Garden strawberry

The garden strawberry is a common plant of the genus Fragaria which is cultivated worldwide for its fruit, the (common) strawberry. The fruit is widely appreciated, mainly for its characteristic aroma but also for its bright red color, and it is consumed in large quantities—either fresh, or in prepared foods such as preserves, fruit juice, pies, ice creams, milk shake, etc. Artificial strawberry aroma is also widely used in all sorts of industrialized food products.

The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France in 1740 via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America , which was noted for its flavor, and Fragaria chiloensis from Chile and Argentina brought by Amédée-François Frézier, which was noted for its large size.

Cultivars of Fragaria × ananassa have replaced, in commercial production, the woodland strawberry, which was the first strawberry species cultivated in the early 17th century.

The strawberry is technically an accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries (achenes) but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries.Accessory fruits were sometimes in the past referred to as "false" or "spurious" fruits, but those terms have been criticized as "inapt" and are not used by botanists today

Cultivation
Closeup of a healthy, red strawberry

Strawberry cultivars vary remarkably in size, color, flavor, shape, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant. Some vary in foliage, and some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. In most cases the flowers appear hermaphroditic in structure, but function as either male or female.

For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and generally distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two general models, annual plasticulture or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds.A small amount of strawberries are also produced in greenhouses during the off season.
A large strawberry field with plastic covering the earth around the strawberry plants.
A garden using the plasticulture method

The bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system. In this method, raised beds are formed each year, fumigated, and covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants, usually obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering, and irrigation tubing is run underneath. Runners are removed from the plants as they appear, to encourage the plants to put most of their energy into fruit development. At the end of the harvest season, the plastic is removed and the plants are plowed into the ground.Because strawberry plants more than a year or two old begin to decline in productivity and fruit quality, this system of replacing the plants each year allows for improved yields and denser plantings. However, because it requires a longer growing season to allow for establishment of the plants each year, and because of the increased costs in terms of forming and covering the mounds and purchasing plants each year, it is not always practical in all areas.

The other major method, which uses the same plants from year to year growing in rows or on mounds, is most common in colder climates. It has lower investment costs, and lower overall maintenance requirements.Yields are typically lower than in plasticulture.

A third method, uses a compost sock. Plants grown in compost socks have been shown to produce significantly higher oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), flavonoids, anthocyanins, fructose, glucose, sucrose, malic acid, and citric acid than fruit produced in the black plastic mulch or matted row systems.Similar results in an earlier 2003 study conducted by the US Dept of Agriculture, at the Agricultural Research Service, in Beltsville Maryland, confirms how compost plays a role in the bioactive qualities of two strawberry cultivars.
A closeup view of hundreds of red strawberries.
Fragaria × ananassa 'Chandler,' a short-day commercial cultivar grown in California

Strawberries are often grouped according to their flowering habit.Traditionally, this has consisted of a division between "June-bearing" strawberries, which bear their fruit in the early summer and "ever-bearing" strawberries, which often bear several crops of fruit throughout the season.More recently, research has shown that strawberries actually occur in three basic flowering habits: short day, long day, and day neutral. These refer to the day length sensitivity of the plant and the type of photoperiod which induces flower formation. Day neutral cultivars produce flowers regardless of the photoperiod.

Strawberries may also be propagated by seed, though this is primarily a hobby activity, and is not widely practiced commercially. A few seed-propagated cultivars have been developed for home use, and research into growing from seed commercially is ongoing. Seeds (achenes) are acquired either via commercial seed suppliers, or by collecting and saving them from the fruit.


Most strawberry plants are now fed with artificial fertilizers, both before and after harvesting, and often before planting in plasticulture.

The harvesting and cleaning process has not changed substantially over time. The delicate strawberries are still harvested by hand. Grading and packing often occurs in the field, rather than in a processing facility.In large operations, strawberries are cleaned by means of water streams and shaking conveyor belts.

Azuki bean

The azuki bean (アズキ, formerly spelled adzuki or aduki) is an annual vine widely grown throughout East Asia and the Himalayas for its small (approximately 5 mm) bean. The cultivars most familiar in north-east Asia have a uniform red color, but white, black, gray and variously mottled varieties are also known. Scientists presume Vigna angularis var. nipponensis is the progenitor. Genetic evidence indicates that the azuki bean was first domesticated in the Himalayas. It was cultivated in China and Korea before 1000 BC. It was later taken to Japan, where it is now the second most popular legume after the soybean.

