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Cherries on Top
I have always loved cherries, and during cherry season, I’ve been hankering for a delicious homemade cherry pie. When I was growing up in Midwest pie country, my mother made a killer cherry pie, though often it was filled with…
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The Many Delights of Strawberry Season
From your email, please click on the title to view the photos and comment online. The Wimbledon tennis championships conclude this weekend, and over the past two weeks, strawberries were a focus of fans who dined on dainty sandwiches and…
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Spring Vegetables Are Busting Out All Over
In my yard, the apple trees are about to bloom, and the asparagus and spring onions in the garden are peeking up with their bright green shoots – almost ready to use in the kitchen. The thyme and oregano are…
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Looking for a High-Protein, Low-Cal, Low-Fat Ingredient?
It’s springtime at last. And I’m thinking about lighter meals and ways to use the fresh vegetables of the season. I’m also continuing to think about how to follow my own advice and lower my meat consumption. In my house,…
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Salads for Winter Warmth. Seriously.
Many of us in the northern U.S. are experiencing bone-chilling cold these days, and the first thing that comes to mind for dinner is probably not salad. Instead, we are more likely hankering for a nice filling stew or another…
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Chilling Out with Blueberries
Back on the farm in the 1950s, I knew what the arrival of blueberries in the local store meant: my grandmother’s blueberry pie. Like many families, our blueberry expectations were centered around desserts. Occasionally, we had blueberry pancakes, and someone…
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Cool as a Cucumber
My garden is about to produce a big crop of cucumbers, and I want to put them to good use. After all, cucumbers are among the human race’s oldest cultivated vegetables – technically, a fruit. The Oxford Companion of Food…
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A Meditation on Farm Foods of My Youth
During these dog days of summer, I’m having a hard time gaining any enthusiasm for cooking a meal. Instead, I find myself musing upon the favorite foods of my youth. Food nostalgia is built into our DNA early in life,…
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Cool It This Summer
The heat of summer is upon us. Growing up on the farm in Illinois, for me, July and August were centered around baling hay, harvesting oats, and then baling the oat straw. That meant spending those 90-degree-plus, extremely humid days…
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Going Green
Welcome to prime vegetable season. The earliest entrants have already appeared in local farmstands: the first fiddleheads and spring onions, then peas. There is a whole assortment of greens to be had, all fresh, crisp, colorful, and delicious. Of course,…
