green seedling with only leaves and then transplant and establish it in the garden before it produces blossoms and fruit.

On the other hand, sometimes the timing of purchasing the transplants and getting them into the garden isn’t perfect.? The weather can dictate a lot of our garden decisions this time of year.

If the transplant has grown too large for the container with roots that are growing in a tight circle in the small pot, or the plant is producing blossoms or fruit, it still can be planted in the garden but do it as soon as it’s warm enough.

“Hardening off” plants is a way to introduce them to the outdoor weather. You can move the seedlings in their containers outside on warm sunny days but they still will need to be protected from cold and windy days and frosty nights.

When it’s time to transplant, dig a hole about twice as large as the container. Remove the plant from a plastic container by grasping the stem of the seedling and gently squeezing the bottom of the plastic. Place the roots in the hole and gently refill the hole with soil. When planting, make sure the roots are completely covered by soil and water thoroughly.

All of the following theme gardens work well in the ground or in large garden containers. Grow a Pizza Garden or Salsa Garden. Try a Salad Garden during our cool spring weather with different colors of lettuce, some herbs, edible flowers, and radishes. Even if you are not a big fan of eating radishes, they are a recommended plant for vegetable gardeners because they grow so fast and offer more immediate results than the tomatoes, which won’t be ready for a few months.

Patrice Bowers-Barker is a program assistant with OSU Extension Lucas County. If you have questions, call the OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Horticultural Hotline at 419-578-6783. Volunteers are on hand Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Questions also may be e-mailed to mastergardener.ag.osu.edu and possibly answered in a future Plant to Plate column.

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Monday, May 23, 2011

Balanced nutrition for a long, healthy life

Balanced nutrition for a long, healthy life | The Trinidad Guardian Trinidad & Tobago Guardian Online Last update: 3 hours 20 min ago

Login or Create your account? Saturday, 07 May 2011 HOMENEWSSPORTSBUSINESSLIFESTYLEENTERTAINMENTCLASSIFIEDSTVRADIO Business GuardianEditorialLettersColumnistsWoman WiseE-EditionGIEDeath NoticesReal EstateArchivesUWI Polls

Home ? lifestyle Your Daily Health Balanced nutrition for a long, healthy life Published: Sat, 2011-05-07 00:30 Tweet A balanced diet would consist of eating foods of every colour, every day. Variety is not just the “spice of life,” it is also a very important way to keep your internal organs healthy.
Even if you’re eating natural fruits, vegetables and grains, if you are eating the exact same thing seven days a week, it is not healthy for you.

Meet the nutrition rainbow
When we eat the exact same thing day in and day out we set our body up to breed imbalances that can lead to disease. Don’t turn your digestive system into a septic breeding ground. Mix things up!
According to the Chinese medical tradition, there are five elemental energies that make up our universe, as well as our bodies. These energies are: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each of these energies has a corresponding colour.? For instance, wood corresponds to green, fire to red, earth to yellow and orange, metal to white, and water to black, blue, and purple. A balanced diet would consist of eating foods of every colour, every day.

Vegetables
Try to eat vegetables every day that represent all of the elemental energies and colours. For green (wood), your choices include asparagus and dark leafy greens such as spinach, broccoli, and kale.
Vegetables in the red group (fire) include hot red peppers, red bell peppers, or beets. For yellow and orange group (earth) eat pumpkins, squash, and yams. Some white vegetables (metal) are cauliflower, jicama, and daikon radish. For your dark veggies (water), try eggplant, seaweed, or black mushrooms.

Fruits and nuts
Your nutrition rainbow should also include a wide array of fruits and nuts. For green: lime or melon for your fruits; and pumpkin seeds or pistachios for nuts and seeds. Red fruits: apples, tomatoes, or cherries; pecans for your red nut. Yellow and orange fruit: mangoes, oranges, or papaya; for nuts: almonds and cashews. For white fruit: pears and bananas; nut: pine nuts and macadamias. Dark (water) fruits: blueberries, and raisins as your fruit; nuts and seeds: chestnuts, walnuts and flaxseeds.

Beans and grains
Don’t forget to eat beans and grains from every elemental colour! Green: lentils and mung beans and rye for your grain. Red: red lentils, adzuki beans, and red beans; for grains, buckwheat and amaranth.
Yellow/orange: chickpeas and butter beans; corn and millet. White: soybeans and white beans, rice and barley.? Dark: navy beans and black beans, quinoa and black wild rice. Follow this advice in every category and you’ll be taking in nearly 600 carotenoids, which are the powerful antioxidants that mop up free radicals to prevent cancer and help you see, smell, hear and live better.

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Moo Shu Vegetables

Main Dish

Moo Shu Vegetables

3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

4 large eggs

6 to 8 scallions

1-inch piece fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves

12 ounces shredded vegetables or prepared slaw mix (from the produce department)

2 cups mung-bean sprouts

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

Heat a teaspoon of the oil in a wok or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Lightly beat the eggs in a liquid measuring cup. Pour into the skillet and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, or just until the eggs are set. Transfer to a bowl.

Wipe out the wok or skillet and add the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil over medium heat.

Trim the scallions and cut them on the diagonal into thin slices. Peel and mince the ginger to yield a tablespoon. Mince the garlic to yield 2 teaspoons.

Add the ginger and garlic to the wok or skillet; stir-fry for 1 minute, then add the shredded vegetables or slaw mix, the mung bean sprouts, half of the scallions, the soy sauce and the vinegar; stir to combine, then cover and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Add the hoisin sauce and return the eggs to the wok or skillet, stirring to break them up and incorporate them into the vegetables; this should take about 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining scallions. Makes 4 servings.

Source: Adapted from “Eating Well 500 Calorie Dinners” by Jessie Price, Nico Micco and the Eating Well Test Kitchen (Eating Well, 2010).

Per serving: 190 calories, 11 g protein, 17 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 210 mg cholesterol, 470 mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber, 12 g sugar.

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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Hints from Heloise: Wash your produce, but don't use bleach

DEAR HELOISE: I purchase fruits and vegetables at my local farmers market each week. The produce is not wrapped, and before I prepare any of it, I soak it in water to which I have added 2 tablespoons of bleach. I don't know how many people have handled the produce prior to my purchasing it, and wish to be as safe as possible.

