by Zac Sarian   –   Manila Bulletin

We visited the open house at the Allied Botanical Corporation’s experimental farm three days before it opened. We wanted to be the first to see what’s new in high-value vegetables and other crops.

We were not disappointed. We were particularly impressed by Clarabel, the new sweet pepper which farm manager Herlo Atole called the poor man’s sweet pepper.

Why poor man’s sweet pepper? Because it is a variety that even the poor farmer can afford to grow. It is very adaptable to lowland as well as highland conditions all over the country and can be grown even in the rainy season because it has high tolerance against soil-borne and foliage diseases compared to other varieties.

Clarabel is prolific but Herlo stresses that the plant has to be adequately nourished to achieve the variety’s yield potential. Right from the very start the plant should take off as robust as possible. The soil should have good tilth and Clarabel has to be fertilized adequately.

Aside from the usual NPK, the plants should be provided with enough calcium by dissolving 10 grams of calcium nitrate in a liter of water and drenching it on each plant. If the plants are given the right care, the first fruits are usually harvestable 90 days from transplanting.

Three big fruits are usually picked during the first picking. Two to three days later, about 8 to 10 fruits would also be ready for harvesting. The next harvesting will usually take place a week later. The fruits usually weigh 100 to 120 grams. They are thick-fleshed and crisp with very good shipping quality. According to Herlo, one can expect to harvest 10 times from each plant.

Herlo recommends planting the seedlings in double rows. In a bed that is one meter wide, two rows are planted 75 cm apart. Within the row, the plants are spaced 50 cm apart. Space between the double rows is also 75 centimeters.

Herlo observes that planting in double rows is advantageous but most farmers often prefer single rows. The farmers believe that they can plant more seedlings by following the single row system. That’s true, according to Herlo, but with double rows, there is more space for the farmer to move around while doing weeding, fertilizing and harvesting. That results in better quality fruits that fetch a higher price.

PANIGANG BEST – We were also impressed by the prolificacy of the Panigang Best finger pepper. The plant is not only  very prolific, the fruits also have very good shipping quality.

LEBANESE CUCUMBER – Another very interesting new variety is the Addison cucumber which is more popularly called Lebanese cucumber. This variety is unique in a number of ways. The fruits are extra-long, many of them measuring one foot long. The fruits are seedless, crisp and juicy, hence they are excellent for making cucumber juice. Of course, the fruits can also be prepared in various other preparations.

Another unique characteristic is that the Lebanese cucumber does not need any pollinator. It is what they call parthenocarpic. The female flowers appear in practically every node and they don’t need the bees and other insects to pollinate them.

One high-value crop that also attracted us was the Golden Lady watermelon which has a bright yellow rind and crimson red flesh that is sweet and juicy. Two other varieties are also showcased in the farm. One is the Yellissimo which has green rind with deep yellow flesh. And the third watermelon is called Mellow Yellow which is not seedy and the plant is resistant to leaf diseases.

Read more at http://www.mb.com.ph/poor-farmerssweet-pepperis-productive/#Wg3hJOetyGsTTFIk.99

All-New Spicy Jalapeño Ranch Flavor Heats Up Snack Time Nationwide

As the demand for spicy snacks grows, America’s favorite ready-to-eat popcorn brand has answered the call with the launch of Smartfood Spicy Jalapeño Ranch Popcorn. The all-new popcorn flavor combines the spice from jalapenos with a cool and creamy finish for an unforgettable taste. With 100 percent whole grains, a light and airy crunch and just the right amount of heat, this popcorn will be a snacking staple for spice lovers everywhere.

Recent studies have shown many consumers rank “spicy” among their top three flavor preferences.¹ Recognizing this growing trend for more vibrant flavors and ingredients, the Smartfood team developed Spicy Jalapeño Ranch to offer consumers a bold and versatile flavor with a kick. Those newly exploring their palette’s tolerance for spice need not worry – every kernel perfectly pairs the heat of jalapeños with the rich zesty flavor of ranch.

