Victoria Wesseler
Enjoying Winter Squash
My summer garden has long since given way to its fall production. Large orange pumpkins, deep green winter kale, ears of brown dry husked popcorn, and tan butternut squashes now stand where tomatoes, summer...
Discovering Kamut
Now that the weather has turned a bit cooler, my appetite for heartier foods has increased. I find myself craving soups, stews, chili, and hearty grain dishes. One of the grains I reach for most often...
Marvelous Marinades
When you want to add a special touch to a cut of meat, poultry, or a piece of fish, nothing beats a marinade. A marinade is a seasoned liquid containing an acid and herbs or spices. Sometimes it will also...
Food Safety For Weather Emergencies
We never want to think about finding ourselves in a weather emergency that results in a loss of electrical power or flooding in our home damaging our possessions and contaminating our immediate food and...
End of the Garden Season
My summer garden is winding down for the year. Each morning I go out and, if I’m lucky, I might occasionally find one small squash, a tiny eggplant, a dozen or so cherry or grape tomatoes, a bell pepper...
Mighty Mushrooms
Brightly colored fruits and vegetables are the first to catch my eye when I’m shopping for produce. Their dazzling colors quickly grab my attention. Not so for the mushrooms. Their beige and brown colors...
Living La Vida Local
They call themselves locavores or lacalvores and commit to eat foods grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes. Some are strict and forsake even salt and pepper while others are more flexible and...
Defining Organic
Last week I was purchasing some produce at a local Farmer’s Market when I overhead another customer ask the farmer managing the booth if his products were organic. His answer was, "We’re not certified...
Preserving Basil
Fresh basil is the ultimate “scent of summer.” Pungent and slightly sweet, it’s the one herb that I simply cannot do without for warm weather cooking. But its lifespan in the garden is limited. As...
The Perfect Tomato Sandwich
Once the tomatoes in our garden begin to ripen, I have the same thing for lunch every day—a big tomato sandwich. While the concept of a slice of tomato between two pieces of bread is simple, the options...
Farmers' Market Shopping Tips
Every Saturday morning, I visit a different Farmers’ Market in Indiana. I love shopping at them. And apparently so do lots of Americans. Since 1994, farmers’ markets have more than doubled to nearly...
A Pinch of Pepper
The culinary world is full of food pairings. Wine and cheese, coffee and cream, soup and sandwich, pizza and beer… one without the other seems lacking. They just belong together. But perhaps the most...
Now Playing: Ratatouille
In the film industry, there is something called “the willing suspension of disbelief.” Wikipedia defines this as the “alleged willingness of a viewer to accept as true the premise of a work of fiction,...
Summertime Melons
There are plenty of choices for summer meal desserts. Ice creams, sorbets, and sherbets seem to be popular as home cooks try to beat the heat with a cool treat. But yummy as those options are, they are...
A Salute to the Kernel
When I was a kid there were no video stores, pay-per-view, or movies on demand. If you wanted to see a particular movie, you just waited, sometimes for a year, and then sat in front of the black and white...
Knee High by the Fourth of July
Every gentleman farmer knows that corn in the fields should be knee high by the fourth of July. It’s an eagerly anticipated sign that the corn crop is on schedule for maturing on time. Our sweet corn...