About the authors

Both Katherine and Jeanne are PhD plant ecologists and evolutionary biologists who love to cook.  We are plant nerds with knives.  Between us, we have been teaching college courses in basic botany, taxonomy, ecology and evolution for nearly 30 years, but we never get tired of looking at plants and learning new things about how they work.  We are self-taught cooks with pretty different diets.  Katherine is a long-time vegetarian who could eat her weight in broccoli any given day, especially with an excellent baguette.  Jeanne is an omnivore, especially fond of wild-caught foods and garden-grown veggies.

Jeanne and Katherine met at Stanford University where Jeanne was an undergraduate and Katherine was a post-doc teaching botany and taxonomy.  We became research collaborators but also found a shared interest in using food plants in our classes.  Jeanne took her ideas to Princeton as a graduate student, and Katherine continued teaching seminars in “edible botany” at Stanford and Santa Clara University.

In most cases, biology lab and brown bag lunches are strictly incompatible, and for excellent and obvious reasons it is a safety violation to bring any food into a teaching or research lab.

But there is nothing keeping us from bringing biology lab to your kitchen!

We are thrilled that our blog is being used in the classroom. If you are an instructor using our content, please let us know about it. We appreciate feedback on knowing what is working or not.

Jeanne L. D. Osnas, PhD

Katherine Angela Preston, PhD

You may contact us by sending email to botanistinthekitchen@gmail.com or through Twitter (@BitKblog).

26 thoughts on “About the authors”

  3. argylesock

    Hello, I really like your blog! Wanted to link to you a couple of days ago when I wrote about rhubarb, but I haven’t yet found a post of yours about that particular crop.

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  4. Kathy Nickolich

    As a newly certified Master Gardener and someone who loves to cook, (I’m a vegetarian and my husband is a carnivore, oh, sorry, omnivore) I stumbled across your website while investigating ‘bracts’, so happy I did. Thank you for your very informative articles. Please keep them coming.

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    1. katherineapreston Post author

      Thanks for your kind words, Kathy, and congratulations on your MG status. I’m jealous! I, too, am a vegetarian married to an omnivore. I can’t say I’ve learned to cook meat, but my sweet husband has developed a real talent for vegetables and patiently removes the bracts from asparagus for me.
      Please bring your gardening wisdom to the comments section.

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  5. Carolyn

    I just recently found your blog and love it! I have a BS in botany and have always enjoyed the connection between what I learned during my degree and what I eat. Thank you so much!

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  6. Ben

    Hello,
    I am giving a talk on food diversity tomorrow, I was wondering if I could use an image from your amazing blog? Could you be in contact asap? Love what you’ve done here!
    Thankyou both!
    Ben

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    1. Jeanne L. D. Osnas

      Hi Ben, as long as you cite us (names, website, date) in your slide, you’re welcome to use any of our images from the blog in your talk. Looks like you folks are doing cool stuff at Nordic Food Lab. Good luck!

      Cheers,
      JLDO

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  11. Chris Roberts

    I found your site when searching for what causes the grittiness in pears. Very interesting, informative and now bookmarked site.

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  12. katherineapreston Post author

    Thanks for reading and commenting, Chris! If you still have questions about grit, let me know.

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  13. pilimotta

    Wonderfull ladies creating illuminating posts ! I couldn’t find words to thank you for share your knowledge with so much taste :). Please, keep the blogg flowing because it makes so improvement in our relationship with plants… because more you know them, more you love them!
    Best wishes from Colombia!

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  14. Pat Palmer

    I am a retired botanist who just created a blog botanistcooks.blogspot.com and when a friend was trying to find my blog she told me about yours. I love this. I will be following you for sure.

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  17. Pingback: A Recipe for Botany | Mountain Plover

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