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Heirloom Vegetables: A Guide To Their History And Varieties

Heirloom Vegetables: A Guide To Their History And Varieties

A Guide to Their History and Varieties

by Simon Rickard
Hardback
Publication Date: 27/08/2014

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'Vegetables are masterpieces of human ingenuity - their pasts and futures are in our hands.' How often do you hear someone complain that tomatoes don't taste like they used to? It's becoming a common concern, as food production is increasingly controlled by multinational corporations more interested in profit than flavour. People who care about their food are growing their own vegetables in droves - and especially heirlooms for their wonderfully diverse flavours, shapes and colours. Not to mention their rich history and weird and wonderful names - who could resist a lettuce called 'Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed', not be intrigued by the potato that 'Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry', or fail to be moved by the 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' bean? In this lively, passionate and at times political introduction to the world of heirloom vegetables, gardener Simon Rickard describes the history of many of his favourite varieties, encourages you to get growing yourself, and explains why he believes edible gardening is so important to our future - and the future of the planet.
ISBN:
9781921383069
9781921383069
Category:
Gardening: growing fruit & vegetables
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
27-08-2014
Publisher:
Penguin Random House Australia
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
352
Dimensions (mm):
253x195x29mm
Weight:
1.27kg
What I’m reading right now…
I have to admit I’m very bad at reading literature, and very good at skimming through enormous amounts of non-fiction. There is always a pile a metre high next to my bed. Currently in the pile are books on Japanese maples, heritage apples and pears, Japanese flowering apricots, tree peonies, designing winter gardens, shrubs, fruit growing (as it was done in 1913) and Japanese cooking, in no fewer than three different languages!

My favourite book growing up (why?)…
The Good Night Sleep Tight Book by Mircea Vasiliu, which my grandmother gave me when I was a little boy. The illustrations took me into a fantasy world, and it always reminded me of her when I read it. 

My all time favourite book is (why?)…
The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants. So thick. So many pictures. So much information. So reference-y. 

The book I would recommend everyone to read (why?)…
Bill Gammage’s The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia

The book I wish I wrote…
Tim Entwistle’s upcoming title, Sprinter and Sprummer: Australia’s Changing Seasons (CSIRO Publishing). The subject matter is at once so obvious and so revolutionary, I wish I got to it first. Tim is a beautiful writer, and I hope his book transforms the way Australians think about our climate. 

My guilty reading pleasure is…
I’m proud of everything I read. 

The book on my bookshelf that I have never read…
All the stacks of wonderful literature that a dear friend who is frighteningly well-read has given me for birthdays and Christmas over several decades. They are on my to do list, I promise! Not having read them is what I really do feel guilty about.

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