Minimize labor costs and maximize your strawberry patch’s place on the farm by starting a strawberry U-pick operation.

Description: Rick gives you his secret fertilizing technique to growing great borlotti beans.

If you live in a warm area, you can probably grow as many watermelons as you’d like.

I remember the exact moment when I learned how peanuts grow. When I was 19, I left my university for a while and went down to Mexico, eventually landing a job in Mexico City, selling encyclopedias door-to-door. I didn’t actually speak Spanish at the time, but pretending to follow along in a conversation was possible […]

Possibly the most robust of the squash vines, cucuzza is an Italian treat that might soon make it’s way into the hands of U.S. farmers.

Ginger is easily propagated and grown, so why not add it to your garden?

Photo by Rick Gush Fortunately, my favorite peppers grow more abundantly in Italy than my former U.S. home. Some of my favorite peppers in the garden now are friggitelli, which are the same as the cubanelle peppers I used to grow in California. In California, these were an oddity, but here in Italy, they are […]

Photo by Rick Gush Loquats are often sweeter when picked fresh from a feral tree. One day when I was 12, I discovered a fruiting loquat tree on my walk home from school. I ate a lot of loquats that year, and I’ve since enjoyed hunting for free loquats. Loquat, Eriobotyra japonica, is certainly one […]

Is the heirloom tomato gene pool already too big?

Photo by Rick Gush It’s time for squash flowers again! Squash flowers have already started appearing in vegetable markets here in Italy, which means it’s just about squash flower season in our garden. A few of the squash flower suppliers are northern growers who grow very early squash in greenhouses, but most are growers from […]