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Jefferson's Monticello: The Grounds: The Vegetable Garden

Jefferson's Monticello: The Grounds: The Vegetable Garden

Home » House, Gardens, Plantation » Gardens and Grounds » The Vegetable Garden

The Site of The Vegetable Garden
The 1,000-foot long garden terrace served as both a source of food and an experimental laboratory.

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For Spring, check out Thomas Jefferson's Garden at Monticello...

mental_floss Blog » 6 New Year Traditions from Around the World

mental_floss Blog » 6 New Year Traditions from Around the World. 6 New Year Traditions from Around the World
by Miss Cellania - December 31, 2007 - 4:41 AM

New Year traditions that all Americans are familiar with include the ball drop in Times Square, the Tournament of Roses Parade, fireworks, year-end lists, New Year’s resolutions, a toast and/or a kiss at midnight, Auld Lang Syne, and predictions for the year ahead. Here are some other customs you might not be as familiar with.
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I follow the Southern traditional one, black-eyed peas and ham, with some onion in it, too.. steamed greens on the side with vinegar.. sweet honey and butter cornbread.. iced tea :) ..Happy Holidays...

As cafés close in France, some grow concerned about the vibrancy of café culture - The Scout Report -- Volume 14, Number 47

As cafés close in France, some grow concerned about the vibrancy of café culture - The Scout Report -- Volume 14, Number 47.

As cafés close in France, some grow concerned about the vibrancy of café culture

Café where immigrant culture and mainstream Paris meet
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/1121/1227137525761.html

Across France, Café Owners Are Suffering [Free registration may be required] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/world/europe/23cafe.html?ref=todayspaper

Society-Parisian cafes and terraces
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france_159/discovering-france_2005/france-from-to-z_1978/society_1987/parisian-cafes-and-terraces_6836.html

The Tradition of Coffee and Coffeehouses Among Turks
http://www.turkishculture.org/pages.php?ChildID=204&ParentID=12&ID=56&ChildID1=204

Smart City Radio: An Authentic Sense of Place [Real Player] http://www.smartcityconsulting.com/smartcityradi/past_shows.cfm?showsmartcityID=327&PageNum_getsmartshows=9

10 Hottest Coffeehouses
http://www.forbestraveler.com/food-drink/americas-best-coffee-houses-story.html

In France, a country known for its outdoor philosophizing and café culture, there are a few ominous changes as of late that have many lovers of Gallic culture and pastimes rather worried. This past week, the New York Times reported that France now has fewer than 41,500 cafes, down from 200,000 in 1960. It is estimated that two cafes close every day in France. There are many suspected reasons for the closings, including the downturn in the economy, changing habits, and a time crunch among working professionals and just about everyone else. More and more French people consider the very ritual of having a cigarette, an espresso, and an aperitif unhealthy, and most can hardly afford the time to commit to such a leisurely paced activity. Some café owners are quick to blame the smoking ban that was instituted by the French government this past January. Others feel that the café is an essential part of French culture, particularly one Daniel Perry, who remarked, "We need the café to have an equilibrium between the village and the world outside. Without the café, you lose the conviviality. You lose your mates. Business agreements are made behind the zinc." [KMG]

Copyright 2008 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu

Finding the Hits, Avoiding the Errors - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

Finding the Hits, Avoiding the Errors - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com.

June 8, 2008
Finding the Hits, Avoiding the Errors

A culinary scorecard for all 30 major league baseball stadiums. Read the related article and share your thoughts on the best and worst food you've tasted at a ballpark.

Librarians' Internet Index: The Food Chain (NY Times)

Librarians' Internet Index: The Food Chain (NY Times).

The Food Chain
URL: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/series/the_food_chain/

Description:
"Articles in this series will examine growing demands on, and changes in, the world's production of food." Some of the topics include rising food prices, the effect on agriculture of biofuels, drought, food shortages, costs of shipping groceries, and specific crops such as wheat, corn, and rice. Some articles require free registration for viewing. From The New York Times.

LII Topics: Agriculture, Economic Aspects, Food & Beverage, Industries

Publisher:
The New York Times Company

A Chat with NYC's Coolest Culinary Librarian - IgoUgo

A Chat with NYC's Coolest Culinary Librarian - IgoUgo.

