We often see them chopped up and dumped on a plate of Irish nachos, but what did scallions do to deserve such a cruel fate of afterthought? Answer? Their mild flavor with a hint of refreshment. Scallions, also known as green onions, are the bulb-less species of the Allium genus. We often see them in supermarkets wrapped up in rubber bands and generally sold for 'dirt' cheap (pun intended). While I have yet to grow these from seeds, what I often do is buy bundles in the mark

New Zealand spinach. Botany Bay spinach. Sea spinach. Cook's cabbage. Tetragon. With enough nicknames to be a Marvel supervillain, one of my favorite summer veggies has a penchant for hot weather and a bad reputation. Alright, well maybe not the bad reputation, but it is avoided by nearly all insects and even slugs and snails proceed with caution. Pictured above, NZ spinach. Pictured below, Popeye's favorite snack. Discovered by Captain Cook in New Zealand and used to help pr

My family comes from the Calabria region of Italy (the tip of the boot). We've experimented with growing dozens of varieties of squash and gourds throughout my 30 years of life; from pumpkins to zucchini, and all vines in between. But the cousa squash (pictured above) came about as an accident. Six years ago, a friend of the family had gone back to visit our native region and returned with various seeds for my family to sow. This particular bag of seeds was labeled 'zucca',