Nourish and Flourish Summer 2019

NOURISH Flourish and

HEALTHY SUMMER RECIPES

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Summer 2019

CHANGING THE FUTURE OF FOOD THE RISE OF OCEAN FARMERS

Display until October 2019

$14.99 US

HEALTHY SOIL = HEALTHY FOOD

“Learn how to see.

Realize that everything connects to everything else.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci Take a close look at this photograph. The seeds in sunflower seed-heads are organized in two sets of spirals (“parastichies”), one counterclockwise and one clockwise; the numbers of spiral arms in one direction and in the other are usually two consecutive Fibonacci numbers. (see inside back cover for more detail).

The genesis of this arrangement, which is typical of plants in the family Compositae (daisies, asters, etc.), is still not completely understood. Plants can grow new cells in spirals, such as the pattern of seeds in this beautiful sunflower, and it appears that the ratio between the spirals enables the largest number of seeds to fit in any given sunflower.

True art in math and nature.

- American Mathematical Society

Photo by Nancy Suttles

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world.”

- Albert Einstein

Nancy Suttles, Founder Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Robert H. Witcher Chief Operating Officer Daniel R. George Senior Vice-President Development

k Sarah V. Bell Copy and Content Editor Morgan Rhodes Photographer and Senior Producer This publication would not be possible without the collaboration of our international contributors and patrons.

Editorial inquiries: nancy@veracitymediagroup.com General information: robert@veracitymediagroup.com Published in the United States by Veracity Media Group, LLC. Copyright © 2019 Veracity Media Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Photo by Alessio Asoggetti

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© Copyright 2019 by Veracity Media Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including digital, electronic, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Veracity Media Group, LLC. All images and materials are protected by © copyright and all rights are reserved in any medium and any form of reproduction worldwide. Any reproduction or use of these materials without the prior written consent of Veracity Media Group, LLC is strictly prohibited. Other images and/or product names mentioned or depicted herein may be protected by copyright or trademark and are the property of their respective rights holder. Nourish and Flourish / Veracity Media Group LLC has not independently tested any services or products that are featured on these pages herein and has verified no claims made by these companies and or individuals regarding those services or products. All recipes in this publication have been submitted by professional contributors. Veracity Media Group, LLC has received permission and approvals to publish all content in this edition as provide by the contributors. Printed in the USA.

NOURISH Flourish and

™

Welcome!

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his special interest publication was created by a collaboration of passionate editorial content contributors including photographers, writers, scientists, and designers. We are proud to feature stories and visuals from experts all over the world, from different age groups, demographics, and cultures.

Please take the time to wander through our pages, appreciate the beautiful photography (and its many subjects), and ponder our inspired stories. This publication is much like an art gallery or museum: you can enjoy the entire experience without the distraction of advertising pages or commercial interruption of any kind.

Thank you for joining us. Please share a copy and enjoy!

Better Living Through Smarter Choices.

Nourish and Flourish is a special interest publication dedicated to creating authentic content that inspires learning and curiosity.

Published by Veracity Media Group, LLC, a private, independent media company located in the United States.

All Rights Reserved. © 2019 Veracity Media Group, LLC. Copies are available for purchase online:

veracitymediagroup.com • nourishandflourish.site Copies are also available on select newsstands nationwide. Please visit our website for retail locations.

Photo by Nancy Suttles. An exclusive cheese tasting at Anderson Conn Valley, Saint. Helena, California.

CONTENTS PART ONE: EARTH MATTERS Art + Science Securing Our Food Forever: Svalbard Global Seed Vault The Food Forever Initiative From the Past to the Future: The Kew Millennium Seed Bank

9 10 16 20 22

PART TWO: EXPLORATION & DISCOVERY Capturing a Moment in Time Thirst for Knowledge The Power of Print Eye in the Sky: The Art of the Hubble NASA and the Navajo Nation

25 27 36 38 40

PART THREE: BACK TO BASICS Healthy Soil is Vital to Our Well Being Healthy Soil = Healthy Food The Art of Foraging

PART FOUR: THE FUTURE OF FOOD Changing the Future of Food Puratos Sourdough Library The International Bread Symposium Nature, Nutrition, and Your Health Ancient Hawaiian Aquaculture Tide to Table: the Rise of Ocean Farmers

47 48 50 52 59 60 67 70 76 78 80

PART FIVE: LET’S EAT! 85 Grow, Cook, Nourish, and Flourish 86 Cedar Planked Wild Alaska Salmon 88 Poached Eggs and Smoked Salmon 90 Mobile Q: The Royal Pig BBQ 92 Grilled Rack of Lamb and Roasted Vegetables 96 Let’s Begin: The Art of Antipasto 98 Blueberry Lemon Cream Tart 100 Special Feature: Healthy Dogs are Happy Dogs 102 Morgan’s Organic Sweet Potato and Carrot Cookies 105 Organic Peanut Butter and Oat Dog Treats 106 Until Next time: Everlasting Love 108

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If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~ Marcus Tullus Cicero

Photo by Nancy Suttles

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ONE: Earthmatters “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility.

To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”

~ Wendell Berry

The story of the sunflower, Helianthus Annuus, is indeed amazing. The wild sunflower is native to North America, but commercialization of the plant took place in Russia. It was only recently that the sunflower plant became a cultivated crop. But it was the American Indian who first domesticated the plant into a single-headed plant with a variety of seed colors including black, white, red, and black/white striped. A well-known sunflower characteristic is that the flowering heads track the sun’s movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism.

The sunflower was a common crop among American Indian tribes throughout North America. Evidence suggests that the plant was cultivated by American Indians in present-day Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC. Some archaeologists suggest that the sunflower may have been domesticated before corn.

Source: The American Society of Agronomy, Albert A. Schneiter, ed. Sunflower Technology and Production, No. 35, 1997, 1-19.

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Art + Science In these informative and enthralling books, artist Rob Kesseler and seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank present a natural history of seeds by using scanning electronmicroscopy to obtain astonishing images of a variety of fruits and the seeds they protect.

Seeds: Time Capsules of Life

About the Authors

Visual artist Rob Kesseler is a University of the Arts London Chair in Arts, Design & Science. His long career has often used plants as a source of inspiration. In 2001, he was appointed NESTA Fellow at Kew. Since then, he has worked with microscopic plant material. He was a 2010 Year of BioDiversity Fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Portugal. His work has been shown in museums and galleries in the U.K., Europe, and North America, including solo exhibitions at The Victoria & Albert Museum, Kew Gardens, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. He is a fellow of the Linnean Society and Royal Society of Arts.

Wolfgang Stuppy is the Seed Morphologist at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank based at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. At the heart of this large international project, which collects and stores seeds and fruits from all over the world, Dr. Stuppy has found the ideal environment to feed his passion for research into the astonishing diversity of seeds and fruits. A specialist in a rarely studied field, Dr. Stuppy teaches seed biology to university students and members of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership within the U.K. and overseas.

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The appearance of the first seeds some 360 million years ago was a momentous step in the evolution of land plants. Since then, they have evolved into highly sophisticated structures that have enabled plants to conquer almost every habitat from the Antarctic to the hottest deserts. True time capsules of life, seeds may travel thousands of miles and, if necessary, wait for hundreds of years before germinating. They range from the giant Seychelles nut that weighs twenty kilograms to the tiny dust-like seeds of orchids and include the mesmerizing blue seeds of the Malagasy Traveller’s Tree, the perfectly aerodynamic wafer-thin gliders of the Monkey Pod, and, most extraordinary, the seeds of the parasitic Desert Hyacinth that resemble a miniature honeycomb. In this informative and enthralling book, artist Rob Kesseler and seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank present a natural history of seeds, illustrated with stunning close-up photographs and scanning electron micrographs that reveal an astonishing microcosm where the tiniest examples are the most beautiful and sophisticated. Seeds constitute a treasure trove to enlighten and inspire both those fascinated by the natural world and artists, designers, and indeed scientists. The book is published in collaboration with Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.

Fruit: Edible, Inedible, Incredible Plants have developed manifold strategies and ruses for the dispersal of their seed.

These are reflected in the many different colors, shapes, and sizes of the fruits that contain and protect them. In this pioneering collaboration, visual artist Rob Kesseler and seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy used scanning electron microscopy to obtain astonishing images of a variety of fruits and the seeds they protect. Razor-sharp crosssections reveal intricate interiors, nuts, and other examples of botanical architecture and reproductive ingenuity. The black-and-white microscope images have been sumptuously colored by Rob Kesseler, highlighting the structure and functioning of the minuscule fruit and seeds, some almost invisible to the naked eye ,and in so doing creating a work of art. Larger fruits, flowers, and seeds have been especially photographed. The formation, development, and demise of the fruits are described and their vital role in the preservation of the biodiversity of our planet explained. Fruits are the keepers of the precious seeds that ensure our future; some are edible, others inedible, and many, quite simply, incredible. Published in collaboration with Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.

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Prenia tetragona (Aizoaceae) – collected in South Africa, Cape Province – seed; as is typical in the stone plant family, the seed is shed from hygrochastically opening capsules although it boasts conspicuous sculpturing; up to 1.3mm in diameter.

Scanning electron microscope images from the book Seeds – Time Capsules of Life and Fruit – Edible, Inedible, Incredible by Rob Kessler and Wolfgang Stuppy, Papdakis Publisher, London, www.papadakis.net Nourish and Flourish

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Krameria erecta (Krameriaceae) – Pima rhatany; native to the southern USA and northern Mexico – fruit (achene); the barbed spines covering the single-seeded indehiscent fruit of this small shrub are a clear adaptation to achieve dispersal by attachment to the fur of passing animals (epizoochory); the fruit (without spines) is 8mm long.

Scanning electron microscope images from the book Seeds – Time Capsules of Life and Fruit – Edible, Inedible, Incredible by Rob Kessler and Wolfgang Stuppy, Papdakis Publisher, London, www.papadakis.net 12

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Cymbalaria muralis (Plantaginaceae) – ivy-leaved toadflax; collected in the UK – seed with no obvious adaptations to a specific mode of dispersal. The seeds are planted by the mother plant, which deposits its fruits in dark cracks and crannies. The rugged surface of the seeds may prevent them from rolling out of their sheltered location; seed 0.6mm long.

Scanning electron microscope images from the book Seeds – Time Capsules of Life and Fruit – Edible, Inedible, Incredible by Rob Kessler and Wolfgang Stuppy, Papdakis Publisher, London, www.papadakis.net Nourish and Flourish

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In a seed lies the fierce force of life. The drive within them is stronger than any other on our planet: that is to survive.

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault

SECURING OUR FOOD FOREVER “If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, then speak, then, to me ...”

~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Photo courtesy of The Crop Trust 16

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault

With nearly one million crop varieties, the Global Seed Vault holds the world’s largest and most diverse collection of crops, preserved for humanity.

The Crop Trust is a nonprofit international organization with the mission of “securing our food, forever.” Its aim is to support the 1700+ genebanks around the world which house hundreds of thousands of seeds originating from nearly every country on earth. The Crop Trust endowment fund generates investment income that supports crop conservation activities in these seed banks. A Crop Trust endowment fund worth US $850 million would probably generate sufficient income to conserve all unique crop varieties important for food and agriculture forever.

Since 2004, the Crop Trust has provided over US $36 million in long-term grants to international research centers that help conserve collections of vitally important food crops. It has also contributed approximately US $1.4 million to support the operations of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s most secure backup system for protecting crops important to global food security.

Deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault: the world’s ultimate backup of crop diversity. It is a seed storage facility built to stand the test of time, including natural and man-made disasters.

With nearly one million crop varieties, the Seed Vault holds the world’s largest and most diverse collection of crops, preserved for humanity. Svalbard is owned by the

Norwegian government, but is operated by a three-party agreement with Norway, NordGen, and the Crop Trust.

Worldwide, thousands of seed banks conserve food crops, yet many of these facilities are vulnerable. Natural catastrophes, war, or even a lack of funding or electrical failure can threaten daily operations.

Something as small as a poorly functioning freezer can ruin an entire crop collection, and the loss of even a single crop variety is as irreversible as the extinction of a dinosaur. It was this vulnerability that sparked the idea of establishing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault: to secure—for centuries—some of the world’s most important food crops.

Despite its critical importance, however, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the most northerly point in an enormous crop conservation effort that takes place every day and every night in seed banks across the globe. In this effort, conservation is only one part of the equation. Utilizing and developing crop diversity is the other. Farmers and scientists need crop diversity so they can continue to innovate. They need it to produce crops that can outpace changes in our climate and sustainably nourish a world population expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050.

Seed banks provide the farmers and scientists the seeds they need. w

The entrance portal is a simple concrete construction that has gained status as a global icon, in part due to “Perpetual Repercussion”, an illuminated fiber optic art installation created by the Norwegian artist, Dyveke Sanne, featured on the entrance. The Seed Vault is carved into virgin solid rock and was opened in February 2008. The seed storage area itself is located more than 100 meters (328 feet) inside the mountain, and under layers of rock that range between 40 and 60 meters thick.

- Source: www.seedvault.no/the-seeds/ 18

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“You eventually see this door that is totally encrusted with ice crystals that twinkle and shine like the Milky Way almost like a billion stars.

Behind these doors we have the foundation of life –

our life on Earth. Without

that we don’t go very far. ~ Dr. Cary Fowler, Father of the Svalbard Seed Vault

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault

THE FOOD FOREVER INITIATIVE Planting the seed for a more nutritious, delicious, and sustainable food system

“The goal of the Food Forever Initiative is to rally the support necessary from all stakeholders – be it politicians, farmers, chefs, businesses, or individuals- to drive a positive change in the way we conserve, grow, sell and consume crop and livestock diversity. If we do it right and we do it together, food can drive the positive changes our world needs. Food Forever is here to show you that biodiversity is key.” ~ Source: food4ever.org Above: Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis , has been cultivated for over 3,000 years and is native to Papua, New Guinea and widely consumed throughout the Pacific islands. It’s also grown in other tropical parts of the world, and possesses a very distinct texture and taste.

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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) is commonly known as the goal for Zero Hunger. But there’s much more to it than feeding the world. It identifies a range of issues affecting our food systems, with specific targets to address them. Target 2.5 calls for the international community to safeguard and share the “genetic diversity” of both crops and livestock by 2020. But what does it mean?

Genetic diversity is the foundation of our food supply. It includes all our food crops and their wild relatives and all the different types of livestock. Farmers and scientists need this diversity to develop new crops and livestock breeds that can tolerate heat, drought, and disease.

They need it to produce enough nutritious food for a growing world population taking into consideration changes to the climate. Genetic diversity can help make agriculture better, stronger, and more resilient; it can help ensure that we don’t just survive, but thrive.

