Armchair Gardening

Now that you are exhausted from the holidays and you probably never want to set foot in another store (unless they sell plants), it's time to dust off those gardening books you put aside when the weather warmed up last spring.  Last time I wrote, I made some suggestions for books written before your vegetables became heirlooms.  There are also many good books currently being written on the subject that are worth your notice.  You have a good three months before the soil starts warming, to learn something that could make your job easier next spring.

If you want to learn all the whys and wherefores of heirloom vegetables, a great place to start is Heirloom Vegetables, by Sue Stickland (Fireside, 1998).  I've mentioned this book before and it's still one of my favorites.   The first section tells all about where vegetables first came from and what group first cultivated them.  You'll learn how the seeds made the long trip to America and how they've survived so long since first arriving.  There's a wealth of information about diversity and the forecast for the future.  The second section focuses on specific vegetables with some choice varieties to try and cultural tips.  The last section is resource lists of organizations, seed suppliers and reference books.   I originally bought it for the wonderful photographs and found myself reading it like a novel.

William Woys Weaver wrote a very personalized look at the subject in Heirloom Vegetables Gardening, (Henry Holt and Company, 1997).  Mr. Weaver is descended from Pennsylvania Mennonites and has made a career of researching and writing about the origins of this American cuisine.  He's also a serious gardener and seed saver and his personal observations combined with his far-reaching research into the subject make for a sweeping reference that will have you tilling up more yard to devote to orange jelly turnips, turtle beans and walking stick cabbage.

Taylor's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables, by Benjamin Watson (Houghton Mifflin, 1996) is everything you've come to expect from a Taylor's Guide.  It' very comprehensive, with about 500 different varieties illustrated and discussed.  They're also very good about providing instructions on how to select the best heirloom for your area.

A Celebration of Heirloom Vegetables: Growing and Cooking Old-Time Varieties, by Roger Yepsen, (Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 1998)  Mr. Yepsen is another avid gardener who became infatuated with heirlooms.  Here he writes about his observations growing hundreds of varieties.  Each vegetable covered comes with shopping and cooking tips and recipes as well as gardening advice and seed-saving instructions.  There are