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The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times Paperback – Illustrated, September 22, 2010

by Carol Deppe (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 321 ratings
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"The Resilient Gardener is so essential, timely and important, and I will recommend it to everyone I know. It doesn't matter if you garden or if you don't-this is practical wisdom good for humans to know."—Deborah Madison, Author of Local Flavors and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Scientist/gardener Carol Deppe combines her passion for organic gardening with newly emerging scientific information from many fields — resilience science, climatology, climate change, ecology, anthropology, paleontology, sustainable agriculture, nutrition, health, and medicine. In the last half of The Resilient Gardener, Deppe extends and illustrates these principles with detailed information about growing and using five key crops: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs.

In this book you’ll learn how to:

•Garden in an era of unpredictable weather and climate change
•Grow, store, and use more of your own staple crops
•Garden efficiently and comfortably (even if you have a bad back)
•Grow, store, and cook different varieties of potatoes and save your own potato seed
•Grow the right varieties of corn to make your own gourmet-quality fast-cooking polenta, cornbread, parched corn, corn cakes, pancakes and even savory corn gravy
•Make whole-grain, corn-based breads and cakes using the author’s original gluten-free recipes involving no other grains, artificial binders, or dairy products
•Grow and use popbeans and other grain legumes
•Grow, store, and use summer, winter, and drying squash
•Keep a home laying flock of ducks or chickens; integrate them with your gardening, and grow most of their feed.

The Resilient Gardener is both a conceptual and a hands-on organic gardening book, and is suitable for vegetable gardeners at all levels of experience. Resilience here is broadly conceived and encompasses a full range of problems, from personal hard times such as injuries, family crises, financial problems, health problems, and special dietary needs (gluten intolerance, food allergies, carbohydrate sensitivity, and a need for weight control) to serious regional and global disasters and climate change. It is a supremely optimistic as well as realistic book about how resilient gardeners and their vegetable gardens can flourish even in challenging times and help their communities to survive and thrive through everything that comes their way — from tomorrow through the next thousand years. Organic gardening, vegetable gardening, self-sufficiency, subsistence gardening, gluten-free living.

"The Resilient Gardener is brilliantly timely, and shows us how to create gardens that can survive our increasingly erratic weather, while supplying key nutrition lacking in most vegetable gardens. This book fills a critical niche, and I recommend it unreservedly."—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
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  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Chelsea Green
  4. Publication date
    September 22, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    7.53 x 0.92 x 9.49 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    160358031X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1603580311
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From the Publisher

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

With Color Photos

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

A conceptual and hands-on gardening book for all levels of experience!

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

self-reliance, soil, prep, seed saving, garden, gardening, growing, organic, food, corn, potatoes

from the author . . . .

"These days, we tend to design our gardens and our gardening for good times, times when everything is going well. That isn’t what we need. Reality is, there is almost always something going wrong. Hard times are normal. . . . My garden needed to be designed around the reality that life has its ups and downs. It has good times and bad. How to garden in the best of times was not the issue. I didn’t need a “good-time garden.” I needed to understand more about how to garden in hard times. I needed a more resilient garden. And I needed a garden that better enhanced my own resilience, in all kinds of times, good and bad."

GAIA'S GARDEN
THE TAO OF VEGETABLE GARDENING
THE RESILIENT FARM AND HOMESTEAD
AMERICAN HEMP FARMER
THE LEAN FARM
Customer Reviews
4.8 out of 5 stars 2,406
4.6 out of 5 stars 79
4.7 out of 5 stars 581
4.5 out of 5 stars 37
4.7 out of 5 stars 374
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Deppe's idiosyncratic personality shines through her writing-this is as much a series of personal anecdotes by a lifelong expert gardener as a gardening book that will appeal to readers of a similar bent. Ideal for dedicated, independent gardeners who want to focus on food production despite dietary challenges, poor health, or other issues.”—Library Journal

“Uncertain times, caused by an unstable economy, changing weather patterns, or personal injury, result in an expanse of time when the "garden suffers because people have other priorities." With this premise in mind, Deppe introduces the concept of resilient gardening. In Deppe's world, gardening transcends the world of leisurely pursuit and transforms into an act of empowerment.

