Fruit and Vegetable Books

The Great Tomato Book is simply an excellent book. Clearly and concisely written, it covers all aspects of the tomato, from its history right down to what to do with your harvest. While it may not have loads of colour photopgraphs like some other tomato books--it does have some though--it more than makes up for it in the numerous interesting and useful bits of information that are found throughout.

This book was a handy reference tool when I decided to grow heirloom tomatoes from seed. Though 145 pages, the bulk of helpful information is found within about 60 pages, which cover tomato growing essentials. The remainder is devoted to tomato history and tomato recipes. There is also a fairly good list in the back of the book of tomato seed resources. One noticeable omission from that list is Gary Ibsen's fabulous tomatofest.com, which offers more than 500 organic heirloom varieties (perhaps due in part to Ibsen's competing book of the same name!)

Nevertheless, this book does its job in walking the reader through the steps of successful tomato growing:

a. CHOOSING SEEDS (hybrid vs. OP, or open pollinated varieties.) I was especially glad to see the author discouraging the reader from hybrids, especially F1 hybrids, which:
reduce naturally occuring varieties over the years
encourage pollution through the seeds' reliance on fertilizers
don't reproduce normally from seed
F1s may be more disease resistant, but they also help the commercial seed grower maintain a monopoly over what kinds of tomatoes are grown, whch is why saving and sharing seeds of naturally occuring varieties is an essential component of biodiversity.

b. CHOOSING POTTING SOIL
c. STARTING THE SEEDS - how, where, when
d. TRANSFERRING SEEDLINGS
e. MAINTAINING AND ROTATING CROPS
f. FIGHTING PESTS AND DISEASE - an important chapter, since heirlooms are more prone to disease
g. MULCHING
h. HARVESTING

The book also covers "tomato lingo" fairly well, explaining such terms as determinate and indeterminate, and the difference between heirloom and other naturally occuring varieties. It features a few b/w photos and 8 color pages of tomato pictures that while pretty, are not at all functional. Better to have devoted the color photos to plants with insect damage or disease as a helpful reference to the home gardener.

The Great Tomato Book is a beginner's book, and a good one. It got my tomatoes off to a wonderful start a couple of years ago and I've once again pulled it off the shelf to refresh my knowledge as I start a new crop of tomatoes from seed.

This book is truly one of a kind for the beginner or the expert. It provides informative incite to from the seedling to the dinner table for those that consider themselves tomato addicts. The book is an extremely good bargain for the price and should be in every gardener's library.

This is an excellent guide for hydroponic production both commercial and home garden.

I have checked out every available book from the library on hydroponics and this is the one that impressed me enough to add to my personal library. And because I am so impressed with Dr. Resh's information I'm also buying his book, Hydroponic Tomatoes for the Home Gardener.

The illustrations are not really usable, the pictures are dated there's nothing about water testing equipment etc. The systems described are in vague terms with little or no details. If you are looking for a good book on hydroponics for the beginner my advice would be to look elsewhere.

I first read this book about 10 years ago. I was interested in finding out why an acquaintance of mine, who had some form of intestinal cancer in 1976 and was given up on by regular doctors, was able, through advice from a homeopath doctor, begin and keep a regimen of a raw vegetable juice diet and become totally free of the cancer. I met him after he had been free of cancer for about 8 years. He raised a fantastic large garden of vegetables and had juicing equipment of all stainless steel, the likes of which I had never been able to find until now. I am in the process of getting information on prices and quality of equipment. When I find exactly what I want, I hope to begin using raw vegetable juices in my diet. M.R. Wirth

The instruction on how and why to juice vegetables and the properties of the various juices seems thorough, but the author's discussion on the cause of disease is archaic to the point of being humorous. For instance, Malaria is said to be caused by "...excessive retention of morbid matter in the body while in an atmosphere of foul or unwholsome air..." That belief came from the late 1800's before it was discovered that Malaria was caused by a protozoan transmitted by mosquitoes. Menopause is "the penalty women pay for half a lifetime of eating destructive foods...", and Syphilis thrives in "waste matter that results from eating starch and meat products, and pasteurized milk." This book first appeared in 1936, it may have been reprinted, but it has not been revised. Take it with a grain of salt.

This book is the "Holy Grail" of nutrition books. Anyone who is interested in the causes and cures of illness and sickness needs to read this book. It has the potential to change ones life.

Having tried all the basic recipes in other books, I was ready to move up to some more creative and unusual recipes. This book fit the bill perfectly! Trying to limit which ones to try is the hard part! The pictures are very enticing, and the steps in the recipes are concise.

My husband purchased this book for me while he was on a business trip to Paris, France. It is an insightful volume with numerous unique, detailed recipes which contain metric and apothecary/troy measurements for cooks around the world. This is a must for every serious american home canner who seeks diverse, unusual and interesting preserved flavored specialties to serve their family. This is a real find!

I am a very experienced home canner and I was not impressed by this book. It was written primarily for a European audience by a British author and many of the ingredients are difficult to find. There are also a number of unusual recipes - Carnation Liqueur, Elderflower Cordial, Goat's Cheese in Oil, Pickled Walnuts - that I did not find appealing.

A number of the jams, jellies and marmalades I made following the recipe directions set up too firm, while others failed to set at all. For most of the recipes, the author's instructions require the sugar to be warmed in the oven for 20 minutes, a tricky and time consuming task at best, before the sugar is added to the fruit. There are also a lot of recipes for fruits and jams preserved with alcohol.

A substantial number of recipes do not give processing instructions. Of the recipes that the author does suggest processing in a boiling water bath, many are too low in acid to be safely processed by this method. European canning standards differ from those of the USDA.

