The Aug. 10 demonstration starts with a short lecture on tomato history with Ellen Scannell, a local Family Food Education volunteer and Jackson County Master Gardener. Scannell is a wealth of horticultural lore and gave me a preview:

An American original, the tomato was transplanted in the 16th century to Spain, Portugal, Italy and England, where it was cultivated almost exclusively as an ornamental plant until the 1800s. In its native land, the tomato actually was considered a weed because it competed with more important crops — beans and corn — for space.

In addition to the term “love apple,” mentioned in this week’s A la Carte story, tomatoes also have been known as “Moor’s apple,” “stinking golden apple” and “wolf peach, says Scannell. Not very flattering names for a plant whose odorous leaves caused early American colonists to deem the fruit poison.

Of course, today we know they couldn’t have been more wrong. There even are some modern recipes that call for using tomato leaves, but Scannell notes they are controversial and haven’t been approved by culinary experts.

Long before University Extensions established guidelines for canning, tomatoes were inured in jars under lids that were soldered on. That was in 1840s New Jersey, the first location of tomato canning, says Scannell.

“I was surprised that people didn’t die, and they may have,” she says of those early attempts.

About 40 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the tomato a fruit, only to have its ruling called into doubt about a decade later when the government dubbed it a vegetable for trade purposes. Botanically, says Scannell, tomatoes are berries.

Commercially packaged salsas were first produced in 1940s Texas, she says. The forerunners of this condiment in America likely comprised ground squash seeds and chilies with the tomato.

Millennia later, plenty of people still make their own salsa — fresh and canned. The Extension class will give some pointers along those lines.

The first is add fresh herbs like cilantro to fresh salsas or to a canned salsa that has been opened for use. Cilantro, says Scannell, doesn’t can well. Varieties of peppers can be swapped in recipes, so long as the total quantity of peppers remains the same. You can’t do that with onion and can a safe salsa.

You can, however, swap lime juice for lemon juice, provided it’s a bottled lime juice with guaranteed acidity. Vinegar cannot be substituted for the citric acid.

“All Things Tomato” is planned for 7 to 9 p.m. in the Extension auditorium, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point. It costs $10. Call 541-776-7371 to register.

Indeed, if you attend Thursday’s Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market, you’ll find that, almost without exception, the tomatoes for sale are hydroponic. No matter, they still taste better than the ones in grocery stores.

But I was so charmed by the book-club twist on an upcoming Allyson’s Kitchen class that a story on tomatoes couldn’t wait. And at least readers are now armed with a half-dozen recipes when the harvest sets in with a vengeance. The food section did include one soup, but not the quintessential one of summer — gazpacho.

Planning a Saturday dinner party, I’ve had gazpacho on the brain, particularly since last weekend’s oppressive heat. What could be better than a cold soup at an outdoor event this time of year? And even if I don’t have pounds of fresh tomatoes, I was ready to use last year’s canned supply.

My husband didn’t share this enthusiasm and, rather than coming out and declaring his ambivalence to gazpacho, did his best to steer me toward other dishes. I have to admit I’m averse to bell peppers, anyway. So gazpacho was put on the back burner for a few weeks, at least.

But bell peppers or not, I predict this summer won’t end without me making gazpacho, which I actually enjoy more as a party appetizer served in shot glasses. No longer unique in food circles, that plating technique remains playful and eliminates the need for spoons when guests are exchanging greetings.

And gazpacho’s benefit by advance preparation makes it an ideal dish for entertaining. It will keep for two days in the refrigerator.

Just because there’s a traditional recipe doesn’t mean gazpacho shouldn’t be adapted to whatever’s leftover or on hand — even fruit. The common thread is its smooth texture and deep red hue, indicative of the ingredients’ antioxidants and vitamin C.

For a little more body, you can add a few slices of stale bread that have been soaked and then squeezed of excess liquid. Then puree the bread with the other ingredients.

For spice, you can use any variety of fresh chilies or several drops of your favorite hot, red-pepper sauce, even Asian siracha. Adding a bit of sugar will move the burn to the background a bit and bring out the tomatoes’ flavor.

