Is it a typo? No. It’s a plant. The scientific name is althaea officinalis. It grows wild in Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, along river banks, salt marshes, and swamps. Althaea Officinalis likes damp. The six-foot tall flowering plant was used over two thousand years ago by a

  How can apple pie be un-American? Simple. Apples are immigrants like most of us except native American Indians. Apples have been around since the dawn of recorded time. Experts believe that apples originated in Central Asia, probably the Tian Shan Forest in Kazakhstan, up to 10

  No way! Blue pumpkins come from a big family rich in colors and types – way beyond the familiar orange. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, pumpkins are part of a large and diverse plant family, Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, gourds, watermelons, and cucumbers. D

Casseroles and pies. Slow cooked or air fried. Baked or ice cream. The sweet potato goes everywhere. Consider this: it’s hard to keep track of sweet potatoes’ many names. In Puerto Rico, Columbia, and Brazil they’re batata; Japan calls them satsumaimo; Mexicans love el camote; and the

It’s something worth crowing for. That’s how it was described in the 1880s when there were no cell phones or televisions. City people traveled by horseback, horse-drawn streetcars, and steam-hauled commuter trains. Nearly half of the population lived on farms and in rural areas. Meet

What was the best thing before sliced bread? You probably never heard of Chillicothe, Missouri. A 1928 ad called Chillicothe the home of an invention that was “the greatest forward step in baking . . .” Humans began baking bread long before recorded history. It’s no surprise that brea

It was my birthday and all I wanted was Jahn’s Kitchen Sink. The Kitchen Sink was a massive sundae for over 6 people. It came in a sink-like bowl with 30 scoops of ice cream, topped with gooey nuts, sweet cherries, sprinkles, hot fudge, marshmallows, bananas, caramel, flags, sparklers

Fingers and chopsticks are welcome. Forks and knives are not. Sushi has names and customs that challenge the imagination. Creative sushi chefs (Itamae) are always coming up with something new and different. People love it. In the U.S. alone, the sushi industry is worth $22 billion, wi

  April, 1930. There were no home microwaves or McDonald’s. Herbert Hoover was President, and everyone was listening to Duke Ellington, Judy Garland, and Cole Porter. A Canadian-born baker, James Dewar, worked at the Continental Baking Company in Illinois. He noticed that machine

Is there a Kentucky Cordon Bleu in your future? How about a Coney Filet or Pigs in a Poncho? Twenty billion hot dogs are eaten every year in the U.S. They are the stuff of movies, music, baseball, barbecues, and busy street vendors. Basically, a hot dog is a thin sausage. It’s hard to