Pine Nuts and Pesto

Pine nuts (piñon) are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus Pinus). About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of value as a human food. (wiki)

Pinyon pine is a widely distributed pine that grows in the Intermountain region of western North America. It is a major indicator tree in the pinyon-juniper life zone. P. edulis is a short and scrubby tree that rarely reaches heights taller than 35 feet. Growth is very slow and trees with with diameters of 4 to 6 inches can be several hundred years old. It typically grows either in pure stands or with juniper. The chunky little cones produce a well-know and tasty nut. The wood is very fragrant when burned. Pinus Edulis - About.com

Audio Postcard: The Pine Nut Harvest (NPR)

How to Make Pesto like an Italian Grandmother Recipe

- The Ag Geek

Carne Asada Is Not A Crime

This is all kinds of ridiculous.

From The Great Taco Hunt:
We already know the Los Angeles city government is anti-taco. First it was the LA city Council that passed a law that required taco trucks to move every half hour or face a $60 fine. It was a small but revealing gesture and the message was clear,the government was coming after the taco. Now the LA county board of supervisors has double dipped into the proverbial guacamole sauce with a ridiculous law that requires taco trucks to move every hour or face a $1000 fine and possibly jail time. What’s next? Waterboarding taco reporters to get them to reveal locations of their favorite loncheras?

Sign the petition to save the taco trucks:
http://saveourtacotrucks.org/



- The Ag Geek

Return to the Victory Garden. Yes!

Wheat Not Lawns!
To combat the skyrocketing price of flour, several Massachusetts bakeries have taken on a project that's part Little Red Hen, part World War II Victory Garden. The bakeries are recruiting their customers to till up their lawns and gardens and plant wheat.

Michael Pollan's latest
But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

- The Ag Geek

Bees!

Urban beekeeper. Ha.

- The Ag Geek

Non-conformist lettuce

It's getting warmer, but we're still growing lettuce! Even if you're not eating it, it's useful as a living mulch.


Really Locally Grown, Hydroponic Lettuce

Everything you ever wanted to know about hydroponic lettuce

Everything you needed for hydroponics

Earthbox, paper mulch, and bare ground Lettuce Production trial (the earthbox lettuce was sweeter)

Galactic Lettuce - somebody get me some of this seed. Gorgeous!

It's been awhile since I posted, but I'm still here. Would love to see some comments and feedback!

- The Ag Geek

Fallen Fruit

Cheaps Eats recently posted about Fallen Fruit, a group in Los Angeles that are mapping the location of fruit trees. They host "nocturnal fruit forages," although I'm not sure when the next one will take place. KCET has a feature on Fallen Fruit that you might like to take a look at.

- The Ag Geek

In Defense of Food in a Nutshell

Michael Pollan on The Hour via YouGrowGirl

School Salad Bar

Link via the excellent What To Eat blog.

- The Ag Geek

Food Not Lawns

Food Not Lawns, How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, by Heather Coburn Flores.

The premier guide for ecological living in the city through paradise gardening and shared resources by a co-founder of the original Food Not Lawns grassroots gardening project in Eugene, OR. With a foreword by Toby Hemenway and over 400 pages of text, enhanced by almost a hundred drawings by Northwest artist Jackie Holmstrom, Food Not Lawns offers a theoretical and practical handbook for ecological community transformation. (Chelsea Green, 2006, 334 p.) ISBN 1-933392-07-X

http://www.foodnotlawns.com/

The Story of the Banana

It's 1922 and you are the United Fruit Company. The first copy of your book "The Story of the Banana" was such a rousing success, you printed a second edition. 86 years later, your book, surviving on some library shelf, has been scanned where an unsuspecting Ag Geek types "banana" into Google Book Search and you (United Fruit Company) no longer exists.


The Story of the Banana

"One will readily appreciate the necessity for infinite care in handling a bunch of bananas when he pauses to consider that this fruit, which is cut from the tree in a green state, is, until fully ripe, practically a living organism drawing sustenance from its stalk, with sap flowing and tissues changings; that it generates heat within itself in the ripening process..."

More on:
United Fruit Company (discussion)

- The Ag Geek

From the Ground Up

"Only the finest alfalfa!" Compost! Earthworms!

From The Ground Up (1954)

Apparently this company still exists (sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't really pay attention to these things) and it seems like they use the same production methods:
Nutrilite Organic Farms

Also, they are owned by Amway.

More on Nutritional Supplements

- The Ag Geek

Miserable, horrible cough

Herbs For Cough

They took the ma huang out of this tea, so it does not work as well anymore, but it's still good (not endorsing this website, just showing the tea!)
Breathe Right Naturally tea

"Ephedra refers to the plant Ephedra sinica.[1] E. sinica, known in Chinese as ma huang (麻黃; pinyin: má huáng), has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years for the treatment of asthma and hay fever, as well as for the common cold."
Ephedra on Wikipedia (as always, read the discussion)

:::cough, cough:::

- The Ag Geek

All Cows Eat Grass

My favorite thing I read today:
Gang Of Animals Escapes Sylmar Home, Eats Grass

All Cows Eat Grass


Florida Cracker
"While Florida Cracker cattle are, in general, similar in appearence to Texas Longhorn cattle, they are smaller in size and do not have the same extreme horn length as the Texas Longhorn. The nutrition available to what were essentially feral cattle for hundreds of years and thick "scrub"--heavily wooded lowland areas--in which they lived would not have been conducive to the survival of larger, longer-horned animals. While the horn length of Florida Cracker cattle is not extreme, their shapes can include very interesting twists in aged cows and steers."

Digestive Anatomy In Ruminants


- The Ag Geek

World Ag Expo: I'm not there!

At this time last year, I didn't even know there was a place called Tulare:

WORLD AG EXPO

Maybe next year.

- The Ag Geek

Ethanol from Corn: Not the Best Idea?

From the "Well, duh!" department:
Biofuel crops increase carbon emissions

These are the abstracts of the articles everyone's referencing:
Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt

Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land Use Change

Here are some relevant podcasts about the topic (right-click or control-click, to save):
08 February 2008 - Science podcast (mp3)

Science Friday - Biofuels - Feb 08, 2008 (mp3)

"When US politicians talk about biofuels, most of the time they are talking about ethanol made from fermenting corn. However, there are many other types of biofuels, including biodiesel from algae and cellulosic ethanol technology. In this hour, Ira and guests talk about various approaches to biofuels and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Two new studies published this week in the journal Science suggest that growing additional biofuel crops might actually increase the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere, especially if existing forests or grasslands need to be cleared for biofuel farming. Do the fuels make sense from an environmental -- and economic -- standpoint?"

Also, a suprisingly good Wikipedia entry about Ethanol Fuel. As always, look at the discussion page for further insight.

Can we start talking about Plug-In Hybrids again?

- The Ag Geek

More Bananas!

The Cavendish banana is the most popular variety in the world. Prior to the 1950's the Gros Michel ("Big Mike") held that honor, until it was wiped out by Panama Disease.

Apparently Cavendish are also susceptible to disease. For more on that: "Can This Fruit Be Saved?"

But there are many kinds of banana plants you can buy


Like the Ice Cream Banana:
"15' Height. It produces exceptional flavor which is described as a vanilla-custard or some say more like ice cream. Some regard it as the best tasting of all bananas. Has beautiful skin with a silvery blue sheen. Not for export."

- The Ag Geek

Yes! We Have No Bananas

First post. Let's see how I do.

Yes, We Have No Bananas



And here's 7,200 bananas on a wall.via make

- The Ag Geek