FOOD/GARDENING BOOKS

This page features all the best food security books, gardening books (including books about vegetable gardening and books about orchards and fruit bushes), homesteading books, books about raising food animals in your backyard, natural pest control books, composting books, canning books and books about food drying, books about food storage, food preservation books, natural cookbooks, meal planning books, "local food" books, and books about market gardening small-scale selling.

Depletion and Abundance   (by Sharon Astyk)

Life on the New Home Front

We are living beyond our means—with or without a peak-oil/climate-change crisis—and either way, we must learn to place our families and local communities at the center of our thinking once again. Depletion and Abundance presents strategies to survive and thrive in an economy in crisis; to live comfortably with an uncertain energy supply; to create stronger homes, better health, a richer family life; to prepare children for a hotter, lower energy, less secure world; and to maintain a kitchen garden to supply basic food needs. Most importantly, readers will discover that depletion can lead to abundance, and that the anxiety of these uncertain times can be turned into a gift of hope and action.

Gardening When It Counts

Growing Food in Hard Times   (by Steve Solomon)

In hard times, families can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food, showing how a family can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just an occasional bucketful of water, a couple hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies, working just an average of two hours a day during the growing season. Emphasis is put on root systems and irrigation of plants, how to fertilize, and how to control pests organically. Vegetables are also ranked by their difficulty to grow.

The City People's Book of Raising Food

(by Helga and William Olkowski)

"This extraordinary book is the best I have ever seen on home gardens. Its authors grew all their own vegetables and meat from a tiny California plot. Application of the sound ecological principles...."
Read full Amazon customer review or see book page

Storey's Basic Country Skills

A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance   (by John and Martha Storey)

This is the book for anyone who wants to become more self-reliant, from suburbanites with 1/4 of an acre to country homesteaders with several. The information is easily understood and readily applicable. More than 150 of Storey's expert authors in gardening, building, animal raising, and homesteading share their specialized knowledge and experience in this ultimate guide to living a more independent, satisfying life.  "This book is a great guide to self-reliance in the country." – GP

The Encyclopedia of Country Living   (by Carla Emery)

The Original Manual for Living Off the Land & Doing It Yourself

A complete source of information about growing, processing, cooking, and preserving homegrown foods from the garden, orchard, field, or barnyard. For more than 30 years, people have relied on its practical, step-by-step advice on basic self-sufficiency skills such as how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more.  "An all inclusive book of country living. Many forgotten techniques are included in this large book. It's country wisdom at it's best." – GP

The Urban Homestead   (by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen)

Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

The Urban Homestead is the essential handbook for a fast-growing new movement: urbanites becoming gardeners and farmers. The book spans the many aspects of self-sufficient living, from growing city gardens and preserving food to raising city chickens to adding solar energy to your home. It's full of step-by-step projects that will get you started homesteading immediately, whether you live in an apartment or a house.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It   (by John Seymour)

The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide

The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It  teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land. With text and illustrations, it explains how to harness natural forms of energy; raise crops, keep livestock, and preserve foodstuffs; make beer and wine; do basketry, carpentry, and weaving; and much more. John Seymour, the father of the back-to-basics movement, also explains the philosophy of self-sufficiency and its power to transform lives and create communities.

Farm City   (by Novella Carpenter)

The Education of an Urban Farmer

Novella Carpenter explores the possibility of having it both ways: enjoying the fruits of a homegrown vegetable plot, more common in rural America, without leaving the city life and its museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour conveniences. Follow along as Carpenter transforms the abandoned lot next door to her ramshackle house in inner city Oakland from a weed-choked, garbage-strewn mess to a strange and beautiful urban farm, complete with egg-laying chickens; turkeys, geese, and ducks; even rabbits and pigs.

Bringing Nature Home   (by Douglas W. Tallamy)

How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded

With the accelerating pace of development and subsequent habitat destruction, the pressures on wildlife populations are greater than ever. But everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution to sustaining biodiversity. Planting natives in your yard provides a welcoming environment for wildlife. This doesn't need to entail a drastic overhaul of your yard or garden; the process can be gradual and can reflect both personal preferences and local sensitivities.

Landscaping Earth Ponds: The Complete Guide   (by Tim Matson)

The guru of earth ponds explains how to site, design, shape, and plant these beloved fixtures of rural landscapes—and make them fit your property and your life. Tim Matson has designed scores of ponds, each unique to its site and its owners. In Landscaping Earth Ponds, he shares what he has learned to make these captivating ponds truly fit into their landscapes and into the lives and lifestyles of their owners.

The One-Straw Revolution   (by Masanobu Fukuoka)

An Introduction to Natural Farming

Trained as a scientist, Masanobu Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature's own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called "do-nothing" technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you're a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, you will find something here that will spark a revolution in your own garden.

How to Grow More Vegetables   (by John Jeavons)

... (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

A classic in the field of sustainable gardening, this book shows how to produce a beautiful organic garden with minimal watering and care, whether it's just a few tomatoes in a tiny backyard or enough food to feed a family of four on less than half an acre. Updated with tips on the latest biointensive techniques, this is an essential reference for gardeners of all skill levels seeking to grow some or all of their own food.  "Probably one of the most talked about books on gardening. The beginner will learn a lot from this book and the experienced gardener will appreciate the science behind the method." – GP

Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener
(by Fern Marshall Bradley, Barbara Ellis, Ellen Phillips)

This has been the go-to resource for gardeners for more than 50 years—and the best tool novices can buy to start applying organic methods to their fruit and vegetable crops, herbs, trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and lawns. This thoroughly revised and updated version highlights new organic pest controls, new fertilizer products, improved gardening techniques, the latest organic soil practices, and new trends in garden design.  "An improved classic from a research team that can't be beat. We've got the old original edition and it is packed with plant information." – GP

Food Not Lawns   (by Heather C. Flores)

Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community

Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their own "paradise gardens." This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden—simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community—to all aspects of life. Flores shows us how to reclaim the earth one garden at a time.  "Vegetables can be beautiful—even in your front yard—especially when mixed in with floral arrangements." – GP

Square Foot Gardening   (by Mel Bartholomew)

A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work

GP REVIEW:  Do you have a 2x2 foot space? Then you can grow edible plants! Think in squares—grow a 1-ft square of carrots, a 1-ft square of radishes, a 1-ft square of nasturtiums (edible flower) and in the 4th square grow lettuce. Now, you have what you need for salads—from 4 square feet of space. Have soil problems? Just add Mel's recommended mix—a six inch mix of peat, vermiculite, and compost—and you are good to go. This is a great book for beginners.  Also available: All New Square Foot Gardening

Lasagna Gardening   (by Patricia Lanza)

A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding!

A gardening system that works—so you don't have to! Pat Lanza will show you how you can create lush, successful, easy-care gardens in practically any location without hours of backbreaking digging or noisy tilling. The book includes specific "lasagna" techniques for the most popular vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruits, and more.  "No-till soil tending includes cutting weeds and grasses (leaving the remains), adding a blocking layer (newspapers, cardboard), then adding layers of brown and green (carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials) to prepare your plant-ready beds." – GP

The Backyard Orchardist   (by Stella Otto)

A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home Garden

This book is for every gardener desiring to add apples, pears, cherries, and other 'tree fruit' to their landscape. Written by a professional horticulturist and experienced fruit grower, and tips on harvesting and storing fruit. Those with limited space will learn about growing dwarf fruit trees in containers. Appendices include a fruit-growers monthly calendar, a trouble-shooting guide for reviving ailing trees, and a resource list of nurseries selling fruit trees.  "An easy to understand book on how to grow, prune and harvest fruit. Includes pest and disease control and root stock information." – GP

The Backyard Berry Book   A Hands-On Guide to Growing Berries, Brambles, and Vine Fruit in the Home Garden   (by Stella Otto)

Stella Otto explains how to raise lush crops of berries, with pointers on soil nutrition, plant nutrients and mulching that will make your home-grown berries the envy of folks who have only seen berries in containers at the supermarket.  "Berries and brambles and vines—oh my! Each fruit has its own section on varieties, fertilizer requirements, growing, trellis supports, pruning, and harvesting." – GP

Perennial Vegetables   (by Eric Toensmeier)

From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles

GP REVIEW:  There is a fantastic array of vegetables you can grow in your garden, and not all of them are annuals. Perennial Vegetables provides growing tips on more than 100 perennial food species, with dozens of color photographs and illustrations. Imagine-no annual tilling and potting and planting! Find out what is native to your area, what best suits your climate, and then hunt down those wonderful goodies and prepare a comfy spot for them. Take care of them and they will take care of you—for years to come. This book illustrates the growing zone for each edible perennial its history, as well as how to use parts of the plant for tea, salads, cooking, and baking. It also has recipes and resources, making it the go-to guide on how to turn your garden into a perpetual, low-maintenance source of food.