– Eva Knight, Via Email

DEAR EVA: Washing produce is always important, especially with outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli. We checked with the Food and Drug Administration, and it does not recommend using bleach, soap, detergent or produce washes. The FDA says to thoroughly "wash" all produce under only running water before using or cooking, which means to rub the surface with your hand or a vegetable brush to remove dirt, etc. If you want, you can use a clean paper towel to "scrub" the surface of delicate fruits and veggies.

Scrub firm vegetables, like potatoes, using a produce brush. Fruits with hard skins, like cantaloupe, should be scrubbed using a veggie brush under water so that bacteria don't move from the outside to the inside flesh when the skin is cut. Use a colander when washing fruit or veggies so cleaned items don't sit in dirty water.

DEAR HELOISE: My question is about bath towels. After a few washings, they begin to take on an almost musty, moldy odor. How do I get rid of this smell?

– Erin P., Via Email

DEAR ERIN: This is a common problem, which has several possible causes. Overloading the washing machine usually is the main culprit, so try washing fewer towels using a high water-level setting and even a second rinse. Use the normal amount of laundry detergent plus half-cup of baking soda or washing soda (found in the laundry aisle).

Towels often lose absorbency from the overuse of fabric softener or sheets. These products can cause buildup on the towels when not used correctly. When water cannot thoroughly penetrate and clean the towels, it causes odor. Always check the manufacturer's label before washing your towels. Some recommend not to use fabric softener (or bleach) at all.

Finally, always put towels in the dryer as soon as you can after washing.

DEAR HELOISE: I had a problem with my bedsheets and mattress cover. Every morning, I would wake up, and the sheets and mattress cover would be off the corner of the bed because of the plastic protective cover that was under them.

I solved this problem with a pair of my husband's suspenders. I attached one side (two clips) to one end of the mattress cover, and put the other under the mattress and attached the other two clips to the other side. Worked great!

– Pat C. In Danville, Ky.

DEAR HELOISE: I used to check pockets and make sure there were no tissues, but still there would be lint on black clothes. I finally figured it out. If I wash black clothes after towels or fuzzy things, the lint gets attached to the washer. So, never wash black items after doing towels. Either rinse out the machine on a rinse cycle or take a microfiber cloth and wipe the inside of the washer.

– Judy In Canfield, Ohio

DEAR JUDY: And, here's another laundry-day hint, from Loree Long of Weatherford, Texas. She says: "I always have a tablecloth for spring. Before removing it to launder, I attach a safety pin on each stain that needs pre-treating. Works every time, and you end up with a clean tablecloth for the next family/friend lunch or dinner."

– Heloise

DEAR HELOISE: To keep from cutting yourself on a sharp knife in a kitchen drawer, I take a round tube from a used paper-towel roll and staple one end two or three times. I use it to hold a long, sharp knife. The same idea works with a toilet-paper tube and shorter paring knives. The knives fit nicely and safely in any kitchen drawer.

– Betty Blaser-Perkins In Ventura

DEAR HELOISE: The cleanest and easiest way to slice through an avocado is lengthwise all the way around to the pit, twist to separate in half, remove the pit and use a spoon to scoop the avocado out.

– Kathy, Phoenix

DEAR HELOISE: When opening a carton of fresh strawberries, we tend to reach for the pretty, luscious berries we see on top. Instead, empty the strawberries into a bowl and use the ones on the bottom first. Fewer wasted strawberries!

– Gloria, Via Email

DEAR READERS: Here are helpful hints for measuring sugar: Confectioners' or powdered sugar, typically used in frostings and icings, absorbs moisture, which causes clumping. This is why it must be sifted or fluffed before measuring, then leveled off with a smooth, flat utensil.

Brown sugar should be pressed down firmly with a spoon and then leveled off. The brown sugar should retain the shape of the cup when turned into the bowl.

Granulated sugar can simply be placed in the measuring cup and, of course, leveled off for use.

Send a great hint to Heloise, P.O. 79500, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

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You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the flag icon to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.

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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Egg noodles with chicken, vegetables and ginger

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SERVES: 4-6

‧ 1 12-ounce bag egg noodles
‧ Approx. 2 cups pre-cooked, diced chicken meat
‧ 4 cups chicken stock
‧ 1 medium onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
‧ 3-4 small-medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
‧ 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
‧ 2 Tbs peeled and minced fresh ginger
‧ Approx. 3 cups small broccoli florets
‧ Salt and pepper to taste

1. Get all the vegetables ready to go, and get a large pot of water going for eventually cooking the noodles.

2. Then use a large pot with a splash of olive oil to saute 1 medium sliced onion cooking it until it softens up.

3. At that point, add your peeled and chopped carrots, 3-4 finely minced cloves of garlic and about 2 Tbs of finely minced fresh ginger, let those go for a minute and then add 4 cups of chicken stock and bring it up to a simmer.

4. Once the carrots have been simmering along for 3-4 minutes add the bag of egg noodles to the boiling water.

5. When you are just about ready to drain the cooking noodles through a colander in the sink, add 2-3 cups of broccoli florets to the simmering chicken stock and cook those until they are tender crisp.

6. Then add the diced cooked chicken meat and the still hot drained noodles, season with salt and pepper to taste and it is time to eat.

HINTS: Add the cooked noodles to the individual bowls and then add the vegetables and broth to that. That way, if there are leftovers, the noodles aren't soaking up the broth and getting too soft for the next meal.

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LIBRARY NOTES: Books can help yield results in the garden

There are many rewards in growing and harvesting your own vegetables and fruits. Even though my family lived in town, my parents planted a big garden that included tomatoes, beans, watermelon, cucumbers, strawberries and fruit trees. We kids helped harvest and prepare the produce for canning and freezing.

Mom made the best apple pie and watermelon pickles from some of the harvest. We seldom had to go to the store for a can of vegetables.

To get you started this year, we have gardening books ready to be checked out. The first book I recommend is James A. Fizzell's "Guide to Wisconsin Vegetable Gardening," whether you are a beginner or expert gardener. He suggests the best vegetables and herbs for a Wisconsin garden.

Included are easy recipes, such as focaccia with cherry tomatoes and eggplant parmigiana. Helpful charts are given with information on the number of days required from planting to harvest. The author advises you when, where and how to plant for each vegetable and herb.

