13 Nov What We’re Reading: Farms as an Allergy Cure, and the Hot New Houseplant (Oh, and a Pop Star’s Seeds Get Quarantined)
Our favorite links of the week…
✚ What if you took meticulous notes on every Thanksgiving in recent memory? Inventive outings and some serious food fine-tuning might be the result. Jenny Rosenstrach introduces us to her mom’s “Post-Feast Analysis” system. (via Dinner: A Love Story)
✚ NPR takes on frenemy plants: That is, fruits and vegetables that are mostly edible…except for when they’re violently toxic. Beware the paralysis pea. (via NPR)
✚ This Polish village is known for the joyous floral designs that residents paint all over (and inside) their houses. (via Laughing Squid)
In Zalpie, Poland, a storybook kind of curb appeal. Photo via the Poland Ministry of Affairs
✚ Allergy and asthma rates doubled — and in some cases tripled — in the late 20th century. And yet certain rural communities seem to be immune to the “allergy epidemic.” Could barnyard microbes be the answer? (via The New York Times)
✚ Before you curse the frost, remember that chill will sweeten your Brussels sprouts. (via About.com)
✚ In Harlem, Marie Viljoen shows us how to make autumn dishes with foraged maitake mushrooms. (via 66 Square Feet)
✚ There’s a new hot houseplant on the block: Euphorbia tirucalli, also known as the Pencil Cactus. (Even thought it’s not actually a cactus.) We have a six-footer of this guy in our yard, and we agree that its waxy, every-which-way stems are an Instagrammer’s delight. (via Gardenista)
✚ It’s almost time to prune that Hydrangea paniculata. Margaret Roach shows how and when to do it. (via A Way to Garden)
✚ Invasive species come in all forms. The seed-paper packaging of Katy Perry’s new Prism album has been labeled a biohazard — “bio-security concern,” to be exact — by authorities in Australia. (via Vanity Fair)