Family Friendly Fayetteville, Arkansas

A quick tour of the city and featuring two of the big festivals

Fayetteville, Arkansas collage photo source wikipedia

Cute Rookie Red and a catchy tune is your tour guide of Fayetteville, AR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML80v2iyA9o
Bikes Blues and BBQ Festival is a rally with a purpose. The founders of the festival wanted to keep the standards high so that everyone felt welcome including families with children. Plus they wanted it to have a greater purpose by giving back to the community by donating to local charities.
History of Bikes Blues and BBQ
The Rally for 2014 is on Sept. 24 to 27
Bike parade 2013 Fayetteville, AR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSVTm6cwSiY

Another Festival I want to mention is the Fayetteville Roots Festival
Fayetteville Roots Festival is a four-day urban music festival taking place August 28 - 31, 2014.

We followed the following recipes to Fayetteville, AR. Thank you for the journey.

Fresh Apple Cake Recipe Post Cards by gramabarb
View Recipe Postcards online at zazzle

Louise's Zucchini Chocolate Cake Postcard by gramabarb
color post card printing from zazzle.com

Carrot Cookies Recipe
Carrot Applesauce Cake Recipe
Carrot Pineapple Cake Recipe

Thank you for visiting.

Your Food Questions Answered "Vanilla"

Every now and then someone asks me a question about food so to fill that need I will post the question and answer sources on this blog:

Todays subject is about Vanilla

The vanilla plant belongs to the Orchid family. The photograph from Wikipedia is of a Vanilla Orchid flower. There are about 110 species of Orchids and the Vanilla Orchid is one of them. Many people like to grow this orchid as a house plant.

Pat, Jean and Marionne would like to know "How does the Vanilla plant grow and where does it grow?"
They are a vine-like plant that climbs trees or posts provided by the farmer as you will see in the videos. One of the most tedious jobs when you are growing commercial Vanilla Orchids to harvest the vanilla pods is hand pollinating each flower. Blooming occurs only when the flowers are fully grown. Each flower opens up in the morning and closes late in the afternoon on the same day, never to re-open. If pollination has not occurred meanwhile, it will be shed and the vanilla pod will not grow.
I searched Youtube to find videos that will clearly explain the growing process that goes into our favourite flavour for ice cream and many other products worldwide.

This is a short video that is good for an introduction to the world of Vanilla Orchids.
Brief history of the vanilla plant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cp1YMDGgSs

After looking at many videos I decided this one is the best for picture quality and commentary.
Best video of a farm tour in Hawaii
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXK8PD4-6_Y

Close-up of the Vanilla Orchid flower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSiOhE7jJrw

The green on the map shows the distribution of the Vanilla Orchid plant.

Your Food Questions Answered "Pineapples"

Every now and then someone asks me a question about food so to fill that need I will post the question and answer sources here:

Todays subject is about Pineapples

Some people wonder if they grow on trees. No,they don't grow on trees.
Pineapples belong to the bromeliad family and each pineapple grows as a single plant.

Today Marionne asked "How does pineapple grow and how is it harvested?"

Answer:
Youtube has the best answer to both those questions because you can hear the explaination and watch the video demonstrate what is being said.


How Pineapples grow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJHgXaPzFA

How they are harvested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFYEeFpvik8

photo source is from free pixabay.com