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BYCU

The garden is looking very good. It's been a frustrating year so far and a lot of work, but it's already meeting my family's spinach needs. It should, if the weather even halfway cooperates, shortly be meeting the family's lettuce and kale needs as well. It's time to celebrate with a glass of wine and a book. And I have just the one: The Drunken Botanist.

The next time you're sipping on a glass of something boozy, consider the plants behind your beverage. Some of them might spring immediately to mind: grapes in your wineglass, rye in your whiskey bottle, juniper in your gin and tonic. But what about sorghum and coriander? Cinchona and bitter orange?
An incredible diversity of grains, herbs and fruits goes into the world's alcoholic drinks, which means that for the botanically minded, a trip to the liquor store is a little different than it is for the rest of us.

Dope Me

This is a great finding: "The taste of beer, without its alcoholic effects, may be enough to trigger the release of the pleasure chemical dopamine in the brain." Link.

I have often marveled at how good I feel, just cracking open a beer and taking that first sip. I've also known about dopamine for years. But I'd never drawn a connection between the two.

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