In life, love and in the garden.
—by Adele Flail

Books to help your garden grow.
—by Adele Flail

 Your art (and awful, awful pun) fix for the week.

Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is a chemical compound that occupies a peculiar position in our cultural consciousness. 

The Kale Effect is more than just recipes. Within its 80 pages, the 8x11 glossy softcover book, self-published by two women with local connections, is a handbook for building a healthy lifestyle and a healthy culture.

When I was a little kid, I had a thing for cruciferous vegetables. While other children were figuring out ways to clandestinely feed their Brussels sprouts to the dog, I was being told not to be greedy and to leave some in the bowl for other people. My mother tells a story of me as a four-year-old, having been fed and put to bed at a reasonable hour, coming back down the stairs to interrupt the “grown-up” dinner, saying “I smell broccoli!”

In addition to Brussels sprouts and broccoli, the genus Brassica also includes cabbage, cauliflower, mustard, kohlrabi, turnips, kale, rutabagas, collard greens, arugula and bok choy. Over the years, I’ve developed a penchant for hard, bitter greens like collards and kale. Kale in particular makes me swoon, and I am thus an easy mark for the wonderful new cookbook by Emily Miranda and Christina Bandara­goda, The Kale Effect.