Potatoes can be round, oval, and smooth. They can have rough skins or smooth skins, white skins, brown skins, red skins or blue skins. There are more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes. But when it comes to cooking, there are only three kinds of potatoes: high starch, medium starch, and low starch. When you are
Battered and baked turnips Turnips can be boiled, steamed, and stir-fried. Cook turnips until they are just tender-crunchy–less than seven minutes or so for a young turnip. The flavor will be mildly sweet and crisp. Steamed and boiled. Toss steamed small turnips with butter and parsley and serve. Boiled turnips can be mashed with butter
Add pansies and violas to salads Salad greens, sweet root crops, and peas are cool-weather vegetables for fall and spring harvest. These edibles want to get their start in warm soil—either in the mid- or late-summer garden for autumn harvest or indoors or undercover for spring harvest; they eant to come out of the garden
Corn earworm The corn earworm—which is also known as the tomato fruitworm and the cotton bollworm—is a caterpillar that eats the fruit and leaves of corn, tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, lettuce, peas, potatoes, and other crops. Corn earworms follow corn silks into the tips of husks and chew their way through the kernels. As tomato
How do you like your corn? The answer probably says a lot about where you are from. If you prefer mixed yellow and white kernels in each ear, you are probably from New England. Your favorite varieties are likely ‘Bi-Colored’ or ‘Butter and Sugar.’ If you prefer all white kernels in each ear, you are
Mâche–also called corn salad and lamb’s lettuce–is a mild-flavored salad green. Mâche (say ‘mah-sh’) can also be steamed and served as a vegetable. Mâche has a sweet, slightly nutty taste. Its flavor is so subtle that it can easily be overpowered by other leafy vegetables or dressings. It is often served alone or as a counterpoint
Costata Romanesca is an heirloom Italian squash often considered the best tasting and best textured summer squash. It is sometimes called cocozelle or ribbed Roman zucchini. It is also called courgette, marrow squash, and vegetable marrow. Costata Romanesca is an elongated squash with a dark green skin marked by greenish-yellow stripes that run its length.
Costoluto Genovese is a large, juicy Italian heirloom tomato with an acidic-tart full-tomato flavor well suited for slicing and serving fresh or cooking. Costoluto Genovese has been a Mediterranean favorite since at least the early eighteenth century. The key to this mid-season beefsteak’s rich tomato flavor is heat. Grown away from the dry, sun-drenched gardens
Tomato fruits crack when the soil moisture level fluctuates–a dry spell followed by rain, or the soil drying out followed by heavy irrigation. Cracks start at the stem end and radiate out from the shoulder of the fruit. Avoid tomato cracking. To avoid tomato cracking keep the soil evenly moist all growing season. Do not
Cranberries with roast pork, beef, chicken, or duck: now that’s tasty! A chunky cranberry sauce takes only a minute or two to prepare and will add zest to the foods it’s paired with. Add cranberries to salads, stuffings, cakes, muffins, pies, and puddings or make them into relishes and jellies. Cranberries are crunchy and tart
