Growing winter squash is one of the most rewarding experiences in the garden. With the right care, you can harvest flavorful, nutrient-rich squash that stores well for months, providing homegrown goodness long after the growing season ends. Over the years, I’ve grown a wide variety—including butternut, acorn, delicata, and kabocha—and I’ve learned firsthand what works […] More
Summer or tender squash can be sautéed, steamed, boiled, baked, grilled, microwaved, or eaten raw. Use raw tender squash as an addition to crudités trays and salads The tender summer squashes–zucchini, Costata Romanesca, round and globe, scallop or pattypan, yellow crookneck, and yellow straightneck, and Zephyr–mature during the summer and can be claimed as baby […] More
Winter squashes are the most plentiful from early autumn until late winter. Unlike the summer squashes, the winter squashes must be cooked before they are eaten. Add winter squash to soups, stews, couscous, and curries. Use winter squash to make pies, cakes, muffins, cookies, pudding, soufflés, and cream desserts. Choose a winter squash—such as the […] More
Sun-dry tomatoes or oven-dry tomatoes to use for seasoning in salads, soups, stews, casseroles, mixed vegetables, and snacks. You can also rehydrate dried tomatoes for use in cooking. Dried tomatoes are fresh, ripe tomatoes that have been placed in the sun, in an oven, or in a food dryer to dry out the water content. […] More
Avocados have a rich buttery textured flesh with a slightly nutty flavor and can be eaten as a vegetable or a fruit. Avocadoes are usually eaten raw. They do not cook well. Favorite avocado recipe Avocados With Seafood Avocado flavor partners Avocados pair well with chiles, cilantro, crabmeat, grapefruit, lime, shrimp, tomato, tropical fruits, turn, […] More
Freeze the bounty of tomatoes you don’t eat fresh this summer for use in cooking next winter. How to freeze a tomato Freeze tomatoes whole or cut them into wedges. Wash and dry tomatoes for freezing and cut out any bad spots or bruises. Place whole or sliced tomatoes on a baking sheet and put […] More
The prickly pear is a cactus fruit that is actually a berry. The pulp of the prickly pear is sweet and moist with an aroma and flavor similar to a combination of the tastiest tropical and subtropical fruits, strawberry, watermelon, honeydew melon, fig, and banana. The salmon or pink to magenta-colored flesh of the prickly […] More
Olives are fruits. They are either cured for table consumption or pressed for cooking oil. Black olives are ripe. Green olives are not. Green olives have a salty, tart taste. Black olives have a smooth, mellow taste. Ways to serve olives Olive fruit is most often served as an appetizer or added to salads, meat, […] More
Olive oil is made by gently crushing and pressing olives until the oil is separated from the fruit pulp. The flesh of a ripe olive is about half oil. When the skin of a just ripe olive is broken, the first oil to flow from the flesh is called “virgin”, “sublime” or “first expressed” oil. […] More
Ways to cook tomatoes, try: fry, sauté, roast, broil-grill, stew, and steam, also make tomato gratin, stuffed tomatoes, and tomato soup. The tomato is a fruit used as a vegetable in savory dishes for its juicy texture and mildly sweet, rich taste. Tomatoes are at their absolute best vine-ripened towards the end of summer. The […] More
Tomatillo flavor is delicate but slightly tart in a green tomato sort of way, although it can sometimes border on sweet. Some say the flavor of the tomatillo is a combination of apple, lemon, and herbs. Tomatillo can be sliced raw into a salad or diced into salsa. Most often tomatillo is slowly simmered until […] More
Bitter melon can be eaten raw when thinly sliced raw but it’s commonly cooked. Bitter melon can be stir-fried, parboiled, or stuffed. The bitter melon picked at maturity will be bitter. The younger, thinner, shorter, and bright green bitter melon will be less bitter tasting. The bitter melon harvest season runs from mid-spring through late […] More
Stephen Albert