The Backyard Homestead, Edited by Carleen Madigan Perkins #8555
Who knew you could produce all the food you need on just 1/4 acre! This compendium of advice tells you how to raise a garden and how to preserve, can, cure, brew, and pickle the fruits of your labor. From there, the food self-sufficiency information goes on to bee keeping, cheese making, growing and milling grains, and keeping poultry, goats, and other livestock. These may be new concepts for many of us but are certainly fascinating and pertinent topics to explore. Illustrations throughout. 368 pages.
Chile Peppers by Brooklyn Botanic Garden #8346
Another in a popular series of gardening books, this comprehensive volume will educate you in a hurry on the growing and eating of chile peppers. Sections by Paul Bosland and other pepper experts discuss the history of chiles, how to grow them in all climates and recognize their pests and diseases, and detailed directions for preserving and cooking them. More than a dozen inviting recipes and bright color photographs are sprinkled throughout this excellent and very user-friendly book. 111 pages.
The Complete Chile Pepper Book, By Dave DeWitt & Paul W. Bosland #8862
Written by two preeminent pepper authorities, this book is described as a gardener's guide to choosing, growing, preserving, and cooking chile peppers. It is really so much more, as these authors lend a wealth of knowledge about chiles that delves deeply into the subject. Among the book's highlights are profiles of the 100 most popular varieties, capsicum cultivation, post-harvest processing, plus 85 chile pepper recipes. Expect to be fascinated, informed, and entertained well beyond the price of the book. Hardcover, full color throughout. 336 pages.
The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, By Barbara Pleasant & Deborah L. Martin #8106
Growing a vegetable garden naturally leads one to an interest in compost because every plant craves the nutritious, organic diet compost provides. Making your own compost saves time and money and produces the most flavorful vegetables ever. The problem is most people don't know where to start, but this book explains how to easily make compost with different techniques and materials (including vermicomposting) and how to use the finished product. Full color photographs. 320 pages
Great Salsa Book by Mark Miller #8742
This is the definitive salsa cookbook written by a famous chef and restaurant owner. It features more than 100 delicious salsas using combinations of tomatoes, chile peppers, tomatillos, fruit, beans, corn, and other healthful ingredients. Each recipe is accompanied by a full color photograph, a heat scale, and serving suggestions. These very tempting and creative recipes are certain to enliven your meals and help you make the most of your garden harvests. 148 pages.
Grow Cook Eat, By Willi Galloway #8918
This full circle book is a great gardening guide that takes you through the cycle from planting a seed in the soil to sitting down to a meal prepared with your own vegetables. Included are the fundamentals of planting, how to grow and harvest 50 different vegetables and herbs, and an easy and enticing recipe for each one. Beautiful color photographs throughout the book are inspirational and the author’s advice on each crop is easy to understand and clearly drawn from her own
experience. I could read this book everyday just for its beauty and its fresh new ideas and insights. 304 pages.
The Heirloom Tomato, By Amy Goldman #8254 This book is one woman's loving tribute to the tomato and everything about it, from planting its seed to the ultimate pleasure of cooking and eating it. Author Amy Goldman knows her subject well and discusses the history and cultivation of tomatoes as well as giving us detailed profiles of select heirloom tomatoes. More than 200 gorgeous photographs illustrate the variety descriptions, which include thorough research enhanced by the author's personal experience of each tomato. Photographs are exquisite--life-like but so artistic it would seem a shame to eat the tomatoes used as subjects. But 55 inspired recipes prove that these tomatoes did end up in the kitchen to become delicious dishes. Hardcover, 272 pages.
The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook by Mimi Luebbermann #8577
The Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival inspired this beautiful cookbook featuring elegant photographs and 50 mouth-watering recipes, such as Cherokee Purple Tomato BLT and Five-Minute Brandywine Sauce. It includes a discussion on favorite heirloom varieties, wine pairings, and tips on cultivating tomatoes, but it is really the recipes and the delicious flavors they promise that will make you want to grow these heirlooms. 132 pages.
Hot Sauce! By Jennifer Trainer Thompson #8001
More people than ever before are enjoying hot
pepper sauces today. Our tastes are expanding, and hot sauces can be fun, great-tasting, and even addictive. Learn more about the types of chiles used to make sauce, try 32 different recipes for sauce—including Sriracha, Louisiana style, and Jamaican jerk,
and enjoy more than 50 recipes for dishes cooked with hot sauce. If you keep a bottle of hot sauce in the pantry or on your table, consider this book to learn more about the exciting world of fiery foods. 192 pages, full-color photography.