Try this recipe courtesy of the Detroit Free Press. It’s ready in 30 minutes

Garden Gazpacho

2 pounds tomatoes, washed and seeded

1 red bell pepper, washed

1 green or yellow bell pepper, washed

3 salad cucumbers, washed

1 large shallot, peeled

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons red-wine or sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon hot red-pepper sauce

13⁄4 cup low-sodium or no-salt-added tomato juice or vegetable juice

1 ear fresh corn, kernels removed

2 teaspoons sugar

4 to 6 green onions, washed, green and white parts thinly sliced

Fresh basil, sliced in shreds

Salt and pepper, to taste

Roughly chop about three-fourths of the tomatoes. Place in a food processor fitted with metal blade or a blender. Dice remaining tomatoes and set aside.

For the bell peppers, roughly chop half of each one and add to food processor. Dice remaining bell peppers and set aside.

Peel, seed and roughly chop 2 of the cucumbers and add to food processor. Leave peel on remaining cucumber, slice in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and dice; set aside. Add the shallot, garlic cloves, olive oil, vinegar and hot-pepper sauce to food processor. Process until smooth, about 1 minute.

Transfer to a glass bowl (or leave in blender jar). Stir in the tomato juice, corn, basil, remaining diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, the sugar and half of the green onions. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Chill for 2 hours. Serve in cups or bowls, garnished with a bit of diced bell pepper, cucumber green onion.

Makes 8 servings.

For help, I contacted Chris Dennett, owner of Elements Tapas Bar & Lounge and innovative mixologist. Dennett’s creations — almost culinary in their components — made waves at a March cocktail competition, covered in a previous post. I wasn’t the only one impressed by Elements’ signature “fire” cocktail; a number of readers responded wanting more information about the restaurant, its drinks and how to make them.

Now Dennett and his nearby restaurant compatriots are providing more reasons to venture downtown. Dine around in the next two months, and you could win gift certificates to eat and play some more.

A consortium of 16 Medford businesses, dubbed the OldTown Dining and Entertainment District, are promoting their Dine Around campaign through September. Customers 21 and older of OldTown dining or entertainment venues participate by collecting stickers at those locations. Collect five or more stickers at different spots, affix them to the group’s card and turn them in to any OldTown location by Sept. 30 to enter a drawing to win gift certificates for OldTown businesses.

The grand prize is a package of gift certificates totaling $1,500, second prize is $500 in certificates and third prize is $250 certificates. Winners will be announced the first week of October.

Dine Around cards may be downloaded at www.oldtownmedford.com or can be found at any OldTown location. They include:

38 Central, 38 Central Ave., 541-776-0038

Bear Creek Beers, 410 E. Main St. suite B, 541-773-7564

Corks Wine Bar & Bottle Shoppe, 235 Theater Alley, 541-245-1616

Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater, 23 S. Central Ave., 541-779-3000

Elements Tapas Bar & Lounge, 101 E. Main St., 541-779-0135

4 Daughters Irish Pub, 126 W. Main St., 541-779-4455

Habaneros Mexican Restaurant, 142 N. Front St., 541-779-9770

Jackson Creek Pizza, 317 E. Main St., 541-734-7322

Pallet Wine Co., Third and Fir streets, 541-621-1589

Porters Dining at the Depot, 147 N. Front St., 541-857-1910

Rack ’Em Billiards & Food, 40 N. Riverside Ave., 541-779-6111

Red Lion Hotel & Misty’s Grill, 200 N. Riverside Ave., 541-779-5811

Redrock Italian Eatery, 17 W. Fourth St., 541-773-6840

Shenanigans Irish Pub 17 S. Riverside Ave., 541-776-6945

Sunrise Cafe 130 E. Main St., 541-245-0555

Wet — An Aquatic Nightclub Experience, 1 W. Sixth St., 541-555-1212

Dunbar Farms on Pierce Road and Butte Creek Mill are stops on the first of Ashland Food Co-op’s annual summer farm tours. There are still spaces for 10 participants on the seven-hour tour, which includes charter-bus transportation and a picnic lunch of farm-fresh foods for $40 per person ($35 for Co-op owners). Call 541-482-2237 to sign up. The tour leaves the Co-op at 8 a.m. and returns at 3:30 p.m.

