How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency [Paperback]

Piers Warren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2008

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!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There are so many benefits to 'growing your own', and as more and more of us get bitten by the bug this is the kind of book we'll need to give us storage tips in order to prevent all that unnecessary waste." The Cottage Gardener

About the Author

Piers Warren grows all manner of fruit and vegetables in his garden and greenhouse. As well as being an author of several books and many magazine articles, he also teaches wildlife film-making. He is very experienced in running a smallholding and is keen to promote organic principles, sustainability and green thinking.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Green Books; 2nd edition (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190032217X
• ISBN-13: 978-1900322171
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Piers Warren is a wildlife film-maker and author living in rural Norfolk UK. He has walked the African plains with Maasai Warriors, tracked tigers in India on elephant-back, explored the Amazon rainforest, swum with sharks, trekked across Tanzanian deserts on a camel and filmed cheetahs hunting in Kenya. But his favourite place is the North Norfolk coast, where he spends his time capturing the flora and fauna on film ... and looking for pawprints in the sand.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic for any gardener, July 8, 2008

By 

H. Grove "Errant Dreams Reviews" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency (Paperback)

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.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference Book, February 9, 2006

By 

Fern - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Store Your Garden Produce (Paperback)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book, some outdated information, February 9, 2010

By 

C. Thomet (Boise, id United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency (Paperback)

I havn't read all of the book yet, but it looks very helpful. I did find one problem though. In the section about canning your food in jars, it mentions using the oven. This process for canning is not safe according to the USDA. It does not heat the food hot enough to kill the bacteria. If you want to can your produce, I recommend visiting the USDA website for up to date recipies and information on safely preserving your food via canning.