ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Hoein' & Growin
SOURCE: JANE TALBOT AND SARA THORNE-THOMSEN
At gardening clinics, master gardeners are sometimes reluctant when asked to recommend good gardening books if we aren't sure of the exact needs or tastes of the person making the request. From time to time, though, a member will find a particularly useful, informative, interesting or just plain fun gardening book.
Two such books are Sylvia Thompson's "The Kitchen Garden: A Passionate Gardener's Comprehensive Guide to Growing Good Things to Eat" and "The Kitchen Garden Cookbook: A Passionate Cook's Recipes to Bring Out the Best in Garden-Fresh Produce" (Bantam Books, May 1995). A prize-winning cook, lifelong gardener and writer, Thompson's premise is that the passionate gardener is likely to be an equally passionate cook.
The encyclopedic "Kitchen Garden" gives practical advice for growing 200 varieties of vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. Varieties were selected for their exceptional tastes and include artichokes, Asian greens, green garlic, golden zucchini and enough different kinds of beans and legumes to fill almost an entire page of the index. She discusses her own successes and failures, explains how to use each variety in your landscape, and provides planting and harvesting charts as well as sources for the seeds.
Thompson's readable format and personable style continues in "The Kitchen Garden Cookbook," with more than 300 recipes and ideas on serving produce, horticultural and historical facts, common sense advice about health and nutrition, and no-nonsense directions for harvesting, preparation and presentation. The recipes, ranging from hearty plain fare and fun foods to authentic gourmet, call for fruits, vegetables and flowers often found in our gardens, as well as more exotic varieties (though here Thompson gives more common alternatives so that you can try the recipe).
Thompson also explains how to use the 22 different types of beans and legumes plus the 15 kinds of dried beans that you have learned how to grow in "The Kitchen Garden." She identifies as edible flowers calendulas, hollyhocks, marigolds, nasturtiums, pansies, violas, sweet violets and sunflowers. In fact, as recipes such as "Fettucine with Squash Blossoms" and "Homemade Nasturtium Wine Vinegar" attest, she neglects no edible plant parts, even pickling nasturtium seed pods to use as false capers.
Although companion books, each volume stands on its own merits. After reading the first pages of either book, you may find yourself planning both a new garden plot and a new menu for family and friends.
Christine Allison's gardener's diary, "365 Days of Gardening" (Harper Collins Publishers, 1995) is divided according to the four seasons and takes you on a day by day journey through her own and others gardening lore.
On March 1, she offers a chart of seed life expectancy for some common vegetables so that you can decide whether to use leftover seeds or order new ones. On July 1, she reminds you not to kill garden spiders, because they help keep down other insect populations. On Oct. 31, she provides a list of plants deer eat most often, compiled by the master gardeners at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester, N.Y.
On Dec. 24, she suggests using a large tin cannister to save wood ashes for next summer's pest control, because rabbits, bean beetles and onion and cabbage maggots find plants dusted with dry ashes unpalatable.
Sprinkled throughout the useful tips, facts, daily reminders and recipes are quotations from gardeners, philosophers, poets and authors. Like Thompson's books, Allison's is well written, informative and satisfying to read.
Check these out at your local library or bookstore.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB