Description
Product Description Design a beautiful and self-sufficient garden; learn the secrets of heirloom vegetables, herbs, and flowers; and enjoy 55 seasonal recipes featuring the fruits of your labor--all with one book!Heirlooms are more than just delicious ingredients or beautiful flowers--their seeds offer us a connection with the earth, and each one tells a story. Author and garden lecturer Ellen Ecker Ogden was inspired to preserve the diversity of plants that are slipping away after learning that we have lost over 85% of the plant world in the last century to extinction.In The New Heirloom Garden, Ogden inspires us with a history of seed saving in this country, then guides gardeners of all levels to create their own heirloom gardens with tangible gardening tips, twelve themed garden designs, and detailed resources. The first half of the book shares specific garden plans, plant keys with descriptions, plant and seed wish lists, interviews with gardening experts, and even tips and tricks to handle your own local weather. The second half of the book contains 55 recipes for delicious entrees, sides, drinks, and desserts that can be made from each vegetable, fruit, and flower grown in your garden. Readers will delight in making Fennel and Watermelon Salad, Cucumber Summer Soup, Fire Cider, and Winter Squash Pie. It's a book designed for readers to bring to their local supply store, take outside into the garden, and then enjoy in the kitchen. Review “Perfect for cooks and gardeners alike, this useful look at vintage varieties puts a fresh shine on an old subject.”—Publishers Weekly About the Author Ellen Ecker Ogden is a Vermont writer and the author of The Complete Kitchen Garden and other books on food and gardens. She cofounded The Cook's Gardenseed catalog, introducing cooks and gardeners to European specialty vegetables, herbs, and flowers. She graduated with a degree in fine arts, and attended cooking school with Marcella Hazan in Venice, Italy, and at the Ballymaloe School in Shanagarry, Ireland. Her articles and kitchen garden designs have appeared in numerous national publications, including The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Gardens. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Introduction The Art of Growing Food “Here, try one of these,” I’ll say when you visit my heirloom garden, offering you a handful of sugar snap peas, a sprig of chervil to tingle your taste buds, or a sweet Fraises des Bois strawberry. “Look at this!” I’ll say, as I carefully peel away the deep mahogany leaves of a fall Treviso radicchio and pluck off a bitter leaf, or “Smell this,” as I point out a vanilla-scented white nicotiana. I may be able to entice you to try something new from my kitchen garden, but digging deeper in search of the old-fashioned varieties, those delicate fruits, fragrant flowers, and open-pollinated heirloom vegetables, is the secret to unearthing your own favorites and establishing a lifelong desire to grow a food garden. And it all starts with a seed. Watching green shoots emerge from the ground—active, robust, and alive—is proof that seeds are pre-equipped with everything they need to send forth a root, a shoot, and a leaf. All I need to do is insert them into the soil, step back, and watch.Why we garden is as individual as the plants themselves—for food, for beauty, to escape, or simply for exercise. Yet we all start with the same three things—seeds, plants, and soil—and each of our gardens will be completely unique. I planted my first garden fresh out of art school and just after starting a graphic design business. It was a way to blend the colors and textures of plants with my love of cooking and eating. It would be stretching the truth to say my first garden thrived. There was a constant battle with the weeds, and the garden hose didn’t quite reach, the plants were frequently thirsty. Yet the thrill of dashing to the garden just