Joann Woy's book "Accessible Gardening" is a guidebook of tips and techniques to help you overcome obstacles and return the joy of gardening to your life. Whether illness, accident or advancing age has frustrated you, do come in and check out this book.

There are directions for constructing raised bed planters and specifications for inclines, paths and railings. Horticultural therapy can lead to increased physical strength and self-esteem.

These books and other gardening books can be found at La Crosse County Library branches in Bangor, Campbell, Onalaska, Holmen and West Salem. If the item you are looking for is not on the shelf at your favorite facility, you may request items through the Winding Rivers Library catalog on our website www.lacrossecountylibrary.org, or in person at any circulation desk.

Mary Humm, a La Crosse County Library System staff member in the Holmen branch, retired Monday after 26 years on the job.

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Friday, May 20, 2011

Reconnecting with my roots (and vegetables)

People travel the world to experience foreign cultures, to step outside of their familiar sphere of understanding.

Traveling is one thing, but experiencing a culture is another. The prominent linguist Kato Lomb joked that people take the Latin proverb, "saxa loquuntur," "stones talk," all too literally. Her point was that just being somewhere does not mean that you automatically absorb the culture, like a sponge. You have to experience the culture to really understand the way other people live their lives. And one way to have this experience is closer to home than you may think.

While stones may not talk, food certainly does. It tells a unique story of a culture, its people and their way of life. Food and food traditions transmit the language, stories and values of a culture. Earlier this spring I had the opportunity to reconnect with my own cultural roots through a traditional Pennsylvania German meal with food historian Dr. William Woys Weaver.

The Pennsylvania German, or "Dutch," culture we have in Lancaster County traces its roots back to the Swiss, German and Eastern French immigrants who settled here during the 18th and 19th centuries. Through time these people established a unique language, culture and food tradition here in Eastern Pennsylvania that is now famous the world over.

Weaver has spent much of his life, from boyhood to the present, researching this tradition. A fluent speaker of Pennsylvania German, he has translated Pennsylvania German books into English and has extensively documented local culinary traditions.

The scene was set for a great meal as we pulled into the driveway of his 1700s Roughwood Tavern home, an historic building once a stop for travelers on the road from Lancaster to Philadelphia. Outside of its tall doorways, large rooms and historic architecture, the house is framed on all sides with garden beds where Weaver collects and preserves traditional varieties of plants from around the world, all a part of his research on food traditions.

Contrary to popular belief, Pennsylvania German food is not the artery-clogging tourist fare found in many restaurants across Lancaster County. With agriculture so prominent in the area, it features many fruits, vegetables and meats that were abundant locally. While some rich dishes certainly exist, I was impressed by just how healthy, flavorful and filling the dishes were.

One of the main dishes was zwiwwelkuche, or onion tart. A thick bread crust is topped with caramelized onions and cheese and baked in the oven until golden, kind of a Pennsylvania German pizza. It used to be a typical dish fed to farm workers who endured long days of hard physical labor. It is, however, a sharp contrast to the highly processed snacks people enjoy today.

Next on the menu were small, spiced Hosenschantz pears that had been prepared "sweet and sour," seasoned with herbs like cloves and cinnamon, and pickled in vinegar and sugar, a typical Pennsylvania German take on pickles. They had a delightful crunch and a strong, spiced flavor.

The Hosenschantz pear is only a fraction of the size of a regular pear. Over dinner Weaver disclosed the mystery surrounding this old pear, which dates back to1805: The pears turn from green and crunchy, like an apple, to soft mush almost overnight. Why would someone intentionally grow a pear tree that produces tiny fruit that spoils so quickly? The answer, Weaver discovered, was in how you use the pears. Their mushy quality, and excellent flavor as they become soft, means they lend themselves well to pear butter. Fruit "butters" used to be a common way to preserve fresh fruit into winter. A large kettle of fruit would be stewed for several hours until it was thick like butter and concentrated. These "butters" had a long shelf life and represented a cultural approach to storing foods by people who did not have refrigeration.

The string beans served were pickled sweet and sour, like the pears, spiced with caraway seed and "?snippled," cut into ridged strips that resembled the ridges in a potato chip. These pickled, snippled beans, schnippelbuhne, were a reminder of a time when many people "snippled" their vegetables by running them through a special grinder-like "snippler" machine.

Even the potato salad, grumbiere-selaat in Pennsylvania German, had a traditional twist. The potatoes were tubers harvested the previous fall from Weaver's garden. They were small, dry and shriveled, and resembled a prune much more than a potato. Weaver explained that, prior to chemicals, most potatoes used to look this way by the end of winter, as the tubers lost moisture and shrank to a fraction of their original size. Today they are sprayed with chemicals to maintain their pristine appearance throughout the year. Never judge a book by its cover, as the saying goes. Served with a light mustard dressing, they were still firm and flavorful. I never would have never guessed that these potatoes had aged all winter.

For dessert we ate blackberry pie, brombeere kuche, and Quaker cakes, Quaekerkuche, a recipe recipe that dates back to the 1800s and was first translated by Weaver.

We dined on a hearty meal of food, stories, traditions and language — all an important part of our region's heritage, yet few people know of them today. Dishes that were once an important element of my family's daily life were as foreign to me as manicotti and minestra might be for someone exploring Italian cuisine.

Whether you are using food to reconnect with your own cultural roots, or as a tool to learn about an exotic foreign culture, the experience is only as far away as a cook who knows how to prepare these traditional dishes. Whether it's spending time with a food historian like Weaver, or learning about spiced watermelon rind in your grandmother's kitchen, you can make these cultural connections whenever you experience even the simplest of foods. I have always been fascinated by foreign language and cultures and always will be, but what this meal helped me to realize is just how special my own culture and heritage is.

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Top pasta with carmelized vegetables and porcini mushrooms

Here’s an unusual and luscious pasta dish with sweet caramelized vegetables and crispy breadcrumbs that are flavoured with porcini mushrooms.

Porcini (pronounced por-CHEE-nee) mushrooms have a dark, intriguing flavour. You can buy them dried in gourmet stores or well-stocked supermarkets, and soak them in liquid to soften them and use in sauces and stews. But this is the first time I’ve used them dried as a flavouring.

I got the idea from famous British cook and television personality Jamie Oliver to toss in a handful of dried porcini mushrooms with breadcrumbs into your blender or food processor, to make a crisp and tasty topping for pasta.

It tastes so good, you won’t even need grated cheese!