The Food Forever Initiative was created to raise awareness of the exciting work going on around the world in support of SDG Target 2.5. It’s raising awareness in a number of ways: by rallying a range of stakeholders–be they politicians, farmers, chefs, or business people–to lend their voices to help drive positive changes in the way we conserve, grow, sell, and consume crop and livestock diversity. One way Food Forever encourages this goal is through the Food Forever Experience, a global event series aimed at giving the public a glimpse of the future of food if chefs and consumers embrace more diverse ingredients.

Just four crops account for over half of our calories. It means we’re missing out on thousands of tasty, nutritious plants that could become more popular and which need to be conserved if we are to have a more sustainable food system. By working with innovative chefs to cook up delicious dishes using some of these lesser-known ingredients, the Food Forever Experience aims to plant the seed for important conversations about a more diverse, sustainable, and exciting food future. It’s all about serving up UN SDG 2.5 on a plate.

The inaugural event was hosted by Google in New York City in September 2018. Here, Food Forever challenged ten chefs to work with fascinating foods currently on the margins of the United States culinary mainstream. These included the African grain teff, Bambara groundnut, tepary bean, breadfruit, jackfruit, and even crickets.

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The United States has been involved in promoting seed diversity since the 19th century.

The predecessor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Patent Office, began to distribute seeds during the early1800s. The office sent small packets of seeds to farmers throughout the U.S., inviting them to experiment with the seeds. This practice increased dispersion and crop diversity, which is still evident today. The farmers planting those seeds created crops that adapted to local and regional conditions. ~ Source, Food Tank

Photo by Nancy Suttles

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From Past to Future The Kew Millennium Seed Bank

Just outside London is what is believed to be “the most biodiverse spot on Earth,� according to the Factsheet from the Kew. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) is a growing collection of seeds from around the world, aiming to provide a safety net for species at risk of extinction. This fortress is flood-proof, bomb-proof, radiation-proof, and open to the public almost every day. In other words, it is truly a remarkable place.

What began as a pretty garden, developed by Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the mother of King George III, is now a treasure of research for the world. It began in 1759 and continues its work today in a wealth of ways. The 250th Anniversary of the founding was celebrated in 2009.

As a part of the 500 acres which Wakehurst encompasses, the Millennium Seed Bank has over 2.25 billion seeds in storage from 189 countries and is the largest conservation project of its kind. It is the leader in collecting, preserving, maintaining, and offering for research seeds of many of the plants living on Earth. The Seed Bank currently holds 87,500 seed collections, representing more than 39,110 species from over 5,800 genera and 360+ families. The Millennium Seed Bank Photography Š Alfredo Caliz/Panos Pictures 22

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Partnership (MSBP) is affiliated with scientists and other collectors in over 95 countries across the world. The goal is to locate and preserve plants which might become extinct through drought, earthquake, tsunami, flood, fire, war, and other disasters. The partnership hopes to conserve 25 percent of those species that can be preserved (dried and frozen) by 2020.

According to some estimates, 60,000 to 100,000 species of plants are possible targets for extinction. Thus, the focus of preservation is on those most at risk, including the plants needed for developing new strains of species that are more productive, more drought resistant, more disease or insect immune. Within this group, in addition to the obvious rice, wheat, and many other edible species, are 3,000 tree species, which are considered rare, endangered, and most useful for the future. The samples distributed by the Seed Bank are used for research, for plant breeding, and for re-introducing species destroyed or eliminated from certain areas.

Kew scientists, in addition to collecting and preserving seeds and other plant material, are busy naming as many as 200 new plant species every year. Their research continues to point to the immense biodiversity in the world as countries engage in the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership for saving these plants.

Left page: The Millennium Seed Bank is a fortress that is flood-proof, bomb-proof, radiation-proof, and open to the public. It is part of Kew Gardens, and is set in a specially constructed facility in the elegant grounds of Wakehurst Place in Sussex. Top left: Catalogs of different species of plants in one of the archive rooms. Top Right: A man takes out seeds from a steel tank with liquid nitrogen. They are kept in this environment to keep them as cold as possible in a laboratory. Bottom left: A botanist views a species of a plant with a magnifying glass. Bottom right: A coco de mer, which is French for “coconut of the sea”, palm seed is the largest in the world and found only on the Seychelles, a rocky archipelago in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar. One of coco de mer’s archaic botanical name was Lodoicea callipyge, where callipyge in Greek means “beautiful buttocks”.

For more information visit: kew.org Nourish and Flourish

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TWO: Exploration & Discovery Exploration is wired into our brains.

If we can see the horizon, we want to know what’s beyond. ~ Buzz Aldrin

Photo by Blaine Scinta on location in Antelope Canyon, Arizona for Tamron Lenses.

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ON THE ROAD WITH BLAINE SCINTA Brand and Travel Photographer

Iceland’s Ring Road, also known as Route 1, runs around the country, connecting all the major towns and cities. Ring Road is 828 miles long (1,332 kilometers), making it the longest road in Iceland. We stopped on the northern shore of Iceland to capture this gem on the edge of the mountains.

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Capturing a Moment in Time Soon after I graduated from college, I planned a trip to Iceland with a group of photographers. We explored the country and captured images and stories for brands that we know, love, and trust. This trip placed a stamp on my passion for visual storytelling. ~ Blaine Scinta, brand and travel photograpber

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One of Nourish and Flourish’s younger contributors is Blaine Scinta, a freelance brand and travel photographer. We caught up with him recently between trips and asked if he would share his story with our readers from his own voice. Here is what he had to say.

With today’s technology, the growth of the internet and social media, anyone can be published online. Being published in print is a total game changer.

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Hello! My name is Blaine Scinta. I’m a 27-year-old brand and travel photographer based in Louisville, Kentucky. My generation grew up with social media, and over the years have learned how to create interesting stories and original visual content through photography –one good example is the Instagram platform. Instagram offers a unique opportunity for businesses looking to reach their target market with engaging visual content. As with most social media platforms, Instagram is all about visual sharing. The main goal is to share and find only the best photos and video. The key is creating your own original content–not using stock photos.

Creating interesting, authentic visual stories is a gift for me. I consider it a true art form. In the business world, it is a very powerful medium for a brand influencer like me to share stories, moments, and special places captured throughout this amazing journey called life. If my artistic talents can be leveraged to show not only the brands I love and trust, but also an outlet for my creative work, it’s a win-win. Stories are everywhere, and they can help us learn more than we could have ever imagined. My profession connects me to the natural world and affords me the time to enjoy the outdoors and travel.

Luckily my entire family instilled a thirst for creativity from my childhood My father F. Scott Scinta introduced me to what it means to think and apply a creative mindset to everything that I do. As an accomplished art director, professional painter, and graphic designer, he (and my mom and the rest of my family) always encouraged my creative side.

In high school, I picked up my first film camera while studying in the art program. It was a Canon AE-1 35mm SLF, given to me by my grandfather. From the moment I began shooting with this classic, vintage camera, the way I saw each moment of my life changed forever. I loved the process of film and the art you can make in the dark room developing prints. I was swapping mega pixels for film. The experience was just more “real and tangible.”

Digital media has revolutionized the way we create, share, and publish editorial content. We should never limit our creativity to an LCD screen. Content online is skimmed in seconds, whereas something printed is more engaging and permanent.

Print and digital content should complement each other, and that is how I approach my work: being original and authentic. ~ Blaine Scinta

All images Š 2019 Blaine Scinta.

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On location for Cotapaxi in Northern California.

ON THE ROAD WITH BLAINE SCINTA Brand and Travel Photographer

One of the things I love most about being this far away from the city is the silence.

You forget how much noise can come from a highway until you get away and listen to the soundtrack of nature.

Growing up I always loved math and science and so when I went to college, I decided to study math and physics. I graduated from the University of Louisville in 2016 and I knew immediately that I wanted to pursue a different career path while keeping the discipline of the sciences in my perspective. I decided to explore my photography skills and apply it to brand collaboration.

While studying physics, I researched and worked with images collected from various telescopes from around the world. I compiled fascinating telescopic images of some of the most beautiful objects in the Universe. As my creative passion and love of photography grew, I was taught both patience, and the need to approach problems and situations with a goaloriented, critical mindset and focus. During this time, all I could think about was the incredible people, places and things there are to see and experience on Earth - this beautiful planet we all call home.

In October of 2018 I headed out to the Pacific Northwest to work with an outdoor brand called Cotopaxi, as well as a camper van rental company called GoCamp. The goal was to reflect the user experience with these two brands from a unique story perspective.

Outdoor gear and campers, in this instance, are the tools that let you enjoy the experience of nature – our job was to document these brands in a believable, authentic manner.

Top: On location for Hyatt Resorts in in Kauai, Hawaii—aerial view of coffee bean farms. Right: On location for Cotapaxi, an innovative outdoor products company, in Yosemite National Park, California.

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All images © 2019 Blaine Scinta.

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ON THE ROAD WITH BLAINE SCINTA Brand and Travel Photographer

There are many ways I and other creatives have learned to utilize Instagram as influencers to work with brands all over the world. Stories are everywhere, and they can help us learn more than we could have ever imagined.

Until recently, traditional television and radio commercials, combined with print advertising, were the only method for brands to promote their products and services. Today, many people go directly to their phones when distracted by a commercial. Consequently, through marketing necessity, many companies have shifted their focus to social media to reach people where they are and where they spend most of their visual time.

The surprising discovery is that spectacular print media such as Nourish and Flourish bring photos to life with much greater depth than you can obtain on a phone, tablet, or computer. The feel and texture of the paper and the ability to hold the publication in your hands and to flip back and forth give the reader a chance to really absorb the images and see different nuances every time.

One of the most important aspects of my profession as a brand and travel photographer is the ability to influence the viewer in an authentic and positive way. My goal is to be original in capturing images that evoke an emotion and tell a great story.

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Above: This hideaway spot in southern Washington State is at the end of Moulton Falls. This 387-acre park, at the confluence of the East Fork of the Lewis River and Big Tree Creek, features two waterfalls and an arch bridge more than three stories high. Right: Taft Point, Yosemite National Park. At over 5,000 feet up, this is a view that truly captures the beauty and magnitude of Yosemite.

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All images © 2019 Blaine Scinta.

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Thirst for Knowledge

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“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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he importance of libraries dates back centuries.

According to History Magazine, “About 30,000 clay tablets found in ancient Mesopotamia date back more than 5,000 years. Archaeologists have uncovered papyrus scrolls from 1300–1200 BC in the ancient Egyptian cities and thousands of clay tablets in the palace of King Sennacherib, Assyrian ruler from 704–681 BC at Nineveh, his capital city.

Another example is the Great Library of Alexandria, a public library open to those with the proper scholarly and literary qualifications, founded about 300 BC.” In the early 500s in Egypt, a man named Pachomius established a monastery and insisted on literacy among his monks. Throughout the rest of the eastern empire, monastic communities emerged with small and mostly theological libraries. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, libraries surged in popularity as more people learned to read. Whether private or public, the library has been founded, built, destroyed, and rebuilt. The library, often championed, has been a survivor throughout its long history and serves as a testament to the thirst for knowledge.

Shown here is the library at the Strahov Monastery, the oldest Premonstratensian monastery in Bohemia and one of the most important architectural landmarks in the Czech Republic. Its collection consists of approximately 200,000 volumes. Above all the bookshelves is a magnificent fresco called Mankind’s Quest for True Wisdom, depicting Adam and Eve as well as Greek philosophers and others. Symbolically and based on quotations from the Bible (mainly Proverbs) and in part from the philosophical tracts of the hall’s founder Abbot Hirnhaim, the mural portrays the idea that a person with great faith must also build on his knowledge and provide education for those who need it, sharing his learned knowledge with the world.

The late-Gothic wooden statue of St. John the Evangelist is prominent in the hall. In his left hand, he holds a “girdlebook,” used as a carrying case for the treasured objects and books as people traveled from city to city.

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Thirst for Knowledge

The Power of Print There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry – This Traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of Toll – How frugal is the Chariot That bears a Human soul. ~ Emily Dickinson - 1830–1886

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e created Nourish and Flourish to prove that print is not dead! In today’s society, it seems everyone turns to the internet for everything. The amount of useful information (and some not so much) on the web has, for some, engendered the false assumption everything can be found online. It’s simply not true.

A good example is Google Books. Google took on the enormous task of digitizing millions of books from the world’s largest libraries.

It is unlikely that Google or anyone else can successfully digitize the sum of human knowledge. Copyrights and protection of intellectual property for “free access” over the internet prohibits full access to books, literature, and visual documentation on the web.

Libraries Are Alive and Well The Internet Complements Libraries, But Doesn’t Replace Them: The internet is a useful resource to finding information, but it’s not a replacement for a library.

Digital Libraries Are Not the Internet: A fundamental

understanding of what the internet is and isn’t can help clearly define

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the role of a library and why libraries are still extremely important.

Online library collections, however, are different. They typically include materials that have been published via rigorous editorial processes and are riddled with quantitative analysis instead of opinion. Types of materials include books, journals, documents, newspapers, magazines, and reports which are digitized, stored, and indexed through a limitedaccess database. While one might use the internet or a search engine to find these databases, deeper access to them requires registration. You are still online, but you are no longer on the internet. You are in a library.

The Internet Isn’t Free: Numerous academic research papers,

journals, and other important materials are virtually inaccessible to someone seeking to pull them off the web for free. Rather, access is restricted to subscription accounts.

Mobile Devices Are Not the End of Books or Libraries:

Predictions that print is dead are just not true. One of the latest dark threats to print is the availability of e-books on mobile devices. But e-books are not an all-consuming transition for readers. People who like paper books will continue to read them; just look at Amazon. An large inventory of printed books will still be accessible to readers. Using the digital library will continue to be an extremely important role for college students in their research, whether it’s paper or electronically based.

Physical Libraries Are Adapting to Cultural Change: For

decades society has been seeking a more holistic understanding of the world and increased access to information. The search for new methods of organizing educational structures (including libraries) has long been active. And while libraries might not be on many people’s “top things to do,” libraries have been adapting. Art exhibits, special events, food and coffee talks are some events in the new libraries where people can meet, network, and socialize.

Eliminating Libraries Would Cut Short an Important Process of Cultural Evolution: The library that we are most

familiar with today is a public or academic institution that lends out books for free. In the old days, books weren’t always so affordable, and private libraries, or book clubs, were a privilege of the rich. This situation started changing during the 1800’s, with more public libraries popping up as a result of government initiatives.

The high visibility of certain viewpoints, analysis, and facts–and misinformation found online through websites and social media is engineered ideally to be the result of objective group consensus.

Google’s algorithm also hinges on this collective principle: rather than an in-house “expert” arbitrarily deciding what resource is the most authoritative, the web decides. Sites with higher link popularity tend to rank higher in the search engines. The algorithm is based on the principle that group consensus reveals a better, more accurate analysis of reality than a single expert ever could.

