The colors are so pretty, but what is this plant?
Maybe we don’t want to know.
The USDA publishes yearly results. The U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented the USDA’s Pesticide Detection Program (PDP) in 1991 to test food commodities for pesticide residues. The test data is used to estimate consumer dietary exposure to pesticides and the relationship of those exposures to science-based standards of safety, ensuring consumer protection from unacceptable pesticide exposure.
The PDP’s results from 2009 (latest year) are online at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5091055
The National Pesticide Information Center is an excellent source of science-based information http://npic.orst.edu/index.html.
NPIC has information on food safety as it relates to conventional and organic foods with many links and answers to questions. http://npic.orst.edu/health/food.html.
Yes, ignorance is bliss…..
I was at the Farmers Market on Tuesday and I stopped to buy produce at one of the tables. Wait, what is that? Hmmm, it’s corn but what’s wrong with it? It’s lumpy, deformed,and looks inedible. The corn was definitely a curiosity that had most people stumped. The sign behind the corn said ‘Huitlacoche,’ (sometimes spelled cuitlacoche) which meant nothing to me, but two gentlemen, local chefs, stopped to look and one of them blurted out, “Corn smut.” Oh, my…Intriguing, titillating, and, oh yeah, smutty.
Corn smut sounds scandalous, doesn’t it? It turns out that ‘corn smut’ aka ‘Mexican truffle’, is a fungus. It’s a delicacy in Mexico, but farmers don’t like it because it reduces the corn yield. I appreciate that my local farmer made lemonade out of lemons when her corn crop turned smutty. According to the experts, it is usually cooked with chorizo or eggs, apparently taking on a truffle-like flavor when cooked with other fatty foods. It’s typically eaten as a filler in tortillas or quesadillas. Here’s what to look for so you can buy your own summer tantalizer, corn smut. 
Literally. It popped open about 10:00pm in the evening.
Living on Coronado I feel, like a lot of my fellow residents, that a trip over the Bridge is a big event. We’re going to the ‘other side.’ Yesterday I had to make a run out to Campo, so I decided since I was ‘over there’ that I would find and visit a nursery I keep hearing about. I came back on the 94, merged onto the 125 and after a bit of back-tracking, found Hunter’s Nursery on Sweetwater Road. Owned by the Hunter Family since 1919. Where the heck have I been?! Gee, what a nice place. I even ran into a Coronado neighbor, Dan, who is a landscaper.
This nursery is nicely stocked, a little of everything, and probably the tidiest nursery I have ever been to. I talked to Laurie who has worked there for four years. Nice and helpful, she was. I bought a six-pack each of tomatoes and zucchini, two String-of-Pearls succulents and an aloe called Christmas Carol. Anyway, if you are a nursery rat (hey, it takes one to know one!) and are in the Lemon Grove area, stop by, enjoy the scenery, and buy a few plants. Always like to support the family-run nurseries when I can. A productive Adventure Day!