In twelve intensely detailed chapters, The Resilient Gardener empowers readers with the knowledge they need to design, build, and maintain gardens that can withstand intense hardship and thrive despite periods of complete neglect.

One of the major strengths of this book-and what sets it apart from the deluge of gardening books currently on bookstore shelves-is the union of Deppe's scientific knowledge with her personal gardening experience. The second half of the book details the five essential crops of self-reliance-potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs-and how to grow them. Though these sections are largely "dip and skip" depending on the reader's level of knowledge, they are expressed in crisp, detailed, and incredibly fluid prose. Deppe is able to transmit the nitty-gritty of gardening through invaluable parcels of personal anecdotes that make the material relatable and a pleasure to read.
Deppe's unique approach to her topic makes The Resilient Gardener an appealing selection for both experienced and beginner gardeners, as well as readers interested in issues of sustainability and global reform.”—ForeWord Reviews

"This book presents an in-depth seed-to-table understanding of five culturally significant and life-sustaining crops: corn, beans, squash, potatoes, and eggs. Its power and promise are rooted in Deppe's lived experience and revealed in the careful detail by which she shares it. This book is frank, plainspoken, and intimate. The basis for the author's diet is her intolerance for grain. She has celiac disease and cannot digest wheat or any of its near relatives in the grass family: rye, barley, oats, or triticale, and so has learned from much difficult experience to exclude completely from her table the foods most people depend upon for their daily bread. The basis of the book, however, is her determination to provide a reliable supply of staple food for her kitchen and to be responsible for every aspect of that from breeding and selecting the crops she uses to stabilizing and sharing the seed, to understanding the genetics, to exploring, cooking, and relishing the palate of flavors she nurtures and the rich and deeply satisfying foods that in turn nurture her, It is this quality of determination and careful empirical and practical work that recommends The Resilient Gardener to serious gardeners and home economists. Deppe is doing what many of us aspire to do.”— Permaculture Activist

"The Resilient Gardener is so essential, timely and important, and I will recommend it to everyone I know. It doesn't matter if you garden or if you don't-this is practical wisdom good for humans to know, passed on by a careful student who has deeply studied her life. Carol Deppe's lens is the garden-which is great for gardeners, but really, she speaks clearly to all of us. If you try to think like Deppe, you will find you have a new view of your life no matter who you are. This is a wise and intelligent book. Hats off to Carol Deppe!"—Deborah Madison, Author of Local Flavors and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

"In the years since Carol Deppe wrote the classic Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, she has continued to grow in deep wisdom and experience. The Resilient Gardener is brilliantly timely, and shows us how to create gardens that can survive our increasingly erratic weather, while supplying key nutrition lacking in most vegetable gardens. This book fills a critical niche, and I recommend it unreservedly."—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

"The Resilient Gardener is the most comprehensive and detailed book about gardening that I have read to date, and I could not find one sentence that I would quibble with. Not only does Deppe discuss all the immediate, nose- to- the- grindstone kind of information about producing and using homegrown food, but also all the surrounding environmental and cultural aspects of gardening that are so vital to success. A must read for beginning gardeners, and full of details even the most experienced will find invaluable."—Gene Logsdon, author of Small-Scale Grain Raising and Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind

"The Resilient Gardener gives concrete examples of how to deal with diet, climate, and economic changes before the need arises. Deppe challenges us to experiment with and practice all aspects of gardening, seed saving and food storage, and advises on the growing need to meet special food and climate requirements in the face of our food system's fragility. This book is an invaluable tool for gardeners and farmers as we experience more and more volatility in our food systems."—Suzanne Ashworth, author of Seed to Seed

"Carol Deppe is informative, funny, and intriguing as she guides us through every phase of gardening--dispelling myths while also orienting us to the technical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of growing food. The Resilient Gardener is the quintessential guide to gardening from an authority who also knows how to enjoy herself."—Didi Emmons, author of Vegetarian Planet

