I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
Some dishes are traditional, with ingredients that you know from experience, work well together. Caprese salad with summer tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella comes to mind. Others are wildly exciting because flavors that should clash actually work together beautifully. I had such a dish this …
Gardeners and gourmands wait all year for August tomatoes, and right now we are thick in the middle of tomato season. For many, they are the main event of the year; meaty and juicy, they are a gardener’s dream. Since they are so good and …
About 10 or 11 years ago, we were lucky enough to take a family trip to Italy. Our children must have been about 6 and 8. On this particular day, we spent a long time driving to our next destination; a beautiful hotel in the …
The fun aspect about growing potatoes in my garden, is that I never know what I’m going to find until harvest time. It’s like digging for buried treasure. Some years my crop fails and I get only a few puny spuds. Other years, as I …
Banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich made on a toasted French baguette, may be the world’s most perfect sandwich. There are a riot of flavors and textures in every bite that balance each other perfectly. It is sweet and crispy from the daikon radish and carrot …
The best summer foods to grow in your garden are the ones that have the simplest preparations for the table. Asian shishito peppers are one of those foods. They grow easily and abundantly, and when it’s time for harvest, you pick them, sear them for …
I am definitely a carnivore. I wish it wasn’t so, but alas, I do like eating meat and poultry. But I try to make several meat-free dinners a week and we have plenty of friends for whom I cook who are vegetarians. So this I …
People sometimes ask me about my favorite fruit or vegetable that I grow in the garden. Truthfully, the answer is whatever is ripe at the time. But, there are definitely some crops that rise above all others. For example, fresh garlic, which is sticky and …
I love growing garlic in my garden because it is the gift that keeps on giving. In early spring I can pick green garlic, whole immature plants that are similar to scallions, before the bulb forms into garlic cloves. July is the main harvest time …