While the pictures in the book are pretty to look at, the flavor and texture of the finished preserves are not really all that good.

Those first-time gardeners interested in growing tomatoes will find Tantalizing Tomatoes to be an excellent introduction to North America's most beloved fruit/vegetable. The book covers everything that one needs to know from the history of the tomato through propigation, pest control and, finally, popular tomato recipes.

This was a good beginner book on growing tomatoes. It included some history, how-to, deciphering seed packet, and information on different varieties of tomatoes. If you are passed the beginner/novice stage, I recommend some thing a little more informative. It was an easy read and it gave me some ideas to try on my suffering tomatoe plants.

This book is a very good beginner book on growing tomatoes. It gives some history, how to, explains the seed packs, and gave me an idea on different varieties to try. If you already are pretty proficient in these things, I suggest you find something a little more informative. It did leave me with a few questions, but a lot of new ideas to try.

to review this book ,i want to review this book to see which natural vegetation contais lots of zinc

to review this book ,i want to review this book to see which natural vegetation contais lots of zinc

I bought this book for my husband because of the beautiful photos of preciously landscaped French vegetable gardens. But he says this is the most useful garden book we have, with more good, helpful information on the types of vegetables we grow (squash, eggplant, lettuces, etc.) than any other.
Now that I've read it myself, I can see the author offers good advice on growing most types of vegetables, from soil preparation to pest control. I'd highly recommend this book for home vegetable gardeners (even if you don't surround your vegetable beds with clipped boxwood hedges.)

If you're in need of ideas on how to design a French style kitchen garden, a potager, this book provides many beautiful color pictures of home and professional gardens, as well as the vegetables, herbs, and flowers typically grown by the French. A helpful encyclopedia of vegatables and herbs is provided along with the author's favorite recipes that highlight the garden's produce, again all beautifully photographs. This title is one in a series by Rosalind Creasy. Others, The Edible Italian Garden and The Edible Heirloom Garden are equally as delightful. Experienced gardeners may find the book geared more to the beginner, but it's a great resource to get those creative gardening ideas flowing.

I wish my copy (mass-market paperback, 1973, ISBN 0-515-03228-X) were in better shape, but it is simply indispensible for knowing how to buy good vegetables and fruits of the kind most commonly grown and consumed in the United States. It doesn't have much information about nutrition -- the coverage of this in the book is general and not specific -- but it clearly explains for what to look, when to buy, how to store and prepare, etc.

The list of vegetables and fruits covered by this book is pretty thorough, although it obviously doesn't cover the explosion of exotic produce that has flooded the market of late. You'll need a more up-to-date book for that sort of thing.

As old as it is, the book seems to me to still be just about as useful as it was back in 1973. Agriculture hasn't changed that much since then, and has been a well-practiced art for quite a number of centuries by now. :)

My 1994 Toyota Camry is hopelessly out of date. No heated seats, no GPS, no CD player. It also has more than a few signs of wear. But it is a car that's firmly attached to the fundamentals: getting you from here to there in comfort and safety at a reasonable price.
There may be a lesson here: things that are built on fundamental concerns about function don't go out of style. The Greengrocer is a bit out of date:
there are many more varieties of produce available today than in 1972. The attitude towards food is distinctly contemporary, even prophetic. Here was a guy-Joe Carcione- who loved the things he sold and took them seriously. He paid careful attention to the fundamentals and, what a surprise!-his book is both useful and charming as a result.

Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and the perennially up-to-date bang BANG: A Novel

I own a copy of this book which is absolutely in tatters because I use it so much. I would like to order a couple for friends and a new copy for myself because it is a favorite. It is grouped by season, by vegatable and every recipe I've tried ( and I don't think there's but 2 in the book I haven't tried!) is a winner. I have a large garden and often turn to this book when I have a glut of a particular fruit or vegatable. The receipes are for real people faced with the what to cook quick and easy question we face every night. Where else could I find a recipe for everything from spaghetti squash to pesto? I own a ton of cook books but this one has the most down to earth, easy to follow and realistic recipes I've found in a long time. There are very few recipes with odd ball ingredients that you would have to purchase specific for that one dish. Try it! You'll like it!

I have been using this book for years (at least twenty). I am ordering a new one because my paperback is falling apart. The reason I like this book is because it has recipes for fresh food that people usually purchase in cans. For instance, it has a recipe for pumpkin pie, using real pumpkin. (By the way, most retailers sell canned pumpkin for pie but what you really get in the can is butternut squash.) Anyhow, since my husband sells vegetable seeds in California for a living, I acquire a lot of fresh vegetables and am not sure how to cook all of them. Joe Carcione's book has recipes for almost all of the fresh fruits and vegetables that are available here in the Golden State.

I bought three books on canning and this book was the best. It is simple to understand, has pictures of the way things should look, such as the canning jars in a not water bath. I was canning tomatos and this book was so easy to follow. It listed the different methods for canning, as stating the best method.

I bought a pressure cooker and could not understand the manufactures directions, this book explained in simple terms, everything I needed to know, to use the pressure cooker. It has pictures on how to can tomatos from start to finish, which I really appreciated. To me a picture is worth a thousand words.

I think if you are a first time canner or even experienced, that this easy to use book is for you. I know I will be using it for years to come. Thank you to the authors.

I found this book in the library and used it for my first garden bounty -- my first canned peaches, my first jam, and my first frozen green beans. Keeping the Harvest is informative, fairly comprehensive and simple to follow. I'm buying it now so I'll be ready for next summer!