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food lovers garden
Mark Diaconohead gardener, river cottage
amazing edibles You Will love to groW and eat
ForeWord bYHugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
the
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contents
introduction 6
what to grow 10
the food 20Soft Fruit 22Autumn OliveChilean GuavaEdible HoneysuckleFuchsiaGoji BerriesMignonette StrawberriesRhubarb
Wineberries
Tree Fruit 50ApricotsMedlarsMulberriesPeaches & Nectarines
Quinces
Beans & Greens 70AsparagusBorlotti BeansCardoonsGlobe ArtichokesKai LanPeas
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Buried Treasure 106
Egyptian Walking OnionJerusalem ArtichokesOcaSalsifyYacon
Salad & Flowers 128DayliliesMicroleavesMizunaNasturtiumsSorrel
Nuts 142AlmondsChestnutsPecansWalnuts
Herbs & Spices 154Carolina AllspiceChervilLovageSweet CicelySzechuan Pepper
the directory 170acknowledgements 192
Lie is too short to grow ordinary ood. Why
spend all that time, eort, and money growing
ruits and vegetables that can be easily purchased
and which taste pretty much the same whether
home grown or shop bought? InThe Food
Lovers Garden, River Cottage head gardener
Mark Diacono reveals that it is no harder to
grow the unusual and utterly delicious than it is
the entirely ordinary.
Filled with practical growing advice and
mouthwatering recipes, this inspirational book
urges gardeners to orget those oods that
they normally grow, instead suggesting they
challenge their taste buds and expand their
culinary horizons by cultivating little-known
gourmet delights such as kai lan, salsiy, Chilean
guava, daylilies, and Szechuan pepper instead.
Whether gardeners have a large growing space,
a small kitchen garden, or even a selection o
containers, Mark oers suggestions or oods that
provide a quick return and will leave the kitchenully stocked throughout the year. Over 40
extraordinary crops are included, complete with
speciic growing advice and mouth-watering
recipes or putting the harvest to best use.
The Food Lovers Garden encourages gardeners
to share Marks sense o culinary enthusiasm. Its
a sumptuous and lyr ical invitation to garden, eat,and live more adventurously.
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12 what to grow
getting startedFor most o us, going about deciding what to grow usually
starts with a drawing o your veg patch. This then gets
divided into quarters, beore each is assigned a plant group
based on the rotation that most horticultural books suggest.So brassicas here, potatoes there, and so on. Its what I did in
my irst year at Otter Farm and, rankly, all it does is to lay
the oundation or the unspectacular.
I the sun shines when it should and it rains when youre
at work, you may well get exactly what you asked or:
a perectly respectable harvest dominated by maincrop
potatoes, onions, carrots and cabbages with a ew salads
round the edge. Im not saying that these crops wont make
beautiul ood French onion soup can be abulous and
theres nothing wrong with a jacket potato. But unlessyoure striving or sel-suiciency, why put lots o eort
into growing something which, at best, promises to be
indistinguishable rom the shop-bought when you could
be adding wonderul alternatives such as oca, yacon and
Egyptian walking onions to your larder instead?
Here at Otter Farm I sidestep the mundane, the cheaply
available and the ordinary in the hope that you might too.
Every ood here is remarkable in one way or other and is
drawn rom my own wishlists (see opposite).
Im not saying you shouldnt grow the perectly amiliar,just gently encouraging you to actively chooseto grow
everything that makes it into your garden, rather than simply
automatically including the usual suspects. I you do, you too
may delight in the subterranean potatoes that taste o pear,
or the spicy warmth o Carolina allspice. Or perhaps youll
rediscover the orgotten ruits o the mulberry, quince and
medlar, or gamble on the summer ripening the very inest
peaches, apricots and kiwis that money cant buy instead.
Whatever you opt or, you can be assured that all o these
incredible underappreciated herbs, salads and vegetables will
taste sensational, as well as being completely dierent rom
anything available in the shops.
So why not try and think a little more imaginatively, grow
and eat a little more adventurously, and set about creating
your own unique edible garden?
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getting started 13
making a wishlistThe moments you spend drawing up a wishlist
of foods you would love to grow will define
everything that follows. Forget techniques and
timings, planting and pruning: get your wishlistright and youll be on your way to the best an
edible garden can give. Here are a few tips to help
you create your own wishlist:
GROW THE UNBUYABLES
Supermarkets require a reliably high yield, easy
harvesting, simple preparation and a long shelf
life. This limits the selection of crops available to
buy and is the reason that most of us havent had
access to the stunning flavours of artichoke hearts,
cardoons and medlars, for example, all of which
can be easily grown.
TRY SOMETHING NEW
There are always new foods to discover, so
grow a few things you like the sound of, even if
youve never eaten them before. Its a fine rule of
thumb that if youve never eaten a food, it will
be delicious. My first wishlist included quince,
mulberries, apricots, medlars, peaches, pecans,
Szechuan pepper, mizuna, day lilies, kai lan and
Chilean guava many of which I hadnt tasted
before growing.
PRIORITISE PLOT-TO-PLATE VEG
Grow as many of the foods that decline rapidly
such as asparagus, peas and sprouting broccoli
as you have room for. Because of the way these
crops lose flavour and texture as soon as they
are detached from the plant, each of these is
unbuyable at the top of its game.
GET READING
Be nosy when looking for seeds. Talk to suppliers,
search the internet and get a selection ofcatalogues everyones will be different. Take the
best from each and create your own menu the
service takes a little longer but youll be eating
what you order just the same.
Why put lots of effort
into growing the mediocre,
the cheap, or anything
indistinguishable from the
shop-bought when you
could be adding wonderful
alternatives such as oca,
yacon and Egyptian walking
onions instead?
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158 the food
Native to southern India, the black pepper (Piper nigrum) that most of us have
in our grinding mills at home is sadly beyond viability away from tropical climes.
Fortunately however the livid red berries of the Szechuan pepper grow perfectlyhappily in most temperate areas and make for a delightful alternative.
Szechuan Pepper
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About the AuthorMark Diacono is head gardener at Hugh Fearn-ley-Whittingstalls River Cottage enterprise run-ning the growing courses, giving talks, and hostingevents at River Cottage HQ and appearing in theRiver Cottage TV series.
The Food Lovers GardenAmazing Edibles You Will Love to Grow and Eat
THIS SUMPTUOUS BOOKsets orth a stunninglysimple vision or todays edible gardener: Lie is too short togrow ordinary ood. Why grow plain old potatoes, carrots, andonions, when its just as easy and so much more gratiying to
cultivate extraordinary avors like sweet and crunchy daylilies,nutrient-packed gojiberries, and the perect peach. Te FoodLovers Garden oers growing tips, avor profles, harvesting ad-vice, preparation notes, and recipes or truly amazing edibles thatexperienced gardeners and adventurous cooks will love to grow.
ISBN: 978-1-60469-229-7
$27.95, CAN$34.95, hardcover, 192 pp, full color throughout
Ships February 2011
www.timberpress.com
A SWASHBUCKLING and DELICIOUS ADVENTUREwhere you travel the world and taste its nest fruitsin your own backyard.
Press contact: Emma Alpaugh
Publicity & Promotion
National publicity
Online marketing and promotion
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, founder of River Cottage
and author ofThe River Cottage Cookbook
Timber Press books are distributed in the gift and book tradeby Workman Publishing. PLEASE SEE YOUR SALES REPTO ORDER, OR CALL (800) 722-7202.