The highly social nature of the web therefore makes it highly susceptible to, for example, sensationalized, low-quality information with the sole merit of being popular. Libraries, in contrast, provide quality control. Only information that is carefully vetted is allowed in.

Libraries are likely to stay separate from the internet even if they can be found online. Therefore, it is extremely important that libraries remain alive and well as a counterpoint to the fragile populism of the web.

Libraries Can Preserve the Book Experience: In general, books provide a focused, yet comprehensive study that summarizes years of research by an author or team of authors who have devoted their academic careers to a particular subject area.

When the internet does provide actual content, the information is often snack-sized. Knowledge can be found, but the experience of delving into a book for hundreds of pages just doesn’t happen online.

Literature is the foundation of humanity’s cultures, beliefs, and traditions. It serves as a reflection of reality, a product of art, and a window to an ideology. Everything that happens within a society can be written into, recorded in, and learned from a piece of literature.

Whether it be poetry or prose, literature provides insight, knowledge, wisdom, and emotion towards the person who partakes of it.

Films are visual representations of literature. They give life and action to the words written on a page. Magazines, newspapers, the television, the radio, and even the internet contain literature. It is found everywhere and anywhere. The power of literature and the power of print affect all of us. It is complex, intergenerational, and long-lasting. ~ Source: American Library Association

Did you know?

Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor born in 1395, is typically cited as the inventor of the printing press. His 15th-century contribution to printing was revolutionary— enabling the mass production of books and the rapid dissemination of knowledge throughout Europe. However, the history of printing begins long before Gutenberg’s time.

Nearly 600 years before Gutenberg, Chinese monks were applying ink to paper using engraved wooden blocks.

One of the earliest surviving woodblock-printed books is an ancient Buddhist text known as The Diamond Sutra. It was created in 868 during the Tang (T’ang) Dynasty (618–909) in China. According to Live Science, the book, which was sealed inside a cave near the city of Dunhuang, China, for nearly a thousand years before its discovery in 1900, is now housed in the British Library in London.

Block printing was also used in Japan and Korea as early as the eighth century. Private printers in these places used both wood and metal blocks to produce Buddhist and Taoist treatises and histories in the centuries before movable type was invented. Historical evidence suggests that metal movable type was also developed independently in Korea in the late 14th century.

Manuscripts not printed with wood blocks were painstakingly copied by hand. Both processes were extremely labor intensive and very expensive. Few could afford to buy them. That economic situation changed in the middle of the 15th century when Johannes Gutenberg began experimenting with both xylography (woodblock printing) and a more efficient method of printing.

At 43 years old, Gutenberg developed a method of movable type and used it to create one of the Western world’s first substantial printed books, the “Forty-TwoLine” Bible. This effort proved to have a major impact on communication and learning worldwide.

Top: The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang Dynasty China, the world’s earliest dated printed book, AD 868. Source: The British Library

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EYE IN THE SKY Curiosity and exploration are vital to the human spirit Humanity’s interest in the heavens has been universal and enduring.

Humans are driven to explore the unknown, discover new worlds, push the boundaries of our scientific and technical limits, and then push further. The intangible desire to explore and challenge the boundaries of what we know and where we have been has provided benefits to our society for centuries. Human space exploration helps to address fundamental questions about our place in the Universe and the history of our solar system. Through addressing the challenges related to human space exploration, we expand technology, create new industries, and help to foster a peaceful connection with other nations. Curiosity and exploration are vital to the human spirit, and accepting the challenge of going deeper into space will invite the citizens of the world today and the generations of tomorrow to join NASA on this exciting journey.

The Hubble Space Telescope, was funded by Congress in 1977 and launched into orbit in 1990, is named for Edwin Hubble (1886-1953).

His contributions to astronomy made him one of the most famous astronomers of all time. The “Hubble” is a collaboration between

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ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics Space Administration). It’s a long-term, space-based observatory that has revolutionized modern astronomy and has allowed humanity to look deeper into our Universe than ever before.

Having the Hubble in space allows us to avoid the problem encountered by earth-based telescopes that must look “through” the atmosphere. In addition to collecting visible light from its orbit high above the atmosphere, the Hubble also observes infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths that would be completely filtered out by the atmosphere for earth-based telescopes.

Light can travel billions of light years; Hubble captures and detects this light a few microseconds before it arrives at telescope mirrors on Earth. Our turbulent atmosphere causes the fine cosmic details to become blurred to the telescopes based on earth. This same atmospheric turbulence makes stars appear to twinkle. Think of the Hubble on the outside of our “bubble.”

These fascinating and amazing images captured from Hubble show us just how small our planet, solar system, and galaxy really are in the grand scheme of what Hubble has allowed us to see and explore.

What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20,000 degrees Celsius. The gas is tearing across space at more than 950,000 kilometers per hour—fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!

A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow.

Known as NGC 6302 , it lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star’s outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The “butterfly” stretches for more than two lightyears, which is about half the distance from the sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.

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“Those who know nothing of the world of nature about them or of the heavens above them miss many of the intellectual and spiritual pleasures of life.” ~ Clarence Augustus Chant

This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. This image captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The colors in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green), and sulphur (red). Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA, M. Livio, and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI) 42

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This Hubble image gives the most detailed view of the entire Crab Nebula ever. The Crab is among the most interesting and well-studied objects in astronomy and is 6,500 light-years away. This image is the largest image ever taken with the Hubble’s WFPC2 camera. It was assembled from 24 individual exposures taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and is the highest-resolution image of the entire Crab Nebula ever made. Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University). Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

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NASA and Navajo Nation Partner in Understanding the Universe Sq-’ Baa Hane- Story of the Stars

When you pick out the stars that make up the Big Dipper, do you see a cluster of glowing spheres of plasma or a pattern of gemstones carefully arranged by holy figures? For students in the Navajo Nation, the answer may well be both.

That’s because of a 14-year-long partnership between NASA and the Navajo Nation that helps teachers present cultural and scientific knowledge on an equal footing. Leaders of that partnership are busy developing their third set of educational activities, which will explore how the universe began. That collection follows two previous booklets and complementary teacher workshops, as well as a summer camp, all of which draw parallels between Navajo and scientific understandings of Earth and the world around us. “[The Navajo people’s] cultural, traditional ways of knowing are inherently scientific … that’s a really big message,” Daniella Scalice, a non-native co-founder of the partnership and the education and communications lead at the NASA Astrobiology Program, told Space.com. “There is no difference between traditional cultural ways of generating knowledge and the ones that science uses.”

Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people of the past understood the stars and the sky; however, this broadly applies to all ancient cultures. The Mayans, Native American Indians, Celts, and Egyptians alike all had their own methods for tracking the movement of the stars and heavenly bodies, but all of these cultures have the common belief that the phenomena above their heads were somehow larger and greater than they were.

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The Rock with Wings Located 15 miles southwest of the town of Shiprock, New Mexico is a unique towering, bird-like volcanic rock formation that can be seen for miles in all directions. Shiprock, as this mighty sand-colored column was named by Anglo settlers, is known to the Navajo as “Tsé Bit’ a’í”, or “rock with wings.” The peak is 7,178 above sea level, and is at the center of three volcanic pressure ridges that pushed the rock skyward millennia ago.

This rock formation is sacred to the Navajos–hiking or climbing on the sacred peak or its surrounding rocks is forbidden. Driving onto the dirt road leading to the formation is prohibited. Oversight is provided by the local communities. ~ Source, NASA and the Navajo Department of Tourism

Hubble’s elevated perspective and advanced optics allow it to peer farther away than previous groundbased optics are able to see.

Because light takes time to travel long distances, the range of the HST makes it function similar to a time machine; the light it views from remote objects only reveals how that object appeared when the light left it, not how it appears today.

Thus when we look at a galaxy 2.5 million light-years from Earth, we see it as it was 2.5 million years ago.

This incredible image of the hourglass-shaped Southern Crab Nebula was taken in 2019 to mark the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 29th anniversary in space. The nebula, created by a binary star system, is one of the many objects that Hubble has demystified throughout its productive life. This new image adds to our understanding of the nebula and demonstrates the telescope’s continued capabilities. Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA, and STScI.

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Photo by Nancy Suttles

THREE: Back to Basics “To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring— these are some of the rewards of the simple life.” ~ John Burroughs, Leaf and Tendril, (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American naturalist and nature essayist, active in the U.S. conservation movement

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by Ray Lyn Hixon

Healthy Soil is Vital to Our Wellbeing “The soil is the ‘creative material’ of most of the basic needs of life.

Creation starts with a handful of dust.” ~Dr. William Albrecht, Ph.D, Soil Scientist, 1888–1974

For many years, the discussion about healthy soil and nutrient-dense foods has been limited to agronomists, nutritionists, scientists, organic farmers, foodies, and others on the fringes of mainstream agriculture.

Books and articles about soil health, nutrient-dense foods, and regenerative agriculture are now the hot topics of conversation.

What does that really mean? To date, there’s no universally accepted definition of “regenerative” farming or soil health. We have talked to many experts in the field, and each has his or her own ideas about what this means. One thing the experts, social media advocates, and scientists agree on is that it is time for agriculture to move beyond “sustainable.”

This practice of giving back what you take just isn’t enough. After all, a farmer’s largest asset is his ground, the soil he tills and relies on to provide a harvest.

Soil is not just “dirt.” Soil filters our drinking water, for example, and supports the plants that feed, clothe, and shelter us. “Without soil, we’d be hungry, naked, and homeless,” quips Clay Robinson, Ph.D., a New Mexico soil scientist who has taught tens of thousands of school kids about soil in the persona Dr. Dirt. We would also be “breathless,” he adds, “because it’s the plants growing in soil that produce our oxygen.”

What does the ground beneath our feet have to do with human health? A lot, as it turns out. Just like clean air and pure water, healthy soil is vital to our wellbeing. On the most basic level, soil supports and

nourishes the plants that we eat—and that our livestock eat. Soil filters and purifies much of the water we drink as well.

Healthy soils also play a role in human disease and medicine.

Soils teem with microorganisms that have given us many lifesaving medications, including the antibiotics streptomycin and cyclosporine—a drug widely used to prevent transplant patients from rejecting their new organs.

Let’s take a look at the science of soil. You’ve heard “you are what you eat.” In reality it should be said, “you are what food eats.” In simple terms, plants eat water, carbon dioxide, and mineral nutrients. When we eat plants, we benefit from the mineral nutrients plants harvest from the soil (potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, to name a few) and organic compounds (for instance, Vitamin C and beta carotene) they create. When the nutrients don’t exist in a soil, they aren’t available for plants to harvest, so they’re not available to us when we harvest and eat the plants.

Protecting soil from erosion helps reduce the amount of airborne dust we breathe. Another symptom of unhealthy, out-of-balance soil ecosystems is disease. In short, healthy soils = healthy people. And with some 9 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2050, maintaining the health of our soils is more important than ever before.

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Photos © 2019 Nancy Suttles

William Albrecht: Connecting Soil Health to Human Health William Albrecht was not only a distinguished scientist and brilliant scholar; he was also a true visionary and committed humanitarian. He believed that animals, including humans, provide biochemical photographs of the soils in which their foods are grown. With effective and affordable commercial fertilizers after World War II, the health and natural productivity of the soil no longer seemed to matter. Albrecht risked his academic reputation by warning of the public health risks posed by this socalled modern, industrial agriculture.

History provides compelling evidence that he was right. A half-century later, America is facing an epidemic of dietrelated illnesses, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and various forms of cancer. If current trends continue, the cost of health care, which is already nearly twice the cost of food, will claim more than one-third of the U.S. economy by 2040. Recent scientific studies have linked a decline in the nutritional value of foods with the industrialization of agriculture. The result is foods rich in calories, but poor in essential nutrients.

Regardless, today’s agricultural scientists should embrace the vision and courage of William Albrecht to venture beyond their narrow academic fields of study to rethink the science involved and perhaps redefine their disciplines. The health of our nation may be impossible to restore without first restoring the health of our soils.

Source: John E. Ikerd, Professor Emeritus of Agriculture & Applied Economics, University of Missouri –Columbia; College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, For more information please visit: http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/ AlbrechtLectureHealthySoilsHealthyPeople.pdf .

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An Introduction to Regenerative Agriculture

Healthy Soil = Healthy Food It is never too late to change.

“I know sustainable is a popular buzzword today. Everybody wants to be sustainable.

But my question is: Why in the world would we want to sustain a degraded resource?

We instead need to work on regenerating our ecosystem ~ Gabe Brown, regenerative farmer and author, Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture Top right: Gabe Brown and his associates created the Soil Health Academy to teach other farmers how to apply the principles and practices of regenerative agriculture outlined in new his book. As seen here during a recent school, students are able to see first-hand how those principles and practices are implemented in the hostfarm setting. Bottom left: During a field demonstration, Soil Health Academy co-founder Ray Archuleta helps students understand how healthy soil ecosystems enable a wide range of on- and off-farm benefits, including the production of more nutrient-rich food for consumers. Bottom right: Brown hopes to teach other farmers how to foster healthier soil, food, and profits by implementing key principles like no-till, cover crops, diverse crop rotations, and the integration of diverse animal and insect species.

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At the heart of this growing soil health and regenerative agriculture conversation are the farmers that are capable of bringing degraded soil back to life through nature and utilizing the principles of conservation agriculture to help restore soil health and fertility. Many farmers find that the combination of no-till planting, cover crops, and diverse crop rotation provides the essential recipe to rebuild soil organic matter.

By utilizing these unconventional practices, they can regenerate soil, relying less on pesticides and fertilizer. It’s not a quick fix, but this strategy is showing promise for both our farmers, and the environment.

These regenerative practices balance ancient wisdom with modern science, helping to restore natural life and health to the soil.

Gabe Brown is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement. Gabe, along with his wife Shelly and son Paul, own and operate a diversified 5,000-acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, North Dakota. Their operation focuses on farming and ranching in nature’s image. His recently released book Dirt to Soil chronicles his personal journey from industrial agriculture to soil health-focused regenerative agriculture.

“The story of my farm is how I took a severely degraded, low-profit operation that had been managed using the industrial production model and regenerated it into a healthy, profitable one,” Brown said. “All of us—whether farmer, rancher, or home gardener—have the ability to harness the awesome power of nature to produce nutrient-dense food. We can do this in a way that will both regenerate our resources and ensure that our children and grandchildren have the opportunity to enjoy good health,” he said.

Brown’s remarkable experience has yielded a new calling. “One of my goals in life is to help other farmers make the same transition,” Brown said. Brown, along with fellow regenerative agriculture experts Ray Archuleta and Allen Williams, Ph.D., founded the Soil Health Academy and Understanding Ag. “We three partners, along with our team of professional field consultants and technical advisors, will continue to help our clients across the globe with all facets of regenerative agriculture production,” Brown said.

