Columns
Quercetin from Onions and Broccoli Shows Up in Lung Cancer Research
A computer-modeling study found that a form of quercetin, a compound in onions, broccoli, and apples, attached firmly to seven proteins linked to lung cancer. It hasn't been tested in a lab yet, but it's still a good reason to change how you prepare what you grow.
What a Spoonful of Black Rice Does in Your Rice Cooker
The spoonful of black rice that turns your rinse water purple is doing more than adding color. Here's what black and red rice offer that white rice doesn't, and how to cook them well.
What Pomegranate Seeds and Ginger Root Do in Your Gut
Diabetes researchers have proposed "envbiotics," a name for compounds that act on the body first and change the gut microbiome as a result. Several of the leading candidates come from pomegranate, ginger, and other things ripening right now.
On the Days You're Running on Empty, a Plate of Garden Greens
Dark leafy greens from the garden — kale, spinach, Swiss chard — are loaded with vitamin K, and a recent study links higher intake to fewer depressive symptoms. Here's what the research says, and how to get more of it on your plate.
A Dinner Where One Eggplant Stands In for the Meat
A Portuguese study modeled what would happen if kids ate closer to the planetary health diet — and found that piling on vegetables isn't the lever. What needs cutting differs by age, and unless total portions change too, emissions go up rather than down.
What Sunchokes and Burdock Leave Behind in Your Gut
Sunchokes, burdock, and onions all stockpile inulin, a sugar our enzymes can't break down, so it arrives in the colon intact and gut bacteria ferment it into butyrate. A 2026 mouse study ties that butyrate to a stronger immune attack on tumors — and the summer garden is already growing the raw material.
Dusty Days in the Garden, and What One Clove of Garlic Is Good For
A study published this year looked at allicin, the compound that forms when garlic is crushed, in lung cells and mice exposed to silica dust. Here's what it found, what it doesn't mean, and how to handle both the dust and the garlic.
Peak Cucumber Season Is Also a Good Time to Look at Blood Sugar
Vietnam ran the same national health survey on its adults in 2015 and again in 2021, and the share with elevated fasting blood sugar tripled — with risk factors piling up in the same people. Here's what that has to do with a July garden overflowing with cucumbers.
Sesame Harvest Season: A Fresh Look at Food Allergies
Sesame ranks just behind milk and eggs among food allergy triggers in Saudi Arabia, and Korean kitchens lean on it just as heavily. Here's what a review of twenty studies suggests about cutting foods out — and about filling the gaps back in from your own garden.
Fat-Regulating Genes and Blood Pressure: What Your Garden Vegetables Can Do
A 2026 study of 510 college students found that variants in the SREBP genes—which regulate how much fat and cholesterol the liver produces—were associated with slightly higher blood pressure readings. The findings are preliminary, but they're a good reminder of why the garlic, garlic chives, lettuce, and cherry tomatoes in your garden are worth eating.
The Bacteria in Your Gut Are Protecting Your Brain
Tens of trillions of bacteria live in your gut, and a 2026 review traces their reach all the way to immune regulation, brain disease, and cancer. Here's how a diverse garden harvest and a jar of homemade kimchi help keep that inner ecosystem in balance.
What a Handful of Blueberries and a Knob of Ginger Are Doing
Late-summer garden picks — blueberries, ginger, fall greens — carry plant compounds that nudge the body's own antioxidant defenses. Here's what the research actually supports, and how to cook so more of it survives.
Can a Plate of Summer Vegetables Lower Your Dementia Risk?
A Swedish study that tracked 1,865 adults over 60 for up to 15 years found that a diet low in inflammation-driving foods was linked to about 30% lower dementia risk — and unlike other healthy-eating patterns, it still mattered for people whose brain biomarkers had already shifted. Most of the foods that earn points are already growing in a July garden.
The Season the Pill Packet Thins Out — and What Garden Vegetables Fill In
A year-long study of 200 older adults found that ongoing diet and exercise coaching kept people on their medications — and protected their kidneys. The foods that went up on their plates are the ones already growing in a summer garden.
Gardening While Pregnant: How Much to Move, and What to Eat
A study of more than a thousand new mothers found that the most active women ate more produce — but also more sweets and fast food. And the lowest rate of preterm birth showed up not in the most active group, but in the one just above the middle.
Sore After a Day in the Garden? Could Homegrown Turmeric Help?
A weekend of turning over garden beds can leave you stiff and sore the next morning. Could the turmeric growing in the corner of your plot help you bounce back? A 2026 review of fifteen clinical trials found the most consistent benefit in easing oxidative stress—though the evidence is still thin—along with a few simple ways to enjoy your harvest.
The June Garden: Five Crops It's Not Too Late to Plant
June in the garden has a quiet urgency to it. With the monsoon rains around the corner, it's tempting to think you've missed your chance, but you haven't. The trick is simply choosing the right crops, and these five will still reward a June sowing.
June's First Project: Making Green-Plum Syrup
For about a month each June, firm green plums fill the markets. Layer them with sugar now, and a hundred days later you'll have a jar of homemade maesil-cheong (green-plum syrup) to sip through the heat of summer.
Summer Watering: It's About Timing, Not Frequency
As June's long, heavy sun bakes the soil dry, it's tempting to reach for the watering can again and again. But when you water matters more than how often — the same cupful of water leaves a very different amount behind depending on the hour you pour it.
When Potatoes Bloom, the Harvest Is Near
In June, the potato patch is the first thing to catch your eye, with white or pale-purple flowers rising on knee-high stems. The blooms aren't just pretty: they're the earliest sign that the tubers underground are starting to swell and harvest time is approaching.
Early-Summer Yeolmu: Half the Crop Is in the Thinning
A week after you sow yeolmu (young summer radish), the seedlings come up shoulder to shoulder—and that crowd is exactly the problem. Thinning them in two rounds is what gives the survivors room to grow broad leaves and straight roots.