mental_floss

If you aren't already reading Mental Floss Magazine, it's time to pick it up. Find a copy at your local Whole Foods, mag stand, or subscribe here. I'm serious. If you don't, you'll have to wait a pretty long time to read Maggie Koerth-Baker's findings about the origins of those noble, inbred lab mice and their first breeders that have been and continue to be paramount in furthering our scientific understanding of cancer, Parkinson's disease, and pretty much anything else you can think of - because that article is not available online without a subscription.

Another article from the most recent issue needs reading: Tree Bark Eating for Beginners, by David Clark:

For the choicest strips of bark, be sure to go for the nutritious, tender inner layer known as the cambium. (Eating the outer bark would be no more pleasant than chomping into your bookshelf.) If some resin or gum oozes out as you pry off the main course, be sure to lap it up for quick energy. Here are a few fun ways to serve tree bark:

Raw. Shred finely and chew thoroughly.

Slice it into strips and boil it to make a rustic pasta. Top with sap, dandelion greens, or insect parts (see entry #2). Alternatively, you can add the noodles to a stew.

Dry and grind into flour. The ground bark is pretty versatile and can be mixed with water into a breakfast gruel, baked into bread, added to soup for extra body, or even guzzled straight like a Pixy Stick.