5 comments about The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost his Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden.

1. I live in the Northeast and not too far from this guy's place. I have no fence. I use no pesticides nor fertilizer. I see deer, rabbits, woodchucks and opposums on my land all year. On average, if I spend 15 minutes a day working the soil then that is a lot! And my family and I have been eating from the garden for over two decades. I think the author should see a shrink because he, genuinely, needs help.



2. I'm not into gardening, or have I ever attempted to build a garden, but you don't need a green thumb to enjoy this book! Bill encounters one headache after another. You almost want him to throw in his gardening gloves forever. It's admirably how he sticks with it and fights every battle, while his wife, Anne, calmly goes about enjoying the beauty of her flowers. Their children,Zach and Katie, could care less about the garden, unless of course they would like to eat fresh vegetables. I now have a new appreciation for this hobby. Gardening can be both romantic and nightmarish. The $64 Tomato is a fun,quick read for the summer. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time. When I go for my walks, I check out the neighbor's gardens now,and I laugh when I see dead grass under their rose bushes.



3. A entertaining read while learning all types of mistakes in gardening in the Northwest. Love love love.



4. The writing in this book is excellent and it reads very quickly. Also, Alexander is at times funny. However, the entire time I was reading this I couln't stop thinking that this guy is just spoiled upper-middle class. I couldn't help feeling like he wanted the perfect garden without putting in much effort. And that, I feel, is just rediculous.



5. Loved this book. I so identified with the author. There were so many times I just laughed out loud. I too have grown the $64 tomato!

2 comments about The Southern Kitchen Garden: Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs and Flowers Essential for the Southern Cook.

1. Anyone who is either new to food gardening in the South or has been unsuccessful in their previous attempts will appreciate this very useful new gardening book. Adams and LeRoy clearly explain the tricks to growing edibles from delicious veggies and fruits to fragrant herbs and flowers. Unlike many typical how-to books, this wisdom comes from the author's own hand-in-the-dirt experience, and it is beautifully illustrated with photographs sure to inspire the reader to create their own kitchen garden space. An excellant gift book that will be treasured for years.



2. Excellent book. A must have resource for anyone wanting to grow a great kitchen garden in the south.

2 comments about American Tomato: The Complete Guide to Growing and Using Tomatoes.

1. if you are not a really good gardener, and maybe don't understand the standard lingo, then this good book could disappoint. it helped me diagnose an illness in one of my tomatoe plants, but i disagree with the comments on pruning. but the biggest problem is that it does not have pictures. so, if you are new to gardening, you also should buy the vegetable gardener's bible by edward smith. together, i think a beginner can do well. (if you don't prune, make sure you have LOTS of room. and stake, stake, stake!)



2. As a gardening and tomato enthusiast, I was excited to find a book dedicated to my favorite vegetable. This volume, however, was a complete let-down.
   
   Not only does it lack illustrations/photos, it offers gardening tips and information readily available in your standard gardening book or guide. From the information available on the author, it seems that he has little if any gardening background at all, making his many unusual and unconventional cultivating tips suspect at best.
   
   Although 'American Tomato' offers some lists of the different varieties of tomato available, the lack of illustration and absence of detail for the varieties named is both frustrating and disappointing.
   
   If you are very fond of growing unusual, exotic or rare tomato types, this book will surely disappoint. This book simply does not give the level of detail or description that one would expect from a book dedicated solely to the tomato. Content is rather basic, and seems directed to the casual or new gardener. This audience, however, would be better served by purchasing a general vegetable gardening book.
   
   It is interesting to note that the author has written several other books, all on wildly varied subjects. Perhaps the author should become better acquainted with one subject area and be able to write with more authority, rather than spending his time writing numerous books of lackluster quality on such a wide range of unrelated interests.

No comments about Guide to North Carolina Vegetable Gardening.

2 comments about How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency.

1. This unusual book saves so much time trawling through all my old gardening books looking for storage techniques for various vegetables and fruit. I use it a lot and have also given it to friends as presents and they are very pleased too! Highly recommended.



2. Piers Warren starts off with basic instructions for storage methods: clamping (storing large quantities of roots outside) and other methods of dry storage, freezing, drying (from oven to dehydrator), vacuum-packing, salting, bottling/canning, pickling, relishes & sauces, jams & jellies, and fermenting. This volume isn't meant as a full-blown wine-making or jam-making resource, so these are only the most basic instructions.
   
