Grandmother’s Calendula

In the villages of Transylvania, calendula grew at the end of every vegetable row: petals went into soups for color, into salves for cuts and chapped hands, and into dye pots for wool. This deep orange strain was kept by one family for four generations, passed down with a single instruction: plant it where you can see it from the kitchen.

Its flowers close every evening and in wet weather, opening again with the sun. Its seeds are curled like small crescents, and no two look quite alike.