Friday Faves No. 174

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

To the ovens! OK its not just a holiday battle cry, but the result of a recently published study that proves that cooking or baking can help you feel better.  We knew that of course, but these days when a lot of people are feeling down from post-election to holiday stresses, we could all turn to our kitchens to conjure up a bit a hearty helping of homemade 'feel-good'. (Smithsonian Magazine & Munchies)

Not that you should....but you could....eat it that is JetBlue just came out with an edible ad campaign just in time for holiday travel. Yes indeed, don't let winter travel delays worry you. Just eat the paper made out of potato starch, water, vegetable oil and glycerin.  (adWeek)

Have we got a stocking stuffer idea for all the Canadians out there! Yes, it's here! Poutine flavored lip balm!  Well, if KFC can come out with fried chicken scented sunscreen, we really have nothing to say about this lip balm. Just please Canada, don't make poutine your new favorite pumpkin spice replacement for the holidays. (Munchies)

And finally some good news for bees. General Mills just announced a $4 million dollar commitment that should help plant over 100,000 acres of pollinator habitat through 2021.  This is a deal, bringing together GM along with the non-profit Xerces Society and the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service, will help farmers plant and protect pollinator habitat including native wildflower field edges and flowering hedgerows.  Since bees are responsible for an annual $25 billion in agricultural production, it's nice to see companies that understand that good environmental practices make good financial sense. (Food Business News)

Friday Faves No. 173

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

How do you eat your Nutella? 

It's a dessert! No, it's a spread! No, it's a __________! The FDA is asking people to weigh in (pun totally intended) on how Nutella is enjoyed. Is it more like a honey, a dessert topping or a fruit spread? The FDA's public commenting period is open until January 3, 2017. (NPR)

While on the subject of sweet spreads, producing Manuka honey has become downright dangerous! Thefts, vandalism and poisonings are occurring across New Zealand's far north. In one instance 300 hives were mysteriously killed causing beekeepers to fear for their well-being. For simple honey? Not really simple honey when you consider that Manuka honey can fetch as much as NZ$100/kg. (Guardian)

Sensing a sweet theme here? Let's keep going then! New Belgium Brewing and Ben & Jerry's have teamed up for climate change....and chocolate chip cookie dough beer. Some of the proceeds from the beer sales will go to Protect Our Winters. Maybe pair it with a fancy buche de noel this holiday season. (Thrillist)

Did we just say buche de noel? Why yes indeed! French blog Atabula just published a rather fancy buche round up for this holiday season. From Anne-Sophie Pic's London telephone boxes to realistic mandarine shaped "buche" this year there is some amazing craft and creativity on display. Here is a peek. (Atabula)

Friday Faves No. 105

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Discerning pollinators in Toronto will now be residing at the “Bee Hotel” on the roof of the Fairmont Royal York. “We’re certainly hoping to positively sustain and support the bee species, but we’re also doing this to drive awareness and education, so this issue comes to the surface and hopefully others will take action.” The hotel uses its restaurant to showcase the project by featuring herbs from their garden (which the bees have pollinated) and honey that they make. (Luxury Daily)

How Atomic Particles Helped Solve A Wine Fraud Mystery Those of you who've read The Billionaires Vinegar will be familiar with this story and how detecting atomic activity can help detect wine fraud. If not, you can get the quickie version in this Kitchen Sisters radio spot. (NPR)

Spreading the Nutella wealth: Italy's sweet success at 50  We still remember our first tastes of Nutella, hand-carried over from France before you could buy it in the US. It came with the realization that there were places in the world where everything tasted amazing and people were eating chocolate for breakfast. (Guardian)

What does meat taste of? When we describe meat dishes we rely on unhelpful words such as lamby or beefy. Why is it so hard to explain what meat tastes like, and what are its distinctive flavours made up of? This is your nerdy read of the week, including the fascinating fast fact that some Southeast Asian tribes allocate specific names to smells, just as we do colors. (Guardian)

When the real estate business use community gardens to sell: Gentrification and the Urban Garden “Our work wasn’t the cause of gentrification, but our programs and our aesthetics were being used to sell land and help displace people.” (New Yorker)

Will we all be drinking Chinese wine someday? It might take a while, but some think it's coming. The first sparkling wine made in China will be issued under the Chandon label this year. "China will rock our wine world – we just have to wait a little longer." (Wine Searcher)

