Harvest to Table

Jack-o’-lantern or pie? That could be the question you ask when faced with a pumpkin in late autumn. The answer is simple. It’s in the size of the pumpkin before you. Pumpkin size: cooking and carving Small pumpkins are best for cooking. They will be sweet and delicious, perfect for pie fillings, breads, muffins and [...]

There is curly endive and then there is frisée. They are the same, but they are not. The difference? Frisée—pronounced free-ZAY—is a petite, pale curly endive produced by blanching. It has an opened, flattened shape. Its leaves are frizzy and finely cut, yellow-white to yellow-apple green in color. Frisée has a bittersweet taste and it’s [...]

There is an onion that comes from Torpea in Calabria, Italy that you will enjoy. It is a mild or “sweet” flavored red onion—many say the sweetest-tasting onion in the world–that will be a welcome addition to the preparation of many meals, and, if all else fails, you can just about make a meal of [...]

Winter squashes are best from early fall through winter. Winter squashes are drier, more fibrous, and much sweeter than summer squashes. The thick, hard shells of winter squashes can not be eaten, but the shells add to the period these squashes can be stored—ranging from 30 to 180 days. In addition to the sweet flesh [...]

If you wait for the yard-long bean to become a yard long, you will probably have waited too long. The best tasting yard-long beans are usually about 18-inches (45 cm) long, which means the best tasting yard-long beans are young. Even so “tender” and “sweet” are not adjectives that are commonly used to describe even [...]

The plum standard is the Santa Rosa plum: that is the rich-tart purplish-crimson skinned plum with amber flesh that shades to dark red near the skin. The Casselman plum is an improved, late season Santa Rosa plum hybrid with a bright red skin and plenty of flavor. The Casselman is one of the so-called Japanese [...]