Way back in August when the grass was green and the weather sticky hot, Flying J Farm opened its (barn) doors to host the Shake the Hand that Feeds You dinner benefiting Slow Food Columbus. Alex, Lil, and I attended with our Japanese exchange student Anna. Chefs from Skillet Rustic. Urban. Food expertly cooked up much of the feast including a lingua appetizer sandwich that helped inspire our sweet heart charcuterie. The family-style meal included [...]

I could call this recipe the ‘convert kale salad’ for all the people who hate kale but love this dish.  It could be named ‘Basi Italia Rip-Off’ because I first tasted the salad at the elegant Basi Italia restaurant in Columbus and have been recreating it in my kitchen ever since.  Another good title would be ‘best salad ever’ as someone always declares as much when I serve it.  It is refreshing in summer and [...]

This week’s Kids Cook class was about greens. A great way to talk to kids about healthy eating is to compare foods to a rainbow.  What do you like to eat that is red?  yellow?  green?  Eating colorful foods means you are taking in all the vitamins you need.  We sang a song about the rainbow and shared our favorite colorful foods. Kids are not known for enjoying deep leafy greens, so we made two [...]

Many people put their garden beds to rest after the tomatoes have ripened, but that need not be the case.  Now is the time to plan and prepare for fall vegetable garden plantings, also called succession planting.  It’s a great time to start gardening even if you’ve never grown food for yourself! If you want to enjoy fresh vegetables from your garden through the fall, start with preparing your soil. For beds used in the [...]

One of the pleasures of CSA membership is receiving produce that we would never choose for ourselves.  It forces us to learn how to cook and eat different things.  Somethings we agree we wouldn’t choose to purchase again, but some things have become favorites. My current favorite CSA vegetable is kale.  We will be seeding kale in our garden this weekend because I love it so much.  It is super high in vitamins K, A, [...]