The largest seed bank project in the world has already spirited away 750 million seeds from 14,000 species of plants and trees, but organizers fear that funding may run out before their ambitious goals are met. According to the Environmental News Network, botanists for the Millennium Seed Bank have a goal to collect and protect seeds from 30,000 species, or 10 percent of the world's flora by 2010. Funding beyond that initial target is uncertain. "Seed money" for the bank, headquartered 35 miles south of London and known informally as the "Noah's Ark Project," came from Britain's national lottery. Seed collection is prioritized according to level of endangerment and economic importance.

Posted by at 10:11 AM | Permalink

by Alice Waters

Published February 24, 2006 in the New York Times

It's shocking that because of the rise in Type 2 diabetes experts say that the children we're raising now will probably die younger than their parents — the result of a disease that is largely preventable by diet and exercise. But in public schools these days, children all too often are neither learning to eat well nor to exercise.

Fifty years ago, we had a preview of today's obesity crisis: a presidential council told us that America's children weren't fit — and we did something about it, at great expense. We built gymnasiums and tracks and playgrounds. We hired and trained teachers. We made physical education part of the curriculum from kindergarten through high school. Students were graded on their performance.

Universal physical education is a start, and it's a shame that schools have been cutting back on recess and gym. But in a country where nine million children over 6 are obese we need the diet part of the equation, too. It's time for students to start getting credit for eating a good lunch.

I know from experience that teaching children about food changes their lives. I helped establish a gardening and cooking project in the public schools here in Berkeley called the Edible Schoolyard, and I've come to believe that lunch should be at the center of every school's curriculum.

Schools should not just serve food; they should teach it in an interactive, hands-on way, as an academic subject. Children's eating habits stay with them for the rest of their lives. The best way to defeat the obesity epidemic is to teach children about food — and thereby prevent them from ever becoming obese.

The trouble is that the shared family meal is now a rare experience for most youngsters, with only a third of married couples with children reporting regularly having dinner as a family. We have abdicated our responsibility to these children, placing their well-being in the hands of the fast-food industry, whose products — hamburgers, chicken nuggets, French fries — dominate school lunch programs.

Not only are our children eating this unhealthy food, they're digesting the values that go with it: the idea that food has to be fast, cheap and easy; that abundance is permanent and effortless; that it doesn't matter where food actually comes from. These values are changing us. As a nation, we need to take back responsibility for the health of not just our children, but also our culture.

Our program began at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School 10 years ago, with a kitchen classroom and a garden full of fruits, vegetables and herbs. A cafeteria where students, faculty and staff members will eat together every day is under construction, and the Edible Schoolyard has become a model for a district-wide school lunch initiative.

At King School today, 1,000 children are involved in growing, preparing and sharing fresh food. These food-related activities are woven into the entire curriculum. Math classes measure garden beds. Science classes study drainage and soil erosion. History classes learn about pre-Columbian civilizations while grinding corn.

We're not forcing them to eat their vegetables; we're teaching them about the botany and history of those vegetables. We're not scaring them with the health consequences of their eating habits; we're engaging them in interactive education that brings them into a new relationship with food. Nothing less will change their behavior.

We can try to improve diets all we want by making school lunches more nutritious and by getting vending machines out of the hallways, but that gets us only partway there. For example, New York City has just banned whole milk in its public schools. It's a courageous first step, but how can we be sure students will drink healthier milk just because it's offered to them, let alone understand what lifelong nourishment is all about?

Indeed, it's too often the fresh fruit and salad that gets tossed in the garbage at school cafeterias. Even if they weren't already addicted to salt and sugar, children tend to be wary of unfamiliar foods — and besides, they can always bring packaged junk in for lunch or buy fast food after school. Healthful food that's offered in a "take it or leave it" way is often, well, left.

But when a healthy lunch is a part of a class that all children have to take, for credit — and when they can follow food from the garden to the kitchen to the table, doing much of the work themselves — something amazing happens. The students want to taste everything. They get lured in by foods that are beautiful, that taste and smell good, that appeal to their senses. When children grow and prepare good, healthy food themselves, they want to eat it, and, what's more, they like this way of learning.

