[...]]]> The gentleman and gardeners kalendar Containing ample directions for the cultivation of the kitchen and flower garden green house nursery orchard andc for the United States of America

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[...]]]> The Harrowsmith Salad Garden A Complete Guide to Growing and Dressing Fresh Vegetables and Greens

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[...]]]> Sprout It One Week from Seed to Salad Grow Organic Food Without Soil or a Green Thumb

The Sproutman’s guide to indoor organic gardening shows you step by step, how to grow these delicious baby greens and mini-vegetables in just one week from seed to salad. This guide can make anyone a self sufficient gardener of sprouts that are bursting with concentrated nutrition. Includes comprehensive nutrition charts, Questions and Answers, seed resources, illustrations, photo’s & Charts.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Not a complete guide; Somewhat confusing; Mostly good info.
Steve Meyerowitz, a.k.a. Sproutman has been sprouting since the 1970s, and owns a company selling sprouting equipment and seeds. I’ve read several of his books and chatted with him in person about sprouting. Sproutman knows his stuff, and IMO, anything he writes about sprouting is worth reading. I have grown magnificent sunflower sprouts by using a Sproutman Sprouthouse (a bamboo basket in a plastic house) and following Sproutman’s instructions. If you have good sprouting seeds and follow the instructions in this book, I suspect you too will grow awesome sprouts.

Unfortunately, the book is not that well organized and the instructions for sprouting, a fairly simple process, are unnecessarily confusing. There are many methods of growing sprouts, such as baskets, sprouting bags, glass jars, open-ended glass tubes with screens on both ends, trays, etc. This book gives instructions for only 3 methods: baskets, bags, and trays. Sproutman doesn’t explain that upfront, however. If you want to use one of those 3 methods, the instructions are knowledgeable and detailed. BUT: I suggest that when you choose one of these methods, you read through the entire chapter first, because if you try to follow along step-by-step, it’s easy to mess up.

For example, in the chapter titled, “The Technique”, Sproutman launches into instructions for using a sprouting basket, without first explaining that this technique just ONE of many sprouting methods. For this technique he says to soak 5 rounded tablespoons of seeds. He doesn’t explain until 7 pages later that you use 5 tablespoons of seed for an 8 inch basket, 6 to 7 tablespoons of seed for a 9 inch basket, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of seed for a 6 inch basket. A beginning basket sprouter who tries to follow his instructions without reading the entire chapter first, could easily make the mistake of using the wrong amount of seeds for the basket size.

In the next chapter, Sproutman gives instructions for how to use a sprout bag, a different technique. The first thing I would want to know about this is, what are the best seeds for growing in a sprout bag? That information is there, along with days ’til maturity-in the middle of the chapter.

Another thing that’s important to a good sprout book is information about seeds. What are the varities, the days until harvest, the uses and tastes, etc? There’s chart near the end of the book which gives this information, but the seed varities are not in alphabetical order. I can’t figure out any logic to the way the chart is sorted, so if you want to look up a seed variety, you have to read down the entire list. Also, there are some types of fairly popular sprouting seeds missing from the chart, for example, broccoli sprouts.

Although I think most of Sproutman’s information is excellent, albeit a bit disorganized, one thing I take issue with are his frequent sermons about why sprouting jars should not be used. I first used a sprouting jar in 1984, and my jar sprouts have always turned out just fine, without all those immature yellow sprouts Sproutman warns of. If you are careful not to use too many seeds and to shake your sprouts back and forth so they drain well and lay the jar on its side, your jar-sprouted sprouts will turn out just fine. Also Sproutman says a jar requires cheesecloth, screens and rubberbands. Back in 1984, a decade prior to the book’s publication, I used a lid which was a plastic screen and have never had to hassle with cheesecloth, screens and rubberbands. In addition, he says automatic sprouters sell in the range of $450 to $1000. It’s somewhat possible that information was accurate in the 1990s, but in the 2000s, one can find new automatic sprouters for a lot less than $450.

Some of the book’s strengths include the chapter discussing which type of water to use on sprouts, the nutritional information scattered throughout the books, and the presence of an index. I personally think the book’s dumb puns are a strength, but I’m sure the majority of readers will not.

Despite my qualms with this book, Sproutman is outstanding in his field, and I still recommend it to anyone who wants to sprout via vertical sprouter (basket), bag, or tray, or learn about sprouting in general. If you’re using either a vertical sprouter or a bag, I suggest first reading the succinct review of instructions on page 173 for the vertical sprouter and p. 175 for the sproutbag.

1 Star The confusing guide to sprouting
Full of confusing ideas, all scattered information, guides to nowhere. The auther tries to be witty and funny, but his jokes are nothing but disgusting.

5 Stars Very comprehensive and helpful
Yes, as one person noted, the humor is sort of out of place. Bad puns throughout. I’m still giving it a 5 because it’s the most helpful sprout book I’ve seen.

