Free Republic

The most persuasive argument for legalizing pot might just be a dollar sign. California's pot crop is worth $14 billion, according to a state report. The Press Democrat points out that crushes the wine crop which comes in at $2 billion. Legalization would be a huge shot in the arm for plenty of ancillary industries, such as banking and construction.

Findings show grape consumption lowered blood pressure, improved heart function and reduced other risk factors for heart disease and metabolic syndrome Ann Arbor, Mich. – Could eating grapes slow what's for many Americans a downhill sequence of high blood pressure and insulin resistance leading to heart disease and type 2 diabetes? Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System are teasing out clues to the effect of grapes in reducing risk factors related to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The effect is thought to be due to phytochemicals -- naturally occurring antioxidants – that grapes contain. Findings from a new...

O taste and see all things He's done— There’s nought but good in our LORD, His gentleness touches every life And took our place upon the cross.

A team of scientists from the US and China have discovered that grape-seed extract kills laboratory leukemia cells by making them commit suicide, thus showing the potential value of natural compounds in the treatment of cancer. The study was the work of lead author, Dr Xianglin Shi, professor in the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky and colleagues and is published online in the 1 January 2009 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. A number of studies have already revealed that eating fruit and vegetables helps to prevent cancer,...

An extract from grape seeds can destroy cancer cells, US research suggests. In lab experiments, scientists found that the extract stimulated leukaemia cells to commit suicide. Within 24 hours, 76% of leukaemia cells exposed to the extract were killed off, while healthy cells were unharmed, Clinical Cancer Research reports. The study raises the possibility of new cancer treatments, but scientists said it was too early to recommend that people eat grapes to ward off cancer. Grape seeds contain a number of antioxidants, including resveratrol, which is known to have anti-cancer properties, as well as positive effect on the heart. Previous...

An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract... ...While grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers, no one had tested the extract in hematological cancers... ..."These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies and possibly other cancers," said...

Low doses of freeze-dried grape powder inhibit genes linked to the development of sporadic colorectal cancer, University of California, Irvine cancer researchers found. The study suggests that a diet rich in grapes may help prevent the third most common form of cancer, one that kills more than a half a million people worldwide each year. Around 7 percent of all Americans develop colon cancer during their lifetimes. Led by Dr. Randall Holcombe, director of clinical research at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UC Irvine, the study followed up on previous in vitro studies showing that resveratrol, a...

Ancient Mashed Grapes Found in Greece Jennifer Viegas, Discovery NewsAncient Grapes March 16, 2007 — Either the ancient Greeks loved grape juice, or they were making wine nearly 6,500 years ago, according to a new study that describes what could be the world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes. If the charred 2,460 grape seeds and 300 empty grape skins were used to make wine, as the researchers suspect, the remains might have belonged to the second oldest known grape wine in the world, edged out only by a residue-covered Iranian wine jug dating to the sixth millennium B.C. Since the...

There's high anxiety in Wine Country as the harvest slowly gets under way. The grape crop is late, yields are down, birds are a terrible problem and there are looming fears there won't be enough laborers to pick the crop. "The 900-pound gorilla in the room is labor," said Fred Buonanno of Brutocao Vineyards & Cellars in Hopland and chairman of the Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission. "In the weeks ahead we will be tested." Buonanno was among growers and vintners from Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake and Marin counties gathered Tuesday in Santa Rosa to provide a "state of the harvest"...

May 24, 2005 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Resveratrol, a chemical found in red grapes, blocks replication of the influenza virus in cell culture and in animals, Italian researchers report. "Resveratrol merits further investigation as a potential weapon for combating the growing threat of influenza," Dr. Anna Teresa Palamara of the Institute of Microbiology in Rome and colleagues conclude. In cell culture experiments, resveratrol prevented influenza from replicating. Study: Cigarette Smoke May Harm Fertility Big Guns: When Cops Use Steroids Study: Bypass Better for Clogged Arteries Resveratrol treatment had the greatest effect when administered 3 hours after exposure to...