The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest, by Carol W. Costenbader #8248
Learn how to preserve all your homegrown produce with this classic primer that teaches how to dry, freeze, can, and pickle. Step-by-step illustrated instructions, informative charts, and delicious recipes make this book a fun and easy-to-use kitchen reference. Also in the book are recipes on jams, jellies, preserves, and marmalades, including tomato jam and five-pepper jelly. 347 pages.
Put‘em Up! By Sherri Brooks Vinton #8607
Preserving food is back in a big way, but those of us who did not grow up knowing these skills will need some help. The first part of this book gives step-by-step instructions for every kind of food preservation, including canning, freezing, drying, and pickling. Then comes the delicious part—lots of recipes featuring fruits and vegetables, some with contemporary flavor combinations as well as the tried-and-true favorites. Think Cherry and Black Pepper Preserves in addition to Granny’s Chow-Chow Relish. This book goes a long way in helping us to keep the local harvest, save money, and eat wholesomely. Full-color photography. 304 pages.
The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel #8140
This newly revised and expanded edition is a complete, up-to-date reference for starting more than 200 vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs from seed. Guides the gardener from starting seeds indoors to planting outside to seed saving and seed storage. Detailed information on tomatoes and peppers includes when and how to plant, temperature and water requirements, protection against pests and diseases, and spacing in the garden. 400 pages. 20 photos and 80 illustrations.
The Pickled Pantry, By Andrea Chesman #8643
Pickling seemed to have become a lost art lately, but renewed interest in food preservation has brought it back. This complete guide for pickling everything from apples to zucchini also has plenty of recipes for cucumber-type pickles. The almost 200
recipes include Full-Sour Kosher Dills as well as many delicious relishes, salsas, and chutneys. You don’t need a canner to make the refrigerator and freezer pickles, and there are instructions for pickling in single jars and small batches. 304 pages, full-color photography.
Serving Up the Harvest By Andrea Chesman #8769
Celebrate your just-picked produce with these wholesome, delicious recipes that help turn what you grow into wonderful meals. The author organizes the book by crop-readiness, with the progression of recipes following the growing season. The vegetables are the stars of these recipes, which are simple yet innovative enough to be really enticing. Also included are tips for growing, harvesting, and cooking, plus nutritional facts about each vegetable. This book belongs on the bookshelf of those who love to cook as well as those who love to garden. 175 recipes and 501 pages.
Tantalizing Tomatoes by Brooklyn Botanic Garden #8616
One of a series of gardening handbooks, this delightful book makes learning about tomatoes fun. Guest authors discuss tomato terminology, history, how to get started, growing and staking, pests and diseases, and more. Especially helpful is a section on difficult climates, with regional experts' advice on strategies and varieties. A discussion of 75 tomato varieties rounds out the book. Entertaining reading for everyone -- beginner and expert alike. 112 pages, more than 50 color photographs.
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith #8312
The book is a comprehensive volume on every aspect of vegetable gardening- starting seeds, soil improvement, making compost, fertilizing, mulching, plus detailed sections on how to grow most of the common vegetables. This is just the sort of book that a beginner needs as a reference, but is thorough and insightful enough to appeal to the experienced gardener as well. Full color photography and illustrations. 320 pages.
The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible
By Edward C. Smith #8348
Written by the author of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, this book shares secrets for growing vegetables and herbs in self-watering containers, all from an organic gardening point of view. It discusses choosing varieties, starting from seed, providing proper soil and nutrition, dealing with pests, and harvesting the bounty. There are details how to grow the most popular vegetables too, including tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. In fact, this well-written book has so much useful information, it is a good general reference for anyone growing vegetables. 254 pages.
The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book, By Barbara W. Ellis #8252
This book is designed to help everyone, from beginner on up, understand how to grow a successful organic food garden. Whether you are a new gardener or just want new ideas and tips, this book provides questions and answers to real-life gardening issues and includes sections on popular vegetable crops. The pocket-sized format allows for easy reference and the advice is based on organic methods. We love this book for its down-to-earth simplicity and plain-spoken wisdom. Illustrations throughout. 432 pages.
Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook by Ron Kujawski & Jennifer Kujawski #8453
This book is a great help for new and experienced gardeners alike because it gives a detailed week-by-week plan for raising a successful vegetable garden. The plan is customized to each reader's own growing season based on the average date of last frost for your area. The authors are a father and daughter team who seem to take a relaxed and common-sense approach to gardening while still showing exactly how to raise bountiful harvests. I found the book highly informative and fun, inspiring me to want to get out and garden. 200 pages.
