Photo: Frank Hebbert

Organic grocer MOM’s opened its seventh store this weekend. The high-minded retailer unveiled the Baltimore-area store with a variety of festivities, including samples, demos, and face painting. Also: two electric-car-charging stations, powered by wind and free to customers.

Currently, just 40,000 electric cars are estimated to be on U.S. roads, with an untold number roaming the streets of the mid-Atlantic. Will MOM’s feel a huge surge in traffic from dozens of local electric-car drivers flocking to the store? Maybe not. Manager Damean Ritter says, “I think we’ve had two people charge there.” He adds that the store has only been open for a few days.

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No more pyramid metaphors for USDA dietary guidelines. The agency announced last week its plans to discard the ancient symbol and replace it with an easier to understand graphic for how people should eat.

Much secrecy surrounds the new icon, which is set to unveil in D.C. on Thursday. The Packer speculates that the symbol will be an image of a plate, with divisions for how much of your meal should be meat, dairy, veggies, etc, based partly on a comment from a “highly placed industry source” early this year. No industry officials would confirm to the Packer if the plate will indeed replace the pyramid.

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The first-ever Maryland Wine Week kicks off this week with a flurry of tastings and discounts. Events run from Friday, June 3 and end Sunday, June 12, a curious conceptualization of a "week," but never mind.

Stuff kicks off Friday with tastings at Wine World and discounts on Maryland wines at Festival Spirits & Wine, the Liquor Stop, and others. Songwriter showcases and wine festivals to follow.

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ARLnow reports that the future Trader Joe’s on N. Highland Street in Clarendon shows little progress toward completion. The company’s suggestion back in November that the store would be ready by “mid-2011” looks next to impossible since no interior construction has even begun and the building permit is still listed as rejected.

What’s the holdup? Trader Joe’s wrangled a number of concessions out of the county board in November, including demands about parking, use of the loading dock, and outdoor merchandise displays, but as ARLnow learned, just filed construction permits in April. Among the litany of comments on its rejected building permit: a bunch of stuff pertaining to fire-resistant ratings, incorrect terminology, and trouble with a proposed elevator. Trader Joe’s comment to ARLnow was that the “mid-2011” promise was not actually a promise and that the store is on track to open by the end of the year.

ARLnow readers understandably lamented the delay of the store and expressed longing for Maple Pecan Clusters and Trex Mix.

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A Costco shopping cart made its way off store property and onto the sidewalk on South Eads Street in Arlington this weekend. TBD reported in March that D.C. grocers had been experiencing cart theft as an unpleasant byproduct of the plastic-bag tax—customers make off with a loaded cart of unbagged groceries rather than part with a few nickels. Arlington, along with the rest of Virginia, remains bag-tax-free, but Costco doesn’t provide bags to its customers.

Until the store starts doling out sacks or employing wheel-locking anti-theft technology, expect to see more carts lining Pentagon City streets.

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The Market Report loves tomatoes in season and horse races—two seemingly unrelated items that share a tradition of lyrical names. Incidentally, local tomatoes come into season just about the same time the Belmont Stakes takes place, forming a perfect storm of grandiose, charming, baffling monikers on June 11.

Waste some office time this Friday afternoon enjoying this Market Report-devised game: Which half of this pair is a tomato and which is Belmont Stakes winner?

1. SUMMER BIRD vs. BRANDYWINE

2. GREEN ZEBRA vs. TABSCO CAT

3. SEATTLE SLEW vs. NEBRASKA WEDDING

4. AMERICAN FLAG vs. FOURTH OF JULY

5. EARLY GIRL vs. BLUE LARKSPUR

6. LEMON DROP KID vs. HEATMASTER

7. GOLD NUGGET vs. TOUCH GOLD

8. CHEROKEE PURPLE vs. WHIRLAWAY

9. MONEYMAKER vs. EMPIRE MAKER

The answers after the the jump...

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Photo: Matt Vilgianti

The Washington Examiner reports that Turner Elementary students were fed raw green onions for a snack on Tuesday. The Southeast school is one of 53 in the District that receives funds to serve kids a vegetable or fruit as a snack.

The children did not react well to the scallions. At least one “made really gross-out faces” according to a first-grade teaching assistant. Several declared them “disgusting,” says an City Year corps volunteer who delivered them.

