What’s the white powder on grapes? Is it a pesticide?

You may have noticed a whitish coating on certain fruits. It’s particularly visible on grapes, plums, and blueberries. It’s epicuticular wax, also known as “bloom,” a natural and harmless part of many plants. The coating protects the plants and seals in their moisture. It’s what makes water slide off fresh kale, and it gives blue spruce trees their distinctive color. You can also find in on certain succulents.

Fruit in the supermarket has often been artificially waxed to make it last longer and look more appealing, and because the process of picking and washing it stripped it of its natural protective coat. Sometimes, epicuticular wax from other plants is used. Carnauba wax (which can be found in everything from cosmetics to furniture polish) comes from a species of palm tree that grows in Brazil; the wax is harvested by beating the dried palm fronds. Other petroleum-, shellac-, vegetable-, or beeswax-based waxes may also be used.

According to Consumer Reports, there is concern that the wax coating may help trap pesticide residue. They recommend buying organic when possible and making sure to thoroughly wash produce. In an article from October of this year, Catherine Roberts suggested that soaking fruits and vegetables in a baking soda solution may be effective in removing some pesticides.

We got our information from ThoughtCo, Consumer Reports, The Atlantic, Succulent Identifier, Washington State University’s Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center, The Demystified Vine, and The Botanist in the Kitchen. If you want to learn more, Aliza Green’s Field Guide to Produce and Melissa’s Great Book of Produce by Cathy Thomas both give tips on how to buy, store, and use fresh fruits and vegetables, while Richard Gianfrancesco’s How to Grow Food and Barbara Pleasant’s Homegrown Pantry explain how to grow your own.

Is there a difference between seltzer, sparkling water, mineral water, club soda, and tonic water?

One of our patrons bought club soda instead of seltzer and they wanted to know what the difference was. It turned out that they all taste about the same, except for tonic water, even though they come from slightly different sources. We found the answer in several sources, including Epicurious, Today.com, and Kitchn.

Sparkling water seems to be an umbrella term that encompasses any kind of carbonated water, but it’s usually used in reference to seltzer or mineral water.

Seltzer is plain water that’s been carbonated to give it fizz. It may also be flavored. LaCroix, Scweppe’s, and Canada Dry all sell seltzers. (On their website, LaCroix maintains that they’re a sparkling water and not a seltzer, alleging that sparkling water is sodium free and does not contain artificial flavor, but other sources did not note a difference.) The word “seltzer” comes from “Selters,” a German brand of mineral water that’s been around since the 17^th century at least.

Sparkling mineral water, such as Perrier or San Pellegrino, comes from underground springs and contains naturally occurring minerals. It may be naturally carbonated by gases in the spring or carbon dioxide may have been added. Since it’s typically imported from Europe, it’s more expensive than seltzer, club soda, or tonic water.

Club soda is seltzer with added ingredients that make it taste more like a mineral water. It usually includes sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda), sodium citrate, and potassium sulfate.

Tonic water is the most dissimilar. (It’s also the only one that glows under a blacklight!) While other sparkling waters may or may not be flavored, tonic water is always flavored with quinine, a bitter-tasting compound found in the bark of the cinchona tree, and typically sweetened with sugar or corn syrup. Quinine was once used to treat and prevent malaria; the gin and tonic cocktail originated when British soldiers in India were attempting to make their anti-malarial more palatable.

For more interesting uses for sparkling water, Anton Nocito provides recipes for homemade soda and cocktails made with syrup and sparkling water in Make Your Own Soda, available for borrowing at the Newton Falls Public Library or as an ebook.

What makes tomatoes go from green to red?

We checked several of our gardening and food science books to no avail, although we did learn from Lynn Coulter’s Gardening with Heirloom Seeds that tomatoes, native to South America and members of the nightshade family, took a while to catch on among Europeans.

