Adventures in Local Eating: The Pumpkin Edition

When my friend Lazy Locavore first talked with me about her food choices, I thought that I had misheard her.

"You're a loco-vore?" I asked. "A crazy-eater?"

"No," she said with a laugh. "I'm a locavore. I eat locally-grown foods."

I didn't think much about this until she handed me a pound of locally-raised ground beef.

"Try this," she said.

I put the meat in my refrigerator. Again, I didn't think much about it until I took the meat out and actually looked at it. This was Meat with a capital M. It smelled fresh, it looked fresh, and it was very moist, almost bloody. I could practically visualize the cow, which initially set me back a bit. But my husband and I persisted and soon we had tasty hamburgers for dinner.

"Huh," I thought. "Maybe there is something to this locally-grown food stuff."

A couple of weeks later, I was standing in a farmer's market, looking for ripe apples. Taking a sniff of the rich and lovely scent of fresh produce, I realized something. I miss the smell of food. So many things you pick up in the grocery store these days are almost devoid of smell.

But what really got to me were pumpkins. This year, my boys went on several hay rides and soon we had a porch full of pumpkins. Lazy Locavore persuaded me to cook one.

"It's not hard," she insisted. "I can do it and I'm lazy about my food."

Several of our pumpkins were true carving pumpkins, hollow inside with a slightly off smell and few seeds. I was glad that Lazy Locavore had taught me to look for a small, solid pumpkin when baking. When I found one that literally bent the knife as I tried to cut into it, I knew I had a keeper. It looked something like this (sans the face):


Now, several days later, my pumpkin looks like this:


And here's what I learned: Pumpkins are food! I had been completely ignoring the fact that people actually eat them. I just saw them as ornamental.

The most important thing that the locavore movement has taught me so far: when we no longer relate to fresh foodstuffs as food, something needs to change.


Photo credits: Mama Joules

Colony Collapse Disorder: Meet a beekeeper! Part 3

Continuing our interview with Michele Bennett Decoteau, of Blue Hive Journals, today's topic is Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, a serious condition that is severely impacting honeybees in the United States. (If you're just joining us, here's part 1 and part 2 of the interview.)

I read recently that nearly one-third of the honeybee population died last year due to CCD. What is Colony Collapse Disorder and how can we help save the honeybees?

CCD is a scary new thing beekeepers are facing. What happens is that beekeeper will open a hive and find healthy larvae and honey but essentially no adult bees. Under typical disease circumstances [only a few adult bees leave and don't return and] there is a decline in bees that is reflected in the larvae and honey. Most diseases show their influence in the larvae [not the adult bees]. The question is where the [adult] bees are and why are they not returning to their hive.

I don’t think a single cause will be found. Some suspects are pesticides, pollution, transporting bees, and disease.

Some pesticides disrupt a bee’s ability to navigate home. One potential culprit is Imidacloprid. When bees get a good dose of this pesticide they act drunk – they cannot fly well, they don’t orient to home, and they get lost easily. This pesticide is banned in other countries but can be purchased [commercially] here in the US. (Mama Joules' sidenote: "Imidacloprid and nicotine have similar activity in the nervous system," according to a 2001 "Insecticide Factsheet" in the Journal of Pesticide Reform.)

Bees are also transported around the country to pollinate large crops. First bees pollinate almonds in California, then they go to Texas to pollinate squash, then maybe over to Georgia for peaches and head up to Maine for blueberries. Bees are eating one single crop at a time and are fed sugar water in transit. This doesn’t sound like a good life for a bee to me. For one thing, the queen and larvae get chilled during transport. I think that all this moving around and single crop feeding is a challenge to the bee’s immune system.

Pollution may affect bees in an unexpected way. Bees use pheromones to communicate within the hive and even to some extent between hives. Pollution can disrupt a bee’s ability to smell and [the bee] may get lost [due to] high levels of pollution.

Disease and bugs that bite bees are an ever increasing issue. Many of these pests come from other countries and were introduced into US bee populations from unmonitored imports of bees. Today, beekeepers use a number of pesticides to deal with these bee-pests.

I am a hobbyist beekeeper and generally we are not affected by CCD. Since we don't know what the cause of CCD is, it is unclear why hobby beekeepers don't see it often. Perhaps it is because we don't transport our hives and feed them a single nectar source or stress them other ways. Stress decreases every being's immune system and a weakened immune system might allow some disease to attack bees. Until we know more about what CCD is, we won't know for sure.

Nonetheless, even hobbyists do keep a close watch on diseases and pests in the hive. Essentially we are just big worker bees taking care of the colony!

