Favorite Books & Videos

“Each bouquet tells a story about one moment in time, about Grandmother’s cherished flower vase or the fleeting memory that returns with a whiff of lavender or lilac. That’s one of the intangible gifts of bringing flowers into our lives.”

-Debra Prinzing, Slow Flowers

From Debra Prinzing's new book, Slow Flowers

First there was slow food.

Now, thanks to Debra Prinzing, we are discussing Slow Flowers!

Debra Prinzing by Mary Grace Long Photography

Debra Prinzing is a dear writer friend of mine with incredible talent. Based in Seattle, WA, she writes for numerous magazines and newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Country Gardens and many, many others). It is always a thrill to pick up a magazine and see her byline because you just know it’s going to be good.

She is also the author of many books including one of my favorites: The 50 Mile Bouquet with photographer extraordinaire, David Perry. And it was with that book that her current journey started.

The 50 Mile Bouquet showcased the local, sustainable flower-growing movement and the farmers and florists making a difference. All of us at Growing A Greener World TV enjoyed that book so much, we filmed an entire episode on it and I had the pleasure of writing it.

The Slow Flowers Book:

Now in her newest book Slow Flowers, Debra brings that message home and shows us the DIY info on how to enjoy local, in season flowers ALL YEAR LONG. (Yes, even in winter.) What started as a challenge to herself to create a fresh, local bouquets all 52 weeks of the year, quickly turned into an entire book.

According to Debra, it doesn’t matter if you are growing the plant material yourself, foraging it from the wild or buying it from your local organic farmer. You really CAN find local/sustainable plant material and the fun is in being creative with it!  In her book, she gives arrangement ideas, earth-friendly floral techniques and even a few “secrets” for long-lasting blooms. It is a beautiful book filled with valuable information.

The giveaway at the end of this post is closed, but there is still some great info about the book and slow flowers below!

So, What are “Slow Flowers”?

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“I hope that people will think about the garden’s harvest as more than ripe tomatoes and cutting flowers…To me the ‘other’ part of the harvest… The garden’s life lessons, its parables—about control (or lack of it), about letting go, about the cycles and the giant web of interconnected life—are the really juicy stuff.

Be sure to pluck some of that goodness, too!”

~ Margaret Roach

Today’s post in the 31 Days of Living Homegrown is a about connecting to our garden and we have a special guest.

Margaret Roach is visiting here as one of the stops on the Blog Tour for her new book, The Backyard Parables - Lessons on gardening, and life. The book just came out a few days ago and I was lucky enough to get a copy in advance for this “tour” and I will be giving away a copy (Not mine! I’m keeping mine!).

The day Margaret’s new book arrived, I started a fire in the fireplace, pulled my favorite chair over and started reading. I read for hours (a luxury I rarely have) and I enjoyed picking up the book several more times over the course of the weekend until I finished the last delicious page.  [click to continue…]

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Day 8:

This post is part of the 31 Days of Living Homegrown. Sign up for my newsletter (weekly or monthly) so you don’t miss any of the inspiration and resources I will be sharing for living local, fresh and homegrown!

Life Changing Movies:

The other day, I was discussing farmer’s markets with a fellow mom. When she didn’t know about Food, Inc., …I was, well…a little surprised. In her defense, she had heard about the title but just didn’t understand what it was really about. It made me realized that we don’t all read the same blogs, newspapers, newsletters, etc. And sometimes, information we think “everyone knows” is in fact, not known by everyone.

So….I am listing below some of my favorite movies. Now, I am not talking about movies featuring vampires, tigers or the French Revolution. I’m talking about movies that make you think about how we consume food and will perhaps change your life. Which you know…is probably more important anyway.  [click to continue…]

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WOW!

127 of you commented on the Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook Giveaway and listed some great edible favorites, cooking tips and more! Thank you so much for all the great information. I found it so interesting, I decided to do a summary post below so you can get the highlights in a quick and easy way.

Heirloom Tomatoes

But First!  The Winners..

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I love Sunset Magazine not only for the great garden articles, but for the delicious and reliable recipes. I have been ripping out and saving recipes from their pages for many years and I have never had a dud in the bunch.

So imagine how excited I was to learn that they have compiled a cookbook filled with recipes utilizing what we grow in our gardens! The Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook – This is what I need!

