Bookshelf musings

 I'm excited about the newest additions to the garden bookshelf! 

The first is Edible - illustrated by our local artist/ author and farmer Katie Kulla, with writers Kevin Hobbs (England) and Artur Cisar-Erlach (Austria). We're invited to journey into the world's Botanical larder, and hope for a  sustainable future! 

Edible - 70 sustainable plants

Katie gave a wonderful talk yesterday on the inspiration and creation of this work at our library, co-sponsored by the wonderful Third Street Books. "More than half of most folks' diet is made up of three grains and a bean (wheat, maize (corn), rice and soy)" - but there are thousands more that we can use to craft a healthier and more sustainable future.' 

Edible highlights 70 of these - from all 7 continents (including seaweed from Antarctica) from baobab and carob to sweet potato leaves and Yangmei (Asian bayberry)

Katie and her husband Casey offered produce and meat from their CSA for over a decade, and her next book will be a compilation of stories from their own and other families farming using sustainable and regenerative methods. 

Last week, my friend Nikki brought me 'Eating to Extinction - the world's rarest foods and why we need to save them' by BBC journalist Dan Saladino. (Dan highlights his work in this video from 5-15) "diversity brings resilience" ...

Tasty Tubers and Eating to Extinction

While Nikki and I have grown shrubs of Camellia sinensis var Sochi (from Sochi on the Black Sea) for 15 +  years; in Bandong, China (Yunnan province) there's a tea camellia tree (source of the rare pu-reh tea cakes), 400 years old, and 'the height of a three storey building!'

Often, a few gardeners or small communities save heritage seed or starts of favorite veggies and plants, adapted to our own region. I'm so grateful to see companies,  gardeners and farmers who make the effort to seek out these treasures, and pass on the heritage!

In the 70s-80s, I was married to a botanist, who is well aware of the narrowing of food choices and limiting the species grown over the last 6-10 thousand years, and dangers inherent in monoculture. He still loves saving seed,  trying different native plants and finding heritage varieties which can grow in our area. 

Garden bookshelf

Do you have favorite plants passed down  from family or friends?