Vegetables

Beginning today, women and children who receive food vouchers through the federal government's WIC program will be able to use them to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. "It's a really welcome change," said Gail Harrison, a public health professor at UCLA who was on the national Institute of Medicine panel that recommended the revisions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - the first major change in the program since it began in the 1970s.

IT'S a great time of year for kitchen gardeners. Good rains mean great greens, and we've been happily tracking muddy footprints into the house as we bring in fresh-cut large-leaf mache or Italian wild arugula. At the same time, we're thinking about what to plant for spring and summer harvesting. For near-immediate gratification, plant radishes and spring onions right away as well as another round of lettuces and greens.

Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," got its nickname because our bodies rely on a bit of sun exposure to manufacture the vitamin under the surface of the skin. But some recent research shows that a little bit of ultraviolet light also boosts vitamin D production where you might not expect it -- in fresh mushrooms. A serving of conventionally cultivated white mushrooms contains small amounts of one form of vitamin D, called ergocalciferol, or vitamin D2.

GRATINS have a bit of seasonal affective disorder. They turn up in fall and winter but disappear when the sun comes back out in springtime. Which is surprising considering how well everything at peak of green right now goes with cheese and sauce, and how easily a quick pass through the oven makes them all rich and bubbly together. Asparagus, artichokes, green garlic, dandelions, even not-so-green new potatoes can be transformed by the gratin treatment.

Before bagged leafy greens wind up on your plate, they are washed, often three times, in a potent chlorine bath. But new research shows the steps that California companies rely on to protect consumers do not kill dangerous bacteria inside the leaves, whereas zapping them with radiation wipes them out. The debate over how to protect consumers from E.

Peaking Beets: It wasn't so long ago that beets came in one color -- red -- and the most familiar way of serving them was so pickled they tasted mostly like vinegar. You can find lots of colors of beets at the farmers markets these days and even better, their flavors are incredible. Besides the familiar red ones, you can find golden beets, white beets and even beets with a bull's-eye pattern (these are Chioggia [key-O-ja], named after a town near Venice, Italy).

THOUGH last weekend's frigid temperatures are easing, their results will be felt at farmers markets and groceries for months. And while citrus and avocado growers were the hardest hit, many other fruit and vegetable crops were devastated as well.

With half of California's navel orange crop destroyed by a cold snap, the wholesale price of the fruit soared Tuesday as agriculture officials warned that consumers will soon be paying more for other produce such as avocados, carrots and lettuce. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Tuesday in the 10 counties hardest hit -- even as state officials predicted that the frigid temperatures would continue in many agriculture zones through the weekend.

September's national spinach recall has shaken consumer confidence in the safety of leafy green vegetables, according to a national survey conducted in November. The survey, whose results are to be released today by Rutgers University, suggests that the broad recall could have lasting effects on spinach and other similar vegetables. Consumers felt uncertain and threw away other bagged produce that was not affected by the recall.

California leafy vegetables farmers, still reeling from disease outbreaks linked to their produce, will soon be able to attach seals to their veggies saying their produce is state certified. "We think this will be the first of a series of actions to restore consumer confidence and enhance food safety," said Tim Chelling, spokesman for Irvine-based Western Growers, the farm trade association that was the main proponent of the marketing agreement.