Local Food
What if just one agency was in charge of food safety?
Walking through the warehouse of food processor Heartland Gourmet in Lincoln, Neb., shows how complicated the food safety system can be. Pallets are stacked with sacks of potato flour and the smell of fresh baked apple-cinnamon muffins is in the air. Heartland Gourmet makes a wide range of foods from muffins and organic baking mixes…
Art to taste and touch (and talk about)
Kernza is as close as we have to a local wheat celebrity. But if you’re not a baker, there’s a good chance you may not have heard of the perennial wheat that was developed by The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Now, the grain is part of a new exhibit combining science, baking, art, and conversation.
Bringing new light to an underground speakeasy
It’s easy to miss John Brown’s Underground, and that’s kind of the point. The eight-month old speakeasy is just a block off Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas. But there’s no sign to point the way and the entrance is below sidewalk level. “Speakeasies were illegal. They brought in all different types of people. There’s no…
The Kansas summer-meals program isn’t reaching enough children. Some advocates are working to change that.
The state of Kansas and four nonprofit organizations are seeking federal approval to conduct an experiment that they hope will boost participation in a summer meals program that now is serving only a fraction of eligible children. Led by the Kansas State Department of Education, the coalition is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily waive some rules so that it can conduct a demonstration project to feed needy children in rural parts of the state when school is out for the summer.
The labels on the meat you eat
You’ve probably seen, but may not have noticed, labels on the meat at your grocery store that say something like “Born, Raised, & Harvest in the U.S.A.” or “Born and Raised in Canada, Slaughtered in the U.S.” These country of origin labels, as they are known, are part of an ongoing international trade dispute that has swept up Midwest ranchers. And they may not be long for store shelves.
A Neapolitan transformation in a KC River Market space
Over the past several months, Erik Borger has fashioned rebar and reclaimed wood into chairs and put up hundreds of white subway tiles on the bar and pizza oven counter. As the whine of a drill on a door hinge competes with the rhythmic thumping of the streetcar project outside, Borger is busy measuring and taping out a wall for a large diamond-shaped mirror that will hang above the 30 beer tap handles behind Il Lazzarone’s bar.
Farmers waiting, watching and weighing the options on Farm Bill ‘menu’
Across the Corn Belt, farmers are signing up for Farm Bill support programs and which ones they choose will impact the overall price tag for taxpayers. Projections for the cost of these commodity programs are blowing past the amounts originally budgeted just a year ago, when the Farm Bill was enacted, leaving the possibility that U.S….
The loophole behind Monsanto’s new product
Monsanto’s reaction to superweeds? To supersize its Roundup Ready product line. An interesting story by our pals over at the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting explains that Monsanto is getting ready to launch a new version of its popular genetically-modified seed line. This one is dubbed Roundup Ready Xtend, cotton and soybean seeds set to counter the so-called superweeds that have grown resistant to herbicides.
A Kansas chef with an unlikely specialty: cheesecake
Cowtown Cheesecake Co., in Bonner Springs, Kansas, brings innovative ingredients and an eclectic food sense to a classic dessert.
King cake and ‘bayou bites’ – bringing New Orleans tastes to KC
It’s the Wednesday before Fat Tuesday and the prep area for Lanmou Chocolates is rapidly filling with sweets. The new company, co-owned by Goellner (who also owns Natasha’s Mulberry & Mott) and Megan Piel, is getting ready to celebrate its first Mardi Gras in KC.