"Carol Deppe's celiac-friendly approach to gardening and nutrition provides a wealth of information on how to overcome food intolerances many are confronted with each day. If you struggle with food allergies or sensitivities--or want to use natural resources to create a healthy world for you and your family--this book is for you."—Peter H.R. Green, MD, Director, Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University

"Growing food is among the most positive changes anyone can make in the face of uncertainty about the future. The Resilient Gardener is an information-packed resource for people starting or expanding a garden practice. This book empowers readers with skills and understanding, as did Deppe's previous book, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties."—Sandor Ellix Katz, author, Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation

About the Author

Oregon plant breeder Carol Deppe, author of The Tao of Vegetable Gardening, holds a PhD in biology from Harvard University and specializes in developing public-domain crops for organic growing conditions, sustainable agriculture, and human survival for the next thousand years. Carol is author of The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times (Chelsea Green, 2010), Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, 2nd ed. (Chelsea Green, 2000), Tao Te Ching: A Window to the Tao through the Words of Lao Tzu (Fertile Valley Publishing, 2010), and Taoist Stories (Fertile Valley Publishing, 2014).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chelsea Green; 1st edition (September 22, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 160358031X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1603580311
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.53 x 0.92 x 9.49 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 321 ratings

About the author

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Carol Deppe

Carol Deppe

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Oregon plant breeder Carol Deppe holds a PhD in biology from Harvard University and specializes in developing public-domain crops for organic growing conditions, sustainable agriculture, and human survival for the next thousand years. Carol is founder and owner of Fertile Valley Seeds. For seeds, articles, and further adventures, visit her website www.caroldeppe.com.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
321 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this gardening book extremely informative and practical, praising its stellar writing style and down-to-earth approach. The book covers food production in detail, including vegetable breeding and nutrition density, while also providing helpful information on seed recovery and storage techniques. Customers appreciate the book's focus on resilience and self-reliance in uncertain times.

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76 customers mention "Information quality"71 positive5 negative

Customers find the book extremely informative, providing a lot of useful information about gardening, with one customer noting it's particularly helpful for beginners.

"...Yes, Deppe includes an amazing amount of techniques and anecdotes that are specific to gardening in the Pacific Northwest, but this is NOT the..." Read more

"...I find this very helpful, as the context helps explain the content. I also find Carol, in her books, to be a delightful person...." Read more

"...your horizons expanded with insights, practices and observations to incorporate in you garden, that put you more in touch with your soil, our plant..." Read more

"...And you will have gained, the knowledge and experience. And that is the stuff that enriches your quality of life. No matter what happens...." Read more

73 customers mention "Readability"73 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and practical, describing it as a must-read for every gardener.

"...In addition, the book is truly a pleasure to read, thanks to Deppe's fluid, down to earth writing style which is free of jargon and pretentiousness...." Read more

"...That's because, they are dependable and productive and, for one reason or another, when I grow them and am around them, I am happy...." Read more

"...None the less, it is such a joy to read, so direct, personal, honest, clear, detailed, humble and authoritative at the same time...." Read more

"...That's better quality then you can buy in the store. And teaches you easy ways of doing it. So you are not doing anything ridiculously complex...." Read more

36 customers mention "Writing style"36 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the book, finding it absolutely stellar and eminently readable, with one customer noting it is written from a Northwestern gardener's perspective.

"...Resilient Gardener," however, fits into the rare category of transcendental reading that might change the way you view certain aspects of the world...." Read more

"...Carol writes uniquely. One does not learn what she has to teach without learning about her own journey...." Read more

"...None the less, it is such a joy to read, so direct, personal, honest, clear, detailed, humble and authoritative at the same time...." Read more

"...I like how she writes, i.e. her personality and idiosyncrasies come across nicely, something I like in a book. I like a chuckle with my meat...." Read more

28 customers mention "Food production"28 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's coverage of food production, including vegetable breeding and nutrition density, with one customer noting it provides the bulk of macronutrients.

