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Agriculture Europe Fine Arts Food History

The Ukrainian Tater Tot (part 2)

[Part 2 of our ongoing series: Exploring the Ukrainian Tater Tot Market] She [Dr. Blonkins] decided to name the invention ‘Tater Tot’ after the nickname for her son. Unfortunately, Dr. Blonkins passed away prematurely due to cardiovascular disease from too much tot consumption and was awarded (posthumously) the James Beard Award for lifetime contributions to […]

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Adventures of the Elders Agriculture ENGin Food Shareholder Value Ukraine

The Ukrainian Tater Tot (part I)

My Ukrainian buddy[1] and WLBOTT are in discussions to bring Tater Tots to Eastern Europe. [1] A friend I made through the ENGin program – like pen pals, but over Zoom. You can join today and make a new friend! Fact sheet here. Picture it now: The Great Eastern European Tater Tot Adventure™ – bringing […]

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Agriculture Tess Twinehart

Tess: The Sweet Potato Intervention

Dear Tess, My name is Eulalia Boylem-Mashem (of the Dublin Boylem-Mashems), and I am at my wit’s end. My husband, Bernard, began this madness innocently enough. He decided to plant sweet potatoes in our backyard, claiming they would provide a lovely, lush ground cover. Little did I know that his enthusiasm would root itself into […]

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Agriculture China Food WLBOTT Corporate

Mystery Pods and Fungal Research

At the WLBOTT Ag Extension Station, we’re trying to solve a mystery today. Recently, Elder MJ noticed these semi-spheres on a concrete pad at the WLBOTT Rodeo Fairgrounds near our central Texas HQ. You will notice that there are also some snail shells mixed in. There may or may not be squirrel involvement. Google image […]

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Agriculture Clementine DuCinema Music russia

Boy Meets Tractor: The WLBOTT Film Festival

WLBOTT film critic Clemetine DuCinema, starting just yesterday, has already made a big impact on the film world. She has announced the first WLBOTT Annual Film Festival. This year’s theme: Boy Meets Tractor – A Celebration of Soviet Cinema. The Program Steel Hearts and Sunflowers (1954) He swore allegiance to the state… but also to […]

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Agriculture Fashion Scholarship/Erudition Texas

Troubling Tassel Turmoil

Following yesterday’s detasseling BLOTT, we would be remiss if we failed to relay the tassel confusion that occurred at Texas A&M University several years ago. As the official Event Coordinator for Texas A&M‘s commencement, Callahan ‘Cactus Jack’ Kleberg had one job: order tassels. Being an agricultural school, Cactus Jack thought they were corn tassels. You […]

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Agriculture Domestic Tranquility Food Tess Twinehart Work-Life Balance

Detasseling A Tangled Situation

Dear Tess, I write to you from the edge of my sanity—and the edge of our cornfield. My name is Mabel H., and I am the wife of a third-generation corn farmer here in northwest Iowa. My husband, Virgil, is a man of few words but many routines. Every summer, like clockwork, he begins what […]

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Agriculture Food History Japan Texas The Lowcountry

Texas Rice and the Influence of Japanese Immigrants

From Elder JJZ: On a more serious note[1], really interesting connection between Japan and the establishment of the rice industry in Texas. We know many of the people or descendants mentioned in this article . They put up with a lot of bad stuff in the 1900’s but aren’t bitter, made a good life for […]

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Agriculture Gods, Goddesses, and Mythical Heros Idaho

Good Moog / Bad Mood / Potatoes

Just curious: how many liquor stores can I rob before I get punished? I’m guessing at least 35. The judge who presided over tRump’s criminal trial, Juan Merchan, issued a sentence of “unconditional discharge”, meaning the president-elect will be released without fine, imprisonment or probation supervision for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying […]

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Agriculture Heros

The Women of the Fields

Today we celebrate the dignity of labor – The Women of the Fields. The GleanersThe Gleaners (Des glaneuses) is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857. It is held in the Musée d’Orsay, in Paris. It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. The painting […]