All posts tagged: fruit

How to keep fruit slices fresh

How to keep fruit slices fresh

Published by skeptic

acidic: An adjective for materials that contain acid. Acidic materials often are capable of dissolving away some minerals such as carbonate, or preventing their formation in the first place. Arctic: A region that falls within the Arctic Circle. The edge of that circle is defined as the northernmost point at which the sun is visible on the northern winter solstice and the southernmost point at which the midnight sun can be seen on the northern summer solstice. The high Arctic is that most northerly third of this region. It’s a region dominated by snow cover much of the year. average: (in science) A term for the arithmetic mean, which is the sum of a group of numbers that is then divided by the size of the group. axis: (in mathematics) The line to the side or bottom of a graph. It is labeled to explain the graph’s meaning and the units of measurement. cell: (in biology) The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists …

Crypto mogul eats banana he bought for .2 million and offers to buy 100,000 more from fruit vendor

Crypto mogul eats banana he bought for $6.2 million and offers to buy 100,000 more from fruit vendor

Published by skeptic

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more The crypto entrepreneur who bought a banana duct-taped to a wall for $6.2 million last week has eaten it. Justin Sun knew he wasn’t meant to eat the banana when he originally purchased it. Yet, in a room filled with media personnel at a hotel in Hong Kong, the 34-year-old TRON cryptocurrency founder swallowed the banana like it was any other. Before taking a bite, Sun sang the praises of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, arguing conceptual art was similar to cryptocurrency as he described the banana as “iconic.” “It’s much better than other bananas,” Sun proclaimed. “It’s really quite good.” Cattelan, 64, debuted the artwork at Art Basel in Miami, Florida, in 2019, titling it “Comedian.” The banana, which was regarded as “the most …

Somerset’s growing cycle network bears fruit: a ride on the Strawberry Line | Cycling holidays

Somerset’s growing cycle network bears fruit: a ride on the Strawberry Line | Cycling holidays

Published by skeptic

It’s a noise the former railway tunnel probably hadn’t heard in a while. Somewhere in the dark is a hooting part-owl, part-forlorn steam train. My sister Ele has stopped on her bike to blow determinedly across her cupped hands like a flute. As she recreates this long-gone sound, I pedal on through the cool, damp air. Water drips steadily from the stalactite-coated brickwork as my front light illuminates pedestrians and their dogs looming from the echoing shadows. We are cycling the Strawberry Line, a 10.75-mile, mostly off-road cycling and walking route from Yatton to Cheddar in north Somerset, on a sunny spring morning. White blackthorn flowers blossom in the hedges, and puddles splatter us with brick-coloured mud. I always love the thought that this rich red soil was formed when Britain basked close to the equator, before migrating north, along with Europe and North America. North Somerset cycle map The Strawberry Line was named after the fruit the former railway carried from this fertile red soil to London, via the Somerset and Dorset line. It …

Microsoft Reports Rising Revenues as A.I. Investments Bear Fruit

Microsoft Reports Rising Revenues as A.I. Investments Bear Fruit

Published by skeptic

Microsoft gave more signs on Thursday that its hefty investments in artificial intelligence were beginning to bear fruit, as it reported a 17 percent jump in revenue and a 20 percent increase in profit for the first three months of the year. Revenue was $61.9 billion, up from $52.9 billion a year earlier. Profit hit $21.9 billion, up from $18.3 billion. The results beat Wall Street’s expectations. A year after Microsoft began its push to put A.I. into everything it does, the company said sales of its flagship cloud computing product, Azure, had grown 31 percent. More than a fifth of that growth came from its generative A.I. services, which include selling access to technology developed by its partner, OpenAI. In recent quarters, Microsoft’s A.I. push has helped it gain market share from Amazon, the leading cloud services provider. In January, the company said 53,000 customers were using its cloud A.I. services, with a third of them new to Azure. “Azure has become a port of call for pretty much anybody who is doing any …

Sweet and savoury baking recipes for April and May’s seasonal fruit and veg

Sweet and savoury baking recipes for April and May’s seasonal fruit and veg

Published by Sam

Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Seasonal food is fresher, tastier and more nutritious, having used less pesticides, preservatives and chemicals. Eating seasonal, local food is also better for the environment, having travelled less and contributing less to greenhouse gasses produced from food production and transport. With Earth Day fast approaching on 22 April, it’s the perfect time to focus on cooking with ingredients that are food for us and the planet. These recipes make the most of the fruit and veg in season this April and May – asparagus, spinach, lemon and rhubarb. Cheese muffins with sweetcorn and spinach Easily whipped up in five steps (FAB Flour) Makes: 12 muffins Ingredients: 175g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 150g pre-grated cheese 50g baby spinach, shredded 100g tinned sweetcorn, drained 2 eggs 150g unsalted butter, melted 150ml milk Equipment: Mixing bowl Wooden spoon Muffin tin Muffin cases x 12 Measuring spoons Method: 1. Preheat the oven to 180C. …

New Zealanders Are Crazy for This Fruit. It’s Not the Kiwi.