Michele's top five things we can do to help the honeybees:

1. Become a beekeeper
2. Buy local honey – Check out farmer’s markets and beekeeper’s organizations
3. Plant native plants for pollinators – Check with your local nursery for ideas
4. Grow organically – Stop using chemical pesticides in your flower and veggie garden
5. Buy organic – The fewer pesticides in use in the environment, the better for bees!

Thanks so much for the insight and advice, Michele! Join us next time as we conclude our interview by learning how to start beekeeping (read the next part of this interview here). Be sure to check out Michele's blog, Blue Hive Journals for more ideas and tips about keeping bees.

Michele says, "Take time to try different honey. It’s OK to have more than one jar of honey! Every honey tastes different. I love lavender honey made from lavender nectar."

If you liked this post, you might like:

Meet a beekeeper!

Meet a beekeeper! Part 2: The intelligence of bees

Meet a beekeeper! Part 4: Learning to keep bees

National Pollinator Week 2009


Photo credits: Michele Bennett Decoteau (top photo); Ryan Wick (bottom photo, through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

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[10/2/09: Updated to include links to the rest of the interview. Deleted phrase "native honeybees" because it is factually inaccurate. Honeybees were imported to the United States.]

Vote for the 2009 Ocean Hero at Oceana

A tip of the hat to Allie at OH, FOR THE LOVE OF SCIENCE! for today's tidbit:

Head on over to Oceana, "the largest international organization focused 100 percent on ocean conservation" to vote for your favorite "Wavemaker." One of the eight finalists will be chosen as the 2009 Ocean Hero. Voting closes at the end of May.

While you're there, stop by Creature Corner to learn more about the diversity of life in the sea. You can also visit Oceana's Publications page to download their reports, newsletter, and a guide to help you make healthy and sustainable seafood choices when you are dining out. Oceana suggests checking out EPA's Fish Kids for more on healthy ways to prepare fish.

How much sugar are you *really* eating?

Itinerant Cryptographer found an interesting website recently. Sugar Stacks shows how much sugar is in commonly eaten foods, using sugar cubes to visualize the amount. Each sugar cube depicts 4 grams of sugar. Check out the amount of sugar in soda! The page comparing breakfast foods is making me think twice about scarfing down Cinnabon® cinnamon rolls.

Photo credit: Mykl Roventine, through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

OT: Celebrate Fat Tuesday with Free Pancakes!

Well, this post is off-topic, but I wanted to share it with you anyway. :) The International House of Pancakes is celebrating National Pancake Day today until 10 pm. Stop by your neighborhood IHOP and enjoy one free short stack of pancakes per party. IHOP only requests that you consider donating to Children's Miracle Network. According to the IHOP website, this event raised more than $875,000 for charity last year!

(My thanks to my friend Maria for letting me know about this event.)

Food Detectives

As a fan of the Food Network, I'll watch most any show they broadcast at least once. But Food Detectives, hosted by Ted Allen, caught my eye and is worth a second look. Ever want to test those food myths you've heard about? Is the last drop of soda in the bottle really all backwash? (No, only about 2%, according to their tests). Can you really fry an egg on your car engine? (Yes, but it looks so horrid afterward that you might not want to eat it). You can upload your most pressing food questions to Ted Allen via video clip or drop him an E-mail here. Food Detectives reminds me of Mythbusters lite, but it's a charming show that's worth a view.

Website of the Week: Down to Earth

Today, when I logged into my E-mail, a news article caught my eye. In case you haven't seen the topic, here's the summary: Contaminated milk, including infant formula, has been found in China. According to CNN, "A third baby has died and at least 6,200 children have fallen ill after drinking formula tainted with the same chemical involved in a massive pet food recall last year, Chinese officials said Wednesday." As best I can tell, the toxic ingredient, melamine, was added intentionally so that, in laboratory tests, the infant formula would appear to be more protein-rich.

I know that I am sometimes naive, but the idea that someone -- anyone! -- would intentionally poison children to boost their company's profit margin astounds and horrifies me. To whom could I vent my frustration?

I dropped a line to Down to Earth, a blog devoted to demystifying the issues surrounding food production. Recent posts have covered controversial topics such as the corn industry's recent advertisements about high fructose corn syrup, the pros and cons of irradiation of food, and the use of synthetic growth hormones in cattle.

I may not agree with everything written at Down to Earth, but I think the authors of this blog really strive to present a balanced view of the issues. (And I had no idea there were so many hot button issues surrounding food production! Wow!) I particularly liked a recent post about the charity Send a Cow and the Weekly Earthlinks, a list of sometimes amusing, sometimes thought-provoking links to current food production topics (I also appreciated the nod to Mama Joules in the Sept. 13th post -- thanks!).

