Taylor's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables


Book Description

The most comprehensive guide available, featuring more than 500 of the best historic, regional, and ethnic vegetables. Complete instructions on how to select and grow the best varieties for your own garden. Illustrated with more than 200 color photographs and 20 how-to drawings. Plus sources of seeds and expert advice on organic control. -- Cover.




The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables


Book Description

Growing your own vegetables has never looked, or tasted, so good. Are heirloom vegetables more difficult to grow than conventional hybrids? The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables debunks this myth by highlighting the 100 heirloom vegetables that are the easiest to grow and the tastiest to eat. Marie Iannotti makes it simple for beginning gardeners to jump on the heirloom trend by presenting an edited list based on years of gardening trial and error. Her plant criteria is threefold: The 100 plants must be amazing to eat, bring something unique to the table, and—most importantly—they have to be unfussy and easy to grow. Her list includes garden favorites like the meaty and mellow 'Lacinato' Kale, the underused and earthy 'Turkish Orange' Eggplant, and the unexpected sweetness of 'Apollo' Arugula.




The Heirloom Life Gardener


Book Description

Tired of genetically modified food every day, Americans are moving more toward eating natural, locally grown food that is free of pesticides and preservatives-and there is no better way to ensure this than to grow it yourself. Anyone can start a garden, whether in a backyard or on a city rooftop; but what they need to truly succeed is The Heirloom Life Gardener, a comprehensive guide to cultivating heirloom vegetables. In this invaluable resource, Jere and Emilee Gettle, cofounders of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, offer a wealth of knowledge to every kind of gardener-experienced pros and novices alike. In his friendly voice, complemented by gorgeous photographs, Jere gives planting, growing, harvesting, and seed saving tips. In addition, an extensive A to Z Growing Guide includes amazing heirloom varieties that many people have never even seen. From seed collecting to the history of seed varieties and name origins, Jere takes you far beyond the heirloom tomato. This is the first book of its kind that is not only a guide to growing beautiful and delicious vegetables, but also a way to join the movement of people who long for real food and a truer way of living.




The Heirloom Gardener


Book Description

“Part essay collection, part gardening guide, The Heirloom Gardener encourages readers to embrace heirloom seeds and traditions, serving as a well-needed reminder to slow down and reconnect with nature.” —Modern Farmer Modern life is a cornucopia of technological wonders. But is something precious being lost? A tangible bond with our natural world—the deep satisfaction of connecting to the earth that was enjoyed by previous generations? In The Heirloom Gardener, John Forti celebrates gardening as a craft and shares the lore and traditional practices that link us with our environment and with each other. Charmingly illustrated and brimming with wisdom, this guide will inspire you to slow down, recharge, and reconnect.




The New Heirloom Garden


Book Description

Design a beautiful and self-sufficient garden; learn the secrets of heirloom vegetables, herbs, and flowers; and enjoy 60 seasonal recipes featuring the fruits of your labor—all with one book! WINNER OF THE GARDENCOMM SILVER AWARD “An heirloom garden is an opportunity to plant a piece of history that provides a deeper connection to the food you eat, the people you love, and the landscape that surrounds your home.”—from the Introduction Whether you have a small plot of land just outside your kitchen door or a wide-open field waiting to be tamed, you have an opportunity to honor the past and discover the future through long-lost plant varieties that are full of flavor, fragrance, and old-fashioned charm. By digging deeper into their history, you’ll learn why saving and planting heirloom seeds are key to the past, the present, and the future of our food gardens. In The New Heirloom Garden, award-winning food and garden writer Ellen Ecker Ogden guides you to designing and harvesting from your own kitchen garden, with expert advice, twelve themed garden designs, and sensible tips for a successful harvest. Each design includes an illustrated layout based on a historical garden with a detailed plant key featuring the best-tasting heirloom vegetables you can grow. Discover the unique stories behind the fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers that have been growing in gardens for centuries, and why seed saving is vital to maintain food diversity. An avid cook, Ellen attended cooking school in Italy and Ireland, and shares her 60 best garden-to-table recipes, organized by plant family, making it easy to learn how to substitute with what is growing seasonally and regionally. With a range of soups, salads, entrées, and desserts, you’ll revel in delicious fare that includes cold Summer Squash Soup with Parsley-Mint Pistou, Fennel and Watermelon Salad, Rainbow Beet Spoonbread, Rhubarb Pie with Ginger and Lemon, and Mint Granita, making this book a must-have for cooks who love to garden.




The Complete Idiot's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables


Book Description

A garden of delight-and healthy, economical eating. In The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Heirloom Vegetables, readers will learn the rewards of growing heirlooms; find hundreds of descriptions and histories of a variety of available vegetables and find out how to make pollination work. ?Helps readers grow and eat locally, reduce or eliminate pesticides and additives, and save money along the way ?Includes step-by-step instructions for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing heirloom seeds ?For economical reasons-as well as concern for the environment and personal health-the popularity of gardening has grown in recent years




Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables


Book Description

A celebration of the beauty and rich history of heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables have been a central part of our diets since time immemorial, and the history of their cultivation is rich with intriguing facts: Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for August 22, 1663, reveals that “Mr Newburne is dead of eating Cowcoumbers” (cucumbers); many tomato varieties were first bred in the United States and are still available, from“Striped German” to “Pink Ping Pong” to “Zapotec.” Today, numerous traditional fruit and vegetable varieties—the so-called heirloom or heritage varieties—-are disappearing, a catastrophic loss of horticultural heritage and genetic diversity. But gardeners have reason to be optimistic. A group of dedicated growers around the world is seeking to conserve surviving heritage varieties for their significant advantages over newer cultivars: they are more adaptable, they have good storage properties, and they often have a superior taste. Presented by season, this overview first tells the story of the cultivation of fruits and vegetables through the ages, and then each type is discussed: where it originated, indigenous uses and folklore, how it got its name, legends and beliefs that have become attached to it, and the odd uses to which it has been put.




Epic Tomatoes


Book Description

Savor your best tomato harvest ever! Craig LeHoullier provides everything a tomato enthusiast needs to know about growing more than 200 varieties of tomatoes, from planting to cultivating and collecting seeds at the end of the season. He also offers a comprehensive guide to various pests and tomato diseases, explaining how best to avoid them. With beautiful photographs and intriguing tomato profiles throughout, Epic Tomatoes celebrates one of the most versatile and delicious crops in your garden.




Flavors from the Garden


Book Description

Eighty seasonal recipes from master gardener William Woys Weaver will inspire victory gardeners and CSA shoppers to turn heirloom vegetables into delicious dishes. As a trusted expert in the lore of the garden, you can’t do much better than celebrated author, chef, and custodian of the Roughwood Seed Collection, William Woys Weaver. With recipes that follow the seasons, each chapter guides the reader from the garden to the kitchen to the table, an invaluable and enjoyable resource of growing, harvesting, cooking, and preserving knowledge. Comforting dishes included here range from fresh salads, slaws, and stir-fries to hearty soups and baked goods. Conserves, marmalades, and pickles preserve peak-season produce for yearlong enjoyment. Weaver’s plant-centric recipes include Pennsylvania Dutch favorites as well as inspirations from his global travels. With each bite, these recipes present the delicious biodiversity of local produce and careful preparation. Essays and sidebars enrich the reader’s experience with practical tips on the proper treatment of ingredients.




Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way


Book Description

A Colonial Williamsburg garden historian outlines traditional methods for planting and tending 50 different kinds of vegetables, profiling such 18th-century utilities as shelter paper and fermented manure while sharing complementary weather-watching guidelines, organic techniques and seed-saving advice.