Food

An international research panel recommends cutting in half the global harvest of small, schooling fish like sardines, anchovy and herring. The group included researchers from the Northwest.

The panel estimates little fish are roughly twice as valuable in the sea as in the net because so many larger sea creatures prey on them.

Oregon State University professor Selina Heppell co-authored the study. She's proud to say the sardine and mackerel fisheries on the U.S. West Coast are already managed quite conservatively.

Here's some good news about Americans' diets: Most of us are getting sufficient amounts of key vitamins and minerals. That's the finding of a nutrition report just out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Vitamins A and D, folate, iron and iodine are just a few of the nutrients assessed in the nationwide survey, which uses data collected between 1999 and 2006. Overall, less than 10 percent of the population appeared deficient in each nutrient.

Community supported agriculture sounds so simple. Support a local farm, get to know your farmer, enjoy weekly deliveries of fresh produce, and rest easy knowing that you've voted for the local economy with your food dollars.

In this week's Food for Thought, Nancy talks about her chicken pot pie recipe and I pile in with an abbreviated list of the things I think  I make the best of. We also recruited KPLU newsies Paula Wissel and Erin Hennessey along with production maven Nick Morrison to brag on what  their significant others say are their culinary triumphs.  

Click where it says "Listen" to hear all about it.

For most of American history, early spring meant a feast of shad. That tradition has faded, but young chefs are trying to slip the ritual back onto plates.

The earliest Americans from from Florida to Nova Scotia caught shad by the basketful as they swam back from the sea to spawn in their home rivers. The fresh, silvery fish was most certainly a delight after winter's dreary fare. The American shad's Latin name is clue to its allure: Alosa sapadissima, or most delicious herring.

Well, optional for you maybe.  Me, I like a nice hunk of bacon nestled in there with some slow-cooked collards.  I got  turned on to eating them with a few shakes of the hot pepper vinegar  on the counter at Lamar's, a greasy spoon I used to frequent in Biloxi.

Disease outbreaks with imported foods are on the rise, and fish and spices are the foods most likely to cause problems.

It's not that imported foods are any nastier than home-grown, according to a presentation today from researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's that we're eating a lot more of them.

Sure, the traditional St. Patrick's  Day dinner all over the world is corned beef and cabbage.  But not in Ireland.  So what do the Irish in Ireland eat on March 17th?

This Monday, March 12th, in honor the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts and the 95th anniversary of Girl Scout cookies, I will eat an entire carton of Thin Mints. Sure, I could do more. I could eat two cartons.

An airplane mechanic from Auburn has won the top prize in the Great American SPAM Championship.

41-year old Jason Munson's Mini Maple SPAM Doughnuts won a blue ribbon last September at the Puyallup Fair. His recipe went on to the national competition, where this week it beat out 800 other entries for the top honors.