I know many northern gardeners probably don’t grow much okra, but in the southern part of the U.S. here in Alabama we grow a lot of it. Hailing from the continent of Africa, in the late summer it is a staple when other plants have given up in our southern heat. Picking can be quite the …

We went through lots of different phases of gift giving when I was growing up. I remember one time when my siblings and I woke up on Christmas morning to find the living room transformed into a child’s wonderland of carefully arranged toy sets (put together by my parents the night before). But our parents …