If you’re passionate about pollinators, then you probably know that butterflies love milkweed.
Photo by Barnes Dr Thomas G, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Wikimedia Commons
But here’s a trickier bit of trivia:
Why are butterflies called butter flies?
(As a Butters, I simply had to know.)
Butterflies, it is said, earned their name back when they would flutter around the milk pails and butter churns on farms.
milkmaid, G. Morland via Wikimedia Commons
Makes sense, but also makes you wonder why these aren’t called milklappers (buckettippers?) …
Photo by David Maitland via Wikimedia Commons
Anymoooo …
Here’s a cute 1935 classic called “Molly Moo-Cow and the Butterflies,” just for fun:
Food.
You know what you like.
Mmmm …
But do you know why, exactly, you’re drawn to certain dishes?
This sounds like a silly question, but there is a sort of science behind the appeal of a meal.
A harvest of interesting trivia, gathered by Amish furniture company Plain & Simple, explains how plating design, contrasting colors, and even the shapes of plates can make one’s dining experience more pleasurable.
For instance, are you more attracted to this dish …
Or this one?
The food components are pretty similar, but the first is somehow more appealing to me.
“The more presentable and visually-appealing [food] is, the better it tastes,” says the Plain & Simple post. “People favor bright-colored food that features lots of contrast. But too much color can be overwhelming—most people prefer three colors on their plate, distributed through three to four food components. Believe it or not, even the degree to which your plate is rotated affects how much you enjoy your food.”
How about this plate? Do the pale hues whet your appetite?
Photo by D Breen via Pixabay
According to Plain & Simple’s survey, “If you like your cheese salty, eat if off a knife—people rate cheese as tasting saltier when eaten off a knife rather than a toothpick, spoon, or fork.”
Of course, then there’s food art …
some of which is cuter (and more appetizing) …
Photo by Global Panorama via Flickr
than others …
Photo by Mukesh Patil via PDPics.com
Find out more fun “food appeal” facts at Better Dining Through Science.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Connie Bergstrom!!!
Connie Bergstrom (#6861) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Backyard Farmer Merit Badge!
“My first chicken was Burt, a Rhode Island Red rooster. I have had him for about 5 years. He has several lady friends, as we own around 50 hens and 3 roosters, including him and his son, Willie. We also have a Barred Rock rooster named Farmer who has a flock of his own Barred Rock and Cuckoo Maran hens.
We also have Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Buff Brahmas, RIR, Americanas, and New Hampshire Reds, and currently are raising up some Banties, Favorelles, Sexlink, RIR, and Orpington pullets. We feed organic cracked corn and hen scratch, occasionally free range, and they love scraps from the garden and the kitchen.
I absolutely love it. I sell our eggs; we get approximately 5-15 eggs a day when they are not on strike because of the Texas heat.”
Some things are too pretty to pass by,
but here’s something spectacular that you might miss altogether
if you weren’t looking for small, burrow-like doorways
amid the desolate desertscapes of New Mexico.
Journey with me …
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