Names

The name azuki is a transliteration of the native Japanese name. Japanese also has a Chinese loanword, Shōzu (小豆), which means "small bean" (its counterpart "large bean" (大豆; Daizu) being the soybean). It is common to write 小豆 in kanji but pronounce it as azuki About this sound listen (help·info).

In China, the corresponding name (Chinese: 小豆; pinyin: xiǎodòu) is still used in botanical or agricultural parlance. However in everyday Chinese, the more common terms are hongdou (紅豆; hóngdòu) and chidou (赤豆; chìdòu), both meaning "red bean", because almost all Chinese cultivars are uniformly red. In English-language discussions of Chinese topics, the term "red bean" is often used (especially in reference to red bean paste), but in other contexts this usage can cause confusion with other beans that are also red. In normal contexts, "red cowpeas" have been used to refer to this bean. The Korean name is pat (hangul: 팥), and in Vietnamese it is called đậu đỏ (literally: red bean). In some parts of India, they are referred to as "Red Chori"

Uses

In East Asian cuisine the azuki bean is commonly eaten sweetened. In particular, it is often boiled with sugar, resulting in red bean paste (an), a very common ingredient in all of these cuisines; it is also common to add flavoring to the bean paste, such as chestnut.
Yōkan (羊羹, Yōkan) is a thick jellied dessert made of Azuki bean paste, agar, and sugar.
Pastry decorated with sweetened Azuki beans

Red bean paste is used in many Chinese foods, such as tangyuan, zongzi, mooncakes, baozi, and red bean ice. It is also used as a filling for Japanese sweets such as anmitsu, taiyaki and daifuku. A more liquid version, using azuki beans boiled with sugar and a pinch of salt, produces a sweet dish called red bean soup. Azuki beans are also commonly eaten sprouted, or boiled in a hot, tea-like drink. Some Asian cultures enjoy red bean paste as a filling or topping for various kinds of waffles, pastries, baked buns or biscuits.

In Japan, rice with azuki beans (赤飯; sekihan) is traditionally cooked for auspicious occasions. Azuki beans are also used to produce amanattō, and as a popular flavour of ice cream.

On October 20, 2009, Pepsi Japan released an Azuki-flavored Pepsi product .

Azuki beans, along with butter and sugar, form the basis of the popular Somali supper dish cambuulo.

In Gujarat, India, they are known as Chori

Nutrition

Beans have significant amounts of fiber and soluble fiber, with one cup of cooked beans providing between nine to thirteen grams of fiber. Soluble fiber can help lower blood cholesterol.Beans are also high in protein, complex carbohydrates and iron

Azuki Beans more info

European Pear

The European Pear Pyrus communis is a species of pear native to central and eastern Europe and southwest Asia. The European Pear is one of the most important fruits of temperate regions, being the species from which most orchard pear cultivars grown in Europe, North America and Australia are developed. Two other species of pear, the Nashi Pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, and the Chinese white pear bai li, Pyrus × bretschneideri, are more widely used in eastern Asia.

Origin

The cultivated European pear (Pyrus communis subsp. communis) is thought to be descended from two subspecies of wild pear, categorized as P. communis subsp. pyraster (syn. P. pyraster) and P. communis subsp. caucasica (syn. P. caucasica), which are interfertile with the domesticated species. Archeological evidence shows that pears "were collected from the wild long before their introduction into cultivation," according to Zohary and Hopf.[1] Although they point to finds of pears in sites in Neolithic and Bronze Age European sites, "reliable information on pear cultivation first appears in the works of the Greek and the Roman writers."[2] Theophrastus, Cato the Elder and Pliny the Elder all present information about the cultivation and grafting of pears.

Cultivation

European pear trees are not quite as hardy as apples, but nearly so. They do however require some winter chilling to produce fruit. For a list of Lepidoptera whose caterpillars feed on pear tree leaves, see List of Lepidoptera that feed on pear trees.

For best and most consistent quality, European Pears are picked when the fruit matures, but before they are ripe. Fruit allowed to ripen on the tree often drops before it can be picked and in any event will be hard to pick without bruising. They store (and ship) well in their mature but unripe state if kept cold and can be ripened later, a process called bletting. Some varieties, such as 'Beurre d'Anjou', ripen only with exposure to cold.

