Recall my post from a few weeks ago, Living High Off The Hog?, where livestock farmers in Pennsylvania ..."... started giving their pigs and cows chocolate - and banana chips and cashews and yogurt-covered raisins, any of which were cheaper than run-of the-mill corn and beans. One farmer even supplied his cattle a special "party mix" of popcorn, pretzels, cheese curls and crisps. This, he told reporters, saved 10% on feed costs."It looks like livestock farmers in Europe may add animal remains to their party mix: 1
"The European Union is preparing plans to allow pig remains to be used to feed poultry. The practice - banned in Europe after the BSE* crisis 10 years ago - would save farmers millions of pounds as prices of cereal feed for chickens soar, say officials in Brussels."

Boy, do I get excited over new foods. Red quinoa! New for me, old for people who live in the Andes Mountains of South America, who, according to the box, have been growing it for more than 5,000 years. I wonder what they served it with. Maybe it's old for lots of you too, but I'm having fun with it!

It's a little more crunchy than the white quinoa I'm used to, if you could call quinoa crunchy at all. Otherwise, it's pretty similar in taste and cooking time.

The rusty red color of the grain blooms to a foggy purple color when cooked. (Click for larger.)

I have a question ... for anyone ... because it looks like many of you know more about prehistoric man than I do.

I looked up the average lifespan for some older humans (I don't know prehistoric designations, but this chart said Neanderthal, Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic):
Wikipedia: Life Expectancy

Wow. I didn't realize politics played such a suppressing role in getting fruits and vegetables on the table.

Here's a little Op-Ed piece that appeared in the New York Times yesterday. It was written by Jack Hedrin, an organic vegetable farmer from Minnesota:

My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)

No, really. A comprehensive, online, free!, encyclopedia of every living thing on the planet. One page for each. Millions of pages. And it's a wiki - a collaborative, updatable effort from people all over the world. I can't think of a more ambitious project facing the internet.

And it went live on Tuesday (although it may be slow, it's getting over a million hits per hour):
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Here's what the New York Times had to say:
The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required

Here's its official blog:
Encyclopedia of Life Blog

Here are some sample pages (clicking the image will take you to EOL's demo page):

Yeti Crab

Death Cap Mushroom

In my last post, I wrote about truth. I think truth is often a casualty in business, a victim of ego. Few people are willing to admit the truth when it makes them look bad, or has the potential to look bad. I've been wrong too many times in my career to put my ego before the truth.

In my third job, I was the communications director for a dairy association. My expertise was writing newsletters. In this case, my main responsibility was to explain the value of the dairy check-off - a USDA mandated expenses dairy farmers paid to support generic dairy advertising. My secondary job was to promote ice cream, milk and other dairy products. Now, I'm a suburban kid through and through, always living in middle class neighborhoods in between the tough inner city and the hard working country. While I learned to appreciate the very hard work of dairy farmers and others involved in production agriculture, I did a lot of on-the-job training.

I saw this ad while flipping through the Sunday paper. I was going to say something about it, but I think I'll just put it up here and let you say something about it. Maybe I'll say the thing I wanted to say if no one says it. But I think someone might say it.
Click for larger.________Photo: Homegrown. Scanned from January 6 newspaper insert.

They became unstuck in time a day later.
"So it goes."
- Billy Pilgrim 1________
Photo above: Homegrown, from a couple days ago. It's frozen water in the cut-off bottom of an old gallon jug. I use it as a water feeder for birds. They, however, use it as a bathtub. There's one particular female cardinal that sits in it at night (if it's warm enough) for about 5 minutes. The water comes up to her neck. She occasionally flutters her wings.

The National Resources Defense Council has published this wallet card to aid in selecting fish. I know it's difficult to read. Clicking on it will take you to the original .pdf source where you can make some good quality printouts.

________

Melinda shared these photos of her garden-in-work:"Here are 3 pix of what I brought w/ me from the condo when we moved to the little house w/ big deck. As you see, so far they aren't in the ground, but I did just get the raised bed, so hopefully I'll get it together [soon]."

Until after the esophagogastroduodenocolonoscopy.1 Well, not all eating. This is tonight's dinner:

And tomorrow's breakfast too. Actually, just 4 Dulcolax. But the whole bottle, 14 complete servings of that MiraLax must be enlisted to perform the unsubtle function.

I had reservations posting this. But, well, what's a blog for? So, if you have any experience with this procedure, your comments are welcome!
________1 A combined esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy.
Photo: Homegrown. I wish it wasn't.

The UK Department of Health released its "Health Profile of England 2007". They noticed a trend:

The UK Government Office for Science projected that trend 40 years into the future and determined that a "bold whole system approach is critical":

Famed for its wine. Wikipedia has Burgenland inhabited since the Stone Age. How many years ago that was, I can't tell. I wonder if Burgenlanders enjoyed wine back then.

Below is Willi Wetschka (right) and his friend in the barn of Wetschka's winery, 2007.

