When a farmer walked into Whole Foods wanting to sell a huge sack of morels, store employee Heather Hilleren watched a futile effort unfold.
The farmer didn’t have vendor credentials, and it would have taken two weeks to get them. By then, the freshly picked morels would have spoiled.
Category: Agriculture
Life in the Fast Food Lane: Rockwall Texas Culvers
Flame, or at least a suggestion of grilling or broiling, matters. That’s a principal reason a Whopper bested a Big Mac, cooked on a griddle. It’s why the new roster of one-third-pound charbroiled Thickburgers at Hardee’s tasted better than the steamed slivers at Krystal, a White Castle analogue in the South.
Buns matter. The large, doughy one on the classic Whataburger created ample space for three slices of tomato and a sense of heft that felt good in the hands, good in the mouth. The generously buttered, crisply toasted ones on Culver’s burgers, called butterburgers in honor of those buns, exalted whatever they encased, which included seared, loosely packed patties with more charred edges and, as a result, more flavor.
Bruni last covered the 2004 Bush campaign. Perhaps there’s a lesson in this.
Organic Goes Mainstream
Thirteen-and-a-half million servings of organic romaine, radicchio and baby greens. That’s how much Earthbound Farm, the biggest organic produce company in the country, sends across America from its gigantic San Juan Bautista processing plant every single week.
That’s one big bowl of salad — way bigger than when Myra and Drew Goodman started Earthbound Farm in their Carmel Valley living room in 1984. They now farm 26,000 organic acres.
Earth Dinner
To the extent that’s possible, try to find foods that are locally produced, seasonal, fresh and flavorful! If they are organically grown—that’s even better! If it’s not local, that’s okay. It’s a chance to celebrate the farmers from other regions or countries. If your having a potluck dinner, remember to ask your guests to do their best to find out about the origins of food they bring to share and how it was grown.
via Kristian Knutsen.
Choosing the World’s Best Cheese
Cheese championships are hardly a spectator sport, but cheese-lovers will have a unique opportunity to observe the 2006 World Championship Cheese Contest right here in Madison. Free and open to the public, the contest is slated to take place at the Monona Terrace Convention Center on March 21-23.
While UW-Madison scientists don’t usually compete, they do influence the contest’s outcome. This year, for instance, Mark Johnson, a scientist at UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research will join an international panel of judges that will include cheese connoisseurs from France, Japan, the Netherlands and South Africa. Another judge on the 15-member panel will be a Puerto Rican, Leyda Ponce de Leon, who earned a doctoral degree in food science at UW-Madison in 1999.
Fight Against Farm Subsidies
Scott Kilman and Roger Thurow:
A movement to uproot crop subsidies, which have been worth nearly $600 billion to U.S. farmers over the decades, is gaining ground in some unlikely places — including down on the farm.
In Iowa, one of the most heavily subsidized states, a Republican running to be state agriculture secretary is telling big farmers they should get smaller checks. Mark W. Leonard, who collects subsidies himself and campaigns in a white cowboy hat, told a room full of farmers recently that federal payments spur overproduction, which depresses prices for poor growers overseas.
“From a Christian standpoint, what it is doing to Africa tugs at your heartstrings,” Mr. Leonard told them. Last year, he helped humanitarian group Oxfam International in its anti-subsidy campaign by escorting a cotton farmer from Mali to church gatherings near his farm in Holstein.
How Wisconsin Lost Its Big Advantage in the Ginseng Game
In a cramped shop filled with stale aromas of Chinese herbs, Keary Drath, a stout Wisconsin farmer and self-appointed ginseng sleuth, picked up a dry, wrinkly ginseng root, broke it in half and chewed it.
Clerks and customers of Ginseng City Trading Inc., stopped haggling in their rapid-fire Mandarin and stared. “From China,” he declared. “Not Wisconsin.”
“What’s the difference?” asked a shocked customer, Max Chen, who has used ginseng for 20 years. “They all say it is Wisconsin ginseng. I know Wisconsin’s is superior.”
Mr. Drath, 42 years old, wishes he had an easy way for Mr. Chen and millions of other ginseng buyers in Asia and in Chinatowns all over the world to make the distinction. The future of Wisconsin’s century-old ginseng farming business, now under attack by global rivals, depends on it.
The root has been worshiped as an energy-balancing folk medicine for 5,000 years. Ginseng — or Ren Shen, meaning “Man Root,” in Chinese — has two types. American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has a cooling effect. Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) provides a hot rush of energy.
With its rich loam, sunlight and cool summers, Wisconsin — especially Marathon County in the central part of the state — produces premium American ginseng. It is more potent and more bitter than American ginseng grown elsewhere.
To an untrained eye, dried Wisconsin roots look the same as those produced in great quantity in Canada and China. Mislabeling and product mixing abound.
And that is threatening the livelihood of Wisconsin’s ginseng farmers, whose roots trace back to the early 1900s when the four Fromm brothers began cultivating ginseng in Marathon County. Ginseng isn’t easy to cultivate: It takes four to five years to grow ginseng under wood or fabric canopies.
“Kids are easier to raise than ginseng,” says Stephen Kaiser, 59, of Rozellville, Wis., who has been grown ginseng since 1977. “Kids only get colds, flu or pneumonia, but ginseng, it tends to die very easily.”
Small Dairyman Shakes Up Milk Industry
The milk fight, which is being watched in the industry from coast to coast, started because Mr. Hettinga runs a rare hybrid operation. Most dairy businesses either only produce milk, or only process it. He does both. As a result, he falls into a protected class that isn’t bound by an arcane system of Depression-era federal rules. Under it, milk processors selling into specific geographical areas, which cover most of the country, must all pay into that area’s pool for subsidizing milk prices. But so-called producer-distributors have always been exempt.
Run Your Car on Cow Fuel
A C$14 million factory near Montreal started producing “biodiesel” fuel two weeks ago from the bones, innards and other parts of farm animals such as cattle, pigs or chickens that Canadians do not eat.
“We’re using animal waste to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said marketing director Ron Wardrop of Rothsay, which runs the plant.
Voluntary Milking System
DeLaval Voluntary Milking System:
The Voluntary Milking System (VMS) allows cows to decide when to be milked, and gives dairy farmers a more independent lifestyle, free from regular milkings, the company says.
DeLaval was started in 1883 by Swedish inventor Gustaf de Laval. It sells a variety of dairy supply and “cow comfort” products aimed at increasing dairy yields. It claims to lead the automatic milking machine market, with a 53 percent share, and says it has sold more than 1,000 VMSs, in all European countries, Canada, Japan, and Mexico.
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