• Purslane or verdolaga - weed or vegetable?
• UC support helps new farmers market get off the ground
• We are what we eat

Purslane or verdolaga - weed or vegetable?
In most of the United States, common purslane (verdolaga in Spanish) is considered a weed.  It grows in gardens, among vegetable and tree crops, and in lawns.  However, in many Latin American countries, Europe, and North Africa, it is used as a versatile green vegetable. Young plants, leaves and stem tips can be steamed or cooked, added to soups and stews, or eaten raw in salads. The weedy type grows close to the ground and has very fleshy or succulent leaves and stems while the cultivated type grows more upright and has thinner leaves. One cup of raw common purslane is only 7 calories, yet it provides 15 percent of the daily requirement of Vitamin C. Crude protein is reported to be about 20 percent. Furthermore, the plant is one of the highest non-animal sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease. You can eat the purslane growing wild in your garden, where you have not applied any pesticides.  On occasion, you may find it at local farmers markets in the summer. Wash the plant first, check for insects that may be tunneling in the leaves, and remove those leaves as well as any thick stems. Try this recipe using common purslane: Cook purslane in boiling water for about two minutes or steam for about five minutes. Drain. In a skillet, heat two teaspoons of olive oil. Add one cup of chopped purslane. Add two tablespoons of diced onion and cook for one minute.  Add four ounces of diced green chilies and two fresh tomatoes (chopped). Stir to blend. Cover and simmer on low heat for three to five minutes. Serve warm with flour tortillas and cheese. For more information, see the UC Integrated Pest Management’s pest note “Common Purslane” at http://ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7461.html, or contact Cheryl Wilen at (619) 694-2845, cawilen@ucdavis.edu. Tip by Dohee Kim, (323) 260-3880, deekim@ucdavis.edu.

UC support helps new farmers market get off the ground
There’s a liquor store down the street from the Hinton Community Center in southwest Fresno, but until recently, nowhere to purchase produce. Now farm-fresh fruits and vegetables are available in the heart of this low-income African-American neighborhood at a weekly farmers market. The new market is organized by the African-American Farmers of California. Will Scott, Jr., president of the organization, produces vegetables on a 45-acre Fresno farm. In the early morning hours of every Friday and Saturday, he loads his wares and travels 200 miles to farmers markets in Oakland. He and other African-American farmers are working to create a market for their produce closer to home. At the Hinton market, held each Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Scott and members of his family staff a stall with vegetables artfully arranged in a variety of baskets. A few other farmers have joined the market, including Ali Shabaz, who sells a wide variety of medicinal herbs. The new farmers market has support from a grant supplied by the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program to a team that includes UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Richard Molinar and Fresno Metro Ministry, a faith-based community development organization. “It’s clear that the market is not yet self-sustaining,” said Jeremy Hoffer of Metro Ministry. “The grant is allowing us to help with marketing to increase attendance and increase sales.” Molinar hopes the concept will spread. “There are positive benefits all around,” he said. “A small, neighborhood farmers market offers families the produce they need to eat a healthier diet, it helps our local small-scale farmers and it builds a sense of community.” For more information, contact Richard Molinar at (559) 456-7555, rhmolinar@ucdavis.edu. Tip by Jeannette Warnert, (559) 241-7514, jwarnert@ucop.edu.

We are what we eat
If we are what we eat, then we are corn. So says journalism professor Michael Pollan of UC Berkeley, who authored “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,” selected as the 2006 Campus Community Book Project at UC Davis. The book follows the human food chain from the earth to the plate. Corn appears in most of our food, Pollan says. Farm animals eat corn and we eat the farm animals. It sweetens everything from soft drinks and frozen yogurt to canned fruit and cake mixes. Read the labels, he says, and if you can decipher “the chemical names that it (corn) travels under, corn is what you will find.”  It waxes our cucumbers, coats our cardboard, and “is the shine on the cover of the magazine that catches your eye by the checkout,” he writes.  It’s disguised in everyday products such as toothpaste, disposable diapers, trash bags, cleansers, matches and batteries. Pollan, who will be on the UC Davis campus on Wednesday, Nov. 29 as the Plant Genomics Program’s Distinguished Speaker for 2006 and as a special event speaker at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, considers eating an “agricultural act” as well as “an ecological act and political act.” What's at stake in our eating choices, he says, is not only our own and our children's health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth. UC Davis has formed faculty seminars, experimental courses and campus groups to discuss “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” the fifth Campus Community Book Project since 2002. More information is available on these Web sites: Plant Genomics Program at http://pgp.ucdavis.edu/; Mondavi Center at http://www.mondaviarts.org/; and the professor’s Web site at http://www.michaelpollan.com/. Tip by Kathy Keatley Garvey, (530) 754-6894, kegarvey@ucdavis.edu.