One more, and then I’ll get off this one. Are people who write about food fiction writers? Well, in a sense they are. For instance, I get a kick out of recipes for, for instance, pasta primavera or such-named concoctions. Primavera is the Italian word for spring. Spring ends in the third week of June. In Italy the name might make some sense, but here there are not too many spring planted vegetables which are ready for primavera preparations until you get to the very end of the season. By mid June there should be lettuces, radishes, beets, carrots; the likelihood of peas or potatoes by then is slight. Asparagus has come and gone. Artichokes are a thing much to be desired, as are corn, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers. The stores are of course full of that stuff – all of it from Florida, California, Mexico and, as the new place of origin labels are revealing, places I’ve never been to and places whose produce I never suspected I was eating. You’ve got to be brave in this brave new world. It was a brave man who first ate a durian. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7, where I had to share the batch of morels I recently collected; where's a good, decent sense of repugnance when you need it? My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/