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The Potager of Thomas Jefferson: A Kitchen Garden in Photos
Monticello Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, that amazing genius and inventor, and — according to the late food writer, Karen Hess — probably America’s first real gourmet. Any lover of books,...
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The Zen of Sheep: More than Just a Photo Shoot
Sheep eyes (Photo credit: C. Bertelsen) It seemed simple enough. A quick visit to a small sheep operation, twenty or so sheep on a spread of five muddy acres, owned by a retired agronomy professor,...
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A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
Photo credit: C. Bertelsen There’s something about tables, big, little, or bare – and those bare ones in particular – that make me want to festoon them with food I’ve cooked, like floral garlands at a...
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Picturing the Last Weekend of Fall
Just outside my front door, ice sparkles on the small brown bridge. I know the signs: autumn fled like a thief in the night. Only yesterday, leaves blazing scarlet and saffron hung like Christmas...
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A Glimpse into the World of Men
Men experience the world in different ways, and many of those ways are not always familiar to women. The archetypal American male, the cowboy hat a symbol of the Wild West and all the universal...
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A Bee in My Bonnet
Coming up with unique and substantive blog content tends to be terribly time-consuming. Combine that with the current chatter about blogging being dead in the water and you end up with a recipe for...
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The History and Present State of Food in Virginia
There was nary a cook among them. Nor a single woman, the usual gendered division of labor notwithstanding. No, in December 1606, the Virginia Company of London sent 104 men into the treacherous,...
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Gervase Markham, Author of the First Documented English Cookbook in America?
by Burnet Reading, published by Thomas Rodd the Elder, after Thomas Cross, line engraving, early 19th century Sweat rolled down his cheeks and blinded him for a minute, as he grabbed for the dirty...
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English Cooking in America: On Phantom Manuscript Cookbooks, Africa, and...
Stained pages, adorned with notes written in various inks, that’s what some culinary historian will find if ever any of my dozen so-called manuscript cookbooks ends up in a cardboard box at a yard...
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Day 5: Tomatoes – Celebrate American Food History
Tomatoes, poisonous or aphrodisiac? That was the question lurking in the pot for quite some time after the Spanish and the Portuguese began their voyages to the New World beginning around the late...
View ArticleThe Potager of Thomas Jefferson: A Kitchen Garden in Photos
Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, that amazing genius and inventor, and --- according to the late food writer, Karen Hess --- probably America's first real gourmet. Any lover of books, art,...
View ArticlePicturing the Last Weekend of Fall
Just outside my front door, ice sparkles on the small brown bridge. I know the signs: autumn fled like a thief in the night. Only yesterday, leaves blazing scarlet and saffron hung like Christmas...
View ArticleA Glimpse into the World of Men
Men experience the world in different ways, and many of those ways are not always familiar to women. The archetypal American male, the cowboy hat a symbol of the Wild West and all the universal...
View ArticleFeral Pigs & Yellow Squash: A Tale Woven in a New World Kitchen
Soon summer will again bless the Virginia mountains. Once the tall oaks leaf out, that is. And I’m already thinking of my old garden, Mary Randolph’s cookbook, and Hernando de Soto’s feral pigs. All...
View ArticleThomas Jefferson and His Magic “Maccaroni” Machine
Thomas Jefferson, rightly or wrongly credited with first bringing pasta to the tables of Americans, drew a picture of a pasta-making machine. This drawing, now in the Library of Congress, resulted...
View ArticleThe Potager of Thomas Jefferson: A Kitchen Garden in Photos
Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, that amazing genius and inventor, and — according to the late food writer, Karen Hess — probably America’s first real gourmet. Any lover of books, art,...
View ArticleDay 5: Tomatoes – Celebrate American Food History
Tomatoes, poisonous or aphrodisiac? That was the question lurking in the pot for quite some time after the Spanish and the Portuguese began their voyages to the New World beginning around the late...
View ArticleFeral Pigs & Yellow Squash: A Tale Woven in a New World Kitchen
Soon summer will again bless the Virginia mountains. Once the tall oaks leaf out, that is. And I’m already thinking of my old garden, Mary Randolph’s cookbook, and Hernando de Soto’s feral pigs. All...
View ArticleThe Potager of Thomas Jefferson: A Kitchen Garden in Photos
Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, that amazing genius and inventor, and — according to the late food writer, Karen Hess — probably America’s first real gourmet. Any lover of books, art,...
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