The Jam Maker S Garden

Grow, preserve, and enjoy! “Truly the book to read if you have an interest in jams.” —Kitchen Garden magazine Grow your own vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers—and preserve the best homegrown ingredients in jams, chutneys, cordials, and sauces for months and even years to come! From planning the jam-maker’s garden to selecting the best varieties to grow; from sowing and planting to harvesting and foraging, to using tried and tested cooking methods to preserve the best flavor and quality, this book covers it all—and also includes fifty recipes for tasty jams, chutneys, and preserves that you’ll savor. “Farrell isn’t just a jam expert—she deftly covers curds, pickles, chutneys, ketchups and plenty more.” —Kitchen Garden magazine “One of the ever-increasing breed of gardener cooks, [Holly Farrell] is as much at home in the kitchen as in the garden. Her writing is simple yet enthusiastic: her explanations are clear and her eagerness is infectious. The photographs, by the accomplished Jason Ingram, are mouth-wateringly appealing.” —Sunday Times Ireland

Planting Plans for Your Kitchen Garden gives you all you need to turn your back garden into a productive paradise with modular planting plans for simple beds of vegetables, herbs, fruit and cut flowers. You can also mix and match the beds to create your own kitchen garden or allotment.

This pioneering study tells the story of the emergence of rural workers' gardens during a period of unprecedented economic and social change in the most dynamic and prosperous region of Scotland. Much criticised as weed-infested, badly cultivated and disfigured by the dung heap before the cottage door, eighteenth-century cottage gardens produced only the most basic food crops. But the paradox is that Scottish professional gardeners at this time were highly prized and sought after all over the world. And by the eve of the First World War Scottish cottage gardeners were raising flowers, fruit and a wide range of vegetables, and celebrating their successes at innumerable flower shows. This book delves into the lives of farm servants, labourers, weavers, miners and other workers living in the countryside, to discover not only what vegetables, fruit and flowers they grew, and how they did it, but also how poverty, insecurity and long and arduous working days shaped their gardens. Workers' cottage gardens were also expected to comply with the needs of landowners, farmers and employers and with their expectations of the industrious cottager. But not all the gardens were muddy cabbage and potato patches and not all the gardeners were ignorant or unenthusiastic. The book also tells the stories of the keen gardeners who revelled in their pretty plots, raised prize exhibits for village shows and, in a few cases, found gardening to be a stepping-stone to scientific exploration.

Become self-sufficient all year round with this handy guide to storing your garden produce. There is a huge sense of satisfaction in being so self-reliant that you can grow fresh fruit and vegetables all year. With less than an acre, you can cultivate enough produce to feed a family of four for an entire year – but as most produce is ripe in the summer and autumn, most of it will go to waste without proper storage. How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency is a modern guide to storing and preserving your garden produce, enabling you to eat home-grown goodness all year round. The book is beautifully organised with the first part detailing a variety of creative storage methods, including basic storage, clamping, drying and vacuum-packing as well as pickles, chutneys, cheese, jams and jellies. The book also features an easy-to-use A-Z list of produce, in which each entry includes recommended varieties, suggested methods of storage and a range of delicious and unusual recipes to try out, from apple cider and strawberry wine to mushroom ketchup and pumpkin soup. With this helpful book, you'll know where your food has come from, save money, avoid packaging and eat home-grown food. Learn simple and enjoyable techniques for storing your produce and embrace the wonderful world of self-sufficiency.

Garden Flora surveys 133 of the most popular garden plants organized alphabetically by common name. In this fascinating and revealing book, Noel Kingsbury delves into the family histories of our most beloved flora—and discovers unexpected treasure.

Britain’s foremost food writer Nigel Slater returns to the garden in this sequel to Tender, his acclaimed and beloved volume on vegetables. With a focus on fruit, Ripe is equal parts cookbook, primer on produce and gardening, and affectionate ode to the inspiration behind the book--Slater’s forty-foot backyard garden in London. Intimate, delicate prose is interwoven with recipes in this lavishly photographed cookbook. Slater offers more than 300 delectable dishes--both sweet and savory--such as Apricot and Pistachio Crumble, Baked Rhubarb with Blueberries, and Crisp Pork Belly with Sweet Peach Salsa. With a personal, almost confessional approach to his appetites and gustatory experiences, Slater has crafted a masterful book that will gently guide you from the garden to the kitchen, and back again.