Customer Reviews

The Vegetable Garden

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I am a University of California Master Gardener who loves to visit gardens, farms, and libraries. So this summer I was visiting Peter Forni of Forni Farms in the middle of Calistoga and asked him about his favorite book. Well, this is it. At first glance one could assume a book written in France in the 19th century might not be too helpful (translated to English in 1885). Au Contraire...

Each vegetable (and many fruits and herbs) are given a stunningly well thought out introduction with information on history, timing, flower and fruit formation, ways to get successive crops, pests, supports, longevity of seed, culinary uses, etc. It also provides information on a number of cultivars, many of which are no longer available. It was "written from over a hundred years of personal experience by the senior members of the Vilmorin family (proprietors of one of the oldest and largest seed houses in the world)"

This book has been out of print for a number of years which is a shame but if you watch you'll find "very good" used copies that appear at a reasonable price.

NOTE: There is a new printing of this book now available here at Amazon (about time). Also you can find a scanned copy at Google books, and many decent libraries will, and all should have a copy.