From Libellula's Kitchen & Land — organic olive oil

In the early hours of December 21, 1935, New York City’s mayor strolled into the bronx market followed by a dozen policemen.Hopping up onto the back of a cabbage truck, mayor LaGuardia turned and addressed the assembled farmers and street vendors.Starting in one week, the mayor announced, New York City will be instituting a total ban on the sale, display, or possession of a “a serious & threatening” commodity.This substance, which had been funding a vast underground mafia network, was the humble artichoke.You see, two decades earlier, a couple of Italian farmers out in California had started growing a crop...

Lucia was unusual from a young age.As a child, she highly unimpressed with the stuck up attitude of wealthy Italians.So, during church services, she would sneak under the pews and cut off the bottoms of wealthy women’s dresses.The unsuspecting women would only later realize what had happened as they stood to leave church, aghast at their ruined skirts.As Lucia grew, so did her captivating beauty.But she staunchly refused any offers of marriage, declaring she had absolutely no desire to rely on men who always seemed so certain of their gender’s superiority.By the time she was a teenager, Lucia would dress...