Sex on the Kitchen Table
The Romance of Plants and Your Food
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
1 The Garden
Recipe: Garden Soup—aka Gazpacho
2 Tomato: The Plant Sex Manual
Recipe: Sweet and Savory Valentine Pudding
3 Banana: A Life without Sex
Recipe: Yes, We Do Have Bananas! Puffed Pancake
4 Avocado: Timing Is Everything
Recipe: Avocado Toast—It’s Not Just for Breakfast Anymore
5 Beet: Philander (Female) and Philanderer (Male)
Recipe: A Celebration of Beet Evolution
6 Squash and More: Sex without Reproduction
Recipe: Transgenic—or Not—Tacos
Epilogue: Return to the Garden
Acknowledgments
Literature Cited
Index
1 The Garden
Recipe: Garden Soup—aka Gazpacho
2 Tomato: The Plant Sex Manual
Recipe: Sweet and Savory Valentine Pudding
3 Banana: A Life without Sex
Recipe: Yes, We Do Have Bananas! Puffed Pancake
4 Avocado: Timing Is Everything
Recipe: Avocado Toast—It’s Not Just for Breakfast Anymore
5 Beet: Philander (Female) and Philanderer (Male)
Recipe: A Celebration of Beet Evolution
6 Squash and More: Sex without Reproduction
Recipe: Transgenic—or Not—Tacos
Epilogue: Return to the Garden
Acknowledgments
Literature Cited
Index
Review Quotes
Barbara Kiser | Nature
"The sex life of an avocado might seem anything but lurid. Geneticist Ellstrand, however, reveals it as a riot of romantic yearning and ‘sex switching.’ In his foray into the nexus of food, science, and plant reproduction, we enter that alternative universe in which olives and quinces are really vehicles for seeds, the tomato (the ‘love apple’ of yore) is self-fertile, and cultivated bananas are female-sterile. You’ll become reacquainted with the pistil, and wonder at the sugar beet’s rise 'from a cascade of geopolitical incidents.' Nutrition might never seem the same again."
Science News
"In this enthusiastic look at botanical reproduction and evolution, a geneticist uses tomatoes, bananas, and more to enlighten readers about the fascinating sex lives of the plants we eat."
Science Friday, Listeners' Best Books of 2018
"My favorite science book of 2018 is Sex on the Kitchen Table, by Norman Ellstrand. This book shares the secret sex lives of our favorite fruits and veggies. For example did you know tomato farmers use special vibrators to help their plants reproduce? And bananas have been bred to not have sex at all. You learn that plants reproduce in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways and how important these different kinds of plant sex are to our food supply."
Laurence Marschall | Natural History
"The sex in this self-proclaimed 'foodie sex manual' is all of the plant variety. But what a variety it is! . . . If plants could read, Ellstrand would be the ideal advice columnist—his knowledge of the pleasures and perils of plant sex is prodigious, and his wit sparkles throughout."
Jenny Ferguson | Washington Independent Review of Books
"Readers of Sex on the Kitchen Table will certainly learn more about tomatoes, bananas, avocados, beets, and squash, including the reproductive techniques of each. The discussion on human intervention and the banana is particularly interesting, blending science, politics, business, and sex. The last recipe in the book—the one that takes on the GMO-free vs. GMO-full challenge—tackles tacos. Feel free to whip up the Transgenic-Enhanced Tacos, the Transgenic-Free Tacos, or both. As you sit down to enjoy your meal, you’ll have a new appreciation for plant reproduction, plants, and their products. Ellstrand reminds us that 'a lasting romance comes from understanding,' and in this book, he welcomes readers to develop a deeper understanding of the romance of plants and, therefore, of the meals we eat."
Susanne S. Renner, University of Munich | Nature Plants
“As his own research focus, Ellstrand is deeply familiar with the topic of gene flow in plants. Thus, he is able to extend each of his stories all the way from well-known basics to the latest research—with references to papers from mid-2017—that will bring surprising twists even to readers familiar with crop domestication and plant reproductive biology.”
Khue Tran | Yale Scientific
"This book will not only change your perspective on tomatoes, bananas, avocados, beets, and squash, but it will also morph your view of vegetables into the erotic plants that they truly are, opening your eyes to observe the nature around you as perhaps a bit spicier."
Nigel Chaffey | Botany One
"A great little book that delivers on its promise of sex, sex and more sex. Although the sex is of the plant kind, that process has been crucial to the civilizing, and is essential for the continued survival, of the human race; plant sex is therefore of relevance and interest to us all."
Thor Hanson, author of "Buzz" and "The Triumph of Seeds"
"With a rare combination of irreverence and erudition, Ellstrand dives gleefully into the racier aspects of botanical reproduction. His focus on common food plants, complete with recipes, makes Sex on the Kitchen Table relatable, intriguing, and downright fun, while his deep knowledge and a lucid chapter on genetic modification give the book heft. A highly readable reminder that our deepest insights into nature often come from what we eat."
Jonathan Silvertown, University of Edinburgh | author of "Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution"
“If the title of this book calls to mind the film encounter between Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in The Postman Always Rings Twice, you should know that the scene had many botanical predecessors. Daily you may grace your kitchen table with the products of plant sex: avocados, tomatoes, and squash betray this origin in the seeds they contain, but a cabbage has a sex life too. Ellstrand shines a spotlight on plant sex, revealing how weird it can be, how promiscuous it often is, and just how mobile plant genes are. All our food plants have wild ancestors, and where wild and crop relatives grow near each other, sex happens. It takes engineering to move genes between unrelated species, but, Ellstrand argues, it’s sex all the same. His message is wise-up and enjoy plant sex. I love it!”
John A. Long, author of "The Dawn of the Deed: The Prehistoric Origins of Sex"
“Ellstrand has given us a beautiful book, well-crafted, profoundly researched, yet imminently readable. It elucidates both the intimacy of our gastronomic bonds to our common food plants and their saucy and often promiscuous relationships with each other. Understanding plant reproduction has never been so much fun, especially when coupled with classic food recipes that help us digest the information along with the produce. The story telling style is casual and engaging but doesn't cringe on giving us a dose of solid science. I think the book can be summed up perfectly by this one teasing line: ‘Eros and Aphrodite lurk, giggling, behind the bites you take.’”
Raoul W. Adamchak, Market Gardens/CSA Coordinator, Student Farm, University of California, Davis | coauthor of "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food"
“In a funny way, Ellstrand’s book could be called the ‘secret sex life of crop plants,’ because relatively few people know the ins and outs of avocadoes, bananas, beets, corn, or squash. Sex on the Kitchen Table will help readers understand how crop plants reproduce and why that is so significant when it comes to solving problems in agriculture. I haven’t read anything quite like this before. Edifying and entertaining.”
Economic Botany
"In this self-described and highly readable 'foodie sex manual', Norman Ellstrand takes his readers on a romp through the surprisingly sensual world of crop plant reproduction... overall, Sex in the Kitchen Table is a well-conceived, affordable, and student-friendly guide to the sex lives of our domesticated edible flora."
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Biological Sciences: Botany | Evolutionary Biology
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