Friends of mine recommended it to me – they have an attractive set-up of baskets of sprouts growing in little seed-germinator covered plastic trays. They are thrilled with the book, and we are excited about starting to sprout. We did sprouts years ago in jars, but this system is better.

Though the book could be more condensed, it’s still an easy read in a few hours. And where else is this vital information available in such thorough detail? If you are considering sprouting, you will find the information valuable.

5 Stars Truly a Wonderful and Complete Book on Sprouting
This is a great book for a person who is interested in sprouting; it is very detailed and is truly full of very interesting and useful information. The book also helps to nullify a lot of the myth about toxins and hidden dangers in sprouts. The real dangers, in actuality, exist in cooked, processed, adulterated, toyed-with, sprayed, chemicalized, distorted foods (which our grocery shelves are full of). I am now 50 years old. Back in my youthful college days, I used to sprout a great deal, eating living foods exclusively. Though I stayed being a vegetarian, I got back into the cooked food craze… eating food like it was a drug for “taste” only. I work with the multiply handicapped and even though I am a teacher I have to do a lot of lifting (of adults who are not at all feather-weight). My arthritis (which runs in the family) was killing me, despite taking all kinds of natural and man made supplements. Getting back to live food was the answer I needed. Steve’s book was inspirational and very helpful. I should have never deviated from what was truly the most nutritious way to eat!
There are many ways of sprouting. I happen to like the sproutpeople.com sprouters best of all. Steve’s book is a priceless tool for anyone interested in sprouting… it has all kinds of neat tips and suggestions.
Also, one suggests doing a web search on Dr. Budwig’s Diet… as most people are seriously deficient in essential fatty acids of the proper type. I take my oil with a little bit of live yogurt.
Anyway… I would not want Steve’s book, including his Kitchen Garden book… missing from my shelves!
As Hippocrates said: “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”

5 Stars Great Little Sprout Book!
I thought this book was terrific! It opened up a whole new world to me. Sprouting makes me feel like I can take part in growing my own food and can control the quality of the food I eat.

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Strict and proper Gramma, unhappy that her green beans won’t grow, leaves for a vacation and [...]]]> Green Beans

Strict and proper Gramma, unhappy that her green beans won’t grow, leaves for a vacation and has a surprise when she comes back.

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How to Store Your Garden Produce: [...]]]> How to Store Your Garden Produce The Key to Self Sufficiency

How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency has been completely revised and is the modern guide to storing and preserving your garden produce, enabling you to eat home-grown goodness all year round. The easy-to-use reference section provides applicable storage and preservation techniques for the majority of plant produce grown commonly in home gardens. Why is storing your garden produce the key to self-sufficiency? Because with less than an acre of garden you can grow enough produce to feed a family of four for a year. But without proper storage, most of it will go to waste since much of the produce ripens simultaneously in the summer. Learn simple and enjoyable techniques for storing your produce and embrace the wonderful world of self-sufficiency. In the A-Z list of produce, each entry includes recommended varieties, suggested methods of storage, and a number of recipes. Everything from how to make your own cider and pickled gherkins to how to string onions and dry your own apple rings. You will know where your food has come from, you will save money, there will be no packaging, and you’ll be eating tasty local food while feeling very good about it!

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Excellent Reference Book
This unusual book saves so much time trawling through all my old gardening books looking for storage techniques for various vegetables and fruit. I use it a lot and have also given it to friends as presents and they are very pleased too! Highly recommended.

5 Stars Fantastic for any gardener
Piers Warren starts off with basic instructions for storage methods: clamping (storing large quantities of roots outside) and other methods of dry storage, freezing, drying (from oven to dehydrator), vacuum-packing, salting, bottling/canning, pickling, relishes & sauces, jams & jellies, and fermenting. This volume isn’t meant as a full-blown wine-making or jam-making resource, so these are only the most basic instructions.

The rest of the book covers individual types of produce in alphabetical order. Since the focus of this book is supporting yourself on your own produce, Warren discusses some topics you might not expect. For instance, how best to harvest a vegetable so as to encourage further harvest throughout the season. He discusses varieties that will have longer harvest times, or that will produce during different times of the year. He talks about how some plants can be started at different times so as to result in a longer harvest period as well.

One potentially useful feature is the section of recommended varieties. For example, the apples section lists out two good varieties of cooking apples, a crab apple, and a handful of eating apples, noting which ones keep particularly well or work best for wine-making or the like. However, in some cases this won’t be as useful outside of Britain (the book was written & published in Britain but is also being distributed in other countries). For instance, I don’t recognize many of the apple or tomato varieties. However, I do recognize a number of the carrot and chard varieties. It just depends on whether a particular type is available & grows well where you are.

The one other small potential snag is a couple of terminology issues. Most of them aren’t a big deal (what US readers call canning, Brits call bottling, but the author notes this). One or two types of produce might be listed under a name unfamiliar to you (plenty of people have heard eggplants called aubergines, but not everyone in the US knows them by that term). Don’t let this deter you from buying this book if you’re in the US, however—the information is incredibly useful, and in most cases there are enough informative notes included that you can substitute varieties as appropriate or easily figure out the terminology differences. Also, all measurements for recipes and such are given in both metric and English measurements.