A Chat with NYC's Coolest Culinary Librarian
Posted on March 31, 2008 in Features

Who boasts the best menu in New York? Our vote goes to Rebecca Federman, keeper of the New York Public Library’s culinary collection. The passionate bibliographer—and writer of Cooked Books—talks to IgoUgo about her fascinating job and favorite tables.

IgoUgo: What comprises your work at the New York Public Library, and what are the best parts of your position there?
Rebecca Federman: My official title is Social Sciences Bibliographer, which means I order books and keep on top of trends and publications within the social sciences: women's studies, political science, history, etc. But I also spend a lot of time working with the Library's culinary collection, both the cookbooks and the historic restaurant menu collection. That's one of my favorite aspects of the job: reading through menus from the mid-19th century to the present, helping researchers, and meeting people. It's a job where one wears a lot of hats and is never bored. I like that.

F as in Fat 2007: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America 2007

F as in Fat 2007: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America 2007.

F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2007
2007 Report (2.06MB .pdf)

Adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year, according to the fourth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2007 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH). Twenty-two states experienced an increase for the second year in a row; no states decreased. A new public opinion survey featured in the report finds 85 percent of Americans believe that obesity is an epidemic.

Mississippi topped the list with the highest rate of adult obesity in the country for the third year in a row, and is the first state to reach a rate of over 30 percent (at 30.6 percent). Colorado was the leanest state again this year, however, its adult obesity rate increased over the past year (from 16.9 to 17.6 percent). Ten of the 15 states with the highest rates of adult obesity are located in the South. Rates of adult obesity now exceed 25 percent in 19 states, an increase from 14 states last year and 9 in 2005. In 1991, none of the states exceeded 20 percent.

The Night’s Young, So Find a Gray Bar - New York Times

The Night’s Young, So Find a Gray Bar - New York Times.

Weekend in New York | Mature Nightlife
The Night’s Young, So Find a Gray Bar
By SETH KUGEL, Published: March 11, 2007

NEW YORK does not lack for hip bars that drip with beautiful people sipping $12 drinks, being assaulted by thumping music and feeling that they have found the center of the nightlife universe.

But that's a universe ruled by the under-40 crowd (and haunted, despite laws to the contrary, by quite a few under-20s). So does that mean weekend visitors who own a graying mane or, the horror, receive a regular Social Security check, must head from a pricey meal, Broadway show or Lincoln Center concert and straight to bed without even a cocktail?

The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Get Your Hot Dogs Right Here!

The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Get Your Hot Dogs Right Here!.

Get Your Hot Dogs Right Here!

All hail the hot dog! July marks National Hot Dog Month, and the quintessential American food will be sizzling on grills everywhere this summer. In fact, some three-fourths of Americans say hot dogs are more strongly associated with Independence Day than with any other holiday, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, there is such a thing—it's a project of the American Meat Institute Foundation). Perhaps that's why Nathan's Famous chooses July 4 as the date of its annual hot dog eating contest at Coney Island, the site of its first restaurant.

Great hot dog story and history, from Library of Congress' Wise Guide.. makes me hungry for some dogs! :) .. Happy Fourth...

The Museum of the American Cocktail: The Hemingway Gin and Tonic

March 20
The Hemingway Gin and Tonic
...or “Some Kind of Hindu drink with Quinine In It”

[Phil Greene is our founder in temporary residence in New Zealand, and provides us with his own tasty contemplations regarding the Gin & Tonic]

Mindful of the closing words of Mark Marowitz’s excellent blog posting on February 26, when it comes to a good gin and tonic, why, indeed, wait for summer? You might wonder why I’m writing these words on the last day of winter; well, for me, it’s the last day of summer. Never thought I’d have end-of-summer melancholia in March, but there you have it. I’m spending 2007 in

Wellington, New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand, doing a research and teaching fellowship in cyberlaw at a local law school and, of course, doing what I can to learn about the local cocktail scene (more on that later). Summer here ends on March 20th, the date of the Autumnal Equinox. We recently “fell back,”set our clocks back one hour, while you blokes above the equator were doing the opposite.

Source: The Museum of the American Cocktail: The Hemingway Gin and Tonic

Random, Whole Foods Partner to Promote Memoir - 3/12/2007 - Publishers Weekly

Random, Whole Foods Partner to Promote Memoir - 3/12/2007 - Publishers Weekly.

