"seeds" news and stories

'Tis the season for pumpkin carving, but don't throw out the scraps! AOL KitchenDaily's toasted pumpkin seed recipe and these tips make it easy to turn a pile of pumpkin seeds (or pepitas) into a tasty and healthy snack.

Blanched almonds are a staple in lots of recipes, and surprisingly easy to make at home.

Photo: Barbara L. Hanson, Flickr.

The potential restoration of the American chestnut -- which took a giant stride toward reality with the American Chestnut Foundation's recent announcement that last year's test-planting of hundreds of trees in an undisclosed North Carolina location was successful -- could have exciting implications for the nation's foodies.

Chestnuts were once a mainstay of the Appalachian diet, showing up in stews, sauces and breads. The Cherokee and other native peoples didn't wait until Christmas Day to enjoy their chestnuts roasted: They relied on the nutritious, fat-packed nut to fuel their activities throughout chestnut season. After European settlers shimmied their wagons across the Blue Ridge, they too developed a fondness for chestnuts. Honorary ACF board member and past president Jimmy Carter recalls filling his pockets with chestnuts for snacking.

"People really like them," says foundation spokeswoman Meghan Jordan. Compared to the Chinese and European chestnuts now available, she adds, the American chestnut is "much sweeter and much tastier."

But for the last 50 years, few people have had the chance to test Jordan's contentions. That's because in the early 20th century, blight struck more than 5 billion trees, wiping out a cash crop previously so plentiful that Southerners had little trouble collecting enough nuts to fill northbound railroad cars, destined to sate the cravings of Yuletide-minded city dwellers. "We want to see these trees thriving again," Jordan says.

As foodies, we're automatically inclined to take every morsel of what's given to us and deposit it right into our mouths. But food is also ripe for art -- not just the Alinea-type awe inspired on the plate, but as ingredients for inedible creations. This week's Foodie Flicks heads to Cooking Up a Story to celebrate the seriously impressive seeds and deets of Portland's Cathy Camper.

When some artist friends decided to enter the Minnesota State Fair's juried arts show, Camper took a different route. She entered the seed art competition, set up to promote the seeds and crops of Minnesota. But she didn't take the tacky route and recreate Elvis or lather her portraits in shtick. She recreated famous figures she was drawn to -- Frida Kahlo, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Bob Marley and even Haile Selassie. Delighting in the process, Camper explains that the art is not in the end product, but the growth of meeting artistic challenges and finding ways to beat them. And really, that seems to be the only way to do it. As she notes, these funky, food-filled art pieces aren't permanent. Just like any piece of edible fare, they discolor, age and lose their life. But at least for a moment, they're impressive.

Photo: Jennifer Iserloh.

Tamari almonds make their way into my banana-nut breakfast smoothie as they add a hint of saltiness against the sweetness of really ripe bananas. But as unexpectedly good as they may taste, I was in for another shocker: As I recently reviewed my grocery bill, I realized that those tamari almonds were almost $2 a bag!

Since I had a bottle of low-sodium tamari taking up space in the cupboard, I shopped for the plain, raw almonds with the skins on and tried my hand at homemade tamari almonds.