Fermented pear juice is called perry. In Britain the place name Perry can indicate the historical presence of pear trees.

There are relatively few cultivars of European or Asian pear grown worldwide. Only about 20-25 European and 10-20 Asian cultivars represent virtually all the pears of commerce. Almost all European cultivars were chance seedlings or selections originating in western Europe, mostly France. All of the Asian cultivars originated in Japan and China. 'Bartlett' is the most common pear cultivar in the world, and represents about 75% of US pear production.

Major cultivars

In the United States, 95% of reported pear production in 2004 came from four cultivars:[3]

* 50% Williams' Bon Chrétien (England, ca. 1770; a summer pear commonly called Bartlett in the U.S. and Canada, and Williams elsewhere)
* 34% Beurre d'Anjou (France, a winter pear commonly called just d'Anjou)
* 10% Beurre Bosc (Also known as Kaiser Alexander, a winter pear commonly called just Bosc or Kaiser)
* 1% Doyenné du Comice (France, 1849; commonly called Comice pears)

Pomegranate

A pomegranate is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to between five and eight meters tall. The pomegranate is native to the Iranian Plateau, and has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, North India, the drier parts of southeast Asia, peninsular Malaysia, the East Indies, the Mediterranean and Southern Europe and tropical Africa.Introduced into Latin America and California by Spanish settlers in 1769, pomegranate is now cultivated in parts of California and Arizona for juice production.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is typically in season from September to February. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is in season from March to May.

An ancient fruit, pomegranate is mentioned in Europe as early as the Iron-Age Greek Mythology in the Homeric hymns. Yet, it has still to reach mainstream prominence as a consumer fruit in commercial markets of North America and the Western Hemisphere.

Cultivars

More than 500 cultivars of pomegranate have been named, but such fruits evidently have considerable synonymy in which the same genotype is named differently across regions of the world.

Several characteristics between pomegranate genotypes vary for identification, consumer preference, preferred use, and marketing, the most important of which are fruit size, exocarp color (ranging from yellow to purple, with pink and red most common), aril color (ranging from white to red), hardness of seed, maturity, juice content and its acidity, sweetness, and astringency.

Foliage and fruit
The leaves are opposite or sub-opposite, glossy, narrow oblong, entire, 3–7 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are bright red, 3 cm in diameter, with four to five petals (often more on cultivated plants). Some fruitless varieties are grown for the flowers alone. The edible fruit is a berry and is between a lemon and a grapefruit in size, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded hexagonal shape, and has thick reddish skin and around 600 seeds.The seeds and surrounding pulp, ranging in color from white to deep red, are called arils. There are some cultivars which have been introduced that have a range of pulp colors such as purple.

Punica granatum nana is a dwarf variety of P. granatum popularly used as bonsai trees and as a patio plant. The only other species in the genus Punica is the Socotran pomegranate (Punica protopunica), which is endemic to the island of Socotra. It differs in having pink (not red) flowers and smaller, less sweet fruit. Pomegranates are drought-tolerant, and can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates. In wetter areas, they are prone to root decay from fungal diseases. They are tolerant of moderate frost, down to about −10°C (14°F).[citation needed]

The name "pomegranate" derives from Latin pomum ("apple") and granatus ("seeded"). This has influenced the common name for pomegranate in many languages (e.g., German Granatapfel, seeded apple). In early English, the pomegranate was known as "apple of Grenada" -- a term which today survives only in heraldic blazons. This was probably a folk etymology, confusing Latin granatus with the Spanish city of Granada. The genus name Punica is named for the Phoenicians, who were active in broadening its cultivation, partly for religious reasons. In classical Latin, where "malum" was broadly applied to many apple-like fruits, the pomegranate's name was malum punicum or malum granatum, the latter giving rise to the Italian name melograno, or less commonly melagrana...Read more

Fresh mango juices

Ingredients:
2 ripe mangos
½ cup sugar
½ cup water
½ to 1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup boiling water

Method:
Preparing the syrup by dissolving ½ cup of water with ½ cup of sugar. Boil until dissolved well. Peel the mangoes and cut into small pieces -- It should be about ½ cup of mangoes. Put it in the blender. Add boiling water, syrup and salt. Blend thoroughly. It should give a strong sweet taste since ice will be added when serving.