Health

Although the Minnesota apple harvest begins in August, for a lot of folks apple season goes hand in hand with the changing and falling of leaves. Apples are a fantastic late summer treat, but there’s nothing like a crisp, freshly-harvested apple (or a hot apple crisp!) on a brisk autumn day.

Walk into a typical supermarket and you’ll see several shades of these sweet treats proudly taking up some serious real estate in the produce aisle. Yet this is a mere smattering of the 7,500 varieties grown around the world. According to Rebecca Wood, author of The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia, “Because every apple seed contains unique genetic material, you can plant ten seeds from a single apple and get ten different kinds of apple trees. However most of our commercial varieties lack genetic diversity.”

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.” – Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

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Beets aren’t the most popular vegetable. They’re kind of like the smart kids who wear plaid pants and glasses. They tend to hang in the background, quietly waving and calling out, “Hey, over here. You’ll like me if you try me. Don’t let your scars from eating grocery-bought canned beets as a youngster keep you from giving me another chance. I’m actually very sweet and sassy.”

Cherry Belle, French Breakfast, White Icicle, Plum Purple – these are just a few varieties of summer radishes that are garnering attention in the produce aisle and at farmers’ markets and gracing CSA (community supported agriculture) boxes. The jewel-toned beauties we’ve been receiving from our CSA are fat and gorgeous, almost too pretty to eat. We ogle, then quickly get them into a salad, or slice for a quick and cooling snack as these sweet and spicy nuggets keep in the refrigerator only for a short time.

This root crop can mature in as little as three weeks, which, for those with gardens, is about as close to instant gratification as growing your own vegetables can get. If left in the ground too long, they can get woody, pithy and mighty spicy, so it’s okay to get greedy with your radish reaping.

Have you ever had the pleasure of picking berries right from a garden or gathering wild berries in the woods? Berries, with all of their natural, juicy sweetness and beautiful gem-toned colors, are truly gifts from nature. They’re gorgeous and bursting with sweet, earthy flavor. So make haste, as now is the time of year to head out with your basket and sun hat to gather the season’s treasures.

Before I go into all of the delicious, healthful and medicinal goodness of this amazing member of the lily family, which happens to be in the height of its growing season, I’m chomping at the bit to impart upon you some (wink wink) other perks to eating asparagus. Folks, consider it the vegetable with benefits.

Oysters and…asparagus?

So what's with the winking? Well, unbeknownst to me before writing this post, I now can tell you that asparagus is considered an aphrodisiac. You read it here first.

Sugar is enjoying a resurgence in popularity after years of being vilified for empty calories and its role in things like tooth decay, obesity and diabetes. As the negative effects of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have become better known, sugar's profile has risen. Cane sugar, as opposed to cheaper beet sugar, has especially benefited from HFCS's bad press; it is actually being touted as a healthful ingredient. Yet cane and beet sugars are highly processed, refined and provide no nutritional value. Other, less refined, sweeteners have some benefits that sugar doesn't. Yet nearly all of them raise blood sugar, and have little nutritive value. So why bother?

May in Minnesota is off to a chilly and often cloud-covered start, but I do vividly recollect a too-hot-to-touch steering wheel in April and a stretch of 40-plus degree days in March that turned feet of snow to vapor. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, this is the first year since 1878 that nary a smidgen of snow has fallen during March, a notable anomaly considering that historically, Minnesota receives its heaviest snow during this month.

Not only has this phenomenon significantly affected our farmers, but it has also had a near crippling effect on seasonal allergy sufferers. The symptoms are formidable: fatigue, itchy and burning eyes, sneezing, headache, runny nose, sore throat, brain fog, nasal congestion, depression, and digestive disruption. As snow melts and the spring rains come on, the ground becomes muddy. If the earth is holding on to more water, then so too shall we, causing congestion and allergies for many folks.

The Enironmental Working Group (EWG) recently released its 2010 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides. (Note: This guide is NOT for shoppers who want to BUY pesticides, but rather for those who want to AVOID them in their food.)

A few alarming statistics:

Last Monday, Brenda Langton hosted a special buffet at Spoonriver, her Minneapolis restaurant. This event, co-sponsored by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, featured a delicious selection of naturally raised meats provided by local farmers Mike and Colleen Braucher of Sunshine Harvest Farm, and Doug and Connie Karstens of the Lamb Shop. While the food was a glorious celebration of spring, the purpose of the evening was dead serious: to discuss the problem of antibiotic resistance and the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA).