“Kalo is our oldest brother. An ancient ancestor.” I remember hearing this from my favorite professor at the University of Hawaii, Maui Campus. Kalo. Taro. Poi- that sticky purple stuff you feel obligated to scoop on your plate at every luau. From that day, my […]

I was an avid gardener as a kid. I helped out at the local community garden every Sunday from 6th grade up to 9th. While I was there, I would help other people with their plots, as I was too young to have one of […]

Desperate circumstances led Elizabeth Blackwell (~1700-1758), a Scottish botanical illustrator, to create A Curious Herbal, a gorgeously illustrated book of 500 medicinal plants. Blackwell’s husband Alexander had landed in debtor’s prison in London, and Elizabeth had to support both herself and their child–as well as […]

Oryza Sativa. In other words, rice. While its Latin name is relatively new to me, rice is not, and far from it. For nearly one hundred years, my family has associated with that crop which has sustained us, our nation, and the world. From men […]

Chinese cuisine has many kinds of vegetables, but the one I’m most familiar with is bok choy. Like other Chinese families, bok choy is the most common green eaten during meals in my home, and not a day went by without bok choy. Although we […]

Native serviceberry trees (Amelanchier) abound throughout North America. During their trek across the continent in the early 1800s, Meriweather Lewis, William Clark and other members of their expedition feasted on serviceberry and other native berries, often as guests of indigenous peoples, and recorded these encounters […]

When I lived in Austin I had a friend with somewhere around 80 acres of land in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio. We’d stay in a crude cabin on the property, generally in the fall when the weather was cooler. We’d wander […]

My wife, when she fell ill, was advised by the physicians to chew on gooseberries in order to gain some vital energies.  She kept salted gooseberries in a bottle and chewed on them occasionally. There is something very special about this fruit; may be it […]

My father, Michele, was born in a small town in Italy called Bitetto, about 20 miles from Bari. He eventually bought a house in Canarsie, Brooklyn, that had a plot of land where he could do some gardening. He loved gardening and planted a lot […]

Summers in California are marked by hands with deep purple liquid running along palm lines and in between the fingers, dripping off the sides and trailing down the wrists, tiny brown hairs stuck to fingers and palms. Every time I look at a pair of […]