Bushels of apples rotting in the ground in back yard orchards. Kids who can't eat the lettuce from their school garden. New county rules taking effect this month will help ease these situations.

Small farmers who seek the new "Approved Produce Gardener" Certifications, will have to abide by a set of Best Management Practices, but Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Tony Linegar says they are not terribly burdensome.

Home-based food producers, or "cottage food operators" are blocked from selling meat pies or tamales under the state Health Department's regulations, as those are considered "potentially hazardous" food items. But it is possible to petition the state to make changes to their list of allowable products, says Christine Soskol, of the Sonoma County Environmental Health Department. She adds that the list of approved foods is lengthy.

Art exhibits, film and literary events, classes in drawing, painting and ceramics and even piano lessons now share the Sebastopol Veteran's building with the local VFW chapter. And everybody's happy with the new arrangement.

Sebastopol Center for the Arts Board President Robert Brent and Executive Director Linda Galletta, outside the Center’s new home at the Sebastopol Veterans Memorial Building. The local VFW chapter will also continue to call the facility home, sharing the space with the arts group. Above, the new, flexible gallery exhibit space in the building’s former auditorium. (KRCB photos)The announcement that the Sebastopol Center for the Arts would move into and take over management of the Sebastopol Veteran's Building came as a surprise to many. But Executive Director Linda Galletta says it was the culmination of a lengthy series of conversations that wound up benefitting all the parties involved.

It's New Years Eve this evening and revelers across the county and the Nation will be toasting the year the past and the year to come. Tomorrow many of those revelers will be nursing sore heads and upset stomachs… suffering from the universal, totally preventable condition: a hangover. KRCB’s Danielle Venton asks what can be done about it. (Image courtesy Flickr/SteveMcN)

Michael Oshinsky, director of preclinical research at the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia, says an increase in acetate levels leads to an accumulation of adenosine in the body, further complicating the effects of a hangover. Fortunately caffeine can help. Caffeine is similar in shape to adenosine and can block adenosine receptors, making us feel alert and headache free. Oshinsky explains: (Image courtesy Flickr/Happyshooter)

Read "Acetate Causes Alcohol Hangover Headache in Rats," by Michael Oshinsky, Christina Maxwell, Rebecca Spangenber, Jan Hoek and Stepen Silberstein, published in PLoS One.

Vitamin D and variations in how women metabolize it, could play a role in Marin County's high breast cancer rate, suggests recent research. Kathie Dalessandri, a surgeon and research in Pt. Reyes Station, published a report this fall in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons linking breast cancer to a genetic variant in vitamin D receptors.

Post-menopausal women with this receptor variant, Dalessandri says, could be especially affected by low vitamin D levels.

Dalessandri is eager to see her results replicated in larger studies. Locally she's anticipating the Marin Women's Study, a breast cancer research study involving more than 14,000 Marin County women.

Vitamin image courtesy of Flickr user ckaiserca (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckaiserca/).