Happy Labor Day

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. 

By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy foods to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:

Sunburst Oranges

180 South “E” Street

Porterville, CA  93257

559-561-3391

Counterfeit Honey Coming To A Store Near You

We all know that many fashion items are counterfeited.  Watches, purses, jewelry and many more items are being “knocked off” and the prices are just part of the motive.  When demand exceeds the supply lawbreakers move in to fill the void.

With growing consumer interest in locally sourced food, local honey producers expect record prices at area farmers’ markets — along with lots of questions about honey quality and authenticity. 

From October through January, agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized nearly a half-million pounds of illegally imported Chinese honey valued at $2.45 million. Agents intercepted illegal honey shipments worth $1.4 million in Seattle in 2010. U.S. Department of Justice officials seized 10,000 gallons of counterfeit honey from a warehouse in Salem a few years ago.

U.S. Customs and Homeland Security investigators are on the lookout for illegal honey imports from Chinese shippers who attempt to elude millions of dollars in U.S. trade tariffs by mislabeling the honey’s country of origin. In addition, Chinese honey can be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals from improper storage or diluted with such ingredients as corn syrup.

The low-priced bogus, counterfeit and illegal honey (terms all used by industry experts) gets into the American food system and is very hard to trace. In late March, inspectors intercepted 300 55-gallon drums of “contaminated” Chinese honey at the Port of Houston. It went to a landfill for disposal.

Four years ago, the European Union banned honey imports. That has created more pressure to get illegal honey into the United States, industry experts say. Large U.S. packers buy honey from around the world — China, Australia and India, as well as Argentina, Brazil and Vietnam, among others nations. In some cases, China has shipped honey to these countries for relabeling and sale in the United States.

Demand is there. Americans eat a lot more honey than domestic beekeepers can produce.

As a result, the price of wholesale honey has steadily increased the past several years from $1.90 per pound in 2012 to this year’s expected price of more than $2.50 per pound, reports the American Honey Producers Association.

To be safe you need to know the source of your honey.

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy foods to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Oranges
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-561-3391

Perfect Refreshing Drink: Honey-Ginger Lemonade

We all know that Lemonade is the perfect hot weather drink. 

But have you ever thought "I wish I could change it up a bit" or even add a touch of spice. 

They say that “Variety is the spice of life.” This recipe is a great change of pace for lemonade and it uses two of our great fresh products.

Ingredients

2 cups Sunburst Orange Blossom Honey

2/3 cup thinly sliced ginger

3 cups fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Fresh mint for garnish

Ice cubes, for serving

Directions

Bring 4 cups water, the honey and ginger to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Turn off the heat and let steep for 10 minutes.

Strain and refrigerate until cold. About 2 hours.

Put 2 quarts of water, the chilled honey and ginger mixture and the lemon juice in a large pitcher and stir until combined.

Pour over ice into your favorite vintage glasses.

Use mint for garnish.

I might just mention here that the quality and taste of the water you use can make or break this recipe. If you don’t have good tasting tap water you will want to use filtered or bottled water to make this very tasty refreshing drink.

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy foods to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:

Sunburst Oranges

180 South “E” Street

Porterville, CA  93257

559-561-3391

Honey Is Nature’s Most Complete Food Group All By Itself

Honey, the pure, complete and natural food. It is truly one of nature’s best food. This deliciously sweet liquid provides healthy nutrients, gives us energy and does wonderful things for our skin. 

Gathering 
Who would imagine that all these wonderful benefits come from bees? They begin the process of making honey by collecting flower nectar from all kinds of flowers. The species of flower determines the color and taste of the honey. Once they collect and digest the flower nectar, it’s regurgitated and turned into simple sugars that are deposited in honeycombs for storage. As bees hover in the honeycomb, they fan the honey by constantly moving their wings and moisture evaporates leaving a syrupy liquid, honey.

Collecting
Honeycombs, found in beehives, have to be extracted and cleaned. Bees create waxy seals on all the honeycomb openings to prevent leaking. This wax is removed, then honey is extracted by spinning the honeycombs in machines until the liquid settles in the bottom where it can be collected. This extraction process is typically done by beekeepers who tend the hives. Protective clothing and masks are worn to prevent bee stings while dealing with large numbers of bees.

Medicinal Background
Honey has a long medicinal history. The ancient Egyptians not only made offerings of honey to their gods, they also used it as an embalming fluid and a dressing for wounds. On that last point, at least, they were on to something.

Today, many people are drawn to honey for its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Holistic practitioners consider it one of nature's best all-around remedies.

But outside of the laboratory, claims for honey's healthfulness are unproven -- except in the area of wound care and, to a lesser extent, cough suppression.

Here's the truth behind the claims about honey's health benefits -- and an important warning.

Honey is natural and considered harmless for adults. But pediatricians strongly caution against feeding honey to children under 1 year old. "Do not let babies eat honey," states foodsafety.gov, a web site of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

That's because of the risk of botulism. The spores of the botulism bacteria are found in dust and soil that may make their way into honey. Infants do not have a developed immune system to defend against infection, says an MD who is a Georgia neonatologist who heads the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Nutrition.

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy foods to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Oranges
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-561-3391 

Pomegranates and Your Brain Health

Do you like to do positive things that help you live a better life and live longer as well? Well, we all know the saying you are what you eat. There is new research conducted by the University of Huddersfield, a public university located in West Yorkshire, England, that suggests a chemical compound found in pomegranates can slow degenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia occur when brain cells become inflamed, causing them to lose their ability to function and communicate. The cells eventually die off, causing irreversible changes in the brain. Alzheimer's affects more than 44 million people globally, and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those with a diagnosis typically live an average of eight years; however, some people can live up to 20 years after diagnosis depending on their condition.

