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My favorite sweet potato is ‘Red Wine Velvet’ of the orange varieties, ‘Brazil White’ of the white-fleshed varieties, and ‘Camote Morada’ (a Nicaraguan variety) of the purple-fleshed sweet potatoes. I grow 53 varieties of potatoes, all are favorites or I would not grow them, but I think ‘La Ratte d'Ardeche’ is one of the best and it is favored by the chefs in Paris, as well. My favorite way to cook ‘La Ratte’ potatoes it is to boil or steam them until “al dente” (maybe 12 minutes), so that it is hot through and through but still firm. Then I smoke the potatoes for 20 minutes over beechwood chips. The result is heavenly, and makes a great side dish for just about anything.

— William Woys Weaver, contributing editor to Mother Earth News and Gourmet magazines 

We grew ‘Red Norland’ for our summer potato this year, but it’s all gone now. We have moved on to our storage potatoes, which are ‘Kennebec.’ Both are good all-rounders, and can be served boiled, roasted, in soups, chowders, etc.

— Roger Doiron, contributing editor to Mother Earth News; founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International 

There are several ways to make soup stock, depending on what kind of soup you’re making. The important thing is that you do actually make a stock—instead of starting with water—because that’s what makes soups wonderful and complex.

The basic method is to add flavorful ingredients to cold water and bring it to a boil. You can use a wide variety of ingredients, such as veggies (roughly chopped, peels and all), herbs, spices, meat (with or without skin), bones and seafood shells. If you’re a vegetar…

The American craft beer industry is currently experiencing a renaissance, and microbreweries are popping up all over the country. Some even specialize in organic beer. To find a brewery near you, simply search your state at beertown.org. (Good news—looks like Pennsylvania has several!)

You might also be interested in checking out local wineries, and you can find those by state here. (Pennsylvania has lots of those, too!)

If you’re interested in finding out about your eco-friendly options for wine …

Your eggs are fine. Fresh eggs actually take a long time to spoil. They would be all right under those conditions even for a couple of weeks. There’s no need to rinse the eggs until it’s time to use them, and that can actually keep them fresh longer. Enjoy your farm-fresh eggs!

It’s actually very easy to pasteurize your own milk on the stovetop. An added bonus is that your milk won’t need to stand up to long distance shipping and prolonged storage, so you can pasteurize it safely using lower heat and less time than many industrial milk producers use. All you need is a stainless steel pot and a simple kitchen thermometer. Just follow these simple steps for home pasteurization:

1. Pour the raw milk into the stainless steel pot. If you have a double boiler, that will work eve…

Baking soda and baking powder both help create a reaction that causes doughs to rise. This chemical reaction is dependent on the interaction of a base and an acid.

Baking soda is the common name for sodium bicarbonate, which is a base. When combined with an acid plus some moisture, such as buttermilk, the reaction releases carbon dioxide bubbles, causing dough to expand.

Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it also contains the acid necessary to produce the chemical reaction, usually in …

Clarified butter is butter that has been heated in a pan and gently boiled so that the butterfat rises to the top. The fat is then skimmed off leaving only the clear liquid. That liquid is poured into a container and allowed to congeal. It is used extensively in cooking, and is nearly the same thing as Indian ghee. Margarine is not a suitable substitute, and in fact it is much less healthful than real butter.