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Southeast Ag Net is on a mission to make you love the vegetables you hate, or at least make you respect them. In its “Learning to Love the Veggies We Love to Hate” series, the radio network devoted to deep southeast agriculture profiled Brussels sprouts, asparagus, beets, and artichokes in an effort to “restore respect” to these regularly maligned plants.

Brussels sprouts get credit for being high in protein, a rarity among green vegetables. The sprouts also provide protection against some cancers. Ultra folksy correspondent Julie McPeake points out that overcooking is a common problem in Brussels sprouts, partly because the leaves cook faster that the core. She advises cutting an “x” in the bottom of the stem to ensure even cooking time. If they sprouts lose their bright green color, they’re overcooked and have likely lost nutritional value. Fun fact: Artichokes arrived in California in the 1600s but remained an unknown until Marilyn Monroe was crowned Artichoke Queen in 1948.

McPeake admits she herself has a tough time with beets, but she can respect their high-fiber content and track record of preventing certain birth defects and fighting heart disease. She has no advice for getting red beet stains out of your dishtowels and cutting boards.

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The Market Report has rounded up the best local prices for all of your cookout classics and accoutrement. From Aldi to Whole Foods, where to find cheap corn and kabobs this weekend.

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Giant Food's school rewards program raised nearly $2 million for local schools this year. Shoppers can designate up to three schools to receive points every time they use their Giant Food card for in-store purchases. This year, 2,100 schools in the region will share in the multimillion-dollar pot.

For the fourth year in a row, the same school took in the most cash: Mater Dei in Bethesda. The private boy's school (whose motto is "Work hard, play hard, pray hard, and be a good guy!") plans to use the $31,000 donation to improving technology in the school.

D.C. schools fared well, with 109 sharing in $72,000. St. John's College High School ($8,133), Blessed Sacrament ($6,540), and Abram Simon Elementary ($4,899) rounded out the top three District schools.

The A+ School Rewards program has led to more than $83 million in donations to schools in the mid-Atlantic since 1989.

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The concept of an automated service device extends back to ancient times, when temple patrons inserted a coin in a box for an automatic dispensation of holy water. The next few thousand years of vending history is marked by changing tastes, evolving technology, and some tragic twists, but above all, it’s part of the story of how people eat food.

From the first cold soft drink machines in the 1930s to the refrigerated sandwich vendors of the 1950s, the vending machine has served customers when the grocery store was too far and a restaurant too slow. Milk shake vendors came on the scene in 1958; single-cup coffee vending in 1960; water in 1978; and everything from pasta to porn today. A few people have died along the way (heavy sodas were stocked in such a way that tipping was fairly easy—try and shake those jammed chips out too hard and a machine could topple right on top of you), but the vending machine has filled a nice gap in American eating for decades.

But the industry hasn’t caught up with changing customer behavior and expectations, says Michael Kasavana, professor at Michigan State’s school of hospitality and business and holder of the National Automatic Machine Association’s endowment.

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Look no further than this video clip for all knowledge you could ever hope to require about jicama, that potato-like veggie that I never quite know what to do with. Plus: jazzy intro music.

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When McDonald’s decided to include apples slices in its kids' meals, the fast-food Goliath became the largest purchaser of apples of any U.S. restaurant chain. Washington state had to step up its cameo crop by 58 percent to meet demand, but that meant a lot more cameo sales for the apple industry.

Wendy’s decision to feature a salad with California strawberries in all 6,500 of its stores this summer won’t quite have the impact of McDonald’s apple patronage, but it still makes the California Strawberry Commission happy.

“Certainly any new use is helpful,” says Chris Christian, vice-president of marketing for the commission. “If it’s successful, it will certainly be some good sales for our industry.”

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Photo: Georat1960.

In a brazenly two-faced bit of hypocrisy, this reusable bag ordering you to “BUY FRESH BUY LOCAL” in northern Virginia was not made locally, or even regionally. As a Consumerist reader points out, the bag’s tag reads “Made in China.”

China’s distance from northern Virginia is in the neighborhood of 12,114 miles. Google maps will get you there, but you’ll have to kayak across the Pacific Ocean.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that big companies like Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Hostess, and PepsiCo are reviving old packaging designs for classic brands like Tide and Cheerios. (See a sampling on the Journal’s fun slideshow.)