Click to enlarge.________

An almond is a seed.

So are Brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, and pine nuts.

Wheat berries, corn kernels, oat groats, rice, barley, quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth are also seeds. Sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, flax, poppy, fenugreek ... seeds. Lentils are seeds. Peanuts are seeds. Beans ... kidney, pinto, soy, mung, adzuki ... more seeds. Fresh peas and green beans are seeds.

Seeds sprout. So I thought I'd soak some almonds in water. Yes, indeedy, they sprouted.

There was a full moon last night. It will be visible tonight too, and according to NASA, it will be the brightest full moon you'll see for the next 16 years:"That's because it's the highest-riding full moon until the year 2023."

Michael Winner is an English film director, producer, and food critic for the UK's Sunday Times. He just wrote a book, "The Fat Pig Diet."

Here's an excerpt (1 stone = 14 pounds):

The Fat Pig Diet: Michael Winner's Guide To Getting Thin

Or at least I thought I did. Last summer my fasting blood sugars were pushing 120 mg/dl. (100-125 is prediabetes, 126 or more is full-fledged diabetes). I went on a very low-carbohydrate, Atkins diet. My fasting sugars came down, hovering near 100.

I went off the Atkins diet when I experienced some precancer, and when others in my family were diagnosed with cancer. I went on an animal-free, high-carbohydrate diet. Now, over 70% of my calories come from carbohydrate.* And my fasting blood sugars are always in the 70s!

I probably wouldn't have posted this a year ago. I didn't think milk could possibly be so unhealthful. All these years I've been eating dairy products and recommending them. I feel duped.

I've been researching like a fiend this past year the relationship between certain compounds in dairy foods, especially the milk protein casein and the milk sugar lactose, and certain chronic diseases, cancer and diabetes to name two that have caused I and my family no trivial amount of stress.

With no further ado, here's a one-minute trailer put together by a group of earnest folks at Unleashed Productions. Thanks to Shira Lane for bringing her work, and this important message, to our attention.

Lavender Blue shared these photos of her garden. (Click for larger.)

Every day, a little bit of my faith blows away ...

Cancer Docs Profit From Chemotherapy Drugs
Situation begs the ethical question: Are they overprescribing?"The significant amount of our revenue comes from the profit, if you will, that we make from selling the drugs," says Dr. Peter Eisenberg, a private physician who specializes in cancer treatment.________

Melinda's raised-bed installation:

Click for larger.________Photos: Melinda

The photos below are from photographer Peter Menzel's 2005 book, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.

Menzel traveled to 24 countries, visiting and photographing 30 families for the book. Each photo represents the weekly food intake for the families pictured. (Each family was asked to purchase, at Menzel's expense, a typical week's groceries. The book lists the food items in detail, broken down by food group and cost, along with how the food was raised and prepared.)

I came across Menzel's photos on Amber's Blog (on Gaia), her post from November 27, 2007. She has a few more there, and some interesting comments.

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: $500.07

Squeezing a minute while the pie is in the oven to toss a big thank you out to all my visitors! Thank you for all your kindnesses - for reading, commenting, teaching me, and helping to make this blog one of my favorite hobbies. Cheers!

________
Photo: Homegrown

Do you have an old computer or monitor lying around that you don't know how to dispose of? An ancient laptop, keyboard, cell phone, or television? (I'll bet there'll be a glut of old TV's when the country makes the switch to full digital broadcasting next February!)

We had an old CRT monitor. I went to Earth 911, selected "Monitor", entered my zip code, and it returned a number of locations where I could drop it off.

Staples charges a fee for monitors (the one near me wanted $10), but takes smaller peripherals like mice, keyboards, and speakers free of charge. The Goodwill near us took our monitor for free.
________

Sherri, where's Sherri? Sherri (the other one) this is for you. And for Melinda. And anyone else with a garden. I planted some herbs yesterday.* I know, this is a far cry from squash and tomatoes. But I'm limited by space and sun. And the deer, oh dear. (It's in the 40s here this morning, I hope they don't wilt.) This is my garden.

I'd love to experience your gardens vicariously. So if you (or others) have food-growing photos you'd like to share, I'll post them.

The residents of Alamosa City in Colorado do - and it's contaminated with Salmonella.

Here's a news article from this morning's Denver Post:
Alamosa Water Tainted: At least 33 contracted salmonella, and use of bottled water is urged

Here's the Colorado Department of Public Health's News Release:
Bottled Water Advisory Issued for Alamosa Residents

Residents have been advised not to drink the water. Boiling the water is not good enough. There are 33 confirmed cases and 46 suspected cases of Salmonella in the City so far.

This is not a good story. Lettuce you can clean (maybe). But, if it's in the water? Ouch.

My apologies for lack of updates. I've been busy writing for another site.
________Photo: Homegrown.

Speaking of life...

________Photo of daffodil shoots: Homegrown. Shot February 27, 2008; 19 degrees F.