Chia seeds

The latest superfood

By Jennifer Ward

January 11, 2012

Remember the Chia Pet? The kitschy little animal-shaped clay planter that, with minimal care, sprouted a green mop in a matter of days?

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Peachy keen

How to pick a peach

By Katherine Sacks

September 2, 2011

Anyone who’s eaten a peach won’t soon forget its lusciousness, but the range of flavors among varieties might surprise even the most ardent peach lover. There’s the subtly sweet, white Sugar Lady; the tangy, bright yellow Flavorcrest; and the oh-so-aromatic, orangey Sun Crest. But that’s just a start.

Fresh peaches, of course, are delicious out of hand. But as a pastry cook in Los Angeles, I learned to use every type of southern California peach for cobblers, sorbet, breaded and baked desserts, ice creams, and soufflés. And it doesn’t get any more American than a peach pie; after all, American fruit lovers have picked the fuzzy stone fruit since European colonists first brought the species to the Eastern seaboard. (A native Chinese plant, the peach was introduced to Europe through the Silk Road trade routes.)

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Fiddleheads

When humble ferns are the star of the show

By Jen Smith

May 11, 2011

As April sunshine melts the last patches of snow, hungry locavores slip on their mudboots and head into the woods. Peering into shaded groves and soggy fields, these foragers are looking for a taste of the changing season, a brightly flavored reminder that summer is on its way. For a few short, exhilarating weeks, spring is fiddlehead season.

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Winter radishes

Celebrate the last of the season

By Emily Horton

March 28, 2011

The first time I encountered a watermelon radish, I confused it with a turnip. For weeks, I raved about this unusual turnip — the one with the creamy exterior and the rosy middle — to produce-enthusiastic friends. Finally, one Sunday at the farmers’ market, I pointed them out to my friend Kate.

“Oh, these?” she laughed. “They’re radishes. But yeah, they’re great!”

In my defense, sturdy watermelon radishes — one of many heirloom radish varieties, in this case a type of daikon — arguably have more in common with turnips than with the more familiar dainty French breakfast and cherry belle radishes.

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Husk tomatoes

Or ground cherries

By Tammy Donroe

August 30, 2010

For me, the most interesting farmers’ market offering of late summer is husk tomatoes. Never heard of them? Also known as ground cherries, strawberry tomatoes, and dwarf Cape gooseberries, it’s no wonder that they’re little understood.

Are they sweet berries or savory tomatoes? And what the heck do you do with them?

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Rutabagas

Or Swedish turnips

By Caroline Cummins

February 22, 2010

When you pull a rutabaga out of the ground, it looks a bit like the fabled Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, all gnarly, feathery roots and floppy leaves. Topped and trimmed, however, it’s just a plump root vegetable, cream-colored at the bottom and a blushing purple on the shoulders.

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Tomatoes

Great balls of fire

By Caroline Cummins

September 8, 2009

By late August, the many tomato plants my husband grew from seed this spring were finally fruiting. Paste tomatoes, little round cherry tomatoes, large yellow Lemon Boy tomatoes, plump orange Persimmon tomatoes, and red-and-green blushing tomatoes that we have no name for since my husband has grown them, for three years, from a now-forgotten tomato purchased at a farmers’ market. And that’s just the start of the harvest.

Last year’s harvest, due to drab summertime weather, was accordingly blah. But this year — despite the intense 105-degree heat waves we’ve had — is looking like a red tsunami of tomatoes. Which means that, while we’re eating plenty of them in their natural, fresh state, we’re also looking for ways to preserve them for the winter.

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Strawberries

The queen of berries

By Caroline Cummins

June 15, 2009

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Radicchio

The red-and-white chicory

By Sophia Markoulakis

February 24, 2009

Head for the salad section of any good grocery store, and you’ll likely find burgundy globes of radicchio next to the tender greens and fresh herbs. Such shelving makes perfect sense during the summer, when nothing beats a chilled salad on a hot day. But come winter, those ruby-hued heads really should be displayed next to the other cold-weather greens, such as kale, mustard, and collard greens. I like my radicchio raw and slightly bitter in the summer, but cooked to sweet softness in the winter.

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Sweet potatoes

Try the Japanese version

By Sophia Markoulakis

November 25, 2008

No matter how many times I remind myself that the sweet potato and the yam are not the same tuber, I still hesitate when asked to explain the difference. It’s a problem of nomenclature: Nearly all of the “yams” that we come across in North American markets are actually sweet potatoes. And sweet potatoes aren’t related to potatoes.

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