Chemistry professor and syndicated Washington Post food columnist Robert L. Wolke provides over 100 reliable and witty explanations, while debunking misconceptions and helping you to see through confusing advertising and labeling.

    But in Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, "The Price of Tomatoes," investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. Fields are sprayed with more than one hundred different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and green and artificially gassed until their skins acquire a marketable hue. Modern plant breeding has tripled yields, but has also produced fruits with dramatically reduced amounts of calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C, and tomatoes that have fourteen times more sodium than the tomatoes our parents enjoyed. The relentless drive for low costs has fostered a thriving modern-day slave trade in the United States. How have we come to this point?   Estabrook traces the supermarket tomato from its birthplace in the deserts of Peru to the impoverished town of Immokalee, Florida, a.k.a. the tomato capital of the United States. He visits the laboratories of seedsmen trying to develop varieties that can withstand the rigors of agribusiness and still taste like a garden tomato, and then moves on to commercial growers who operate on tens of thousands of acres, and eventually to a hillside field in Pennsylvania, where he meets an obsessed farmer who produces delectable tomatoes for the nation's top restaurants.Throughout Tomatoland, Estabrook presents a who's who cast of characters in the tomato industry: the avuncular octogenarian whose conglomerate grows one out of every eight tomatoes eaten in the United States; the ex-Marine who heads the group that dictates the size, color, and shape of every tomato shipped out of Florida; the U.S. attorney who has doggedly prosecuted human traffickers for the past decade; and the Guatemalan peasant who came north to earn money for his parents' medical bills and found himself enslaved for two years.Tomatoland reads like a suspenseful whodunit as well as an expose of today's agribusiness systems and the price we pay as a society when we take taste and thought out of our food purchases.

    Nature enthusiasts and fans of fine literature alike will find Beautiful Swimmers a timeless and enchanting study in the tradition of Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard. In these pages, we are immersed not only in the world of the Chesapeake's most intriguing crustaceans, but in the winds and tides of the Bay itself and the struggles of the watermen who make their living in pursuit of the succulent, pugnacious blue crab. "This is a book of rare grace and meditation, one that ranges from adventure to zoology, with no small measure of mystery and history." --Miami Herald "Beautiful Swimmers is wonderful to read and a distinguished addition to our literature." --Larry McMurtry

    An overwhelmingly gorgeous book, packed with simple and delicious recipes for salads--and much more!There's nothing a Mandy's salad can't fix. Want an explosion of colour, texture, flavour and fabulousness? Look no further. Inside the pages of this stunning cookbook (and the Mandy's restaurants it's named after) lies everything you need to take your salad game from a meh-maybe, to wooooah, baby!! Mandy's gourmet salads are a jewel of Montreal's (jam-packed) food scene. What started as a 3ft counter at the back of Mimi & Coco clothing store is now an 8 location success story, with ongoing expansion in every direction. Behind Mandy's are the irresistable Wolfe sisters, Mandy and Rebecca. Mandy is in charge of menu inspiration and creation; Rebecca leads the design of all their restaurant locations. More is more is the mantra for both: more colour, more texture, more vibrancy, more life!In Mandy's Gourmet Salads, Mandy and Rebecca talk you through how to create their coveted salads at home, including easy prep steps for essential ingredients, how to mix their famous dressings, and how to combine flavours and textures to create a salad masterpiece. Also inside are recipes for Mandy's nutritious, filling and fantastic grain bowls (for those who want a bit more sustenance) as well as chapters dedicated to smoothies and sweets (sharing Mandy's famous chocolate chip cookie recipe for the first time...). Perfectly timed for fresh summer living, Mandy's Gourmet Salads is a feast, for the eyes as well as the tastebuds!

    So began his quest to hone not just his homemade baguette—which later beat out professional bakeries to win the "Best Baguette of D.C."—but his knowledge of bread, from seed to table. For the next four years, Fromartz traveled across the United States and Europe, perfecting his sourdough in California, his whole grain rye in Berlin, and his country wheat in the South of France. Along the way, he met historians, millers, farmers, wheat geneticists, sourdough biochemists, and everyone in between, learning about the history of breadmaking, the science of fermentation, and more. The result is an informative yet personal account of bread and breadbaking, complete with detailed recipes, tips, and beautiful photographs. Entertaining and inspiring, this book will be a touchstone for a new generation of bakers and a must-read for anyone who wants to take a deeper look at this deceptively ordinary, exceptionally delicious staple: handmade bread.