A Celebration of Heirloom Vegetables: Growing and Cooking Old-Time Varieties

The author of this book has beautifully illustrated and described 25 different species of heirloom vegetables. In addition to providing a brief description of each cultivar, or variety, he also provides information about saving your own seeds. Recipes are an integral part of each chapter, as well. The colloquial tone of the book makes it sound simplistic to the knowledgable reader, but probably makes it more accessible to others. The unfortunate part, and the reason I give it four instead of five stars, is his rant against hybrid vegetables in the introduction. The author uses a decidely biased, opinionated tone in describing hybrid seed production, as if somehow, vegetable breeders and seed companies have devised some devilish system for removing the control of seed production from the hands of the underdog citizen. His description of the hybridizing process is one of the worst I have ever heard or read. Not for its accuracy, but due to the ill-intent implied in it. I am sorry when I see and hear otherwise well-educated people jump on a bandwagon against agriculture and the tremendous advances that have been made in agricultural science and technology, not only to "feed the world", but also to help farmers make a decent living doing so. It is a credit to such advances that in America today, somewhat less than 5% of the population needs to be directly involved in growing almost all the food the rest of us eat. None of these advances takes away from the desire of home gardeners to grow their own produce, or to desire qualities in their vegetables that differ from those needed by someone who has to ship their produce over long distances. Clearly, there is a need for vegetable cultivars that are flavorful, beautiful, and resistant to pests, diseases, heat, cold, humidity, and drought. Unfortunately, most heirloom varieties cannot meet more than the first two of these criteria. And what good is that, when your plants die before flowering or fruiting? Only a focused breeding program for those traits is likely to elicit the desired outcome. The author's ink and time would have been better spent exploring such a possibility rather than "raging against the machine". I give the book four stars for the positive aspects of it, and suggest that the novice reader ignore the introductory comments about hybrids.

This is a beautiful book worth purchasing for the watercolor paintings alone. The book is organized by vegetable type, and several heirloom varieties are described in each section. Interesting, simple, mostly vegetarian recipes are provided, as well as historical and cultural information. This makes a great gift book!