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Cilantro and Coriander

By Lucinda Hutson    
Photography by Lucinda Hutson

She’s sassy, spirited and full of flavor. Some call her names and say she has a split personality. Some adore her while some abhor her. And like any larger-than-life personality, she has the potential to overwhelm, if you let her. Can you guess this herb?

I call her la reina de la cocina—Mexico’s queen of the kitchen—and she adds a fresh, pungent burst of flavor as a seasoning or garnish.

Saving Our Soil

By Jeremy Walther
Photography by Jenna Noel

Our poor dirt. In just a few hundred years, the once-fertile crust of Central Texas has been eroded, depleted, abused and completely taken for granted. Shortsighted farming and grazing practices have stripped nutrients and soil life without replenishing it, leaving scarred, lifeless earth behind.

Now—due in part to the destruction of soil—mounting global issues are placing more pressure than ever on food production and air, water and energy resources.

How I Eat and Why

By Bernadette Noll

Cooking is my recreation. When home alone, I can cook all day for my family of six, with all four burners and the oven going. I love to linger over prep and listen to the radio or meditate in the rare silence. When my mom visits, she marvels at my ease. “I don’t know where you picked that up,” she’ll laugh, and we both know I didn’t learn the joy of cooking from her. My job of cooking for four, or even six, must seem a breeze compared to the responsibility of cooking for a family of 11! Yes, I’m the eighth of nine children.

When You Wish Upon a Farm

Photography by Skip Connett

Green Gate Farms owner Erin Flynn has the sort of grace, elegance and beauty that isn’t immediately associated with backbreaking fieldwork and hog slop. Yet farming and raising animals have long been in her blood. Flynn—who operates the farm with husband Skip Connett—hails from a hardworking East Texas farm family. And though at one time she thought she’d left the farm life behind to pursue, with great passion, a city-centric life, a simple request from her husband found her tumbling back toward her roots.

Ask the Permie Pro

By Dick Pierce

Dear Permie Pro,
Q: Now that it’s spring, we’re cleaning up our yard. We have a lot of leaves, and we’d like to compost to reduce our family’s contribution to the landfill. The catalogs and nurseries are full of devices—some quite expensive—to make compost. Do we really need one of these? And if so, which is the best? —Composter Wannabe

Dear Wannabe,
I’ve wanted to comment on this for years to set the record straight as to what you do and don’t need in order to compost.

First, let’s look at what compost is and how to make it. Dead leaves, brown grass and shredded paper are known as “browns” and contain mostly carbon. Kitchen scraps, fruit peels and green grass contain a lot of nitrogen—they’re called “greens.”

The Pursuit of Fruit

By Jeremy Walther    
Photography by Jenna Noel and Holly Driggers

The romance of a backyard orchard is undeniable. Even for those who see agricultural endeavors as hellacious labor, the idea of walking down rows of green trees swollen with fruit stirs at least slight pangs of farmer envy. But anyone who has lived that life can tell you it’s not all picnics and evening strolls. With four trees or 40,000, Central Texas orchards demand almost constant attention to survive and produce. Dan Rohrer is more than familiar with the challenges of orchard management.

Growing Good Things To Eat In Texas

Excerpts from a new book by Pamela Walker
Photography by Linda Walsh
Published by Texas A&M University Press • 800-826-8911 • tamupress.com

Vegetable Literacy-Sorrel and Rhubarb

By Deborah Madison from her forthcoming book, Vegetable Literacy
Photography (above) by Carole Topalian and (below) by Carole Ann Sayle

Sorrel and rhubarb are among the first edibles to appear in the spring, though what month that might be depends on where you live and your own particular climate. Their timing is one reason to consider them together, but another is that they are related as members of the family Polygonaceae, a word that means having many (poly) knees or joints (goni). The more common name is knotweed because of nodes, or joints, that reside on the stems of many family members.

Search and Rescue

By Gary Nabhan

Heritage foods are those grown from heirloom seeds, and the historic livestock breeds unique to a particular region. Shaped by the curing and cooking traditions of various local cultures—as well as the feasts, festivals and fiestas they celebrate—these distinctive foods are indeed edible legacies.

Most people recognize Texas as an ecological, cultural and musical crossroads, but may be unaware of the various culinary legacies that converge in the Lone Star State. The Chile Pepper Nation (the arid Southwest), the Gumbo Nation (the Gulf South), the Bison Nation (the Great Plains and Prairies) and the Cornbread Nation (the mid-South) converge here to offer richness, character and diversity found nowhere else. Not only do these food traditions meld and mingle, but over generations they’ve produced rare treasures among the heirloom seeds, fruits, nuts, livestock, fish and game native to our multifaceted state. Yet, some of these gems have been lost, or are in danger of being lost, from our community feasts and family tables.

To the Table!

By Cecilia Nasti

In the cool early summer of my tender eighth year, a quartet of rabbits from a nearby field ended up invited to supper. The hapless hares wouldn’t have found their way onto the menu had my maternal grandparents remained in California instead of traveling to Batavia, Illinois, for a monthlong stay. Eating from the land—including the occasional harvest of game for the table—was very much the norm for my mother’s people. Not so for me.

