By Vanessa Richins

When I was attending community college, my favorite class was Italian Cooking.

A friend from high school happened to sign up for the same class, and we had many adventures together, whether it was a hand mixer that sparked or accidentally using up all of the good Parmesan.

Since then I’ve been fond of trying as many different Italian foods as possible.  The day that a little Italian deli opened near my house.  I’ve spent as much as $26/pound for a good imported Italian cheese.

The inspiration for this sandwich comes from my local airport, of all places.  While I was waiting for a plane, I decided to grab a sandwich at Granato’s.  The result was simple but delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 small ciabatta (an Italian bread often used to make sandwiches)
• 1 tomato (homegrown beefsteak is best)
• 1 ball of Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Students in robotics at MIT are getting additional lessons in horticulture.

At the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, robots are watching over tomato plants.

Through new technologies, they are able to watch for the plants’ needs and act accordingly.

As the Christian Science Monitor reports, Nikolaus Correll, creator of the experiment was experimenting with the capabilities of swarm robotics.

“Each robot is outfitted with a robotic arm and a watering pump, while the plants themselves are equipped with local soil sensing, networking, and computation.

“This affords them the ability to communicate: Plants can request water or nutrients and keep track of their conditions, including fruit produced; robots are able to minister to their charges, locate and pick a specific tomato, and even pollinate the plants.”

The robots use highly sophisticated Read the rest of this entry »