Small-scale production of grains is the focus of this event. At Dunbar, David Mostue and his farm crew have been growing wheat for the past two years. His unusual approach — covered in a 2009 story for the newspaper’s Oregon Healthy Living magazine — centers around actual horsepower with draft teams instead of motorized farm equipment. Tour participants will meet the American Belgians, Beth and Breeze, who work Dunbar and then observe a threshing demonstration.

Lunch on the farm features food from the farm — wheat-berry, garbanzo and vegetable salad, as well as SunStone Artisan Bakery bread baked from the farm’s wheat flour. A tour follows of the circa-1870s Eagle Point mill, which has started processing local wheat crops to produce Hanley Farm Horsepower Flour and other products.

Registration opens Aug. 2 for the second tour, scheduled for the same time, for the same fee, on Aug. 21, at Blue Fox Farm in Applegate, Mama Terra Micro Creamery near Williams and Rolling Hills Family Farm in west Medford for its peaches. Groups meet first at the Co-op.   

And if you’re interested in the challenges of bringing local foods like these into school lunch programs, check out the Co-op’s community forum today at 7 p.m. with Ashland School District’s new food-service manager, Gema Soto. Three other panelists, Tracy Harding from Rogue Valley Farm to School, Eva Skuratowicz of Ashland School Board and Eric Sandrock of the middle school’s garden, join Soto for the discussion. The free event is in the Co-op’s community classroom, 195 A St.

Knowing Italians, they wouldn’t dream of celebrating any occasion without some great food, so I hope they’re getting the Rogue Valley’s best. What can Medford households do to feel the love from Alba? Crack open a jar of Nutella.

If you aren’t already a fan, Nutella is the trademarked chocolate-hazelnut spread that just so happens to be native to Alba. Baker Pietro Ferrero invented it in 1946 to extend cocoa rationed during and immediately after World War II. Plentiful in Italy’s Piedmont region, hazelnuts were a natural filler ingredient. Their combination with chocolate already was familiar in the form of “gianduja,” the Italian term for chocolate-hazelnut paste since the 1800s (named after a Turin commedia dell’arte character).

But Ferrero refined the concept by blending the heady mixture into a spreadable confection that was even more economical and easy to use. In 1964, the spread was officially renamed Nutella, and the food’s cult-like following was cemented in 2007 with the commemoration of Feb. 5 as World Nutella Day.

As the mock-holiday suggests, it’s not just Italians who are crazy for the stuff. Chefs of the highest caliber have created recipes to use Nutella — in fine restaurants, no less — although the most common method is simply smearing it on baked goods. The food has millions of Facebook fans and to some palates is so wondrous that bloggers have proposed forming their own NA — as in Nutella Addicts Anonymous.

Of course, true connoisseurs claim that the European and American versions aren’t in the same league. Nutella’s parent company, Ferrero Co., manufactures its U.S. supply in Canada. Each 13-ounce jar, according to the company, contains about 50 hazelnuts, plus cocoa, sugar, skim milk, palm oil, a few other flavorings and emulsifiers, such as soy lecithin.

Usually found near peanut butter in grocery stores, Nutella costs upwards of $5 or $6. The Italian import can be obtained for about $13 (if it didn’t arrive in a sister city-bound suitcase).

To me, it’s always seemed the height of irony that peanut butter is widely abhorred in France, but many French families gobble down great glops of Nutella every morning at breakfast. Nutella is not only less attractive than peanut butter, in my opinion, but it’s sickly sweet flavor overwhelms the vehicle for maneuvering it to the mouth. Some devotees avoid that inconvenience by eating it right off the spoon.

Averse to hazelnuts and milk chocolate, I managed to avoid eating Nutella for the first four months I lived in France as a student, despite its fixed position on my host family’s breakfast table right along with butter, honey and jam. But after enough lean meals and many miles walked around western Europe, my resolve wavered in an undeniable craving for fat and calories that mere butter couldn’t quell.

I ate my fill in that last month or so of breakfasts and can practically count on one hand the number of times I’ve eaten Nutella in the nine years since. I’ve occasionally made exceptions for Nutella in crepes, preferably with cherry jam, but that’s usually in deference to guests’ preference for chocolate.

