Harvest to Table

Cooked asparagus has a subtle sweet grassy flavor. It is a perfect match to salty dairy ingredients such as butter, Parmesan cheese, and hollandaise sauce. Asparagus also is well matched to slightly sulfurous-tasting foods: eggs, shellfish, and garlic. There are three types of asparagus: green asparagus which can be both sweet and slightly tart flavored, [...]

Cucumbers plants that are stressed during the growing season may produce fruit that is bitter flavored. Commonly a lack of water or temperatures too cold or too hot cause cucumbers to bear bitter tasting fruit. But some cucumbers may have a slightly bitter flavor by nature. Cucumbers contain organic compounds called cucurbitacins that can cause [...]

Luscious, liquid sweetness: since watermelon is nearly always eaten on its own either sliced or quartered, growing it juicy and sweet is always the objective. To grow sweet and tasty watermelon, follow these steps: Temperature. Watermelon demands warm temperatures—both soil and air. Transplant or direct seed watermelon only when the average soil and daytime air [...]

Garden peas are both sweet and savory. They have a grassy sweetness with an undertone of umami. Cooking fresh shelled peas can be difficult: you will want to eat them fresh out of the pod before you ever get near the stove. But if you do get to the stove, cooking shelled peas—and peas in [...]

Tomatoes and peppers drop their blossoms when environmentally stressed. But when conditions are less extreme, a plant that has dropped its blossoms will flower again, set fruit, and be productive. Temperatures too cold or too hot; weather too dry or too wet; soil too nutrient rich or deficient; these are reasons tomatoes and peppers drop [...]

When you open an ear of corn and some (or most) of the kernels are missing, that means the corn was not pollinated properly. To ensure pollination plant corn in a block, not rows. Corn is wind pollinated. The male flower is the tassel; it forms at the top of the cornstalk and produces pollen. [...]

New potatoes make for sweet, moist eating. You can serve them steamed, sautéed, boiled, baked, roasted, or grilled. They can be served tossed in butter or olive oil or as a dip with butter or sour cream or horseradish or served as a side dish with chicken, lamb, steaks or burgers, or grilled fish. New [...]

Tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, and cilantro, basil, or parsley: the basic ingredients of salsa crudas, fresh salsa. Here’s how to make fresh salsa: Core and cut two medium ripe tomatoes, add one clove of garlic minced, add half a white or red onion diced, add a jalapeno, Serrano, or green or red bell pepper chopped [...]

May is the month when the vegetable garden begins to look more and more like the summer garden. By the end of May, the threat of late frosts should diminish and tender crops can begin to go into the garden without worry. Crops started indoors should be hardened off before they are planted. In warm [...]

Simply put coleslaw is a salad made from shredded cabbage and along with other chopped or shredded vegetables bound with mayonnaise, vinaigrette, or other dressing and sometimes flavored with herbs or fruit. The word coleslaw comes from two Dutch words: kool meaning cabbage and sla an abbreviation for salad—koolsla. Coleslaw is sometimes called “cold slaw”—which [...]