Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life

Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat. "As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain. "Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ." Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet. "This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

Edible French Garden

Rosalind Creasy

Learn how to create a lovely French garden and then create delicious dishes with your produce using this easy-to-use French cookbook. In this sumptuous volume, the American master of edible landscaping looks at French vegetables and variations on the traditional French parterre garden, in which edibles are grown right along with flowers in formal settings. This book is a must-have for any gardener interested in the flavors of France. The "Resources" section gives you sources for all you'll need to put in your own French garden. Along with a fascinating history and tour of French gardens, Creasy introduces "cut-and-come-again and other harvesting methods used in France. Along with French gardening techniques the many featured recipes include: Roasted Garlic Spread Cream of Carrot Top Soup Leek and Potato Soup with Sorrel Leeks in Vinaigrette Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce Braised Lettuce with Lemon Thyme And many more!

Nature's Best Hope

A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

Douglas W. Tallamy

“Tallamy lays out all you need to know to participate in one of the great conservation projects of our time. Read it and get started!” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation. Nature’s Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats. Because this approach relies on the initiatives of private individuals, it is immune from the whims of government policy. Even more important, it’s practical, effective, and easy—you will walk away with specific suggestions you can incorporate into your own yard. If you’re concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature’s Best Hope is the blueprint you need. By acting now, you can help preserve our precious wildlife—and the planet—for future generations.

Texas Bug Book

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Howard Garrett, C. Malcolm Beck

The good, the bad, the ugly.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life

Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

Barbara Kingsolver tells students about her family’s adventure as they move to a fram in southern Appalachia and spend a year on a locally-produced diet, realigning their lives with the local food chain and paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. In that year, they find themselves eager to move away from the typical food scenerio of American families: a refrigerator packed with processed, factory-farmed food transported long distances using nonrenewable fuels, and in their search for another way to live and eat, they begin to recover what Kingsolver considers our nation’s lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production.

Great Garden Companions

A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden

Sally Jean Cunningham

Designed to help readers make organic gardening easy and productive by using plants themselves instead of chemical care, a gardener offers a system that encourages pest-free growth

Teaming with Microbes

The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition

Jeff Lowenfels, Wayne Lewis

“A breakthrough book. No comprehensive horticultural library should be without it.” —American Gardener When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants, and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle, and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life—not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. This must-have guide is for everyone, from those devoted to organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy plants without resorting to chemicals.

Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener

Fern Marshall Bradley, Barbara W. Ellis, Ellen Phillips, Deborah L. Martin

Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening has been the go-to resource for gardeners for more than 50 years, and the best tool novices can buy to start applying organic methods to their fruit and vegetable crops, herbs, trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals, and lawns. This thoroughly revised and updated version highlights new organic pest controls, new fertilizer products, improved gardening techniques, the latest organic soil practices, and new trends in garden design. In this indispensable work you will find: • Comprehensive coverage for the entire garden and landscape along with related entries such as Community Gardening, Edible Landscaping, Horticultural Therapy, Stonescaping, and more • The most in-depth information from the trusted Rodale Organic Gardening brand • A completely new section on earth-friendly techniques for gardening in a changing climate, covering wise water management, creating backyard habitats, managing invasive plants and insects, reducing energy use and recycling, and understanding biotechnology • Entries all written by American gardeners for American gardeners, with answers for all the challenges presented by various conditions, from the humid Deep South and the mild maritime coasts to the cold far North and the dry Southwest Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening has everything you need to create gorgeous, non-toxic gardens in any part of the country.

Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way

18th-Century Methods for Today's Organic Gardeners

Wesley Greene

A Colonial Williamsburg garden historian outlines traditional methods for planting and tending 50 different kinds of vegetables, profiling such 18th-century utilities as shelter paper and fermented manure while sharing complementary weather-watching guidelines, organic techniques and seed-saving advice.

