I love Bob the Builder, that Canadian claymation contractor, if for no other reason that he exists in a world where happiness comes from having a pleasant conversation with an anthropomorphized …
Blueberry Balance February 27, 2006
It's 6:00 pm on a Thursday night, the kids are hungry, dinner is ten minutes from blast off and I'm looking for the limbo stick. We pull two chairs back to back, lay the yard-stick across the chair …
Keep Me Unwrapped!
By Chris Mittelstaedt I don't know if you caught the article in the New York Times magazine last week called Twelve Easy Pieces. It was about the growing business of slicing and packaging apples in …
Bananas are Driving Me Bananas
I want to offer my apologies and share with you the explanation for the inconsistency in banana ripeness over the last few weeks. On October 4th of 2005, hurricane Stan hit Mexico and generated …
Give that Nature a Raise! February February 6, 2005
Have I mentioned how impressed I am with nature? I gave it a job review previously. I mean, all those things it does for us, like make the trees magically bud and the gnomes come out and those talking …
Dog Talks to Apple Tree! January 30, 2006
You know a trend is emerging when the largest selling newspaper in the world picks it up. Last week The Weekly World News noted on page three that an apple tree was changing a man's life. After …
A Boy and his Cara-Cara Janurary 23, 2006
Dad is on the hood of the family Volvo - jumping up and down and cursing. I'm 18 years old, it's the 4th of July weekend, and we're having a grand old time. Yesterday, I drove the family car into …
A Friendly Ripening, December 12, 2005
Scott, the ice cream store manager, looks up from behind his bushy brown mustache. His feathered hair is a constant windblown reminder of his recent promotion and brand-spanking-new black Trans-Am …
Memory in an Orange, December 5, 2005
I remember that the Thai police officer smelled like oranges. Out! He yelled, waving his finger and pointing at the three of us sitting in the Toyota minivans middle seat. No one moved. The Brit next …
Mary Jo Banana and the Weiner Dog, November 21, 2005
It is Thanksgiving 1975, and our customer service FruitGuy, Erin Giordano is eight years old. Wild red hair and polyester, she is off at her aunt Dorothy's house in Glendale, California for the …
Innie, Outtie, Beck or Fukumoto? November 14, 2005
Oranges are oranges, right? Not so. Did you know that the Navel orange we enjoy in California from late fall to springtime has many different varieties? Growers plant Navels with names like the …
The new in the old, November 7, 2005
Saturday night and my kids are stuffing ice packs in their shirts. I am FREEEEZING!!! they yell while running around and laughing wildly. How wonderful to feel so excited by such simple, new things. …
Arkansas Black Apples, October 31, 2005
The Arkansas Black is a dark, purplish apple and is thought to be a descendant of the Winesap. The Arkansas Black was said to be discovered in Benton County, Arkansas in 1870. These apples come …
Satsuma Poetry Palooza, October 24, 2005
It happens once a year, and boy is it exciting. When the Satsumas come out, I make a point to wear orange knickers to the office and speak in verse all day long. Yes, it is the annual Satsuma Zooma …
10 Acres and a Lady, October 17, 2005
John Smit emigrated from the Netherlands to California in the 1960s and purchased land in Linden to start a dairy. In 1969 he began transforming his dairy farm into an apple orchard. He was intrigued …
Chewing on words, October 10, 2005
What does nutrition mean? According to dictionary.com, it is: 1. The process of nourishing or being nourished, especially the process by which a living organism assimilates food and uses it for …
Change and Shift, October 3, 2005
Fifty years ago, words like nutrition and wellness meant steak and eggs; today, they mean isoflavonoids, antioxidants, and fruit in your office. While our long-term perspectives on food change as …
Musing on Muir in Sacramento, September 19, 2005
In early September of 2005, I attended the Governors Obesity Summit in Sacramento, CA. The summit brought together 125 people from private, government, and social organizations who are trying to stem …
The French Butter Pears are here!
I often feel like Steve Martin in the movie The Jerk. Not because I wear paper hats or have finally found my special purpose; but because when the French Butter pears arrive, I run into public places …
What to say?, September 5, 2005
When I was born, my grandfather Popi planted a peach tree in the small back yard of his house in Metairie, Lousiana. He did the same three years later for my sister Jenna and five years after that for …