New Zealanders Are Crazy for This Fruit. It’s Not the Kiwi.

Published by Sam

Autumn in New Zealand heralds the arrival of a green, egg-size fruit that falls off trees in such abundance that it is often given to neighbors and colleagues by the bucket or even the wheelbarrow load. Only in cases of extreme desperation do people buy any. The fresh fruit, whose flesh is gritty, jellylike and cream-colored, is used in muffins, cakes, jams and smoothies, and it begins appearing on high-end menus each March — the start of fall in the Southern Hemisphere. Off-season, it is found in food and drink as varied as juices and wine, yogurt and kombucha, and chocolate and popcorn. This ubiquitous fruit is the feijoa (pronounced fee-jo-ah). Known in the United States as the pineapple guava, it was first brought to New Zealand from South America via France and California in the early 1900s. Its tangy taste is hard to describe, even for die-hard fans. But what is easy to pinpoint is that like the kiwi fruit, which originated in China, and the kiwi, a native bird, the feijoa has become …

The Fruit that Spread Round the World

The Fruit that Spread Round the World

Published by skeptic

  It is hard to imagine cuisine from the Mediterranean without tomatoes, but this is exactly how it was before the Spanish conquest of the New World and all the new and strange foodstuffs that the Spanish brought back with them to Europe.   Long before Europeans had any notion of such a thing as a tomato, however, the people of Central America were eating this fruit.   Today, the tomato is a culinary staple, used in food preparation around the entire world. It has become symbolic of national dishes and is an essential ingredient to so many dishes that a world without it is barely conceivable.   This is the history of the tomato.   Pre-Columbian History of the Tomato Wild Galapagos Tomatoes (Solanum cheesmaniae). Source: Terroir Seeds   Get the latest articles delivered to your inbox Sign up to our Free Weekly Newsletter Please check your inbox to activate your subscription Thank you! The tomato is native to the western half of South and Central America, and it was likely consumed by the …

Applejuicification: why the fruit is found in so many mixed juices | Fruit

Applejuicification: why the fruit is found in so many mixed juices | Fruit

Published by skeptic

Last week, an X user shocked the internet in a viral thread by pointing out that most mixed juices and smoothies are mainly made from apples. The post looked at 13 juices in a supermarket aisle, noting that the majority were made with 50% apple juice or more, despite not having any apple in the name. It was described as “applejuiceification and the illusion of choice”. What is applejuicification? The examples used in the X thread include a Naked passion fruit, mango, and guava smoothie with 62% apple juice. Also, an Innocent pink dragon fruit and lychee drink made from 70% apple juice. The British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) said adding apple juice like this was common practice. It said: “It’s worth highlighting that juice and smoothies provide a range of vitamin and nutritional benefits in a convenient format for many consumers.” Why is it done? The BSDA said it was primarily used to balance the flavour. It said: “Apples have a delicate taste and natural sweetness that can help balance the profile of smaller …

Too Few Americans Are Eating a Remarkable Fruit

Too Few Americans Are Eating a Remarkable Fruit

Published by skeptic

Someplace in the lush backroads of San Sebastián, in western Puerto Rico, my friend Carina pulled the car over. At a crest in the road stood a breadfruit tree, full of basketball-size, lime-green fruits, knobbled and prehistoric, like a dinosaur egg covered in ostrich leather. One had recently fallen. I jumped out to scoop it up, thinking about the breadfruit tostones we would make that afternoon. We’d fry chunks of the white, spongy flesh, then smash them with the back of a cast-iron pan, then fry them again. In a wooden pilón, Carina would pound garlic and oil with oregano brujo, a pungent weedy plant in the mint family, and spoon the sauce over the frittered discs. For me, little in this world is above a breadfruit tostone, crisp and flaky on the outside, creamy on the inside. My mouth is watering writing this paragraph. In Puerto Rico, the word for breadfruit is panapén, almost always shortened to pana, which is also the word for your close friend, your crew, your people. Breadfruit trees feel …

What your fruit bowl reveals about climate breakdown

What your fruit bowl reveals about climate breakdown

Published by skeptic

Spring arrived in style on March 26 2021 in Kyoto, Japan, as cherry trees reached the peak of their bloom. This marked the earliest recorded date when most flowers have opened in a series of annual records dating back to 812 AD – over 1,200 years. The culprit is climate change. Milder, wetter winters and warmer springs coupled with increasingly variable weather have caused blossom dates to advance across growing regions and a variety of fruit trees. While this might scupper the travel plans of those hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous cherry blossom in Japan, changing blossom dates are causing a much larger headache for those in charge of over 40 million hectares of fruit orchards worldwide. Fruit trees have a complex relationship with the climate. In winter, trees need a period of cold weather (known as chill accumulation) to exit their dormant winter state and resume growth. This is followed by a period of warm weather (known as heat accumulation) which is necessary to produce blossoms in spring. The amount of …