Fruit

U.N. agreements on human rights issues 1948: U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1966: International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1979: Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 1989: Convention on the Rights of the Child 1998: Vote to establish an...

Reach for a ripe banana. Whip it up with yogurt, wheat germ and skim milk. Then sit back and sip that super-rich and filling diet drink while you consider all the ways to use luscious bananas for more than slicing over cereal. Bananas, after all, are the top-selling fruit in the country. And the 25 pounds of bananas per person consumed each year in the United States amounts to only a fraction of the 40-plus billion pounds consumed worldwide, much of it in countries where bananas are the staple starch.

Q. I read an article on how to dry fruit. The process involved constructing wooden frames, using cheesecloth and drying the fruit outside for two to three weeks. I need something faster. Can fruit be dried in the oven? - Jen Haeseler Auburn, Pa. A. "Stocking Up" by Rodale Press gives the following information on how to dry fruit in the oven: The fruit to be dried should be perfect - unblemished, unbruised and fully ripe. One oven can take about six pounds of fruit. Fruit should be exposed top and bottom.

It is no secret that the Chinese take their food very seriously, and Singapore's Chinese are no exception. At the head of the list is the durian, a mere fruit. Its consumption is linked to phenomena as far-ranging as sexual potency, premature death and ethnic disturbances. The folklore and legends surrounding the durian are so many and varied as to cause skeptical elevations of eyebrows elsewhere. Tread carefully when passing judgments in durian territory, however, for open ridicule faces anyone who questions the position that the durian occupies in the dietary calendar of Singapore's Chinese.

Thanks to cyanide-spiked grapes turning up in Philadelphia last week, Linda Bolanos' fourth graders now have a better sense of world geography than some of the contestants on Family Feud. Bolanos was feeling a little smug Wednesday night as she watched people on the television show try to come up with countries in South America. Such as: Saudi Arabia? The contestants should have asked Bolanos' class of 9- and 10-year-olds at the Erdenheim Elementary School in Springfield Township; they learned all about Chile on Tuesday.

We've been duped to assume that rhubarb is a fruit, simply because we bake it in pie and stew it into jam. But rhubarb is no more fruit than the stalks of chard and celery that it so closely resembles. Once again our gustatory prejudice has led us astray, for we will call any vegetable a fruit when we eat it sweet. Rhubarb is the stem of a plant belonging to the same family as sorrel, and like sorrel, rhubarb has been cursed and blessed with a sourness that can range from a faint spark on the palate, when the plant is young, to an unpleasant puckering when it gets larger.

Want to freeze those good produce buys? Here are some tips to help you end up with the best results. Wash produce in cold water before freezing it. If necessary, remove leaves, stems, skins or pits. Cut produce into even-sized pieces. Label containers with the contents and "use-by" date. (Use within 12 months.) Leave a 1/2- to 1-inch head space between produce and top of the bag or container. Remove as much air as possible from the bag (if using plastic freezer bags)

Melissa's Fresh Pack. $1.99 per box of fruits, nuts and/or cookies. Bonnie: Finally, here's some healthy competition for McDonald's Happy Meals. Melissa's has introduced a pack of fresh fruit and other goodies in a colorful kids' activity box. Each pack contains two to three pieces of fresh fruit: an apple, pear, banana, and/or an orange in the regular pack; pear, star fruit or kiwi in the gourmet or exotic pack. In addition, it usually also contains dried fruit such as raisins or a dried banana along with an almond or fortune cookie.

It's now or never, fresh fruit fans - time to put the flavor of summer on ice! Stock your freezer now, and you can enjoy the tantalizing taste of a tree-ripened peach in February. But first, there are practical considerations. With the drought and the price of fresh produce this season, freezing fruit can't be considered an economy move - unless you have access to a large harvest of free or cheap fruit, lots of freezer space and low electricity bills. If you want to bet on food price "futures" in your freezer, stocking up on lean meat is a better investment strategy.

Hot weather is hardly inspirational. But it has inspired us to think cool, especially when we are contemplating summer-evening dinner parties. What better dish to bring the temperature down than a colorful basket brimming with the season's bounty of fruits? Easy to prepare in a minimal amount of time, this fresh-fruit medley in a watermelon basket is a visually sweet feast. Watermelon Basket 1. Begin by selecting a watermelon. We looked for ripe melons with a side flat enough to prevent rolling.

Before Philadelphia's invited movers and shakers even arrived at the red-carpet premiere of Changing the Game, Rel Dowdell's urban tale of corruption and redemption, moviegoers were instructed to leave their smartphones in their cars or turn them over to security before entering the Van Pelt Auditorium at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After all, it took Dowdell seven long years to birth his baby, and to miraculously land a nationwide distribution...

