It’s August, and everyone from the American Midwest knows that late summer means fresh sweet corn, and a lot of it. When I was growing up in Indiana, every few days during corn season we would pick up a dozen ears from my family’s favorite roadside stand, just hours after harvest, and cook them right […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen
It’s the winter holiday season, when halls are bedecked with garlands of evergreens, sprigs of holly, and bunches of mistletoe to remind us that there is life in the darkness and love to be shared. This year, Katherine has added another symbolic plant to her own holiday list – pine nuts. They are more precious […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen
Regular readers may have noticed that I (Katherine) sometimes go on a rant the week before Thanksgiving. This tradition is probably nothing more than a small annual outburst of snarky impatience that has accumulated over a long academic quarter, but I prefer to pretend that I am clearing space in my heart for gratitude. In […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen
Do you still have a bunch of celery leftover from Thanksgiving in the back of your fridge? With no holiday parties this year, you won’t be able to sneak it onto a holiday crudités platter. You could assemble silly little peanut butter and celery reindeer snacks, but that would just generate messier leftovers. Katherine tells […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about peanuts, and only partly because of the long delayed return of the baseball season. No, this spring I was trying very hard to channel one of my botanical heroes, George Washington Carver. Carver’s best known legacy is his work with peanuts and the 105 peanut recipes he published […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen