Spring on the Silk Road Means: Black Locust Blossoms

Spring has finally come to the Central Atlantic and all the leaves have opened out into a sea of green. In our area, dairy cows graze and suckle their young in fields of buttercups and the first cascades of wild roses are blooming on the edge of the woods. This time of year also means that the fleeting blooming of tree flowers is also upon … Read more

Salted Eggs Revealed

Its been a few months since I put up my salted eggs, and over the holidays I noticed that the water they were in had turned a rusty brown from the spices used in preservation. This meant that it was time to harvest them. I carefully removed a few raw (but preserved) eggs from the jar. A gentle shake of the egg allowed me to … Read more

Lady Lizards for Lunch

A news item caught my eye recently that blended two of my favorite subjects – cuisine and biology.  Long story short is that a species of asexual lizard previously undocumented by scientists has been discovered in Southern Vietnam recently.  Neat thing about the story is that the lizard was discovered in a restaurant – grilled and plated and ready to be consumed. A Vietnamese scientist stopped for a … Read more