food

The biggest attraction at the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., is always a giant, 1,000-pound sculpture crafted from butter. Once this year's show wraps up, all that beautiful butter will go right into a manure pit to become methane gas.

What's it like to live--and cook--on Mars? To find out, researchers are simulating Mars missions in Russia, and on the slopes of a Hawaiian volcano. Kim Binsted talks about her study to whip up tastier space food. Porcini mushroom risotto, anyone? And sleep expert Charles Czeisler talks about how humans adapt to the 24.65-hour Martian day.

Payments to farmers survived in the latest extension of the farm bill. But not all of the groups that argued for the end of the subsidies see this as a loss. They've just been given nine more months to make their case to Congress.

The year's dry, hot weather forced aquaculturists to spend a lot more to keep their fish healthy and fed. For US catfish farmers, though, already suffering from competition with Asia, the drought has been an especially hard blow.

When food passes its sell-by date, it's swept from the supermarket shelf. But that doesn't mean it's not safe to eat. Taste and smell are usually better indicators of a food's safety. And some items, like canned foods, can even last years or decades after their expiration date.

"If it's not me, who's it going to be?" asks Colorado school cafeteria manager Kathy Del Tonto. After serving processed foods in her cafeterias for years, she realized that reducing childhood obesity can begin with her. She now has the lunch ladies making 95 percent of meals from scratch.

Did you know that the human overbite may have evolved after people began using forks and knives? In Consider the Fork, author Bee Wilson traces how kitchen tools--from knives to pots to gas stoves--have changed over time, and how they have influenced what, and how, we eat.

The Italian city isn't big on Christmas glitz and glamor. Instead, Rome saves its holiday shine for the dinner table. The Christmas day meal might start with lasagna before moving on to turkey or guinea hen. And it wouldn't be complete without plenty of sweets.

Rye was all but pushed off the market by sweeter, corn-based bourbon after Prohibition, but it might be coming back, no illegal still required. Bartenders from coast to coast seem to prefer its intense flavor for their cocktail creations.

There's snow across much of the country this weekend. In eastern North Carolina, where it doesn't snow a lot, snowflakes are an occasion for some folks to flock outside, scooping up what falls to make a particularly seasonal treat.

When we asked listeners to tell us what they ate on Christmas Day, we found a lot of commonality — puddings, cookies, egg nog — and a few quirks, including a drink called a "Holiday Harvey," and an odd Christmas Day sandwich made of biscuits, salami, cookies, and butter.

That trademark brew, Budweiser, is known to the world as the "King of Beers," and the Busch family was once considered practically royalty. Their early success led to a reign that lasted 150 years, but the end, when it came, wasn't so glorious.