Grow Your Own Eat Your Own by Bob Flowerdew -Garden Book Review

A few days after Bulb by Anna Pavord arrived in the mail for me to review I got a copy of Grow Your Own Eat Your Own by Bob Flowerdew. While flipping through the pages I was charmed by the photography, design of the book and food styling for the recipes. Yes, I judge books by their cover and the whole look of the book is a bit of a shock for someone accustomed to the antiseptic (in a good way) design of books and magazines by Martha Stewart or Organic Gardening magazine. While they contain good information and are aesthetically pleasing, it sometimes bothers me to see hand models with perfectly manicured fingernails and oxford shirts in gardening publications. Where was I? Oh, yes.

Everything about the garden (farm?) that's pictured in this book would probably give Martha Stewart a heart attack. An old garden gate leaning against a pile of unidentifiable junk, strawberries growing in tire planters, a backyard vineyard planted in white buckets, missing windowpanes, a ladder leaned against the grape arbor that leans against a dilapidated shed. All of these beautifully flawed vignettes would probably be cropped out of photos or not show at all in most garden books and magazines. In Grow Your Own Eat Your Own the largest photos are dedicated to the chaos of a real garden, one that isn't concerned about the way it looks because the purpose of the garden is to grow fresh organic crops.

Who is Grow Your Own Eat Your Own for?

Gardeners and the latest urban and backyard agriculture enthusiasts. People interested in a sustainable way of life where they're connected to the food they're putting on their table. While you can find many books about growing your own food they only guide you to a certain point. What do you do with the crop you grow so much of you don't know what to do with besides unloading it on your friends and family? And what to do with that crop that doesn't yield you enough to share with your friends and family? How do you keep all of that fresh produce, fresh?

Not many gardening books give you practical advice such as; preserving, canning, juicing or give recipes that make the most of the crops your grow, Grow Your Own Eat Your Own does. What I like the most about the ideas for preserving and recipes is that it doesn't look like you need fancy kitchen gadgets and appliances to make the dishes, preserves and deserts suggested.

After you've picked out all of the vegetables and fruit trees you want to grow in your garden pick up a copy of Grow Your Own Eat Your Own so you know how to preserve and produce your grew in your garden.

I wasn't familiar with Bob Flowerdew before I received a copy of this book, but the book jacket informs me that he is "Britain and Europe's leading organic gardener." With a surname like Flowerdew it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it did. Other books by Mr. Flowerdew of interest to gardeners and backyard farmers include: Bob Flowerdew's Organic Bible, The No-Work Garden and The Gourmet Gardener.

You can read the writeup I did for Bulb by Anna Pavord on my Chicago Garden blog.