21 Spoons is a restaurant aimed at bringing back the appeal of intimate (亲密的) dining. “This restaurant kind of fell into my lap,” says chef and owner Ann Butler, “I own the cooking school next door to it, and this space was empty for quite some time, and it seemed to be saying, ‘Do you want me?’”

After working in Fairfax and Chesterfield public schools, Butler started her cooking school, Edible Education, 12 years ago, hoping to change the dietary habits of kids.

The occurrence of the pandemic halted Butler’s cooking classes, as students were unable to attend in person. “We didn’t have any kids taking classes,” she says. “I didn’t know how long it’d be before we saw students again, so I thought, we got to do something.” So, Butler opened 21 Spoons in March of 2021, focused on small plates and shared bites from ratatouille flatbread to deep-fried deviled eggs.

“I took it over at a time when everyone was closing their restaurants in Richmond,” Butler says. This allowed her to start her new business in a way that made people feel more at ease during such a stressful time. Butler says the service and size of the restaurant-24 seats are what make people feel more comfortable and what allow them to open during the pandemic. “We opened during a time when everyone was scared, so we wanted to build a space where you could come and rest, back to old-school, old-fashioned service.”

Butler says the architectural plat (建筑区) for the space was unit 20. “I saw somewhere that a chef has 39 spoons,” she says, “and it was unit 20, so I thought, ‘How about 21Spoons?’ since we opened in 2021.”

While Butler says there’ll be no 22 Spoons, she describes 21 Spoons as a “creative gift”, allowing her to combine passions and build something beautiful for the community.

Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards, meaning they are grown without the use of conventional pesticides, or chemical fertilizers and that they were processed without food additives. Livestock are raised without the routine use of antibiotics or growth hormones. In most countries, organic produced foods must not be genetically modified. They may also be required to be produced using energy-saving technologies and packaged using recyclable materials when possible.

Early consumers interested in organic food would look for non-chemically treated, fresh or minimally processed food. They mostly had to buy directly from growers: “Know your farmer, know your food” was the motto. Personal definitions of what constituted “organic” were developed through firsthand experience: by talking to farmers, seeing farm conditions, and farming activities. Historically, organic farms were relatively small family run farms—which is why organic food was once only available in small stores or farmers’ markets. However, since the early 1990s organic food has had growth rates of around 20% a year. As of April 2008, organic food accounts for 12% of food sales worldwide. Currently organic food production is legally regulated. Many countries require producers to obtain organic certification in order to mark food as organic.

Several studies have attempted to examine and compare conventional and organic systems of farming. The general consensus is that, in the short term, organic farming is less damaging for the following reasons:

●Organic farms do not release synthetic pesticides into the environment—some of which have the potential to harm soil, water and local wildlife.

●Organic farms are better than conventional farms at sustaining diverse ecosystems, i.e., populations of plants and insects, as well as animals.

●Organic farms are more energy efficient and produce less waste.

Another report published in March 2008 by The Organic Centre claims that organic food is on average 25% more nutritious than conventional food.

However, many critics believe that the increased land needed to farm organic food could potentially destroy the rainforests and wipe out many ecosystems. And organic products cost 10 to 40% more than similar conventionally produced products. Processed organic foods in supermarkets are 65% more expensive.

We would like to take a look at cashew nuts. If you have been lucky enough to taste one, you will know just how delicious they are. Once you begin eating cashews, it’s very difficult to stop.

Here’s something you may not have known about cashew nuts until now. The cashew nut that you eat is not a nut at all. It’s the seed that grows inside a single nut found beneath a cashew apple from the cashew tree. The red or yellow cashew fruit does not contain any seeds. Technically, that means they are not actually a fruit——even though they look like one. They taste a little like mango with a bit of grapefruit. It is unlikely that you will ever see one outside of Brazil because its skin is very thin. They do not travel well. In Brazil, they are eaten raw, drunk as a juice or turned into a delicious jam (果酱).

The nut is very hard. You have to be very careful if you open it. It contains a poison that can badly burn your skin if you come into contact with it. To remove this, the nut has to be roasted at a high temperature for 20 minutes before it is opened. Once roasted, the nut is ready and the cashew is taken out. It has a thin skin around it. This is peeled off (剥掉) carefully to make sure the cashew is not broken. The cashew is then roasted once more in coconut oil for 5 minutes. Then it’s ready to eat. What has just been described is a long process. This is why cashews are expensive.

Cashews are eaten all over the world. They are also popular ingredients in different styles of cooking, especially in Southeast Asia. Cashews can be found in nut butter, ice cream, cashew milk and also cheese spread! We are thankful to the Portuguese who discovered the cashew tree in Brazil. If it had not been for them, the Brazilians may have kept cashews all to themselves.