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Books, Wonderful Books

Posted at 11:02 PM on February 4, 2008 by Vera Schabicki

I think I really am a dilettante in every area of my life. I have read so many books about pastry and cookies and cakes, but my children are still waiting for those buttery whole wheat croissants I made about a year and a half ago. And there are all the wonderful gardening books … I have a head full of ideas but a thumb missing some dirt…

Two gardening books did inspire me to action. One is The Four Season Gardener by Eliot Coleman. The picture of him and Barbara picking vegetables in the snow, in Maine, in the middle of winter, encouraged me to go out and buy some floating row covers. I just threw them over the pitiful remains of my garden (Grrrrrr, armadillos!) and last winter we nurtured kale and fennel through the whole winter! The basil, alas, did not survive the first frost.

This year, very late, I was inspired by Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening book. That huge chicken wire cage he described has revolutionized our garden (Ha ha to you, Mr. Armadillo!). We only had time to put two together, but with a floating row cover we have broccoli and cauliflower, lots of really delicious kale, Swiss chard, buttercrunch lettuce, parsley and cilantro. I wish we had the nineteen more garden beds we would apparently need to feed our whole family, because all of our vegetables have survived sustained freezes with temperatures in the teens! We are so desperate for fresh things that we are gratefully eating the little bits that we have (quick recipe, bunch of cilantro in food processor with red pepper flakes, couple of garlic cloves, salt, pepper and a stick of butter, really good on fresh whole wheat baguettes).

Instead of building more square foot garden beds I am reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book on eating locally, this might qualify as a poor use of time…….hmmmm.

All you freezing northerners could check out especially The Four Seasons Garden!

Best wishes, Vera