"...gardening and raising food, but also just as much intelligent information about nutrition, resilience, plant breeding, cooking and natural history...." Read more

"Carol Deppe teaches you how it's healthy for the mind and body, to grow and store food. That's better quality then you can buy in the store...." Read more

"...The creme-de-la creme, is that she discusses growing methods, using the products, and appropriate storage techniques without it being boring and..." Read more

"...You can grow lettuce & tomatoes too of course, she just doesn't tell you how in this book. I learned so much from this!!" Read more

22 customers mention "Depth"17 positive5 negative

Customers appreciate the depth of the book, finding it detailed and thoughtful, with one customer noting that the fundamentals are explained in plain English.

"...to Deppe's fluid, down to earth writing style which is free of jargon and pretentiousness...." Read more

"...Yet, it is written both simply and in a detailed manner...." Read more

"...None the less, it is such a joy to read, so direct, personal, honest, clear, detailed, humble and authoritative at the same time...." Read more

"...She is thoughtful and experimental. She seems to have no gardening ax to grind or gardening sacred cow to protect...." Read more

16 customers mention "Taste"16 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the recipes in the book and find them tasty, with one customer noting the variety of corn beyond just sweet corn.

"...intelligent information about nutrition, resilience, plant breeding, cooking and natural history...." Read more

"...and her experiential knowledge about growing and seed saving varieties for the best taste as well as other virtues are especially valuable and a..." Read more

".../Gold flint corn in a corona mill for polenta, which was in fact quite tasty...." Read more

"...beans and corn in Oregon or are looking for some unusual recipes for cooking potatoes...." Read more

13 customers mention "Resilience"13 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's focus on resilience and self-reliance in uncertain times, with one customer highlighting its sustainability and another noting its long-term plant breeding expertise.

"...food, but also just as much intelligent information about nutrition, resilience, plant breeding, cooking and natural history...." Read more

"...That's because, they are dependable and productive and, for one reason or another, when I grow them and am around them, I am happy...." Read more

"...That's better quality then you can buy in the store. And teaches you easy ways of doing it. So you are not doing anything ridiculously complex...." Read more

"Variety goes beyond just gardening to being resilient on your land. Example- My favorite quote: “..." Read more

10 customers mention "Storage techniques"10 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's coverage of storage techniques, particularly its detailed information on seed recovery and preservation methods, with one customer noting it explains methods clearly.

"...Deppe teaches you how it's healthy for the mind and body, to grow and store food. That's better quality then you can buy in the store...." Read more

"...she discusses growing methods, using the products, and appropriate storage techniques without it being boring and dry...." Read more

"...which historically has been a long storage crop and is easily preserved as sauerkraut...." Read more

"...I found the focus on the specific crops, seed recovery and storage very helpful and in depth...." Read more

Information I Haven't Seen Elsewhere
5 out of 5 stars
Information I Haven't Seen Elsewhere
I borrowed this book from the library and found it valuable enough that I bought my own copy to have at hand. I especially enjoyed the section on ducks and have since started my own backyard Ancona flock... a great breed choice. The information about plant breeding was valuable, as was the insight on how best to grow, store and use specifics varieties of squash, corn, potatoes, etc. There was lots of great info here that I haven't come across in other books.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Ispahan
    5.0 out of 5 stars A transcendental "gardening" book...
    Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    This book is so much more than just a simple "gardening" book. Yes, it includes a lot of useful information about gardening and raising food, but also just as much intelligent information about nutrition, resilience, plant breeding, cooking and natural history. It is a book that you will read and reread and think about for weeks and weeks. It has the potential to alter the way you think about gardening and raising food in general, much in the same way that Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" shifted the way we view the source of our food, what we are eating and why we should care.