“The flavor experts on the Smartfood team are continually inspired by new flavor trends and keep exploring new recipes to reflect consumers ever evolving taste,” said Tyler Chapman, vice president of Marketing, Smartfood Popcorn. “We are thrilled to introduce the new Spicy Jalapeño Ranch flavor and provide our customers with a delicious and mouth-watering option for those moments when they want a bit more heat.”

The Smartfood brand has a long-standing commitment to using only the high-quality, carefully selected and premium ingredients. The all-new Spicy Jalapeño Ranch flavor is no different, containing no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Air popped and ready-to-eat, Smartfood Spicy Jalapeño Ranch contains 150 calories per serving, making it an easy snacking choice whenever you want to spice things up.

Spicy Jalapeño Ranch joins a growing portfolio of Smartfood Popcorn flavor offerings that include White Cheddar Cheese, Movie Theater Butter and Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn.

Smartfood Spicy Jalapeño Ranch is available in multiple sizes for all of your snacking needs whether on-the-go or entertaining at home.

By STUART WINTER   –   EXPRESS

The search for Pickle the puppy has become an internet sensation as animal lovers attempt to reunite her with her heartbroken owner.

Adele Rowley’s pleas for Pickle’s return have gone viral on social media with photographs and videos showing the cute and fun-loving pet.

Pickle was stolen on January 25 when burglars struck at Adele’s home in West Horndon, Essex. Besides taking the nine-week-old puppy, they also stole her Range Rover Sport which was later used in a ram raid 60 miles away in Bedfordshire.

Essex Police have put out an appeal to recover Pickle and a “wanted poster” has been put online by DogLost.co.uk.

Adele has also released a video showing Pickle with her other three year old Maltese Terrier.

“I’ve only had Pickle a week but have grown really attached to her,” said Adele.

“My other dog is missing her, too.  Her tail has been down since she was taken.

“I just can’t understand why someone would take Pickle and I need to know she is being fed and looked after.

“Pickle is such a beautiful character. She is very loving and enjoys being cuddled.

“She was called Pickle almost a year before we got her because she was going to be our ‘Ickle Pickle’.

“The people who stole her are just the low life, scum of the earth. Why take a defenseless, little baby with no knowledge if she needed special food or medication or had other needs?

“Please help share our appeal and if you know anything, please do the right thing and call the police.”

• Anyone with information is asked to call Pc Paul Burnett at Brentwood police station on 101. Information can also be passed to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

By Justin Caba   –   Medical Daily

From consuming human breastmilk to taking creatine supplements with “meth-like” ingredients, some gym rats will cut every corner available in the pursuit of a perfect beach bod. Unfortunately, cutting some of those corners could mean jeopardizing their health. Luckily, there are some natural products available for the supplement-shy, including pickle juice. With the help of The Pickle Juice Company, I decided to test the effectiveness of this briny beverage on my exercise recovery.

Muscle Cramps

If you’ve ever dealt with muscles cramps, then you know they’re awful. Every athlete has dealt with a sudden and involuntary contraction of their muscles. I know I still shudder at the term, “Charley Horse.” It can happen after a workout, in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of your workout. Muscle cramps are generally harmless, but don’t expect to be using the affected muscle group at your next workout.

Muscle cramps tend to be the result of long periods of exercise or physical labor, especially when performed in hot weather. The majority of muscle cramps develop in our leg muscles, making running a nearly impossible feat. This brings us to where pickle juice popularity all started: The Philadelphia Eagles opening game of the 2000 season against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Pickle Juice Game

Dallas is well known for its scorching temperatures and dry heat. Teams that go to play in Texas and places with similar temperatures are advised to make sure they are well hydrated before kickoff. In the preseason build-up to this meeting against their divisional rival, the Eagles training staff had begun experimenting with a new supplement that they thought could stop muscle cramps in their tracks. The players were understandably skeptical, but with temperatures reaching 109 degrees at kickoff, they decided to give it a shot.

So, how did the Eagles’ secret weapon work out in the end? The game ended in a 41-14 rout in favor of the Eagles. In what would be considered the hottest game in NFL history at the time, the Eagles offense held the ball for 39 minutes and 30 seconds while taking up nearly two-thirds of the game clock. Eagles running back Duce Staley earned 201 rushing yards on top of 61 receiving yards. Not one player was forced to sit out for even a single play due to muscle cramps.

