I'm in love with an older man ...

It is a love from afar. We've never met. But I have this warm fuzzy feeling whenever I think of him.

His name is Harold McGee. He is an author of books: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen and The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore, which are dense and chewy.

I know him through his NYT articles in the Food and Wine section under the column "The Curious Cook". Every article is worth the time to savor it.
The latest one had to do with rats and how they preferred organic wheat ...

A team of Swiss and Austrian scientists recently concluded a 21-year study of organic wheat production. As an “integrative method” for assessing quality, they gave lab animals a choice of biscuits made from organic or conventional wheat. The rats ate significantly more of the former. The authors call this result remarkable, because they found the two wheats to be very similar in chemical composition and baking performance.

He also wrote about the fact that

organic produce generally does pack more antioxidants and other potentially healthful — and potentially flavorful — phytochemicals than conventional produce.

So, here is an experiment. Stress out your plants when you grow them organically. Yup. The more stressed they are the more good stuff (more intense aroma and taste) they produce. Apparently one of the problems with the flat-tasting conventionally-grown veggies is that without enemies it doesn't bother to produce anything to repel them. Decreased flavor.

Read his article if you would like the scientific terms and great writing. Dip into his blog for more fascination and enjoyment.

The man endears himself to me every time.