vegetables

No green thumb needed for Click and Grow plants

The ability to reach out and pluck fruits and vegetables off of a nearby branch, for many, is an unrealistic dream. Yet fresh food that is grown nearby continues to be a desirable commodity. As well it should; food that is fresh is far superior to that which has been hanging around during transport or otherwise. As delicious as freshly picked food may be, the hurdle of actually growing it is not one to be ignored. Unless of course, the whole process is automated.

Two new self-monitoring plant kits have been added to the Click and Grow kitchen countertop grove. … Read more

Click and Grow lets you benignly neglect your plants

These days a lot of life is programmable. But as an avid gardener, I thought that surely nurturing seeds into little green shoots and then full-fledged fruits and flowers would require a nondigital green digit for years to come.

I was wrong. Plants, it turns out, can be activated.

A battery-powered planter pot called Click and Grow out of Estonia lets you grow real, living plants almost without lifting a finger. Even the vernacular around gardening comes fully updated -- sowing a seed can now be described as "inserting a cartridge," watering the soil is "refilling the … Read more

Volkswagen Rabbit runs on vegetable oil?

As we've seen a little bit of this week, old school Volkswagen Rabbit owners can get creative in terms of maintaining their bunny cars. In today's video we observe a Rabbit owner who describes how he runs his bunny on vegetable oil. Really? Let's see...

The narrator walks us through the two-tank setup running in waste vegetable oil along with the diesel fuel that this VW Rabbit is designed to take. The narrator does an excellent job in describing step by step how the process works and all the car parts involved in making this process happen. … Read more

Vegetative patients show brain activity, awareness

It all started in 2006, when researchers were studying a young woman considered to be in a vegetative state. Using MRI to scan her brain, they asked her to imagine herself playing tennis and touring her own home, and found that her brain behaved in much the way a normally functioning brain does.

The neuroscientists were shocked into action as news of what may have only been an anomaly prompted families to ask that the researchers study their own loved ones, too.

One of the neuroscientists, Adrian Owen at the University of Cambridge, alongside colleagues at the University of Liege … Read more

A gadget that will ap-'peel' to your inner clean freak

Though it's no secret that vegetables are healthier for you when left intact, peeling them is a necessary part of cooking. And though I don't mind peeling my carrots and potatoes, I detest getting rid of the peels. Because my sink is devoid of a garbage disposal, I get to complete the unpleasant task of scooping the stringy outer skins by hand into the trash.

But there's a gadget on the market that will make life a bit easier for those of us without in-sink disposal methods. The Veggie Peel solves the pesky peel problem by embedding … Read more

A good grip and a good cleaning

I like buying my produce from the local farmer's market, but I've noticed that I have to do a bit more scrubbing to make sure that the vegetables I get from the market are as clean as the ones I pick up at the supermarket. Having a brush on hand to scrub off a bit more of the dirt that comes home with my potatoes comes in handy, and the Good Grips Flexible Vegetable Brush from Oxo can handle the job perfectly. The brush is ergonomically designed to fit in your hand comfortably, even when you have to … Read more

Good grillin' for the veggies

You know the scene: A hot summer day, friends and family gathered in the back yard, perhaps a football being tossed around, laughter and good times in the air. Of course, this scene would not be complete without the grill fired up, permeating the air with the scent of delicious foods cooking. Survey the grill-top, and we find hotdogs, hamburgers, steaks, and chicken. But where are the vegetables?

No longer must vegetables be relegated to "after-the-meat-is-done" status. The Mesh Grill-Top Chef's Pan is perfect for cooking up a batch of healthy vegetables on the grill. The heavy-gauge … Read more

Food for the future

I always believed the future to be a wonderful place filled with lots of flying things and robots who enjoyed working for humanity. While much of that hasn't happened, at least our food hasn't turned into bland tasteless pellets that we consume once a day for all of our nutritional needs. That would be a very bleak future indeed. While we may not be flying around in jet packs just yet, we still have a rich and diverse food culture that seems to have no end. If there were a future in which we all had to eat … Read more

Eat the produce, leave the dirt

Today I came home from the farmers market with a full bag of produce for my impending Fourth of July barbecue, and by the time I got everything into the fridge, my hands were covered in dirt.

The beautiful thing about buying local organic foods is that they're free of all of the pesticides and hormones found in the frankenfruit that usually shows up on the shelves in the store down the street. The downside is that, since they travel directly from the mud to the market, I have to spend twice the time cleaning, cutting, and peeling as … Read more