Description:
First published in 1983, Theodore James's Cultivating the Cook's Garden has been updated to take into account a few of the changes that have occurred at the American dinner table in the last 15 years--for example, the rising popularity of asparagus beans, the yard-long beans favored by cooks of Chinese cuisine. More and more cooks know of the product, and buy it when it's available in local markets, but can just as easily grow their own. James tells you how. Cultivating the Cook's Garden assumes the reader already has some gardening experience. This isn't a book about how to establish a garden, how to create compost, how to weed and water, or how to fertilize; it's as cut-to-the-chase as a gardening book can get, yet has delightful literary merit. What James has to say about each of the plants in his book is a pleasure to read. Divided into sections on vegetables, herbs, and berries, the gardener will find detailed planting, cultivation, and cooking information on 48 vegetables from artichokes to tomatoes; 27 herbs; a list of edible flowers ranging from anise seed to thyme; and eight berries, including blackberries, currants, gooseberries, and Fraises des Bois. Though it's small--of a size that fits neatly into a jacket pocket as you head for the garden--Cultivating the Cook's Garden is packed with the pertinent information a kitchen gardener needs to be successful. Read it and eat. --Schuyler Ingle
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