“I hope the book Dirt to Soil will help many more farmers, and even consumers, discover the hope in healthy soil,” says Brown.

This excerpt from Gabe Brown’s book Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018) is printed with permission from the publisher.

“One of the biggest challenges we face in the twenty-first century is the growing disconnect between people and the land.”

– Gabe Brown

Photo by Ron Nichols

Photo by Ron Nichols

Photo by Nancy Suttles

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Regenerative Living > The Foraged Home

The Art of Foraging

Foraging is for anyone, anywhere.

It doesn’t require a degree, a style guru, or the latest magazines. Usually, it doesn’t even require any money. It’s amazing what lies all around us—and what we habitually overlook.

– Oliver Maclennan

The Foraged Home, photographed by interiors photographer Joanna Maclennan with text by her brother Oliver Maclennan, is a new book that celebrates sustainability and design with an inspiring exploration of beautiful interiors from around the world, decorated with salvaged, recycled, and repurposed objects.

From Provincetown, Massachusetts to Queensland, Australia, the most creative homeowners are salvaging, recycling, and repurposing found and natural objects to create comfortable and stylish homes with interiors that truly express their style. Foraging is not only thrifty but also eco-friendly, whether in the woods, on the beach, or even in the city.

This illustrated volume has four sections (Coastal, Rural, Wild, and Urban) and profiles twenty-three homes from the United States, Europe, and Australia with an expansive array of photographs and insightful interviews with their owners. To make it easy for readers to recreate the look in their own homes, the book also details seven DIY techniques to breathe new life into what most of us would consider waste, including beachcombing, mudlarking, wreath-making, and urban salvaging.

From a bamboo stick used as a curtain rail to a pendant light made from damaged fabric scraps to a decorative door made from reclaimed wood, The Foraged Home shows how objects can be made new and how the resulting interiors don’t have to remain static but can evolve over time.

“For those who forage objects for their homes,” Maclennan writes, “there is a deep engagement with the world around them, along with an urgency to slow things down. Although much foraging is carried out in the relative peace of natural environments (forests, beaches, mountains, riverbanks, the countryside), it is also possible to forage in more urban– and, indeed, virtual–areas (abandoned buildings, flea markets, online), anywhere that might yield something precious, something that has very likely been discounted or disposed of, but in which there is also great beauty and potential.”

About the Authors Joanna Maclennan is a freelance photographer who specializes in interiors. She has contributed to such books and magazines as The World of Interiors, Telegraph Magazine, Elle Decoration Country, The New York Times, and Marie Claire. Joanna’s brother Oliver Maclennan is a freelance copywriter and editor based in London.

Book cover courtesy of Thames & Hudson. Right: Locksmith’s House, Vienne, France. Photographs © 2019 Joanna Maclennan.

Reprinted with permission.

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Interiors don’t have to be static. You can change them whenever you want, and foraging is an excellent way of doing this.

— Bénédicte Leuwers, Provençal Townhouse

Above: Provençal Townhouse, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France.

Right: Mas in Provence, Noves, France.

Photographs © 2019 Joanna Maclennan

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...an object can be more attractive when broken than when whole. It is not too far-fetched to apply this philosophy to foraging. In many cases, what people consider ugly and damaged is quite the opposite, if only they could view it slightly differently...

— Ragnhild Wik, Potter

Potter’s Studio, Ragnhild Wik, Oslo, Norway.

Photographs © 2019 Joanna Maclennan

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FOUR: The Future of Food “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

~ Hippocrates

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By Layla Khoury-Hanold

Changing the Future of Food With equal parts art and science, Johnson & Wales University Charlotte is graduating chefs ready to change the future of food

“In culinary school, you teach people how to cook, but the breakthroughs are happening at a level that combines knowledge as well as craft and skill. We think there’s a huge need in the industry for people who can think outside of the box, who have the technical and science background to go into research and development.” ~ Peter Reinhart, baker, bread expert, and chef on assignment, Johnson & Wales University Charlotte

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Knife skills and sauce-making may be central to any culinary school program, but JWU Charlotte’s Applied Food Science, Innovation, and Technology program, which it began offering in fall 2018, aims to graduate bakers and chefs who make food that not only tastes better, but is more nutritious.

Peter Reinhart, who has taught at JWU for twenty years, credits being in a university setting for furthering his mission to share his knowledge beyond the classroom. In 2017, he hosted the first-ever International Symposium on Bread, using the academic conference format to engage thought leaders in the bread world to further the dialogue about the future of bread [see page 70]. This symposium and the type of outof-the-box thinking it represents as well as conversations with JWU alumni, faculty, and industry leaders helped JWU Charlotte develop the foundation and curriculum for its food science program.

“It opens up a whole new vista of the R&D chef,” says Tarun Malik, JWU Charlotte’s president. “[One] young lady was working for Advance Pierre [Foods], which is one of the largest manufacturers of frozen sandwiches. So instead of four rolls, you’re making thousands and millions of rolls. But as she said, the roll still has to taste good, even after it’s been frozen for a couple of months. It made us go back and say, ‘why couldn’t we produce a chef who’s now a little bit more deliberate?’

Why can’t that sandwich taste better than it tastes today and be healthy for you?”

One of the faculty leading the charge is Robert Lothrop, an instructor of food science and product development. But what exactly is food science?

Photo © Nancy Suttles

Green peas stand out as an environmentally friendly and very healthy food. Agricultural research has shown that pea crops can provide the soil with important benefits. First, peas belong to a category of crops called “nitrogen fixing” crops. With the help of bacteria in the soil, peas and other pulse crops are able to take nitrogen gas from the air and convert it into more complex and usable forms. This process increases nitrogen available in the soil without the need for added fertilizer. Peas also have a relatively shallow root system which can help prevent erosion of the soil, and once the peas have been picked, the plant remainders tend to break down relatively easily for soil replenishment.

Finally, rotation of peas with other crops has been shown to lower the risk of pest problems. These environmentally friendly aspects of pea production add to their desirability as a regular part of our diet. ~ Source: whfoods.org

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Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

- James Beard

“The best way to describe what a food scientist does is, anything in a supermarket, a food scientist has developed,” Lothrop explains. “A friend of mine works on lettuce, so how do we extend the shelf life of lettuces and the different washes in making sure that bagged lettuce is safe to eat? Another colleague works on Hot Pockets and develops new flavors. A colleague up at N.C. State University developed the amount of unsmiling Goldfish crackers to smiling Goldfish so we have the volume that makes the consumer feel they’re getting an adequate amount of product in a bag.”

JWU Charlotte’s Applied Food Science, Innovation, and Technology program hits on all three core areas of focus by not only giving students an academic foundation in food science but also by teaching students how to apply theory and research findings to develop innovative food products and how to harness technology to improve food quality and flavors.

Given coursework in fields such as microbiology and chemistry, the Charlotte Campus is outfitted with state-of-the-art science labs, but there’s also a retro-fitted kitchen lab, where Lothrop says students do their “edible work.” A prime example of where the science foundationmeets-culinary-craft is the Food Ingredients and Formulations class, which culminates with a project to reverse engineer an existing product on the market, such as Snickers or Hawaiian Punch.

Top left: Chef Peter Reinhart, Executive Director of the Johnson & Wales International Symposium on Bread. Bottom left: Even a simple biscuit has a lot of food science behind it. Photos by Morgan Rhodes. Right: Students are given coursework in fields such as microbiology and chemistry, and the Charlotte Campus is outfitted with state-of-the-art science labs. Photos by Blaine Scinta.

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FOOD SCIENCE Just as society has evolved over time, our food system has also evolved over centuries into a global system of immense size and complexity. The commitment of food science and technology professionals to advancing the science of food, ensuring a safe and abundant food supply, and contributing to healthier people everywhere is integral to that evolution.

Food scientists and technologists are versatile, interdisciplinary, and collaborative practitioners in a profession at the crossroads of scientific and technological developments.

As the food system has drastically changed, from one centered on family food production on individual farms and home food preservation to the modern system of today, most people are not connected to their food nor are they familiar with agricultural production and food manufacturing designed for better food safety and quality. ~ Philip E. Nelson, 2007 World Food Prize Laureate; Professor Emeritus, Food Science Department, Purdue University

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Left: Chef Tom DeRosa instructing his students on proper food safety procedures prior to preparing the food for their dinner service class. Photo by Morgan Rhodes. Top: The James H. Hance, Auditorium, where the International Symposium on Bread is held, along with the “Appetite for Life”, a collaborative program with the University of North Carolina’s Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis. Photo by Blaine Scinta. Many other demonstration classes and guest presentations are also held here throughout the year. Bottom: Culinary students that wear the green neckerchiefs signify baking and pastry students, while blue signifies culinary students. Photo by Morgan Rhodes.

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Sourdough is the most traditional way of fermenting a dough to produce bread. It has been around for the last 5000 years. It involves fermenting flour with the natural flora present in the raw material or in the surrounding air. Natural flora typically consists of lactic acid bacteria, as found in yogurts and wild type yeasts. This mixed fermentation has a huge effect on the complexity of the bread’s flavour.

“What makes our program special is that our students have the culinary or baking background and then learn about food science later,” Lothrop says. “In a traditional food science program, we really don’t learn how to cook; we learn the chemistry aspect. Our students should have a competitive edge to offer a company both the creative aspect of food as well as the practical food science applications.”

One of Lothrop’s recent Fermentation Science and Functional Foods classes explored sourdough and starter cultures; naturally, he invited Reinhart to collaborate. Because these students already had a food chemistry class under their belt and therefore understand things such as the components found in kernels or varieties of starches, Lothrop’s lecture delved deeper into the wheat and cereal chemistry.

More specifically, he examined different types of cereal grains, learning how yeast and mold ferment and studying different yeast strains specific to bread. To drive these concepts home, Reinhart lectured about sourdough and shared a video from the 2017 International Symposium on Bread in which microbiologist Anne Madden spoke about microorganisms in yeast, which can impact things such as a bread’s aroma compounds, flavor, crumb structure, and even how well it freezes.

With this kind of framework, it’s easy to imagine students in the kitchen lab–or perhaps a food company’s R&D lab–experimenting with baking batches of sourdough using different starters, re-calibrating recipes and tweaking ingredient measurements to extend shelflife, or analyzing how different grains respond to fermentation to create loaves with different flavors or better texture. This approach helps students develop the critical thinking required to conceptualize and develop innovative products that respond to and meet consumers’ shifting needs and wants.

~ Source, Puratos Sourdough Library

Above: A natural sourdough starter can be made with many types of flour, and there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of different methods for making starters, each producing distinct flavor nuances. However, once a starter is established (which can take anywhere from 7 to 14 days) and put on a feeding schedule, it will eventually develop a flavor profile influenced by the flour you feed it as well as by the region in which you live. ~ Source, Peter Reinhart, Perfect Pan Pizza, The Care and Feeding of Sourdough Starter

Top left photo by Johnny Autry

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Puratos Sourdough Library We believe the future of bread lies in its past.

Puratos is an international group headquartered just outside Brussels, Belgium, offering a full range of innovative products, raw materials, and application expertise to the bakery, patisserie, and chocolate industry. Founded in 1919, their products and services are available to more than 100 countries worldwide, helping customers deliver nutritious and tasty food to their local communities.

In 2013, Puratos launched the Sourdough Library in the Center for Bread Flavours in St. Vith, Belgium. Karl de Smedt is the sourdough librarian and manager. He is a master baker, confectioner, and chocolatier, and has worked with Puratos since 1994 as a test baker, technical advisor, corporate trainer, and product manager.

Karl travels the world collecting sourdough starters. The mission is to provide a real heritage source for bakers and consumers around the world. The overall goal is to preserve the biodiversity of leaven agents and the know-how on using sourdough in baking. This way they can ensure the survival of the biodiversity of strains for the future. The library started off with 43 sourdoughs and now has more than 115 and growing. “Every year we focus our attention on

one country or region in particular, and we collect as many different sourdoughs as possible,” says Karl. “We do not own the starters. They remain property of the donors. If something should go wrong in the donor’s bakery, they can always ask us to provide them with their original sample.”

When collecting the sourdough starters, they have a checklist to follow. “Each starter needs to be made from a spontaneous fermentation and not coming from a commercial starter culture,” says Karl. “We check where it comes from, what kind of flour is used, etc. We already have 39 starters from Italy, so the chance of adding an extra Italian one is rather small. For the moment, we are investigating Turkish and Bulgarian starters. Next year we will focus on rye starters from Scandinavia, Poland, and Russia.

“Puratos is also a key sponsor of the International Symposium on Bread because we believe the future of bread lies in its past,” says Karl.

“As such, we try to connect with the bakery world and be part of the evolution that is happening around the world through important educational events like this.”

Top Left, Karl de Smedt, the Sourdough Library manager. Top Right: Part of the purpose of the library is to maintain the sourdough starters in a state close to how De Smedt gathered them. The starters collected in the library will be continuously maintained so that they can be researched for aging, a new frontier for sourdough. The library also has a website called “The Quest for Sourdough,” where bakers worldwide can register their starters and the ingredients used to make them, which include everything from rye flour to juice. Another feature showcases the flavor profiles of the library’s collection: whether a starter will produce a bread that is sour, umami, or even sweet. Source, Atlas Obscura. Photos courtesy of Puratos. Follow Karl’s progress on Instagram @the_sourdough_librarian.

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Increasingly, consumers, including Reinhart himself, are focused on wellness. He’s particularly interested in gut health and how factors such as whole grains or long fermentation can potentially create healthier, more digestible breads. Reinhart states that sprouted grains are one avenue for exploration, citing recent findings that are helping debunk the misconception that wheat, and in turn gluten, is the culprit for many of our digestibility issues (it’s partly why he’s devoted an entire track to the future of bread as it relates to healthfulness and wellness at this year’s symposium).

And while a food scientist may be able to create a product that tastes or feels “healthier,” it’s the field of nutrition–understanding the impact of different nutrients and how the body metabolizes food–that determines whether something is healthful. To that end, JWU is also offering a new program in culinary nutrition.

As with the applied food science program, students first graduate with an Associate in Applied Science degree in culinary arts before enrolling in and completing a two-year culinary nutrition program, thus earning a four-year Bachelor of Science degree. Some of the inspiration for this program comes from a longstanding collaboration with the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, North Carolina, with whom they partner on a series called “Appetite for Life,” which pairs nutritionists with a chef to create recipes that put research findings into action.

“The overall aim, Malik says, is to graduate students who understand the nuances of nutrition, but are still able to produce food that is satisfying and tastes good.” “It’s about the metaphor of using food as medicine and exploring how we can be more deliberate about food consumption,” Malik says. “And it’s broadening our definition as well.

