Nature plays a mean trick on gardeners here in Southern California. By the time the tomatoes are ripe and the chiles are ready to pick, the salsa garden is missing an important ingredient: cilantro. Our delicate friend has long since bolted to seed, and like the hawk and wolf in Ladyhawke, never the twain shall meet. But now there is a simple way to preserve the fresh flavor of cilantro. It's like making pesto, but without the cheese and nuts.…
I don't like being cold and wet. I'm pretty clear about that. There is one time, however, when I actually go out of my way to lose all
feeling in my hands and soak myself to the bone - harvesting in the rain.
There's nothing quite like the smell of wet soil and ozone mixing together as you tromp through the mud. Sticking your hands into an overgrowth of leaves to pick plump peas is somehow more
satisfying than when all is dry. Seeing leaves weighed down with rain, they emit a dark green that only comes to ...