February 23, 2026 In the mid 1980s, prices for Sun Crest peaches plummeted. Fruit brokers advised farmers to dump their peaches. Aghast at the idea, Mas Masumoto, a Japanese farmer in the Central Valley of California, sold his boxes of peaches for 50 cents each. From Japanese Buddhism, you say Itadakimasu before you eat. This […]
January 21, 2026 Can you name the plant genus that includes a huge percentage of our cool weather food crops, and includes the third most important oilseed crop in the world? Also in this genus is an invasive weed that starves out all competition, common throughout our Southwest, California, Utah, and Mexico. The genus is […]
December 28, 2025 Our friend’s new cat, Nora, won’t come out from under the couch. I wanted to help so I gave Nora the CD, Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, hoping to reduce the cat’s tension. Why this piece of music? Because in the reading that I have been doing on sound, music, and […]