A few things I've learned this week

I have spent much of the past week writing and organizing for next fall.  So, things are happening, but I don't have anything exciting to show for it.  (I don't think you'll find eleven pages of scientific writing as exciting as I do.)

In gathering together notes and papers I've been collecting for the past year I've come across some cool facts about food, and food culture.

#1.  Spinach is my all time favorite green.  Harvesting it is a labor of love because each leaf has to be cut individually.  But, it will grow, as in make new leaves, at only 40 degrees and those leaves will be 2 brix degrees of sweetness higher.  What is a brix degree you ask?  The grams of sugar dissolved in 100g of solution.  I don't really know how much a gram of sugar is or how the brix scale actually works, but I do know that winter grown spinach is noticeably sweeter.  Some that I grew last winter was like candy it was so sweet and that is a good thing.


#2.  The average person spends $20 at a farmers market.  Hopefully this is not the only thing at which I am above average.


#3. During winter months much of the produce consumed in the United States is grown in Arizona or California and transported to consumers via truck.  In a Michigan study, locally grown winter salad greens grown in low and high tunnels use less energy to produce than greens imported from warmer climates.  

Sources: #1, #2, #3