In the mid-1970s, my parents fled the New Jersey suburbs to build a house in rural New Hampshire, where my mother tended a large vegetable and herb garden. The growing season in New Hampshire is spectacularly short—sometimes only eight weeks—but my mother tried to take full advantage of it, growing dill, thyme, sage, mint, rosemary, and at least six varieties of basil, as well as tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, squash, beans, peas, peppers, broccoli, chard, and zucchini.