Patience Gray was one of the first food writers to celebrate the culinary and cultural significance of edible weeds and plants. In 1970 she and her husband, the Belgian sculptor Norman Mommens, settled in the far south of Italy. It was the endpoint of their Mediterranean odyssey, which had taken them to the Greek island of Naxos, Carrara, in northwestern Tuscany, Catalonia, the Veneto, and finally Puglia. Gray’s Honey from a Weed , the product of those travels, remains one of the best texts on wild foods and on edible weeds in particular. Drawing on Gray’s unpublished letters and manuscripts this essay explores the life of one of the twentieth century’s most unusual and often overlooked food writers. The contemporary uses and significance of edible weeds and plants are also discussed through foraging trips and interviews with Gray’s friends and neighbors. Though Gray warned that traditional ways of life were dying out, it is clear that foraging is still an important part of the Salentine diet.

In a cuisine known best for its ample portions of pasta and in a cold climate favoring hearty food, Utica Greens, a méélange of sautééed escarole, cherry peppers, garlic, cheese, prosciutto, breadcrumbs and olive oil, has become a regional specialty. ““Greens”” now appear on the menu of virtually every Italian-American restaurant in Utica and can be found on buffet tables at receptions and potlucks in the surrounding area. Incorporating interviews with chefs and household cooks, this article charts the history of Utica Greens from its origins as a humble dish prepared in Italian-American family kitchens to its appearance in local restaurants where it has become a nostalgic marker of a time when people grew their own food in backyard gardens and home-grown vegetables were at the center of family life.