History

Food writer Maria Speck soaks bulgur wheat in pomegranate juice to saturate it with burgundy color, then serves it with blueberries and orange-blossom water to tantalize the taste buds and eyes. Penguin/Random House hide caption

The bounty of the earth is celebrated in the high rituals of pagans. (Above) A Wiccan priestess is silhouetted by the afternoon light. In the foreground are examples of Wiccan cooking for the vernal equinox: (clockwise from near right) beet-pickled eggs; roast beef in tarragon; bowl of eggs boiled with onion skin wrap; bread with eggs; Ukrainian painted eggs; and apple crumble. Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images hide caption

Sir Thomas Lipton in 1909. Lipton was already a self-made millionaire before he ever entered the tea trade. But by figuring out how to lower the retail cost of tea and standardize his product "direct from the tea gardens," he became much, much richer. Library of Congress hide caption

Chad Sheridan, a cellarmaster at Lakefront Brewery and expert on braggots, helped re-create a recipe for an ancient alcoholic brew discovered in a 2,500-year-old burial plot in what's now Germany. Courtesy of Bettina Arnold hide caption

For many black people, hair and race are inextricably interwoven. Marc Romanelli/Getty Images hide caption

Spaghetti supper at Grape Festival, Tontitown, Arkansas, Aug. 16, 1941. Writers and photographers for the America Eats projects captured eclectic scenes across the nation, from Texas up to Vermont and the Atlantic to the Pacific. Granger/World Projects Administration/Library of Congress hide caption

When Latino colleagues from across NPR shared their families' immigration stories for Hispanic Heritage Month, they exposed a rich array of experiences: loss, longing, contradiction and triumph. Chelsea Beck/NPR hide caption