Edible Forest Gardens   (by Dave Jacke)

Vol. I: Ecological Vision, Theory For Temperate Climate Permaculture
Vol II: Ecological Design And Practice For Temperate-Climate Permaculture

This two-volume book integrates the vision and ecology of "forest gardening" with practical management strategies. While Edible Forest Gardens was written as an integrated whole, each volume can stand alone, with valuable learning tools and references. Volume I begins with an overview of the ecological and cultural context for forest gardening in North America. It also lays out a holistic vision, offering clear and specific direction for forest garden design and management. Three forest garden case studies are included, as is a list of forest gardening's "Top 100" species. Volume II provides detailed advice for how to design, prepare the site for, plant, and maintain your forest garden. It also includes a unique Plant Species Matrix and several associated appendices which offer a wide-ranging catalog of the best temperate-climate forest garden plants.
Amazon options:  Volume I,  Volume II,  Both, as a set

Seed to Seed   (by Suzanne Ashworth)

Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about siting plants, plant population sizes, isolation distances, pollination, and proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds of each variety. Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale.  "A must have book for the economically minded gardener as well as those who want to preserve heirloom varieties." – GP

Enduring Seeds   (by Gary Paul Nabhan)

Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation

As biological diversity continues to shrink at an alarming rate, the loss of plant species poses a threat seemingly less visible than the loss of animals. But in many ways, it's more critical. In this book, one of America's leading ethnobotanists warns about our loss of natural vegetation and plant diversity while providing insights into traditional Native agricultural practices in the Americas.

Eat More Dirt   (by Ellen Sandbeck)

Diverting and Instructive Tips for Growing and Tending an Organic Garden

A practical guide to sustainable gardening practices. Good illustrations help explain the techniques. Subjects include soil health, plant needs, best tools, weed and pest control, garden and landscape design.

Permaculture   (by David Holmgren)

Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

In Permaculture, David Holmgren brings into sharper focus the powerful and still evolving concept he pioneered with Bill Mollison in the 1970s. The book integrates 25 years of thinking and teaching to reveal a new understanding permaculture, drawing a correlation between every aspect of how we organize our lives, communities, and landscapes and our ability to creatively adapt to the ecological realities that shape human destiny. Permaculture provides refreshing perspectives on a range of environmental issues and shows how permaculture is much more than just a system of gardening—it's essential to understanding the foundations of sustainable design and culture.

The Reader's Digest's All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening   Planning, Selection, Propagation, Organic Solutions
(by Fern Marshall Bradley & Trevor Cole (editors))

When they say "illustrated," they mean it! Every part of this 500+ page tome is packed with beautiful photos and color illustrations of plants to help you decide what will look nice—and grow well—in your garden. Many detailed how-to illustrations are combined with step-by-step instructions that will help you get it right the first time when it comes to trying new plants and techniques. Read full review of The Reader's Digest's All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening...

The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control   (by Ellis, et al)

Features encyclopedic coverage of the pests that bug all the planty things growing in your yard, including lawns, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals. Excellent pictures help you identify specific diseases and pests so you can design the best pest-control program.  "The pictures of bugs and disease damage are very helpful for answering questions like 'What the heck kind of bug is that eating my cabbage?!?' ... The book has great info for figuring out a safe way to control pest problems or prevent them from happening in the first place." – GP

Ask the Bugman!   (by Richard Fagerlund)

Environmentally Safe Ways to Control Household Pests

Whether it's mice, ants, termites, or pests in the yard, the Bugman provides the most environmentally friendly solution. The Integrated Pest Management approach includes habitat modification, improved sanitation, least-toxic methods, and pest-specific baits.

