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Dehydrated Onion Powder The name, if not the grain poha, came into my life a few years ago when a friend was testing recipes

for a cookbook she was writing with an Indian chef who lives and cooks in the United States. She phoned one day, positively

giddy, to talk about the fluffy grain she'd discovered. Like couscous, poha was fast and fabulous. Why, she wondered, hasn't

anybody ever heard of it? A few weeks ago I posed that question to Houston cookbook author Suneeta Vaswani. ``My dream is to

one day introduce Americans to the various hidden treasures of the Indian pantry, and this is one of them,'' she said. ``It

is something we absolutely adore.'' Poha resembles pale, elongated oats and is made from rice that is parboiled, pressed and

dried. I've seen it translated as "pressed rice" or "flattened, dehydrated rice" — descriptive but drab words that fail to

do poha justice. To prepare a common vegetable dish, the cook rinses the poha quickly under running water and drains it well,

then adds it to a sauté pan with spices, diced vegetables and a negligible amount of water, which makes it fluff up. Or she

may deep-fry it, which makes it puff up, or simmer it with milk and sugar for a variation on rice pudding. I had forgotten

about my conversation with Raquel until the book American Masala was published last year with two recipes for poha. I glanced

at them before the grain again fell off my radar. Recently I chanced upon big bags of it in the Indian section of a Fiesta

Mart. I hesitated momentarily — did I want thick or thin? I had no clue — before grabbing thick at random and heading for

the checkout lane. A lucky guess. To a woman, the cooks I spoke with preferred thick. With my first experiment, Potato and

Pea Poha from American Masala, I hit one out of the ballpark. The notes I scribbled on the recipe read, "Fluffy, easy, yummy.

Tastes very Indian. Delicious cold the next day, too." In addition to poha and potatoes, the dish called for mustard seeds,

cumin seeds, curry leaves and cilantro, all items easy to find at Indian groceries, as is poha itself. Turns out there are as

many versions of this dish as there are cooks in India, or at least Maharashtra, the state in western India that lays claim

to it, according to Vaswani. It's traditionally served for breakfast, at teatime or as a snack that schoolchildren pack in

their tiffins (lunch pails). Vaswani's version, from Easy Indian Cooking, adds grated coconut and cloves. The seriously

satisfying variation at Kiran's restaurant revealed happy surprises with every bite: carrots, green beans, cauliflower,

peanuts, pickled mango and the decidedly untraditional broccoli. Chef-proprietor Kiran Verma got into the habit of loading

her poha with vegetables as a way to encourage her children, then small, to eat more of them. But except for an occasional

appearance at brunch, don't look for it on the menu. Vegetable poha is homey, grandma-type cooking, not restaurant fare,

Verma explains. Ammini Ramachandran, the Dallas-based author of Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts: Recipes and Remembrances

of a Vegetarian Legacy (iUniverse, $24), adds that most Indian restaurants in the United States serve northern cuisine,

leaving poha off the menu. All the more reason to try it at home. I turned to rice pudding, another traditional use. My poha

rice pudding was soupy but scrumptious, and I had to restrain myself from polishing off a batch meant to serve six. In

Kerela, a rice-growing region of southern India, poha (or avil, as it is called there) is a festival food. Neither the rice

harvest (Puthiri) nor the New Year (Deepavali) festivals would be complete without it, Ramachandran writes. To the north,

it's key in chevra, a deep-fried snack mix. Pudding, fried snack and comfy rice and vegetable dish: those are the traditional

uses. But after she and I spoke about poha, Verma invited me to stop by the restaurant to eat fish with a poha crust of her

own invention. Beforehand, she sent her husband to the store. He returned with three bags, all labeled "poha." The first held

the flattened rice I was getting to know, the second flattened corn that looked like cornflakes, and the third — labeled

"sabudana (tapioca) poha" — fat, translucent ribbons. It's no surprise that the last two were new to me, but incredibly,

Verma was also mystified. Newfangled pohas are all the rage in India, her husband reported hearing from the shopkeeper. Verma

rose to the challenge. She made a traditional vegetable poha with the flattened rice. Also, she deep-fried and flavored some,

then showered the puffs over Chilean sea bass and served it with Indian-spiced beurre blanc. She used the corn poha as if it

were bread crumbs, adding a crispy coating to striped bass in coconut sauce. Finally, she deep-fried the tapioca poha, which

puffed up to look like pork rinds. Verma scattered the puffs with a heady mix of pomegranate seeds, sliced green chiles and

red onion. She added a squeeze of lemon and a dusting of cilantro, cumin, salt and mango powder. It was the best, most

addictive bar snack imaginable. In American Masala, chef Suvir Saran mentions that pea and potato poha was a favorite

childhood snack. "Now that I'm grown, poha is a staple in my kitchen," he wrote. "It's simple and comforting and, given the

chance, will become a staple in your kitchen, too."

