An array of eggplants, from tiny green-stripped Thai, to big globe-shaped American and long, purple Asian.

Lamb Stew with Four Heads of Garlic and Beets Glazed with Orange and Honey

The Turnip—elevated.

Clockwise from top left: Black and white peppercorns; red “peppercorns” (a seed from a member of the cashew family); green peppercorns and, at center, Sichuan “peppercorns,” seeds from the prickly ash tree.

No one is quite sure why the leafy green is called “Swiss” chard, mainly by speakers of English only.

Citrus is a large and influential family of fruits indeed.

Legumes have what’s known as “incomplete” proteins and, in cooking and eating diets, come begging for completion from something else, by and large a grain.

“Herb bombs” are my go-to when preserving fresh herbs.

They’re drupes, so you gotta pit them. All of them.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is more a condiment than anything else.

Close to 8,000 varieties of apples grow in orchards around the globe.

This member of the pea family (the Fabaceae, also Leguminosae) sports tall spikes of flowers in a stunning depth of the colors mauve, blue, pink, even white. . . .

When the term “vulgaris” forms the second half of the given Latin name of a plant, as it very often does, we understandably might think it gives a negative connotation. . . .

We say Fahrenheit, miles and cilantro. Nearly everyone else on the globe says Celsius, kilometers and coriander. . . .