I’d likely be more appreciative of homemade Nutella, which Los Angeles Times writer Amy Scattergood calls “glorious, neither as sweet as Nutella nor with that vague aftertaste that comes, perhaps, from the oils or emulsifiers. The hazelnut flavor is more pronounced and the chocolate is a little stronger, with notes that vary depending on which cocoa powder you use.”

Scattergood’s 2009 article emphasized the importance of purchasing the highest-quality hazelnuts from a reliable source. Because of their high fat content, many nuts turn rancid easily, and it’s often impossible to tell before you purchase them if they’ve gone bad. Store nuts in an airtight container in the refrigerator and taste them before you roast them.

I’ve heard some industry insiders say most hazelnuts purchased in stores already are rancid — a much higher incidence than for other nuts. That may explain why I’ve never cared for them.

For those of you who do, try your hand at the following recipes, courtesy of the Times, including an all-American take on Nutella for breakfast.

Hazelnut-Chocolate Spread (Homemade Nutella)

2 cups raw hazelnuts

1⁄2 cup good-quality, unsweetened cocoa powder (such as Scharffen Berger)

1 cup powdered sugar

1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla

1⁄8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons hazelnut oil, more as needed

Heat oven to 400 F. Spread hazelnuts evenly over a cookie sheet and roast until they darken and become aromatic, about 10 minutes. Transfer hazelnuts to a damp towel and rub to remove skins.

In a food processor, grind roasted hazelnuts to a smooth butter, scraping sides as needed so they process evenly, about 5 minutes.

Add the cocoa, sugar, vanilla, salt and oil to food processor and continue to process until well-blended, about 1 minute. Finished spread should have consistency of creamy peanut butter; if it is too dry, process in a little extra hazelnut oil until desired consistency is achieved. Remove to a container, cover and refrigerate until needed. Allow spread to come to room temperature before using, as it thickens considerably when refrigerated. It will keep for at least a week.

Makes about 1 1⁄2 cups.

Hazelnut-Chocolate Linzer Cookies

1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1⁄2 cup sugar

Zest from 1 orange

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar, for garnish

About 3⁄4 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (or Nutella)

In a food processor, grind the hazelnuts until they are finely ground but not so finely ground that they are like sand or begin to clump together.

In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until well-incorporated. Add the orange zest and vanilla and combine thoroughly. Add the flours and salt and continue mixing until dough is well-combined. Divide dough in half, press each half into a disk shape and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Chill dough at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Heat oven to 350 F, position a rack in middle of oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take 1 disk of dough out of refrigerator and let it soften slightly.

On a lightly floured board or a sheet of parchment paper, roll out dough to slightly thicker than one1/8 inch. Using a 21⁄2-inch, round cookie cutter, cut as many circles as you can from dough. Using a 1-inch, round cookie cutter, cut out center of half of large circles, incorporating small circles back into dough. If dough becomes too soft, return it briefly to refrigerator. Repeat with second disk, then press dough scraps together and reroll to make more cookies. Make sure you have same number of cookies with cut-out centers as you do cookies without.

Bake cookies until they just begin to color around the edges, 14 to 16 minutes. Rotate tray halfway through for even baking. Cool cookies on a rack or slide parchment off sheet and cool them on parchment. Make sure cookies are thoroughly cooled before assembly.

To assemble, sift powdered sugar over cookies with cut-out centers. Spread about 11⁄2 teaspoons hazelnut-chocolate spread over cookies without cut-out centers, and carefully place sugar-dusted cookies on top to form sandwiches. Repeat with all cookies.

Makes about 27 cookies.

Hazelnut-Chocolate Oatmeal With Strawberries and Cream

1⁄2 cup heavy cream

1⁄2 cup whole milk

1 cup rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of sugar, unless using store-bought Nutella

Pinch of salt

1⁄3 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (or Nutella)

1⁄2 cup hulled, sliced strawberries (may substitute bananas or other seasonal fruit)

1⁄4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed, coarsely chopped or broken up

4 teaspoons shaved dark chocolate

In a blender, in a food processor or by hand, whip the cream until it begins to thicken. Stir in the milk to thin as desired, mixture should be light with consistency of heavy cream. Set aside.

