Lizzy welcomes you to the garden

Lizzy welcomes you to the garden
The blog for the UCSB Garden

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Garden Lending Library

We procured a bookcase (with doors to keep critters out) for a garden lending library. It's in the regular toolshed, focusing on books on gardening and cooking. I think the two go hand in hand as gardening allows you to grow things not commonly available in stores and/or grow better tasting veg than you can get anywhere, and you need recipes/skills to cook them; meanwhile, cookbooks introduce you to ingredients that you may want to grow in the future! For now please use the whiteboard on the front of the other shelves for a sign out sheet.

For the garden books, there are/will be some all-around books, some focusing on composting, an insect pest ID book, some on heirloom seeds, and some books from ES faculty members Liz Carlisle and David Cleveland that I've read and really liked. 

For the cookbooks, some are seminal veg texts from the 70s, some are photo heavy for inspiration, some text heavy for knowledge. Currently it's a bit biased towards America and Europe but that's only cause I haven't tracked down some of the other books I want to get. 

There are also some books from garden member Andy that are really good and some cookbooks I had laying around that may or may not be of interest. Here's an annotated bibliography of the books I recommend.


The Kitchen Garden, Sylvia Thompson, she gardens up in the mountains above LA so somewhat relevant to our climate. Very thorough info and she has growing tips for many, many types of plants.

The Kitchen Garden A-Z, Mike McGrath, the author is super knowledgeable, he ran Organic Gardening magazine for many years and also hosts a radio show about gardening. Pretty sure I've mentioned him before on the garden blog. Big coffee table-style book, lots of pictures, basic text. Great for beginners and inspiration.

Baker Creek seed catalog, we recommend the local store Island Seed and Feed, but I don't drive, so buy alot online. Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) has an astounding variety of veg - both different species and variety within each species. Their catalog is great for inspiration.

Cooking from the Garden, Rosalind Creasy, fantastic and prolific author. This book is organized around growing specific gardens in order to have ingredients for specific ethnic cuisines. Also a ton of general gardening info.

Earthly Delight, Rosalind Creasy

Blue potatoes, orange tomatoes, Rosalind Creasy, a children's book, basic gardening info

 the Art of the Kitchen Garden, Ethne Clarke, garden design, nice watercolors

Worms eat my Garbage, all about vermicomposting

Let it rot!, good book about composting

Mike McGrath's book of compost, good book, has a humorous bent

Rodale's color handbook of garden insects, useful

On Good Land, History of Fairview Gardens and a bit of history of Goleta Valley in general. 

Heirloom Vegetables, book on seed saving, old varieties, etc

the Heirloom Gardener, book on seed saving, old varieties, etc

American Grown - the White House kitchen garden, by Michelle Obama

Hippie Food, I loved this book, ties together the natural food movement that began in the 70s with organic gardening and the back to the land movement. Very well written.

Grain by Grain, Liz Carlise, about Kamut wheat farming in Montana, how growing non-commodity crops might save american small farmers. Super inspiring

Lentil Underground, Liz Carlise, about lentil farming in Montana, how growing non-commodity crops might save american small farmers. Super inspiring

Food Gardens for a Changing World, David Cleveland

Golden Gate Gardening, about SF but also generally about gardening in coastal (foggy) CA which is us

The California Landscape Garden, a ton of local-ish info

 

Tassajara Cooking, Edward Espe Brown, written by a Zen Buddhist monk who worked at the Tassajara Hot Springs retreat in Big Sur. Beyond excellent book for the beginning cook, shows how to hold a knife, how to cut veg, how to use veg, helps you understand food and cooking.

Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen, one of the original 70s veg cookbooks, pretty dairy heavy, handwritten/handdrawn. Classic

the Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Mollie Katzen, her second book

Chez Panisse Cooking, Paul Bertolli, one of the original farm to table cookbooks, CA, fantastic

the Victory Garden Cookbook, 80s, covers an insane variety of veg, definitely some you won't have heard of. a couple of pics are cut out of this copy

Faye Levy's International Vegetable Cookbook, excellent coverage of veg, recipes more interesting (to me) than Victory Garden

Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa, I got this because it has a bunch of fava bean recipes. later got a hardcover version so the garden gets the paperback. Authentic.

Super Natural Cooking, a modern cookbook, a ton of pics, CA vegan cooking.

Verdura, Viana la Place, CA vegetable cooking with an italian influence, really good writer

the Unplugged Kitchen, Viana la Place, CA simpler cooking, really good writer

New Vegan Cookbook, Lorna Sass, smaller book but good ideas

From an Ecological Kitchen, Lorna Sass, bigger book, lots of knowledge

Jamie at Home, he changed the way I cook, focuses on ingredient quality, and makes difficult things approachable, this particular book is about farm to table recipes. The Naked Chef is also great.

Jamie's Italy, superb

Jamie's Food escapes, a travel book, shorter sections on Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco

Bistro Cooking, Patricia Wells, fabulous french cookbook, practical/not fussy

Trattoria, Patricia Wells, does the same for italian food

Italian Country Table, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, one of the best books on italian food

the Glass Pantry, Georgeanne Brennan, prolific author, this book on preserving food is beautiful and great. I've made the eggplant/balsamic preserve many times

World-of-the-east vegetarian cooking, superb older veg cookbook


 

 





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