Several of those notions involve food and beverage.  Though they aren’t Northwest specific, they’re certainly noteworthy.

ILLUSTRATION BY JAN KALLWEJT, NEW YORK TIMES

Cows With Names Make More Milk

“A study of several hundred British dairies published in the journal Anthrozoös in March . . .  found that cows that have names make, in a given year, about 258 liters more milk per farm than anonymous ones — a bump of about 6 percent . . . ‘The naming,’ says Catherine Douglas, the Newcastle University animal behaviorist behind the research, ‘reflects the humans’ attitudes toward the cows, and therefore how they behave around them.’ Named cows are more often treated nicely, and well-treated, calm and happy cows make more milk. The point, Douglas says, is that it definitely can’t hurt to name your cows.”

Gourmet Dirt

Laura Parker, an artist and agricultural activist based in Northern California, is offering what could be described as wine tastings, only with dirt.  As the Times says “‘Grassy’ and ‘creamy’ are common terms for wine tasting, but now they’re being used to describe flavors of soil. Parker has held many similar tastings — primarily in art galleries, free to the public — with fresh dirt from local farms. ‘Soil is the basis of everything we eat,’ she says.

After the soil smelling, she pairs the dirt with food from the same farm — collard greens, squash, radishes, even eggs and goat cheese. The tasters are quizzed to see if they can isolate the same flavors they savored in the dirt — earthy, peppery, citrusy — to demonstrate the connection between what people eat and where it’s grown.”

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY REINHARD HUNGER SET DESIGN BY SARAH ILLENBERGER, NEW YORK TIMES

Empty Beer Bottles Make Better Weapons

“[Stephan] Bolliger, who is head of forensic pathology at the University of Bern, went to the store and picked up 10 half-liter bottles of Feldschlösschen Original — his nation’s most popular brew. He emptied six of them, left four full and, using a precisely calibrated energy-measuring device, started dropping a steel ball on the bottles from various heights. Bolliger’s conclusion: Full bottles shatter at 30 joules, empties at 40, meaning both are capable of cracking open your skull. But empties are a third sturdier.”

Kitchen Sink That Puts Out Fires

House fires most commonly start in the kitchen.  That’s why Yusuf Muhammad and Paul Thomas, industrial-design students at London’s Royal College of Art decided to build water misting, a firefighting technology used on oil rigs and cruise ships, into the kitchen sink.

© Guy Hand 2009

This time of year, brewers are brewing special holiday ales, a comforting counterpoint to winter’s cold days and long nights. But those big, rich beers require lots of hops and barley, and, as Guy Hand reports, those ingredients are getting more expensive and harder to find. In this installment of Edible Idaho, correspondent Guy Hand looks at how that could change your next pint of holiday cheer.

Hops and Two Types of Barley © Guy Hand 2009

Brewer Chris Compton © Guy Hand 2009

The Ram Pub

Highlands Hollow

Hop Growing Regions