In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the oats, vanilla, sugar and salt with 2 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally until oatmeal is creamy, about 3 minutes. Stir in the hazelnut-chocolate spread until thoroughly combined. This makes about 2 cups oatmeal.

Divide oatmeal among bowls, sprinkle the strawberries on top, followed by a little cream, the hazelnuts and shaved chocolate. Serve any remaining cream in a pitcher alongside oatmeal.

Makes 4 servings.

And they’re delicious.

But in the past few years, I’ve noticed somewhat of a blueberry controversy brewing. By all means freeze fresh, local blueberries when they’re at their peak for use all year. But how to freeze them? The methods are hotly debated around the questions “to wash?” or “not to wash?”

The story in this week’s A la Carte section warned against washing, a piece of advice offered by the Fresno Bee. Although I usually advocate the opposite, I ran the Bee’s tip in the spirit of unbiased reporting. The argument against washing is usually summed up in a single sentence: It makes the berries clump together in an icy blob.

“Well, duh.” I can almost hear the sentiment in kitchens across the Northwest’s blueberry country. That’s why you have to individually quick-freeze berries after washing — or IQF — as it’s known in the food industry.

I don’t wash my frozen peas. So why would I wash my frozen berries? The Detroit Free Press agrees and printed the following method in a recent story.

After rinsing blueberries, spread them out on a sided baking sheet lined with several layers of paper towel, pat dry and freeze on trays until just frozen, then transfer to freezer bags.

Skipping the paper-towel move, I just spread washed berries onto a baking sheet and freeze for an hour or so. Leaving a little water on the berries creates an ice glaze similar to the kind on commercially frozen meats. To my thinking, that protects the food from oxidation that happens upon exposure to air. I’ve never heard anyone opine otherwise, and my blueberries keep all year in the freezer.

Of course, I wouldn’t recommend this with more delicate berries, namely raspberries, blackberries and other cane specimens. A bit more sturdy, blueberries will keep, unwashed, loosely covered in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

But I would recommend using the full complement of summer berries (plus one stone fruit) in the following cobbler. All the fruit should be available at Thursday’s Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market in Medford. If cherries are in short supply after this spring’s late frosts, simply increase the quantities of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries to 1 2⁄3 cups each.

Cherry-Berry Cobbler

2 cups sweet cherries, rinsed

1 cup blackberries

1 cup blueberries

1 cup raspberries

3 tablespoons cornstarch

6 tablespoons sugar, divided

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1⁄2 cup, plus 1 tablespoon reduced-fat milk, divided

Vanilla ice cream for serving, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Pit the cherries in a large bowl. Lightly rinse all the berries. Add them to pitted cherries. Sprinkle fruit with the cornstarch, 4 tablespoons of the sugar and the lemon zest.

Pour mixture into a 9-by-12-inch, oval baking dish.

Mix the flour with 1 tablespoon sugar, the baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the 1⁄2 cup milk to make a very soft dough.

Drop dough by spoonfuls on top of berry mixture. Dampen your hands with some remaining milk, and spread out dough to almost cover fruit. Brush top of dough with remaining milk. Sprinkle surface with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake cobbler in preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until it is golden brown and berries are bubbling. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Makes 8 (1⁄2-cup) servings.

— Recipe adapted by Detroit Free Press from www.bonappetit.com.

Sandy Dowling composed what amounts to a novella on grilling for participants in her cooking school at The Willows Bed and Breakfast in Central Point. She sent me a copy, and I simply took the best of what she had to offer and condensed it down for last week’s story. Incidentally, there’s still a couple spots left in Wednesday’s Willows class on grilling.

But Dowling didn’t address one grilled specialty of cooks who liberally apply beer to their meal. I’ve heard this process explained, along with rave reviews, but I’d never seen a recipe for beer-can chicken.

OK, I have to confess I’d never really gone looking for one, either. But the Detroit Free Press delivered a handy, how-to recipe, courtesy of Weber-Stephen Products, with its recent article on beer-can chicken. Now that we all know the principles of indirect-heat versus direct-heat cooking, I’ll share some of what the Free Press offered on the topic.

