as an organic farmer of 8 years i strongly recommend this reading to all professionals whose selection is bound to a few seed sources. the book will infuse new knowledge in plant varieties and allow to improve your farming altogether. 2 examples are the mention of a vining watermelon which will allow treillising for better yield and the use of malabar spinach as superior in taste and ease of cultivation to all true spinaches..

This book will inspire the successful return
of heirloom cultivars to many home gardens. A very good resource book for garden club
or school science projects.

Heirloom Vegetable Gardening by W.W.Weaver provides detailed descriptions of cultivation and cooking of hundreds of varieties of old and ancient food plants. His narratives are wonderful, and make very interesting reading. His tips on cultivation, though primarily focused on his region of the country, are complete and helpful. Altogether a throroughly enjoyable book, that provides insight and tremendous expertise in an area that is vitally important.

What a treat this book is! I first came across it in my local public library years ago and was instantly captivated. Confections to drool over just viewing the marvelous photos alone. Mr. Weaver is one of the best at not only supplying us with tantalizing historical recipes, but also including a detailed, interesting history behind each one. Syllabub anyone? This book is definitely a feast for the senses!

Charsley's treatment of wedding cakes is an interesting historical and social study. Feminists in particular will be intrigued and outraged by the symbolism that has gone into making the tradition of the wedding cake (particularly the cutting of the cake) what it is today. This book made me think about weddings in a whole new way.

A Tour Through Our Extraordinary Culinary Heritage. A fascinating history of vegetables from around the world & onto our platters for supper.

You will find sidebars extolling the virtues of efficiency & flavor of just about every plant W3 hunts down, together with hints for gardeners about spicing up beverages & other mildly improper culinary secrets.

From the Aji Dulce Pepper (Capsicum chinense) from Venezuela - smoky flavored without the "hot pepper overkill and the sensation of fiery lava flowing through the body" ... to the Zwollsche Krul Celery (Apium graveolens) found in the salt marshes of the Netherlands - a curly leaf celery that falls under the general English category of smallage - parsley & such - used boiling or stewing.

Part of the history of the plants we've cultivated for hundreds of years(What was the Lumper Potato?) is also part of the history of our language of cooking. You will find terms such as landrace or smallage.

The plants which W3 pursues are noncommercial or "backyard" varieties that have been under cultivation for a very long time. They are the real ingredients of peasant cookery & often provide regional cookeries with their distinctive flavors.

Which vegetable delicacy did our Third President set upon his table for his guests? Would you know what Cardoon is? W3 knows & now so do I!

Enough already! Talk about digging for the roots of our roots! A garden book for cooks or a cook's guide to ancient gardens - either way - if you like veggies, you're going to want your own copy of W3's latest!

In one sense this is a popular book, easy to read with helpful line drawings of the vegetables (gracefully rendered by Signe Sundberg-Hall). Weaver even gives phonetic guidance on how to pronounce the names of the vegetables, which include peppers, beans, potatoes, lentils, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, eggplants, etc. Part of the book is a celebration of those names and an appreciation of their history. While reading this I made a mental note to get to my local Whole Foods or Begonia Farms store more often and try something new and exotic!

In another sense this is an advanced book for gardeners and culinary experts, not because the book is technical, but because for most people most of the vegetables presented will not be found at the local supermarket, nor will their seeds be found at the local garden and seed store. Additionally it is not always clear to this amateur how these exotic varieties differ from their more prosaic fellows at the local A&P. Weaver helps by attempting to describe the taste (hard to do!) and advises on things like texture, color and spiciness (e.g., wear gloves when cooking Aji Lemón peppers, and don't breath the fumes!). He includes some recipes and advice on complementary foods to go along with the featured veggies. He gives some recipes, sometimes from the culture of origin. For gardeners there are five pages of seed catalogue stores and their web addresses. For botanists he includes the botanical names and the plant's family name. No fungi, by the way. There are varieties from "every continent, except the frozen one," e.g., "Shungiku Edible Chrysanthemum," from Japan, "Pepino Dulce Melon" from South America, "Jaune du Poitou Leek," from France, even the "Petaluma Gold Rush Bean," from my native California. Among the exotic names I found some terminology new to me. Some vegetables are referred to as "heirloom" varieties and/or "cultivars." Weaver uses the term "landrace," which I couldn't find in any of my dictionaries, defined on page two as a noncommercial or "backyard" variety in cultivation for a long time. Weaver has himself cultivated all the varieties presented here on his farm in Pennsylvania where he grows three thousand or so vegetables on a rotating basis. His knowledge about vegetables and his love for them is very impressive. His appreciation of the culinary arts is evident. This is a pretty little book from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill that would make a nice present for someone you know who loves cooking or gardening.

This book amazes me: The author has managed to combine two activities I don't usually do (cooking and seed propagation) with two of my least favorite subjects (history and social studies) in a reference-style format compelling enough to read in bed.

Mr. Weaver has a flair for culinary description combined with an unabashed enthusiasm for both plants and people. When he describes a plant's origins, he doesn't just state a place and a time, he takes you there, he tells you how he found it, he describes the husbandry behind it, and THEN he tells you what it's like to eat it. And what it goes well with. And how it might look in a garden. And what its virtues are. And so on, invoking an exotic world of color and taste such as never graced your local grocer's vegetable shelves!

So:

...If you've ever enjoyed thumbing through cookbooks to savor the taste of imagined dishes...

...If you've ever enjoyed reading a travel journal and experiencing people and customs through the eyes of others...

...If you've ever enjoyed browsing through seed catalogs and plotting away the winter with dreams of exotic varieties (--all yours for the mere price of a seed packet!)

...Or if your shopping for anyone with an interest in "foodways"...

...Then this book is well worth the price.

This is really more of a history book, to my reading. It has wonderful little known facts that I would never have learned otherwise. There is a lot of research that went into this book, and she obviously worked long and hard to get this book and the history into order. This is a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in Poland or Slavic areas, and the recipies, to me, almost seemed as an afterthought, though I do not doubt they are correct and proper for Poland. Enjoy!!!

This book is filled with a wealth of educational material. This book is comprised of mostly history regarding the culture, the food, and the people. The recipes are well written with measurements in english and metric, temperatures are also given in standard and celcius degrees. Most recipes are from the peasant folk with a few meat dishes sprinkled in. Some recipes are common to today's standards while a few of the others would not typically be seen served in today's kitchen. There are approximately 30 recipes or so in this book. Each recipe has its history in terms of how it was served, to whom it was served, and when it was served. The book is a worthwhile read.

Beautifully photographed and illustrated historical cookbook. This book is a delightful education in the history of Christmas cooking in America. You feel as though you are touring a museum decorated for the holidays with delicious spreads and a peek in the kitchen. The kind hostess left a copy of the recipe for you to take home and try. I was attracted to the photo of Christmas barley candy made in molds to look like stained glass ships and circus animals. The text unfolds a story of the influences and changes in American Christmas celebrations. I love cookbooks where the photos let you savor the foods while you read and with this book I can almost smell the "Humbug Pie". There are close ups of the completed recipes so you see how your attempts should look. This book is a great find for those who love historical cookbooks.