Digging & Dreaming

Charles Dowding's Veg Journal

From time to time I am lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to read books that may be of interest to readers of this blog. When this happens, as much as I may be tempted to fill my house with wonderful books on gardens and growing, it is my preference for refuse the offer unless it is a book that I think will be of particular interest to the people who drop by this site to have a look at what is happening on my allotment and in my Permaculture life beyond. For this reason I was delighted whan I was offered the chance to review of copy of Charles Dowding's latest book - Veg Journal. Charles is one of my favourite writers on the theme of growing, with his books on Winter Veg and Seasonal Salad Leaves being firm favourites for me, so I leapt at the chance to give this new book a read. Charles is also one of the leading advocates of no dig gardening so I was keen to see if this book would give me further insight into this way of growing

 

This book is beautifully laid out making suggestions of what to do on your veg plot each month, whilst also giving tips on the wider context of soil care and organic growing. On this basis it is much more informative than some of the month by month gardening books which are available which simply give lists of what to do but not why to do it.

I particularly enjoyed the top tips and how to guides for popular crops that you may want to have a got at growing. There are also good sections on dealing with different perennial and annual weeds with suggestions how you may begin to get rid of them.

The book is beautifully designed and I think it would be especially useful to people who are early on in their growing careers who want a helping hand along the way to get started.

 

Month by month tips of what to do when

 

In-depth background information building your knowledge as a grower

Top tips on popular crops

To order Charles Dowding's Veg Journal at the discounted price of £12.00 including p&p* (RRP: £14.99), telephone 01903 828503 or email [email protected] and quote the offer code APG69. 

 Alternatively, send a cheque made payable to: 

Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, 

Littlehampton Book Services, 

PO Box 4264, 

Worthing, West Sussex 

BN13 3RB. 

 Please quote the offer code APG69 and include your name and address details. 

 *UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

 

Cooked - A Natural History Of Transformation

Over recent months I have been reading Cooked by Michael Pollan - a book that I picked up because I had enjoyed The Ominovore's Dilemma by the same author so much.

As a book Cooked is beautifully formed in four distinctive sections, on the premise that the fundamentals of how we cook can be directly connected to the four natural elements of fire, water, air and earth. It  explores how the power of the elements can be used to transfrom the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.

Pollan is a superb storyteller and in this book he weaves a rich narrative around the ways that we prepare food. From the traditions of barbecue to the magic of cheese making, his stories are powerful advocacy for the argument that the further away we drift from food and its transformation, the less rich our lives become. Alongside this he makes strong arguments why eating mass produced food is making us ill.

The book is superbly accessible, and the division into sections makes it brilliant to dip in and out of. It is an essential read for anyone who loves food and who values the quality of what they eat and how they eat it.

“Well, in a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization—against the total rationalization of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives. To cook for the pleasure of it, to devote a portion of our leisure to it, is to declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption. (Come to think of it, our nonwaking moments as well: Ambien, anyone?) It is to reject the debilitating notion that, at least while we’re at home, production is work best done by someone else, and the only legitimate form of leisure is consumption. This dependence marketers call “freedom.”

Michael Pollan - Cooked

The Allotment Planner by Matthew Appleby

I have lots of gardening books. Probably more than I need, and more than I would care to admit to! But when I leaf through the pages of a new one I find it hard to resist adding it to my library. It was for this reason that I was particulalrly delighted to be sent a copy of The Allotment Planner by Matthew Appleby, hot off the press, a couple of weeks ago.

The book's author is on the team of Horticulture Week, where he also writes his own blog about gardening. As an allotment holder himself, this book is an irreverent guide to keeping an allotment, and is totally different to other allotment books that I have read. If you are looking for a guide to growing specific crops and to plot maintenance this may not be the thing for you. But if you are looking for an imaginative way to rethink your allotment and the things that you do there it could be just what you are looking for.

The book is beautifully designed and offers month by month suggestions of what to do when on your allotment. From tips on keeping chickens to growing super sized veg, the book is ideal to dip into and find inspiration for projects to try on your own allotment. It offers specific tips to get different projects started alongside sections to record on what you have been doing on your own plot.

I think this book is a great addition to any gardener's library and adds a new angle to your thinking on growing, alongside more traditional horticultural books. You can pick up your own copy of the book here.

 

The Problem with Rhubarb

We grow alot of rhubarb on our plot. A large, healthy bed of it was left by the last plot holder and we never had the heart to do anything dramatic with it as it's right next to the pond and the frogs and newts love the cover of the large, shady leaves during the summer months. The bed contains seven very healthy crowns that produce a hearty crop each year.

"So what's the problem with this?" I hear you ask. Well, the major problem is that nobody in our house actually likes eating the stuff! My Dad will take a little off us, as will be best pal who lives round the corner from the plot and some colleagues at work but, apart from that, the majority of our yearly haul normally goes to waste.

Over the last couple of weeks this year's crop has started to come into its own and I got thinking about my dislike of rhubarb...

"Do I actually not like it?" I asked myself. "Or do I think I don't like it after some horrible experience as a child eating soggy, overcooked rhubarb?"

On reflection I realised that my dislike was probably based upon the latter, and that's the reason why 2011 is the year of the rhubarb in our house. I'm trying as many different recipes as I can to see what this versatile crop has to offer and to see if I've actually not been being a little bit unkind in my prejudice against it.

Last night I started with Stewed Rhubarb with a Vanilla and Yoghurt courtesy of Jamie Oliver. I'm not normally a fan of Mr O and his recipes but this stuff is really good and was a great treat after a long day (though I have to admit I served it with custard rather than yoghurt!) So a rhubarb recipe I actually like? Who'd have thought it? Next I'm planning to have a go of making Rhubarb Chutney using a recipe from Monty Don's book, "Fork to Fork", which is, incidentally, a wonderful book for anyone who's interested in home grown, season food.