If you’ve never used this method either and are trying to wrap your head around beer-flavored chicken, rest assured that the meat doesn’t pick up the brew’s flavor. The liquid steams the chicken, ensuring that it’ll come out cooked but moist while the can conveniently props up the bird, which nicely bastes in its own fat.

This is one of those times that indirect heat is the best way to go, preferably with a drip pan over the grill’s coals or gas element. If you’re trying to cook chickens for a crowd, though, you’ll most likely have to settle for direct heat (medium-hot) while keeping a close eye out for flare-ups. Put those out with a squirt bottle of water.

So grab a cold one and get grilling.

The best way is to remove chicken and beer can from grill is to slide a wide metal spatula under can while using tongs at the neck to hold chicken steady and transfer it to a platter.

Beer-Can Chicken

2 whole chickens, about 4 pounds each

6 to 8 tablespoons favorite dry barbecue rub or seasoning (see note), divided

2 (12-ounce) cans beer

Discard giblets and fat inside cavities of the chickens. Blot chickens dry with paper towel. Sprinkle each cavity with 1 tablespoon of the rub. Generously rub another 2 to 3 tablespoons all over skin of entire chickens. If desired, rub an additional 1⁄2 tablespoon under skin of each chicken.

Prepare grill for indirect grilling. For charcoal grills, bank coals on separate sides of grill and light. Coals are ready when covered with a light gray coating of ash. For gas grills, preheat all burners on medium-high and then shut middle off if you have 3 burners or right or left if you have 2. For either grill, place a drip pan in center just below where chicken will be placed. Pour some water (or beer if you like) in drip pan.

Open one of the beer cans. Poke 6 or 7 holes in top of can. Pour out top inch or so of each beer can; put 1 tablespoon dry rub into each. Holding chicken upright, with opening of body cavity down, insert chicken on top of beer can. Repeat with other beer can and chicken.

When ready to cook, oil grate. Stand chickens up in center of hot grate, over drip pan. Spread out legs to support each chicken. Cover grill and cook until chickens are tender, about 11⁄2 to 2 hours depending on size. If using charcoal, you may need to add more fresh coals per side after 1 hour of cooking.

Chickens are done when internal temperature of breast’s thickest part reaches 165 degrees. Carefully lift each chicken to a cutting board or platter, holding a large metal spatula under beer can. Be careful not to spill hot beer. Let stand for 5 minutes; remove from can before carving meat off upright carcass.

Makes 12 servings.

NOTE:To make your own basic barbecue rub, in a small bowl combine 1⁄4 cup light brown sugar, 3 tablespoons ancho chili powder (or favorite chili powder), 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 tablespoon paprika (if using smoked paprika — use 1 teaspoon), 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 2 teaspoons garlic powder and 2 teaspoons onion powder or 1 tablespoon minced onion.

Once scientists agreed that antioxidants are healthy and that cranberries have lots of these phytonutrients, we got juice bottles touting the health value of their contents. Predictably, plenty of imitators were produced in hopes that shoppers won’t read nutrition labels and will buy based on the hazy notion that “cranberry” equates health.

At least they didn’t snow Sally, a reader who did compare nutrition labels for bottled juice but was still so flummoxed that she asked us for advice in this week’s A la Carte edition of Since You Asked. We consulted two expert sources for our answer: registered dietitian and diabetes educator Cathy Miller and health educator Linda Willis.

Both handily interpreted the nutritional value and discrepancies between 100 percent and sugar-added juice. But a larger theme emerged that we couldn’t explore fully in the confines of this small column: Why buy juice anyway?

Miller and Willis shared the opinion that juice is unnecessary in a healthful diet. Never one to mince words, Willis was even more direct: “It’s a great way to gain weight.”

The doctorate-holding lecturer went on to explain that pediatricians have started telling parents to cut the juice out of their children’s diets. If they don’t hear it from their doctors, participants in Willis’ straight-talking, seven-week curriculum, The Balanced Weigh, leave with the admonition to “stop wasting so much money” on juice.

