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Dramatic Pause: The In-Between Season
By Heidi Lewis Photo courtesy of Beechwood Farms, Biglerville, PA Great contemporary dramatists like Beckett, Ibsen, and Chekhov were the first to indicate a “pause” in their scripts. Nobel...
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Shoots!
By Heidi Lewis “Shoot!” was likely what Annie Oakley said if she missed a shot. Cursing and shootin’ went hand-in-hand in the old west. She may have muttered “shucks” or “jeepers,” which were also...
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Blue, Red, or Orange
By Heidi Lewis There’s a scene missing from the outtakes reel of The Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo some vitamins: “You take the blue pill, the story ends—you wake up in your bed and believe whatever...
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Find Your Salad Muse
By Heidi Lewis When you gaze into your TakeHome case, think “salad.” If you’re still leaning against the counter looking for creative inspiration, consider taking these four steps toward salad...
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Help Wanted: Pollinators
By Heidi Lewis It’s spring. Blossoms are abundant. Time to get pollinating in the fruit orchards. But since colony collapse disorder has been decimating the honeybee population, we’ll have to look...
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Your Sun at Work
Dried Fruit Stores Sweetness By Heidi Lewis Fruit dried on the vine or in the sun is the most ancient of food preservation methods known to humanity—and it’s still practiced today. Using the sun and...
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Stone Fruit
Everything you always wanted to know about stone fruit (but were afraid to ask) Stone fruit season is coming. Here’s a primer on some of our favorites. Stone fruit that is woven into the pit is called...
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April is the Not-So-Nicest Month
By Heidi Lewis The National Cherry Blossom Festival was recently held in Washington, D.C. This year’s festival commemorated the centennial of Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry trees to the U.S. in 1912. The...
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The Earl of Sandwiches
By Heidi Lewis “The doctor will see you now,” said the nurse pityingly. “What seems to be the trouble?” the doc asked without looking up. When greeted with silence, she swiveled around. “Oh!” the...
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The Care and Feeding of Kiwis
By Heidi Lewis (Throat clearing.) “Excuse me—we have a strict ‘no pet’ policy here.” “I don’t have any pets.” “What do you call that cute, fuzzy brown thing that you are petting?” “A kiwifruit.”...
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Spring Swooning for Summer Fruit
By Heidi Lewis Here they come, rolling into town— They get the hungriest looks from, everyone around— [drum fill…] Hey, hey, they’re the summer fruits! And they’re super duper cute! It may not quite be...
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Navels vs. Valencias
by Gretchen Bay Valencia and navel oranges are similar in flavor and appearance, but what distinguishes one from the other? Oranges are one of the most commonly grown fruits in the world, and both...
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Hybrids vs. GMOs
Wheat—a natural hybrid of wild grasses. Dear FruitFriends, In the following article, Heidi Lewis writes about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and more specifically what they are (and are not)...
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Bada Bing, Bada Boom
By Heidi Lewis You know what sweet summer cherries like? They like winter. That’s when they catch up on a little shut-eye and wake up refreshed. Many stone fruits and pomes need the chill hours to...
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Berries of Summer
Babies on Board By Heidi Lewis Oh de bitty babies, so cherubic in their little baskets. Heavenly creatures, berries were flowers before they incarnated into sweet gems that dance on our tongues....
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For Whom the Bell Pepper Tolls
Did you get your first wake-up call about the “whom” conundrum from For Whom the Bell Tolls via Hemingway or Metallica? A high percentage of English speakers waver over the who/whom thing. It ranks...
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Tomatoes from the Heart
Courtesy of Coco of Coco Ranch, by Heidi Lewis “Coco’s Little Sweet Pear” is a family-heirloom tomato grown at Coco Ranch in Solano County, California. This unique tomato was bred by Greg House for his...
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Summer Drinks
Fresh herbs and fruit dress up summer beverages By Nicole Claro-Quinn What do you imagine when you think of summer drinks? For a certain generation it might be Hi-C and the “bug juice” you drank at...
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The Thyme Space Continuum
By Heidi Lewis Dateline, Oxford Lecture Hall; Stephen Hawking presenting: “Quantum theory introduces a new idea, that of imaginary time. One can picture it in the following way. One can think of...
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Tick-Tock on the Apple Clock
By Heidi Lewis The apple season cycle begins in summer with special varieties appearing across the country: the Gravenstein out West (an endangered heirloom variety), Ginger Gold apples back East, and...
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Valencias: Endless Summer Oranges
By Heidi Lewis Have you had a chance to step into liquid this summer? Not just watching surf movies or surfing the net with a keyboard, but some long boarding? Surfing has certainly expanded since the...
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Apples on the Home Front
By Heidi Lewis How is it that apples are so inextricably linked to our sense of home? We find it in imagery and language in many things, from the old trope “as American as apple pie” to the idiom...
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Giving Thanks for The Three Ps
Pomegranates, persimmons, and pumpkins! By Heidi Lewis You know what’s happening this season? Professor Pumpernickel is coming to the Palladium with his penguins? Nope. They’re showing The Perils of...
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The Bright Sunshine of Citrus
The Season of the Navel Orange, Grapefruit, and Mandarin By Heidi Lewis The bright sunshine of citrus has begun streaming in! Although ostensibly citrus is available year-round, a series of citrus...
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Ode to Root Vegetables
By The FruitGuys ‘Tis the season for root vegetables, so named for their underground lifestyles. While carrots and potatoes are the best known and most eaten of the root veggies, read up and taste some...
