Turning the summer herb garden into medicinal remedies for the whole family is subject of a Sept. 26 talk in Truckee.

Slow Food Lake Tahoe is hosting local herbalist Shanna Strong of Strongheart Medicinals. This Skillshare Class will cover poultices, oil infusions, salves, teas blends, syrups, and easy immune boosters. Participants will be able to make their own tea blend or bath blend to take home.

The event will be in the Truckee Demonstration Garden (Truckee River Regional Park, 10500 Brockway Road) from 10am-noon.

Tickets are $10 for Slow Food Lake Tahoe members and $15 for non-members.  Ticket may be purchased online.

The Food Bank of El Dorado County will be in South Lake Tahoe to host a free farmers market and mobile food pantry on Sept. 23.

The 10-11am event will be at the American Legion Hall located at 2748 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

One allocation per household will be distributed. Income guidelines may be found online.

For more information on how to give or get help, call 530.621.9950 or email info@foodbankedc.org.

JimBoy’s Tacos, which was founded in a camper trailer in 1954 at Kings Beach, is going national.

The Food Network is planning to film a segment at the Folsom location this fall. Last week’s shoot had to be rescheduled (new date not yet released) because a member of the TV crew got ill.

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri recommended the chain for “Guilty Pleasures”; especially for its ground beef taco.

Most of the chain’s nearly 40 locations are in Northern California, though the first one in Orange County opened last weekend.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Carina Storrs, CNN

Every time you eat a burger, you could be getting a side of bacteria with it. Most packages of ground beef in the grocery store contain at least one type of bacteria that could make you sick, according to a survey by Consumer Reports.

Researchers looked at 300 samples of ground beef from grocery stores in 26 cities across the United States. They included a range of leanness and cuts, from sirloin to chuck. About 40 percent of the packages bore labels stating they were “organic” or that the cows had been grass-fed or had not been given antibiotics.

The Consumer Reports team looked for five types of bacteria that have been found on beef, including E. coli O157, a strain that causes bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain and has been linked with the highest number of outbreaks of foodborne illnesses from beef.

Read the whole story

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

In the continuing quest to improve the health quotient of school lunches, experts have proposed fancy chefs, cutesy lunch boxes and smiley-faced stickers. Now comes a more straightforward suggestion – just make the lunch period longer.

The idea that schools could persuade kids to eat better without making a single change to their cafeteria menus may sound like pie in the sky, but its proponents have some data to back them up. After analyzing the eating habits of 1,001 elementary and middle school students in Boston-area schools, researchers found that the more time students had to finish their lunches, the more fruits and vegetables they ate and the more milk they drank.

One of the six schools that participated in the Modifying Eating and Lifestyles at School – or MEALS – study gave students as little as 20 minutes for lunch. Some of that time had to be spent getting to the cafeteria and standing in line when they got there. By the time they finally sat down with their trays, some kids had only 10 minutes to eat.

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By S. Irene Virbila, Los Angeles Times

Wine in cans? It just doesn’t track. You hear that unmistakable pop of a beer can opening — only it’s wine inside, not beer. And it’s not cheap plonk either, but some serious juice.

Though Australia’s Barokes Wines was probably the first to try the idea, way back in 1996, the idea is just catching on here. And no outrage from Paul Hobbs, one of the world’s most lauded winemakers, when asked about it.

“I love the idea of good wine in a can,” Hobbs said. “Wish I had thought of it.It does indeed strike me as very practical, especially for folks on the go who in certain circumstances simply seek to enjoy fine products in an uncomplicated way, spontaneously — a trip to the coast, hiking, etc.In that respect, this concept is so exciting!”

Calm down. Nobody’s putting Château d’Yquem or Romanée Conti into cans just yet. This new mode of packaging is meant for easy-drinking wines that won’t be languishing in the closet for years.

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By Mike Higdon, Reno Gazette-Journal

If El Niño doesn’t deliver much-needed water this winter, the stills could run dry at two of Nevada’s craft spirits makers: Frey Ranch Estate Distillery in Fallon and the future Bently Heritage Estate Distillery in Gardnerville.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed for a powerful El Niño,” said Ashley Frey, owner of Frey Ranch along with her husband, Colby.

Frey Ranch and Bently, set to open in 2017, are two of just three estate distilleries in the United States. The third is in New York. An estate distillery grows 100 percent of its own ingredients, then distills, bottles and sells all the spirits on the same property.

Distilleries use rye, barley and wheat to make vodka, gin and whiskey. Without adequate water, nothing grows and no one drinks.

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Wine enthusiasts, food connoisseurs and dedicated shoppers will be able to indulge in the 12th annual Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk & Shop on Oct. 3 from noon to 4pm.

Tickets are just $40 in advance or $45 day of. They are available online. A $3 service fee applies for online sales. The ticket includes wine tastings at more than 30 wineries, five food tickets, program/passport and a goodie bag.

Every year Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk and Shop partners with a local nonprofit organization. Over the past 11 years, more than $25,000 have been donated to local nonprofits. This year’s nonprofit partner is Elevate Tahoe. Elevate Tahoe investigates and spotlights true innovations happening in Tahoe and presents its findings in a series of journalistic films.

For more information, call 530.448.2774.

The North Lake Tahoe Ale Trail Campaign is the latest attraction for those looking for a watering hole at the end of the day.

An interactive online map has been created. Participants will receive a free Tahoe Ale Trail sticker after they share a photo online with the hashtag #TahoeAleTrail.

The tourism campaign is designed to highlight North Tahoe’s craft beer scene along with its hiking, mountain biking, road cycling, paddleboarding and kayaking.

The project was funded by a grant from TravelNevada.

By Mike Higdon, Reno Gazette-Journal

Millennials like craft beer and Northern Nevada has plenty of it with 28 brewpubs and their satellite tap houses.

The Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority released its first Craft Breweries of Reno Tahoe map showcasing these drinking spots Tuesday night, which they hope will draw more young people to the region. It also features the region’s five distilleries.

RSCVA CEO Chris Baum said he watched a focus group of Millennials in San Francisco change their mind about Reno when the moderator told them how many brewpubs they could visit in Reno.

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