We produce great chefs who produce great food. Maybe we can make a bigger impact now.”

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Given coursework in fields such as microbiology and chemistry, the Johnson & Wales Charlotte campus is outfitted with state-of-the-art science labs, and there’s also a retro-fitted kitchen lab, where students do their “edible work.”

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Photo montage: Students learning about the impact of different nutrients and how the body metabolizes food—that determines whether something is healthful. To that end, JWU is also offering a new program in culinary nutrition. Some of the inspiration for this program comes from a longstanding collaboration with the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, North Carolina, with whom they partner on a series called “Appetite for Life,” which pairs nutritionists with a chef to create recipes that put research findings into action. Photos by Morgan Rhodes.

“What makes our program special is that our students have the culinary or baking background and then learn about food science later.� ~

~ Robert Lothrop, instructor of food science

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The International Symposium on Bread The farmer-miller-baker connection is a story that has been unfolding across the country over the last five to seven years, thanks in part to the re-emergence of small mills.

With the reign of gluten-free and low-carb diets, “bread” became synonymous with “unhealthy food.” But Peter Reinhart, one of the country’s leading bakers and foremost authorities on bread, says that bread is back, and he is more committed than ever to its future.

“Bread is a six-thousand-year-old craft that is so important and intrinsic to our being from a dietary, economic, symbolic, and spiritual level that it’s just too important for it to have just faded off to becoming the next best thing since the slicer,” Reinhart says.

In 2017, Reinhart created the first-ever Bread Symposium at Johnson & Wales University Charlotte, inviting ten bread industry all-stars to give TED-Talk-style presentations covering categories such as history, art, craft, and technology. In 2018, he opened a call for proposals to give a variety of people–academics, bakers, students, and millers–the opportunity to present under the umbrella theme “the future of bread.” He also added an optional day of baking to give attendees the chance to put ideas presented during the symposium into action.

The 2019 symposium will include a dedicated baking workshop: sourdough microbiology, including findings from N.C. State University’s Sourdough Project, which analyzes hundreds of starter cultures from around the world; wellness and healthfulness in the future of bread; and the farmer-miller-baker connection; and baking

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with heirloom, regionally specific, and polycrop grains.

The farmer-miller-baker connection is a story that Reinhart has observed unfolding across the country over the last five to seven years, thanks in part to the re-emergence of small mills.

“Mills like Carolina Ground in Asheville, a small, local mill that contracts with local farmers and finds bakers to work with those more challenging grains,” Reinhart says, are the future. “When you work with local grains from land-raised seeds or seeds particularly cultivated for that soil, it’s so dependent on weather, and the harvests are so small that they can’t buffer it out to make the grains perform the same year after year.”

As a result, some of these grains are not as functional as traditional bread flour and present challenges for bakers. Reinhart gets excited talking about research projects at N.C. State University and Washington State University that are exploring selective seed breeding in order to find ways to cross-breed grains without using genetic modification. This “micro-hybriding” is about finding the right grains that will work with the soil and climate of a region and analyzing what the benefits are, such as why grains like these are more viable or more easily digestible.

“A lot of students are hungry for knowledge in the world of sustainability and making a difference in the world,” Reinhart says.

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Good Read > Heirloom: Time-Honored Techniques, Nourishing Traditions, and Modern Recipes by Sarah Owens

Brown Butter Sourdough Banana Bread Brown butter heightens the flavor of einkorn in this classic moist bread, improving on the flour’s already toasty, nutty character alongside deep notes of banana caramelization. Use the ripest bananas you can find and an inactive starter that would otherwise be discarded (I like to use a starter fed with rye, spelt, or whole wheat flour). If you wish, you can ferment the batter at room temperature for up to three hours before baking to improve upon its texture and digestibility. This loaf is not overly sweet, making it a perfect breakfast indulgence with a strong cup of black coffee.

Ingredients Unsalted butter for the pan 195 g / 1¾ cups whole einkorn flour ¾ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon kosher salt 400 g / 4 peeled medium bananas 90 g / 6 tablespoons brown butter, softened 175 g / ¾ cup light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 100 g / ½ cup 100% hydration sourdough starter 20 g / 2 tablespoons buttermilk or whole milk 90 g / ¾ cup toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, or a combination works well) Prepare the batter Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Sarah Owens is a New York City-based cookbook author, baker, professional horticulturist, and instructor. She was awarded a James Beard Award for her first book, Sourdough, and released her second book, Toast and Jam, in 2017. Sarah believes strongly in the power of baking to foster community and social change; she is an advocate of sustainable agricultural practices to rebuild global grain sheds and believes stone milling can bring good bread back to the table. As a teacher of nourishing food traditions, she travels globally to encourage an interest in fermentation.

She is also a featured speaker at the 2019 International Symposium on Bread at Johnson & Wales Charlotte.

Prepare a parchment sling to drape over the long sides of a 9½ x 5-inch loaf pan.

Generously butter the parchment and bare sides of the pan and set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Using a fork, measure and mash 290 g of the banana (from 3 bananas) in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the brown butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer on medium-high speed until thick and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth. Add the vanilla and mashed bananas and mix until well blended.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in several batches, mixing until no dry lumps remain. Add the milk to thin the batter slightly, then stir in the toasted nuts.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Cut the remaining banana lengthwise down the middle and nestle it into the top of the batter.

Place the loaf pan on a baking sheet and bake for 65 to 70 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for 15 to 20 minutes, then use the sling to assist you in carefully removing the loaf onto the rack to cool completely before slicing. Makes one 9½ × 5-inch loaf.

From Heirloom by Sarah Owens © 2019 by Sarah Owens. Photographs © 2019 by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Reprinted in arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc. Heirloom to be released September 2019.

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Einkorn is the oldest wheat known to scientists and is considered man’s first wheat.

The term “einkorn” is derived from the German language and interpreted to mean “single grain.” DNA fingerprinting has shown evidence to suggest the domestication of einkorn wheat was carried out close to the mountains of Kacara Dag, located in the southeastern parts of Turkey. ~ source: einkorn.com Nourish and Flourish 73

This book is dedicated to the small organic farmer, the miller, the community-supported baker, and the fervent locavore.

“Heirloom looks to the ancient methods of food preparation through the act of slow cooking and many, although not all, heirloom ingredients. Traditional foods such as dairy, grains, meat, and, of course, vegetables all enjoy a place at my modern table. They are prepared using techniques of fermentation, soaking, and sometimes extended cooking to heighten and extract their most beneficial qualities.

Simply put, the more fermented probiotic foods we consume, the stronger and healthier we may become. This is the mindset of this book. It is an investigation into preserving and baking techniques across cultures, using whole and heirloom ingredients, as a way to discover a healthy and more nourishing approach to food. It’s also my act of peaceful resistance—a personal narrative progressing toward a more loving, gentle, and healthy society.”

~ Sarah Owens

Heirloom features recipes from each season. Here is the opening photo for the Summer: Nature’s Bounty chapter. Summer’s abundance of fruits includes nectarines (Prunus persica), peaches (Prunus persica), Japanese plums (Prunus salicina), figs (Ficus carica), gooseberries (Ribes uva-crispa), red and champagne currants (Ribes rubrum), cucamelons (Melothria scabra), and musk melons (Cucumis melo).

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Innovation + Technology

Nature, Nutrition, and Your Health The first wealth is health.

David Murdock (owner of Dole Foods), who is a very conscientious about what he eats and whose diet consists almost entirely of fruits and vegetables, is the visionary and founder behind the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, North Carolina. When the Pillowtex mill complex closed in 2003, he bought it at a cost of $6.4 million.

In September 2005, Murdock announced the plan to demolish the old mill and build a $1.5 billion biotechnology hub called the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC). His vision included dozens of university and private partners working in buildings covering the 350-acre campus to find scientific breakthroughs in health, nutrition, and agriculture. That same year, Steven Zeisel (M.D. and Ph.D., and then-chair for the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Nutrition) flew to California to meet with David Murdock, in hopes of securing a donation for the department.

The rest is history.

As the NCRC grows and more scientists and administrators move to Kannapolis, there is one face that has been here since the beginning.

In fact, UNC Nutrition Research Institute Director Steven Zeisel was a leader in this innovative venture before the first shovel hit the dirt. From the start, Zeisel was involved in building the dream of the NCRC, including its unique mission, novel approach to research, and distinguished team. He has not only played an integral role alongside David H. Murdock in developing the vision of the Campus but also led the charge to seek scientific synergy between the best minds in nutrition research through collaboration with the other NCRC organizations.

NCRC isn’t one school with a single focus. Rather, it’s a conglomeration of different research centers, professors, and companies, all studying different nutrition-related problems. The core lab houses scientific equipment such as expensive microscopes and a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging machine that takes up a two-story room in the basement. The various schools and companies that have their own programs at the campus all use the lab equipment. The scientists say that the chance to collaborate and trade ideas across institutions makes working in Kannapolis, instead of their own schools, worth the effort.

Eight universities, the David H. Murdock Research Institute, various

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~Emerson

companies, and entrepreneurs focus research and development on safer, more nutritious crops, healthier foods, and precision nutrition. Research and product development are collaborative and multi-disciplinary.

Focus areas are as varied as phytochemicals in fruits, vegetables, grains, and herbs; exercise physiology; post-harvest physiology; populationbased genetic studies; and precision nutrition. The growing base of scientific knowledge combines new understanding of how nutrients, plant phytochemicals, the environment, and lifestyle choices impact brain and fetal development, cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, fatty liver, and other metabolic disorders.

An emerging manufacturing and product development core is focused on research into plant-based ingredients and new processing methods and packaging possibilities. In 2019, a new North Carolina Food Innovation Lab will open on campus that will serve the state by keeping commodities grown in North Carolina in North Carolina for processing.

Education is a cornerstone of the campus. Rowan-Cabarrus Community College offers two-year degrees in biotechnology and nursing in their training center that is within walking distance of all of the campus research centers. The Plant Pathways Elucidation Project (P2EP) is a one-of-a-kind collaborative program that combines the expertise of leading scientists with the university and corporate partners to train undergraduate and doctoral-level students in fields like plant genetics and bioinformatics. Beyond a research center, the NCRC is an economic driver, creating over 1,000 jobs and playing a critical role in the development of the city of Kannapolis and the Charlotte area’s growing life science sector.

The largest organization on the campus is the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) that conducts innovative basic and translational science studying how individual differences in requirements for and responses to diet affect our individual nutrition needs. Scientists at the NRI explore nutrient metabolism and its relationship to human development and disease, with the goal of increasingly replacing general dietary guidance with more customized nutrition recommendations. This is precision nutrition.

Their advances in precision nutrition are leading to successes in preventing or mitigating the negative effects of chronic diseases and

Photo by Nancy Suttes

aging and in improving human development, even prior to conception.

NRI is developing and applying cutting-edge methods—nutrigenetics, epigenetics, nutrigenomics, metabolomics, and microbiome—to determine why metabolism and nutrition requirements differ between individuals. NRI principal investigators hold faculty appointments in the departments of Nutrition and Psychology at UNC Chapel Hill.

Their research includes studies on the role of nutrients in preventing disease, diet-related health behaviors and risk factors for disease, the effect of the environment and genes on disease outcomes, and the impact of gene-nutrient interactions.

Nutrition and Brain NRI scientists are discovering that babies have the best brain development when their moms eat well before and while they’re pregnant and that each woman is unique in her nutritional needs. An important part of this research focuses on the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and the development of effective nutrition interventions.

Nutrition and Cancer Excess body fat affects 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the United States. At the NRI, researchers seek to understand how obesity

increases cancer risk and worsens response to treatment. Other research explores the role of folate and other active compounds in food and how they contribute to health disparities.

Nutrition and Microbiome The gut microbiome—the complex community of bacteria, yeasts, and viruses living in our intestine—is shaped, in part, by what we eat. NRI researchers are developing the knowledge base for nutrition solutions that support better health and more effective treatments.

Precision Nutrition Interventions NRI scientists work to understand how genetic and other complex information can be used to better estimate individual nutrition requirements and intolerances. They use bioinformatics to extract such information from population and intervention studies, develop rules for predicting individual needs, and bring precision nutrition to healthcare providers and consumers with digital tools.

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Ancient Hawaiian Aquaculture A millennium ago, nearly 500 ancient fishponds provided food security for Native Hawaiians living on an island in the middle of the Pacific. Today, this beautiful fish pond full of hatchery-born mullets is one example of how folks are tapping into cultural wisdom in hopes of improving our nation’s healthy food supply for the future.

“Locally grown seafood in waters around the nation is critical for environmental responsibility, food security, and a stronger economy,” says Michael Rubino, NOAA’s Senior Advisor for Seafood Strategy.

“With the population growing fast, expanding our nation’s seafood production is really a gift for our children and grandchildren. It’s the responsible thing to do.”

The history of growing fish in nearby waters dates back hundreds of years, if not thousands. In Hawaii, 488 fishponds once dotted the islands to provide a reliable staple of a healthy diet. We can step into a piece of the past at the 800-year-old Paepae o He’eia fish pond, one of only 50 such ponds still in use today. The pond currently sells nutritious whole fish directly to the community. The nearby Kualoa Farm grows

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oysters in constructed ponds between 800 and 1,000 years old. Fresh oysters are one of the delicacies locals and tourists alike enjoy.

These ponds are part of a push to raise more fish and shellfish around the islands for cultural reasons as well as to feed a hungry wave of tourists who visit each year. The locally grown food promotes health and environmental responsibility. As Native Hawaiians know, it’s also a source of food security in an area nearly 4,000 miles from the United States mainland. But experts say expanding current pond production is just a first step.

The Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University, just a short drive away, is researching cutting-edge technology to support sustainable aquaculture and notes a wealth of untapped potential both off Hawaii’s coast and around the nation.

“For domestic aquaculture to expand, science-based approaches need to be developed and implemented to compete with cheap, imported seafood,” said Dr. Shaun Moss, the Oceanic Institute’s Executive Director. “By using advanced technologies, the United States

Built nearly 1,000 years ago, the Alekoko Fishpond, minutes from Lihue, on the island of Kauaʻi, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973. Ingenious ponds were built to catch fish, and this is one of the finest examples of ancient Hawaiian aquaculture.

By Jennie Lyons, NOAA Fisheries Public Affairs

aquaculture industry should be able to replace a significant portion of foreign imports to provide American consumers with high-quality aquatic protein in a sustainable manner.”

In 1990, the Institute partnered with the University of Arizona to develop the world’s first captive population of disease-free Pacific white shrimp. The Institute then transferred the selectively bred shrimp to the private sector, hoping folks in Hawaii might purchase some to mate and grow in shrimp ponds. Hawaii is now home to several of these commercial suppliers, which generated an estimated $40 million in export revenue in 2015. In fact, shrimp broodstock were the top edible export from Hawaii in 2014 and 2015, sold largely to commercial shrimp hatcheries in Asia. Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture says the state exported more than 467,000 shrimp to Asia in 2018 at approximately $50 per shrimp.