And I am giving away FIVE copies of this book.

Edible Garden Cookbook

A few months ago, I had the privilege of visiting Sunset Magazine Headquarters for a media day. We toured the grounds (beautiful) and test kitchen (huge) AND we got to sample a few recipes from this cookbook. All I can say is YUM and Double YUM! My favorite so far is the Chocolate Zucchini Rum Cake which is moist, delicious and you can’t even tell there is zucchini in there.

Here’s the skinny on the book.

Each vegetable and fruit has its own section with a little overview of growing and harvesting tips. There is also a chapter on herbs, an overview on canning and planting a vegetable garden. The recipes?  Simple,  delicious and creative. You will find Browned Butter & Hazelnut Mashed Potatoes, Swiss Chard & Sausage Frittata, Pumpkin Gingersnap Ice Cream and Melon-Berry Aqua Fresca and so much more!

Here is a sample recipe (reprinted with permission) using that cool watermelon radish I keep seeing in the seed catalogs. Have you seen these?  They are very easy to grow. And when they are sliced, they really do look like watermelons!

Watermelon Radish SaladWatermelon-Radish Salad

Serves 6 —  Time: at least 15 minutes

Also known as red-heart or rose-heart radish, the sweet watermelon radish is an Asian variety. You might even find it sold as red daikon. It is an absolute stunner when cut in half, and that’s the prettiest way to serve it, thinly sliced across to see its gorgeous interior.

Ingredients:

watermelon radishes

1/3 cup season rice vinegar

1 tsp. black sesame seeds (optional)

1) Peel radishes. Slice crosswise as thinly as possible. Mix with vinegar.

2) Cover and chill at least 10 minutes or up to 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if you like and serve.

Free Edible Garden Cookbook

How YOU can win a FREE Cookbook!

Sorry. Contest closed. Winners were announced HERE with a summary of your tips and recipes. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Sunset has offered to ship cookbooks to FIVE of my lucky readers! All you have to do is comment below listing your favorite garden edible. If you grow a special vegetable variety that you think is the cat’s meow, please tell us!  For example, one of my very favorite zucchinis is called “Gadzukes”. (It has ribbed stripes and when you slice it, it makes a star.) So what is your “Must Have” veggie in the garden? And if you don’t have a favorite, what are wanting to try this year? Tell us below in the comments.

Please Note: One comment per person please and you must be a continental US resident to win. You have until midnight June 6th to enter. Then, I will randomly pick 5 comments and Sunset will ship out the books.

Good luck!

Disclosure: I was not paid to review this cookbook. I received a free review copy and the offer to give away five cookbooks to my readers. The opinions here are my own.

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Book Giveaway – Free-Range Chicken Gardens and more!

April 4, 2012

New here?  You might want to subscribe to my blog or my newsletter. Thanks for stopping by! In celebration of my blog’s new look and redesign (and the fact that this happened to coincide with the timing of a pre-arranged virtual blog party), I am giving away not one, but TWO BOOKS related to chickens. [...]

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Leaf – A Hot, New, DIGITAL Garden Magazine

October 19, 2011

It happened this week… A new magazine launched that had people across the country literally drooling all over their computer, iPad and cell phone screens. Leaf Magazine emerged as the latest addition to the garden writing world. This completely digital garden & outdoor style magazine is filled with sleek photos, well-written and thought provoking articles [...]

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Get Kids Organic with Grocery Store Wars

April 20, 2011

 I have two young boys who are very into Star Wars. But they are also total organic gardeners. So when we discovered this video, my boys have watched it about ten times. They laugh through the entire video. If you have kids, it might be a way to start the discussion of why eating organic [...]

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How To Survive A Garden Gnome Attack

October 21, 2010

Okay, that title had to get your attention – right? It is the title of a new book I discovered yesterday at the bookstore written by Chuck Sambuchino. It was so funny and cute — I had to buy it. Here is an excerpt from the the book: "Are you at risk? If you're reading [...]

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This 11 year old kid is amazing.

October 8, 2010

Check out this 11 year old kid giving a speech at the TED awards – Next Generation. Oh my! He is amazing. In five minutes, he explains (in very simple terms) what is wrong with our food system and why he has decided to be an organic farmer when he grows up.   Wow!

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