NEW YORK - Guys, when your sweetheart says "No thanks" to sex, do you knock back a few stiff drinks to feel better? Turns out fruit flies do pretty much the same thing. That's the word from a new study that may explain why both species react that way. In Friday's issue of the journal Science, researchers propose a biological explanation for why "Not tonight, dear" may lead to "Gimme another beer. " If it proves true in people, it may help scientists find new medications to fight alcoholism.

The dynamism that made him a visionary president of Temple University for 19 years remains for Peter Liacouras, though it is restricted by a stroke that has left him partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Still, at 80 years of age, he is a passionate fan of Temple's football and basketball programs, getting to almost all of the games. No surprise there. Liacouras saw sports as a driving force in growing the university and attracting students who would reside on and near the campus.

A jilted male fruit fly will try to drown his sorrows in drink if given the chance, according to a University of California study released today. And no, the scientists weren't just curious to see a bunch of drunken drosophila. Rather, they hope the finding sheds light on human addiction. Researchers say male fruit flies rejected by females are much more likely to imbibe than, "sexually satisfied" male fruit flies, according a summary of the study. The study identified a molecule called neuropeptide F as a trigger connecting sexual rejection to excessive drinking.

It is just past 8 a.m., and the refugees are lining up on a narrow street in South Philadelphia. Within the hour, almost 100 arrive. Men in woolen earflap beanies, lumberjack shirts, and hoodies. Women in shawls, sari pants, and sandals. Toddlers on tiptoes clutching their mothers' hands. All the faces, Asian. Suddenly, a pickup laden with 800 pounds of fresh fruit rounds the corner, quieting the bustle. For a moment, the only sound is the rustle of white plastic bags waiting to be filled.

Having recently fallen in love with the nutty flavor of red quinoa (say it KEEN-wah), I've been looking for ways to use the ancient grain. Updating a favorite recipe seemed like a good start. The dish, called East Indian rice, was clipped about 20 years ago from a newspaper. It's a simple rice dish with dried fruit and onions cooked right in, and flavored with curry powder, cinnamon, and ginger. Yogurt stirred in at the end makes it creamy.   Red Quinoa with Dried Fruit and Yogurt Makes 4 servings 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 small onion, finely diced 1 to 2 teaspoons chopped crystallized ginger or fresh grated ginger 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder 1 1/4 cups water 1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, salt 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 cup red quinoa, rinsed, drained 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit 1/2 cup plain yogurt, at room temperature 1/2 cup salted cashews or peanuts Chopped fresh cilantro leaves 1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; add onion and ginger.

SURPRISE, Ariz. - The few batters who reach first base when Jake Diekman pitches usually greet Cody Overbeck with a similar refrain: "I don't like facing him. " Diekman, a lefthanded reliever in the Phillies organization, has ascended in the minor leagues with first baseman Overbeck, who's encountered enough baserunners wanting to let off steam after 90 feet to share their unrest. "I've never heard as many batters get on first and complain about facing someone," Overbeck said of Diekman before a recent Arizona Fall League game.

"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. " - Matthew 9:37 Good news: The jobs crisis is over. You read that correctly. There is plenty work available for downsized, furloughed, and involuntarily separated laborers whose inability to land jobs in a rugged economy has driven the unemployment rate past 9 percent. You probably didn't hear about it in the "lamestream" media, but the problem has indeed been solved - and it didn't take some fancy-pants economic stimulus package to get 'er done, either.

Bargain wine and France are typically not mentioned in the same conversation, but the combination of a struggling euro and revived interest in overlooked regions have produced some seriously good buys. This 2010 vintage of Le Fruit Défendu ("the forbidden fruit") from Domaine Magellan in Languedoc is a prime $13 example of how nonclassified vin de pays can demand serious notice when the right winemaker (and the right grapes) are involved. In this case, the vintner is Bruno Lafon, of Meursault's great Domaine Comte Lafon, who has brought his Burgundy know-how for fine wine to property near Montpellier in Pays d'Oc, a region better known for country juice.

The Honeycrisp has become the Kim Kardashian of the apple world: It came out of nowhere, relatively recently (it was released commercially in the '90s), and with some marketing brilliance, took the fruit world by storm. Of course, there's a good reason people keep coming back to the Honeycrisp. It's sweet, uncontroversial, and delicious. It flies off the shelves, and keeps really well, which is why growers love it, too. Sort of. "Honeycrisp is by far the favorite apple," says Melissa Allen of Beechwood Orchards in Adams County.