If you want to become more self-sufficient, or you just want to make better and less wasteful use of your garden produce, I definitely recommend this book.

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[...]]]> Homegrown happiness a green thumb is easy to cultivate GOING GREEN An article from Vibrant Life

This digital document is an article from Vibrant Life, published by Review and Herald Publishing Association on May 1, 2009. The length of the article is 668 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Homegrown happiness: a green thumb is easy to cultivate.(GOING GREEN)
Author: Christine Emming
Publication: Vibrant Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2009
Publisher: Review and Herald Publishing Association
Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Page: 12(2)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning

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From seed to storage, this guide covers ten of the most versatile, [...]]]> The Green Guide to Herb Gardening

From seed to storage, this guide covers ten of the most versatile, easy-to-grow herbs: basil, calendula, chamomile, chives, lemon balm. mint, oregano, parsley and thyme.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Valuable information about 10 popular herbs
The Green Guide to Herb Gardening is a very wonderful book that takes ten of the most popular herbs and explores them fully; from planting, care and nurturing of these plants to the harvesting, storage and culinary uses. There are some wonderful recipes for herbs here and I look forward to using some of them. This book covers it all. A must have primer for any beginner or anyone who who has never grown anything.
But what makes this book special is that it doesn’t stop there. This book also covers the herb history, magic and folklore of these ten herbs, being basil, calendula, chamomile, chives, garlic, lemon balm, mint, oregano, parsley and thyme. Then Ms. Harding adds herbal teas, aromatic and ornamental uses and some simple magical uses. This now makes this book a very useful handbook worth owning by anyone.
Easy to read and follow, Ms. Harding explains everything fully and presents the material in a well organized and easy to follow format. This book is well researched, and a fountain of information on these herbs. I am hoping she plans to do another book on 10 more herbs, as I found this one a valuable aid to be used.

5 Stars I Can’t Decide What I Like the Most…
Author Deborah C Harding has written a winner in “The Green Guide to Herb Gardening.” I can’t decide what I like about this book the most, from picking the ten most Popular Herbs, Recipes, Remedies, Magickal Lore or even the format.

Ms Harding has taken the ten most popular herbs, and put together a sure fire way to propagate, prepare and to preserve. With the added history and lore, recipes and remedies, all together. For the first time we do not need 5 different books to learn of an herb. Its all in one. With easy step-by-step directions, wonderful mouth watering recipes, and over a hundred easy home remedies that can save the consumer a mint!

From the beginner gardener to the professional farmer, whether you only have room for two pots, or you have 100 acres. Whether you want to spice up a dish, decorate, beautify yourself or your home.This is the book for you(. . .)

5 Stars The Green Guide to Herb Gardening
Deborah Harding’s new book “The Green Guide to Herb Gardening” is the perfect reference for herb lovers. The seasoned gardener and the beginning herbalist will both find excellent references in this review of the 10 most popular herbs. Growing tips, harvesting, recipes, lore, healing properties and magical traditions are all covered. Whether you are trying to decide what herbs to add to your garden or looking for recipes and methods to preserve this year’s harvest, this is the book to read! The text is enjoyable and the recipes are tastey and reliable. Don’t hesitate to pick this book up!

5 Stars Excellent addition to my herbal gardening shelf….
Ms. Harding’s book is clear, concise and easy to understand.She manages to present an informative and yet fascinating view intoten of the most common garden herbs–with all the information neededto get you started working with them. Ms. Harding is a multi-talentedauthor, and this book is worth every penny–I wholeheartedly recommendit…

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INTRODUCTION Since ancient times, flowers have held a special place in [...]]]> Flower Arrangement with a Japanese Touch

INTRODUCTION
Since ancient times, flowers have held a special place in people’s hearts, and have been used to provide fitting decoration to various occasions.
In this book, I have tried to stay true to this essence, while emphasizing the simplicity, universality, and flexibility of both western- and Japanese-style flower arrangement.
Typically, flower arrangement focuses on attaining both harmony in color and luxuriance in shape. To these characteristics, I would like to add respect for both the natural beauty of flora such as that found in the wild, and the maximum expression of space by minimal use of materials. In other words, my goal is to adopt the principles of ikebana that succinctly convey the desired mood.
Diverging from convention, I enjoyed expressing myself by combining easy-to-find containers and other modern materials to maintain shape, keeping the contemporary living space in mind.
I have included step-by-step instructions, accompanied by detailed pictures and illustrations, as well as helpful ideas to make arranging easy-to-understand for anyone from beginner to expert. I will introduce the fundamental shapes, and show you example arrangements in which these shapes are used.
I hope that by enjoying your time arranging, you can add a degree of richness to your well-being, and use the seasonal events in your life as an opportunity to express yourself in flowers.

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