Organic Yellow Transparent available at Allegany Store

If you have never had applesauce made from Yellow Transparent apples, wow, you are in for a treat!!!

Definitely one of my favorites. I just picked them and they will be available at the Allegany Store starting Monday.

Donald Fruit & Mercantile Heritage Apple Trees - Wapato: "42 – Yellow Transparent: (White Transparent), Russia, (Europe 1870). Medium-to-large fruit with transparent pale yellow skin. Crisp, sweet and juicy, but has a very short life after ripe on or off the tree. Often picked in a greener stage for cooking. Excellent for sauce, pie and drying. "

Chicken WIng Contest

Be sure to catch the Chicken wing eating contest at our Portville Store! It should be fun! Call 933-8411 for more information.

In season fruits and vegetables

There are many things to love about the summer, but not least is the wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. I just had some excellent peaches (the first ones of the year that I thought were good enough to mention).

When looking for peaches, remember they should be soft to the touch when you eat them. If they are not ready yet when you buy them you can speed the ripening process by placing them in a small paper bag.

Great alone or in cereals!! And good for you too!

The Food Timeline--history notes: ambrosia to corn bread

The Food Timeline--history notes: ambrosia to corn bread

Corn bread is literally being brought to a new generation with the success of Thomas' Toasting Corn Bread. In the past week I have had two employees mention to me that they had never had corn bread prior to this.

One of the employees is a history major (well sort of), and his comments spurred this internet search.

The history of corn bread is really quite interesting. I did not realize that it was looked down upon so much (largely due to the hard nature of colonial and even Civil War Era breads.

Definitely worth your time to check it out!

And if you have not tried the bread, I would highly highly recommend it! Especially toasted with maple syrup on it. EXCELLENT!

Grapefruit seed can help ulcers

I am sort of surprised by this one. But I am happy as when I make grapefruit juice I often end up drinking many of the seeds and I have always been somewhat worried about it. I guess I can relax. ;)

Grapefruit seed can help ulcers: "The team from Jagiellonian University Medical College in Poland examined the effects of different doses of grapefruit seed extract on induced gastric ulcers in rats."

Grapefruit "seed extract actually possesses antibacterial and antioxidative properties that calm the gastric tract, according to researchers at the recent Digestive Disease Week conference in Chicago, USA"

Health and Nutrition: Dark Chocolate Isn't a Health Food, but . . . - New York Times

I still vote for fruits and vegetables, but...

Health and Nutrition: Dark Chocolate Isn't a Health Food, but . . . - New York Times: "eating dark chocolate appears to bring down blood pressure in people with hypertension, researchers said yesterday."

But be forewarned:

The "dark chocolate used in the study, conducted at the University of L'Aquila in Italy, is vastly different from most of that found on American shelves. Beyond that, the researchers said, high-fat, high-calorie foods like chocolate should be eaten in moderation"

BBC NEWS | Health | Quit smoking to save your teeth

Well if the first million reasons weren't enough, her eis another reason to quit!
BBC NEWS | Health | Quit smoking to save your teeth: "Smokers who give up are much less likely to lose their teeth prematurely than those who do not kick the habit, research shows"

FEATURE/California Bartlett Pears Perfect for the ''French Women Don't Get Fat'' Lifestyle, By Georgeanne Brennan

FEATURE/California Bartlett Pears Perfect for the ''French Women Don't Get Fat'' Lifestyle, By Georgeanne Brennan: "We've been hearing that French women don't get fat, yet they eat chocolate, drink Champagne, savor cheeses of all kinds, consume steak and French fries, not to mention ice cream and pastries. What's the secret? Well, part of the secret is eating fruit -- a lot of fruit. In fact, as explained in the current best selling book, French Women Don't Get Fat, by Mierelle Guilano"

The 29 Healthiest Foods on the Planet

Ok, so I am not sure on the exact numbering, but the list is impressive and interesting!

How many do you eat? How often?

