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Buy me some peanuts!
As part of our legume series, the Botanist in the Kitchen goes out to the ballgame where Katherine gives you the play-by-play on peanuts, the world’s most popular underground fruit. She breaks down...
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Who wants some green bean casserole?
Is there anything good about green bean casserole? Not much beyond its association with Thanksgiving, so Katherine will be brief and just keep you company in the kitchen in case you are stuck...
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Virgin birth and hidden treasures: unwrapping some Christmas figs
Enjoy Jeanne and Katherine’s holiday take on figs and figgy pudding which will appear on December 19th in Advent Botany 2016. For a longer read, check out our original 2013 version. Figs reach their...
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Closing out the International Year of Pulses with Wishes for Whirled Peas...
The United Nations declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses. What’s a pulse? It’s the dry mature seed of a large number of species in the legume family (Fabaceae): various beans, peas, soybean,...
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Buddha’s hand citrons and a wish for peace on earth in 2017
Winter is the season for citrus fruit, and January is the month for breaking out of old routines, so stop staring at your navel and learn about one of the weirder citrus varieties. I’ll never forget...
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Botany Lab of the Month, Presidential Inauguration Edition: Saffron
If you like your spices gold-colored and expensive, find some fresh Crocus sativus flowers and grab ‘em by the…disproportionately large female reproductive organ. Small hands might work best, though it...
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Maca: A Valentine’s Day Call for Comparative Biology
Sometimes food is medicine, and sometimes that medicine is an aphrodisiac. Such is the case with Andean staple maca. What elevates this high-altitude root vegetable above its cruciferous brethren? The...
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Preserving diversity with some peach-mint jam
We are knee deep in peach season, and now is the time to gather the most diverse array of peaches you can find and unite them in jam. Katherine reports on some new discoveries about the genetics behind...
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Carrot top pesto through the looking glass
Isomers are molecules that have the same chemical constituents in different physical arrangements. Some terpenoid isomers have very different aromas and are important food seasonings. A batch of carrot...
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Botany Lab of the Month: Jack-O-Lantern
Happy National Pumpkin Day! Turn carving your Halloween Jack-O-Lantern into a plant dissection exercise. The first Jack-O-Lanterns were carved out of turnips in 17th-century Ireland. While the large,...
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