A Celebration of Heirloom Vegetables: Growing and Cooking Old-Time Varieties

Tiny dried beans with the grand name of Cherokee Trail of Tears, melons with a fanciful moniker like Moon and Stars. Parsnips, raised underground in Wisconsin, with the tropical scent of coconut. Green tomatoes that taste ripe and wonderful. They’re all heirloom vegetables–old-time varieties that nature alone has produced, untouched by genetic scientists and modern technology. In A Celebration of Heirloom Vegetables they’re showcased brilliantly. Author Roger Yespen observed scores of these living antiques as they grew in his garden and has painted a picture, in words and watercolors, of each of them in all their glorious color and form. Nearly fifty full-color, full-size illustrations make it clear that these varieties have survived on the strength of their personality–distinctive flavor, scent, and texture–and their looks, from strange and exotic and even ugly to startlingly beautiful. Heirloom gardening and cooking is a wonderful way to rediscover the diversity and richness of our grandparents’ favorites and put them back on our table.