“Right now, we’re sending jobs overseas and importing at least 85 percent of our seafood. About half of that is farmed, just not here. It doesn’t make sense for the economy or the environment,” said Rubino.

“The good news is we have the know-how now. And seafood farming is one of the most sustainable ways to answer the demand for locally grown protein.”

Fish create a smaller carbon footprint than other popular protein sources and require less feed input per pound produced. With ever improving technology and the correct farm placement, we can grow a lot of seafood in a small amount of space. New and expanded seafood farming operations in an area about the size of Washington, D.C. (less than 1/1000th of a percent of United States waters) would produce another $6 billion in seafood. With ever more people to feed and wild fish populations stable, expanding what our nation grows is necessary .

It’s also healthy. Seafood is a low-calorie source of protein rich in hearthealthy omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. The United States departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture jointly publish federal guidelines that recommend Americans nearly double their seafood consumption. So dig in and eat more fish!

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Tide to Table

By Cindy Sandoval, NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture

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The Rise of Ocean Farmers

ith a growing interest in understanding where our food is coming from and in supporting local farmers, there has been an increased focus on local fare on many menus at eateries coast to coast.

In fact, the once obscure term “locavore” is now in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and is a highlighted feature on menus. When thinking about farm-to-fork, many people envision rolling hills, red barns, and a farmer in overalls tending his or her flock. But what about a farmer in waders or swim trunks? Can we trade the rolling hills for blue waves and the barn for a boat? That is just what the tide-to-table farmers are hoping to do.

Aquaculture, also known as farming in water, is the fastest growing food production system in the world. In the United States, aquaculture farmers raised and harvested over 80 million pounds of seafood in coastal waters and the open ocean. These farms can vary from seaweed production in Alaska or oyster gardens in New England to offshore farms in the clear waters of Hawaii.

Seafood is vital to the Hawaiian economy and culture. Fish, shellfish, and seaweeds are an important part of local diets, and seafood demand is further increased by millions of visitors who crave high quality, freshlocal seafood.

Just off the rocky Kona coast, Blue Ocean Mariculture, the nation’s only offshore fish farm, is helping provide a native kanpachi species to meet this growing demand for seafood. “Among local species, Hawaiian kanpachi was a clear choice for its high quality, versatility, and natural ability to hit sustainability benchmarks,” said Blue Ocean Mariculture farmer Tyler Korte.

The fish, marked by dark blue-green upper body and a lavendertinted belly, are grown in floating pens that can be raised and lowered in the water column. The series of pens on the farm can grow around 900,000 pounds of fish a year. As with terrestrial farms, site selection is an important aspect of farm placement; characteristics like temperature and water quality are important. However, ocean farmers must also consider depth, current speed, and oxygen when it comes to placing a farm.

“Hawaii’s highly oxygenated waters are the perfect temperature for growing kanpachi year round,” added Korte. “In open-ocean farming, site depth and water turnover are key factors in modeling how many fish we can grow sustainably in an area.” To ensure that the site meets the farm’s sustainability mission, monthly tests monitor the farm pens and even the habitat around the farm.

Freshly harvested Hawaiian kanpachi. Photo Courtesy of Blue Ocean Mariculture.

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The president of Blue Ocean started his seafood journey in wildcapture fisheries. “After working with varied fishing industry companies and interests, I realized the potential for open ocean farming to reduce pressure on capture fisheries while also sustainably expanding access to seafood,” said Todd Madsen. “We understand that mariculture has to be done smartly–with respect for local culture, ocean water quality, benthic health, and wildlife. That is our goal.”

This combined commitment to environmental stewardship and fish quality is recognized by seafood experts and foodies around Hawaii and on the mainland. Farm-raised Hawaiian kanpachi can be found on Hawaiian menus like Waikiki’s Beachhouse at the Moana and the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. A new partnership is further expanding awareness of farm-raised fish.

In 2018, the James Beard Foundation selected Blue Ocean Mariculture as a Sustainable Seafood Partner because of Blue Ocean’s commitment to providing leading chefs and restaurant professionals with seafood raised in a sustainable manner. Partnerships like this with leading chef organizations and local restaurants are helping bridge the gap between farm and plate and are changing the way we think about seafood.

As Blue Ocean Mariculture and other tide-to-table farmers continue to challenge the misconceptions of aquaculture and work to win the hearts and minds of the public, it is often the stomach and eyes that first convert. Recipes like Macadamia Nut Crusted Kanpachi and Ginger Juice Ogo Kanpachi Poke are often the gateway to a conversation about

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sustainable farming.

Expert analyses show that ocean aquaculture can be a resourceefficient, environmentally responsible form of food production that can play a significant role in increasing seafood supply, improving human nutrition, and creating jobs. However, most of the public still has limited understanding of aquaculture and may encounter information that can be out of date, inaccurate, or incomplete. “Public perception of aquaculture can be a barrier, and aquaculture farmers are working hard to deliver sustainable seafood while also educating our communities about the important role we play in food security and ocean stewardship,” added Madsen. “We are proud to be part of the local community and are committed to sustainable farm practices.”

With a global population expected to reach over 9 billion soon, the need for healthy, lean proteins and food security is growing. The oceans cover over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, but currently account for about 2 percent of human food. With limited arable land and fresh water, it is no surprise the world is turning to ocean farmers like those at Blue Ocean Mariculture.

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Top: Blue Ocean Mariculture is raising sustainable fish in floating net pens off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. Photo by Cindy Sandoval, NOAA Fisheries. Right: Hawaiian kanpachi sashimi is a popular item on menus on and off the islands. Photo courtesy of Blue Ocean Mariculture.

Another favorable aspect of the kanpachi is the versatility of the fish, which can be prepared raw, grilled, steamed, broiled or roasted

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The Taste of Summer Bruschetta is one of the best ways to enjoy the bounty of summer.

Pronounced “broosketta,” this classic Italian appetizer is quick and easy to make.

Ingredients 1 jar of sundried tomatoes or a package of dried tomatoes (available in most natural food stores or grocery stores) or 4–6 Roma tomatoes diced small Fresh mozzarella or your favorite cheese 1 clove garlic, minced ¼ cup fresh basil chopped fine or your favorite fresh herbs 2 tablespoons high-quality olive oil 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste 1 loaf of rustic artisan bread, ciabatta or sourdough bread High-quality olive oil to brush on bread Method For fresh tomatoes, dice them in small pieces and lightly drain. For oil-packed sundried tomatoes, remove from oil and drain. Mix all ingredients and let stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour.

Slice the bread, brush with olive oil, and toast or grill until lightly browned. Rub each toasted slice of bread with a clove of raw garlic. Top with your favorite cheese, tomato mixture, fresh herbs or create your own favorite toppings.

FIVE: Let’s Eat!

Fresh, Seasonal Recipes As we come together to share this meal, let us first remember how it came to us and be thankful to the people who made it possible.

This food was born from the bounty of the Earth, in warm sunlight, rich earth, and cool rain.

May it nourish us, in body and mind, and provide us with the things that are good for living a healthy life.

We are grateful to those who cultivated it, those who harvested it, those who brought it to us, and those who prepared it.

May its consumption bring about the pleasures of friendship, love, and good company.

Preheat oven or grill to 350°. Bake for a few minutes until cheese is warm. Serves 2–4.

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Grow, Cook, Nourish, and Flourish

Let us return to the fresh seafood caught by the fishermen of our coastal fleet; to the locally sourced products that speak to us of our land and our ancestors; to the restaurants with holes in the tablecloths from years of use. ~Iglesias Lรณpez, M.T> Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Faculty of Health Sciences, Spain

From earliest times, Man has cooked in order to share food with others. He shares a table with an enemy as a symbol of forgiveness. He respects the biological balance of his surroundings and develops the environment in a socially responsible manner.

Food is the means for achieving higher goals: the preservation of the species, communion with the community, celebrations, tributes, pledges, and also burnt offerings. Man gives, shares, cares, offers, sacrifices, salutes, recognizes, bestows, and believes through food. Man assimilates the world through consumption, which is an intimate participation in life itself.

Let us recover the smell of bread in which we see the soul and dreams of the person that kneaded it, the bread that our grandparents taught us to kiss when it fell to the ground. Let us return to the fresh seafood caught by the fishermen of our coastal fleet; to the locally sourced products that speak to us of our land and our ancestors; to the restaurants with holes in the tablecloths from years of use. Let us peel potatoes and fry them together as a family, rather than sticking a pizza in the oven and watching television. Let us dunk the bread in the shared dishes that unite all the members of a family. Let us make aioli together and pass the mortar to our wife when our arm falls asleep.

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Source: Iglesias Lรณpez M.T (2019),Culture and Mediterranean Diet, International Journal of Nutrition - 3(2):13-21.

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Grilled and Planked Salmon: A Summer Favorite

Cedar Planked Wild Alaska Salmon

ON THE COVER:

Grilled Salmon Steak Ingredients 4 salmon steaks (only one serving shown) ¼ cup olive oil Fresh herbs to taste Himalayan pink salt Course black pepper ½ teaspoon crushed red chili pepper flakes Method Combine the olive oil with fresh herbs, a dash of Himalayan pink salt, and course black pepper to taste.

Heat grill to 400°F to 450°F. Grill the salmon on both sides for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Serve with your favorite salad or seasonal vegetables.

Tips for Cedar Planking Fish: • Use untreated cedar cooking planks.

• Soak planks at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before grilling.

• Cook over a medium or medium-low flame to keep from burning.

• Allow ample cooking time—this takes a bit longer than your usual grilled fish.

• Keep a spray bottle filled with water nearby to extinguish flare-ups.

Ingredients 1 untreated cedar plank, large enough to hold 2 portions of fish without them touching 1½ pounds wild Alaskan salmon filet 1 tablespoon olive oil Sea salt and freshly ground pepper ¼ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice ¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice ¼ cup white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce 1 tablespoon maple syrup 1 teaspoon packed brown sugar 3 tablespoons orange marmalade 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger 1 teaspoon minced garlic Pinch white pepper 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 fresh lime Method In a sink or large roasting pan, soak cedar plank in water at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.

For the glaze: In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except olive oil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and continue cooking at a low boil until mixture has thickened to a syrupy consistency and reduced to about ½ cup. Remove from heat, whisk in olive oil, and set aside.

For the salmon: If necessary, remove pin bones from salmon. You do not need to remove the skin; the fish will lift easily from the skin once it’s cooked. Brush salmon portions with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Preheat grill to a medium flame. If you are cooking on the Big Green Egg, set your EGG for direct cooking at 400°F/204°C. Place the cedar planks on the grid, close the lid of the Big Green Egg or your regular grill, and preheat for 3 minutes. Turn the planks over and remove from grill. Place fish portions onto board, skin side down.

Season with your favorite herbs, spices, and crushed red pepper to taste. Brush each piece of fish generously with the glaze and place planked salmon back on grill.

Close lid and cook fish for 10 to 15 minutes, checking periodically. The salmon is done or nearly done when you see the first evidence of white liquid oozing from the fish. This is just coagulated protein, known as albumin, and is harmless and edible.

Serve with grilled rustic bread, cherry tomatoes, and a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon. Serves 2.

Photos by

by Nancy Nancy Suttles Suttles Photos 88

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Grilling on a cedar plank is an old Native American cooking technique that has found its way to home cooks and chefs across America. Whether you’re using the traditional cedar, or woods like alder, hickory, and maple, they add a delicious smoky flavor to any meal.

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Salmon The Wonder Fish

Poached Eggs and Smoked Salmon on Tapenade Mayonnaise-Smeared Bread

This is a delicious, savory recipe for any left-over salmon. Perfect for breakfast or brunch, this skips the traditional ham in favor of salmon and replaces the English muffin with toasted artisanal bread.

Tapenade Mayonnaise

Salmon is the third-most consumed seafood in North America, not only for its exceptional flavor and versatility, but for its undeniable health benefits.

Rich in Omega-3s, it’s a valuable protein source for those looking to eat healthier, consume less meat, or transition to a paleo or pescatarian diet. Salmon features 45 recipes showcasing the best ways to prepare this luscious, accessible fish.

Diane has crafted an easy-to-read, goto reference for those who want to learn about salmon from the source–whether it’s the difference between wild and farm salmon or the difference in the species.

Each chapter highlights a different approach to cooking this incredibly versatile fish.

For shopping for every type of seafood, I highly recommend that you download the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guides on your smartphone or tablet. It is complete, up-to-date information that identifies specific fish and shellfish as a best choice, good alternative, or a specimen to avoid completely due to fishing practices, environmental factors, or sustainability issues. The list that follows will help you understand the often-confusing labels that appear next to fillets indicating the origins of the fish and whether it is wild or farmed.

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Ingredients 6 tablespoons mayonnaise 1½ teaspoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 tablespoon black olive tapenade 8 slices black or green olive ciabatta, each ¼ inch thick extra-virgin olive oil for brushing 16 thin slices smoked salmon (lox) or hot-smoked salmon–recipe on facing page 8 large eggs 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar or fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon fine sea salt Freshly ground black pepper Method Mayonnaise: In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, parsley, tapenade, and a few grinds of pepper and mix well. Set aside.

Heat a grill until hot. Brush both sides of each bread slice with a little olive oil. Grill the bread on both sides until grill marks appear.

Pour water to a depth of about 2 inches into a large, straight-sided sauté pan and bring to boil over high heat. While water is heating, spread each slice of grilled bread on one side with the prepared mayonnaise, then lay two salmon slices on top.

Poach the Egg: Crack each egg into separate bowls. Line a large flat plate with a double thickness of paper towel. When water is boiling, add the vinegar and salt.

Adjust the heat so the water is at a simmer, not a rolling boil. Carefully slip the eggs, one at a time, into the water. After 2-3 minutes, use a slotted spoon to lift an egg to see if the white has completely set. If so, remove each egg and set on plate.

With kitchen shears or pairing knife, trim any ragged edges from the egg whites.

Next, set a poached egg on each slice of prepared bread. Garnish each openfaced sandwich with a generous sprinkling of the parsley and black pepper. Serve immediately. Serves 4.

Reprinted from Salmon by Diane Morgan with permission by Chronicle Books, 2016.

Text © 2016 Diane Morgan. Photographs © 2016 Leigh Beisch.

Stove-Top Alder-Smoked Salmon Ingredients One 1½ pound center-cut salmon filet, skin on and scaled, pin bones removed ½ lemon Fine sea salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon alder-wood smoking chips Method Remove the salmon from the refrigerator 30 minutes before smoking to bring to room temperature.

