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Garden Wisdom: Lessons Learned from 60 Years of
Gardening Purchase this book from:
Amazon
Step into the garden with writer and rural historian Jerry Apps.
In this treasure trove of tips, recollections, and recipes, Jerry
combines his hard-earned advice for garden success with a discussion
of how tending a garden leads to a deeper understanding of nature
and the land. From planning and planting to fending off critters and
weeds, he walks us through the gardening year, imbuing his story
with humor and passion and once again reminding us that working even
a small piece of land provides many rewards.
Gardening has always been a group endeavor for the Apps family.
In Garden Wisdom, readers will learn gardening basics along with
Jerry’s grandchildren as they become a new generation of gardeners.
They’ll devour Ruth’s recipes for preparing and preserving fresh
garden veggies—from refrigerator pickles to rutabaga pudding. And
they’ll savor son Steve’s beautiful color photographs, capturing the
bounty of the family garden throughout the growing season.
Reviews
“Jerry Apps has tapped into the wisdom of five generations of
family—from his grandparents to his grandchildren—to create a richly
personal and practical guide to growing, storing, and using
foodstuffs in the Badger State. This is a wonderful book for all
Wisconsin gardeners.” (Jerry Minnich, author of The Wisconsin Garden
Guide and The Rodale Book of Composting)
“Jerry Apps sets the stage and draws readers in for a
crop-by-crop, season-by-season saga as old as home vegetable
gardening itself. He weaves the tale using the perfect balance of
experience, folklore, and science. The UW Extension background of
this husband and wife team lends added credibility to their
gardening methods and recipes alike. In the end you feel more a part
of the society of gardeners everywhere and a little bit a part of
the Apps family.” (Sharon Morrissey, UW Extension Consumer
Horticulture Agent and cohost of Milwaukee FOX6-TV’s Wake-up News
gardening segments)
"Jerry Apps (emeritus, Coll. of Agricultural & Life Sciences,
Univ.of Wisconsin-Madison; Every Farm Tells a Story) has gardened
for 60 years, both in the country and in town. Here he intertwines
his reminiscences of growing up on a Wisconsin farm with practical
information on growing vegetables and some fruits. He covers
starting a vegetable garden, dealing with pests, growing specific
vegetables and fruits, harvesting the produce, and eating and
preserving the harvest. The book includes basic, easy-to-follow
garden and fruit recipes from his wife, Ruth, and their son Steve’s
(chief photographer, Wisconsin State Journal) images. Whether
sharing boyhood memories, the times he spent gardening with his
children and grandchildren, or his knowledge of growing vegetables
and fruits, Apps combines memoir, useful information, and gardening
philosophy with warmth and humor. Verdict: This is an enjoyable book
that will be savored by vegetable gardeners with their own memories.
Beginning gardeners in need of the complete basics will be better
served by a full guide such as Edward C. Smith’s tenth-anniversary
edition of The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible".—(Sue O’ Brien, Downers
Grove P.L., IL Library Journal) Xpress Reviews: Nonfiction | First
Look at New Books, December 16, 2011
"Rural historian Apps (Barns of Wisconsin) continues his
chronicling of rural life with a folksy memoir of his six decades of
vegetable gardening. The material is arranged to follow the growing
season and includes some growing tips and advice on preserving and
cooking the garden’s bounty, but it is not a methodical how-to guide
for the novice. For him, the garden is a place of “mystery, awe,
anticipation, patience, surprise, disappointment, and elation.” The
terrain will be familiar to readers of gardening memoirs, but those
who have also grown to love the slow rhythms and quiet satisfactions
of growing one’s own food will enjoy the company of his
recollections. The collection is filled with humorous anecdotes and
quiet observations of the cycle of life in the humble vegetable
patch—plus an unexpected recipe for sorghum cookies. The pleasures
he discovers in the garden come through on each page. 65 color and
b&w photos and illus".
"Want to know how to transplant tomatoes, hoe a row of rutabaga,
or put up a peck of pickled peppers? There’s an Apps for that!
Having spent a lifetime growing all manner of vegetables at various
farms and homesteads across his native Wisconsin, Apps has
accumulated a wealth of practical information based on personal
experience that can benefit vegetable gardeners everywhere. Although
it includes helpful chapters on planning, planting, and even
preserving a hearty vegetable harvest, this is less of a traditional
how-to gardening manual and more of a treasured garden memoir, as
Apps fondly recalls halcyon days spent gardening beside self-taught
grandparents and parents and extols the rewards of sharing this
handed-down wisdom with his own children and grandchildren. Along
with engaging tidbits of historical lore about everything from
brussels sprouts to zucchini, Apps shares his wife Ruth’s recipes
for delectable treats such as Rhubarb Cream Pie and Chocolate
Sauerkraut Cake. As informative as it is entertaining, Apps’
heartfelt chronicle transforms the standard gardening guidebook into
a deeply personal appreciation for nature’s bounty".— Carol Haggas
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