    For those who criticize that the book is very Pacific Northwest-centric, I think you are missing the point of the book. Yes, Deppe includes an amazing amount of techniques and anecdotes that are specific to gardening in the Pacific Northwest, but this is NOT the purpose of the book! This is in no way a mindless "Copy Me" gardening book like so many others. Deppe is showing us that we need to EXPERIMENT with our own growing conditions to find the right crops, the right way to provide soil fertility, the right way to store food, etc. She is merely providing us with the inspiration and philosophical basis to go out and find ways to do these things for ourselves in OUR OWN GARDENING REGIONS, wherever in the world that might be.

    My bookshelf at home is filled with many mediocre gardening books, the type you read just once, perhaps absorb a little knowledge from and then never look at again. "The Resilient Gardener," however, fits into the rare category of transcendental reading that might change the way you view certain aspects of the world. In addition, the book is truly a pleasure to read, thanks to Deppe's fluid, down to earth writing style which is free of jargon and pretentiousness. Along with her book "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties" (also transcendental reading in its own right), this book will occupy a place of honor on my bookshelf and it is well on its way to becoming dog-eared and tattered from rereading it and lending it out so frequently.
    22 people found this helpful
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  • George E. McLaughlin
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Resilient Gardener
    Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    I wish I could eloquently sum up this book. Actually, the title does that about as well as anyone could. But I'll give you a couple reasons why I'm so excited about it. There are more good points to make. But I can't take the time to get them all into this review.

    1) This book pretty well nails what has been my wife's and my passion in almost everything we do related to self-sufficiency. That is, it addresses something larger and broader than just growing things. It addresses *production for consumption, survival and happiness.*
    2) Carol writes uniquely. One does not learn what she has to teach without learning about her own journey. I find this very helpful, as the context helps explain the content. I also find Carol, in her books, to be a delightful person.
    3) This book addresses other areas of production, which, in my mind are closely related to gardening, though often not considered so. For example she writes on poultry and other forms of meat production. To me, this is just a logical step from gardening and very important.
    4) Carol is a "duck-aholic" and so am I. Okay, so she isn't into Muscovies, like I am. But her Anconas sound like excellent birds. I cannot understand why so few Americans like duck and even fewer like their eggs. Yet, ducks are probably the most practical of all poultry, with the potential of being raised where chickens can not.
    5) Carol writes about growing and raising things because they make one feel good. I grow certain crops which I call "feel good crops." That's because, they are dependable and productive and, for one reason or another, when I grow them and am around them, I am happy. Carol expresses this very well.
    6) Carol has celiac disease. Because of her wheat intolerance everything she produces is slanted toward a wheat free diet. My wife and I love wheat. But we greatly appreciate Carol's perspective. She has focused on corn, which for the home grower much easier to process. Being a plant breeder, Carol has actually developed some varieties of corn, special for the homesteader type. Also, we know a number of families with celiacs in them. We couldn't resist, we had to send them copies. We can't send out more now. But this book is very high on our list as a "must have," for several reasons.

    In this book Carol is partly retracing steps of some of our ancestors, in the quest for food security. In part also, she is breaking new ground. I've been gardening for over 40 years and seed saving since the 80s. I have learned quite a bit from this book. Yet, it is written both simply and in a detailed manner. I had a copy sent to a friend who is brand new in gardening and know that she will greatly benefit from it.

    If one goes to Carol Deppe's web site it is possible to download a copy of the table of contents and the first chapter, for free. This, in itself, would probably sell the book to most who would examine it!

    [...]

    One more link: here's another on-line review of the book, on Gardenweb

    [...]
    68 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • andrei
    5.0 out of 5 stars love the cover
    Reviewed in Germany on November 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    unfortunately still on my Read list - but great delivery and stuff- thanks Obazon!! (SIX MORE WORDS NEEDED!!! NOW ONLT TWO!
    Report
  • Nordic Homesteader
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended
    Reviewed in Canada on December 8, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I absolutely loved The Resilient Gardener! This book offers a fantastic approach to producing your own seeds, which is essential for anyone looking to become more self-reliant in uncertain times. The in-depth information about beans was incredibly valuable and the book also provides a wealth of knowledge about dealing with pests in the garden.