Farming Machines The earthquake in southwest China has seriously affected agricultural production in Sichuan and other

disaster-hit regions, said a senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture on Saturday. The quake, which also triggered

landslides in the mountainous province, damaged 33,333 hectares of farmland, including more than 10,000 hectares of wheat and

rape and more than 20,000 hectares of vegetables in 13 worst-hit cities and counties, said Wei Chao'an, Vice Agriculture

Minister, at a press conference. As the disaster also destroyed irrigation systems in some areas, up to 100,000 hectares of

rice paddies might have to be used to grow alternative crops, he said. "A large amount of farming facilities, including more

than 20,000 farm machines, were damaged," Wei said. He admitted the repair work would be "very difficult". As the country's

leading agricultural province, Sichuan provided six percent of the nation's total grain output, including five percent of the

national total summer grains, eight percent of the total oil crops and five percent of the total vegetable production, said

Wei. He said the 12.5 million heads of poultry and livestock killed in the quake were mostly poultry. The poultry losses were

a small fraction of the 1.5 billion birds that the province aimed to produce in 2008.

Powder Extract A French nutraceuticals company has announced the launch of an algae extract product intended to reduce the

hardening of arteries. Diana Naturals' HealSea is an extract of Fucus vesiculosus, a brown algae. According to the company,

the extract has been shown in clinical trials to increase the body's production of aortic nitric oxide, which helps dilate

blood vessels. It has also been shown to relax blood vessels and to discourage the formation of blood clots. In a study

carried out on rats, animals fed the algae extract were more resistant to the oxidation of their LDL ("good") cholesterol

than animals not given the extract. In another study, animals that had their diets supplemented with HealSea had almost 20

times less plaque formation in the aortic luminal area of their hearts than other animals. In a clinical trial on human

participants, those who were given a 500 milligram HealSea supplement each day had significantly higher levels of vitamin C

in their blood after 21 and 42 days than participants who were given a placebo algae extract instead. Studies on HealSea have

been carried out by the company, in conjunction with the Centre d'Etude et de Volorisation des Algues en Bretagne, the

University of Barcelona and the University of Milan. More clinical studies on humans are planned for 2008 with France's

Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Nutrition. HealSea is available as either a water-soluble powder or as a tablet.

Diana Naturals guarantees that the product contains at least 11 percent phlorogucinol, a type of polyphenol. It is part of

the company's Phytonutriance line, which includes weight management and weight loss products. While atherosclerosis, or the

hardening of arteries, is a natural part of the aging process, it can lead to heart disease in more extreme cases.

Atherosclerosis can be accelerated by risk factors such as poor diet (which leads to high cholesterol, high blood pressure or

obesity), smoking or diabetes.

Coco Fiber The invention relates to a substrate treated with a waterless micro-emulsion lotion, which is liquid at room

temperature. For the purposes of the present invention, room temperature is a temperature of from about 20.degree. C. to

about 25.degree. C. The lotion formula of the present invention undergoes an in-situ phase change from liquid to semi-solid,

finely divided, uniformly dispersed form upon contact with the substrate, for example, the fibers of the web. This property

is important in preventing liquid lotion migration into the substrate or the packaging, and in enhancing the lubricious,

soft, and non-greasy feeling of the lotioned substrate. Lotion in the substrate is readily transferred to the user's skin by

the friction from wiping and body heat to provide the benefits to the skin surface. One aspect of the present invention

includes a lotion including a micro-emulsion composition, which is substantially liquid at room temperature and undergoes a

phase change to a semi-solid or solid upon contact with a cellulosic substrate. The micro-emulsion composition includes a

polar emollient, a non-polar emollient, a co-surfactant and a non-ionic surfactant. Another aspect of the present invention

includes a substrate treated with the lotion including a micro-emulsion composition, which composition is liquid at room