Jamie Oliver used leeks with his pasta. Since it’s spring, I used beautiful little zucchini that I found at the Kitchener Farmers Market, with a few curls of lemon zest for that whiff of freshness.

It was a delicious supper that I’ll make over and over again.

ldamato@therecord.com

Spaghetti with Caramelized Onions, Zucchini and Porcini Breadcrumbs

125 ml (1/2 cup) olive oil

2 large red onions, chopped

2 or 3 young zucchini, sliced thickly

A yellow pepper, cut into bite-size pieces

4 large white mushrooms, sliced

4 pieces day-old white bread

Handful of dried porcini mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, chopped

Handful of Italian parsley, chopped

Enough spaghetti for 3 or 4 people

5 ml (1 tsp) lemon zest

Heat the olive oil on medium in a large saucepan, Stir in the onions, zucchini, pepper and mushrooms. Cook on medium-low heat, covered, for 15 minutes or until vegetables are very tender.

While vegetables cook, boil water for spaghetti in another large pot and add salt. Put in the pasta and boil until tender but not mushy; drain and toss with a small amount of oil to prevent sticking.

Toast the bread and break into pieces. Put it into a food processor or blender and add the handful of dried mushrooms. Process to crumbs.

When the vegetables have cooked 15 minutes, remove the lid and turn up the heat to brown them. Add the chopped garlic in the last few minutes of cooking. When garlic is a pale gold, lift vegetables out of the oil with a slotted spoon and place in serving bowl. Add the breadcrumbs to the oil remaining in the pan and cook a few seconds until breadcrumbs are crisp.

Add the pasta to the serving bowl and toss with the vegetables. Toss again with the breadcrumbs, parsley and lemon zest. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Heirloom vegetables pack rich history, powerful flavor

For many gardeners, nothing rekindles childhood memories like biting into an heirloom vegetable.

Up until 1950, heirlooms were the norm in the home vegetable garden, but after the creation of an F1 (first filial generation) hybrid sweet corn after WWII, hybridization of vegetables in-creased dramatically. Gardeners like hybrids? vigorous growth, uniformity and disease tolerance, but this often comes at the loss of the scrumptious flavor people remember from the earlier varieties.

?The definition of an heirloom is it has to have at least a 50-year history of not being cross-pollinated,? said Jay Buckley, who grows heirlooms with his wife Kathy at Organic Heaven in Great Falls.

To read the rest of this story, check out Saturday's At Home section. Plus, House of the Week and Martha Stewart Living.

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Inflation up at 8.98% on costlier vegetables, fuels

Business Line : Markets / Commodities : Inflation up at 8.98% on costlier vegetables, fuels QuickLook: ArchivesSubscriptionRSS FeedsSite MapePaperSocialBL Club SEARCH HomeCompaniesIndustry & EconomyOpinionMarketsFeaturesToday's PaperTopicsStock MarketsCommoditiesToday's PickGold Inflation up at 8.98% on costlier vegetables, fuelsOur BureauShare??·??Comment??·??print??·?? New Delhi, April 15:?Inflation, based on the annual Wholesale Price Index, rose faster than expected in March to 8.98 per cent on higher prices of vegetables, fuels and manufactured products.

The March reading was well above the Reserve Bank of India's inflation projection of 8 per cent for the last month of fiscal 2010-11, adding pressure on the central bank to tighten its monetary policy. The latest estimate was also sharply higher than the year-on-year increase of 8.31 per cent recorded in February.

JANUARY DATA REVISEDMeanwhile, January's reading was sharply revised up to 9.35 per cent from 8.23 per cent reported earlier, and analysts expect the March reading could eventually be adjusted upwards into double-digits. “More monetary tightening is inevitable after today's data and the case for a 50 basis point hike in May is strengthened,” an analyst said. The RBI's next policy review meeting is scheduled for May 3.

According to the monthly data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday, the food price index rose an annual 9.47 per cent in March, compared with a reading of 10.65 per cent in the previous month, and the fuel price index increased 12.92 per cent annually from 11.49 per cent in February, primarily on account of a coal price hike getting factored in. Manufacturing inflation surged sharply to 6.21 per cent in March, compared with 4.94 per cent recorded in the prior month.

WEEKLY DATAWeekly inflation data, also released on Friday, shows that food inflation fell to a year's low of 8.28 per cent for the week ended April 2, as certain essential items, like pulses and wheat, showed a declining trend. Food inflation has declined for the third consecutive week. The figure was 9.18 per cent in the preceding week.

The lowest level of food inflation as seen in 2010 was on November 20 when it stood at 8.6 per cent. During the week under review, pulses dipped by 4.76 per cent, and potatoes and wheat were down 2.73 per cent and 1.05 per cent respectively on an annual basis, official data released here show.

However, other food items continued to gain, with fruits up 24 per cent year-on-year, and the eggs, meat and fish subgroup surging 11 per cent. On an annual basis, milk was up 4.05 per cent, cereals were up 3.49 per cent, and rice and wheat surged by 2.2 per cent. Vegetables were up by 5.41 per cent, led by onion, which surged 7.74 per cent on an annual basis.

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Food is Love: Here's what's in season for spring

Fresh, locally grown produce is the holy grail of cooking.

These vegetables and greens will look better, taste better and, as is often the case, will be at their lowest price of the year because they are in season.

Since you can buy every ingredient year-round –– whether it is in season or not –– many people have lost touch with what is truly seasonal. If you are not buying from a local farm stand, it might be hard to tell.

Let me make it easier for you. Now is the season for:

Vegetables: asparagus, peas (garden, snow, sugar snap), radishes, broccoli rabes (rapini), fiddlehead ferns, parsnips (spring dug), baby carrots, garlic (green garlic), shallots, sweet onions, leeks and ramps (wild onions).

Greens: pea tendrils, spinach, arugula, young swiss chard and mustard greens, watercress, baby lettuces and exotic lettuces like mizuna and frisee.

Herbs: mint, chives, chervil, parsley and thyme.

That’s what you should be looking for when you go shopping. I recommend that you shop first, and then decide what you’re cooking. It’s not that hard; you just have to break the habit of making a shopping list that includes specific vegetables and other foods, like seafood.

Don’t worry; trust your eyes, your nose, your memory (and my list). There is an old saying: what grows together, goes together.

