My corn and tomato plants bonded this year.  It started when I planted them together. As both plants grew, the corn stalks formed a living tomato cage and guided the tomatoes upward. I wrapped tomato arms around corn plants, and the tomatoes hung on as the corn took off.

This arrangement…

Some months after my new baby is born, it will be ready to expand its culinary horizons beyond the breast. This inexplicable yet inevitable switch from milk-filled boob to bland mush has inspired me to begin researching the ways of baby food cookery.

Cooking for an important person you…

As I was preparing to move to New Mexico, a Blackfoot Indian woman came by to see about renting my house. She didn’t rent it, but we became friends. And before she left she gave me some bright red kernels of dried corn she got at a pow-wow.

I forget her name so I’ll call her Corn Maiden,…