We need a revolution, a delicious revolution, that will induce children — in a pleasurable way — to think critically about what they eat. The study of food, and school lunch, should become part of the core curriculum for all students from kindergarten through high school. Such a move will take significant investment and the kind of resolve that this country showed a half-century ago. It will be costly, but if we don't pay now, the health care bill later will be astronomical.

Alice Waters is the owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Cafe and the founder of the Chez Panisse Foundation.

Posted by at 7:19 AM | Permalink

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then, using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croûtons and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, "I have sent you heart-healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep-fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake," and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food."

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and high in nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its 99¢ double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super-size them!" And Satan said, "It is good."

And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple-bypass surgery.

Then Satan created HMOs....

(source: unknown)

Posted by at 1:17 PM | Permalink

By Harriet Brown

Printed in the the New York Times, 20 February 2006

Last week's reports that low-fat diets may not reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer have left Americans more confused than ever about what to eat. I'd like to make a radical suggestion: instead of wringing our hands over fat grams and calories, let's resolve to enjoy whatever food we eat.

Because, as it turns out, when you eat something you like, your body makes more efficient use of its nutrients. Which means that choking down a plateful of steamed cauliflower (if you hate steamed cauliflower) is not likely to do you as much good as you think.

In the 1970's, researchers fed two groups of women, one Swedish and one Thai, a spicy Thai meal. The Thai women — who presumably liked the meal more than the Swedish women did — absorbed almost 50 percent more iron from it than the Swedish women. When the meal was served as a mushy paste, the Thai women absorbed 70 percent less iron than they had before — from the same food.

The researchers concluded that food that's unfamiliar (Thai food to Swedish women) or unappetizing (mush rather than solid food) winds up being less nutritious than food that looks, smells and tastes good to you. The explanation can be found in the digestive process itself, in the relationship between the "second brain" — the gut — and the brain in your head.

Imagine sitting in your favorite Japanese restaurant before a plate of sushi, chopsticks poised. You take in its fragrance and the beautiful cut of the fish, the shapely rice and nori rolls. Those delectable smells and sights tell your brain that the meal will be enjoyable, and the brain responds by pushing your salivary glands into high gear and ordering your stomach to secrete more gastric juices.

Result: you get more nutritional bang for your buck than you would, say, faced with a platter of lutefisk. In that case, your brain might send fewer messages to your mouth and stomach, causing the food to be less thoroughly digested and metabolized.

Does this mean we should be reaching for the Krispy Kremes and forgoing the raw cauliflower? No. The food has to have nutritive value in the first place. But maybe we could take a lesson from the French, whose level of heart disease is lower than ours despite their richer diet. The French savor the taste and texture of food and the experience of eating; we tend to eat dutifully (how much cauliflower can you choke down?), on the run (hardly realizing what we're eating), or rebelliously (devouring a whole box of Entenmann's because we feel deprived).

In fact, we're hard-wired to enjoy food; it's a survival mechanism. Volunteers in the 1946 University of Minnesota Starvation Study, who spent six months at half rations, developed a slew of peculiar rituals around eating. They devoted hours to meals that might normally take a few minutes, cutting a slice of bread into tiny bits with a knife and fork, arranging the bits on the plate, chewing each mouthful 200 times — all behaviors engineered to prolong both the act of eating and the enjoyment of the limited food available.

The health writer Lawrence Lindner tells of a committee that gathered to hammer out the wording of the United States Dietary Guidelines in 1995. One committee member suggested that the first guideline read "Enjoy a variety of foods" — language that was rejected as "too hedonistic." (In the end, Mr. Lindner wrote, the committee "opted for the apparently less giddy 'Eat a variety of foods.' ") So let's vow to enjoy our food, not wolf it down in the car with a heaping order of guilt. Call it Slow Food, conscious eating, or eating the French way, the point's the same: eating well and with pleasure is more than hedonism — it's good nutritional policy and practice. Bon appétit!

Harriet Brown, the editor of the forthcoming anthology "Mr. Wrong," is working on a book about anorexia.

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Posted by at 6:46 AM | Permalink

This classic Belgian recipe uses braised Belgian endives wrapped in ham and baked in a cheesy bechamel sauce to crusty perfection. Serve with real Belgian-style fries and beer.

