I have been food writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader for more than 30 years. I learned to appreciate planting a garden, picking blackberries, and canning pickles while growing up in rural Clark County. I attribute my cooking skills to years of interviewing the finest chefs and home cooks in the Bluegrass. I am co-author, with the late Wayne Shumate of Paris, of Recipes from a Kentucky Blackberry Patch and Flavors of Kentucky, which is now in its second printing.