Introduction

I have been doing this sort of thing for quite a while now. When I first started, I tried too hard. I wanted to show off and I wanted to be authoritative. If I was writing about Jerusalem artichokes I would explain that Jerusalem was a corruption of girasole, a sunflower, that the French hated them because they had to eat them instead of potatoes during the war, that they are a rhizome and not a tuber, then make discreet reference to farting issues and, finally, I would give a few recipes. I would have run out of space in no time.