Vegetables and Legumes

My Italian grandfather had an incredible garden in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Waterbury, which supplied many of the vegetables and beans my family ate when I was growing up. He was my introduction to a world of vegetables that stretched far beyond what was available in grocery stores at the time: fennel, zucchini blossoms, borlotti beans, and so much basil. To this day, when I smell basil, I think of my grandfather and how, when standing in his garden, you’d be enveloped by the scent of basil whenever the wind blew.