An innovative app strengthens the farmer-consumer connection. “The idea is to turn occasional browsers into regular shoppers by incentivizing repeat business,” explains Simon Huntley, the 33-year-old computer-programer son of sheep farmers in Pennsylvania. Most folks who grow up on unprofitable farms turn away from the family business.

It was a warm January day in Vadodara, in western India, when my aunt, Apeksha Kaki, announced that we were going to a soda shop. This was my first time visiting extended family in India, and I was eager to try local foods and drinks. So, I was a bit disappointed at the mention of soda. "What kind of soda, Kaki?"

Don’t you think spring should be the official start of the new year? Think about it: The snow has melted and things are starting to grow again (Flowers! Berries!). It’s like the world is waking up after a long winter hibernation. What better way to knock the hibernation dust off than with some seasonal mocktails?

If one flavor could encapsulate Mexico in a bite, it would be chamoy. Chamoy, which comes as a dried fruit, candy, and sauce, is a salted pickled sour fruit (traditionally made from ume plums, which are really sour apricots) that’s spiked with chiles. “Anything that has all the flavors at once — sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and a little umami — that’s where Mexico loves to live, whether it is tamarind, mole, or chamoy,” says chef Barbara Sibley of New York City’s La Palapa.

Which was technically true: He had never made a gumbo-esque soup with okra, corn and tomato noodles. But on its own, spontaneity couldn’t account for how the man had gone from never having eaten instant ramen 2½ years ago to making more than 250 different kinds of noodle soup from scratch, for fun.

Juan Miguel Reyes grows avocados the size of small children. From his humble avocado farm in Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico, this farmer says he has cracked the code for making an avocado large enough to feed a small village. This year, three of his trees each grew fruit that weighed between 25 and 52 pounds.

Around the world, masala chai is considered one of the symbols of Indian cuisine. It is for me: I grew up watching my grandmother Motiben make masala chai several times a day. The process felt so steeped in tradition: the order she added the ingredients, the bhajans, or Hindu prayers, she would chant while it simmered, beautiful and hypnotic-sounding.

The first time I tasted chamoy was in the Mexican border town of Eagle Pass, Texas. At a street cart vendor, chamoy apples sat alongside elotes and tamales. The tart Granny Smith was rolled in a thick paste that was sweet, salty, spicy and sour all at onc

For most of my childhood, my Indian grandmother was an enigma to me. Everyone called her Motiben, or “big sister” in Gujarati, her language that I didn’t speak. This tiny frail woman in a white sari didn’t walk so much as shuffle, like an Indian version of ET. She didn’t eat meat, and she liked to have the same schedule every day, rituals that she performed without fail.

With the holidays coming up (and there quite a few, including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), there’s so much for kids to be excited about: presents, candy, at least three kinds of pie, and, of course, presents. Kids’ energy levels can seem through the roof, but you can harness that frenetic excitement and channel it into something positive with a family holiday craft project.

Leena Trivedi-Grenier has always been a foodie, but it took her time to appreciate her family’s Southeast Asian food culture. Now, she’s trying to instill that appreciation in her daughter. (Kevin D. Wong/The Washington Post) Whenever my aunt called for me, it meant only one thing: Eat this. It wasn’t.

I remembered only three things about the school garden in my neighborhood: raised beds and container gardens, dying plants and a large, faded mural of flowers and butterflies with the words, “Kinder-garden where good things grow.”. For three years I jogged by that plot and never saw anyone taking care of it.

Let’s be honest: the cooking struggle is REAL. It can be fun on the weekend when you have the time to plan, shop, cook, AND clean up. But during the week, between the time and the cost, it’s not always realistic. There are ways to game the system, though. These hacks will help you to up your kitchen hustle, decrease the amount of time spent in the kitchen (including cleaning up), and get the maximum reward for the least amount of work and money.

College professors around the country are redefining how sex education should look and feel, with an emphasis on communication and power. Acouple of students are stumbling around a room while wearing beer goggles, trying desperately to put condoms on wooden penises while a crowd looks on. And they are failing miserably.