Now, let’s take a closer look at spring’s bounty. Asparagus are to spring what corn and tomatoes are to summer. With a unique, delicious flavor and an aroma that goes well with a wide range of flavors and cooking techniques, asparagus are extremely versatile.

Asparagus can be steamed, boiled, broiled, roasted or grilled. They can be served hot in a pasta or risotto, as a side dish with the main course, or made into soup; cold (cooked and chilled), they are terrific as an appetizer or in a composed salad (with spring greens, of course).

I have paired asparagus with prosciutto, bacon, gravlax, crab, hardboiled egg, morels and other mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, potatoes, onions, oranges –– the list is almost endless. Indeed, asparagus is the king of spring vegetables.

Peas only grow in cool weather. Garden peas are a bit of work to shuck, but snow peas and sugar snap peas require only a minimal amount of preparation, and they cook in seconds, as do shucked peas. They can be stir-fried with Asian flavors or simply sauteed in butter with a little fresh mint or chervil.

I love radishes in salads and crudites, but they have other uses. Try them as a snack, French style with butter and salt or stuffed with a little creamy blue cheese. You can even slice them and saute them in butter.

Spring-dug parsnips are left to freeze underground from the previous season and then harvested as soon as the ground thaws. They are the most exotic and spicy flavored of all root vegetables. Peel them and cut them in pieces, then barely cover them in slightly salted water. When they are fully cooked, puree them with a little of the cooking water, butter, salt and pepper. (People always ask me what the seasoning is when I cook them this way, and I say “salt and pepper.” They usually think I’m holding out.)

Spinach is the most popular spring green; young spinach makes for beautiful salads, as does arugula, watercress, mizuna, frisee and baby lettuces. After a long winter of imported lettuce, these tender salad greens are welcome.

Spinach is also wonderful when quickly sauteed or stir-fried in olive oil with shallots or garlic. Young tender Swiss chard and mustard greens can be cooked this way, as well, but they need a little more cooking time than spinach.

My favorite is pea tendrils, quickly stir-fried with garlic and ginger. The tender greens used in salads can be cooked, as well, but they should only be warmed, or what most chefs refer to as wilted. The best way to do this is to heat the pan, and add oil, butter or vinaigrette. Then add the lettuce, and remove it from the heat. Toss the greens, and then quickly remove from the pan.

Last but certainly not least is the onion family. Although most are not local until late spring or early summer, this is the peak season for garlic, shallots, scallions, sweet onions and leeks. Use them abundantly in all your cooking and notice that their flavor is milder and cleaner at this time of year when they are freshly harvested.

Ramps (wild onions) are found locally near streams after the thaw; they are also available commercially. Use them sparingly as the aftertaste can last for days. Never –– I repeat, never –– order them in a restaurant or cook them on a first date or other social situation where your breath could compromise your well-being.

Winter is over! The world is colored in green, not white, and has a new palette of flavors to enjoy. So cook with joy and love and spring vegetables.

Jasper White is a chef, author, entrepreneur and owner of Summer Shack restaurants and the Fish Market at Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, Mass. Got a question for Jasper? Send an e-mail to features@ledger.com with “Jasper White” in the subject line.

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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Recipe: Spring soup with leeks, parsnips, potatoes and horseradish

There are many indications we have emerged from the white, insular cold of winter into the fresh, warm green of spring. These two colors, white and green, that mark this transition also are found in the foods available to us in April.

Once the snow has melted, and the ground is workable, you can go out with your pitchfork and dig up white tubers and roots that have been storing starches and carbohydrates underground all winter. The three that come to mind are parsnips, horseradish and Jerusalem artichokes. All look strikingly similar though they are nuanced in taste, texture and appearance.

Parsnips are planted in the spring and grow until fall, when they can be covered with mulch and harvested the following spring. Parsnips also can be harvested in the fall or winter as long as they have been through a few frosts to sweeten them up.

Horseradish, on the other hand, is a perennial plant, and its roots can be harvested in the spring every year. If you harvest too early they won?t have developed much heat. The horseradish roots look strikingly similar to the other white vegetables of spring and are dug around the same time. You peel the roots, chop them up and store them in vinegar or use fresh.

Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sunchokes, are an interesting tuber. They are made up primarily of carbohydrates rather than starch like in potatoes. They are crisp when fresh but can become mushy if overcooked. The flowers look similar to sunflowers. Sunchokes easily can become a weed in any garden if they aren?t properly managed.

While the previous year?s bounty can be dug up in the spring garden, there are also myriad green things shooting up everywhere to be harvested. Many gardeners and farmers are growing spring greens in greenhouses, and others are out foraging in the woods. The food theme is green and leafy.

My two favorite foods to harvest this time of year are wild leeks, commonly known as ramps, and fiddleheads. The fiddlehead season hasn?t hit this area of Vermont yet, but the ramps are prolific and have been since Easter. Both the bulb and the green leafy part of the ramp are edible. Ramps are easily identifiable in the woods.

If you are interested in learning to forage wild edibles check out, ?Stalking the Wild Asparagus,? or have an experienced forager take you out. There also are many courses about wild edibles offered in Vermont in the spring.

It?s great to be in the kitchen this time of year with a new variety of vegetables and wild edibles to work with. Think: leek and garlic pesto, or leek, sunchoke and parsnip quiche!

Most recently I made a leek, parsnip, potato and horseradish soup. The parsnips and horseradish were harvested from our garden, the leeks from a local patch, and the potatoes from the root cellar. The base of the soup is glorious dairy. Of course, there is always ample dairy to be found in Vermont, so I used goat?s milk from our farm, butter from Cabot and cream from Strafford Organic Creamery. Even though the days are warming up, it is still chilly enough at night to enjoy a warm soup.

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High price for hothouse vegetables in Armenia explained by increased cost of gas, fertilizers

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Deputy Minister of Agriculture commented on high price for hothouse vegetables at news conference in Yerevan.

Samvel Galstyan explained the high price by the increased cost of gas and fertilizers.

To protect the local manufacturer, the Deputy Minister urged the authorities to harden tax and customs administration for importers, specifically from Turkey, where the cost of hothouse production is much lower.

Agrarian University Professor, Andreas Melikyan, in turn, suggested introducing changes to production technologies, allowing to lower self –cost of production and increase crop capacity.

