Friday Faves No. 114

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

When farmers are working so hard to grow vegetables, it's crazy that we would let any go to waste for superficial reasons like irregular looks. French supermarket Intermarché launched an ingenious campaign to get people eating more vegetables while reducing food waste. A two-minute video explain the project.  (JW Intelligence)

One of the strongest food reads this week is the OpEd Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers (and it's by a shellfish and seaweed farmer). And then some interesting letters to the editors get in on the topic. (New York Times)

Oh great, just what we needed: more corn. Shifting Climate Has North Dakota Farmers Swapping Wheat For Corn  (NPR)

Consumers are demanding antibiotic-free meat, and Big Food is starting to listen (even if our politicians are still mostly ignoring us) Alas, antibiotic free meat is still just about 5% of the total US supply. Sense of urgency please.... (PRI/The World)

The New Encyclopedia of Southern Food  "Twenty-six people, places, and ingredients are changing the way we eat right now" from Appalachian food to Moonshine Universtiy. (Garden & Gun)

Cashew Juice, the Apple of Pepsi’s Eye  "Pepsi is betting that the tangy, sweet juice from cashew apples can be the next coconut water or açaí juice....The demanding demographic group known as millennials, as well as new consumers among the world’s emerging middle class, have a restless appetite that is driving food companies to experiment on a grand scale with flavors and ingredients whose appeal until recently were largely local." (New York Times)

Friday Faves No. 93

Honey Bees get wired: Australian Researchers Attach Tiny Sensors to Honey Bees to Track Their Movements (Laughing Squid)

A Change in the Kitchen discusses the rise of women in US restaurant kitchens and says that in many leading kitchens a full third of the cooks are women. It's been a long time coming. Now if we can only speed up their track to media coverage and broaden the popular imagination of who chefs are... (New York Times)

Big in Japan: Farming Via Webcam It could be a great way for city-based restaurants and the farms they buy from to connect. (Modern Farmer)

Attention Food Nerds: Classic Southern Cookbooks Now in the Public Domain Fancy a recipe for antebellum pineapple beer or turn-of-the-century succotash? (Garden & Gun)

Wealthy foreigners buy up swaths of UK farmland and country estates Estate agents report rising interest from China, Middle East and Scandinavia with sporting estates 'top of Christmas wish lists' "It's a tangible asset – people can live on it and walk on it," he said. "It's a popular product and we're not making more of it." Ouch.  And: "The agents said buyers are also attracted by the increasing array of money-making opportunities from land ownership, which now extends to rent from wind turbines and fracking as well as traditional farming activities." It won't stay lovely with fracking. (Guardian)

You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love a Kosher Prison Meal "Airplane passengers, for instance, have been known to order kosher meals, even if they are not Jewish, in the hope of getting a fresher, tastier, more tolerable tray of food. It turns out that prison inmates are no different." (New York Times)

Small-Batch Distilleries Ride The Craft Liquor Wave "Wherever you live, you're probably not too far from a local microbrewery making beer. Now, the latest trend is the spread of what you might call "micro-boozeries." Craft liquor distilleries are springing up around the country like little wellheads spouting gin, whiskey and rum." (NPR)

Sing Along Snacks: That's What I Like About the South

It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

 This Sing Along Snack was submitted by our favorite fishmonger/poet/office rapper and Southerner, Dale Sims.

Phil Harris & Johnny Cash sing about their favorites (song starts at 1:25)

"She's got backbones and turnip greens.

Ham hocks and butter beans

You, me and New Orleans

An' that's what I like about the South"