Lifestyle

Without "lean finely textured beef,” says Temple Grandin, major cattle producers might as well take a "truckload of cattle and say, 'We're just going to throw these cattle in the garbage.' " (Nati Harnik, File/Associated Press) Temple Grandin — the famed animal scientist, author and inspiration behind the HBO film about her struggle with autism — says she didn’t know much about “lean finely textured beef” this spring when the controversy broke over the so-called “pink slime.” So she remained mum on the subject that grossed out a nation.

“I only like to talk about things that I know about,” Grandin said, explaining her silence during a Wednesday phone interview with All We Can Eat.

Well, Grandin has since educated herself, and she’s clearly in support of pink slime, the pejorative term to describe carcass trimmings that are heated, run through a centrifuge (to remove fat) and treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens. To Grandin, it’s all about waste.

“It should be on the market. It should be labeled,” she says of the meat filler. “We should not be throwing away that much beef.”

Many markets have started to welcome shoppers this season, but a few more will open this week (additional details are available through the map link below):

• Thursday’s Workhouse Farmers Market

• Saturday’s Smart Markets at Springfield

• Wednesday’s NoMa Farmers Market

• Wednesday’s Shady Grove Farmers and Artisans’ Market

INTERACTIVE: Click the image above to view our interactive farmers market map.

And now for a taste of what you’ll find:

At Thursday’s FreshFarm Market by the White House:

Bigg Riggs Farm: rainbow chard; spinach; strawberries; kohlrabi.

Coulter Farms: oxtail; tongue; raw cow’s-milk cheese.

Grassential Farm: veal.

Picnic Gourmet Spreads: cheese spreads (Parmesan, Moroccan cilantro, Gorgonzola chive, tandoori garlic).

Spring Valley Farm and Orchard: sugar snap peas.

At Thursday’s FreshFarm Market in Penn Quarter:

Evensong Farm: beef (all cuts); three kinds of pork sausage.

Garner’s Produce: English and snap peas; Yukon Gold potatoes; summer squash; Savoy cabbage.

Mountain View Farm: strawberries; mizuna. Certified organic.

Sand Hill Farm: broccoli.

Happy almost-June, everyone. You can tell summer’s on the way because this week we announce the results of our second annual Smoke Signals Barbecue Sauce Contest. I must say, it’s one of our favorite judging events; our panel got to taste some dynamite sauces this year. Whether you’re a fan of red sauce, mustard-based sauce or some other sauce, you’re bound to like one of the winning recipes.

Also this week, Joe Yonan’s Cooking for One column explores grilling for one. And we flip through a couple of new books about pressure cooker cuisine and give you four recipes to try.

Got any tips (or questions) of your own about barbecue sauce, grilling for one or cooking with a pressure cooker? Join us for today’s Free Range chat at noon. We’ll be glad to see you. Meanwhile, warm up with this question from last week’s chat:

After I prepare chicken, I always have chicken juice in the sink. What’s the best way to clean the sink so it’s good to go for washing dishes, filling the Brita, etc.?

Despite more than $840,000 in back federal taxes, the Glover Park location of Sushiko will remain open. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Late last month, the Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against Sushiko in Glover Park for more than $840,000 in back taxes, according to Washington Recorder of Deeds documents.

Sushiko co-owner Daisuke Utagawa confirms that the lien was for failing to pay federal business income taxes, but he declined to comment further. “It’s actually a long, long story,” he says. “At the moment, I’d really rather not talk about it.”

The lien was filed on April 30 for $841,144 in back taxes. The IRS does not discuss specific cases, spokesperson Christina A. D’Amico tells All We Can Eat, but she e-mailed to point out that the IRS files liens only after the agency sends delinquent taxpayers a bill and they “neglect or refuse to fully pay the debt in time.” According to online IRS documents, the lien “attaches to all property and rights to property of the taxpayer.”

Utagawa is in the process of negotiating with the IRS, but he says the debt will not force him to shutter the Glover Park location of Sushiko, which is Washington’s oldest sushi restaurant. It opened in 1976. (A second location in Chevy Chase, Md., opened in 2008.)

Food & Wine, here's the face of a real pitmaster: Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow's BBQ in Texas. (Jim Shahin for The Washington Post) Magazines love lists. Greatest guitarists. Best pizza. Hottest cars. They’re easy to read. They’re cheap to produce. And they get people talking.

Every list of the “Best Of” and “Greatest” variety (as opposed to the “10 Suntan Lotions You Need for Summer” variety) are intended to provoke debate. Their whole point is to generate controversy, which creates buzz, which attracts readers.

The listmakers themselves might not always agree with their magazine’s lists. Ever had an argument with a friend about the best sandwich or movie actor or album and get agitated over your friend’s inability to see reason — which is to say, to agree with your opinion? That agitation is 10 times deeper when opinionated people, often with inflated egos to protect, argue fiercely. About burgers.

That is a general overview of how these things go down. That is, they are argued over by informed people who take them seriously. In the end, no one agrees with everything on the list. (Unless, of course, it is his or her own list, which is a different matter entirely.)

On some fundamental level, in other words, the list should be defensible. Four Beatles albums in the top 10 of Rolling Stone’s “500 Best Albums”? Discuss.

Now here comes Food & Wine’s “Best BBQ” list. It is. . . how to put this?. . . if I kept a list of barbecue lists, this would rank as the No. 1 Dumbest Barbecue List Ever.