The move is a backlash of sorts to the cluttered, phrase-laden labels in stores today. It’s also an attempt to differentiate name-brand products from private-label products, which are generally less expensive and have done well in the recession.

Companies hope that all these 1970s color palates and 1960s fonts will charm shoppers who remember the packaging from childhood. The move has had some success and failure. In 2009, PepsiCo released retro cans with a promise of “real sugar” on them (which is of course ridiculous, as sugar is just as bad for you as the high-fructose corn syrup the company removed). The products got buzz on social-media sites and earned the company a few new customers—50 percent of the people who bought the retro cans bought more than they normally would have, and these were people who didn’t buy other Pepsi products or other carbonated drinks.

But Kraft couldn’t generate buzz with its 2009 retro redesign of Miracle Whip, which used elements of the brand’s 1933 label. The company learned through focus groups that young people didn’t like it, and the packaging got a flashy new “MW” swoosh logo instead.

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Watermelon season is officially in swing, with the first melons plucked from south Florida farms in April and Georgia farmers gearing up to harvest in about a week. Our region’s crop will arrive a month too late for this weekend’s Memorial Day picnics, but plenty of out-of-state options will be available, including many melons flying under the banner “personal watermelon.”

Of the 4.1 billion pounds of watermelon grown in the U.S. and the additional billion imported from Central America, an untold number will be decidedly miniature. Ever since the petite personal variety hit the scene a decade ago, these baby watermelons have sold like gangbusters.

Bob Morrissey, executive director the National Watermelon Association, says the personal watermelon was engineered for a niche market: young urbanites and thrifty seniors.

Personal watermelons attract seniors, “who are born and raised not to be wasteful,” he explains. I chuckle, which is the wrong response because Morrissey pauses and says, “Very honestly.”

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Backstreet’s back alright with a no-meat diet. The Boys of Backstreet have decided to quit playing games with their hearts by avoiding high-fat animal products as they prepare to begin touring on May 25.

Brian, Nick, AJ, and Howie remain committed to never breaking your heart by condoning the killing of a cow in the name of cheeseburgers. As long as you love them, the Boys will stick with their regiment of vocal rehearsals, rest, and a plant-based diet.

New Kids on the Block will join the Boys on tour, but no word on if they want it that way, too.

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Not really, says the USDA. In the agency’s updated tips for washing fruits and vegetables, the FDA poo poos soap and produce wash.

Contaminated fruits and vegetables play a huge rule in the estimated 48 million  food-related illnesses reported in the U.S. each year. In the wake of a string of large outbreaks (spinach, lettuce, tomatoes), the FDA has devised a list of tips for washing produce.

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It sounds like one of those weird food rumors you heard in junior high (“Pop Rocks and Coke will kill you!” “KFC chickens don’t have heads!” etc), but this one is true: Much of the meat we consume is glued together.

Watch the nasty process: The enzyme transglutaminase is sprinkled over scraps of meat. The pieces are molded together, wrapped up, and refrigerated. The enzyme causes the scraps to stick together. When sliced, it’s hard to distinguish from a similarly sized single cut of meat. Throw it on the grill and cook it, and it’s even harder to tell.

The practice is extremely common and perfectly legal in the U.S., but some find it plain disgusting.

“We’re not concerned with health risks,” says Sarah Klein, an attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It’s the yuck factor.” Klein says reformed meat used to be more of a safety issue because the process used to inadvertently crush bone, but meat recovery today doesn’t.

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Overall sales at Target were up in the first quarter this year, even though the company’s “core” business was slightly down. How did Target turn a profit? Groceries, execs say. After 550 makeovers, Target stores devote as much square footage to foodstuffs as they do to dishware and dorm décor, and they appear to be selling.

Target has long enjoyed a reputation for good prices and good looks in departments like clothing and home accessories. (Michael Graves once designed a toaster for them.) Food seemed like an afterthought—you might grab a box of granola bars or fish a frozen dinner out of the lone freezer case, but 10 years ago, Target was not the place for a grocery run. With Target groceries now apparently outperforming other categories, the Market Report turns an investigative eye to its food aisles.

One Fairfax County Target provides a handy case study for price and selection analysis, as it’s located just a few hundred feet away from a Safeway on Arlington Boulevard. The Market Report conducted an item-by-item price comparison of 30 items and surveyed the offerings of each store. The results:

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