Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Let's Talk About Snails & Snakes

Snails yes, snakes no. I am petrified when comes to snakes; spiders and dogs too but that is a different story for another rainy day. I was reading something about snails and let me share this with you. There are more than 80,000 different species of snails, yes 80,000 that is darn a lot. I think I probably seen 20 the most including the one I ate. They are widely distributed on land, in the sea and in the fresh water. Land snails have two pairs of tentacles where their set of eyes reside on the lower set. Water snails have only one pair of tentacles, with eyes at the base.

Now my favorite subject - the snakes. What can I say about the snakes? They hatch from eggs - and no they are not related to the chicken. However, there are some species of snakes that do give birth to live young snakes.

Cooking Tip: Baked Asparagus Recipe

This is how I prepare my asparagus - I bake it. It is the easiest method. Simply, wash the asparagus bunch. Take cookie try, spray with cooking spray Pam. Place all asparagus on the tray, and then give one nice spray with Pam again. If you want to you can also sprinkle with sea salt on top, but you don't have to, because baked asparagus already tastes good. Set your oven on 400 F and bake for 20-25 minutes, and then serve.

Asparagus Season: Why the White Asparagus is White and the Green Asparagus is Green?

Did you ever wonder why white asparagus is white, or looks really pale from his friend green asparagus? I will then try to provide you with simple answer in here, however, let me start with the green asparagus.

Green asparagus, as any other green plant contains substance called chlorophyll. The pigment in the chlorophyll absorbs all other colors in spectrum and reflects the green light. Whenever the light is reflected, the human eye can see it. Same as for the red apple, or the orange carrot, the red and the orange colors are reflected and transmitted to our eyes.
A side note, a pigment is something that absorbs the certain colors in the light spectrum. Whatever is not absorbed is then reflected into our eyes.

So what happened to the poor white pale asparagus? Nothing really, it is grown in the dark and deprived from the sunlight. The blockage from the sunlight makes the asparagus white. No light to absorb or reflect. The process used to make the white asparagus is called process of etiolation, meaning that the plant is grown in partial light or completely without the light.