Gardening

Whether it’s the ongoing debate that a dislike of cilantro is determined by genetics or the recent stir caused by cilantro imported from Mexico, cilantro certainly seems to be a hot topic right now. While some crave its fresh, spicy flavor, others find it utterly unappealing. For me, I can’t get enough of it. Not only can it be tricky to grow, but it also proves challenging to preserve.

Yes, really, for months.

When it comes to gardening, I have more of a knack for killing plants than producing any kind of successful harvest. As such, it has befallen my husband to take full charge of tending to our summer garden, and his most treasured plant is this enormous, enthusiastic pumpkin vine. Its produce will be of the Halloween carving variety, not so great for eating. Luckily, I’ve still got some plans for its smaller, younger leaves, which as it turns out, are edible and popular in many cuisines.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who lives in a hot climate, preserving rosemary might not be an issue for you, since rosemary is evergreen in warmer growing zones. If you live in a colder climate, like I do, you know rosemary doesn’t survive the winter, so learning ways to preserve your harvest is necessary.

We remember the first time we heard the term “kirby” and had no idea it was a type of cucumber.That was a while ago, and these days, we can easily find kirby cucumbers as well as shrink-wrapped seedless ones in our grocery aisle.There are dozens of garden varieties you can grow, but we thought we’d take a look at some of the basic cucumbers you see at the farmers’ markets that are most commonly used by home cooks.

My friend Ryan Nevius is really cool. She’s an environmentalist (hard-core!) who cares enough to make it simple for the laziest of her friends. (Ahem. That would be me.) Ryan taught me how to compost the easy way, by making the kids do it.