Nearly everything that is known about this debilitating disease has been learned over the past 15 years, but a cure does not yet exist. Doctors can only treat Alzheimer's patients by prescribing medicines intended to help curb symptoms and impede the progression of the disease.

However, the results of a two-year study led by Dr. Olumayokun Olajide could offer new hope for those suffering from a variety of illnesses including cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia and other neurological diseases.

Dr. Olajide specializes in the study of herbs and other natural products. He attributes his interest in natural health to his childhood.

"African mothers normally treat sick children with natural substances such as herbs. My mum certainly used a lot of those substances," said Dr. Olajide. "And then I went on to study pharmacology!"

Along with four PhD students from the Department of Pharmacy, Dr. Olajide isolated brain cells from rats in order to test their findings, and what they discovered is that punicalagin, a polyphenol found in pomegranates, can slow inflammation in specialized brain cells known as microglia.

Polyphenols, the most abundant antioxidants in our diets, were rarely studied before 1995, but today, evidence suggests that polyphenols greatly contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancers, osteoporosis and diabetes.

Pomegranate's anti-inflammatory properties are found in its rich pigmented skin

Decreasing neuroinflammation helps slow memory loss in the frontal lobe, which is responsible for short-term memory. According to Live Strong, this section of the brain is responsible for "temporarily storing and manipulating information needed to carry out cognitive tasks such as learning," which tends to be most affected by Alzheimer's.

Similar to blueberries, the healthy antioxidants in pomegranates are stored in their skin, not the inner soft part of the fruit. Dr. Olajide and his team of researchers are unsure of how much of the pomegranate's antioxidants are required to be effective, but they are confident that producing compound derivatives of punicalagin could be the basis of a new orally administrated drug designed to treat neuroinflammation.

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy food to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Oranges
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-561-3391

Dog’s Nose Is Helping To Save The Bees

Some dogs fetch or roll over on command. Others can sniff out drugs or track the scent of a rabbit. And then there's Klinker. Her talent is a bit more unusual. Klinker, a black Labrador retriever, is the only certified dog in the United States that can sniff out a specific bacteria that is killing our bee populations.

The bacteria is called American foulbrood, and it's responsible for a whole lot of bee damage out there. The USDA calls this bacteria one of the most widespread and most destructive of the honeybee brood diseases. Yikes. 

But Klinker is here to save the bees' day (and ours too!). She's been trained to detect it — and she's better at it than any human out there. Her sniffing skills are in high demand. Bee populations are in rough shape.

Greenpeace reports a 40% loss of all commercial honeybees in the United States in the last 10 years. That's so many. And that's why it's great that Klinker can inspect up to 1,000 bee colonies a day. 

Klinker's ability to detect the disease early on prevents mass destruction of bee colonies. And it saves some serious cash, too.

 Usually, when the American foulbrood bacteria is discovered, it's too late to save the bees. The beekeeper often has no choice but to burn the whole colony down (with a sad, sad fire) to keep it from spreading. This is costly. Not to mention pretty sad. 

But Klinker can detect the bacteria before that,saving her state of Maryland money and bees at the same time. 

Klinker, who is 18 months old, is the department's fourth bee dog. She replaced Thorne, an 8-year-old yellow Labrador retriever who retired recently. Troup said Klinker is doing a good job, and she has been rewarded with squeaky toys and head pats. During one of her first inspections, in January, Klinker found a diseased colony that a human inspector had missed.

You can see more of how awesome she is in this National Geographic clip. https://youtu.be/rtYVhej-9bY

This pup is efficient, economic, and helping to save an insect we desperately need if we want to to keep living life the way we all do.  

Now we just need more dogs like her!

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy food to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Oranges
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-561-3391 

Pomegranate Chicken with Walnuts Recipe

I made this chicken the other night, only my recipe was tripled to serve at least twelve. It was a test with both Thanksgiving and Christmas in mind. I found that the seeds in a pomegranate are called arils. The aril is simply the seed pod inside a pomegranate. It is truly one of nature’s most unique types of fruit. The clear, ruby-colored fruit surrounds a tiny, crisp seed, and the whole aril is edible and oh so good for you.

Ingredients

2 cups rice
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 1 pound), cut into quarters
Salt and pepper
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
1 clove garlic, smashed
3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup sesame seeds
1 cup pomegranate juice
Seed one fresh pomegranate (see demo http://www.wikihow.com/Seed-a-Pomegranate)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

In a medium saucepan, bring the rice and 2 1/4 cups water to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the water has evaporated and the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. If you have a dedicated rice cooker so much the better.
    
Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, until browned, about 7 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add the onion, garlic and walnuts to the skillet and cook, stirring often, until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cinnamon, scraping up any browned bits. Return the chicken and any juices to the pan, add the pomegranate juice and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes; transfer the chicken to a warmer.

Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 3 minutes; stir in the parsley. 

Divide the rice among plates or bowls. Top with chicken and veggies and then sprinkle with sesame seeds and pomegranate arils.

Satisfy your family's appetite with dinners for less.
Makes: 4 servings
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Are you looking for the perfect wholesome and healthy food to use as gifts for a business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Oranges
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-561-3391