However, Brian McMahon at MentalFloss, Mandy Kendrick at Scientific American, and the University of Cambridge’s IntoBiology website all had the answer to our question. Chlorophyll makes the tomatoes green and, as they ripen, the chlorophyll begins to dissolve. Lycopene, a chemical in the tomato that has a red color, shows through as the chlorophyll dissolves. As this happens, the tomato will also become sweeter, softer, less acidic, and ready to eat.

Fruits produce a chemical called ethylene in certain conditions, including as they ripen, and other fruit will respond to it. According to Jeremy Dore at GrowVeg and McMahon at Mental Floss, a green tomato in a paper bag with a ripe banana will respond to the ethylene given off by the banana, and it will begin to ripen itself.

Can you grow a plum tree from a pit?

We looked in The Backyard Orchardist by Stella Otto and How to Grow Food by Richard Gianfrancesco. Both contained information about growing plums, but only about growing trees from saplings or caring for trees that had already matured.

Fortunately, Amy Grant wrote an article for GardenKnowHow.com about growing plums from seed. The seed must be kept at temperatures around thirty to forty degrees Fahrenheit for ten to twelve weeks before it will germinate. (Sources vary on whether or not the seed needs to be removed from its protective casing, if the pit simply needs to be cracked, or if the whole pit can be planted as-is.) There are a few ways to accomplish this. Our patron could wrap the pit in a damp paper towel and put it in a plastic bag inside the refrigerator. After it sprouted, they would plant it two inches deep in an even mix of potting soil and vermiculite, keeping it cool and moist. Once there was no chance of frost, they could transplant it outside into the garden.

It’s also possible to simply plant the pit directly outside during the colder months. Grant suggests planting it three inches deep and marking the spot so that it can be found again.

Grant cautions that a plum tree grown from seed may or may not bear fruit, and the fruit may or may not taste the same as the original plum, as plum trees are generally propagated through grafting and not through seed. However, she assures that it is still a rewarding and worthwhile project.

Don’t Throw It, Grow It! by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam, available at the Newton Falls Public Library, has more information on how to save kitchen scraps and grow them into plants, for anyone who is interested. 

What is the white part inside an egg?

“When I crack an egg, sometimes there’s a stringy white piece attached to the yolk. What is that? Should I take it out?”

Merriam–Webster’s Visual Dictionary provided us with a labeled diagram of the inside of a bird egg, allowing us to identify just what part of the egg our patron was referring to and what purpose it serves. The stringy white bit is called the chalaza. It’s a ropy filament of egg white that’s there to keep the yolk in the center of the egg. It can also be an indicator of freshness – the more noticeable the chalaza, the fresher the egg.

The chalaza is perfectly fine to eat and its presence is not noticed in most dishes. However, it can interfere with the smooth texture of sauces and custards, so cooks will sometimes remove it.

CLEVNET carries a variety of egg-specific cookbooks, including Marie Simmon’s The Good Egg, Andrea Slonecker’s Eggs on Top, Terry Blonder Golson’s The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook, and Kathy Casey’s D’lish Deviled Eggs. Any of these books can be ordered in to our library.

What is cream of tartar for? Can you substitute anything for it?

A patron came across a frosting recipe calling for cream of tartar and they were wondering what exact purpose it served. One of our librarians recalled using it in sugar cookies and one remembered using it in meringues, but neither knew exactly what it did in the recipe or if there were substitutes. We looked in Baking Illustrated, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Baking Bible and on Slate.com for more information.

Cream of tartar, also called potassium bitartrate, is an acid by-product of making wine or grape juice. It will last indefinitely as long as it’s kept away from moisture.

In the kitchen, it can be used to stabilize egg whites (as in the meringues) so they can be whipped more without collapsing. It will also prevent caramels and sugar syrups from crystallizing, making them creamier. (This may have been its purpose in the frosting recipe.) When mixed with baking soda and a liquid, it acts as a leavening agent. Its acidic properties can also help certain foods, like red cabbage, potatoes, and cauliflower, keep their color when boiled. As to substitutions, a bit of lemon juice serves a similar purpose in stabilizing egg whites, though, being liquid and less acidic, it doesn’t do the job as well. 

