I met my first watermelon salad at The Covington restaurant in Edgartown, Massachusetts. The dish consisted of watermelon cubes tossed into a pile of salad greens, alongside turnip shavings, pickled scapes, feta cheese, and balsamic vinegar. The juicy red chunks did the job normally reserved for tomatoes and availed themselves beautifully. Their sweet acids bent…

At an overpriced tapas joint, I once took a chance on charred cucumber salad. The dish sounded counterintuitive, to put it delicately, because everyone knows a cucumber should be served cool. Cooking a cucumber would be like giving Samson a haircut before the battle. A cool cucumber is a happy cucumber. The best have tried,…

Nearly 2 percent of the land in the lower 48 states is lawn. In most populated areas, the percentage is much higher. It’s fair to say that most of us have too much lawn and not enough garden—especially this time of year, when you keep getting ambushed by little plants at the farmers market. You…

I make a point to eat a dandelion every day. The whole plant is edible, from the sunny top to the deep taproot, and all the stem, stalk, and leaf in between. And there are ways to eat it that won’t contort your face with bitterness but rather turn your frown upside down, inside out,…

He didn’t like curry, and to this day purports to hate coconut, but my son Remy would walk on molten lava for a bowl of red chicken curry. I don’t need to solve this paradox to benefit from the fact that curry offers great leverage to get kids and grownups alike to eat their vegetables….

Kohlrabi is an acquired taste. It’s bland, with a mild hint of mustard-like fire, and is surrounded by a tough, thick peel. “It tastes like the part of broccoli you throw away,” Sarah Aswell wrote for McSweeney’s in a piece called “Your First CSA: A Month-By-Month Guide to Enjoying Your Farm Share.” Comparing kohlrabi to…

“Are there carrots?” asked my friend. The question was not existential. He was coordinating many meals, and wanted to ensure a supply of proper condiments. “Carrots” means pickled carrots and peppers, packed in quart jars with a sweet and salty vinegar brine. Once upon a time, these spicy, crunchy pickles had served as a currency…

I’ve often wondered what, exactly, Little Miss Muffet was eating when she sat on her tuffet. Curds and whey are what milk becomes when you heat it to a boil and add acid. This causes the milk to separate into coagulated chunks of curd surrounded by watery liquid known as whey. The splitting of milk…

My son Remy was supposed to bring cheese and crackers for the ski team potluck, so of course he wanted to bring California rolls. It was a lot more work, but a good idea. Everyone loves California rolls. And I am well-trained in making them. The California roll is actually from Canada. Japanese-born chef Hidekazu…

One of my favorite snacks is sprouted almonds. I’ll soak a cup of raw almonds in a mason jar of water. After about two hours, I’ll change the water, then let them soak overnight. By morning, the sprouting has begun. When most people think of sprouts, they think of pale green, leggy alfalfa sprouts you…