Molly Moon’s Handmade Ice Cream (with Seattle store locations in Wallingford and Capitol Hill) is taking 10 flavors for cones, sundaes, and ice cream sandwiches on the road in their new truck (blog, twitter).  They drove the truck out here from Ohio, tweeting its progress along the way.  Molly offers vegan sorbets in addition to the amazing ice cream flavors.

More blueberries are being eaten and thus more blueberries are being planted. The U.S. produced 143.6 million pounds in 2007 and 182.1 million pounds in 2009.  Washington State has gone from 28 million pounds of blueberries two years ago to an estimated 90.1 million pounds this year, which is an astounding jump. People love those antioxidants.

Trader Joe’s had so many brimming large baskets of strawberries for sale that I figured something must be up this season and the not martha post on an abundant harvest triggered me to do a bit of research.  An April A.P. news story from Florida called out weather related factors.  California and Florida growers try to stagger their harvest by planting different varieties at different times.  Florida is usually the largest producer in January and February. California kicks in at springtime.  This year Florida had record cold temperatures early in the year and California had heavy rains.  Florida’s berries peaked late and California had more berries than usual as plants had gone dormant during the rain and then overproduced. The result is a glut of strawberries. A pound of strawberries last year cost $3.49, this year it’s been closer to $1.25.  Closer to home for me and notmartha.com’s Megan, the Whatcom County berry farmers are keeping a close eye on the pollination activity around their strawberry flowers.  They’re expecting a slightly early harvest the first week of June, so keep an eye out at those farmer’s markets.

Seattle restaurant Brasa has closed its doors after eleven years of accolades and stellar reviews.  Chef/owner Tamara Murphy was Executive Chef at Campagne prior to opening Brasa and was named the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef of the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii in 1995. She has other ventures in the works but Brasa will be missed from the cheese table to the Spanish donuts and everything piggy in-between.

Washington State will begin taxing candy and gum in June. However, not everything you consider a candy is on the taxable list.  The Department of Revenue states “Any product that lists flour as an ingredient on the nutritional facts label is not taxable as candy.” Yes, we’re now living in a state where Twix and Nestle Crunch bars are not considered a candy by the government. Not only that, but regular Milky Way bars are not taxable (wheat flour) and Milky Way Midnights are. The spreadsheet is nicely thorough enough to include separate lists for Asian and Mexican candies.

Mario Batali is in town promoting his new book and of course he’ll be at Salumi’s and other favorite local eateries, but he’s lost 35-40 pounds and no longer considers eating “a sport.”  Batali says local vegetables are the next big thing and recommends black kale with ricotta.