If you felt like the Google and Facebook ads that pop up on your screen know too much about you, this will really freak you out: The Reverse Yelp: Restaurants Can Now Review Customers, Too (Bloomberg Businessweek)

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)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 74

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

 

• In Australia, one farm is employing the cutest little beekeeper you've ever seen, a labrador retriever named Bazz (above) who takes to the fields in his custom-made suit and has been trained to sniff out diseased hives. (Treehugger)

• It's not like selling handbags: For online food startups, a challenging recipe for success "Unlike groceries, artisanal foods are generally considered a niche market. They make great gifts, as well as delicious occasional treats, but most people -- even foodies -- aren't buying high-end truffle oil too often." (Fortune)

• Rare Japanese Volkswagen Bus Toaster Imprints VW Logo on Toast and you can't have one, unless you're one of the lucky few. (Laughing Squid)

• Men's fashion site Mr Porter has bridged their style into food with their "The Way I cook" series, like this one with model and cake enthusiast Sam Homan. Anyone looking to make a company video for their food product, take notes. (Mr Porter)

• Hotels and resorts want a piece of the Farm to Table movement: "In May 2012, Hyatt Hotels Corp. required chefs at its 120 full-service hotels in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean to use at least five local ingredients on their menus. The rules define local as food grown or caught within 50 miles of the hotel." And the experiment is still going. (News-press)

• Want to know which currencies are over or undervalued? You can find the answers through Burgernomics. (Economist)

• More US consumers are looking to purchase organic foods, but supply issues are sending farmers and consumers to China. Will the US be able to sort out its domestic supply? (audio of radio show) (On Point)

• Harrod's links it's Cocktails and All that Jazz in-store promotions with its social platforms including great little videos like this one for mixing Hendricks gin cocktails in a teapot. “Extending a local retail campaign like this to digital can enable a global audience to participate, expose new customers to the brand, and ultimately, if done right, drive traffic and sales to ecommerce.” (Luxury Daily)

• How to drink coffee in space at zero gravity, explained to you, in this little video made by NASA. Because, you know, it could come in really handy if you find yourself in space. (Laughing Squid)

• San Francisco style prediction: uni is the new foie gras, with a tour of some of their favorite uni dishes, from crostini to flan to snuggled up next to a raw quail egg. (The Bold Italic)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 71

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

 

• Food advertising jazz age-style (above) with a 1929 promotion for Runnymede eggs served aboard the Graf Zeppelin (found on the great vintage image site Retronaut).

• Farm Free or Die!  Maine Towns Rebel AGainst Food Rules "Local food activists don't want to eliminate regulation; they just want to self-regulate at the community level among people who know and trust each other." Similar efforts are happening in the UK “Food and farming aren’t just about market economics and just getting people calories in their body; it’s got this huge social and cultural dimension to it.

• Baked ham? New marijuana-fed pork from near Seattle won't get you high, but it's rumored to be delicious — and the pigs aren't complaining. "Asked if feeding marijuana affects the pigs, such as perhaps giving them munchies, Gross said can see no effect on the pigs. Already all pigs do is sleep and eat, he said."

• In other pork news, Iowa-based La Quercia has launched its version of the famous Spanish jamón ibérico, Spallacia, made from acorn-fed Tamworth pigs.

• The trend of donut-love carries on with California's answer to NYC's Cronut: the Mochi Donut. They come in flavors such as strawberry shortcake, cafe au lait, double mango and raspberry custard. And if you don't believe that uber-donuts are a full-on craze, the Cronut now has its own black market.

• Artist Ben Frost uses MacDonald's french fry containers as a pop art canvas to explore the relationship between capitalism and pop culture.

• Counterfeit Food More Widespread Than Suspected "Investigators have uncovered thousands of frauds, raising fresh questions about regulatory oversight as criminals offer bargain-hunting shoppers cheap versions of everyday products, including counterfeit chocolate and adulterated olive oil, Jacob’s Creek wine and even Bollinger Champagne. As the horse meat scandal showed, even legitimate companies can be overtaken by the murky world of food fraud."

• Food Entrepreneur Is A New Breed Of Afghan Business Owner  "I'm very optimist for after 2014, because 10 years ago, woman were not able to work outside of home, especially during the Taliban regime. And right now, we can see lots of the women, that they have their own business. And also, we can see lots of change."

