This photo, taken by Audreyjm529 over at Flickr, does more for citrus than any ill-fated product redesign could ever hope to. It's bright, beautiful and so vibrant that you can practically smell the ambrosial scent of lemons and oranges wafting from your computer screen. Prolonged exposure to this picture may cure everything from Vitamin C deficiency to Seasonal Affective Disorder; side effects may include uncontrollable giddiness and a silly grin. Proceed without caution.

[Via Flickr]

Is a dish lacking something you can't pinpoint? Try a tiny bit of salt if you must, but don't forget the secret weapon tucked in the fridge or lolling on the counter.

PepsiCo, feeling the (ever warmer) winds of change ruffle its hair, has decided to be proactive in measuring its own carbon emissions. Its test case is orange juice - how much does a glass of Tropicana contribute to global warming?

The company hired experts to measure emissions in every part of the orange juice-making process: Fertilizing the field, transporting orange cartons, running the factory. Turns out, growing is the single biggest source of emissions, as the nitrogen fertilizer used on citrus groves needs a lot of natural gas to make, and turns into a greenhouse gas when spread on the fields.

The final number? About 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted for each half-gallon carton of orange juice.

While that statistic is fairly meaningless without any context, the fact that PepsiCo is calculating its carbon emissions means that other corporations are likely to follow in its footsteps. And as emissions numbers become more widely known, consumers will be able to choose to buy products from companies that make a concentrated effort to reduce their footprints.

Check out the original New York Times article for a slideshow on tracking the carbon footprint of the orange.

This particular edible gift suggestion is designed especially for those among you who love food but hate to cook. Buy a unique or charming bowl or basket (if you're gift-giving on the cheap, I suggest hitting thrift stores for your vessel) and then filling it with mandarin oranges. Don't buy a pre-packed bag or box when prepping for these gifts, as often you'll find some rotten fruit in with the good ones. Instead, spend a few minutes sorting through the display at your grocery store, hand selecting the best fruit. For a more visually interesting offering, get several different kinds of citrus. Tie an old-fashioned cloth ribbon (or a handmade cloth napkin, if you want to get fancy) around the bowl for added holiday cheer.

For more of our edible gift suggestions, click on the image below.

My memories of fruit cocktail mostly consist of eating the stuff from the cans of Del Monte or Libby's (when it says "Libby's Libby's Libby's on the Label Label Label"), and I haven't had it in years. Is it any better? I mean, it was OK, but the syrup was too sweet and thick for me. I like fruit bowls with just big chunks of fresh fruit, though the idea of a retro-ish fruit salad with Cool Whip on top sounds rather inviting.

Today is National Fruit Cocktail Day. Here's a recipe for Fruit Cocktail from Garden Guides that is heavy on apples and cinnamon. RecipeZaar has a Fresh Fruit Cocktail recipe (cooking involved). Here's another recipe from RecipeZaar, for Fruit Cocktail Cake.

And for those of you who like your fruit cocktails in liquid form, here's a recipe for a non-alcoholic Fruit Cocktail drink.

If you're a college football fan, then you know that states have been facing off with each other since last week. However, in what we could call a foodish Citrus Bowl, Florida has won out over California in a lawsuit in which Florida Agriculture officials issues a quarantine against citrus shipments from California. The quarantine was issued to protect the State of Florida's citrus industry from a potential plant fungus. California citrus growers sought a temporary injunction in order to keep shipping, but the Florida judge denied it.

We're not quite sure what the big deal here is with California. Florida already has oranges, so why wouldn't they want to keep California oranges out of the state? We're sure there are plenty of people on the western half of the country who can eat all those oranges.

Our new sister site, Green Daily, has a post up today that I thought might appeal to you Slashfoodies out there in readerland. They have discovered an article on Gomestic about 10 ways to use an orange peel. Back when I was in high school, I had a friend who would carefully save the peel of her orange, and after she had finished the fruit would return to the peel and meticulously scrap out all the white pith and eat it. Someone had once told her that it had lots of Vitamin C and being the health-conscious person that she was took the advice to heart.

I'm not necessarily recommending that you consume your pith (anyone know whether my friend was correct or not?) but some of these other orange peel tips are quite helpful. My favorites are the recommendations to use peels as a safe home fragrance (boil them in little water with a cinnamon stick or two), to use a bit to keep your brown sugar soft (I always have problems with hardened sugar) and put them in with oil to create infusions.