The 29 Healthiest Foods on the Planet: "The following is a 'healthy food hot list' consisting of the 29 food that will give you the biggest nutritional bang for you caloric buck, as well as decrease your risk for deadly illnesses like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Along with each description is a suggestion as to how to incorporate these power-foods into your diet. "

'Self-Regulation' of Food Marketing is More Like Self-Preservation, Says CSPI ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI

Hey turn these people onto this blog! You definitely get the who picture here! In fact, some suppliers have not been very happy with critical remarks made about their products.

'Self-Regulation' of Food Marketing is More Like Self-Preservation, Says CSPI ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI: "The steps that Kraft, Nickelodeon and PepsiCo are beginning to take are encouraging, but the industry needs to do so much more. Responsible food marketing would support, rather than undermine, parental authority and responsibility. Parents are drowned out by sophisticated marketing for junk foods. "

BBC NEWS | Health | Sweetener 'linked' to leukaemias

Personally, I doubt I will change any behavior as a result of only one study (especially given the track record of medical studies), I will be watching for more evidence. Stay tuned.

BBC NEWS | Health | Sweetener 'linked' to leukaemias:

"Dr Morando Soffritti and colleagues at the Cancer Research Centre in Bologna fed eight-week-old rats varying concentrations of aspartame.

Compared with control rats given no sweetener, many of the female rats in the experiment developed lymphomas or leukaemias - the risk increasing with the dose of aspartame.

The researchers say their study raises concerns about the levels of aspartame to which humans can be exposed"

Pop warnings?

"Group Calls for Soft Drink Warnings - New York Times: "An organization that lobbies for increased regulation of the food and drug industries called on Wednesday for cigarette-style warnings on soft drinks to alert consumers that too much of the beverages can cause obesity and other health problems."

Well, we knew it would be coming. We all know too much sugar is not good for us. So I am not sure the warning is necessary, but I guess if not, the beverage firms are probably opening themselves up for lawsuits.

Virtual Tours of the Olean/Allegany area

OleanInfo.com has some pretty cool "virtual tours" of the local area. So if you are new to the area (or no longer in the area), or just want to see the area from a different perspective, try it out!

Virtual Tours in the Olean Area

Childhood pastimes are increasingly moving indoors - Yahoo! News

I have an idea. Rather than getting in the car and driving, walk or bike to the store! In fact, mention this to the store manager and tell him/her that you want a bike rack put in--I have been campaigning for one, but no one believes there is any demand.

Childhood pastimes are increasingly moving indoors - Yahoo! News: "The fundamental nature of American childhood has changed in a single generation. The unstructured outdoor childhood - days of pick-up baseball games, treehouses and 'be home for dinner' - has all but vanished.
Today, childhood is spent mostly indoors, watching television, playing video games and working the Internet. When children do go outside, it tends to be for scheduled events - soccer camp or a fishing derby - held under the watch of adults. In a typical week, 27% of kids ages 9 to 13 play organized baseball, but only 6% play on their own, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
The shift to an indoor childhood has accelerated in the past decade, with huge declines in spontaneous outdoor activities such as bike riding, swimming and touch football"

Fried Twinkies

Uh, don't try this at home!

Lebanon Daily Record: "For the second year in a row, the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Department brought a newly-popular delicacy to the midway fare at the Laclede County Fair: fried Twinkies and bananas.

'We just take the Twinkie and dip it in funnel cake batter and fry it up,' said Eldridge Volunteer Fire Department safety officer Bruce Pringle.
"

Yahoo! Sports - Cycling - Innovative diet keeps Armstrong lean and powerful

Yahoo! Sports - Cycling - Innovative diet keeps Armstrong lean and powerful: "To make positive adaptations to training, your body needs a slight surplus of energy. To lose weight, you need a slight energy deficit. Trying to lose significant amounts of weight while training hard can do more harm than good because it robs the body of its ability to recover, which in turn reduces the positive impact of workouts.

We have seen examples of this from Jan Ullrich. Earlier in his career, he would gain more than 20 pounds during the winter, slim down slightly in the spring, then lose the final dozen pounds within a month before the start of the Tour de France. The problem, however, was his power output suffered from the combination of caloric restriction and increased training. He arrived at the Tour de France lean and mean, but without the power to challenge Lance in the mountains."

I could not agree any more!!!