Great Garden Companions   A Companion Planting System For A Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden   (by Sally Jean Cunningham)

Discover the secrets of a naturally pest-proof vegetable garden by letting a master gardener show you how to keep pests and diseases at bay with her unique companion-gardening system. By planting special combinations of vegetables, flowers, and herbs, you can minimize pest and disease problems and create a high-yielding, beautiful garden!

Welcoming Wildlife to the Garden   (Johnson, McDiarmid, Turner)

Creating Backyard and Balcony Habitats for Wildlife

Offers ecologically sound gardening and landscaping tips for turning your yard into a welcoming environment for birds, amphibians, beneficial insects, squirrels, and other mammals. Covers design, planning, and implementation. Also focuses on use of native species.

How to Get Your Lawn and Garden Off Drugs   (by Carole Rubin)

A Basic Guide To Pesticide Free Gardening in North America

Helpful to anyone needing practical how-to information regarding pesticide-free gardening, soil health, lawn care, and how to deal with pests and plant diseases in a non-toxic manner. Well suited to newbies who just want to try it without having to go hippie.

Barnyard in Your Backyard   (by Gail Damerow)

A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cows

Barnyard in Your Backyard offers tried-and-true, expert advice on raising healthy, happy, productive farm animals: chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, and dairy cows. First-time farmers will discover simple, clear instructions for caring for animals throughout the year, as well as guidelines for processing barnyard products such as milk, wool, and eggs. Each chapter focuses on a different animal, discussing the pros and cons of raising the animal; housing and land requirements; feeding guidelines; health concerns; and a schedule for routine care.  "Includes breed information, housing and feed requirements, health information, and problem areas for barnyard animals." – GP

Chickens In Your Backyard

A Beginner's Guide   (by Rick and Gail Luttmann)

Your backyard can be the source of the best eggs and meat you've ever tasted. The answer is chickens—endearing birds that require but a modest outlay of time, space, and feed. This book covers all the basics, including incubating, housing, feeding, butchering, even raising chickens for show. The authors also express their wonder at the personalities of chickens: the role of brash protector played by roosters and the instinctive motherliness of the hens. Chickens provide backyard farmers with an enjoyable pastime—as well as a supply of good food.

Let it Rot!   (by Stu Campbell)

The Gardener's Guide to Composting (Third Edition)

The first edition of Let it Rot!, published in 1975, helped start the composting movement and taught gardeners everywhere how to recycle waste to create soil-nourishing compost. This (3rd) edition contains advice for starting and maintaining a composting system, building bins, and using compost.  A readable, quietly humorous introduction to composting..."
— Library Journal

Mike McGrath's Book of Compost   (by Mike McGrath)

During his seven years as editor at Organic Gardening magazine, Mike McGrath learned quite a bit about the nature and science of composting. In this illustrated guide, he offers the fruits of his labors, revealing why "compost" is the answer to virtually every garden question. McGrath explains why compost improves soil structure; why it provides the perfect amount of food for every plant; how it fights plant diseases more safely and effectively than any chemical fungicide; and, of course, how to make your own!

The Urban/Suburban Composter   (by Mark Cullen, Lorraine Johnson)

One way to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills is to compost your kitchen's vegetable waste. For gardeners, an added benefit is the resulting humus, rich in nutrients that plants just love. This book, which is subtitled "The Complete Guide to Backyard, Balcony and Apartment Composting," offers multiple approaches to suit a variety of composting goals and interest levels.

Food Security for the Faint of Heart   (by Robin Wheeler)

Keeping Your Larder Full in Lean Times

Robin Wheeler extracts logic from hysteria, packages it with a strong environmental perspective, an abundance of practical suggestions, and good humor. Written for anyone interested in surviving whatever disaster comes along, this book will appeal to both long-time food security advocates and newcomers. Chapters are devoted to useful, transferable skills, including: preserving garden food; saving freezer food during a power outage; managing through an earthquake; preparing quick herbal medicinals; foraging for wild food.

Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook

Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis

Do you have a plan in the event that your power, telephone, water and food supply are cut off during a relatively short-term emergency? What about for an extended amount of time? How prepared are you? With this guide by your side, you and your family will learn how to plan, purchase, and store a three-month supply of all the necessities—food, water, fuel, first-aid supplies, clothing, bedding, and more—simply and economically. (by Peggy Layton)

The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest   (by Carol Costenbader)

150 Recipes for Freezing, Canning, Drying and Pickling Fruits and Vegetables

Remember how grandmother's cellar shelves were packed with jars of tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes, pickled beets and cauliflower, and pickles, both sweet and dill? Learn how to save a summer day—in batches—from this updated classic primer. Use the latest inexpensive, timesaving techniques for drying, freezing, canning, and pickling. Anyone can capture the delicate flavors of fresh foods for year-round enjoyment and create a well-stocked pantry of fruits, vegetables, herbs, meats, flavored vinegars, and seasonings.

Putting Food By   (by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughan)

This classic guide to freezing, canning, and preserving food covers basics like boiling-water baths, pressure canners, canning seafood and poultry, and freezing convenience foods. The fourth edition also includes new information on freezing for the microwave, making Christmas presents, canning convenience food, and kitchen equipment.

The Solar Food Dryer   How to Make and Use Your Own High-Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator   (by Eben Fodor)

The Solar Food Dryer describes how to dry your food using solar energy instead of costly electricity. With your own solar-powered food dryer, you can quickly and efficiently dry all your extra garden veggies, fruits, and herbs to preserve their goodness all year long. Includes basic concepts of solar energy design; complete step-by step plans for building a high-performance, low-cost solar food dryer from readily-available materials; food drying tips and recipes; resources, references, solar charts, and more.

Root Cellaring

Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables   (by Mike Bubel, Nancy Bubel)

Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet!). Root cellaring, as many people remember but few still practice, is a way of using the earth's naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables. It's a simple, low-cost, low-technology, energy-saving way to keep the harvest fresh all year long. In this book, root-cellaring gurus Mike and Nancy Bubel provide step-by-step advice on how to successfully use this natural storage approach.  "An amazing book on storing vegetables—whether you have a traditional root cellar or a pit in the garden. Charts are included to show correct storage temperatures for many of your favorite fruits and vegetables." – GP

The Book of Edible Nuts   (by Frederic Rosengarten, Jr.)

This book looks at the natural history of nuts—their evolution in the world's food supply—and their botany, ecology, and cultivation. The author, a botanist and experienced nut grower, also includes tasty nut recipes and hundreds of photographs. Learn about almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, coconuts, filberts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds, and walnuts—and 30 more kinds of nuts.

The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook

Recipes for Changing Times   (by Albert Bates)

Over the coming years, we will necessarily move from a globalized culture that is addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum and material goods to a culture of greater austerity, conservation, and localization. This book provides practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition. Topics covered include: water supply and waste disposal; energy and transportation; equipment and tools; first aid; food storage; and recipes using basic, wholesome foods.

Kitchen Literacy   (by Ann Vileisis)

How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back

Ask most people where food comes from, and they'll probably answer: "the supermarket." How our foods are raised and what happens to them between farm and supermarket shelf have become mysteries. How did we become so disconnected from the foods that nourish us every day? Ann Vileisis' answer is a sensory-rich journey, covering the dark corners of industrialized eating—health and environmental problems, including food-borne pathogens, toxic pesticides, pollution from factory farms—and revealing how knowledge of food can be regained, leading consumers to healthier, more sustainable choices.

Your Organic Kitchen   (by Jesse Ziff Cool)

The Essential Guide to Selecting and Cooking Organic Foods

Nationally known chef Jesse Ziff Cool first explains why you should choose organic, how to stock your organic pantry, and how to make the most of seasonally changing produce. Then she offers up 160 of her favorite recipes, culled from her 25 years in the restaurant business. Monge! Enjoy!

Cooking with Sunshine   (by Lorraine Anderson, Rick Palkovic)

The Complete Guide to Solar Cuisine with 150 Easy Sun-Cooked Recipe

Solar cooking—a safe, simple cooking method using the sun's rays as the sole heat source—has been known for centuries and can be done, at least during the summer, in just about any place where there's sun. Cooking with Sunshine provides everything you need to know to cook great sun-fueled meals, including how solar cooking works, its benefits over traditional methods, how to build your own inexpensive solar cooker, and more than 100 tasty solar-cooking recipes that emphasize healthy ingredients.