Ingredients:
6 to 8 Belgian endives, cored with stems removed
Salt and pepper
1-2 cloves of garlic
1-2 teaspoons of sugar
2-3 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese
Pinch of grated nutmeg
8 thin slices of ham

Procedure:
1. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add endives, 1/4 cup of water, sugar and finely chopped garlic and braise for 15-20 minutes covered or until the endives are tender. After cooking, drain endives keeping saucepan’s liquid for the sauce.
2. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
3. To make bechamel, melt butter in saucepan. Add flour and cook for about a minute, stirring well with a wire whisk to eliminate lumps. Slowly add milk, continuing to stir. Next, stir in reserved liquid from cooking endives until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Continue to simmer and stir for several minutes until all traces of flour have been dissolved.
4. Remove saucepan from heat and fold in 1/4 cup of cheese. Add pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste.
5. Butter a baking dish large enough to hold single layer of endives. Wrap each endive in slice of ham and place in dish.
6. Cover endives with sauce and top with remaining grated cheese. Place dish in oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes.
7. Next, move dish underneath preheated broiler to brown the cheese watching carefully to prevent burning. Serve immediately.

Serves about 6.

Posted by at 8:02 AM | Permalink

For those who think of Belgian endive as merely a crunchy and bitter salad ingredient, this simple recipe will be an epiphany. Tender and sweet surprises are in store.

Ingredients:
8 whole heads of Belgian endive, cored
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Procedure:
1. Slowly saute the endive in butter in a shallow pan over a medium hot heat. Turn to cook both sides.
2. Add the other ingredients, cover the pan, and simmer on low for 25 minutes, adding a few drops of water if necessary.

Makes 4 servings

Posted by at 7:53 AM | Permalink

Food writer Deborah Madison may well be the most famous vegetarian cook who isn't, in fact, vegetarian. With book titles like "The Greens Cookbook" and "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" to her credit, those who may have assumed otherwise are easily excused.

While she is happy singing the praises of vegetable cookery, she is less at ease about preaching it as a philosophy. "For me it's not something I've ever been comfortable with because it's a very narrow platform," she says. "I've never been interested in a platform that pushes something away ... I'm interested in meat and what's happening and developments, how we're raising meats and different breeds."

Despite this, her latest endeavor, "Vegetable Soups From Deborah Madison's Kitchen" (Broadway Books, 230 pages, $19.95), continues down the same veggie path, branching off into some uncharted territory.

"I tried to explore some of the areas that are usually neglected, for example vegetable broths or very light soups or medicinal soups or soups that might help you recover from a cold or lose weight," she said. Here is a recipe that exemplifies the book's approach to soup.

WINTER VEGETABLE CHOWDER

MILK AND AROMATICS:
2 cups milk
4 large parsley branches
1 large thyme sprig or 2 pinches of dried
2 bay leaves
1 garlic clove, halved
10 peppercorns, lightly crushed with 5 juniper berries

THE SOUP:
3 tablespoons butter
4 leeks, about an inch across, white parts plus 1 inch of the greens, sliced diagonally about 1-inch thick and rinsed
8-10 cups vegetables, peeled and cut into big chunks (such as turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, potatoes, a few celery stalks, and celery roots)
2 cups or 10 ounces of carrots, peeled and left whole if only 3 inches long, otherwise cut into large pieces
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons flour
6 large slices country bread, toasted
Grated or sliced Gruyere or Cantal cheese to cover the toast
Chopped parsley or tarragon or a mixture for garnish

METHOD:
1. Put all the ingredients for the milk and aromatics in a saucepan, slowly bring to a boil, then turn off the heat. Cover and set aside while you prepare the vegetables.

2. Melt the butter in a wide soup pot. Add the vegetables, bay leaves and parsley and sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or so to heat them up, gently moving them about the pan.

3. Stir in the flour, then add 5 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the vegetables are tender but still a tad firm, 15-20 minutes. Strain the milk into a blender, add 1 cup of the vegetables, and puree until smooth. Add the puree back to the soup. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.

4. To serve, lay a piece of toast in each bowl, cover it with grated cheese, spoon the soup with its liquid on top, and sprinkle with the chopped herbs.