Random, Whole Foods Partner to Promote Memoir
by Lynn Andriani, PW Daily -- 3/12/2007

Random House is teaming up with Whole Foods, the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods, to promote a spring memoir, Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table. The title, which goes on sale May 22 with a first printing of 25,000 copies, is Cameron Stratcher's memoir of how he, a "lawyer-commuter-father," realized his children were growing up without him, and vowed to be home five nights a week to make dinner with his family for a year. It's his third book.
...
D.C. Stracher will also promote the contest through his blog, http://www.dinnerwithdad.com/.

Napa Valley Mustard Festival - A Sensational Season of Wine Country Events

Napa Valley Mustard Festival - A Sensational Season of Wine Country Events.

Napa Valley Mustard Festival
A Sensational Season of Wine Country Events

January 27 through March 31, 2007
Celebrate the food, wine, art, and the rich, unique agricultural and cultural bounty of the Napa Valley! The Mustard Season offers a full palette of food, wine, art, entertainment, and cultural activities staged throughout the world-famous grape growing region when fields, vineyards, and hillsides are vibrant with wild mustard in bloom.

Great fun, great festival each year.. check out their Napa Valley Mustard Festival calendar for the full array of wonderful food, wine, and other events...

champagne - Allrecipes

champagne - Allrecipes.

champagne
[ sham-PAYN ]

This most celebrated sparkling wine always seems to signal "special occasion." Though bubbling wines under various APPELLATIONS abound throughout the world, true champagne comes only from the Champagne region in northeast France. Most countries bow to this tradition by calling their sparkling wines by other names such as spumante in Italy, Sekt in Germany and vin mousseux in other regions of France.

Only in America do some wineries refer to their bubbling wine as "champagne." Dom Perignon, 17th-century cellarmaster of the Abbey of Hautvillers, is celebrated for developing the art of blending wines to create champagnes with superior flavor.

Nice short overview article about champagne, the bubbly of the season...

The House of Muse - New York Times

The House of Muse - New York Times.

Shaken and Stirred
The House of Muse
By JONATHAN MILES, Published: December 3, 2006

"I recommend an Orange Blossom, the first cocktail that Robert Benchley ever tasted, taken with this passage from Fitzgerald’s “Tender Is the Night” as a chaser: 'The drink made past happy things contemporary with the present, as if they were still going on, contemporary even with the future as if they were about to happen again.' A good drink, like a good writer, can do that."

MIDWAY through “Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers,” an illustrated field guide to the hard-drinking subspecies of the American author, a dark realization washed over me: Everyone here is ... dead.

Of the 43 writers that compose Mark Bailey and Edward Hemingway’s all-star team of literary lushes, the “drinkers with writing problems” (to crib Brendan Behan’s charming phrase), only Hunter S. Thompson could be called contemporary. Concerned that the long and tumultuous marriage of two lovely seated activities may be on the skids — or, worse, kaput — I rang Mr. Bailey. Is it over?

Yes. “It was an entirely different America back then, from about 1910 to the ’60s, when the drinking and writing life were so intertwined, and when the myth of the hard-drinking writer arose,” he told me. “How would we feel today if someone ordered three martinis at lunch?”

The recipe for an Orange Blossom is on the article site.. and the book came out in October, 2006, and is available online at the usual suspects, plus brick & mortar bookstores, and of course, in libraries...

Pulled Pork, Pulled Corks in North Carolina - New York Times

Pulled Pork, Pulled Corks in North Carolina - New York Times.

Pulled Pork, Pulled Corks in North Carolina
By DANA BOWEN, Published: October 13, 2006

THE Piedmont in North Carolina is holy ground for barbecue connoisseurs: a place where pork shoulders are still pit-cooked over smoldering hardwood, and men with names like Snook and Boney live on through their smoky legacy.

The old-school barbecue joints they’ve left behind would alone warrant a road trip through this patchwork quilt of old farms, small towns and distant mountain views that sprawl south and west of Winston-Salem. But they’re not the only reason for food-minded tourists to visit here.

Just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the Yadkin Valley, a fledgling wine scene has taken root, one that doesn’t feature just the sweet native muscadine, but also pork-friendly Old World varietals like cabernet franc, sangiovese and even nebbiolo.