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Monday, May 16, 2011

Philippines limits imports of plants, fruits, vegetables from Japan

The Philippine government has banned the importation of planting materials and plant products such as fruits and vegetables from six prefectures considered to be affected by radiation in Japan, an official said Wednesday.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said Wednesday that based on the assessment of the Bureau of Plant Industry, "there may be risk of increased levels of radiation-contamination of plants, planting materials and plant products in Japan."

Alcala said the government is temporarily suspending the issuance of plant quarantine clearance for the importation of plants, planting materials, and plant products such as fruits and vegetables from the prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Iwata, and Miyagi was temporarily suspended.

He stressed the importance of food safety and of protecting the consuming public from harm that may be caused by radiation- contaminated agriculture and fisheries products.

The government issued the ban on the basis of a report of the Philippine embassy in Tokyo that the earthquake in Japan has resulted in serious nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant which may have affected the radionuclide levels of food, water, and the atmosphere.

Source: Xinhua

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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Cedar Mill's Curious Farm debuts at Beaverton Farmers Market with pickles, herbs and vegetables

BRENT WOJAHN/The OregonianCathy Smith dishes up some of her sauerkraut that fermented for weeks at her in-home pickle lab. The name of her business, Curious Farm, reflects the curious nature of the farm, pickles, Smith's outlook on life and gardening and much more. CEDAR MILL -- There's a magic to the way Cathy Smith can make a perishable vegetable remain fresh for months.

But how it retains its texture, flavor and nutrition is more alchemy than mystery: In a makeshift lab in the center of her Cedar Mill house, vegetables are fermenting, taking on a new life as pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi and kvass.

Smith, 46, believes in vegetables. And she believes in preserving them.

"All a cabbage wants to do his or her whole life is become sauerkraut," she said. "Left to its own devices, it would."

Her pickled goods, along with fresh vegetables and herbs, make their debut when the Beaverton Farmers Market opens for the season Saturday.

Curious Farm, the small plot of land on Northwest Leahy Road where Smith lives with her 6-year-old daughter, husband and 16 chickens, came about organically.

When her daughter, Eloise, was born, Smith left her publishing job to stay home. Since then, she's grown the majority of her family's produce on their two-thirds of an acre. Last year, the garden's harvest was so great, she started selling it to neighbors.

Get details on days, hours and locations of Portland area farmers marketsSmith loved sharing the flavor of just-picked produce, and many neighbors were eager to take home eggs from hens that spend their days clucking around the banks of a tiny creek running along the back of the property.

At the farmers market, however, she's excited to broaden her reach and find a few like-minded pickle-lovers in the crowd.

Think pickle, and you might conjure an image of a Vlasic dill sidled up to a barbecued burger at a summer cookout.

That's a pickle, sure, Smith would agree. But it's nothing like the pickles she came to know when she lived in New York for three years.

In New York, pickles are everywhere, she said. And they're "real," preserved through fermentation rather than heat-processed and steeped in vinegar.

When she moved to the Northwest, she set out to re-create the pickles she missed.

"I'm passionate about these pickles," she said. "And I'm excited about them."

A delighted laugh follows. Pickles themselves are funny, she said. Small green cucumbers -- the quintessential pickle -- have a funny shape, texture and skin.

BRENT WOJAHN/The OregonianCathy Smith slices beets for kvass, a nutritional beverage, in the kitchen of her Cedar Mill home. But soft-spoken Smith is earnest, even philosophical, about pickles. They are, after all, serious business.

"This is scary to a lot of people, because you're managing rot," Smith said. "It's thoughtful rot."

Her husband David, a former Intel engineer who's working on a startup, has helped her understand the science of fermentation, she said.

She turned her home into a mini processing plant and earned a domestic food processor's license so she could market her pickles.

She's taken a serious angle to a funny food because Smith has found that there's a flip side to gardening's joyous rewards: the fleeting season.

"When you spend three months coaxing the snow peas, it's sad and you want to preserve that season's bounty," she said. "Sometimes I'd cry when I couldn't figure out a way to save the produce I love so much."

In a pickle, though, she can arrest a moment and extend a vegetable's life.

So it follows that the more she's gardened, the more she's pickled: beets, carrots, garlic, turnips, peas, blueberries, grapes.

She works with a palette of flavors and colors that seem endless, spanning sweet, salty, tangy and spicy, orange, purple, cream and every kind of green. Such is the art -- and science -- of pickling.

"I love how it captures a season so beautifully," she said. "How it captures a moment in the garden."

-- Emily E. Smith

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Touro University, area food banks want poor to have healthier options

While Vallejo is known for its comfortable climate, the city becomes a "food desert" when it comes to the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy things to eat, health experts say.

"It's easier to buy a bag of potato chips than it is find healthy foods in most stores," County Supervisor Linda Seifert said.

Some Vallejoans easily can get to fully stocked grocery stores, but many more live in neighborhoods with virtually no nearby food stores except for a few convenience markets or fast food outlets, food bank and county officials said Friday.

But much is on the menu for trying to improve this situation.

More than 50 representatives of county agencies, food pantries, Touro University, social service agencies and community garden groups gathered Friday to plant seeds of change.

"This program, for me, is an opportunity to create better access for families to get healthy food for themselves and their children," Seifert said.

Held at Vallejo's John F. Kennedy Library, the session, organized by the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano and Solano County Public Health, focused on how to foster healthy living while also battling the area's above average obesity rate of nearly 25 percent in adults and children.

Two Vallejo neighborhoods -- downtown and near Vallejo High School -- are so devoid of places to buy healthy food, they are deemed "toxic," according to a Solano Public Health Department 2008 survey.

The downtown

neighborhood scored slightly higher than Vallejo High neighborhood in the survey because of the weekly Saturday morning Farmers Market on Georgia Street, Solano Nutrition Services Manager Denise Kirnig said.

With so few places to buy good food, obesity will follow, officials said.

Communities, including many parts of Vallejo, with five times more convenience markets and fast-food restaurants as grocery stores will have dramatically more obese residents than areas where fresh produce and whole grains are easily available, said Charlotte Dickson, director of the HEAL Cities Campaign in the Center for Public Health Advocacy.

Kirnig said there there's been some improvement in the last three years and a new survey will be done this year or 2012 to mark those changes.

Some promising changes are "corner stores" in Vallejo which have amended their offerings to comply with new federal Women Infant and Children (WIC) food guidelines, Kirnig said.