Photo link

Every single month of the year has a "National _______ Month" designation. Heck, I think every day has celebrates something. June has a few celebrations, and National Fruit and Vegetable Month is one of them.

Of course, you should eat a lot of fruit and vegetables all year round, but if one month can get you going, then it's a good thing. June is usually the month when I start to eat more salads and apples and oranges anyway, as I'm sure it is with a lot of people, so it's good timing.

Here's more info and tips about the month, along with links to other sites about healthy eating. And if you insist on eating a whole pizza tonight, at least put some mushrooms and onions on it.

A few years ago, we finished dinner in a restaurant in San Francisco and began looking over the dessert menu. I remember seeing the word "soup" on there and thought it was either a mistake, or someone was making fun of us. Soup for dessert? (Really, this was about 12 years ago.)

However, "soup" for dessert is a fabulous thing, particularly in the warmer seasons when you want something chilled, or refreshing after a heavy meal. Chez Pim made Loy Gaew , a common way of serving fresh fruit in Thailand. "Loy gaew" literally means floating crystals, which refers to the crushed ice floating in clear syrup. Pim provides the recipe for this gorgeous one made of fresh lychee and oranges floating in a ginger syrup. It sounds delicious, and looks gorgeous.

Chocolate and orange is a combination that you either love or hate. For some, the slight acidity of the citrus works really well with chocolate, both milk and dark, while others find the tastes to be dissonant. Fanny, from Food Beam, was a member of the latter camp until she decided to try making Bill Granger's Chocolate and Mandarin Cake. The cake is a nearly flourless chocolate cake, made rich with ground almonds and a bit of mandarin orange zest. There isn't enough zest to make the orange flavor overwhelming, although the bright flavor does come through the deeply flavored cake and is helped along by serving the cake with slices of mandarin. The only thing that Fanny doesn't share is what motivated her to go against her usual inclinations and try the recipe in the first place. Whatever her reason, it seems like it was a success.

Better stock up on your OJ. Or maybe you wanna get your vitamin C from a different source.

The Florida citrus industry is facing a possible shortage. Though two different analyst groups came up with different estimates for citrus output this year, both numbers are far below the average production of 220 million boxes.

The problem? Well, where do we begin? As if humans simply taking over acreage for development wasn't enough, devastating droughts, horrible hurricanes, and a whole menage a trois of diease has damaged citrus trees. However, the true effect is difficult to predict. According to the article in the New York Times, "Until hurricane season ends Nov. 30 and the potential for a winter freeze passes next spring, the best prediction anyone can offer of how many oranges Florida will produce this season is an educated guess."

Two new studies have shown that mandarin oranges may be good for curing more than just scurvy. One study, which was centered on a town whose residents ate a very high number of mandarins, showed that they had a lower risk of liver disease, hardened arteries and insulin resistance. The second study found that drinking mandarin juice decreased the risk of developing liver cancer in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. Right now, scientists believe that cartenoids, a specific compound from the vitamin A in the oranges, are responsible for both the results.

The scientists who ran the study say that more research is needed, perhaps over as many as five more years, before they will have the kind of data that they need to draw more solid conclusions. As it stands now, however, there are no drawbacks to eating an extra orange or two.

Bioavailability is a term that describes how much of a nutrient within a food can be absorbed by the body and while the specific amounts will vary from person to person, applying some of the concepts of bioavailability to daily diets can help us get the most out of the foods we eat. For example, the vitamin C in orange juice can dramatically increase the amount of iron that can be absorbed by the body from spinach. And, as we have noted before, some of the nutrients in raw vegetables are more easily absorbed with fats.

Does this mean that every time we eat a spinach salad it must be washed down with a glass of orange juice, or doused with a fatty dressing? No, but it does mean that making a few simple changes in diet can help us to make up for any nutritional deficiencies that we may have. A balanced diet doesn't have to be one that is totally functional in every respect (after all, a piece of pie and a scoop of ice cream serves little purpose other than making you feel good), but knowing how to keep your body functioning is never a bad thing.

According to an old episode of M*A*S*H, smell is one of the biggest triggers of memory that we have. And food smells can take us back to special moments in our lives. Of course, sometimes food just "smells good" and we like it, with nothing deeper attached to it. Here are my 8 favorite food smells. What are yours?

1. Chocolate chip cookies: Mmmmmmm...I would assume that this is on almost everyone's list. Unless you don't like chocolate, which means it would be hard for me to talk to you. Also includes other types of chocolate and hot cocoa.