What causes pit split?

“All the peaches I bought at the supermarket have split pits. Why does that happen?”

According to gardeningknowhow.com, split pit disorder occurs when the pit of the fruit begins to harden, about forty days after the tree blooms. As the pit hardens, the fruit flesh will cling tightly to it. If the fruit begins to swell at the same time, the pressure on the pit could cause it to split, or even to shatter. Pit split can occur in peaches, nectarines, cherries, and plums.

In her paper “Split Pit,” written for the University of George Department of Agriculture, Kathryn C. Taylor puts forth a few hypotheses as to what causes pit split. When peaches are thinned too much, whether by the farmer or through a frost, the pits are more apt to split or shatter. Too much water (again, whether on purpose of through an act of nature) or too much fertilizing too late in the season can also be a factor.

If you’re interested in growing your own peaches, Melissa’s Great Book of Produce by Cathy Thomas, How to Grow Food by Richard Gianfrancesco, and The Backyard Orchardist by Stella Otto are all available for borrowing here at the Newton Falls Public Library.

What's the difference between a yam and a sweet potato?

“I just bought a sweet potato and it was white on the inside. Does that mean the orange ones are yams? What’s the difference?”

The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission quickly set the record straight. Sweet potatoes can have orange, white, or purple flesh, and, though the orange ones are often called yams, true yams are a different species of plant altogether. The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University put together a chart listing the differences. Sweet potatoes are dicots and they’re part of the morning glory family. They originated in South America but can be grown in the United States. Yams, on the other hand, are monocots, part of the genus Dioscorea, and mostly imported from the Caribbean. They originated in Asia and West Africa.

According to Cooking the West African Way by Bertha Vining Montgomery and Constance Nabwire, yams are a staple in West African cooking. They figure into the culture as well and are the focus of harvest festivals like the Iri-Ji (or “new yam”) Festival. 

Unless you’ve gone to a specialty restaurant or grocery store, you may never have eaten a genuine yam. Look closely: the FDA requires sweet potatoes to be labeled as such, and even the cans of candied yams are inscribed with “sweet potato” in small text.

Can you substitute essential oil for fresh ginger?

“Can you substitute ginger essential oil for fresh ginger?” One of our patrons was baking and didn’t want to have to buy an entire ginger root only to use a little of it. They already had organic food-grade essential oil in their house (while not all essential oil is necessarily safe to eat, you can buy varieties that are) and wondered if they could substitute.

We found a forum post on Chowhound discussing ginger essential oil in food, and it led us to believe that our patron would only need to use a very small amount of their oil, as everyone posting noted that it was very potent. However, we still couldn’t find a clear substitution ratio.

Eventually, we found a recipe in Aromatic Monthly for chai tea using either essential oils or whole spices. It called for either one drop of ginger oil or “two pea size fresh ginger (mulched).” Finally we had something of an equivalency, but it was too imprecise to be of much help. Our patron ultimately decided that their best option was to add the oil a drop at a time until they achieved the flavor they wanted.

For more information on essential oils (though tending more toward aromatherapy than cooking), The A to Z of Essential Oils by E. Joy Bowles, Complete Aromatherapy Handbook by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi, and The Complete Illustrated Guide to Aromatherapy by Julia Lawless are available at the Newton Falls Public Library. For more information on ginger specifically, Helen Sudell’s Ginger: A Book of Recipes is available through CLEVNET.

What's the Soda Pepsi Introduced to Compete with TaB?

“What’s the soda Pepsi introduced to compete with TaB?”

Royal Crown Cola’s Diet-Rite, introduced in 1958, was one of the first diet sodas on the market. Once the nation started watching its weight and Royal Crown Cola started advertising Diet-Rite as a soda rather than a specialized diet product, the Coca-Cola company knew they had to do something to compete.

