Untitled. Why I became a Snacktivist. By Audrey D. Brashich November 5 (The Washington Post) Dear everyone who interacts with my children anywhere at all: Please stop feeding my kids sugar. No more juice boxes after soccer practices and ix-nay on the candy-filled birthday party loot bags-ay. In other words, could we please agree to stop turning most kids’ events into free-for-all sugar sprees? I ask not because we are treat teetotalers in our family. Think about it: candy-centered holidays like Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Easter have turned into week-long marathon celebrations with multiple parties, each better stocked with sugary treats than the last. Part of the problem, according to Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD, author of Cooking Light Dinner Time Survival Guide: Feed Your Family. Kids today are getting about 500 calories daily from snacking, and most of their snacks contain primarily refined white flour, salt, sugar and artificial additives, which is a dangerous combination given how childhood has changed, too.
Audrey D. SHROOMS. Superior Fish – Ladner's Premier Fish Market | How to Collect, Process and Store Acorns and Acorn Flour. Photo by Hank Shaw I know this probably should have been the first of the three acorn posts I’ve written over the past few weeks, but before I got into the mechanics of working with acorns and acorn flour I wanted to whet your appetite for actually using them — not as some grim survival food or something old hippies eat, but as a worthy ingredient in serious, modern cooking.
If you haven’t read my other two acorn posts, Acorns and the Forager’s Dilemma is an introduction to the use of acorns; the Forager’s Dilemma is, in a word, starch. Starch (carbohydrates) is the toughest thing to forage for, and is a primary reason why humans settled down 10,000 years ago to grow grain. Next I wrote about an interesting Acorn Honey Cake I’d made and how various world cultures have traditionally used acorns, cultures ranging from Korea to Japan to the Native Americans, Europeans and North Africans. COLLECTING ACORNS First you need to get yourself a supply of acorns.
A word on worms. What does it mean? How to Safely Eat Amanita Muscaria. Photo by Holly A. Heyser No mushroom presents more of an enigma than the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria. It is the most recognizable mushroom on the planet, and is widely known as the hallucinatory ‘shroom responsible for Alice’s trip into Wonderland and quite possibly our beloved images of a red-suited Santa Claus and his flying reindeer. I am not into hallucinations. Photo by Hank Shaw As we walked, picking porcini and other wonderful boletes, I began having a nagging conversation with myself: You know you can eat those amanitas, right?
I filled a grocery bag in no time. I came up for air a few days ago and decided to do some research. This is where Santa comes in. Historically, the Siberians boiled fly agaric and then drank the pot liquor to get roaring drunk. But like I said, I am not into that sort of thing. More research turned up William Rubel, who knows his stuff when it comes to mushrooms. As food, fly agaric does need special handling. Back to my grocery bag. This Genius Cheat Sheet For Gardeners Tells Where And When To Plant Your Vegetables. If you’ve never planted a seed in the ground before, chances are that the thought of growing your own vegetables — no matter how exciting — incites feelings of anxiety. The general principle is easy: plant seed, add water and watch the vegetable grow.
But the logistics are complicated. When do you plant everything? How big will cabbage grow? The answer is yes, you will probably fail at more than a few things when starting your first garden.