Though autumn is officially here, our field is having separation anxiety over parting from the summer crops. True, summer vegetables have smaller yields: The last corncobs are being harvested these weeks, but other summer children are still ripening in our field. Peppers, eggplants, lubia and okra are being delivered to your homes, as we write. It’s high time to prepare your last autumn caponatas, so if you are – like yours truly – a procrastinator, you have earned one last chance…..
At the same time, the winter crops have begun crowding your boxes — Welcome, fresh salad greens and yummy cooking greens, leaf celery, beets and radishes!  Amidst this colorful assortment of summer-and-winter-mixed-into-autumn, there’s one very distinctive autumn vegetable now growing, dependably punctual and improving every dish…Can you guess who?