   The rest of the book covers individual types of produce in alphabetical order. Since the focus of this book is supporting yourself on your own produce, Warren discusses some topics you might not expect. For instance, how best to harvest a vegetable so as to encourage further harvest throughout the season. He discusses varieties that will have longer harvest times, or that will produce during different times of the year. He talks about how some plants can be started at different times so as to result in a longer harvest period as well.
   
   One potentially useful feature is the section of recommended varieties. For example, the apples section lists out two good varieties of cooking apples, a crab apple, and a handful of eating apples, noting which ones keep particularly well or work best for wine-making or the like. However, in some cases this won't be as useful outside of Britain (the book was written & published in Britain but is also being distributed in other countries). For instance, I don't recognize many of the apple or tomato varieties. However, I do recognize a number of the carrot and chard varieties. It just depends on whether a particular type is available & grows well where you are.
   
   The one other small potential snag is a couple of terminology issues. Most of them aren't a big deal (what US readers call canning, Brits call bottling, but the author notes this). One or two types of produce might be listed under a name unfamiliar to you (plenty of people have heard eggplants called aubergines, but not everyone in the US knows them by that term). Don't let this deter you from buying this book if you're in the US, however---the information is incredibly useful, and in most cases there are enough informative notes included that you can substitute varieties as appropriate or easily figure out the terminology differences. Also, all measurements for recipes and such are given in both metric and English measurements.
   
   If you want to become more self-sufficient, or you just want to make better and less wasteful use of your garden produce, I definitely recommend this book.

1 comments about Vegetable Gardening Simple Steps To Success.

1. My friend bought this book and I glanced thru it at her house and was inspired by the photos and have to have a copy of it for my own. It has great ideas for a cottage garden for those of us who are Country Girls or Country Girls At Heart.

3 comments about Designing And Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally.

1. One of my most-used books; I'm buying this copy for a wedding. Two negatives -- The cost is high, and even as I wish for more color photographs, I ponder how much the price would rise with them. Also, as a new gardener, I struggled with five-syllable foreign terms and phrases. But he compensates well. After "an inoculant called rhizobium that colonizes the roots of leguminous plants", he says, "Pull up some bean plants. If you can see small pinkish white nodules on the roots" then it's okay. (p. 125)
   
   The range of material is wide yet thorough. Can I grow peaches where I live? He compares 10 varieties, with limitations and virtues. He suggests alternate reading for each subject, and offers a capsule review (e.g., "A good one to browse in the library; only serious tree crops enthusiasts need own it." p. 219). The appendix seems all-encompassing to me, with an expansive index, recommended magazines and supportive organizations, mail order suppliers, & real recipes like "Chayote Parmigiana", with text on everything you'd EVER want to know about growing chayote for the dish, including Effort. (p. 300, 301)
   
   Rosalind Creasy broke ground (ha!) promoting edibles in the landscape, and Kourik credits her. Her book has not been updated, however; this book remains timely.



2. I'm sure this book is interesting to some, but it left me disappointed. The style was too dry and technical to inspire me.



3. I just got the book a week back and I am still reading it. I had to write this review because of the number of stars this book got. It is unfair since only 2 persons have reviewed it. Yes, this book is a little technical, but nothing that a lay person cannot understand. Actually, that is the reason I got this book for. I wanted facts and not stories. I have been reading about permaculture for a while now. I had so many unanswered questions. The minute I read preview pages on Google books, I bought it without the usual second thoughts I get. I am still learning a lot. I liked the section on companion planting and decided not to buy a book on it. Instead I just ordered his book on drip irrigation. I didn't get any color photos in my book. I found I had to download it from his web site. But I don't care much for somebody's landscape photos because I will design my own :) This book has a section on roots too. I also bought his other book on roots as I found it hard to design without knowing what happens underneath. If you are in doubt about buying this book, read the preview to see if this is for you.

5 comments about The Art of the Kitchen Garden.

1. This book is wonderful! I wanted to make our garden area look more landscaped and put together rather than having the plants look sloppy. This book gives wonderful pictures and ideas for making it work. It also gives descriptions of types of plants to use as well as edible flowers. It works for the mini garden as well as the large garden areas. I recommend this book to all vegetable gardeners who want more than a tomato plant here or there!



2. The Gertleys' book concentrates on the design styles for a kitchen garden, based on the parterre de broderie, which achieved its ultimate glory at Versailles. They use a series of simple geometric shapes to achieve their parterre gardens as their designs become increasingly complex. They derive design inspiration from Celtic knots, Japanese crests, and quilt patterns.
   
   Their designs are inspirational to view however, their gardens are very demanding of their creators. The designs might raise or fall on the placement of a radish and are not especially functional. I am a cook first, gardener second, and artist last when it comes to potagers.
   