Pennsylvania Governor at the time Edward G. Rendell likened the effectiveness of this new pickle juice supplements to a placebo effect. Little did he know there was actual science to back up pickle juice’s physiological effect on muscle cramps.

My Muscle Cramp Conundrum

Believe it or not, I was a college athlete for a time, (lacrosse), and muscle cramps on a daily basis were all too real. Let me set the scene: You just get out of a two hour-long practice that consisted of mainly running. You’re sitting on your couch trying to decompress and watch SportsCenter when BAM! One of your legs seizes up and you go crashing to the floor with a muscle that feels like it’s being choked to death. After 10 minutes of keeping your leg as straight as possible, the cramp finally subsides, but you’re left feeling like someone just gave you a dead leg.

I thought my muscle cramp days were over after I graduated college, but I was wrong. With no organized sports to keep my body in check, I turned to weightlifting and cardio to stay fit. A few muscle cramps after especially long and tiresome workouts have turned into something that hinder my exercise routine on a weekly basis. I’ve always been good about staying hydrated, and at the age of 25, I thought I had a couple more years before my body started to fail me.

Aside from dehydration, muscle cramps can be caused by a variety of different factors, including overuse of muscles, muscle strain, holding a position for too long, or an underlying medical condition. Although these are all causes for muscle cramps, scientists are still trying to figure out the exact physiological cause of cramping. Dehydration and the depletion of minerals, such as  potassium and calcium, are seen as the biggest contributors to muscle cramps so I figured, besides drinking water, there’s nothing I can do to remedy this little predicament.

My Pickle Juice Plan

I was content with ignoring the pain, drinking a lot of water, and dealing with muscle cramps as they presented themselves. Then one day I got an email from The Pickle Juice Companyasking me if I would like to try a supplement I had never even considered, but was sitting in my own refrigerator. With the promise of no artificial ingredients and 10 times more electrolytes than your average sports drink, I decided to give it a shot. After all, I’ve done some outlandish stuff in the past in the name of fitness, and this had a lot of scientific backing.

One study conducted by researchers from the Department of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Science at North Dakota State University asked a group of male college students to bike until the point of mild dehydration which induced toe cramps that lasted an average of two minutes and 30 seconds. Participants who were given the brine at the bottom of a pickle jar had their cramps alleviated within 85 seconds of consumption. This was 37 percent faster than participants given water and 45 percent faster than participants who didn’t drink anything.

Following a little bit of research and taste testing to see if I could stomach the briny juice (I could), I decided to go 10 days of using 100% Natural Pickle Juice Sport either before or during my workouts and 10 days without any pickle juice. Full disclosure: I expected to use pickle juice for 10 days and maybe see some changes toward the end. No one was more surprised than me when it actually started working on the very first workout.

The Results

After my first cramp-less day, I looked at the nutritional labeling to find out what this magical elixir was made of. Ingredients: Purified Water, Vinegar, Natural Flavor, Potassium, Zinc, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E. Nothing out of the ordinary, so what was the groundbreaking ingredient they included? Muscle cramps are fundamentally the result of sodium and potassium levels becoming out of whack, so potassium as a main ingredient made sense. But what about vinegar? That’s when I did some more digging and found that, in addition to hydration, pickle juice was actually tricking my body into not cramping. The vinegar in pickle juice can actually block the neurological signal that triggers muscle cramps.

Even though I used the 100% Natural Pickle Juice Sport product and swear by its benefits, there’s good news for people who shy away from buying workout supplements, or are skeptical of their safety. If you want to give pickle juice a try as a workout supplement because water and Gatorade just aren’t cutting it, try buying a jar of pickles, eating them all, draining out the brine, and drinking it. You can also tailor your workout to prevent cramps by starting off light and adding in the tough exercises toward the end. You may still cramp up and need pickle juice to prevent the dreaded post-workout Charley Horse, but cramps won’t ruin your workout.

By Blythe Pelham   –   Mother Earth News

Tags: chili, recipes, peppers, seed saving, drying, Blythe Pelham, Ohio

While I’ve never tried that old foot-warmer recipe of adding hot chili powder to my shoes, I can attest to the heat some peppers can rub off on us. I found this out the hard way a couple of decades ago.