Warming Up to Living Foods   (by Elysa Markowitz)

This book serves as a general, how-to introduction to living foods. It includes recipes and instructions, meal plans, and even tips on the option of warming foods for those who can't fathom the idea of always eating cold food. For the interested but time-challenged, the recipes include approximate preparation times. If you want to vault your living food explorations beyond apples and carrot sticks, here's how.

Food to Live By   The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook

This full-color cookbook by Earthbound Farm co-founder Myra Goodman offers an appealing new casual style of cooking based on using the best ingredients—organic or otherwise. The dishes are irresistible: Sweet Corn Chowder; Spinach/Feta/Mushroom Quiche; Foggy Day Chili; Ginger Lime Salmon; Blue Cheese Smashed Potatoes; and many more. Bring the organic revolution to your dinner plate in delicious, exciting ways! (by Myra Goodman)

What to Eat   (by Dr. Luise Light)

The Ten Things You Really Need to Know to Eat Well and Be Healthy

If you're a health-conscious consumer, one of the hardest questions you face is "What should I eat?" Former USDA nutrition director Luise Light answers with this basic, balanced, and user-friendly food plan that cuts through the confusion and controversy of the latest fad diets, federal guidelines, and agribusiness propaganda. Its ten simple rules are also adapted for a wide variety of nutritional needs—including weight loss, fibromyalgia, diabetes, and gastrointestinal disorders.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle   (by Barbara Kingsolver)

A Year of Food Life

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.  "Kingsolver dresses down the American food complex.... The down-on-the-farm sections are inspiring and...compelling." — Outside Magazine

Coming Home to Eat   (by Gary Paul Nabhan)

The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods

Amazon review:  Does it matter where our food comes from? Do we, our communities, and the planet do better if we choose food grown by local sources we trust? Exploring these and other questions of dietary and spiritual subsistence, the author spent a year trying to eat foods grown, fished, or gathered within 250 miles of his Arizona home. The resulting book, Coming Home to Eat, presents a compelling case for eating from our "foodshed." It's both personal document and political screed, underscoring the assertion that we have too easily believed "the vacuous nutritional promises of the industrialized food that has sold our health down the river"...

Backyard Market Gardening   (by Eliot Coleman)

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow

Discover how easy and profitable it is to grow and sell vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, and small livestock from your own backyard garden. Learn how to earn top dollar, with minimum effort and maximum profits; buy or build tools that speed your work and increase profits; enjoy a guaranteed salary from community supported agriculture or a membership garden. Though written in 1992, this book remains a very useful guide today.  "From a small kitchen garden to a backyard full of farmers' market goodies, this book takes you through the ins and outs of gardening for the market." – GP

The New Organic Grower   A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener  (by Eliot Coleman)

The New Organic Grower presents the simplest and most sustainable ways of growing top-quality organic vegetables. It has practical information on marketing the harvest, small-scale equipment, and farming and gardening for the long-term health of the soil. Other topics include how to construct home-garden and commercial-scale greenhouses and how to plant, harvest, and sell hardy salad crops all winter long. Written for the serious gardener or small market farmer, The New Organic Grower proves that, in terms of both efficiency and profitability, smaller can be better.  "A favorite author of ours, Coleman takes us through the tools and techniques of home and market gardening. Many of the tools he designed himself. His plans for winter gardening—even in Maine—can't be beat." – GP

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VIDEO RELATED TO
food security & urban gardening

THE ORGANIC GARDENS OF HAVANA

This 8-minute clip from the BBC's "Around the World in 80 Gardens" shows how substantial amounts of local, organic food can be grown in urban settings. Cubans have achieved this in spite of—or, perhaps, thanks to—the technology limitations caused by US trade embargo that continued even after Cuba's former sponsor, the USSR, collapsed in the late 1980s. Watch urban gardening video.

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-- BBC web page for Around the
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(by Mike McGrath, Gordon Smith)
Did you know that if you can't smell a strawberry, it won't have any taste? That lemon thyme is as effective a mosquito repellent as DEET? That corn with kernels in the straightest lines will taste the best? Do you know which vegetables should never go in the refrigerator? All of these questions—and many more—are answered in this indispensable guide to vegetables and fruits.  "The photos of each plant are amazing—it's like a "coffee-table book" about gardening."
– GP

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