A Taste of the Unexpected

Working on the premise “that life is too short to grow unremarkable food”, or why grow what is readily and cheaply available in the shops when you could be growing something more unusual and interesting, Mark Diacono sets out to encourage us to do just that.

His belief is that we are wasting our time growing potatoes, carrots and the like, with little real benefit, the results are not worth the effort, he believes home produce tastes no different, and commercial producers do a much better job and for much less cost Whether you agree with this or not, he does have a point when it comes to choosing to grow what is not so readily available or is very expensive when it does appear on the supermarket shelves. (However I've yet to buy show more tomatoes that taste as good as some of the delicious and delicate skinned varieties you can grow yourself, and then there are the apple, pears . . .that you cannot but in the supermarkets)

So far so good, and we can now look forward to a range of truly exotic and unusual crops to choose from. Apricots, artichokes, asparagus , peaches . . . but aren't we already growing these, sweet chestnut, walnut, pecan . . . if you have a garden large enough and are prepared to wait – yes there are one or two unusual plants suggested, but I am a little disappointed generally with the lack of something really out of the ordinary.

Of course the book is more than just suggestions as to what to grow, Diacono includes some growing advice and suggestions as to how to use your produce including some interesting recipes. However the growing advice is a little short on the potential problems associated with each crop and how to deal with them, giving the impression that all will make trouble free plantings.

The idea behind the book is an interesting one, but the book really does not fulfil its promise. I was expecting to be inspired to try something out of the ordinary, but I fell rather let down. show less

Beautifully illustrated and packed full of fascinating and unusual things to grow and eat. An excellent reference tome, multiplied in value if you manage to try some of the suggestions.