But back to my opening topic, my fervent prayer tonight is that all of the tainted milk is recalled soon and that the death toll stops rising.

The Field Guide to Produce

Charentais melonsPhoto credit: Neal Ziring
Do you ever wish that you had the time to take a field trip with your family? Never fear! Now, with Aliza Green's Field Guide to Produce, you can have fun scouring the local farmer's market or green grocer for your next meal. Learn to identify exotic fruits and vegetables -- such as quince, kumquats, amaranth greens, and yuzus -- with handy tips for how to prepare and eat them, too.

Website of the Week: BAM!

This week’s Website of the Week is BAM!, the Body and Mind pages created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

The mission of BAM! is to provide kids with the information they need to make healthy lifestyle choices. BAM! is divided into six categories, including Diseases, Food & Nutrition, and Your Body. See the Immune Platoon fight "The Flu Krew", discover what may be Lurking in the Locker Room, and find out what type of gear you need to safely take up a new sport. And be sure to check out the healthy recipes in Cool Treats!

The science behind gingerbread houses

Are you planning to make a gingerbread house this holiday season? Before you mix up that first batch of dough, think about the wonderful ways that building a house can teach science.

Whether you make your dough from scratch or make your gingerbread using a boxed mix, you measure out your ingredients and mix them together prior to baking. Following a recipe is similar to how a scientist follows steps when conducting an experiment. Failure to follow the steps correctly can lead to a failed experiment or, in this case, poor building material!

Before you make your house, you must plan your design carefully. A friend of mine used to map her designs out on graph paper to ensure that they were built to scale. Make sure that all of your walls will be the same height. Good planning and measuring of your design is critical to gingerbread house success. You don’t want your house to lean to one side.

Next, you must execute your plan by cutting out the pieces of gingerbread and carefully constructing the house. Are your walls load-bearing? Will they support the roof? One year, I built a lovely gingerbread house and then tried to attach a roof that was heavily coated in gumdrops. The walls of my house buckled under the weight. I had to admit, gumdrop shingles proved to be a poor design choice. I should have gone with a lighter candy.

Finally, you need to recover from any setbacks and keep going when things go wrong. This lesson in tenacity is always helpful for scientific study (when things often go awry). The year that my roof caved in, I decided that my house had an open-air design and really didn’t need a roof anyway!

Check out these great tips on Building a Gingerbread House from veteran home-builder Bob Vila’s crew.

How about a side order of bugs?

What do Japan, West Africa and the Indonesian island of Bali have in common? They are all parts of the world where people eat bugs! According to a source at the University of Florida, there are about 2,000 edible insect species around the world. Some scientists think that we should encourage people to eat bugs because they are a common and readily available food supply.

Check out these recipes for Edible Insects from teen Aletheia Price or learn more about Insect Snacks from Around the World from the University of Kentucky’s Department of Entomology.

Have you ever eaten a bug? The closest I’ve ever come is eating a steamed snail. I didn’t think it tasted very good, even dipped in melted butter. Maybe an insect would taste better.

Is this the future of dinner?Photo credit: Nat Edwards

Who ate my pumpkin?

This morning, I found the smallest of our three pumpkins in the middle of the lawn. How did it get there?

My first thought was that someone had accidentally kicked it, or not so accidentally used it for batting practice. But when I picked up the pumpkin, it was missing a piece near the stem. How odd. Did our dog chew on it? But no, she would have eaten the whole thing!

I looked at missing portion of the tiny, ornamental pumpkin. The hole seemed like it had been made by something using small paws or very little teeth. Something had eaten my pumpkin!

We live in a suburban area, which leaves me with two likely culprits: the gray squirrel that lives in our tree and the eastern chipmunk that lives under our front step. I did a little research and found out that both animals like to eat fruit (who knew?). And pumpkins, I learned, are actually fruits, not vegetables. So far, so good.

So ... which animal ate my pumpkin? Based on the markings, I'm leaning toward the squirrel. The marks on the pumpkin look an awful lot like the ones I found on the bird feeder last year when the squirrel knocked it down. Besides, I've never known the chipmunk to steal any food from us. In addition, the chipmunk is a lot smaller and would have had a hard time knocking the pumpkin down from the porch.

For now, I've put the damaged pumpkin back in place on the front step. But I'm tempted to buy a bunch of ornamental pumpkins to see if any more of them go missing. I'd love to catch the culprit in action!

Gray SquirrelPhoto credit: Joe Kosack, PGC Photo