1. 10:26 16th May 2012

    Notes: 6400

    Reblogged from npr

    Tags: glass gemcornlovefood

    image: Download

    npr: Ooooo. jtotheizzoe: Genetics of the Beautiful “Glass Gem” Corn Corn gone viral? You’re looking at an ear of a corn variety called “Glass Gem”, grown by Greg Schoen of Seeds Trust. This is real corn! How does it grow this way? First you have to understand a few things about corn. Each corn kernel is actually a sort of unique plant. A corn plant’s male parts (the “tassels”) sit at the top of the stalk, and drop pollen downward. Unfertilized ears (the female parts) catch the pollen with the sticky ends of their corn silks. Each corn silk (I hate when that gets in my teeth) grabs a pollen grain, shuttles it allllllll the way down inside the ear, eventually creating one kernel for each pollen-silk-ovum combination. It’s one of the more interesting and inefficient breeding schemes I know of. If you’ve taken genetics, you know that the parents’ genes will combine by chance, leading to certain ratios of inheritance in the offspring. This is the basis of Mendelian genetics (great Khan Academy video here). With corn, we’ve simply carefully bred all the interestingness out of them. Native Americans were used to multi-colored corn, because corn plants held many varieties of color genes that could combine at random. Now all we are left with are one-color clones. This “Glass Gem” corn is the other extreme of the spectrum, a combination of corn color hybrid genes and random pollination. It’s almost too pretty to eat!   (via Discover Magazine) genetic diversity rocks!

    npr:

    Ooooo.

    jtotheizzoe:

    Genetics of the Beautiful “Glass Gem” Corn

    Corn gone viral? You’re looking at an ear of a corn variety called “Glass Gem”, grown by Greg Schoen of Seeds Trust. This is real corn! How does it grow this way?

    First you have to understand a few things about corn. Each corn kernel is actually a sort of unique plant. A corn plant’s male parts (the “tassels”) sit at the top of the stalk, and drop pollen downward. Unfertilized ears (the female parts) catch the pollen with the sticky ends of their corn silks. Each corn silk (I hate when that gets in my teeth) grabs a pollen grain, shuttles it allllllll the way down inside the ear, eventually creating one kernel for each pollen-silk-ovum combination. It’s one of the more interesting and inefficient breeding schemes I know of.

    If you’ve taken genetics, you know that the parents’ genes will combine by chance, leading to certain ratios of inheritance in the offspring. This is the basis of Mendelian genetics (great Khan Academy video here).

    With corn, we’ve simply carefully bred all the interestingness out of them. Native Americans were used to multi-colored corn, because corn plants held many varieties of color genes that could combine at random. Now all we are left with are one-color clones.

    This “Glass Gem” corn is the other extreme of the spectrum, a combination of corn color hybrid genes and random pollination. It’s almost too pretty to eat!  

    (via Discover Magazine)

    genetic diversity rocks!

     

  2. 09:26 19th Mar 2012

    Tags: capitalismfoodgrossmeatoh the veganity!veganvegetarianismnews

    'Meat is Murder' doesn't just apply to livestock anymore

    Introducing: Pink Slime

    Pink slime is truly worse than other forms of disinfected treated meat since the trimmings used in pink slime are known to harbor pathogens at high levels before treatment. Should it disappear from store shelves, however, we can rest assured the meat that remains will continue to be treated with other industrial chemicals. Because that’s — pure and simple — the only way the industrial meat industry can prevent its products from making people sick.

     

  3. 23:46 20th Dec 2011

    Notes: 2

    Tags: gardeningfoodTED

    A Solution To World Hunger

    It’s kind of a ‘duh’ point and Doiron’s methods are kind of milk toast, but it’d be a step in the right direction.

     

  4. 19:19 28th Aug 2011

    Tags: happy summer's evefood

    Another Productive Day

    Went to the store and bought a bunch of veggies and gluten-free vegan bread, got home and watered/weeded/pruned. My da broke the handle on our shovel which me and my da combined with another shovel with a broken blade. Now we have one working shovel!

    After all that, I made a pile of wilted kale and a couple ears of corn to go with an heirloom tomato we picked up and a loaf of banana bread for dessert. (which I am heading to eat… now!)

     

  5. 22:52 5th Aug 2011

    Notes: 5

    Tags: or they just made themxgfxfood

    xgfx sesame pretzels?

    It’s like someone took regular snack pretzels, created a cast, discarded the wheaty mess that people call pretzels, poured sesame seeds, corn, and soy mush into the pretzel cast, then piled the finished pretzels into my face.

    Fuck yeah.

     

  6. 12:07 11th Jul 2011

    Notes: 23

    Tags: friendsbainbridgefoodcooking

    image: Download

    Ashe and Callum visited a few weeks ago, just got the pics uploaded.

    Ashe and Callum visited a few weeks ago, just got the pics uploaded.

     

  7. 12:00 22nd Jun 2011

    Notes: 29

    Reblogged from lovinganarchist1312-deactivated

    Tags: veganvegetarianismfoodpolitics

    Die kunterbunte Welt der Anarchie: "Hm? Not everyone is privileged enough to be able to have a vegetarian diet"

    zeitgeistmovement:

    This is not true. You can save a great deal of money by switching to a vegetarian diet.

    http://lbveg.com/freebook.php

    http://www.lowcostliving.co.uk/frugal-cooking/recipe-vegetarian-recipes.php

    http://www.frugal-living-now.com/vegetarian-recipes.html

    While I agree that vegetarian and vegan food is cheaper than meat, the time to cook your own food is a privilege that many people don’t have in America. This perceived lack of time is what drives many people to eat out, and expensive option and one for which there are scarce vegetarian and vegan options. That being said, people who eat vegetarian and vegan diets have less incidence of cancer and heart disease, very costly diseases to treat. 

    The way I see it: If we end the subsidies that keep meat prices artificially low, our government will be saving money, there will be more vegetarian and vegan options, (out of necessity) and people will have less health problems. (saving them time, money and grief) There may be a brief economic downturn while the infrastructure is being reworked to feed people instead of livestock, but isn’t it worth it?

    (Source: socialuprooting)

     

  8. 10:39 25th May 2011

    Notes: 36

    Reblogged from vegansaurus

    Tags: biscuits and gravyxgfxfood

    vegansaurus!: Gluten-free biscuits and gravy! Your eyes do not deceive you!

    vegansaurus:

    I don’t have Celiac’s and I don’t have a sensitivity to gluten; nonetheless, I’m into the challenge of making delicious gluten-free, vegan, baked goods and entrees/sides. The thing that discourages me when I am looking for recipes is that I need to have 5 million ingredients, none of which are in…

    neeeeeeeed

     

  9. 19:01 7th May 2011

    Tags: foodfun factsplantains

    NEWSFLASH

    Plantains get sweeter when you let them turn yellow.

    That is all.

     

  10. 17:04 5th May 2011

    Tags: musicsubmissioncontestBumbleBee Kitchenvegancookingfood

    CALLING MUSICIANS: Theme Song for “The Bumblebee Kitchen”

    I need a theme song for my vegan cooking show, “The BumbleBee Kitchen.” Come out of your caves and send me your ideas! If I like it/choose it, you’ll be promoted on my blog/facebook/twitter.

    It should be about 15 seconds long. I’m looking for something quick, cute, easy and dirty. It’d be preferable to have the title in the song, but not necessary. 

    I need all submissions to be in by Saturday, May 14th. I’m looking forward to hearing your beautiful songs!