So what should health- and budget-conscious families purchase? Fruit — for its nutrients, plus fiber. That’s a simple strategy for choosing whole foods over processed ones. Even though juice can contain many of the same nutrients as fruit, it’s missing some of the original food’s edible parts, one criteria for determining “wholeness.” Any way you slice or dice it, that’s a processed food.

Of course many beverages purporting to be juice have plenty of additives that lend coloring and flavoring. And many consumers would be amazed to know what lengths food processors go to achieve these ends, as a recent story by the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

That “color added” afterthought on labels for ice cream, yogurt and — drum roll, please — fruit juices is carmine or the dried and crushed bodies of the female cochineal insect. The cactus-loving bugs are processed in Mexican plants with the express purpose of adding to a variety of foods that need a pink color in the absence of pigment from actual fruit.

Although this practice won’t translate in so many words onto nutrition labels, the Food and Drug Administration in January is requiring manufacturers to replace the “color added” listing to “carmine” or “cochineal extract,” the Star Tribune reported.

The reason isn’t just transparency. Ingredients like carmine have come under fire because they cause severe allergic reactions in some people. Some manufacturers voluntarily stopped using carmine amid lawsuits.

The FDA’s edict doesn’t go far enough for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which wants the government regulatory agency to compel manufacturers to label carmine as “insects” because few people recognize carmine or cochineal as an insect derivative, and even fewer would be curious enough to look up the terms to find out what they’re eating. Obviously, the food industry opposes this maneuver because people could be put off — if not totally disgusted by — buying food they knew contained crushed bugs.

After they add the fruit-like color, where do food manufacturers get the faux flavor? Could be castoreum or secretions from the anal glands of beavers. While used mostly in perfumes, the substance sometimes enhances raspberry flavor in candies and fillings.

I kid you not. But I do propose that we residents of the Beaver State, at least, boycott castoreum-containing foods. Anyone need further convincing?

That’s the thought on everyone’s mind amid news of this week’s 100-degree days.

Such extreme heat, of course, challenges many a cook. There are those who resort to a parade of summer salads or sandwiches, those who take all cooking outside to charcoal and gas grills and those who swear off the kitchen entirely in favor of eating out anywhere that’s air-conditioned.

I’m not so averse to heating up the kitchen, likely because there’s little lasting effect in our high-ceilinged house, which offers other areas to chill out. I’m more concerned with preparing what little is fresh in the garden. This week it happens to be a bumper crop of cauliflower.

After weeks and weeks of waiting for temperatures to turn warm enough to spur on the cheddar variety, they exploded this past week from the size of baseballs to bowling balls. They’re terrific raw, but I happen to love cauliflower with Indian spices, so tonight’s dinner is an Indian-style simmer with onions and potatoes on steamed rice. Not exactly light, summery fare, but as they say in India, hot spicy food makes you sweat and ultimately cools you off.

But I’m not overlooking the possibility of chilled watermelon to cool the palate after dinner. Of all the fruit available in grocery stores this past week, watermelon was hands-down the most attractive. I bought two and have kept them in the fridge for an opportune moment.

As covered in a previous poston underrated foods, watermelon packs a lot of nutrition for its water content. It’s full of vitamins A, C and B6, plus potassium. Watermelon needs little in the way of adornment, but if you’re stocking up against the coming heat, here’s a few more ways to serve it, courtesy of McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Watermelon Pico de Gallo

2 medium tomatoes, diced

16 ounces watermelon, diced (try to make watermelon pieces slightly larger than tomato)

1 tablespoon red onion, diced

1 jalapeno, chopped

1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

Juice of 1⁄2 lime

1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt

Put everything in a medium bowl, gently toss, and refrigerate for an hour. Adjust seasoning.

Makes about 6 servings.

Watermelon-Feta Salad

2 pounds watermelon, cut in 1-inch cubes

Handful of mint, roughly chopped

10 Kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Small red onion (about 2 tablespoons), diced

Juice of 6 1⁄2 limes

1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt

7 ounces feta

Additional mint, for serving

Pepper, to taste

Put everything except the feta in a large bowl and toss gently so the watermelon pieces stay whole. Refrigerate for an hour. Before serving, add the feta, a bit more mint and cracked pepper.

Makes 4 servings.

