What's Inside Chicken sausage is versatile — and addictive Look for a healthier shortening How to get the best from every bottle Pint of the Week: Hop Juice Double IPA, San Clemente Readers have a beef with 'green' recipe Chicken Imperial that's fit for a king Tunnel of Fudge Cake worth reviving What's Happening More Food

If high food costs and lingering safety concerns make you feel like starting a garden, you're not alone. “We've seen a big increase in the number of people who want to grow their own food,” says Renee Shepherd, the gardening expert, cookbook author and founder of Renee's Garden (reneesgarden.com), whose online seed sales have risen 50 percent since last year. “It's a life skill that people want to learn.”

The “lost grape of Bordeaux,” carmenère grew there almost exclusively until phylloxera wiped out European vineyards in the late 1800s. Luckily, carmenère had already been brought to Chile. Once there, it was long confused with merlot.

Digesting the sum total of Chris Fair's new “Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States” (Lyons Press, $25) is a bit like buying a sales pitch from that classic “Saturday Night Live” sketch: It's a dessert topping and a floor wax, which is to say that it involves an improbable duality.

Mama's Kitchen needs volunteers for its fourth annual bake sale through Nov. 21. The event aims to sell 5,000 pies and raise $100,000 to fund meals for those with HIV/AIDS or other critical illnesses. mamaskitchen.org or (619) 233-6262.