“I remember crawling on the dirt, crawling because I am unable to stand unassisted. I am underneath a structure, in its shadow, while all around there is bright sunshine on weedy grass. I…

“Christmas day, our mother began breathing uncomfortably, and that night we stayed up with her as her breathing became more and more labored. There has been virtually no possibility of her exposure to…

“Since the isolation protocols began, I’ve baked bread loaves; I’ve done a cheesecake for a friend; I’ve made Dutch Babies when I was feeling nostalgic for my Grandmother Balk’s breakfasts; and I have…

“I would often be left under the watchful care of the young dog, by now an adult but still unbred, while my parents and grandparents busied themselves with their responsibilities. Still unable to…

“I spent half a day mixing that stuff up, getting the texture just right, getting it slightly moistened and evenly crumbly—perfect for all the new plants I’ve got to pot up and all…

“The great plant explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries found spectacular plants growing wild here in the coastal plain of the Carolinas and Georgia. Many of these plants were collected, studied, identified,…

“Repeatedly poring through Prospero’s introduced me to a far greater range of flavors and ingredients than I’d thought possible. To this day, whenever I come across the book’s recipe for Venetian Pastitsio, I salivate:…

“The ghosts of our predecessors here finally had begun—now that I was beginning to understand their language—to show themselves, to teach me what I had always missed about this mystical place. These ghosts…

“Ma Twiggs (was) absorbed in reading a seafaring adventure story as she walked to the summer bath house behind the big house, stepping into the bath, only to brush up against one of…

“I tried to get her to talk a little about her past . . . although I swore I would never ask about any of the famous names linked to hers over the…