   Their methodology requires far more nitty-gritty planning than suits my preferred approach. It often appears at counter purposes to a kitchen garden that is meant to supply the table since it is so meticulously groomed and cared for and harvested with such additional planning in order not to destroy the patterns made by the vegetables.
   
   The book's approach is much like Charlie Tuna asking; "Do you want tunas with good taste? Or, do you want tuna dat tastes good?"
   
   I admire the design talent and illustrations if not the philosophy.



3. For a couple minutes you may marvel at this book, and then you'll quickly realize it's full of repetition of a theme -- same style, same border plants, sameness throughout. Worse than that, however, is the fact that if you even bothered to lay one of these out it would look just right for only a week or so before you wanted to pick something but decided against it so as not to throw off the symmetry, or worse one part of your composition died away and made the rest useless. Gardening is hard enough work without resorting to this. I have a pretty kitchen garden thanks to borders of allyssum and gravel paths, but it's not as insane as this where I would constantly be dismayed it was dying or wanted to pick something (heaven forbid). There are many books on pretty kitchen gardens. This is a book for people who want to achieve something surreal that will ultimately make them miserable very shortly thereafter. Stop by my house. I'll give you this book for free. Worthless. Sameness. Boring. Useless.



4. This book is lovely and inspirational and full of good ideas. I do not have time for such an elaborate garden but I have planted mine using many of their ideas an it is beautiful and functional.



5. Excellent illustrations (pictures and charts) to help define a kitchen garden. Could be more practical for small home gardens.

5 comments about Hydroponic Tomatoes: For the Home Gardener.

1. After reading a rather scathing review posted on Amazon.com entitled "Get an editor" I chose not to order this book. Later, I happened across the book at Borders, thumbed through and purchased it. The book is is excellent!

   I believe the review misleads readers. I will address the two specific criticisms: Bad chemistry? Resh very carefully explains the concept of PH ( the reviewer missed this)-reference to a PH of 4.0 as very acidic was relative to the PH needs of tomatoes and, in fact, 4.0 is very acidic for a tomato (just a fact of life, not bad chemistry). Sulphuric acid for novices? Resh talks about sulphuric acid/hydroxides because they are, indeed, used within hydroponics (see hydroponic supply web sites). However, he is very clear that he does not recommend their use and lists the same reasons given by the reviewer (somehow the reviewer overlooked this also).Resh goes on to recommend specific safety measures for those who insist on their use.

   The book is clearly written, well illustrated and extremely practical. I have read it twice and highly recommend it.




2. Dr. Resh's book is copyrighted 2003 but was first published in 1993 and it looks like there were no updates or revisions in this version. The information he gives is good solid technique and practice that is the basis of any hydroponic system. I would put this in the beginner to intermediate knowledge range. His diagrams of systems are strictly from a homemade point of view but the art of building DIY systems has grown tremendously since he wrote this 12 years ago. One last note - in his resource lists there is not one mention of the internet.
   I'll keep this book on my shelf for the next time someone asks me how do you do it.



3. i have read the book. I believe the writer is very expert in this field too.
   But, some lines worries me.
   e.g. from 10pm to 2pm
   review: could it be 10am-2pm ? or 10pm-2am ??
   
   e.g. low light condition, to slow growth increase EC.
   review: no explanation found why. increase food?
   
   i hope he can get his expertees and knowledge available to public more clearly through clearer writing or an editor.
   
   my third book from him, is on the way to my mailbox. I hope the writing is better.
   HOPE



4. This is a good book for the beginers that want to start their experience with a "hands on" material



5. This is the fourth book on hobby hydroponics that I've purchased and I think that it contains a lot of useful information for such a thin, fast read. It does a very good job explaining how to set up a NFT (nutrient film technique) system for tomatoes. It is also told me that tomatoes prefer a pH between 6.3 and 6.5. I had previously read the range was 5.5 to 6.5 and keeping the pH at the higher level has seemed to really improve the health of the plant and the rate of growth. I discover new tomatoes growing on my single plant almost every day now!

5 comments about 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From.

1. 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From text treatment of the vegetable picks a hundred vegetables from around the world and shares their stories of development and consumption. Read here about the Pennsylvania Winter Luxury squash which can be eaten like an apple, or the Botswana cowpea, which is a creamy dish in Africa. Excellent folklore for vegetable fans.



2. William Weaver's 100 Vegetables And Where They Came From text picks a hundred vegetables from around the world and shares their stories of development and consumption. Read here about the Pennsylvania Winter Luxury squash which can be eaten like an apple, or the Botswana cowpea, which is a creamy dish in Africa. Excellent folklore for vegetable fans.



