The 1,000-pound great pumpkin of Everett could squash you | Black Watermelon Seeds

Here’s a somewhat boring fact you might already know about cotton: It doesn’t make a good food, for humans or animals. Glands throughout the plant produce a toxic pigment called gossypol that limits its use as feed stock.

Before that controversy could finish marinating, a 2011 clip of HBO’s Talking Funny resurfaced, featuring Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais and Louis C.K. Rock, C.K. and Gervais used “n—–” freely while Seinfeld sat with them, visibly uncomfortable. Rock immediately came under fire for not only introducing the word into the discussion but also actively participating in the wildly abrasive clip. Seinfeld won wide praise, most likely for this comment: “I don’t find humor [in the word ‘n—–’]. Nor do I seek it.”

Likewise, if you thumb through a seed catalogue for organic farmers and gardeners, the characteristics they tout for their seeds address the same issues over and over: disease resistance, frost resistance, pest resistance and germination timing. Elsewhere the needs are similarly straightforward: salt tolerance, drought tolerance, flood tolerance and greater nutrition for staple crops. Of the big agronomic breeding challenges, only herbicide tolerance is a challenge novel to contemporary times. At the grandest scale, achieving the efficiency of photosynthesis in crops like corn and sugarcane for any crop and nitrogen fixation for any crop seem to verge on science fiction for their ambition, it remains the case that those dreams merely involve moving what nature already does into a wider range of crops.

Whatever your interest, here is a flock of tips that will take your backyard bird feeding to the next level.

Travis Dickinson, the former executive chef at Clover, and Justin Curtis, the former front-of-the-house manager at Clover, teamed up to open a fast-casual but gourmet walk-up counter taco shop in downtown Spokane. The setting is fun and approachable, with a Day-of-the-Dead-style logo and murals. Tacos are served on 5-inch corn tortillas that are made in-house. Salsas and sauces – such as salsa verde, guacamole and a pumpkin seed salsa – are also made in-house. So are the tortilla chips, aguas frescas and horchata. Tacos include pork cheek carnitas, al pastor, lamb birria, carne asada, chicken, mushroom, chorizo, rockfish and (my favorite) octopus. Karina’s Bowl, named for Dickinson’s wife, features a choice of taco meat, beans, rice, guacamole, queso fresco, crema, pico de gallo and chips or tortillas. Margaritas are a specialty. So is the Watermelon Man, with tequila, lime, cider vinegar, watermelon, simple syrup and tajin, a chile-lime seasoning. 10 N. Post St. (509) 474-9618. cochinitotaqueria.com.

Fill a medium-size bowl with water, and add salt until water is heavily salted. Place seeds in the bowl, and let sit for 1 to 2 hours.

As a matter of fact, studies have shown that the zinc in oyster helps maintain a healthy sperm count and the male hormone testosterone. It also helps increases the libido,

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Additional researchers from Michigan State and the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania also contributed to this research.

Carrots are a food that you might always have in your fridge, so this Curried Carrots With Pistachios recipe by Wendy Irene is quite convenient. Plus with this dish you get the added health benefits of spices, nuts and herbs.

You can wait until New Year’s Eve to set forth goals — but it could be the wrong time to make a change.

BELLEFONTE — There’s some good news for Centre County employees. On Thursday, the commissioners approved a …