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POW! Right in the Kisser
By Heidi Lewis Grapefruit will not be ignored. If you dig into one, you are just as likely to get a clownish squirt in the eye as to have your other senses treated to a trumpeter’s storm of fragrance...
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Medjool Dates
Medjool dates are natives of Morocco, the jewels of the date world, tasting of caramel and honey, A dessert date, Medjools were saved for royalty and special guests. They are a soft date that comes in...
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Dr. Leekey Presents
By Heidi Lewis We are very pleased to have renowned veggipologist Mary Leekey here with us today to present her seminal scholarly paper: “Demystifying Leeks.” Dr. Leekey: “Thank you esteemed...
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Frog Prince Root
By Heidi Lewis Celery root, or celeriac, has a long growing season, although it flourishes in the winter cold. Great chefs worldwide consider it the quintessential winter vegetable—it is prized for its...
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A Horse, a Bucket, and a Shallot
By Heidi Lewis Are there days when you need a little Python? Monty Python, that is. Sometimes in the face of regulatory hypocrisy, brain-numbing bureaucracy, or infinite feedback loops, wouldn’t you...
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Chinese New Year from the Sidelines
By Heidi Lewis Play-by-play announcer, Joe, and his trusty color commentator, Bo, stand on the sidelines of Time. Joe: “Well, Bo, here we are again—another spin of the zodiac. This is exciting!...
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March: The Fickle Season
By Heidi Lewis How’s the old saying go again? “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”? Or is it the other way around? March’s seasonal unpredictability requires farmers to be prepared for...
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B-rrring! It’s Spring
By Heidi Lewis The cuckoo clock at the Greenwich Mean Time offices popped its head out at 11:02 a.m. on March 20, letting all us inside people know that it’s officially spring. For the outside world,...
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Easy Peasey Lemon Squeezy
By Heidi Lewis Do you have a high-pressure task ahead of you? Something you’ve worked toward and prepared for? A critical test, presentation, golf putt, field goal? Cognitive scientist Sian Beilock...
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Pixies and the Full Moon Fairy
By Heidi Lewis Springtime mandarin season makes me think of the Full Moon Fairy. I first heard about her when my daughter came home from kindergarten and announced that a fairy would be visiting...
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The Spring Forager
Hunting the Elusive Morel Mushroom By Elizabeth Weinstein White morel mushrooms peek up from a bed of fall leaves at Scott’s Run Nature Preserve in McLean, VA. Just off one of Washington, D.C.’s...
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Be The Blueberry
By Heidi Lewis Hello, my name is Violet Beauregarde. You may remember me from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I was the kid who chewed a lot of gum—and I mean A LOT—and while visiting...
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Feeling and Seeding Spring
By Heidi Lewis Why is it that in spring we have that hankering to get our hands in the dirt? That urge to plan and to plant; to go to the nursery and load up our wagons with little pots of promise for...
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Of Androids and Apricots
By Heidi Lewis Robots are already a part of everyday life—Siri can call your mom for you, and robotic vacuums clean and entertain your cat while you’re away. Artificial intelligence guides many...
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Party Like It’s 99 B.C.
By Heidi Lewis There’s a big fat tick-tock on the Earth’s clock this week. Those of you wearing stone sundials on your wrists will know that the summer solstice is upon us. The ancients knew that when...
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Summer’s Nectar: Stone Fruit
Peaches, Cherries, & Plums Are Packed with Flavor and Nutrition By Rebecca Taggart The sweet smell of peaches at farmer’s markets heralds the official arrival of summer. Stone fruit season is...
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Rosemary for Remembrance
By Heidi Lewis In Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Ophelia dispenses some crazy wisdom in the scene when she hands out flowers and herbs: “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.” Miss O might’ve been referring...
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Persimmon Weather
By Heidi Lewis A herald of winter in many regions is the persimmon. Where the rain or even sleet has begun, the bare persimmon tree, with its orange ornaments, makes a striking silhouette against the...
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Yoko’s Granny Smith
By Heidi Lewis Yoko Ono and John Lennon met in 1966 at a preview of Yoko’s art show at London’s Indica Gallery. The famous Beatle was intrigued by her conceptual art, including the display of a green...
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Nature’s Thanksgiving Table
By Heidi Lewis T-day is a red-carpet day for veggies—centerpieces of squash ringed by mums, and soufflés of sweet potatoes. Super veggie duos, like green beans and onions, peas and corn, make grand...
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Get Gemütlich with Winter Squash
By Heidi Lewis Gemütlich––[gəˈmyːtlɪç] adj., having a feeling or atmosphere of warmth and friendliness; cosy. The first sparkle of hard frost and the chill that grips us this month triggers thoughts of...
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Fruit Fairy Fa-La-La-La-La
By Heidi Lewis Lots of magic going on out there this time of year. It’s a veritable traffic jam of elves, animated snowmen, flying reindeer, and fairies. The Fruit Fairy has been promoting her “Fruit...
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In the Moment: New Beginnings
By Heidi Lewis 3, 2, 1 – Happy New Year! When the clock strikes 12 a.m. on January 1st every year, it marks a new beginning. Conversations turn to resolutions and remembering to write the new date. Of...
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Strawberry Alarm Clock
Timeline of our favorite berry By Heidi Lewis Today’s strawberry, Fragaria ananassa, with its large, practically perfect berries is the culmination of selective breeding going back centuries to when...
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Summer Stone Fruit Preserves
How to Make Stone Fruit Jams and Butters By Linda Corso One of the best ways to preserve the flavors of summer is by making jams and fruit butters. There’s something wonderful about a fresh apricot jam...
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