In 1963, Coca-Cola introduced TaB, their first diet soda. Snopes.com, a website dedicated to investigating rumors and urban legends, gives the origin of the name, which some people have erroneously assumed stands for “Totally Artificial Beverage.” Coca-Cola was unwilling to dilute their brand by referring to their diet soda as Diet Coke. Instead, they came up with a list of three- and four-letter combinations and put about two dozen of them through market tests. TaB emerged victorious. According to Coca-Cola, it brings to mind keeping “tabs” on your weight.

Knowing a little more about TaB, now we needed to find its Pepsi counterpart. The Pepsico website has a timeline section that goes back to the sixties, but there’s not much information there. However, searching “Pepsi drinks 1960s” in an online search engine brought up the Wikipedia page for Patio, which jogged our memories. Introduced by Pepsi in 1963, Patio came in several different flavors including cola, orange, root beer, strawberry, and grape.

Fans of the television show Mad Men may be familiar with the drink. In one episode, the characters put together an ultimately unsuccessful commercial for Patio imitating the opening song in “Bye Bye Birdie,” but changing the words to “Bye bye, sugar.” 

In 1964, Patio Diet Cola was replaced by Diet Pepsi, though some of the flavored sodas stuck around into the seventies. TaB, however, can still be found in some stores today.

For more information about Pepsi’s history and their rivalry with Coca-Cola, Pepsi: 100 Years by Bob Stoddard and The Cola Wars by J.C. Louis are both available through CLEVNET.

What Is Converted Rice?

“My recipe calls for ‘converted rice’ but I’m not sure what that is.”

Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” had the answer. The difference is in how it’s processed. All rice grows with a husk, which is always removed, and a layer of bran. White rice has had its bran removed, whereas brown rice remains intact. Converted rice is white rice, but, before it’s processed, it’s steamed, so some of the nutrients from the bran are forced into the kernel. The steaming turns the rice a kind of yellow color, and makes it a little healthier than white rice, though not as healthy as brown rice.

A blogger on Agricultured.org taste-tested brown, white, and converted rice. She found that converted rice has a pleasant texture and a milder flavor than brown rice while still being more flavorful than white rice. It’s also less sticky than both brown and white rice. She suggests using converted rice in the crock-pot. Since it cooks faster than brown rice but slower than white rice, it will cook more evenly but won’t get soggy.

Uncle Ben’s is a popular brand of converted rice that most people are probably familiar with. According to Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook,” “converted rice” is actually a patented term, and it’s more commonly known as parboiled rice, which may be why our patron hadn’t heard of it.

Can You Help Me Find A Sausage Recipe?

"I'm looking for a recipe for homemade sausage."  To the staff of the Newton Falls Public Library this seemed to be a simple request.  The library owns a copy of  "The Sausage-making Cookbook"  by Jerry Predika.  However, our patron already had their own copy of this title and it did not include a recipe quite to their liking.  At this time, she did not wish to get a recipe off the Internet; she preferred something from a book.

In our extensive collection of cookbooks, we found several books that we thought might have what she wanted including "The Complete Meat Cookbook: A Juicy and Authoritative Guide to Selecting, Seasoning, and Cooking Today's Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Veal" by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly, "The Way to Cook" by Julia Child, and "Lidia's Italian Table" by Lidia Bastianich.  These all contained recipes either too heavily spiced or with ingredients our patron did not wish to use.

Continuing our discussion, our patron explained that they were looking to make a lightly seasoned old-fashioned country sausage. The recipe in Mary Emma Showalter's "Mennonite Community Cookbook: Favorite Family Recipes" still wasn't exactly the recipe she wanted.  

