Talk about your potted pork! Bucking Boars Ranch, a longtime vendor at Seattle's Pike Place market is now selling meat from pigs that have been fed with marijuana plants.
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At holiday time, food pantries abound with donations from big-hearted, charity-minded citizens. The rest of the year can be a lot leaner.

But that doesn't stop the 460,000 people (including 178,000 children) in the Maryland Food Bank's service area from needing to eat for the other 11 months of the year. To call attention to the shortfall, the group teamed with local architecture firms to create eye-catching sculptures out of stacked cans of food. The results are currently on display at a popular shopping mall as part of the AIA Baltimore 2013 Canstruction design competition.
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Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Allison Robicelli is the co-owner (with her husband Matt) of Robicelli's, an award-winning cupcake business in New York City, and author of the upcoming "Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes." Follow her on Twitter @robicellis.

My husband and I lost our first business in the fall of 2009. There were a billion contributing factors: a collapsing economy, a rent hike, a horrific family tragedy and a crumbling marriage that needed to be saved. Talking about it four years later seems like a trivial footnote in our story - some sort of inciting plot device that occurred offstage, scarcely remembered by the time the curtains closed. They hustled, they persevered, they became Q-list food celebrities and they all lived happily ever after.

No matter how far into the story we get, like a broken bone that never quite heals, I can still feel those initial moments of fallout as if they were yesterday: the fear of truly having lost it all; the jarring realization that in an instant, everything we had built may be gone forever and we might not not be strong enough to rebuild. I recall looking at my children and wondering how we let this happen, if we could have prevented it and how we can protect them when we couldn’t even protect ourselves.

It was worse than terror; it was a life without hope. A life I thought of ending more than once.

While we survived, I have been unable to purge the memory of what I felt in those months. The feeling rose again and turned into empathy in the days after Superstorm Sandy, and again this week watching a tornado destroy Moore, Oklahoma.
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Sometimes getting back to the basics is just what we need - especially in the middle of a long week. Vanilla pudding is the perfect antidote to the mid-week doldrums: it’s simple, easy to make, but satisfying as all get-out.

Sure, you could make your pudding with eggs. You could separate them, whisk them until smooth and then temper them into a perfectly thickened custard. You could definitely do all that...or you could use a little cornstarch and save yourself some time (and eggs).
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Mmmm...dreamy. May 21 is National Strawberries and Cream Day!

How could we forget one of the most obvious uses for all those strawberries you’ve been picking? We speak of course, of strawberries and cream.

The beauty of the dessert lies in its simplicity – it really is just strawberries and thickened cream. Kitchen types aren’t known for leaving well enough alone, so there are a few ways to dress up this basic dessert.
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Previously on Parts Unknown:
Peru
Peruvian food is having a moment
Make perfect pisco sours and ceviche
South America's pisco enjoys North American revival
Libya
Breakfast in Libya
Where fast food tastes like freedom
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Editor's note: The Southern Foodways Alliance delves deep in the history, tradition, heroes and plain old deliciousness of Southern food. Today's contributor, Emilie Dayan, writes a weekly SFA blog series called "Sustainable South" about food and the environment, nutrition, food access, food justice, agricultural issues and food politics.

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about urban agriculture and the solution it provides for sustainable and healthy living. The Jones Valley Teaching Farm (JVTF) in Birmingham, Alabama, however, is much more than an urban farm. Their vision is to educate 10,000 Birmingham children annually.
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Nearly 400 new cereals hit the market last year. Adding to the confusion as you stand in the store aisle: Nutritional differences among brands are more vast than with almost any other kind of food, experts say. Call it snap, crackle, huh?!

"Some cereals are as healthy as salad, others are like scarfing down a chocolate eclair," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of "The Flexitarian Diet." "But while there are a lot of sugary cereals, happily, it's easier than ever to find a really nutritious one."
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

When fresh fruit comes along, you must pick it. May 20 is National Strawberry Picking Day!

Nothing says springtime like fresh fruit, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as picking your own. This time of year fruit farms across the country open their gates to let the general public help themselves to their latest crops.

Picking your own fruit isn’t only a fun outing with family or friends; it’s also an opportunity to meet and support local farmers. You get a better sense of how the food you enjoy is cultivated, and smaller farms often use more sustainable growing practices.
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Toss your hands in the air. May is National Salad Month!

Salads often get a bad rap for being too healthy or boring. While they might be the former, they definitely do not need to be the latter. Salads are actually a great way to use up leftovers and can make a balanced meal that will leave you feeling full and satisfied.

Like any meal, salads should be balanced. There should be different flavors, textures and colors. Nuts, berries, cheeses, and herbs can all help turn ‘rabbit food’ into a meal you’ll actually enjoy.

Here are some tips for shaking up the common salad:
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