Line the bottom of a stove-top smoker or wok with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil for easy cleanup. Place the wood chips in a small pile on the foil in the center of the pan. If using a stove-top smoker, lay another piece of foil on top, covering all of the wood chips.

Cover a drip tray with foil and place it on top of the second piece of foil. If using a wok, lay a large sheet of foil loosely over the wood chips. Coat a wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and place on top of the drip tray or foil.

Arrange salmon on the rack.

Squeeze lemon juice over salmon and lightly salt and pepper. Slide the lid on the stove-top smoker or wok over medium heat. When the first wisp of smoke appears, close the lid or tightly cover the wok. Smoke salmon for 15-17 minutes. Turn off heat and leave the salmon in smoker, covered, for an additional 5 minutes.

Transfer salmon to cutting board. Slide spatula between the salmon flesh and skin, separating them, and discard the skin. Cut the salmon crosswise (against the grain) into six portions. Serve immediately.

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Tim Forman > Royal Pig BBQ > Atlanta, Georgia

Mobile Q If you do what you love for a living , you’ll never work a day in your life.

Truer statements have never been made when it comes to pitmaster Tim Forman and “Miss Piggy,” The Royal Pig Food Truck. People in the Atlanta area are fast becoming fans of The Royal Pig BBQ, and rightly so. Forman, who is a Big Green Egg culinary partner, knows how to keep a hungry crowd returning for more.

Forman was born and raised in upstate New York. He attended Southern Vermont College and received a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Upon graduating, he held several jobs in the security field, eventually relocating to Atlanta. Growing weary of this type of work, he returned to school for his MBA and was involved in a couple of startups.

Forman has always loved cooking, and is the “go to guy” in his neighborhood when there was anything being planned for the grill. He has developed several signature recipes using seasonings that bring out amazing flavors when cooked on the EGG. After attending the 2014 EGGtoberfest, an annual gathering of EGGheads in Atlanta, Tim and his partner Cherece bought their first EGG. After a few years of cooking for family and friends, locking down his favorite recipes, Forman was the hit of the neighborhood. They all wanted him to open a local restaurant The idea of a brick and mortar restaurant wasn’t really what he wanted. About this same time, the food truck business was gaining popularity. Tim and Cherece thought the idea of a mobile kitchen appealed to them, but they wanted to be unique.

Forman approached the Big Green Egg about outfitting a truck with EGGs. They agreed and assisted him in designing and building “Miss Piggy” from scratch. She includes two XL EGGs named Dick and Jane and Wilbur, a small EGG. Known for excellent service and delicious food, Forman has become a sensation around Atlanta. He sources from local farms and vendors when possible.

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Photo by Nancy Suttles

Royal Pig’s Pulled Berkshire Pork Sandwich

“Cooking on the Big Green Egg gives me precision in controlling my temperatures and tremendous versatility of use. It is a perfect choice for the home cook, pitmaster, or chef.”

Ingredients 1 8-10 pound whole bone-in heritage Berkshire pork shoulder, also known as Boston Butt 1 can peach nectar Royal Pig Red BBQ Rub 1 cup brown sugar ¾ cup paprika ½ cup kosher salt ½ cup ground pepper cayenne pepper to taste Mix all ingredients together and rub on the whole pork shoulder.

Marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Method Prepare Big Green Egg for indirect cooking at 250°.

Smoke pork shoulder for 12 to 14 hours or until it reaches the internal temperature of 170°. Remove pork from cooker. Place in pan with 12 ounces of store-bought peach nectar. Return to smoker until internal temp reaches 195°. Pull and serve.

Assemble the sandwich by lightly toasting a brioche bun. Add a bed of baby kale to bottom bun. Pile high with 4-6 ounces of pork. Top with cole slaw, pickle, and roasted red pepper. Cole slaw recipe follows on the next page.

What is Berkshire Pork?

One of the oldest identifiable breeds of pig, the Berkshire hog was introduced to the United States in the early 1800s. The Berkshire breed offered an improvement to the general hog population when crossed with that stock. In 1875, concern that the breed would be completely diluted led breeders to start the American Berkshire Association, the first swine group and registry in the world. The organization was met with enthusiasm by the breeders in the U.S. and in England, and it was agreed that only hogs from English herds or hogs that could be traced back to them would be registered. The first boar to be recorded in the registry was Ace of Spades, bred by Queen Victoria herself. Today, many of our Berkshire breed pigs are descended from these original registered animals.

With an heightened interest in heritage breeds, there are more farmers raising them for the market, even crossing the hardy stock with other heritage breeds.

Chefs and consumers across the country are happy to pay more for quality Berkshire pork raised naturally on pasture land, and farmers are meeting the demand.

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Tim Forman > Royal Pig BBQ > Atlanta, Georgia

Tim’s Big Green Egg Smoked Chicken Taco Ingredients 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 6–8 ounces Royal Pig Gold BBQ Rub ½ cup coarse ground pepper 1/3 tablespoon dry minced garlic ½ tablespoon kosher salt 1/3 tablespoon onion powder orange zest pinch paprika to taste pinch dill seed

Royal Cole Slaw Ingredients 2 green cabbages 1 red cabbage 2 carrots I medium red onion 2 jalapeños Salt and pepper to taste Method Shred the cabbage with a mandolin. Chop up other vegetables and mix together. Add salt and pepper.

Cole Slaw Dressing Ingredients ½ cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons sugar 1½ tablespoons of fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon vinegar ½ teaspoon ground black pepper ¼ teaspoon salt Royal Pig Gold Rub to taste Method Whisk mayonnaise, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, pepper, and salt together in a bowl until smooth and and creamy. Drizzle over cole slaw. Season with Gold Rub to taste and mix again.

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Method Apply Gold Rub to chicken and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Prepare Big Green Egg for indirect cooking at 220°.

Smoke for 1 to 2 hours or internal temperature of 165°.

Take off grill, cool, and pull chicken apart with two forks.

For the taco: lightly toast two 6” flour tortillas. Add a bed of baby kale to bottom of tortilla. Pile high with 4 to 6 ounces of smoked, pulled chicken. Top with cole slaw, pickle, and roasted red pepper. Serve and enjoy!

Note: With indirect grilling and roasting on the Big Green Egg, the food is not directly exposed to flame and heat, as a convEGGtor (a Big Green Egg cooking accessory) or Drip Pan is placed beneath the food to deflect the heat. The food is cooked by the convection process which radiates surrounding heat from the coals, side walls and dome of the EGG.

Photo by Nancy Suttles

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Big Green Egg Europe > Provence, France

Grilled Rack of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables This signature recipe was provided by Big Green Egg Europe which has been present in the European market since 2002. While on location in Provence, the Big Green Egg EU team captured the best of Provençal cuisine, focusing on simple, flavorful, and fresh ingredients from the region. Enjoy!

Ingredients 2 racks of lamb 1 bunch of rosemary or thyme olive oil sea salt For the vegetables: 2 aubergines / eggplants 2 courgettes / zucchinis 2 red onions 4 cloves of garlic 10 cherry tomatoes 4 sprigs of rosemary 6 bay leaves sea salt olive oil Method Ignite the charcoal in the Big Green Egg and heat, with the Cast Iron Grid, to a temperature of 180°C/ 356° F.

Provence is a region in southeastern France bordering Italy and the Mediterranean Sea. It is known for its diverse landscapes and delicious food.

Provençal cuisine is flavorful and simple, focusing on preserving the taste and texture of seasonal, fresh ingredients. The charming Provençal markets are filled with local delicacies including cheese, dried sausage, olives, and different fruits and vegetables.

There are also fresh herbs everywhere. Thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and savory form the base for the famous Provençal herbs. You can also find fresh basil, sage, oregano, laurel, parsley, and/or lavender in loose bushels and often in mixed bushels.

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Cut the aubergines and courgettes into thin, 3 to 4 millimeter thick-slices. Peel the red onions and cut them into half rings. Peel the garlic and thinly slice the cloves. Cut each tomato into segments. Cut the rosemary sprigs into 5-pieces (about 2 inches).

Fill the lid of the Dutch Oven, alternating the slices of eggplant, zucchini, and onion rings. Evenly distribute the garlic slices and tomato segments over the other vegetables. Insert the pieces of rosemary and the bay leaves between the vegetables.

Sprinkle with sea salt to taste and add a generous sprinkling of olive oil.

Remove any skin from the racks of lamb and scrape the ribs clean with a small knife, if necessary (or have the butcher do this). Remove the needles from the rosemary or the leaves from the thyme and chop finely. Brush the racks of lamb with olive oil. Sprinkle them with sea salt to taste and with the rosemary and thyme.

Place the racks of lamb on the grid, meat side down; close the lid of the EGG and grill for about 2 minutes. Rotate the racks of lamb a quarter of a turn and continue to grill for another 2 minutes.

Now flip the racks of lamb and insert the probe of the core thermometer into the center of the meat. Set the thermometer to 50°C for a medium-rare result. Place the lid of the Dutch Oven containing the vegetables next to it. Leave the racks of lamb to cook for approximately 14 to 16 minutes until the set core temperature has been reached.

Remove the racks of lamb from the EGG. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the EGG. Cut the racks of lamb into nice cutlets and serve with the vegetables. Serves 4.

The Big Green Egg is the pioneer in manufacturing and distributing the highestquality ceramic kamado-style charcoal grill in the world. This extremely versatile outdoor cooking equipment is based on the 3000-year-old Japanese “kamado” tradition. A “kamado” is a clay oven that traditionally burned wood and produced juicy, flavorful food.

The American entrepreneur Ed Fisher recognized the potential of the Asian kamado cooker, and from his original model, the business has grown into an international phenomenon for professional chefs, pitmasters, and home cooks.

Founded in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia, the Big Green Egg has evolved drastically over the years, and significant changes have been made to keep it miles ahead of anything else on the market. State-of-theart ceramics, a wide range of cooking accessories, and other branded products along with seven sizes to select from make the Big Green Egg one of the most-sought after cookers in the world. Teams of research and development specialists are continuously looking for new ways to make the Big Green Egg even better.

The Big Green Egg is one of the most versatile cooking devices on the market. It is a grill, oven, and smoker, something every cook should check out.

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Photos courtesy of Big Green Egg Europe

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Let’s Begin The Art of Antipasto

Fresh Green Salad with Boiled Quail Eggs and Antipasto For the Salad 5 ripe strawberries cut into pieces 1 small cucumber, sliced 1 watermelon radish sliced thin or shredded with a mandolin 1 pound baby greens such as frissée, arugula, romaine hearts, or microgreens rinsed and dried with a salad spinner or paper towels crumbled feta cheese ¼ cup red onion sliced thin salt and pepper 4-5 boiled quail eggs In a large bowl, toss greens, cucumber, and onion. Top with sliced strawberries, watermelon radish, and crumbled feta cheese. Garnish with quail eggs cut into halves. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with or without your favorite dressing.

No one can deny that an Italian meal is a truly sensory experience. When you sit down to an Italian meal, the traditional first course is “antipasto” (plural: antipasti). The term is derived from Latin “ante” (before) and “pastus” (meal, pasture).

Antipasto Assemble a plate of cured meats, fresh cheeses, artichoke hearts, olives, peppers, and herbs that will satisfy guests until the next course is ready. These items can be found in most natural food markets or grocery stores. There are also many specialty food companies online that sell prepared antipasti products. This is simple, savory, and delicious.

Boiling Quail Eggs To boil quail eggs, place them in cold water, bring to a boil, and cook for two minutes. To make shelling easier, you may want to first soak them in cold water, enough to cover them, along with a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar. This will help break down the lining in the shells so that they peel off easier.

Quail eggs are popular in Japanese bento boxes and are typically eaten 3 to 5 at a time due to their smaller size. Apart from being considered “cute,” they are also packed with nutrients that make them a delicious and healthy option to add to your diet. Quail eggs are a rich source of good cholesterol, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and vitamin A.

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Blueberry Lemon Cream Tart With Graham Cracker Crust

This is a simple and easy dessert to make for any summer gathering.

It is light, fruity, and delicious.

Ingredients 10 graham crackers 2 tablespoons sugar 6 tablespoons melted butter 1 lemon pastry cream (recipe below) 1 cup blueberries Method Graham Cracker Crust: Preheat oven to 350° F. Place the crackers in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until fine crumbs are formed. Transfer to a bowl and add sugar and butter. Mix with a spatula to combine.

Transfer the crust mixture to 4 mini-tart pans and press to the sides (about two-thirds up). Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely to a room temperature.

Lemon Pastry Cream Ingredients 1¼ cup whole milk 1 teaspoon lemon zest 3 egg yolks ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract 2 teaspoons lemon liquor or ½ teaspoon lemon extract Method In a small saucepan, warm the milk and lemon zest over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.

Above: A blueberry bud. Blueberries of the genus Vaccinium are truly a Native American species. These plants are believed to be one of the first edible fruit-bearing plants to be discovered by early man after the last ice age. According to USDA research, blueberries are rich in antioxidant phytonutrients that help in quenching the activity of free radicals in the body’s cells. With 80 calories per cup and virtually no fat and low in sodium, blueberries offer many nutritional benefits. Source: blueberrycouncil.org, Photo by Nancy Suttles.

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Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk; continue stirring and heat it for 1-2 minutes until the custard reaches 170°F on a digital thermometer and is very thick.

Remove custard from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract and lemon liquor (or extract), and chill before filling pastry.

Pour pastry cream into the graham cracker crust, filling it almost to the top. You may have leftover cream. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Top with fresh blueberries and serve.

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A Look Inside Pet Foods

By Morgan Rhodes

Healthy Dogs Are Happy Dogs!

Dogs are special. They wait eagerly for us to arrive home, protect us, love us unconditionally, and forgive us for just being human. They don’t ask for anything but our love and some play time. One of the most important decisions we can make for them is providing nutritious food.

Above: Zu is ready for play. Photo by Morgan Rhodes.

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United States’ consumers spent an estimated $30.32 billion on food for their pets in 2018, according to the American Pet Products Association, an increase of 4.3 percent from 2017. According to PetFoodIndustry.com, dry pet food production reached 8.085 million metric tons, holding steady since 2017, even with the introduction of raw and freeze-dried products. Much of the dry food sold today is dense and artificially preserved for shelf life. Some of it may contain cheap fillers and low-grade meats; some correlatedly linked to obesity, possible cancers, and other diseases. Even made with the healthiest of ingredients, “dry” is the equivalent of fast food.

So, where exactly did dry dog food come from?