temperature and undergoes a phase change to a semi-solid or solid upon contact with the cellulosic substrate. Another aspect

of the present invention includes a lotion including a micro-emulsion, which includes a polar emollient, a non-polar

emollient, a non-ionic surfactant, and a co-surfactant wherein at least one of the emollients has substantial solubility in

either cellulosic or synthetic fiber. Preferably, at least the polar emollient is soluble in cellulosic fibers and the non-

polar emollient is more preferably soluble in synthetic fibers. Another aspect of the present invention includes a lotion

including: 35% polyalkoxy or polyhydroxy emollient; 12.5% aromatic ester, such as C.sub.12 to C.sub.15 alkyl benzoate ester

or mineral oil; 12.5% myristyl alcohol; and 40% PEG-20 methyl glucose sesquistearate.

Peanut Cracker Jared Mollenkof, a senior at Covenant College, joined eight of his friends in purchasing, raising,

slaughtering and roasting a pig. “I think it’s kind of sad how much of a disconnect there is between our food and the

process,” said Mr. Mollenkof said, who was raised with few of the luxuries enjoyed by other American children his age. With

his parents, who are missionaries, Mr. Mollenkof lived in Kenya for five years and then in South Africa for four years. While

living abroad, Mr. Mollenkof was unable to take creature comforts, such as warm water and electricity, for granted. “We had

running water in the missionary compound,” said Mr. Mollenkof, but warm water depended on how hot it was outside. Also,

electricity was limited to one hour a day. Mr. Mollenkof returned home at 17 years old and started studying history at

Covenant College. He soon realized how much everyone, including himself, took the food they ate everyday for granted. “It’s

so easy to go to the grocery store and pick up a roast,” Mr. Mollenkof said. “I don’t have to appreciate how it got there.

” Together with his friends, Mr. Mollenkof decided to learn firsthand what it takes to raise an animal for food. The

students bought the 5-week-old pig and raised it in a neighbor’s chicken pen. Mr. Mollenkof fed the pig farm feed, scraps

from the cafeteria and stale bread donated from Niedlov’s Breadworks. Taking care of the pigs proved to be a time consuming

and expensive task. Mr. Mollenkof would be called out of class and forced to hunt down his pig that liked to escape from its

pen. “It is good for me to think that everything I eat someone has put this much effort into,” Mr. Mollenkof said. On

slaughtering day, Mr. Mollenkof said emotions were high, but that he felt he was doing the right thing. “It’s good to

recognize the fact that for you to live something else has to die,” said Mr. Mollenkof, who held a pig roast that fed 200 of

his fellow Covenant students and neighbors. “I think when you keep that in mind it helps you to live with more focus.” Mr.

Mollenkof’s experiences with his pig will be a reminder for the rest of his life that food is neither an endless nor an

effortless resource.

Harvesting Machinery Cathrina Claas, 32, has confirmed that the tractor side of the Claas Group’s famous harvester

‘footprint’ is now core business. The group’s globe-trotting senior executive was speaking during a flying visit to

Australia late last month. While Claas has gained an international reputation as harvesting specialists, it’s early days

with regard to convincing farmers they should take a close look at its still fledgling tractor marque. Ms Claas emphasised to

Australian farmers that Claas tractors are now an integral part of the harvesting chain, noting the possibility of both

sectors being ‘grown together’ down the track. In a move that startled machinery industry analysts at the time, the noted

manufacturer of high-tech headers took over the ailing French Renault tractor subsidiary in 2003, to become the world’s

newest ‘full-line’ machinery manufacturer, with a turnover now in the order of euro3 billion ($A4.9bn). “The processes we

have gone through in the past five years prove we care about the tractors as much as for our full line of harvesting

equipment,” she said. “We are very happy about how things are developing, technology-wise, also market share-wise,” she

said during her visit. The grand-daughter of the man who established the still privately-owned concern in the 1920s, and

daughter of Helmut Claas, who is largely seen as one of the great pioneers of modern combine harvester design, says the

merger opportunity was a “good fit” for the company’s long-time well-being. Speaking in Victoria when Landpower opened

Australia’s newest $10m distribution business, Ms Claas described herself as an “active” deputy chairman of the Claas

Group’s Shareholders’ committee. * Extract from 10-page Farm Machinery Feature in all Rural Press farm newspapers, May 22.