Posted by at 8:22 AM | Permalink

...when is this Stupid Plant Going to Grow?

By John Hershey, published with author's permission

For gardeners, the approach of spring is a most exciting time. We look forward to working the soil, planting our seeds, and reflecting on the happy thoughts the garden brings to mind as the earth comes to life and nature's great cycle begins again: The change of seasons. The inexorable passage of time. Decay. Death.

But just when you're ready to toss yourself into the compost pile, your spirits soar in anticipation of a fun new season of gardening with your children.

Last year was my first experience gardening with my children. As a parent and a gardener, I knew that raising children and raising vegetables involved many of the same challenges, rewards, joys, and laundry expenses. But, I wondered, are parenting skills transferable to the garden? And what could I learn from gardening that would help me cultivate happy, thriving kids?

These are just some of the profound and intriguing questions that I did NOT ponder while gardening with my children last summer. I was too busy trying to keep them from walking on the spinach.

I doubt there's really that much overlap between parenting and gardening techniques anyway. A time out is unlikely to have much effect on an uncooperative tomato plant, for instance. And any attempt to pinch back an unruly child can lead only to a visit from social services.

Still, working in the garden with kids is lots of fun. You're outside. You're playing in the dirt. Sharp bladed tools are flying around. Pure quality time.

And it's educational! Gardening teaches kids important lessons about the "cycle of life". But parents, be ready to answer tough questions about why your child's pumpkin plant died.

Besides the metaphysical stuff, the kids learn practical horticultural skills that might stay with them their whole lives. Even after they've grown up and moved away, they may still use the gardening knowledge that you gave them to grow their own plants in a garden, window box, or dorm room closet. These valuable skills include fine motor control (handling tiny seeds), sorting (distinguishing good plants from weeds), adjusting water pressure ("JET" isn't the best setting for lettuce plants), and perhaps most importantly, pest control.

As every gardener knows, if you do not control pests, they can quickly destroy your entire crop. It's important to know which pests are present in your particular ecosystem and take appropriate, safe measures to protect your plants. Can you identify the most harmful pests that attack garden vegetables in your area? Slugs? Thrips? European earwigs? No. The primary pests that threaten your garden are, of course, the children themselves.

I'm kidding! Gardening with children is a joy. Still, bringing kids into the garden involves walking a fine line. Literally: Between the tomatoes and the beets. And figuratively: The goal is to introduce the children to the fun of gardening without destroying the garden in the process. I know it's not easy to cultivate their spirit of exploration while constantly yelling "Don't walk there!" But try to inculcate a love for the tranquility of nature with a minimum of screaming. It's the standard parental high-wire act of teaching your kids to do some fun new activity: One false move and you've turned them off of gardening for life.

Many small children are just not yet equipped to care for fragile vegetable plants. These are people who take the name "squash" literally. The key is to focus on the aspects of gardening that come naturally to young kids, such as touching really dirty things and then immediately putting their fingers into their mouths. Or playing in the mud. Give a 3-year-old a shovel and turn him loose in a large area of dirt, and you're set for a whole day of fun.

But then comes the tedious part. Carefully plant the seeds, one in each little hole, in nice straight rows. Boring! My son has his own efficient cultivation method: Dig large hole. Empty contents of seed packet into hole. Cover and keep digging elsewhere. Fun!

Finally, the seeds somehow get planted and the ground is all flat and smooth. Then you say to the child, "OK, you see this big patch of dirt, where we've been having a great time all day, digging and jumping and making mud pies? Well, you must now stop digging and never dig here again. You can't even walk in here anymore! As your toddler's lip begins to quiver, you hasten to explain: Because if we wait very patiently, our seeds will sprout and grow into big plants that, if we take good care of them, will eventually produce . . . vegetables!

Wow, every child's favorite things: waiting patiently, not touching, and vegetables!

No wonder gardening is such a popular family activity! I'm telling a 3-year-old boy, whose attention span is somewhat shorter than the growing season, that he must immediately cease doing something really fun in order to receive the delayed gratification of growing his own brussels sprouts.

