Photo: via Eat Me Daily

Food News, Things We Crave, Green Your Eats, and Tips, Tools, and Techniques. Check out this week’s tips.



Food News

• California’s Farm-to-Family program encourages farmers to donate ugly fruits and veggies to local food banks (via The Ethicurean)
• More industrial animal production making the news. This time? Chile’s salmon farms on the verge of collapse (via Civil Eats)
• “Ask Before you Eat” — a new campaign to make sure your Louisiana crawfish is local (via Slashfood)
• NY Time Dining Editor Pete Wells shares an (adorable) anecdote about cooking with his son, Dexter (via NY Times)

Things We Crave

• Rhythm and cooking! Have the kiddos help keep the beat with these hybrid drumstick/mixing spoons from Fred & Friends (via Tastespotting)
• Adorable personalized water bottles! (via Oh Dee Doh)
• Oh boy! Korean BBQ and Sushi Train toys from Korea. These are hysterical… and look kinda fun! (via Eat Me Daily)

Green Your Eats

• Turn your lawn into an edible garden! ChowMama Michelle did it in her old house (before returning to Brooklyn). In fact, the pics used in this story happen to be of her old house (coincidence!). We’ve eaten from that garden—perfection! (via Serious Eats)
• Tomatoes, squash, and corn are among the many in-season veggies. Check out this guide on all three (via San Francisco Chronicle).
• It’s all the rage, but make sure you do it safely! Is there Bisphenol-A in your home canning? (via Tree Hugger)

Tips, Tools, and Techniques

• Ideas for how to make your own produce bags (via Oh Dee Doh)
• Love this! Super quick, no cook apps that you can make after work (via The Kitchn)
• The Casual Kitchen considers why cooking at home isn’t always as cheap as you want it to be, complete with solutions for saving more at the grocery store (via Cheap Healthy Good)
• Really—you can freeze eggs?! If you’re down, might be helpful when you’ve got too many about to expire or you have a bunch of yolks or whites leftover from a recipe that calls for only one. Learn more AND discover Freeze Happy, a blog devoted to freeze friendly ingredients and recipes. Great parent resource. (via Serious Eats)
• Another great resource!! Michelle taught us all about Chinese flavor profiles and five spice. Now learn how to make simple spice blends from around the world (via The Lazy Chef at Eats)
• I LOVE deviled eggs. My Mediterranean version is a cocktail party staple. Here are some other great ideas for a new take on an old standby (via Chicago Tribune)