History, Natural History & the Arts
Some foods give you gas, but March is the time of year when gas gives you a delicious food. Maple syrup, which is nutritious enough to be listed by the US Department of Agriculture as a food, is carbon dioxide-powered. If it wasn’t for a bunch of little gas bubbles in the wood or xylem tissue, maple sap would not flow.
Who knew that trees were carbonated? [Read more…] about Sugaring Season: Maple Sap Runs On Gas
The Adirondack Council’s Essex Farm Institute (EFI) is seeking applicants for micro-grants up to $1,500 for environmentally beneficial and sustainable projects on Adirondack farms and by value-added producers. [Read more…] about Microgrants Available for Adirondack Farms, Food Producers
The Oreo is over one hundred years old. The delectable cookie with the creme center – a worldwide favorite – traces its origins to New York City.
According to Katherine Martinelli, writing for Smithsonian Magazine, NABISCO was formed in the city of New York in 1890, when some local bakeries merged to form the New York Biscuit Company and located in what is today Chelsea Market. Later, the company merged with rivals in Chicago and became the National Biscuit Company, NABISCO.
Many eighteenth century publicans framed a list of pre-conditions for the “perfect” tavern which was displayed in full view in British public houses and drinking dens.
The advice to customers consisted of “Twelve Good Rules” that dated back to the rule of Charles I: [Read more…] about Twelve Tavern Rules, Thirteen Toasts and America’s 1814 Anthem
Father’s Breakfast
He ate a crustacean
every morning
the pure wild ones
He called the lobster
a sacrament and cleaned
his table with a napkin
his grandmother sewed
when she was 14 in Idaho
I watched him eat
and the embers from the stove
cooked into crystalline spheres
I once told him that I loved him
just loud enough
so he would not hear
The weather at Granville, in Washington County, in June 1877, was ideal for agriculture.
“This is the weather that makes farmers happy,” The Granville Sentinel reported.
Corn and flax crops looked promising, but “vigilance and perseverance is to be the price of potatoes.” [Read more…] about A Plague of Potato Bugs in 1877 Washington County
Each year, DEC partners with the Venison Donation Coalition and Feeding New York State to help provide food for those in need.
Through a cooperative relationship involving the New York State Department of Health, non-profit organizations like Feeding New York State’s regional food banks and deer processors, hunters contribute nearly 40 tons of venison each year to needy families across the state. [Read more…] about Hunters Can Help Fight Food Insecurity
Election week seems like an appropriate time to share this Presidential Story.
On June 22, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the Vermont State Dairy Festival in Rutland. The Festival held a barbecue that day in the President’s honor. When it was over, they presented the President and his Presidential Party with a 150-pound ice cream cake. The cake represented a day’s work for twenty cows. [Read more…] about Stewart’s Shops History: Eisenhower’s Ice Cream Cake
A walk in the woods during fall is likely to reveal an array of forest fungi. Ranging from delicate, tan mini-umbrellas to fleshy, white softballs to foot-long, orange-yellow shelves growing out of rotten logs, they come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Fungi are critical to the health of the forest, decomposing woody debris and helping trees obtain required nutrients. [Read more…] about Forest Fungi: Native Mushrooms and Forest Health
A founding member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), Brian Caldwell, was recently appointed to a five-year term on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). [Read more…] about NY Farmer Named to USDA Organic Standards Board