    The Resilient Gardener's thorough and insightful information about beans really made me excited to start growing them in my own garden. It's a great resource for anyone looking to expand their gardening skills and knowledge.

    Highly recommended!
    Customer image
    Nordic Homesteader
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Highly recommended

    Reviewed in Canada on December 8, 2023
    I absolutely loved The Resilient Gardener! This book offers a fantastic approach to producing your own seeds, which is essential for anyone looking to become more self-reliant in uncertain times. The in-depth information about beans was incredibly valuable and the book also provides a wealth of knowledge about dealing with pests in the garden.

    The Resilient Gardener's thorough and insightful information about beans really made me excited to start growing them in my own garden. It's a great resource for anyone looking to expand their gardening skills and knowledge.

    Highly recommended!
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  • Mr. Philip Brennan
    5.0 out of 5 stars A very timely book.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Overview

    This book shows you how to grow four crops (beans/pulses, corn, potatoes and squash) and raise ducks in such a way as to be both sustainable and resilient to bad conditions. These conditions could be through either climate change or bad weather - it does not matter as the techniques laid down here work. Carol also talks about diet, the environment, and other matters that are pertinent, but not immediately apparent, to the subject at hand. Even though she concentrates on the four crops listed above, her methodologies can be applied to other crops that you may wish to grow with a little thought and research. I have found this book to be a most interesting read for political and philosophical, as well as practical, reasons. This comes highly recommended, especially for older gardeners.

    The Meat

    A lot of British reviewers' criticism has been that it is hard to grow corn in the north of the country, especially up in Scotland. This is fair comment, despite the fact that we now have hardier open-pollinated cultivars of corn. Leaving the corn issue aside, everything else in this book can be grown quite easily all over the UK, even squash. The gardener will just have to think about his or her own growing conditions and act accordingly. For example, even in the south I would still start summer squashes off in the green house as a given procedure not as an optional method. And if it is a bad spring / summer, keep them in the green house for longer and pot them on from starts.

    The point of the book is to get the gardener thinking about his or her own conditions. The level of detail Carol Deppe goes into on how she copes with her region's conditions is exactly the level of detail the reader should be going into about their own regional conditions. It is a jumping off point for building resilience into your own gardening practices, especially for those of us interested in old fashioned organic methods as opposed to modern 'conventional' methods. I really cannot stress this point enough about this book - it is a jumping off point into your own research into building resilience into your own vegetable growing practices, whatever crops you grow.

    I personally would be inclined to use this book along side her "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving" and Joy Larkom's "Grow Your Own Vegetables" rather than as a stand alone work. You can even substitute Carol Deppe's other book for Sue Stickland's "Back Garden Seed Saving" if you want something a little simpler to follow.

    Its use is not nearly as limited as some reviewers from the UK have said, if you treat it as a guide to further research rather than as a "this is how you do it" book. This is why I have given it five out of five.
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  • Nadia
    4.0 out of 5 stars Useful read
    Reviewed in Australia on July 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    The most valuable information in this book is about the different varieties and cooking methods. The gardening techniques I did not find so useful- I was looking for more of a permaculture approach to resiliency and more information on perennial staples.
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  • sockeye
    5.0 out of 5 stars Can't say enough about how much I love this book!
    Reviewed in Canada on May 13, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I first got this book out of the library but realized I wanted to read this from cover to cover. Not only is this a helpful book for my own personal gardening but I loved all the background information. I mean, did you know there was a mini ice age? But the main reason I ordered it was the specific information I could apply to my own Pacific Northwest garden (although of course it applies to all) and my desire to grow much more of my own food. And if you happen to be aging at all or heading that way she has some very interesting planting techniques that you will want to adopt.
    So many garden books are just blah, blah, blah...people re-writing other peoples research and experiences and trying to cover the lack of information with pretty pictures. This is the real thing! A lot of hard work, research and thought went into it. Love this book and am looking forward to her next one!
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