Thinking a bit out of the box, we decided to take a look at our collection of Foxfire books. The first Foxfire book was published in 1972.  "The 'Foxfire Book' and its eleven companion volumes stand memorial to the people and the vanishing culture of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, brought to life for readers through the words of those who were born, lived their lives, and passed away there" [www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebooks.aspx].  The full title of the first book is "The Foxfire Book: HogDressing; Log Cabin Building; Mountain Crafts and Foods; Planting by the Signs;Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing; Moonshining; and Other Affairs of Plain Living." The chapter on Hog Dressing included Slaughtering Hogs, Curing and Smoking Hog, and Recipes for Hog.  She said this sausage recipe might have the right combination of spices.

In the event the recipe did not taste as she imagined, our patron also placed holds on some of the other sausage making books in our shared CLEVNET catalog.

I Need a Chart of the Growing Periods of Tomatoes

“I need a chart of the growing periods of tomatoes. Can you help me?”  The Newton Falls Public Library staff understands the importance of this information to home gardeners, so they can determine the best selection of plants for our growing season.

We showed our patron Ortho's Complete Guide to Vegetables by Jacqueline Hériteau which has several pages of descriptions of various tomatoes with growing periods.  Our patron stated that he wanted a printed sheet, and would like us to look online for the information.

The website, Harvest to Table Plant Prepare Preserve has the article, How to Choose a Tomato for Your Garden by Steve Albert (February 28, 2009). The included chart has more than 100 tomatoes. The tomatoes are either early-harvest, main-crop, or late-season.  Albert also notes whether they are determinate (bushy) and indeterminate (vining) varieties, the days to maturity, and growing suggestions and use.  This was exactly the information our patron needed.

When his bumper crop of tomatoes comes in, the staff also recommended The Tomato Festival Cookbook: 150 recipes that make the most of your crop of lush, vine-ripened, sun-warmed, fat,juicy, ready-to-burst heirloom tomatoes by Lawrence Davis-Hollander and

Food in Jars: preserving in small batches year-round by Marisa McClellan. McClellan's book is excellent for beginners as it focuses on small batches that are easy projects for those unfamiliar with canning.

Can You Help Me Find My Grandmother's Cookie Recipe?

Our caller asked “When I was a child, my grandmother used to make a cookie with pork cracklings, the brown bits after cooking pork.  They were really good, but she never wrote down any of her recipes. I think she called them bagachels.  Can you help me find the recipe?”  Since it sounded like a food related to a particular ethnic background, the Newton Falls Public Library staff felt they needed some more information.  Talking with her we found that her grandmother had been born in 1868 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Searching online for the terms “bagachel cookie” did not bring up any useful results. Considering how some letters sound like others, we tried “pagachel cookie.” Here we found the website, TheWorld's Best Photos of pogácsa - Flickr Hive Mind.  The tempting photographs of cookies included one called Pagachel / Pogácsa.  Our search for pogácsa took us to the website, Mashpedia. The article said that it

 “is a type of savory scone in Hungarian cuisine. It is also popularly eaten in nearby Slovakia 

. . . As with scones and biscuits, eggs and butter are common ingredients, as is milk, cream or sour cream. Many traditional versions exist, with size, shape—the most common is round—and flavor variations in each region/city of Hungary. A dozen different ingredients can be found either in the dough, sprinkled on top before baking, or both: medium-firm fresh cheeses, aged dry hard cheese(s), pork crackling (tepertő), cabbage, black pepper, hot or sweet paprika, garlic, red onion, caraway seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or poppy seeds.”

The key ingredient, pork cracklings, was included in this description. Now we were able to locate a basic pagachel recipe for our patron and she could add the cracklings to it, as she remembered her grandmother doing.

How Do You Grow a Peach Tree From a Pit? How Do You Save Squash Seeds?

“How do you grow a peach tree from a pit?”  “How do you save squash seeds?”  The Newton Falls Public Library staff understands the desire to enjoy exceptionally tasty pieces of fruit or vegetables in the future by growing more from the original.