3. In one sense this is a popular book, easy to read with helpful line drawings of the vegetables (gracefully rendered by Signe Sundberg-Hall). Weaver even gives phonetic guidance on how to pronounce the names of the vegetables, which include peppers, beans, potatoes, lentils, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, eggplants, etc. Part of the book is a celebration of those names and an appreciation of their history. While reading this I made a mental note to get to my local Whole Foods or Begonia Farms store more often and try something new and exotic!

   In another sense this is an advanced book for gardeners and culinary experts, not because the book is technical, but because for most people most of the vegetables presented will not be found at the local supermarket, nor will their seeds be found at the local garden and seed store. Additionally it is not always clear to this amateur how these exotic varieties differ from their more prosaic fellows at the local A&P. Weaver helps by attempting to describe the taste (hard to do!) and advises on things like texture, color and spiciness (e.g., wear gloves when cooking Aji Lemón peppers, and don't breath the fumes!). He includes some recipes and advice on complementary foods to go along with the featured veggies. He gives some recipes, sometimes from the culture of origin. For gardeners there are five pages of seed catalogue stores and their web addresses. For botanists he includes the botanical names and the plant's family name. No fungi, by the way. There are varieties from "every continent, except the frozen one," e.g., "Shungiku Edible Chrysanthemum," from Japan, "Pepino Dulce Melon" from South America, "Jaune du Poitou Leek," from France, even the "Petaluma Gold Rush Bean," from my native California. Among the exotic names I found some terminology new to me. Some vegetables are referred to as "heirloom" varieties and/or "cultivars." Weaver uses the term "landrace," which I couldn't find in any of my dictionaries, defined on page two as a noncommercial or "backyard" variety in cultivation for a long time. Weaver has himself cultivated all the varieties presented here on his farm in Pennsylvania where he grows three thousand or so vegetables on a rotating basis. His knowledge about vegetables and his love for them is very impressive. His appreciation of the culinary arts is evident. This is a pretty little book from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill that would make a nice present for someone you know who loves cooking or gardening.




4. This book amazes me: The author has managed to combine two activities I don't usually do (cooking and seed propagation) with two of my least favorite subjects (history and social studies) in a reference-style format compelling enough to read in bed.

   Mr. Weaver has a flair for culinary description combined with an unabashed enthusiasm for both plants and people. When he describes a plant's origins, he doesn't just state a place and a time, he takes you there, he tells you how he found it, he describes the husbandry behind it, and THEN he tells you what it's like to eat it. And what it goes well with. And how it might look in a garden. And what its virtues are. And so on, invoking an exotic world of color and taste such as never graced your local grocer's vegetable shelves!

   So:

   ...If you've ever enjoyed thumbing through cookbooks to savor the taste of imagined dishes...

   ...If you've ever enjoyed reading a travel journal and experiencing people and customs through the eyes of others...

   ...If you've ever enjoyed browsing through seed catalogs and plotting away the winter with dreams of exotic varieties (--all yours for the mere price of a seed packet!)

   ...Or if your shopping for anyone with an interest in "foodways"...

   ...Then this book is well worth the price.




5. A Tour Through Our Extraordinary Culinary Heritage. A fascinating history of vegetables from around the world & onto our platters for supper.

   You will find sidebars extolling the virtues of efficiency & flavor of just about every plant W3 hunts down, together with hints for gardeners about spicing up beverages & other mildly improper culinary secrets.

   From the Aji Dulce Pepper (Capsicum chinense) from Venezuela - smoky flavored without the "hot pepper overkill and the sensation of fiery lava flowing through the body" ... to the Zwollsche Krul Celery (Apium graveolens) found in the salt marshes of the Netherlands - a curly leaf celery that falls under the general English category of smallage - parsley & such - used boiling or stewing.

   Part of the history of the plants we've cultivated for hundreds of years(What was the Lumper Potato?) is also part of the history of our language of cooking. You will find terms such as landrace or smallage.

   The plants which W3 pursues are noncommercial or "backyard" varieties that have been under cultivation for a very long time. They are the real ingredients of peasant cookery & often provide regional cookeries with their distinctive flavors.

   Which vegetable delicacy did our Third President set upon his table for his guests? Would you know what Cardoon is? W3 knows & now so do I!

   Enough already! Talk about digging for the roots of our roots! A garden book for cooks or a cook's guide to ancient gardens - either way - if you like veggies, you're going to want your own copy of W3's latest!