• Pretty auaponics: London-based urban farming business growUP have just shared images of their successfully launched shipping container aquaponics farm in the Marlborough playground as part of the Chelsea Fringe, an alt garden festival.

• After a large die-off directly related to spraying, Oregon residents are planning a funeral to memorialize dead bees and advocate for them.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 68

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

 

• Newcastle Libraries has posted a cache of UK historical images, like the fishing photos above, to Flickr. Pictured above: At left, a studio portrait of a Fisherman from Cullercoats taken c.1890. The man is wearing a waterproof coat souwester and cork life-jacket. At right, an 1897 studio portrait of Maggie Brown a Fishwife from Cullercoats. Maggie Brown is wearing her 'best' clothes which include a printed cotton or silk blouse with matching apron. A silk square is worn to fill the neckline of her blouse.
  

• Drink trends: beet cocktails like the Beet Me in St. Louis with beet-infused gin, honey and tarragon, and growing US enthusiasm for port, especially aged tawnies.

• Some forgotten foods of the UK (from cookies to sheep) are making a come back with help from Slow Food UK's Chefs Alliance. Says Carina Contini, of Centotre in Edinburgh: “The special ingredient is always the story. Understanding where ingredients come from and how they got there allows us to connect with our environment and food chain and we love sharing this knowledge with our customers.” 

• On U.S. farms, women are taking the reins says a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Many are career-changers looking for a different kind of life and a way to make a difference. “We are seeing more beginning farmers coming in and I think the trend is going to continue. Women are [already] outnumbering men in owning smaller farms.”

• The romance version of farming spreads further into pop culture with a boom in farm-lit. "Thanks to the economy, picket fences and scruffy farm hands have replaced stilettos and cute i-bankers in literature aimed at women....And in this era of Brooklyn backyard chickens, farmer's markets-as-social events, Anthropologie aprons and hipsters baking homemade bread, what's more aspirational than running away to a farm?"

• Breaking News from Financial Times summit: rich people still super rich, keep trying to sell them expensive stuff "The good news is that the people who buy the products you make are doing much better than everyone else by a very big margin and nothing in the crisis has changed that,” said Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator on the Financial Times.

• When trademark law goes bad: First Chick-fil-a sued those nice Vermont kale enthusiasts, now the Economic Development Department of the State of New York is suing a New York coffee shop over a  riff on it's I ♥ NY logo. Apparently, local pride is going to cost you.

• We've all been hearing about colony collapse disorder and the crisis of dying bees. In China now it’s gotten so bad they are hand-pollinating blossoms in orchards. A new film called More Than Honey explores the issue (click for trailer).

• Food waste — one of the most persistent issues in our ability to feed the world and husband resources. Worldwide, nearly one quarter of all calories produced are going uneaten (infographic), either from spoilage at production on later. One San Francisco-area teen has taken matters into his own hands and founded the tech platform Waste No Food, which help restaurants make timely donations of their surplus food. Leading area restaurants like Manresa have joined in.

• Detroit's Urban Agriculture Ordinance that passed on April 15 has opened the city for urban aquaponics. Two new facilities are underway for tilapia, catfish and blue gill — although the finer points of regulation still have to be worked out. "The city is in the process of coming up with a process,” for approving fish farms, says Kathryn Underwood of the City Planning Commission. “We don't even have all of the forms quite in place yet for all of things that need to happen. We're riding a bike and building it at the same time.”

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 7

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

• Fabulous modern real estate for the stylish urban honey bee (left), Philips has designed a new at-home hive.

• Food and fantasy merge in a collection of photos by Matthew Carden, like monks in a mushroom forest and Scuba divers in your wine.

• Veggie plush toys are great, but pizza sleeping bags take snuggling with your food to a whole new level.

• An article on Seven Evolved Dining Habits That Every Restaurateur Should Know in 2012 highlights a few of our favorites: more social networking from chefs, innovations in local sourcing and food trucks.

• Cities are trying to lure the entrepreneurs of the new gastroconomy. New Orleans is holding a NOLAbound contest to bring entrepreneurs to the city. Detroit is looking at opening up the city to more farming: "I don't know what will happen... I know some people have expressed concern about turning Detroit into a plantation. That's not going to happen. This isn't about sharecropping. It's about creating economic activity."

• If you're ready to get active, American Farmland Trust is offering a free webinar December 13 on local planning for food and agriculture.

• Need a urban farming pep talk? Check out this short video with urban farmer and blogger Erik Knutzen.