Every once in awhile i convince myself i know something about edible plants. Our gardens with hundreds of different types of edible seem to test the limits of what we can grow. Then along comes a book that opens up another world.. and here it is: 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From William Woys Weaver pub: 2000 Mr Weaver grows 3000 heirloom edible plants. In this book he describes his favorites. One might think they would be familiar and that is what i expected. Surprise, our past is full of strange and interesting vegetables that few people have heard of. To be fair, only about 10 percent were new to me but even that opens windows into new areas. The familiar plants (such as potatoes) were not like the varieties most of us grow. Here are some of the plants: Petaluma Gold Rush Bean Nunas (popping beans) Lumper Potato (from Irish potato famine) Chickling Vetch Giant Red Plantain Foul Misri Fava (oldest edible in recorded history?) The book describes some plants of the plants we grew this year for the first time: Orache - from Romania Shungiku Chrysanthemum - Greek or Japanese? kurl celery - small but strong flavor. A fun book for garden fanatics or anyone interested in growing food plants. jeff
