For Westerners, miner’s lettuce is a commonplace, an afterthought. But this pleasant salad green has a distinction very few other American plants share.

Can a forager and gatherer of wild foods also be a competent gardener? Yes, but it ain’t easy: A year spent gathering wild plants puts a life spent gardening in perspective.

Fennel, also known as anise, is one of my favorite vegetables. It also happens to grow wild around here. Summer’s the time to collect wild fennel pollen as well as the plant’s delicious green seeds.

Onions, in some for or another, are available all year long. They are the supreme storage vegetable. So why even bother to pickle them? Pickled onions are tasty, that’s why!

We are at the edge of summer in Sacramento, time to revel in everything springtime has to offer – morels, ramps, asparagus, favas and artichokes – before our city becomes the sun’s anvil.

Some men have cars as toys, others electronics. My toys are pasta-makling gadgets, and the Italian chitarra is one of my favorite – it lets you play your pasta like an instrument.

A week after my cat died, I sought solace in my garden. With the sun on my neck and dirt under my nails, I found life never stops in my little green world – or anywhere else.

I’ve always loved eating mushrooms, ever since I ate my mother’s beef stroganoff as a kid: The texture of those button mushrooms was so interesting to my young self — clearly a sign I’d someday be an adventurous eater, as most kids hate mushrooms. Since then I’ve picked mushrooms aimlessly through most of my life. That [...]

Consider, for a moment, the sweet pepper. No other plant demands so much, gives so little, yet keeps us coming back for more. Sweet peppers are the coquettes of my garden. I coddle them, dote on their every need, and in return they toss me a few fruits to play with — so few, in fact, [...]