Gardener's Delight

by John Seymour

Harmony Books, 1979 Fine in Fine jacket Hard Cover. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Very Delightful Book! Botanical, Garden, Fruit, Vegetable, Berries, Cookery. 96 pp. 40+ full color detailed illustrations. A compendium of gardener's lore, containing all manner of edible fruits, vegetables and herbs, each one beautifully illustrated in color, and accompanied by a text charmingly suffused with history, anecdote, quotation, folk lore, humor, wisdom, gossip, and advice about cultivation and eating. Light wear on corners. Ships in a box, no bubble mailers!. First American Edition. Pictorial Harmony Books, 1979 Fine in Fine jacket Hard Cover. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Very Delightful Book! Botanical, Garden, Fruit, Vegetable, Berries, Cookery. 96 pp. 40+ full color detailed illustrations. A compendium of gardener's lore, containing all manner of edible fruits, vegetables and herbs, each one beautifully illustrated in color, and accompanied by a text charmingly suffused with history, anecdote, quotation, folk lore, humor, wisdom, gossip, and advice about cultivation and eating. Light wear on corners. Ships in a box, no bubble mailers!. First American Edition. Pictorial Cover. Fine/Fine. Illus. by Peter Morter, a leading British botanical Illustrators. Book.Cover. Fine/Fine. Illus. by Peter Morter, a leading British botanical Illustrators. Book.

Genres: Gardening

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

John Seymour was an idealist - he had a vision of a better world where people aren't alienated from their labours. As a young man, he travelled all over Africa and fought in Burma in World War II. Returning penniless to England, he lived in a trolley bus and on a Dutch sailing barge before settling on a five-acre smallholding in Suffolk to lead a self-sufficient life. He continued this lifestyle with his companion Angela Ashe on the banks of the River Barrow in County Wexford, Ireland. The two had built up the smallholding from scratch over 19 years. In his last years John, Angela and William Sutherland had been running courses in self-sufficiency from their home at Killowen, New Ross. The courses were taken by students from all over the world, who come to Killowen to learn about his lifestyle and philosophies at first hand.

He was the author of over 40 books, including the best-selling The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, and he had made numerous films and radio programmes. Most of his later writing and public campaigning had been devoted to country matters, self-sufficiency and the environment.

In the last 18 months, he was back on his beloved Pembrokeshire farm with his daughter Ann, telling stories to his grandchildren and writing rhyming poetry, with an acerbic wit that was his last weapon against what he saw as our destructive era.

Reviews

[Pingua · Rating 4 out of 5]

He leído la versión en español, dos o tres capítulos cada fin de semana durante el desayuno.
Es muy ameno e interesante. Dedica una página a cada planta con datos botánicos e históricos y curiosidades.
Los dibujos son preciosos.

[Britta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is graced with beautiful color illustrations of common garden herbs, root plants and fruits. Includes information on optimal planting and harvesting conditions and lovely quotations from Old English sources, like this rather hot tidbit concerning Globe Artichoke (p. 14):

"Boorde, in his Dyetary, bears out the opinion ... 'They doth increase nature, and dothe provoke a man's veneryous actes.' All is not lost, though, for those who love to eat this giant thistle but have no immediate object of their affections - on the same page Boorde confides that purslane 'doth extynct the ardor of lassyvyousnes, and doth mytygate great heate in all the inwarde partes of man.' So, by judiciously cooking a little purslane with our artichokes we can enjoy the latter without risk of prosecution for immoderately passionate behaviour."