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LOCALLY GROWN, ORGANIC PRODUCE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR.

WEIRD FOOD NEWS

09/18/20 — Ada Broussard

Hello! You made it to Friday, and for your reward we’re sharing some food news we’ve harvested from across the internet. Some of it’s salty, some sweet, and most of it is arguably not very important. But entertaining? Yes! It’s entertaining. As a small farm, we interact with just a tiny sliver of the food system including a modest number of restaurants, a handful of local grocery stores, and of course directly with our wonderful customers, most of whom live in the same city in which we farm. Our vegetables get their start and their finish all within our localized food system and  Austin-based supply chain. For this reason, it’s easy to forget about the very weird and wide world of food that exists beyond our rows of kale local delivery routes . But that doesn’t mean this news isn't interesting to us. So this week, we thought we share the weird food stories that we're reading and wondering about. 

1. "Hot Watermelon is Unlikely. That Doesn’t Mean it’s Wrong." 

Here at the farm, we eat watermelon raw. Sometimes, it’s still warm with field heat garnered from the sun... but this isn’t the type of hot watermelon this article is talking about. Apparently, people are taking the juicy fruit and turning it into smoked hams. And burgers. And steaks. If this sounds like you’re thing, by all means fire up the smoker, set aside 8+ hours, and let us know how it goes. Watermelon ham how-to video here, full article about hot watermelon here. 

The original watermelon ham was conceived at Ducks Eatery in New York City. Photo taken from their Instagram.

 2. "How an archaeologist and the creator of the Xbox brought an ancient Egyptian sourdough starter back to life."

Seamus Blackley, best known for creating the Xbox, took the quarantine sourdough craze to a new level when he baked a loaf of bread using 4,000 year old yeast extracted from chambers buried underneath the temple of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II.  Seamus wasn’t the only archaeologists exploring ancient baking methods during quarantine, and there were even online classes where you could learn to bake like a 1st century Roman. Read the full story here. 

Photo courtesy of The Atlantic. The experimental archaeologist Farrell Monaco uses ancient Roman baking techniques to re-create classic breads, such as the panis quadratus.. Photo by FARRELL MONACO.

3. "Painting Eyes on Cows’ Butts Can Scare Away Predators"

How could we not include this click bait article from Modern Farmer? The headline, and the butt eyes, pretty much say it all. 

Photo from the original article, as seen in Mordern Farmer.

4. "I’m Surviving Quarantine by Cooking Gourmet Stoner Food for My 5-Year-Old Why my new kitchen mantra is #StonerFoodsOfTheApocalypse."

Okay, this isn’t really a news story, but we really loved this essay by Ivy Pochoda about how she’s cooking her 5 years old anything she wants, which happens to be lots of resourceful and creative combinations of ingredients. “while others are peddling black-market sourdough starter, proofing croissants, and making their own everything bagels, I’ve taken a track that provides immediate gratification, goofy joy, and has ushered in an era of peaceful meals.” See all the stoner food, here.

5. "A New Season of ‘The Great British Bakeoff’ Is Coming This Month."

Are you a seasoned fan of this hit British baking show? Or perhaps you’ve never heard the declaration to “Ready, Set, Bake”! Either way, you should check out this new season of delightful home-bakers as they happily kneed and proof for the esteemed title of Star Baker. Apparently, this season was filmed during the pandemic and contestants and crew were in a baking bubble, which undoubtedly smelled of warmed cinnamon and buttery yeast rolls.  

Photo courtesy of C4/LOVE PRODUCTIONS/MARK BOURDILLON

6. "In 2020, Soda Is A Sleep Aid & Water Is Caffeinated, Because Of Course"

Two new products (and types of products) hit the shelves this week: soda that will put you to sleep, and water that will keep you up. Apparently, coffee and plain ole’ H20 aren’t doing the trick for consumers who are both anxious and sleepy all at once.

Pepsi's new sleep aid drink is called Driftwell.

7.  "Is Cultured Meat The Answer To The World's Meat Problem?"

Promises of technology that can produce cultured meat isn’t exactly breaking news, but it’s weird food news, to be sure. Through this process, meat is grown using animal cells, not in a barnyard but in a high-tech laboratory. The first lab-grown burger was made in 2013, with the meat costing an estimated $1.2 million per pound. Advances in the production process are happening every day, and researchers hope that eventually the technology will catch up enough to create a lab-burger that rivals a regular (?) burger in price. But what about taste? Read the full story here. 

Mosa Meat "clean" hamburger MOSA MEAT

8. "Costco’s Wine Advent Calendar Is Back And Features Wine From All Over The World"

Somehow, we’ve reached that moment in the year when store windows and grocery shelves begin to hint at the holidays to come. Costco developed a wine advent calendar that features wines from all over the world, and apparently it was a smash. For those of you eager to begin your holiday shopping (ha!), get thyself to Costco before this best-seller is sold out. 

9. "A.I. Robot Serves Customers At Seoul Restaurant."

“A trolley-like robot is delivering food to customers at a restaurant in Seoul, in order to minimize human contact and help ensure social distancing.” Yep. You need see this robot in action for full the full Jetson experience. Full story and video here. 

The display at Central Market Westgate is beautiful! Just look at those pots swimming in habaneros!

10. Central Market Presents Home Sweet Home Grown: Texas Farmers Market Week Sept. 16 - Oct. 6

Well, we couldn't help but include some local news that isn't necessarily weird, but does involve our veggies :) Central Market is currently running a special on our produce as a part of a two week promotion featuring Texas-made products. Both the Westgate and Lamar locations have beautiful displays of JBG produce including current crops like eggplant, habaneros, zucchini, beets, and more. It really feels like a farmers’ market in there, and there are tons of Texas-made and grown products to marvel.  We first delivered veggies to Central Market in 2010 - about  five cases of product. Over 10 years later, and Central Market has grown into one of our best grocery partners. We usually deliver upwards of 50 cases a week! Both the Westgate and Lamar locations in Austin regularly carry JBG produce, but the current selection is a stunner! Checkout the beautiful displays below! We can’t tell you how exciting it is for us to see our vegetables and our branded boxes displayed so prominently and beautifully at a local grocery store. 

It's so fun to see our branded boxes displayed so prominently! Makes us very proud! Thanks, Central Market!

At Central Market on Lamar, there is this very cute cartoon of Farmer Brenton. How do we know it's him? It's wearing the Brenton uniform! Denim shirt and green JBG hat.

 
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