Plant Profiles
Heirloom plant profiles. Categories include edible, fiber, medicinal and ornamental.
Family Foraging: Sweet Chestnut
Story by David Hamilton; photo by Jason Ingram
Learn to harvest sweet chestnuts with this guide, and identify the difference between chestnuts and their poisonous lookalike, conkers (horse chestnuts).
Family Foraging: Beech Nut
Story by David Hamilton; photo by Jason Ingram
Discover how to forage for beech trees and edible nuts. Peeled beech nuts can be toasted in the oven for a tasty snack.
Family Foraging: Giant Puffball Mushroom
Story by David Hamilton; photo by Jason Ingram
Learn how to identify and pick this unusually large, ball-shaped mushroom. You can find it in North America and Europe.
All About Apples
Story by James Rich
Learn about how the characteristics of the apple are shaped by its methods of propagation: either through cross pollination or rootstock.
Apple Varieties
Story and photos by James Rich
Discover the many varieties of apples with a special focus on twenty unique and delicious varieties, including how to best prepare them.
Goldenrod: The Wildflower with a Heart of Gold
By Dawn Combs
Far from being a nuisance, sunny goldenrod offers a variety of health benefits, and hides an intriguing secret role in industrial history.
Family Heirlooms: Christmas Cactuses, Fig Trees, Hostas, and Gooseberries
By Readers
Readers share tales of treasured family plants.
All About Einkorn Grain
By Jonathan Olivier
Low-gluten einkorn, so named for having only one grain per flower, nearly vanished in the rush to develop faster-growing, easy-to-harvest wheat strains.
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