As a result, their shelves contain more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, tofu and low-fat dairy products so that families with WIC food vouchers can shop there, she said.

Another healthy move has been the Food Bank's efforts to work with California farmers to obtain produce, food bank project director Lindsay Johnson said.

Carrots and potatoes and other produce items, in turn, are shipped out to pantries and put into food boxes for legions of low-income families, Johnson said.

Vallejo's new community garden -- Vallejo People's Garden on Mare Island -- is another move to get fruits and vegetables onto Vallejo tables. The garden recently opened and already has harvested some vegetables, board member Amanda Cundiff said.

A community meeting of the garden's board of directors will be held 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday to drum up more volunteer support and to find ways to work with schools and community groups. Cundiff said all are welcome to attend and join the community garden project.

The meeting takes place at the garden, located near the Global Center for Success, 1055 Azuar Drive on Mare Island.

Garden volunteers wants to teach people to grow food and explore ways to make money by selling fruits and vegetables, volunteer Rachel Brinkerhoff said. New city ordinances and other land-use changes may be needed to allow for that, speakers said.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Marti Brown said she and Mayor Osby Davis are drafting a resolution on how best to develop policies on new city services and programs aimed at improving residents' diets and exercise levels.

Community gardens, urban farming, limits on fast-food restaurants and similar measures likely would be part of the resolution, Brown said.

Friday's forum is just the start of making needed changes, Kirnig said. The next step is to team up with Touro University in convening another meeting and also encouraging participants to contact and work with each other, she said.

"We'd like to see the folks on the ground make the changes since they are the ones who will be working together," Johnson said.

Contact staff writer Sarah Rohrs at srohrs@timesheraldonline.com or (707) 553-6832.

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Saturday, May 14, 2011

By David Fitch Special to the Daily Herald

Perennial asparagus is a difficult delicacy to grow Posted On: Friday, May. 6 2011 11:44 PM By David Fitch
Special to the Daily Herald

When I was growing up, my mother could not get me to eat green vegetables of any kind. I employed every trick in the book and even invented a few more in an effort to escape those nasty- tasting vegetables.

The U.S. Army changed all that. By the time I completed basic training at Fort Bragg, N.C., I would eat anything on my plate and then ask for seconds.

As an adult, I developed a taste and an appreciation for asparagus, Asparagus officinalis. There are as many as 300 species of asparagus but most are considered to be ornamental plants.

People have been enjoying asparagus as a food item since the early days of the Roman and Greek empires. Asparagus was later brought to North America by the early European settlers. Historically, asparagus is considered to be a delicacy for higher society. Even today, asparagus is one of the pricier vegetables found at the supermarket. That may be explained by the fact that asparagus is one of the most difficult vegetables for the average gardener to establish and maintain in the garden.

Asparagus is a perennial plant. Therefore, it requires a dedicated spot in your garden. As an alternative, you can establish a separate planting area that is not part of your main vegetable garden. The spot you ultimately select should get full sun and be a light, well-drained soil. Asparagus prefers a soil rich in nutrients with a pH on the acid side of neutral, 6.5 to 7.5. The plants grow to 4 or 5 feet tall so be careful not to place them where they will shade your other plants.

Starting asparagus from seed is a very risky, time consuming and daunting task. It is highly recommended by experienced gardeners that you start by planting year-old crowns. The crowns can be purchased from many reputable vendors of garden plants. Typically, the crowns are planted in rows about 1? feet apart and about 6 inches deep. Start by digging a trench. Place the crowns in the trench and put in just enough soil to cover them. As they grow, continue to cover with soil until the trench is filled.

I prefer to cook mine on a griddle or a large frying pan with a little bit of virgin olive oil. If you add some Italian bread crumbs, some garlic, onions and seasoning of choice you have a great addition to any meal. Be careful not to overcook them. They are best when still a little crunchy but tender. Give it a try. You'll get the hang of it.

Be patient. You will not be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor for at least a year after starting the crowns and possibly not until the year after that. So if you are thinking of planting asparagus, now would be a good time to start the process. For more detailed information on planting and maintaining your asparagus garden, check with the Aggie Horticulture website.

Have any questions about gardening in Central Texas? Email ask.bcmga@gmail.com.

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Recipe: Egg Noodles with Chicken, Vegetables and Ginger

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SERVES:
4-6

INGREDIENTS:

1 12-ounce bag egg noodles
Approx. 2 cups pre-cooked, diced chicken meat
4 cups chicken stock
1 medium onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
3-4 small-medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 Tbs peeled and minced fresh ginger
Approx. 3 cups small broccoli florets
Salt and pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

Get all the vegetables ready to go, and get a large pot of water going for eventually cooking the noodles.

Then use a large pot with a splash of olive oil to saute 1 medium sliced onion cooking it until it softens up.

At that point, add your peeled and chopped carrots, 3-4 finely minced cloves of garlic and about 2 Tbs of finely minced fresh ginger, let those go for a minute and then add 4 cups of chicken stock and bring it up to a simmer.

Once the carrots have been simmering along for 3-4 minutes add the bag of egg noodles to the boiling water.

When you are just about ready to drain the cooking noodles through a colander in the sink, add 2-3 cups of broccoli florets to the simmering chicken stock and cook those until they are tender crisp.

Then add the diced cooked chicken meat and the still hot drained noodles, season with salt and pepper to taste and it is time to eat.

HINTS:

Add the cooked noodles to the individual bowls and then add the vegetables and broth to that. That way, if there are leftovers, the noodles aren't soaking up the broth and getting too soft for the next meal.

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Friday, May 13, 2011

WHITE ROCK - Vegetables can change your life! Over the past couple weeks I've shared why salads are so awesome, and ...

Some 620,000 men died during the American Civil War, as soldiers slaughtered fellow countrymen, or men died of the cold, disease and gangrene, and horrific drug-free amputations.

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Scott Eckert: No space for garden, try containers

Homegrown vegetables are in demand!? Consumers are more interested in where their food comes from and what goes into growing it. Homegrown food is the freshest, but for people with limited space, traditional gardening can be difficult.
That’s where vegetable container gardening comes in.
This great way to get fresh produce without taking up much space. Plus, you know exactly what went into producing the food you eat. Follow these easy steps to get your garden started.