Food specifically for pets, “pet food,” was first introduced around 1860 by Ohio electrician James Spratt. He had seen dogs being fed leftover biscuits meant for sailors, so he formulated his own “dog biscuit” consisting of wheat meal, vegetables, beet root, and beef ’s blood. It was a huge success, and Spratt was providing a valuable resource for sporting dogs in Great Britain. Spratt began producing his dog biscuits around 1895 for the United States’ market. Other companies started developing their own recipes for both biscuits and dry food, or “kibble.” Ken-L-Ration canned dog food, containing horse meat, was introduced in 1922. The nutrient values and ingredients being used were acceptable at the time based on the knowledge of the industry. Dogs went from eating human-grade table scraps to processed condensed food in a sixty-year span. As animal science progressed, so did nutrition, according to PetFoodInstitute. org. Horse meat is no longer used and many of the ingredients are now human-grade or organic; vitamin levels are more balanced for a dog’s lifespan. And we now have regulations on processing to ensure the safety of the food.

Within the last twenty years, human-grade organic pet foods have gained more traction. According to PackagedFacts.com, millennial consumers, ages 18 to 34, are partly responsible for the increase, as they choose to live a more sustainable and holistic lifestyle. As we became more interested in putting cleaner foods into our bodies, our thoughts naturally turned to what we were actually feeding our pets. Many are feeding dogs raw food, going back to the time when the wolf was “top dog.” Questions are still asked: Is it safe? Is it really healthy for our dogs when we’ve been told over and over that it’s not good to feed our dogs “people” food? It all depends on what you’re actually feeding them.

I remember the first day I picked up my German Shepherd, Zu, over six years ago. He was eight weeks old and already weighed nineteen pounds. He was going to be big, and he is: a six-year-old, large-boned, 125-pound protective tank! Since I chose not to have children, my animals are my kids. I knew going in the responsibility

Gentle Giants

Newfoundlands, Newfies, are large, fluffy, and resemble bears. They are known for their sweet temperament. Their sterling character is expressed in their affinity for kids.

Trusting and trainable, “Newfies” respond well to gentle guidance and make great therapy dogs.

Top: Two curious Newfies swimming alongside photographer Hannah Stonehouse Hudson while on location. Bottom right: Izzy, a fiercely independent Cairn Terrier has her humans well trained. Dinner is at 5:20pm! Always happy, always curious. Bottom left: Sadie Sae (pictured) and her sister, Maggie Mae, now have a forever home with Nancy and Dan, founders of Nourish and Flourish. It’s called “double doggie love.” Photo by Nancy Suttles.

If you enjoy baking as much as I do, you can take that first step of providing better nutrition by making your own organic dog treats. The recipes are very simple and basic, a fun project to do with your kids. ~ Morgan Rhodes, Photographer, Food Blogger, and Baker

of having a powerful working dog like Zu, and I also knew that even though he was tested for genetic health issues, there was no guarantee.

I wanted to start early by giving him the best food I could, and the best chance to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

He grew fast. In six months, he was sixty pounds. In seven months, he was seventy pounds. I switched him to adult food in that first year in order to slow down his growth rate, concerned that the development of his joints and hips would suffer long term. Zu is now 45 plus dog years old, in German Shepherd years, depending on the breed and size.

His back right hip joint is not smooth, possibly from genetics or from a growth spurt, and he deals with pain and inflammation. In the early days, I was feeding a mixture of organic dry food with cooked chicken and vegetables. I was still researching dog nutrition, nervous that I might not be giving him the vitamins he needed, so I continued with the dry food. At eight months, he became sick and was rushed to the vet. After a series of tests, it was discovered he was allergic to barley. There are trace amounts of barley, even in a lot of organic, healthy dog foods and treats.

That was the moment it all changed for me, and I began reading every label. Then, when Zu was almost four years old, I began switching him to a raw food diet.

Raw food is not recommended by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Their policy states that raw or undercooked animal-source protein is a public health risk. They are correct in that if you do not handle uncooked meat properly, you can make yourself ill just as you would if you mishandled the meat for your own meals. If your dog licks your child’s face after eating, your child could get germs from the meat. Feeding a raw food diet takes some forethought and food safety skills, but it does not differ from the steps you take to protect yourself. Dogs are carnivores, and their digestive systems are designed 104 Nourish and Flourish

to handle foodborne illnesses that we cannot. There are a lot of warnings out there against feeding a raw diet to dogs, usually followed by “there is no hard evidence that raw meat-based diets are healthier” (AAHA.org).

The pet food industry is a multibillion-dollar business, so there is a real conflict between processed food and feeding basic raw food. More in-depth research is needed, so for now it falls to the pet parent to take into account a veterinarian’s advice and current health of the dog.

I have found success with both a cooked food and raw diet for Zu. It comes down to assessing how much time you can spend, the cost, and how your dog responds to one or the other. I think our dogs grow and change as we do, just faster. What may work at age three may not at age five. At five years old, Zu’s metabolism seemed to slow down (remember yourself at 30?). It’s been a balancing act to find the correct number of calories to coincide with his activity level. I was lucky to find a great local Georgia company that sources local meats and delivers to my house. If you’re interested in feeding a raw food diet, do your research on feeding guidelines for your breed of dog and make sure the food contains the entire animal in the grinding process: bones, liver, muscle, ligaments, etc. Zu’s food is completely ground up with no chance of him choking on tiny raw bones. This process also provides micronutrients essential for good health. Make sure you check with your veterinarian. Many will advise against a raw food diet, but you should still have the conversation at your next checkup.

If you enjoy baking as I do, you can take that first step of providing better nutrition by making your own organic dog treats. The recipes are very simple and basic, a fun project to do with your kids. Treats will last in the refrigerator for two weeks and in the freezer for three months.

They’re great gifts for friends and family, too. Zu loves them, and we think your pets will, too! Zu loves them, we think your pets will, too!

Morgan’s Organic Sweet Potato and Carrot Cookies Ingredients When possible, use all organic ingredients 3 cups oat flour ½ cup boiled or baked sweet potato ½ cup grated carrots 2 eggs ¾ cup water Method Preheat oven to 350˚.

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

In a large bowl, add oat flour, sweet potato, carrots, 1 egg, and water.

Mix well until combined into a ball.

With a rolling pin, roll dough out to ¼ inch in thickness on an oat-floured surface.

Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Whip second egg in a bowl and brush the top of each treat.

Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes, until treats are golden brown. Time will vary depending on your oven. Turn off your oven and allow treats to cool for 1 hour. This will help make them crunchier. If still warm after removing from oven, cool on a wire rack.

Treats can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Recipe and photos by Morgan Rhodes

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Recipe and photos by Morgan Rhodes

Organic Peanut Butter and Oat Dog Treats Ingredients 2 cups oat flour 1 cup rolled oats 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter 1 cup hot water 1 egg (for egg wash) Method Preheat oven to 350˚. Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour water over rolled oats and peanut butter.

Add more oat flour if too wet, more water if too dry. Knead the dough.

Roll out dough into ¼ inch thickness and use cookie cutter to cut out shapes.

Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush each cookie.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Move to a cooling rack or turn off oven and let cookies cool for an hour inside of oven, then move them to a rack.

Treats are good for 2 weeks in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.

Making your own homemade dog treats is healthy for your dog and a great activity for your kids! By controlling what goes into the recipe, you can ensure that your pet is getting a nutritious and wholesome snack. You can also tailor your dog treat recipes to your dog’s taste preferences as well as cater to any dietary restrictions.

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Story Sources: petfoodindustry.com, avma.org, petfoodindustrycom, petfoodinstitute.org, packagedfacts.com, aaha.org

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The Power of Social Media Story and photos by Hannah Stonehouse Hudson

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he universe gives you what you need, sometimes in the oddest ways. In this instance, it was a social media community that took care of me when I needed it most.

It all started in June of 2012 when I told my husband I wanted to take photos of dogs for the rest of my life. He laughed at me and said, “Something very weird will have to happen for that to work.” I had been a wedding photographer for over a decade at that point, and I was getting burnt out. My dream was to make a living taking dog photos, but in a town of 300 people 45 minutes from the nearest “Wally World”, (supercenter) this all seemed very unlikely. Something really weird indeed did have to happen.

Over the next few months, I kept running into a friend of mine with an old dog who reminded me so much of an old dog I had.

My friend John and his dog Schoep were on my daily walks with my dog Scout, and almost every time I ran into them, we talked about doing photos of Schoep. At the end of July 2012, I spoke to John, and he asked me to come down to the beach and take photos of Schoep in the water. He was concerned that he was going to have to put Schoep down the next week due to his arthritis, and he didn’t want to wait any longer for photos. I ran down to the beach, snapped a few photos, and could not believe what I saw: total love and trust in the form of an elderly dog fast asleep on a man’s shoulder while they floated in Lake Superior.

I asked John if I could post a preview to Facebook. He said yes, and very shortly after that (like a few hours after) our lives would change in surprising ways.

Here is the short version of a long story. It became a photo called (at the time) “the most viral photo of all time.”

So much good came from that photo, both from a professional and personal standpoint.

Schoep got another comfortable year of life thanks to people who donated for his care, and I was taken care of in a way that I would

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Everlasting Love I never imagined the tender moment I captured here would eventually go viral and touch the hearts of hundreds of thousands.

~ Hannah Stonehouse Hudson

John Unger would take Schoep, a rescue that he adopted when he was a puppy, into Lake Superior for a few moments each day to help ease the aging dog’s arthritis. Here is testimony to the unconditional love and trust of a man and his best friend.

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have never imagined or expected. A vast virtual community built itself around the photo.

People met online who would not have met otherwise. Virtual groups formed, and in one case, created a project that still exists almost 7 years later. This project creates blankets by sending fleece material from one woman to another (all over the world), and they create the blankets and send them to a shelter of the group’s choice. The photo was on the cover of newspapers and magazines all over the world for months, and I was being interviewed by major TV shows and networks about my photography and my free workshops for animal shelters.

The attention that this photo and the story that surrounded it garnered was a combination of amazing, overwhelming, heartwarming, and slightly frightening. For me personally, my business took a turn that I had wanted but never thought I’d have happen. I was taking photos of dogs because “something really weird had happened.” My husband couldn’t stop laughing that I really was on the way to taking photos of dogs for the rest of my life.

For about four months I was flying all over the United States taking photos of dogs and visiting animal shelters. My phone was ringing off the hook with inquiries and interview requests. I was hired to go as close as Chicago and as far as Seattle. My dream was coming true, and I was in slight shock on some days.

Then the unthinkable happened.

On January 26th, 2013 at 5:30 am my husband Jim kissed me goodbye as I lay in bed. He left to take his clients ice fishing on Lake Superior (he was a successful fishing guide). At about 10:30 am my phone starting ringing off the hook, and I ignored it because I didn’t recognize the number and my life was still chaos from all the publicity the photo had received. I just wanted to catch up on work so I could actually hang out with Jim that night when he returned from fishing.

The phone rang and rang and rang, and I just continued to ignore it.

Then there was a BANG BANG BANG on the front door. I opened it up, and the Bayfield police officer (who, ironically, had replaced Jim on the police force when he retired to become a full-time guide) was standing in front of me pale as a ghost.

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“Your husband went in. It doesn’t look good.”

What he meant was that Jim’s snowmobile had gone through the ice while he was with his clients, and he had spent 45 minutes submerged in the cold water of Lake Superior.

I was driven to our local hospital 45 minutes away and waited for the ambulance to deliver my husband to the ER. When he arrived, I was handed his soaking wet wallet and asked to identify him. I walked into the room as they were doing CPR and confirmed that it was indeed my husband. As a last-ditch effort to save him, they put him on a helicopter to Duluth, MN where there was a higher level trauma center.

You know what I did as he flew away? I posted on Facebook begging my huge virtual community to pray for him. Then I was driven the 2 hours to the hospital in Duluth, and as we made our way there, the doctor called me to let me know they had pronounced him deceased.

The next two weeks before the funeral were a blur. I don’t totally recall everything that occurred, but I do know that people came out to help me and my family in an incredible way with food, fundraisers, and so much love. It was very similar to the things that had happened with the Schoep and John photo. This time, though, it was a combination of the local community and the virtual community.

In the weeks and months following Jim’s death, I could have either hidden in my house and avoided the world, or I could have jumped on a plane to see all of the beautiful people that I met because of the wild popularity of the photo of the man and his dog. So I jumped on a plane and traveled the world taking photos of dogs. Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Belize. I went everywhere with my Canon. I was so thankful for the opportunity to live my dream, and for the people who hired me to do what I do best.

The community that was created because of that image is one that still exists today. Seven years have passed, and though I take fewer dog photos than I did before, it is for a very special reason. The overwhelming chaos of social media when I took that viral photo and when my husband died gave me some particular skills that I now teach to other people and companies. Dealing with social media after a tragic event is not something that I want anyone to have to experience. Social media is now a part of our lives permanently, so I have taken what I learned over the past almost 7 years and created a speaking and consulting business that helps individuals and groups as varied as broadcast organizations, animal shelters, and law enforcement. Without the photo I took and the community that I met because of it, I would not have been able to bounce back so fully from my husband’s death. They took care of me when I needed it most, and now it is my turn to help others with what I learned.

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“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.�

~ Herman Melville

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Photo by Nancy Suttles 112 Nourish and Flourish

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Until Next time Thank you for joining us. We want to leave you with something to ponder until we meet again, in the next edition of Nourish and Flourish.

Were you aware that Fibonacci numbers appear in nature often enough to prove that they reflect some naturally occurring patterns?

You can commonly spot these by studying the manner in which various plants grow.

Introduced to the Western world by a medieval Italian mathematician named Fibonacci in 1202, the number sequence appeared in Indian mathematics as early as 200 BC. Romanesco broccoli demonstrates this pattern and takes the form of a fractal–a complex geometrical shape that looks almost the same at every scale factor. Each stem of broccoli boasts smaller florets that mimic the fractal shape to perfection. Each floret, in turn, is made of even smaller florets of similar shape…and this pattern goes on and on to the tiniest florets. It’s fascinating to think that something like this occurs in nature, let alone on a vegetable. A detailed pattern that goes on repeating itself is rare and certainly a thing of beauty.

Romanesco broccoli is nothing short of a mathematical marvel, reminiscent of the Fibonacci series–a sequence of consecutive numbers that add up to the next number. Here they are: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so on. So how can a piece of broccoli imitate a series of numbers? Simple.

On closer inspection, the Romanesco has a spiral starting from the center point. All the smaller florets are arranged around this spiral. In essence, this is the Fibonacci spiral–a series of arcs with radii that follow the Fibonacci sequence. If you count the number of spirals in each direction, they will always be consecutive Fibonacci numbers.

Here it is: a math lesson on a vegetable–isn’t that amazing? veracitymediagroup.com • nourishandflourish.site

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A special interest publication dedicated to creating authentic content that inspires learning and curiosity.

Better Living Through Smarter Choices.

Photo © 2018 Nancy Suttles

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