Biscuit's Field Notes
Explore the land-and-history secrets behind the quizzes, together with Biscuit!
News Explorer16
Fresh explorations born from federal announcements.
EIA estimates that this summer in the Lower 48 states, the extra electricity from solar was about twice the extra from wind A sea turtle laid eggs on a California beach. No one had ever recorded that on the U.S. West Coast New England made 59% more wind power than a year before. Is that the biggest number in the story?
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Why are mushrooms the forest's cleanup crew? Why do peanuts grow underground? Why do cranberries float and bounce? Why are the West's living record-holders still standing? Why is Vermont #1 in maple syrup? Why is Alabama #1 in quail? Why is Alaska #1 in water area? Why is Arizona #1 in alfalfa per acre? Why is Arkansas #1 in rice? Why is California #1 in peaches? Why is Colorado #1 in millet? Why is Connecticut #1 in white spruce Christmas trees? Why is Delaware #1 in lima beans? Why is Florida #1 in average temperature? Why is Georgia #1 in broiler chickens? Why Idaho? A volcano made the potato fields How Wisconsin became America's Dairyland The great orange flip: Florida vs California Why Illinois? The pumpkin-can secret Vermont's maple magic: freeze by night, thaw by day Two wheat belts: why the champ isn't “The Wheat State” Two corns: the one you eat vs the one cows eat Wild vs cultivated: the blueberry surprise The Sunflower State… doesn't grow the most sunflowers Why Texas is goat country Two cherry kingdoms: snack cherries vs pie cherries Why 9 out of 10 American grapes are Californian Christmas trees are a crop (a very slow one) Washington's fruit-bowl superpower Half a million new Texans: where America is moving The pickle pipeline: Michigan's crunchy secret The great bee road trip The bison comeback Llama or alpaca? A field guide The guard animal squad Why is Maine so 'old' and Utah so young? America's sugar grows two totally different ways The bean belt is up north, not in the desert The giant grain you've probably never met The little seed that loves the cold north The kitchen oil grown up by Canada Hummus from big-sky country The flower hiding in your cooking oil The soup pea that likes it cold Why Florida beats Arizona at being hot The crop that grows in the dark The tomatoes that never see a field The bread grain that laughs at frost The grain hiding in your bird feeder The oil state that quietly went green Why wide-open states are full of vehicles The islands that ship in their power Why Texas beats Florida at theme parks The great teacher flip: more kids, fewer teachers? The historic places the count can't see Small hills, big list: how New York nearly caught Colorado Two boat tables, two different winners The whale that visits both Alaska and Hawaii Where do seedless watermelons come from? Why the stars come back when you camp Fifty states, fifty ways to get to work The state where more than one in four is a kid Everyone says Florida. Everyone is wrong. The river that runs underground in Idaho Two fish farms, two completely different waters A rabbit is not a rodent — check behind the front teeth Why a zoo and a garden end up in the same box The third corn: the only one that explodes Alaska’s summer: the sun that forgets to set The farm where the harvest is the ground The crop that hides from the sun One state, one school district The state bird that came from far away The number that comes with a give-or-take The bird that gave up flying The fungus that drew the hazelnut map The farm you never have to feed The fish that arrive by plane One little box, seven thousand languages The fishing state with no sea Two kinds of quail The field that works twice The heat that comes by truck Plant it once, then wait five years Two states, two crowns The wheat that is not a wheat The house that arrives finished The tree that lost its forest One row, and the whole country The half you throw away The fruit that is not food yet The fruit somebody pollinates by hand Red or green is the same plant The fruit that hides its flowers The syrup that was squeezed, not tapped The bean that came back from a trip The grass nobody can quite place The clam that keeps changing its name The field you cut ten times The bean your grandmother kept The years Congress kept resizing a claim One plant, six vegetables Who plants a pecan tree? The hedge that moved into rows A whole patch, one tree A glass house, and the wind that empties it The berry that went to Europe and came back How do you measure a pile of wood? The tree that got sick, and the one they went to find The flower you plant in fall, and why it has a face The Christmas tree nicknamed the cat spruce Why are there stone walls in the New Hampshire woods? How do you know a ginseng plant is old enough to dig? How does a mum know it is fall? Why do some gourds last for years? Is a jack-o’-lantern a kind of squash? Why doesn’t a rolling bike fall over? Why are school buses yellow? How do scientists tell how strong a tornado was? Why are some numbers secret? The mystery of the “D”