Choose your
location
The logical place for your vegetable pot garden is on a patio or porch where you can easily enjoy and harvest your crops. Vegetables are sun-loving plants. Some leafy vegetables can tolerate partial sun, but root crops and fruit-bearing varieties like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplant prefer full sun.
Plants should receive six or more hours of sunlight during the day. However, a fully exposed patio or porch can subject plants in pots to high temperatures and severe drying conditions, so if possible, choose a location with a little protection from wind or with a bit of protection from the full afternoon sun.

Choose your
container(s)
The first step to pot gardening success is to get a big enough container.
Choosing a large pot from 16 to 24 inches in diameter will go a long way toward ensuring your success. Larger pots hold moisture longer and aren’t as susceptible to tipping over in the wind.? Anything less than a 12-inch pot is probably too small. Consider factors like pot depth, weight, durability, and good drainage when selecting containers. Plastic, clay, ceramic, fiberglass and wood are popular choices, and all have advantages and disadvantages.
Plastic pots are lightweight and less expensive but not very durable. Clay pots are inexpensive and durable if protected from freezing but are heavy and tend to dry out quickly. Glazed ceramic pots are nice because they are attractive, but they also are heavy and more expensive. Fiberglass is both lightweight and durable, but costly. If using wood, avoid treated lumber and look for containers made of cedar or redwood.

Fill with the right potting media
Soilless potting mixes are ideal for containers. The components are lightweight and hold water and oxygen much better than garden soil.
Soilless mixes also will be free of weeds or diseases, and many contain a slow-release fertilizer.
Adding fertilizer to container vegetables is a must for good production. The nutrients most frequently lacking for growth are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Try to find an N-P-K value such as 18-6-12, or something close to a 3:1:2 ratio.
You can reapply this fertilizer again in late July. If you don’t use a slow-release granular, then water-soluble fertilizers of similar nutrient ratios are an option.
In general, fertilizers that are high in phosphorus should be avoided for vegetable containers. High rates are simply not needed for good production, and if there is runoff, it can contribute to surface water pollution.

Choose and plant your crop
Most of the standard garden varieties of vegetables will grow well in containers, but there are some cultivars specifically bred for small spaces.
Herbs also are great choices to grow in containers, either by themselves or mixed in with other vegetables.
If you want to grow large or climbing vegetable varieties, prepare your cage or trellis system ahead of time.
The less you disturb the roots after planting, the better. Just as in the garden, you can plant some crops directly from seed. Others, such as tomatoes, are best started from transplants. Follow within-row spacing recommendations provided on seed packages or in garden guides.
Cool-season salad crops such as lettuce and radishes can be planted before warm season crops such as a tomato or pepper, and harvested before the latter grow to full size.
A large pot actually has quite a bit of planting area, so one can grow a significant quantity of vegetables for a continuous harvest during the season.

Watering system
This can be as simple as you and a watering can every morning, but ideally you should set up a small drip-irrigation system and put it on a timer to give your vegetables consistent moisture.
Plants in containers dry out much faster than those in the ground and will likely need daily care during the hot periods of summer.
Before watering, stick your finger into the soil to check for moisture and only water the container when the soil feels dry. Another way of checking whether a plant needs watering is to gently lift the pot (if it’s not too heavy).
A dry pot will feel much lighter than one with adequate moisture.
Be sure to use a “breaker” nozzle on your hose or watering can to distribute spray evenly. Keep applying water until you see it running out the drainage hole.

Monitor
Keep an eye on your vegetables. Daily observation helps spot problems before they get out of control. See if the plants are getting enough water and fertilizer, and check for signs of insects or ailments. See other K-State Research and Extension publications for recommendations on pest and disease control.
Frequently checking your pots also ensures that you harvest your produce right when it’s ready.

Scott Eckert is Harvey County Extension agent, horticulture.

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Jump-start spring early with your children indoors by growing seeds

If your children are ready to jump-start spring inside, and are searching for something that sparks their imaginations, starting beautiful flowers or delicious vegetables from seed is a great beginning. The Miracle-Gro Kids Gardening Kits are an easy educational way for your children to tend and nurture plants, watch the seeds germinate, spread roots and grow toward the sun.

This is the perfect opportunity for your children to get their hands dirty. Simply mixing the Miracle-Gro Gro-Mix supplied, water and a seed, covering the pots with the greenhouse lid, and remembering to keep the plants watered will start your children down the gardening path. They will be counting down the days until they can transplant their sprouts into the backyard or a pot on the stoop, porch, balcony or patio.

With spring just around the corner, try some other fun indoor activities with your family:

* What is growing in my greenhouse? While seedlings are busy growing into big, strong plants, take your children on a tour of a local market, flower shop or library to research what they are growing at home. For example, if you plant peppers, head over to the fresh produce department and purchase several different pepper varieties. Have your children taste, feel, and smell each kind to familiarize themselves with the vegetables and learn about the different varieties.

* Have a fun art day. Work with your children to diagram where they will transplant their flowers and vegetables into the backyard on paper with crayons, stickers and other art supplies. If they are a little bit older, ask them to measure the size of your flower bed or vegetable plot, and help them convert the size into a smaller design. Add the vegetables and flowers you would like to grow as well. Find books at the library that discuss the benefits and consequences of planting different types of plants next to one another. Having these diagrams will make it easy for your children to find the perfect place to put their sprouts once the time arrives for transplanting.

* Experiment in the kitchen. Children love to play and experiment with food, so invite them to investigate recipes that will incorporate some of the vegetables and flowers they may be growing. For example, pansies and nasturtiums are tasty and work well as edible decorations on desserts, salads or in fruity drinks. If your children like lasagna, find a recipe that includes those peppers they are growing. You can help them develop a recipe memory book based on their greenhouse gardens, complete with photos of them planting the seeds, journals of the care they gave the plants and the final recipes using the ingredients they grew with their own two hands.

* Rainy day exploration. Go to Miraclegrokidsgardening.com and explore the many projects and activities the gardening experts at Scotts have designed with your kids in mind. Try making one of the great kids' recipes or print out some of the fun learning activities for a fun way to explore gardening even in the rain.

Getting your hands dirty with your children inside is the best way to start spring just a little bit early this year. Your family will love watching the development of the vegetables and flowers they started inside.

The views expressed here are those from a third-party content provider, and not necessarily the views or recommendations of the Lexington Clipper-Herald.

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