The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening has instructions for growing peaches from rootstock, but not from a pit.  We expanded our search online and found the website, www.michiganpeach.org.  In their question and answer section there are instructions for starting a tree.  They recommend first cleaning and then, refrigerating and drying the pit in a slightly opened plastic bag until December.  In December, “soak the seed in tap water for a few hours, then put the seed into slightly moistened perlite, vermiculite, or peat moss (available from garden supply store) in a plastic bag. Store in the refrigerator and start checking for germination after about 1 1/2 months. If you are fortunate, it will start to develop a root. At that time, transfer to a pot with soil and grow as a normal plant. Plant it outside in the spring when the chance for frost is past.”  It would be useful for our patron to refer back to this site for more detailed information.

Seed Sowing and Saving Step-by-step Techniques for Collecting and Growing More Than 100 Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs by Carole B. Turner has detailed instructions on the harvesting and sowing of seeds.  Turner gives instructions for both summer and winter squashes, including how long to leave the fruit on the vine before harvesting to ensure the seeds will be most vigorous. Remove and clean the seeds, spread out and let them dry, and store until ready to plant.

Another interesting book on this topic is Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps by Deborah Peterson.  With common plants like carrots, sweet potato and dill, Peterson has included some unusual ones like Jerusalem artichokes, carob, fenugreek, tomatillo, and sugar cane.

Can You Find Me the Phone Number for Grey Duck Garlic?

“Can you find me the phone number for Grey Duck Garlic?” This was a question the Newton Falls Public Library librarians received earlier this year. “I want to sell the garlic I grew this summer and I’m not sure how much to charge for it.  Can you tell me how much organic garlic is selling for?” The staff, seeing how well the Library Sprouts’ garden was growing, could understand how the questioner was finding that he had enough to sell.

GreyDuck Garlic is certified organic and sells thirteen varieties of garlic. We were able to obtain their phone number and online order form for our patron.

Searching online for “mahoning valley garlic farm” we were able to answer the second question.  Miller’s Garlic Farm, a locally owned farm, has a small retail store at The Coin Shop located at 5160 Youngstown Poland Road. Their garlic may be ordered online.  The medium sells for $15 a pound, the large and extra large for $17 per pound. Our patron was happy to have the information he needed in order to price his product.

If you are looking for ideas for using your garden produce, check out the library’s Harvest display.  There is also a large selection of cookbooks which may be borrowed.

Gingerbread and Sauerkraut

The winter holidays are coming. This week we received two interesting seasonal food questions. “I’m looking for a gingerbread recipe which uses flour, eggs, milk, baking soda, and yeast.” The Newton Falls Public Library staff thought this sounded like a ordinary gingerbread recipe until the caller got to the last ingredient; yeast is not a commonly used ingredient for this item. She was from out of town and unable to come into the library and did not own a computer, so we searched online for recipes. Cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com had a recipe for yeast-raised orange gingerbread and Georgene-a-bramlage.suite.com had an assortment of gingerbread recipes for Christmas and winter. We gave the caller the recipes we found for her which fit your ingredients list.

The second interesting question was “I’m making sauerkraut in a crock pot and am concerned about mold-like stuff growing on the top. Is this normal?”  Alton Brown of the Foodnetwork.com states “Check cabbage every other day for approximately 2 weeks and skim the surface of scum, if necessary.” Since this stated in his recipe, apparently our patron’s concern was a common one. The book, The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live it: the complete back-to-basics guide by John Seymour also had information about making sauerkraut and our patron took home this resource.

Can You Help Me Find a Vegetarian Indian Cookbook?

“I was watching a TV show with Gordon Ramsey featuring best restaurants. The episode was about vegetarian Indian food. I was hoping you could help me find a cookbook for it.” In order for the Newton Falls Public Library staff to assist our patron, our first step was to find what restaurant was on the show.