In a Northern California monastery, 25 monks following the teachings of St. Benedict rise hours before dawn to pray, work the land and make a serious syrah — a full-bodied red wine.The men at the Abbey of New Clairvaux have opened the first Roman Catholic Cistercian winery in North America, though their vineyard has a storied place in California's wine history.The 580-acre spread in this tiny town north of Chico was once owned by Leland Stanford — the railroad magnate, California governor and university founder — who ran what was considered the world's largest winery in the late 1800s, said...

I want to do an article about B-17, in it I want to cover both apricot trees and seeds and grape seeds, two high sources of B-17, from what I have learned so far. I'm pretty well set on the Apricot part, but need info on where to get organic grape plants and how do you plant and care for them in the foothills of the White Mountains in Maine. temp ranges of 100 above zero to 45 below zero.Any help would be greatly appreciated.ThanksJakeChristian-news-in-maine.com

ANNAPOLIS, Calif. (AP) - A vineyard here smells different at night. The daytime dust is damped down by the faintly brackish fog rolling in from the Pacific. Above, stars blaze in black velvet; at ground-level, the white glare of fluorescent lights outlines the silhouettes of farmworkers moving swiftly in the shadows. Definitely not your typical harvest scene, but one that's becoming increasingly common as more vintners try picking wine grapes after dark. "It's better at night," said Fermin Manzo, foreman of the crew picking pinot noir grapes for Hartford Family Wines on a recent crisp, fall night. The advantage to...

Just thought I'd share with Freepers a warning. A few years back, I was able to get ahold of a whole bunch of CA valley wine grapes. I sat in the kitchen, and the mutt, of course who always gets a bit of what I'm eating tried one. He loved it! So over the next few minutes or so, I ate a couple cups worth, and he must have had twenty or thirty. Sadly, the hound will have to forego any more grapes. He didn't even get sick, but I find out on the tv tonight grapes and raisins are...

PARLIER - For the past century, raisins in California's Central Valley have been harvested in exactly the same way; a monthlong frenzy of hand picking that required more workers than almost any other crop.Last season, many raisin growers turned to machines to do the work. Although they had long held out, they are now joining growers nationwide in embracing mechanization to fend off global competition.But the switch to mechanical harvesting is taking a heavy toll on the Mexican migrants who fill most of the state's lowest-paying farm jobs. With machines picking more crops, the need for field hands is falling...

Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry http://www.nypost.com/gossip/31866.htm October 16, 2004 -- WACKY first lady-wannabe Teresa Heinz Kerry is advising arthritis sufferers to chow down on booze-soaked raisins. "You get some gin and get some white raisins [and] soak them in the gin for two weeks," the multi-millionairess said after a rambling speech on health care in Reno the other day. "Then, eat nine of the raisins a day." Dr. Steven Phillips, director of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Nevada, supported Heinz Kerry's prescription, noting the sulfur and sulfides found in grapes are increased by the...

Home Bread and Wine    FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS I recently saw a story on the news about a little girl in New Jersey whose first Holy Communion was invalidated by the bishop. Apparently she is allergic to wheat, and a priest gave her Communion with a host made of rice. Why can’t she receive a rice host instead of a wheat host since she is allergic? What can be done? Remember the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s definition of a sacrament: A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. Our Lord instituted the sacraments, and...

Study: Major changes from warming By Edie Lau and Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writers Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, August 17, 2004 By the end of the century, continued buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will sour wine grape production, distress dairy cows and bring summer temperatures to many inland cities that match Death Valley's today, according to scientists who have conducted the most detailed study yet of global climate change's effects in California. The study, released Monday, lays out two main scenarios for the state. One is "business as usual," with carbon-dioxide emissions continuing to rise steeply...

<p>For the first time in at least 40 years, a cooperative that is the largest buyer of grapes grown in the Lake Erie region will pay its members $600 for every acre they cannot harvest due to the wet, cold growing season.</p>

Marc François, cellar master of Château Grand Mayne, with merlot grapes in St.-Émilion, near Bordeaux. ARIS, Aug. 23 — The blazingly hot summer has been brutal on Europe, particularly its elderly, but it may leave a more positive legacy behind — vineyards are hauling in their most promising crop in years. Vintners are busy with an early vendange, the annual grape harvest that normally does not start until mid-September. As a rule, hot summers and early harvests produce great wines, winemakers say. "It is the earliest harvest since 1893," said Bernard Hervet, who runs Bouchard Père et Fils in Burgundy....