A Seminole pumpkin in a CSA box a decade ago got me thinking about squash diversity. Market bins and seasonal displays that autumn overflowed with squashes, gourds, and pumpkins in a dizzying array of sizes, shapes, and colors, but I had never seen a Seminole pumpkin among them. My pumpkin was squat, round, and the […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen
Where have the botanists in the kitchen been? In our writing rooms, working on other ways to bring you this content. We can’t wait to share what we’ve been doing! Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy our substantial archive and follow us on Bluesky (@bitkblog.bsky.social, katherineapreston.bsky.social, jldosnas.bsky.social)| The Botanist in the Kitchen
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
How much actual root is in “root vegetables”? The wintertime pantry is a study in vegetable dormancy. Our shelves brim with structures plants use to store their own provisions. Each embryonic plant in a seed—the next generation of oats, quinoa, dry beans, walnuts—rests in the concentrated nutritive tissue gifted to it by its parent. The […]| The Botanist in the Kitchen
As we celebrate the solstice and count down the days until Christmas and the New Year, we Botanists in the Kitchen are looking back at some posts of Christmas past. Unwrapping some figs for Christmas2016 A Holiday Pineapple for the Table 2017 Winter Mint2015 Sugar!2015 The Chestnut Song2018 Angelica: holiday fruitcake from a sometimes toxic […]| 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
I am about to start an 8th week of online teaching and my county’s 11th week of sheltering in place. While the (essential and life saving) sheltering is getting really old, the academic quart…| The Botanist in the Kitchen
where botany meets the cutting board| The Botanist in the Kitchen
If you have ever doubted the practical side of plant anatomy, keep reading, as Katherine explains what you can learn about flowers by cutting up a strawberry. As it turns out, this enigmatic litt…| The Botanist in the Kitchen
