When developing a new variety, breeders strive for an apple with superior eating quality that is firm, crisp and juicy with a balanced sweet-tart flavor. It must also be attractive with good color, size and appearance. To be considered a good variety, an apple must bear fruit early, produce well, not be prone to sunburn and be disease-resistant. It should also store well and taste great when it comes out of cold storage.

Sound like a tall order? Not for the SweeTango, one of the newest apple varieties on the market. Those who have sampled it say it is the best eating apple they have ever tasted and it also is great for pies, according to most reports.

SweeTango apples have been hitting the marketplace in a few big cities, including Seattle. Researchers at the University of Minnesota breeding program spent more than 20 years developing it.

“A lot of people are asking for SweeTango apples. Like Honeycrisp, when you bite into it you get a burst of juice and a crispy texture. It has a very nice sugar/acid balance with a very complex flavor,” Alison DeMarree of DeMarree Fruit Farm in Williamson, N.Y., located on the shores of Lake Ontario, told Foodie News.

“SweeTango is an early-season producer, about 10 days ahead of Honeycrisp, around the first week of September. Few premium apples come out around that time, when produce managers are eager for something new to start the fall season,” DeMarree explained.

SweeTango is a closed release managed variety which means growers are required to develop a plan for how much they will plant and how it will be packed and marketed. With open release apple varieties, anyone can buy a tree, plant it and market the fruit as they choose.

Because SweeTango is a managed variety, the breeders who developed it get a production royalty for every tree produced. In addition, for every bushel marketed, a few cents go back to the breeders to maintain a viable breeding program. Consumers benefit too, as one retail price is set across the country.

SweeTango was developed by the same breeders that developed the Honeycrisp. It was created by combining the Honeycrisp with the Zestar.

According to DeMarree, the advantage for growers when investing in a closed managed variety is that they control the amount of fruit so that the market is not oversupplied, which would drive the price down. When growers control the quality and quantity this way, they are much more likely to be able to recoup their investment.

By 2012 more SweeTango trees will come into production and the fruit will become available nationwide. The most popular fruit in America, apples are nutritious, versatile, portable and available year-round. To learn more, go to:

• SweeTango site
• SweeTango Facebook
• U.S. Apple Association: Apple Guide

"It's a fast and easy way to break out of your culinary comfort zone and have a whole lot of fun while you’re at it," notes the site CheeseForMe.com.

“We can create anything when it comes to custom stuffing. We put together whatever the customer has a taste for and layer it between the birds as they prefer,” said Catlett.

Considered by many in the industry to be the “Gold Standard” when it comes to Turduckens, Hebert’s uses only top-quality stuffing ingredients, seasonings and birds; foregoes preservatives; and does not inject its turkeys with seasonings or marinades. Instead, the delectable flavor of each Turducken is dependent exclusively on the seasonings of the stuffing within it.

The majority of the Turkduckens produced by Hebert’s are ordered online and shipped frozen on dry ice in coolers to customers although some are sold fresh locally.

“People love to have something that’s already prepared. When you order one of our Turduckens, all you have to do is let it thaw, then stick it into the oven,” Catlett said. It takes about 5 hours to roast a Turducken, depending on the weight. Most Hebert's Turduckens weigh about 15 pounds and cost around $70.

Hebert’s sells other Cajun favorites including Andouille, Etouffee and Crawfish Pie. For more information, visit HebertsHouston.com.

Feedback indicated there are opportunities for Florida seafood suppliers to provide products for Florida schools. About 60 percent of schools surveyed currently offer fresh or frozen seafood, with processed fish, shrimp and Pollack served most often.

Good eating habits can begin at school. Including seafood early in a young person’s diet sets the stage for the proper nutrition that young bodies need for growth and development and a healthy future. Seafood is a good source of high-quality, low-fat protein as well as omega-3 fatty acids and provides a variety of menu options. Compared to other meats, seafood is low in calories and cholesterol.