Ask the Permie Pro

By Dick Pierce

Dear Permaculture, Gardening and Foodie Friends,
I hope this is a relaxing time of year for you and for your gardens. Enjoy the spinach, lettuce and greens you planted a while back, while your garden microbes are tucked in with their warm, moist blanket of compost, mulch or leaves. It’s a good time for some “armchair gardening,” and a good time to answer the often-asked question: What’s so different about gardening in Austin? The answer is threefold: the sun, the climate and the soil.

The higher the sun’s angle, the more heat we receive—that’s why it’s hotter in the late afternoon and in the summer in Austin, when the sun’s angle is highest. Most veggie plants are adapted to locations where the sun’s angle is much lower year-round, so during late May and early June in Austin, plants think it’s August and, therefore, their biological harvest time. After mid-June it’s too hot for many of them—they’re stressed and they simply stop producing.

Market in Mexico

By Iliana de la Vega
Photography by Knoxy

Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner, used to say that the soul of Mexico is in its markets. There, the bustling public hive takes over the senses, from the bright colors and wonderful smells to the background of lulling music flecked with loud pregones: the shouts offering various goods to be had. Even though supermarkets are practical and convenient, nothing can surpass the incredible experience of talking to vendors and even asking for recipes. All of the markets in Mexico are wonderful, but I have my favorites to share.

Planning a Spring Food Garden

By Claudia Alarcón     

All gardeners, experienced or otherwise, tell stories of success and failure. Gardening is less an exact science and more a process of trial and error. But that shouldn’t stop you from planting a food garden. With a little planning ahead, you should be able to grow herbs, vegetables and fruit in your backyard or containers, and winter is the perfect time to plan and revitalize.

Though my family contains just two adults, I’ve learned that our four 10x10-foot plots can produce more than enough produce for a family of four, with two beds each planted in seasonal vegetables and perennial and annual herbs. We make the most of this relatively small space by gardening intensively and relying on drip irrigation to conserve water and provide moisture.

Here’s our plan:

First, we harvest and preserve the last of the late summer vegetables and herbs—peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and basil.

King Chocolate

By Anne Isham
Photography by Marc Brown

Chocolate is a wondrous, many-faceted food. On a basic level, it’s purported to make us younger, smarter, happier and healthier thanks to a wealth of antioxidants and nutrients and an intricate fat structure. But in a more complicated context, chocolate possesses the ability to meet many of our emotional needs—from soothing frustrations, to taking the edge off the disappointment of dysfunctional relationships. Without a doubt, though, chocolate can be one of the most reliable means of charming friends, family and even our enemies.

Exterior Cuisine

Fonda San Miguel, a beloved local icon known for exceptional interior Mexican cuisine, has something new to tempt the palate: its exterior—a stunning 100’ x 60’ organic restaurant-garden, the largest in Austin, recently installed by Austin Green Art (AGA). Best known for raising sustainability awareness through art, education and creative recycling, AGA was a natural choice for Fonda San Miguel owner, Tom Gilliland. Together with AGA founder Randy Jewart, and LandART (AGA’s for-profit subsidiary) designer Robby Lee, the trio planned and sculpted a plot on the northeast side of the restaurant to spotlight seasonal delights and Mexican-based vegetables and herbs to use in the restaurant’s award-winning dishes. 

Such a Peach

By Ida H. McGarity
Photography by Jody Horton

If you haven’t had the pleasure of sinking your teeth into a juicy peach right off the tree, you’re missing one of the sheer joys of Central Texas—a quick snap through taut fuzzy skin fills the mouth and coats the chin with an explosion of summer’s sweet abundance. Every year at this time, the lure of fresh peaches is so strong that it sends countless eager fans scattering through the Hill Country in search of the cherished orbs.

Gardening Inside the Box

Lukas Hjallbring was just two-going-on-three in the spring of 2006, but already suffering from what his parents, Henrik and Debbi, suspected was “nature-deficit disorder.” They’d first heard the phrase in Richard Louv’s Small Child in the Woods, and it struck a chord.

“We tried to get him outside as much as possible,” Debbi recalls, “but he practically got kicked out of Kindermusik because he couldn’t sit still. He’d always rather go to the greenbelt than any organized anything.”

Japan's Gift

By MM Pack
Blue Noodles, Japanese woodblock print, by Kylie Budge

Seasonal. Local. Healthful. Sustainable. Mindful. We’ve learned to embrace these concepts when sourcing, cooking, eating and thinking about food. However, there’s a cuisine that’s embodied this culinary approach for centuries. With a tradition of microseasonality and a profound respect for local ingredients, Japan’s food culture actively engages all five senses and focuses on the subtleties of food’s inherent flavors and textures. Its adherents have enjoyed some of the longest, healthiest lives in the world.

Mr. Smarty Plants Revealed

By Katie Cantrell
Photography by Meg Griffiths

Over the airwaves, the cries for help come in.

I have fallen in love with lantana plants. The bushes are producing berries. Are these safe to eat? Is the acorn of a bur oak edible? Can I eat the seed pods of wild sweet peas?

Faster than a flowering fig tree, it’s Mr. Smarty Plants to the rescue!