Yep, if you didn’t know, the Mail Tribune’s food section is completed almost a week ahead of time. So that can put us in a bit of a pickle if weather or other factors have an adverse effect on local produce or other topics we may be covering.

But peas are still around for the picking, apparently. I don’t have any more pea recipes kicking around, preferring to commit them all to Wednesday’s paper. But I will share one more idea and, like some of the best, it’s one of the simplest.

To my taste buds, there’s almost nothing more delicious than lightly stir-fried snow peas. I say lightly because they should still retain a bit of crunch. And that’s why locally grown or your own garden peas are superior. The ones to be found in grocery stores (even when its the Northern Hemisphere’s season) have already gone flaccid.

I like enough oil in the pan and enough heat to freckle the pods a bit with brown spots. But make sure to take them out before stir-frying any other ingredients. I didn’t do that for the summer’s first stir-fry with julienned carrots, garden-grown garlic and mushrooms and watched my peas go flat. But we still ate them with sauteed scallops and steamed rice.

I vowed I wouldn’t let that happen to my last little batch picked before the weekend heat. They and the leftover rice saved me from a trip to the grocery store, after all. Both begged to be reincarnated as fried rice.

I stir-fried a handful of stringed-and-stemmed peas for just a few minutes, removed them from the pan and added two sliced green onions picked straight from the garden. Once those wilted, I added about a cup of cold, leftover rice and laid a slice of prosciutto over the top to wilt it and infuse some salt into the dish.

After removing the prosciutto, I poured in two eggs beaten with a teaspoon each of sesame oil and tamari sauce and 1/2 teaspoon siracha sauce. If you like big chunks of egg like I do, let them start to set up a bit before stirring. Once the eggs cooked through and were distributed through the rice, I added back the peas and sliced prosciutto. This made an ample portion for one person.

While fried rice almost certainly was invented to use up leftovers like this dish, the concept can get pretty elaborate. This blog previously posted some classic recipes, and I ran across another pretty unique one last week courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.

For fried rice that tastes like more than just leftover meat, veggies and rice stirred together, it’s important to build flavors at numerous points by deglazing the pan and seasoning the eggs. This recipe relies on pan drippings and distinctive jerk spices for intense flavor.

Chinese-Jamaican Jerk-Chicken Fried Rice

1 1⁄2 cups chopped green onions, divided

1 tablespoon roughly chopped garlic

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 teaspoons each: ground allspice, brown sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce, divided

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon peanut or vegetable oil, divided

1⁄2 teaspoon each: ground cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper flakes, ground red pepper

2 chicken legs with thighs, about 13⁄4 pounds

1⁄3 cup each: chopped onions, diced carrots

4 cups cold, cooked rice

To make marinade, combine 1 cup of the green onions and the garlic in a food processor. Pulse until just combined. Add the ketchup, lime juice and vinegar; process until almost smooth, 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, the thyme, allspice, sugar, 1 teaspoon of the dark soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of the oil, the cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper flakes and ground red pepper. Pulse until well-combined.

Make several 1-inch slits on both sides of the chicken legs. Put chicken legs in a large, shallow bowl; coat with 1⁄4 cup jerk marinade. (Reserve remaining marinade and keep refrigerated for another use.) Cover chicken; refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Remove chicken from refrigerator 30 minutes before roasting.

Heat oven to 425 F. Place chicken skin-side up in a foil-lined roasting pan. Roast until chicken is golden-brown and measures 165 F on a meat thermometer, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer chicken to a cutting board, reserving pan drippings. Allow chicken to rest 10 minutes; remove meat from bones. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Combine remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce and dark soy sauce in a small bowl.

Heat a large wok over high heat; swirl in remaining 2 tablespoons oil; add the onions and carrots. Stir-fry until onions begin to wilt, 30 seconds. Add the rice; stir-fry, breaking up rice with a spatula until heated through, 2 minutes. Swirl in soy-sauce mixture and stir-fry until all rice grains are evenly colored, 1 minute. Stir in 1⁄2 cup green onions, pan drippings and chicken; stir-fry until just combined, 10 seconds.

Makes 4 servings.

— Recipe adapted by the Chicago Tribune from “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge,” by Grace Young.