Every year, Florida schools spend millions of dollars for school lunch programs. The Seafood to School program is intended to open the door for more of those dollars to stay within Florida. It will also support Florida fishermen by promoting opportunities for schools and seafood suppliers to work together to increase the volume of locally harvested seafood product served in school cafeterias. Incorporating local products into school meals also supports local economies, reduces transportation costs and helps support Florida’s seafood industry.

Several types of shrimp (including Rock shrimp, pink, breaded rounds and popcorn), crab cakes, crab stuffing, clams and breaded fish fillets/sticks are among the seafood products offered by Florida companies that are interested in participating in the program.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is working with schools and seafood suppliers to develop opportunities through the program. Learn more at www.FL-Seafood.com.

This post was originally published in the November 2009 issue of Foodie News as a guest column by Martin May, management review specialist with the Florida Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing.

The paper goes further to examine what it takes to be a supermodel turkey. Says Dana Cowin, editor in chief of Food & Wine, "Turkey, as a model, is very much like a fashion magazine with fashion models. There are plump turkeys, and, I’m not kidding you, there’s skinny turkeys, there are chesty turkeys, breasty turkeys, there are flat-chested turkeys."

"We have enhanced the breasts of turkeys," Cowin admits.

Read more here.

Traditionally, we think of hospital food and some unappetizing images come to
mind: Little or no nutritional value. Lots of grease and fat. Barely a vegetable to be found. You get the idea. So why do we insist on feeding our patients and their families food that only contributes to the problems that bring them to the hospital in the first place?

The answer is we shouldn’t, and at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, we don’t.

Henry’s, the café at our hospital that serves all of our patients their families and other members of the community, offers healthy, fresh organic produce, low-sodium foods and in general a bounty of options that are good for the body, including the taste buds.

But with health care costs rising, we know we have to deliver this incredible cuisine at a reasonable cost, and that’s where our community partners come in. By creating relationships with local organic farms, we can buy fresh, tasty produce at reasonable prices, making sure nutrient-rich foods are delivered to our customers.

By partnering with a local culinary college, we have made Henry’s a teaching kitchen, reducing labor costs and utilizing the talents of passionate, motivated student chefs that represent the hospital culinary directors of the future. In addition, our 24-hour room service policy reduces the amount of wasted food, providing even more cost savings while creating an enhanced experience for patients and other customers. Guests eat what they want, when they want it, all in accordance with their specific condition or dietary restrictions. This is the way hospital food was meant to be and, we believe, the future of health care.

But serving healthy food to patients and the community is just the beginning. We have a responsibility to help people make healthy choices when they’re at home as well. That’s why we offer healthy cooking classes for members of the community as well as patients with specific illnesses like diabetes and cancer at the demonstration kitchen, a 90-seat auditorium inside our hospital. Our weekly farmers’ market provides economic support for local business and gives community members another reason to visit us when they are healthy as well as the tools to stay that way. Vita, our wellness center, teaches the value of living healthy through nutrition and exercise, and offers the latest integrative therapies to assist our community members.

Plans for the future include the world’s first Culinary Learning Institute for
Health Care, where hospitals, universities, hotels, restaurants and other service industries can come and learn how to integrate healthy, tasty cuisine into their businesses. Also on the way is a greenhouse and educational center where produce will be grown for the hospital and children in the community can come and learn about healthy organic farming.

By stretching the boundaries of what a hospital can be and serving as a community center for well-being, we are changing the way people think about hospitals and in turn, the way they take care of themselves. To learn more, visit www.henryford.com/foodrevolution.

Note: This post was originally published in the October issue of Foodie News as a guest column. It was written by Gerard van Grinsven, president and CEO of Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.

"What started as a marketing ploy is now almost an art form, as skilled workers recreate everything from a bowl of soup to an ice-cream sundae," says BBC journalist Roland Buerk.

And don't expect the plastic food sensation to remain exclusive to Tokyo for long. With expanded marketing, plastic spaghetti and even beer could soon be coming to a restaurant near you.

Watch the video here.