We discovered information about the show online by searching for ‘Gordon Ramsay best restaurants.” There is a BBC program titled Ramsay’s Best Restaurant. On the episode guide we found two Indian restaurants competing against each other. “With two generations of family behind the food, Prashad specializes in vegetarian dishes and the chefs use their hands to prepare the food, believing that love will be passed through each dish.” This was the one which our patron viewed.

Searching online for “Prashad vegetarian cookbook” we found two books, Prashad-Cooking with Indian Masters by J.Indersingh Kalra and Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen by Vasantha Prasad. Our patron thought she might like the latter, so we placed a hold on it through our new shared Clevnet catalog, www.clevnet.org, and will notify her when it arrives at our library.

Is It Safe to Give Salted Peanuts to Squirrels?

“My husband and I enjoy feeding the squirrels peanuts in the shell. We recently bought salted ones and my niece told me it wasn’t safe to give them salted ones. Is that true?” The Newton Falls Public Library staff understands people wanting to make sure they are giving animals proper foods.

The library’s copy of Squirrels: A Wildlife Handbook by Kim Long had a great deal of interesting information including the favorite foods of different kinds of squirrels. Unfortunately it did not address the issue of salted nuts.

We visited the website of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). The section on squirrels did not have the information we needed, so we telephoned them. While waiting we listened to bird sounds and their identification.  When we spoke with an individual, we were told that they “recommend not feeding wildlife.”

Continuing our online search, the website Black Mouth Cur had the following pertaining to gray squirrels: “The amount of salt a squirrel requires can be easily obtained in its diet and the extra amount of salt . . . can affect its heart, raises the blood pressure and increases its pulse. This tends to shorten a squirrel’s lifespan. This is not too dissimilar to salt’s effects on a human.”

AvianWeb.com has an entire section titled Attracting to & Controlling Squirrels in Your Garden. Within are several paragraphs about peanuts. While a good source of protein, the site discourages feeding raw peanuts to animals because it often contains “aflatoxin, a fungal toxin. Aflatoxin is carcinogenic and causes liver damage in birds, squirrels and other animals -- even humans.” Roasting can reduce the toxin but does not eliminate it. “Also, raw peanuts and other legumes contain a . . . substance that inhibits or prevents the pancreas from producing trypsin, an enzyme essential for the absorption of protein by the intestine. . . Squirrels fed a steady diet of raw peanuts, soybeans, other legumes, and sweet potatoes could easily develop severe malnutrition. . . According to the Washington State Cooperative Extension Service, roasting hulled raw peanuts for 20 to 30 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring them frequently, will destroy the trypsin inhibitor and render them suitable for feed. If that sounds like a lot of work, buy roasted peanuts but be sure they aren't salted. (Salted nuts of any kind should never be fed to wild animals.)”

We passed the information on to our patron so she could determine what they would choose to feed their backyard wildlife.

How Do I Hollow Out an Onion?

“I borrowed the Williams-Sonoma book, Main Dishes from the library. It has a recipe for roasted onions stuffed with Italian sausage, egg, and fresh bread crumbs that looks very good. The instructions call for hollowing out the onions, stuffing them, placing them in a baking dish filled with ½ inches of water, and baking at 350 degrees for about an hour. But how do you hollow them and leave the ½ inch thick shell required?” The patron showed the Newton Falls Public Library staff the photograph and directions for this very tasty looking dish on page 63.

While having many combined years of cooking experience, our staff wasn’t really sure how one went about hollowing an onion. The book in which the patron found the recipe offers “colorful recipes for health & well-being” but no instructions for creating an onion shell. The search continued by examining the Larousse Gastronomique: the new American edition of the world's greatest culinary encyclopedia. In the listing for onions on page 744, there are recipes, including stuffed onions. These instructions explain when preparing this dish, you need to peel the medium sized onion without splitting the outer layer. Remove about ¼ of the onion by cutting it horizontally at the stalk. Blanch the remaining ¾ in salted water for about ten minutes, drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Finally scoop out the inside; leaving at least a thickness of 2 layers all around, and the onion is ready for filling.