I grew some jalapenos next to my sweet bell peppers. I’d been improperly informed that they wouldn’t cross-pollinate. The truth hit my bare hands when I was chopping a tainted green bell for some fresh salsa and ended up with my hands burning until the next morning. Suffice it to say, I have not repeated that particular mistake. My sweet peppers are now always grown some distance from any containing heat.

I have friends and relatives who swear their appetite for hot peppers keeps them healthy. They insist no germ in its right mind will reside in the same body as one cleansed with heat. While I’m not sure there is science to back this up, I do vividly remember my dad downing a bowl of jalapenos every time we went out for Mexican food. I also remember him turning bright red with sweat beading up on his forehead every single time.

I remain unconvinced that I would enjoy such an experience. For me, eating is for pleasure and savoring taste sensations. I also believe our shared healthy constitutions are more due to strong genes, not necessarily his consumption of jalapenos.

Because I love to taste the textures and flavors of my food, I tend to walk away from the heat of peppers that obliterate everything else in the dish. This preference for steering clear of spicy heat is what made our youngest ask me throughout this past season why I grew several varieties of hot pepper that I refused to try. Laughingly, I explained that it was to see if I could. I also like the challenge of figuring out what to do with them once harvested.

I gave many away to friends and family who love hot peppers. I also dried them (see top photo, left side), and ground them into powders for future usage (bottom photo, middle row, jars). I roasted some for freezing, though those pictured (top right) are sweet, red cupid peppers. And I tried something new for me—I fermented them. By the way, you may notice blue painters tape in some of the photos. This is absolutely my go-to item for labeling because it can be moved from container to container during the fermenting process.

I served the fermented, super-hot Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce with our appetizer tamales at ThanksGaia (the name I use for Thanksgiving). There were a few brave souls who tested it — some deemed it too hot, others took some home. I didn’t touch the stuff.

Side note (yet more repurposing, covered in last week’s blog post): I also save my pepper seeds, drying them on old, expandable window screens (if you look carefully, you can see one as background of the right side of the bottom photo). I keep them carefully separated and labeled, then package them with labels until it’s time to start my seedlings—and the cycle begins again.

I wanted to work up a recipe to share that was quick, easy, and used some of my new pepper creations. When ending a busy and productive day, I love a recipe with healthy ingredients that can be thrown together and ready to eat in minutes.

I am definitely one who likes to use what I have on hand rather than having to find and ferret away some obscure, fancy ingredient that exists only in specialty stores in big cities or online. I urge you to substitute at will if you haven’t preserved your own hot peppers this past year.

30-Minute Chili Recipe

1. Brown and crumble in your pot:
• 3 sausage patties (optional)
• 1/2-1 lb lean ground beef

2. Add, saute, and stir in completely:
• 2 tsp garlic, chopped (a couple of cloves… more if you prefer)
• 2 tsp granulated onion (or ½ fresh chopped onion… more if you prefer)

3. Add and warm through on simmer (about ten minutes):
• 2-15oz cans of beans (I love using one can of organic black beans)
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 pint salsa (this was my homemade mild salsa… if you’re using store-bought, I suggest using a brand without added sugar)
• 1/4 cup fermented Numex pepper sauce (I used my own slightly hot sauce, a can of diced chiles or jalapenos could be substituted)

Salt, pepper, and chili pepper to taste

Serves 2

Optional:
1. Top with grated cheese, sour cream, dab of salsa, and sprig of cilantro or sliced avocado
2. Serve with cornbread—I make a gluten-free version, but that’s another story
3. Great paired with Oktoberfest beer

If you are so inclined, use this article as a reason to venture into an area of gardening or cooking that you haven’t yet tried. I know I’ll be fermenting peppers again. I also have a few new varieties to check out, thanks to participating in the seed exchange. Bring on the fun and adventure!

Photos by Blythe Pelham

Blythe Pelham is an artist that aims to enable others to find their grounding through energy work. She is in the midst of writing a cookbook and will occasionally share bits in her blogging here. She writes, gardens and cooks in Ohio. Find her online at Humings and Being Blythe, and read all of her MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here.