Renewal

Make Your Own Cereal Bars

If you use cereal bars as a quick snack (as I often do), you might be concerned about the ingredients (high fructose corn syrup) and maybe even interested in making your own.

I tried this a couple of years ago and ended up with some rather dry fare. Maybe I'll take these tips and try again.

What have been your experiences with making your own granola and cereal bars?

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Photo via Wiki Commons.

Corn Syrup Chemistry

This article on the murky and industrialized world of high fructose corn syrup walks readers through a psychotically complex process that takes corn and turns it into sweetened gel (or fat Americans or poison, however you'd prefer to describe it).

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from   cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving   vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which   take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite   of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It   is also very easy to transport--it's just piped into tanker trucks.   This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.

Learn About Cloth Diapering

Park + Vine is hosting a discussion and workshop on cloth diapers with cloth diaper authority Elizabeth Whitton. Free. 10 a.m., Oct. 18 at Park + Vine, 1109 Vine St., Gateway Quarter, 513-721-7275. RSVPs requested before Oct. 11.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni