Synsepalum dulcificum is the Latin name for Miracle Fruit. The fruit was given its common name because of its effect on the taste buds. It makes everything sweet.

Producers turn it into a powder that you swirl in your mouth before eating other things. When you’ve had it there for a minute or so, the powder on your tongue makes your taste buds ultra sensitive to sugar.

So if, for example, you then ate a grapefruit, it would taste very sweet.

It only works when cool though, so doesn’t make a lot of difference to coffee or other hot drinks or foods.

Have you started gardening for groceries yet?

A Bankrate article suggests that if you plant a garden, you will harvest savings. 

People used to go to places like Home Depot, Lowe's, and garden centers asking for flowers, but these days people are asking for fruit and vegetable plants. 
Source: a TV news report

It sounds like an excellent idea and I am actually quite intrigued.  I am also very afraid.  I have never grown anything edible in my life. 

So what does an amateur who wants to harvest a few fruits and vegetables for the first time do? 

Actually, I did manage to harvest a few chives a couple of summers ago in a pot on the deck, but the output was quite pitiful.  Add to that the fact that I hate bugs, and worms, and dirt, and ants, and well, most outside things. 

If you can't already tell, the idea of gardening for my own produce is quite scary.

There are many reasons why consumers should consider buying locally-grown produce:

For one, when you buy locally grown produce you are investing in your own community.

You are also helping small family farms compete.

Locally-grown produce is also eco-friendly.

The produce you buy at the supermarket is shipped an average of 1500 miles before it ends up on the shelf.

Food that travels so many miles cannot be called sustainable.

Plus, the taste of freshly grown local produce is impossible to beat!

Luckily, vast numbers of Americans are already getting turned on to the benefits of buying local produce.

But what do you do when the harvest is over, winter arrives, and local farms go into hibernation until spring?

With a little old fashioned ingenuity and a few free hours to kill, you can continue to enjoy the benefits of local produce all year long.

What makes this possible is a process known as home canning.

Jim absolutely loves the new way that I've been cooking baby carrots lately.

(And he's on the low-carb diet again, so it's difficult to find vegetables that he's willing to give up some carbs to! Carrots and green beans are good. For example, he can have 16 baby carrots at a cost of 6 carbs.)

These carrots are really quick and really easy. I've adapted this recipe from one I saw Alton Brown using on The Food Network.

Hmmmm...

Do you know where your fruits and vegetables come from?

Here's a confusing scenario I encountered the other day...

Every time Jim gets back from a race, he always says, "You've gotta get Rhonda to explain to you how to slice bananas. She does it in such a way that it's easy to snack on a single banana over time -- without it turning brown."

So, at the races this weekend, (yes, I actually went with Jim for once!) I asked Rhonda to show me.

Here's how it's done...

Wondering when certain fruits and vegetables are in season?...