Carrots Love Tomatoes

Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening

Louise Riotte

Gathers information on the characteristics and uses of plants that promote the growth of other varieties, offering descriptions of helpful weeds and insect-repellent plants

Organic Lawn Care

Growing Grass the Natural Way

Howard Garrett

A renowned landscape gardener’s guide to less expensive, less water-intensive lawns, whether it’s a front yard or a fairway. A lush green lawn is one of the great pleasures of the natural world, whether it’s outside your front door or on a majestic fairway at a legendary golf course. But anyone who’s tried to grow the perfect lawn the conventional way knows it requires an endless cycle of watering and applying synthetic fertilizers and toxic chemical pesticides that costs a lot of money and kills all the life in the soil, on the surface, and on the grass. Fortunately, there’s a better way. Organic lawn care is not only healthier for the environment, it’s actually cheaper and less water-intensive, whether you’re managing a small yard or acres of turf. In this book, Howard Garrett, the renowned “Dirt Doctor,” takes you step-by-step through creating and maintaining turf organically. He begins with the soil, showing you how to establish a healthy habitat for grass. Then he discusses a variety of turfgrasses, including Bermudagrass, bluegrass, buffalo grass, fescue, ryegrass, St. Augustine, and zoysia. He explains in detail planting, mowing, watering, fertilizing, composting, and managing weeds and pests. And he offers alternatives to lawn grasses and turf, describing the situations in which they might be your best choice.

Grow More Food

A Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Getting the Biggest Harvest Possible from a Space of Any Size

Colin McCrate, Brad Halm

Just how productive can one small vegetable garden be? More productive than one might think! Colin McCrate and Brad Halm, former CSA growers and current owners of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, help readers boost their garden productivity by teaching them how to plan carefully, maximize production in every bed, get the most out of every plant, scale up systems to maximize efficiency, and expand the harvest season with succession planting, intercropping, and season extension. Along with chapters devoted to the Five Tenets of a Productive Gardener (Plan Well to Get the Most from Your Garden; Maximize Production in Each Bed; Get the Most out of Every Plant; Scale up Tools and Systems for Efficiency; and Expand and Extend the Harvest), the book contains interactive tools that home gardeners can use to assist them in determining how, when, and what to plant; evaluating crop health; and planning and storing the harvest. For today’s vegetable gardeners who want to grow as much of their own food as possible, this guide offers expert advice and strategies for cultivating a garden that supplies what they need. This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

This Organic Life

Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

Joan Dye Gussow

Joan Dye Gussow is an extraordinarily ordinary woman. She lives in a home not unlike the average home in a neighborhood that is, more or less, typically suburban. What sets her apart from the rest of us is that she thinks more deeply--and in more eloquent detail--about food. In sharing her ponderings, she sets a delightful example for those of us who seek the healthiest, most pleasurable lifestyle within an environment determined to propel us in the opposite direction. Joan is a suburbanite with a green thumb, with a feisty, defiant spirit and a relentlessly positive outlook. At the heart of This Organic Life is the premise that locally grown food eaten in season makes sense economically, ecologically, and gastronomically. Transporting produce to New York from California--not to mention Central and South America, Australia, or Europe--consumes more energy in transit than it yields in calories. (It costs 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry from California to New York.) Add in the deleterious effects of agribusiness, such as the endless cycle of pesticide, herbicide, and chemical fertilizers; the loss of topsoil from erosion of over-tilled croplands; depleted aquifers and soil salinization from over-irrigation; and the arguments in favor of "this organic life" become overwhelmingly convincing. Joan's story is funny and fiery as she points out the absurdities we have unthinkingly come to accept. You won't find an electric can opener in this woman's house. In fact, you probably won't find many cans, as Joan has discovered ways to nourish herself, literally and spiritually, from her own backyard. If you are looking for a tale of courage and independence in a setting that is entirely familiar, read her story.

