Yam intervention

I’m sure this conversation takes place in kitchens around the country at this time of year as it did in ours today:

my dad: “These [sweet potatoes] look good. I usually like yams better”

me, sounding like Lisa Simpson: “Well you know, the yams we get are really just a different kind of sweet potatoes.”

Discussion ensues.

me: “I think you can only get *real* yams in Africa.”

Jeff: “I thought they brought them from Polynesia.”

Turns out I was wrong about the Africa thing–according to the Wikipedia article about yams they are commonly available in most of the rest of the world though African countries, particularly Nigeria, are some of the largest producers of yams. They are definitely eaten in Polynesia too, though it sounds like sweet potatoes are popular there as well.

Should you need to educate others about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams you might find the sweet potato awareness flyer(.pdf) from sweetpotatoawareness.org useful. Next year I will be prepared.

Organic mushrooms: do they really need fungicide on a fungus?

Tonight we had the mushroom soft tacos with succotash for dinner (and let me just add that they were awesome! and Jeff ate six!) As I chopped the pound of mushrooms it called for, it occurred to me that tonight’s post would be a good excuse to look into something that I’ve been wondering about recently.

One thing I have always felt a little silly buying at the grocery store are organic mushrooms. In fact, if they had conventionally grown ones at my natural foods store I probably would have chosen those instead, but they don’t. I assumed that organic mushrooms simply meant they were grown in organic matter. I mean, mushrooms don’t get pests, do they?

Turns out they must. Mushrooms are right in the middle of the list of produce tested to have pesticide residues published by the Environmental Working Group, the folks that brought us the “dirty dozen (.pdf).” Interestingly, in California one of the most common pesticides used on mushrooms is Thiabendazole, a fungicide.

I’m not sharing this to convince anyone else they should be buying organic mushrooms, but because I was feeling a little gullible for buying them myself. I’m happy to know there is an actual difference in the growing conditions of the organic mushrooms compared to the conventional ones. What difference does it make? Sounds like the topic of another post!

Beets get a bad rap

Uh oh. I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers when Bush 1 declared his dislike for broccoli. Now we have a report that Barack Obama “avoid[s]” beets. I hope this isn’t a bad omen for this rosiest of vegetables.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, people tend to have an opinion about beets. Even in our mostly adventurous group of dinner partiers about half were non-beet-eaters, so the person bringing the “beet” salad went ahead and made it with more favored vegetables; the horseradish dressing, I’m happy to report, was fabulous on the vegetables she selected.

Now even though I love broccoli, I know that it can be absolutely disgusting if overcooked. Heck, Dr. Hibbert claims broccoli is one of the deadliest plants on earth. Beets, on the other hand, have yet to show me a bad side. I even love them pickled, though I can understand how those might not be for everyone. What is it that turns people off beets? I know they can have some mildly disconcerting after-effects, but that can’t be the only problem, can it?

Beet haters: what’s the deal? Have you gone beyond the can? Have you tried Ukrainian borscht with a slice of challah from Veselka or roasted beets to mix with soft chevre? What turns you off? (And of course I’ll eat your serving, but you’re missing out!)

And they even serve soup at the end

Making a carrot into a flute is much cooler than making one into a pipe. Not that I would know. If the above video doesn’t totally satisfy your vegetable music desires, check out this guy’s videos too.