folate

Milk. It was the beverage of choice growing up as a child in our house. Never skim, sometimes raw, and with any meal of the day. In fact, cow milk is the beverage of choice in most American households.

Arugula is also known as “rocket” and is originally a Eurasian cruciferous plant related to cauliflower, kale, and mustard. It grows wild in Asia and the Mediterranean basin and takes its name from the Latin term “eurca,” meaning caterpillar, because of the plant’s hairy stems.

Wheat berries are the true whole wheat.  They are the complete grain that contains the bran, germ and endosperm. They can be grown into wheat grass, ground into flour or used as side dishes and in salads. They are rich in nutrients, making wheat berries a superfood that benefits the entire body. Wheat berries have several varieties; the Hard Red Spring and Hard Red Winter have a brown tint and are high in protein.

Couscous originated in the Berber tribes of North Africa and became a staple throughout the region. The Arabic word “kishusu” was a derivative of the Berber language. It came into existence between the11th century fall of the Zirid Kingdom and the rise of the Almohads in the 13th century. The first published mention of the food was discovered in an Arab cookbook in the 14th century. It was a popular food because it was easily prepared and convenient for nomadic tribes.

The temperatures are on the rise, flowers are in bloom and farmer’s markets are stocked full of this season’s finest. If you look, you will find asparagus most dominantly known in its green variety, but also available in white and purple, stocked on the shelves. This nutrient dense vegetable is only available in the produce aisle of your local supermarket from February to June, with its peak harvest in April, when the price for these gems may come down a bit.

Why all the hype about asparagus?

Wild rice is not actually rice at all, but the seed from a grass of semi-aquatic species found from southern Canada to the eastern United States along the Atlantic coastal marshes. It was the staple food for the Ojibwa and Chippewa people who gathered it by canoe and fire parched the seeds.

Green beans aren’t exactly the “coolest” vegetable of the hour, but there’s more to this crispy legume than meets the eye. 

Also referred to as “snap beans” or “string beans,” green beans have been gracing dinner plates for centuries. Though we don’t usually give green beans as much attention as say, kale or sprouts, they are actually incredibly high in nutrients and even have some “superfood” qualities. 

The walnut tree is found from the Balkans to China. It is a slow-growing tree, and its fruit has been eaten by Europeans for more than 8,000 years. The ancient Greeks began cultivating the trees and the practice spread throughout Europe. The walnut tree came to North America with the English settlers in the early 19th century –  and thus the walnut got its name the English walnut. Today the largest groves of walnut trees are found in Kyrgyzstan at high elevations.

Love them or hate them, beets are an incredibly healthy root. Starchy, sweet, and bursting with nature's nutrients, beetroots are an ancient food with many purposes. Belonging to the same family as chard and spinach, they contain as many phytonutrients as well as the addition of long sought after plant pigments. If you find yourself beet curious, read on to satisfy your fascination.

The production of molasses was developed in India in approximately 500 B.C.E.  Arab invaders brought the product to Spain, and a century later it came to the West Indies with Christopher Columbus. The British began cultivating sugar cane in Barbados in 1646, and by the end of the century molasses was a commodity. It is not clear when blackstrap molasses was first used for human consumption.