Monday Musings

  There are  two types of blueberry bushes: Highbush and Lowbush . I’m happy with my tall Highbush variant, which is growing successfully in the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7b (plant zone range 4–7). Elizabeth White and Frederick Coville, a USDA botanist, teamed up to cultivate wild blueberries, which are native to North America.  The initial trials began on the Fenwick (White’s forebearers) New Jersey family farm,  Whitesbog . In 1912, they successfully grew field plantings of blueberries. Their first commercial crop of Highbush blueberries was sold in 1916. The Blueberry Hill  cookbook, with the iconic Blueberry Buckle recipe, was published in 1959. I was unable to locate the original form, but I have included a version from the same era. In 1974, Congress passed a joint resolution officially recognizing July as “Blueberry Month.” By 1990, blueberry production reached 100 million pounds per year. The holiday was further formalized by the USDA as “National Bluebe...

Today is the day to celebrate the savory onion. This vegetable is an ancient cultivar originating in Central Asia and grown by humans for over 5000 years. They were first harvested in 3500 BC; the wild variety grew worldwide. In 1500 BC, the Egyptians believed that onions represented eternity because of their spherical shape and inner concentric circles. Their culture worshipped the onion and used them in the ritual burials of the pharaohs, decorating the monarch’s tombs. In the United States, the National Onion Association was founded in Ohio in 1913. New York City, now the Big Apple, used to be called the Big Onion because you could peel off layer after layer, never touching the center. Onions are used in culinary creations from country cooking to gourmet innovations: different onion types add varying flavors. And not only do they taste great, but they’re also good for you: they’re low calorie yet high in antioxidants, dietary fiber, and Vitamins C and B6.  Their medicinal proper...