* The award is Beard; James Beard: see 2003 James Beard Awards and Passionate Entirety. Apologies to Ian Fleming and the James Beard Foundation; some temptations are too formidable to resist.

Crescent writes children's books, magazine articles, and even the occasional novel as well as cookbooks.

Learn more about her work and life at dragonwagon.com. Or take a Fearless Writing ™ course with her: details, including some workshops that mingle culinary touring in Italy with writing, at fearlesswriting.com.

A Peanutty Note from Crescent, Summer 2005    

I've been caught out in an old chestnut about peanuts --- that they were native to Africa. My error was noticed  by the diligent (and well-informed!) reader Kristina Rieck. Kristina, who is also a high school teacher and an organic gardener, points out that in fact peanuts are native to our hemisphere, primarily tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Americas. Rather, peanuts  traveled to Africa and other regions of the world from the Americas, via the early Spanish explorers and traders. Eventually, they became a well-loved and integral part of many African dishes. It is true, though, Kristina added, that during slavery times in America, some Africans did bring peanuts with them, and sometimes to parts of the Americas where they had not yet been grown.

     Kristina sent me this info awhile back, but it's taken me awhile to get it up here (and in fact to update the site generally) because I have been under a deadline for a book which will be published in fall 2006. Its working title: Cornbread and Everything. Her comments fascinated me when I first got them, but even more so now, because Cornbread and Everything has brought home to me as never before how many, many foods the Americas gave the world --- roughly a third of the major food crops now domesticated worldwide! Corn, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, chocolate, most beans, squashes, potatoes... and that's just for starters.

     I was and am triply fascinated by Kristina's sleuthing, actually. For, after Cornbread and Everything, I am going to be working on a reissue (really a wholesale redo) of a book I first published many, many years ago, back in 1972, The Bean Book. Because I know now (as I didn't then) that peanuts are actually a legume (bean) and not a nut, I had already been thinking about peanuts recipe-wise, and I am very happy with this new revelation.

     Really, in almost every plate of food on which we sustain ourselves, we taste the world, history, trade --- humanity in all its colorations, agriculture ad culture. Just plain everyday miraculous.

     Thanks, Kristina!