Kathy Keeler

This is the time of year that people with maple trees (genus Acer, maple family Aceraceae) are the envy of their neighbors. Maples, especially American and Japanese maples, turn bright red in the fall. But, maples have more to offer than that. If the maples are sugar maples (Acer saccharum), of course you know that […]

Dandelions, Taraxacum officinale (sunflower family, Asteraceae) are perhaps the most widely recognized  U. S. weed. Huge amounts of money and time are spent killing dandelions. No one knows why the scientific name is Taraxacum. In 1600 pharmacists called it Taraxacon, but whether that word is based on the  Arabic words tarachakum “wild cherry,” or tarakhshaqun “wild […]

We eat stalks of celery, raw and cooked (see Part 1), but the celery plant (Apium graveolens, parsley family, Apiaceae) is the source of three other foods: leaf celery, celery seed. and celeriac.  Some celery, particularly in Asia, is raised for its leaves, not its stalks. Leaves of most celery plants are pretty bitter, but […]

According to kitchen folklore, you can lose weight eating celery because it takes more calories to chew and digest than it contains.  Which gives you a clue that celery doesn’t get much respect. Celery is related to dill and carrots but unlike dill, where we eat the seeds and leaves or carrots where we eat […]

As noted in part 1, we eat only the leaf stems of rhubarb, not leaves, flowers, fruit or roots. Rhubarb leaves are quite poisonous. They contain dangerous concentrations of oxalic acid compounds. In low concentrations, oxalic acid tastes good to people, but the concentration of oxalic acid compounds in rhubarb leaf blades is much higher […]

Various species of rhubarb have been used as medicines. The garden rhubarb we eat is a hybrid of murky origin. Other species are grown as attractive perennials.

     A pretty daisy relative with a distinctive spicy smell, feverfew (scientifically Tanacetum parthenium, sunflower family, Asteraceae) was a common folk remedy in Europe for more than 2000 years. Its name, feverfew, is based on the name the Romans used for it, febrifuge, which means fever-reducer. English speakers heard that and wrote feverfew. It is […]