Food Facts & Fun

Spice pictures will delight you with brilliant colors and aromas from around the world. Check out our spice album and learn how to flavor your food.

By Candace Keener & Marie Bobel

If you love history, mystery and happy endings, you'll enjoy learning about autumn apples. One of the earliest cultivated fruits, the apple has come a long way from its crabapple-like ancestors. Most apples have long and respected pedigrees.

By Sara Elliott

Cider is the signature beverage of autumn, but you may be a little confused about the difference between apple cider and apple juice. Don't worry, it's a common question and has an answer that differs all over the United States.

By Sara Elliott

Steamy summer days and yellow ears of grilled corn are behind us. The produce aisle is stocked with red and blue Indian corn. Can you actually eat it? What's the story behind those colorful ears?

By Victoria Vogt

Depending on how you look at it, the practice of genetically engineering crops is either a boon for civilization and the greatest hope to feed a hungry world, or a dangerous interference with nature that threatens both our health and our ecosystem.

By Emilie Sennebogen & Gallagher Flinn

From using seawater to grow crops in the middle of the desert to helping us colonize distant worlds, greenhouses are undoubtedly going to be an integral part of humanity's future.

By Chris Obenschain

S'mores are the stuff memories are made of. But who created this ooey, gooey, chocolatey sandwich?

By Victoria Vogt

What's the opposite of fast food? Slow food -- food that's been prepared from locally grown ingredients and reflects a certain culture and its history. It's the kind of food you savor, not scarf down in your car on the way to your kid's soccer game.

By Debra Ronca

Rich in vitamin C and low in fat, cranberries have been used for centuries in everything from medicine to a dye for clothes and fabrics. But what are some of the myths surrounding this popular fruit? And what can you do with it today?

By Emilie Sennebogen

Even if you can't tell the difference between a potato peeler and a paring knife, chances are there's some type of canned food in your kitchen pantry. And having a good mix can be beneficial to you.

By Sara Elliott

We may take canned food for granted. Certainly, there's nothing simpler than popping open a can of chicken soup and nuking it in the microwave for dinner. But we owe this dinnertime solution to French chef Nicolas Appert.

By Chris Obenschain

If you're a smart grocery shopper, you can hit the market once a week for perishables and stock up just a few times annually for canned and boxed goods. These perennial items have long shelf lives, but will one last longer?

By Chris Obenschain

You can't judge a book by its cover, but can you judge a brand of pasta by the box it comes in? Food packaging makes an environmental, marketing and nutritional impact. What are the basics of the jugs, bags and boxes?

By Chris Obenschain

The food industry has become all about creating an abundant supply of food for less money, and this is where fillers come in. But what are they, and why are they in your food?

By Emilie Sennebogen

It's hard to beat a loaf of freshly baked bread; the aromas that fill your house, the steam rising off the right-out-of-the-oven loaf. Here are some easy recipes to get that yummy goodness from scratch, without the machine.

By Emilie Sennebogen

The sugar cookie may seem like the unimaginative half-brother of the much-ballyhooed chocolate chip cookie, but it actually has its own long history and distinguished pedigree.

By Sara Elliott

The next time you raise your glass or can of cola, say a silent thank you to the Coca-Cola Company. Even if your preference is Pepsi Cola or another lesser-known brand, it all began with Coke.

By Sara Elliott

Even before Louis Pasteur made his breakthrough with pasteurization way back in 1862, science has had a close relationship with food. And that relationship continues to this day with modern food science.

By Emilie Sennebogen

Potatoes? Beef? Salt? Isn't that what comprises the sack of fast food you just paid for? Sort of, along with xanthan gum, caramel color and some other stuff you probably won't find in your kitchen.

By William Harris

Ever wonder why you hated broccoli as a kid but now eat every spear on your plate? The answer: the evolving palate.

By Sarah Siddons & Sara Elliott

If you've seen someone performing an actual wine tasting, you know there's a lot of swirling, sniffing, sipping and spitting going on, but how exactly does one determine specific notes and flavors?

By Elizabeth Abbess

The big shot chefs on TV make cooking seem so glamorous. And they also make it look so easy. What does it take to become chief of cuisine at a restaurant?

By Charles W. Bryant

If you're a wine buff, you may have a surprising number of careers open to you. A sommelier is one of the most prestigious. So how do you make it happen?

By Martha Barksdale

A perfect storm of climate and soil conditions produces the Marlborough region's Sauvignon Blanc -- the most famous New Zealand wine and one of the most popular in the world.

By Sarah Siddons

Nelson, New Zealand, is a tiny area that produces some big wines. You might have to actually travel there to taste them, but it's a trip well worth taking.

By Rosalind Jackson