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NEARLY every trip back to the city after visiting my maternal grandparents in rural Arkansas included a stop at a roadside farmstand where we would buy seasonal vegetables like string beans, peas or deep-green, leafy collard greens. Preparing the vegetables for cooking was one of my first lessons in plant anatomy, as my mom and grandma taught me to meticulously remove the tough petiole from the green leaves.
We bought the juiciest fruits: huge strawberries and fist-sized peaches and plums. My mom was sure these fruits and vegetables, fresh from the field and ripened on the plant, had more vitamins …
