You can’t get more authentic southwest France than cassoulet, but the classic version–with duck confit, sausage, and various iterations of pork–takes so long to make I had no hope of introducing it to my food appreciation classes. Plus, duck confit is not a standard item at our local grocery. But our friend Kate Hill, who [...]
Of all the joys of growing your own food, hardly anyone ever talks about picking pole beans. I wonder why. Isn’t sticking your face and arms into a thicket of scratchy bean leaves on a 95-degree day near the top of your list of favorite garden activities? No? Don’t get me wrong. I actually like picking beans [...]
Tags: beans
What you see here is approximately what the roots of my green bean plants looked like when I pulled them up this morning: covered in tiny white nodules. What could they be? They look like tiny egg sacks. Or perhaps a terrible root disease. In fact, they are little bundles of nitrogen, created by certain [...]
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House.
What's in your turkey? We killed and butchered more than 80 birds on the farm of Mike and Michelle Klein in Prince George's County. Thankfully, Michelle did the gutting. Unfortunately, Mike bought his turkey chicks earlier than usual and they did not stop growing. Our prize for helping was a carcass that weighed nearly 40 pounds. It barely fit in the oven. Here, Mike is subjecting a slaughtered bird to the "magic fingers," a machine with a nubby, rotating barrel that removes most of the feathers. 
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