It really is slow food when you try to harvest it yourself.

One of us believed the fennel growing wild in a certain vacant lot is the kind that you could dig up for its crisp, licorice-flavored tubers.

Marja, the chef, raised a skeptical eyebrow but came along.

Clank. (My shovel hits rock a...

Chih Chung Fang, San Francisco Bay Area

My realization: cauliflower doesn't get any respect.

As far as families go, cauliflower is the forgotten stepsister—while all the other kids are doted on. Case in point: cauliflower is in the same cabbage family as some of our current culina...