Jill Grunewald

Minnesota Cooks at the State Fair: Fair-Fresh Healthy Choices

As the coordinator for the Minnesota Cooks™ program at the Minnesota State Fair, I'm writing today's post to give you a preview of this event, which features Minnesota chefs and cooks, local farmers, and consumers with a full day of cooking demonstrations, discussions, and sampling of delicious cuisine.

The big day begins at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, August 31, (with samples of scones and French toast!) and will continue with eight hourly presentations, featuring 16 restaurants and 16 farms. The Minnesota Cooks Stage proudly sits in Carousel Park, just south of the Grandstand, and is the place to be on the Tuesday of the Great Minnesota Get Together for one of Minnesota’s most admired and longstanding sustainable foods events.

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Asparagus: In Season and Better Than Viagra

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.

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Can Food Heal Spring Allergies?

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.

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Food Fear Factor: What Foods Are You Afraid Of?

No, this is not a discussion about eating worms or bugs or balut or any of the other less-than-savory things they ate on that show that I never watched. I’m talking about the food myths that have become mainstream “knowledge” and have catapulted the sale of some dubious health and diet books, many of which have thankfully faded into near oblivion. Think T-Factor Diet. Or Atkins for Life.

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