Yet amazingly, it works! Kids do like to watch the plants grow. They will eagerly pull up weeds, along with a few innocent bystanders like carrots and beets and radishes (helpful hint: when gardening with kids, plant a few extra seeds to compensate for the approximately 90% mortality rate of your plants). They will have fun watering the garden (and even more fun watering Daddy). They will help you harvest the crop (but forget about gathering just enough for each day's meal; once a child picks a pepper, it's awfully hard to stop until he's picked a peck, whatever that is, or at least until all the plants are completely denuded).

They might even start to like vegetables. The other night in a restaurant, my son Henry asked for broccoli on his pizza. The stunned waiter, after recovering from the shock of hearing a child order broccoli for the first time in his career, explained that it was unfortunately not available as a topping. Henry happily settled for red and green peppers.

Just like the ones he picked--all at once--in our garden last fall.

____________________

John Hershey is a dad, a writer, and a lawyer (in that order). To read more humor columns, please visit his website: http://www.vershina.com/

Copyright 2004 by John Hershey. All rights reserved.

Posted by at 11:50 AM | Permalink

You say tomato, I say to-mah-to, you write Qaddafi, I write Gadhafi...

While the diverse peoples of the world may disagree on many things, there is strong consensus on at least one thing: we all love soup and eat it in many different forms. Here is the recipe for "sharba", the spicy and rich form preferred by Libyans.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1½ cups chopped onion
½ pound boneless lamb shoulder or dark chicken meat, finely chopped
4 medium-size ripe tomatoes, diced
½ can (3 ounces) tomato paste
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or harissa, or to taste
½ teaspoon saffron threads
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ cup orzo, fine pearl barley or couscous
1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained (canned are fine)
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
½ tablespoon dried mint.

Procedure:
1. Heat oil in a four-quart casserole or saucepan. Add onion and lamb or chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, cayenne or harissa, saffron and salt and pepper. Stir, then add 8 cups water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes.

2. Add orzo and chickpeas and cook 15 minutes, until orzo is tender. Add cilantro and parsley. Taste and adjust salt and cayenne or harissa. Add dried mint. Cook for 5 minutes, then serve.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Recipe source: The New York Times

Posted by at 11:18 AM | Permalink

People who like Belgian endive like it so much they grow it twice. In fact, they have no choice. Endive, perhaps the most famous member of the chicory family, is grown in two stages, once for the roots, and a second time for its yellow and white leaves. It is a particularly welcome member of the family in that it can produce crunchy salads throughout the entire winter if you grow enough roots.

Belgian endive is known for its pleasantly bitter flavor that works well both raw and cooked. This educational pictorial wll show you how to enjoy some of Belgium's finest without leaving your own backyard.

Step 1: Plant endive seeds in spring (early June, for most places) in rich soil, two rows per 30 inch (.76 meter) bed, 6 inches (15 cm) apart. Plants will grow upwards forming lush green foliage.

Step 2: After 110-130 days, gently unearth the roots with a digging fork being careful not to break or damage them. They are the "business end" of the plant and the storehouse of energy for the second phase of growth.

Step 3: Cut off the leaves to within an inch or two (2-4 cm) or so and add feed the leaves to your nitrogen hungry compost pile.

Step 4: Trim the roots down to a uniform length of 6-8 inches (15-20 cm).

Step 5: Pack the roots upright in a bucket or pail and fill around them with sand, if you have it, or loose sandy soil if you don't. Regular soil or peat can also be used, but it is difficult to use for filling in the gaps. Cover and store pails in the coolest location available.

Step 6. Three weeks before you want to enjoy your first endive feast, move the bucket to a 50-60 degree (10-15 celsius) location within your house adding water, if necessary. It's better to have it too wet than too dry. Keep the bucket covered so as not to allow light through. This is what keeps the leaves white. Within a few days, new growth will begin to appear.

Step 7: Check on your bucket from time to time. Roughly three weeks after stage 6, you should be able to cut your first endive salad. If you started with thick, stocky roots, cut them as you did in step 3 as you may be able to get a second harvest from them. Don't worry if your endives don't hold together tightly in a conical form, the flavor will be the same.

Step 8: Enjoy your harvest!

Posted by at 1:31 PM | Permalink