October 2008 Archives

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37 years at Cal and Still Chasing Bugs

Most of my youth was spent is Minneapolis, Minnesota. However, I also have roots in California; my mother was born in Los Angeles. I remember those long train rides back and forth during summer to visit grand parents. Yes, I spent many summers in Fresno, and winters in Minneapolis. Now you can appreciate why I live in the Bay Area, great weather!

In 1968, a high school counselor in Minneapolis told me I was not good enough to go to college. Never being one to blindly accept a single opinion, I asked what was the best university in the country. I was told Berkeley! I had no idea where Berkeley was, but defiantly said, “I will go there.”

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Vernard Lewis
posted October 22, 2008 3:25 PM

Mt. Boney

Last week my husband and I climbed Mt. Boney in Ventura County, California. At 865 meters, it offered us a beautiful view of Malibu and its environs. We started at the trailhead in Newbury Park, CA at 10am and were done by 2pm. Since it was 95 degrees on our hike back, we unfortunately didn't bring enough water. We lived to tell about it, though. And here are some fun pictures of our day.


Tom, on the trail closer to the trailhead:

Me, further along the mountainside, where the trail has degraded significantly. Erosion was not a friend to this trail (it was once level with the shrubs that are rooted by my shoulders).

Pretty geology.

I only took pictures of this wildflower, Epilobium canum, though there were many others in bloom.

You can see four of the Channel Islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel) in the background of this last photo. Santa Rosa and San Miguel are hiding behind the larger Santa Cruz Island.

We couldn't believe how green the hillsides were this late in the season. We had a wonderful time - just the kind of escape we wanted.

Christina
posted October 2, 2008 12:13 PM

Canola

A friend picked up a bottle of Canola oil the other day and asked me, "Just what is Canola, anyway?"

We all know that Canola oil is growing in popularity, but why? It has a high content of healthy Omega 3 Fatty acids and the lowest saturated fat content of mainstream consumable vegetable oils. Here is a link to a chart that compares canola with common dietary fats: http://www.canolainfo.org/health/analysis.html


Canola was developed in Canada during the early 1970s. It started out as Rapeseed (Brassica napus), which was crushed to form a common industrial oil. Due to its high concentration of erucic acid, a carcinogen, it was not fit for human consumption. In the early 1970s, plant geneticists in Canada successfully bred out erucic acid by traditional breeding methods to make our edible canola oil. Canola is short for Canada Oil Low Acid.

Here is an image of canola seeds.

Here is a canola flower.

As you can tell by the 4-merous clawed petals, it is taxonomically in the Cruciferae family. Other vegetables in this family include cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, radish, and mustard. Our favorite test plant, Arabidopsis, is also in this family.

Here is what Canola looks like in the fields:


Sources:
http://www.canolainfo.org/
http://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/crucifer.htm
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.northerncanola.com
http://www.canola-council.org

Photos come from these sites:
(in order of appearance)
http://www.soyatech.com/canola_facts
http://www.sardi.sa.gov.au/pages/fieldcrops
http://www.uscanola.com/

Christina
posted October 2, 2008 9:27 AM