The Soil and Health

Albert Howard

This is a newly edited revision of Albert Howard's important text on organic farming and gardening, and the central role of humus in maintaining soil health and fertility. No single generation has the right to exhaust the soil from which humanity must draw its sustenance. Modern agricultural practices, with their emphasis on chemicals, poisons, and toxins, lead to the impoverishment and death of the soil. THE SOIL AND HEALTH is a detailed analysis of the vital role of humus and compost in soil health — and the importance of soil health to the health of crops and the humans who eat them. The author is keenly aware of the dead end which awaits humanity if we insist on growing our food using artificial fertilisers and poisons. Albert Howard (1873-1947) was one of the leaders of the British organics movement in the mid-twentieth century. He was the first westerner to document and publish research on traditional techniques of agriculture, including Indian and Chinese farming and management of the soil. "Agriculture is the fundamental industry of the world and must be allowed to occupy the primary position in the economies of all countries." — Albert Howard CONTENTS 1 - Soil Fertility and Agriculture 1.1 The operations of Nature - The life of the plant - The living soil - The significance of humus - The importance of minerals 1.2 Systems of agriculture - Primitive forms of agriculture - Shifting cultivation - The harnessing of the Nile - Staircase cultivation - The agriculture of China - The agriculture of Greece and Rome - Farming in the Middle Ages 1.3 Soil fertility in Great Britain - The Roman occupation - The Saxon conquest - The open-field system - The depreciation of soil fertility - The low yield of wheat - The Black Death- Enclosure - The Industrial Revolution and soil fertility - The Great Depression of 1879 - The Second World War 1.4 Industrialism and the profit motive - The exploitation of virgin soil - The profit motive - The consequence of soil exploitation - The easy transfer of fertility - The road farming has travelled 1.5 The intrusion of Science - The origin of artificial fertilisers - The advent of the laboratory hermit - The unsoundness of Rothamsted - Artificials during the two world wars - The shortcomings of current agricultural research 2 - Disease in Present-day Farming and Gardening 2.1 Diseases of the soil - Soil erosion - The formation of alkaline land 2.2 The diseases of crops - Sugar Cane - Coffee - Tea - Cacao - Cotton - Rice - Wheat - Vine - Fruit - Tobacco - Leguminous crops - Potato 2.3 Disease and health in livestock - Foot-and-mouth disease - Soil fertility and disease - Concentrates and contagious abortion - Selective feeding by instinct - Herbs and livestock - The maintenance of our breeds of poultry 2.4 Soil fertility and human health 2.5 The nature of disease 3 - The Problem of Manuring 3.1 The origins and scope of the problem - The phosphate problem and its solution - The reform of the manure heap - Sheet-composting and nitrogen fixation - The utilisation of town wastes 3.2 The Indore Process - Some practical points - The New Zealand compost box - Mechanisation - The spread of the Indore Process 3.3 The reception by scientists 4 - Conclusions and Suggestions

Edible Schoolyard

Alice Waters

Offers a look at an organic garden on school grounds, which are tended and harvested by students and the benefits that arise from it.

The Manual of Seed Saving

Harvesting, Storing, and Sowing Techniques for Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits

Andrea Heistinger

“Makes it easy to find information in a snap, on most any edible you want to grow.” —Kylee Baumle, Horticulture Growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs from seed has many benefits for both the gardener and the planet. Why save seeds when you can buy them so cheap? Not only does seed saving allow you to grow a diverse, organic array of fruits and vegetables, it also offers an opportunity to work closely with nature and be even more hands-on with the food you grow, cook, and eat. Supported by research from the global conservation organizations Arche Noah and Pro Specie Rara, The Manual of Seed Saving features information on how to maximize seed quality and yield for crop plants like asparagus, carrots, corn, rhubarb, spinach, squash, and tomatoes. Plant profiles include critical information on pollination, isolation distances, cultivation, harvest, storage, and pests and diseases.

The Resilient Gardener

Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times

Carol Deppe

"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

From Vines to Wines

The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine

Jeff Cox

Tells how to select, plant, cultivate, train, prune, protect and harvest grapes, and explains each step in making wine

Harvest for Hope

A Guide to Mindful Eating

Jane Goodall, Gary McAvoy, Gail E. Hudson

"An exploration of the global meaning of food and what all of us can do to exercise power over the food industry and, ultimately, our environment"--Provided by the publisher.

The Elements of Organic Gardening

Highgrove, Clarence House, Birkhall

Charles (Prince of Wales), Stephanie Donaldson

Expanded from: The garden at Highgrove. London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000.