weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Pastry chefs are tough, and so are their tattoos, like the one at right of a KitchenAid mixer, easily the best of 21 Awesome Culinary Tattoos.

Farmers hard hit by the extreme drought are turning to twitter for news and support, but also checking in on the grain market prices via twitter. Market information that used to take days is now a farmers fingertips.

Mark Bittman, in his latest New York Times Opinionator column, eloquently urges us all to Celebrate the Farmer! "...to get these beautiful veggies, we need real farmers who grow real food, and the will to reform a broken food system. And for that, we need not only to celebrate farmers, but also to advocate for them." Now if we could just get some rain...

If anything is worth signing a petition for it's definitely the White House Honey Ale recipe. Press Secretary Jay Carney says: "Got a Q today on @wethepeople petition asking us to share WH beer recipe: http://t.co/ae7HpeVt If it reaches the threshold, we'll release it" So far (at the time we are publishing this faves edition) 6,895 have signed.....we only need 18,105 more.

For those of you who didn't know that today, August 24, 2012 is National Waffle Day, and are just kicking yourselves because you didn't fully celebrate like you think you should, well, it's not too late celebrate. Thanks to our friends over at Laughing Squid, we found Georgi waffle-flavored vodka. This new libation was launched today, at the breakfast bar (literally!) at the Holiday Inn Express in Stony Brook, NY. According the good folks over at Georgi in addition to making a fun addition to breakfast, they have concocted a number of waffle-inspired cocktails including the signature waffle-tini — the drink over ice, served with a mini waffle garnish on the rim of the glass. I guess with enough waffle-tinis, just about anyone could end up with a KitchenAid tattoo!