All my writing starts with the question, How did we get here? As the granddaughter of a grocer and the daughter of a food editor, I grew up wondering about the quest for new and better foods—especially when other people began saying “new” and “better” were contradictions. Which is better, native or imported? Heirloom or hybrid? Our roses today are patented, and our food supplies are dominated by multi-national seed companies, but not very long ago, the new sciences of evolution and genetics promised an end to scarcity and monotony. If we explore the sources of our gardens, we can understand our world. That‘s what I tried to do in The Garden of Invention, and that’s why I recommend these books.
By Jane S. Smith
A century ago, Luther Burbank was the most famous gardener on the planet, idolized as a great inventor on a par with his friends Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. From his earliest discovery, the Burbank potato (still the world’s most widely grown variety), to astonishing novelties like the white blackberry, Burbank was regarded as a plant wizard who could transform ordinary plants until they were tastier, hardier, more beautiful, more bountiful, or simply stranger than ever before. The Garden of Invention revisits the years when the public clamored for new farm and garden varieties, a time when Burbank’s experimental acres transformed the business of agriculture and helped make California into the cornucopia of the world.
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By Michael Pollan
I love the way Michael Pollen makes us take the plant’s point of view, reminding us of how often we are coaxed to grow, eat, admire, and revere things that we “think” we discovered ourselves.
I also love that Johnny Appleseed and Luther Burbank grew up as near neighbors, just a few years apart. Inland Massachusetts as an agricultural hotbed—who knew?
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By Jeremy N. Smith
This gorgeous and touching book shows the many ways community gardens are more than a name—they build community. In a time when it’s so easy to feel helpless, here are ordinary people taking small steps with a big impact. I particularly loved the use of community garden time as alternative sentencing for teen offenders, and how the kids turned around and used their skills to help homebound seniors.
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By David Fairchild
David Fairchild was one of the early leaders of the US Department of Agriculture, traveling the world like a botanical Indiana Jones to gather cuttings and learn about local methods of cultivation and pest control. He introduced thousands of new crops to the United States, from mangos to soybeans. Wouldn’t you love to list “plant explorer” as your job description?
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By Susan Orlean
Like all of Orlean’s work, The Orchid Thief is beautifully written, a surprising and often funny portrait of a man obsessed with the dream of finding, cloning, and selling a rare and protected orchid. Orlean takes us into the secret world of bio-piracy and reminds us that flowers are not just emblems of luxury and beauty. They are also big business.
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By Jared Farmer
This fascinating book answers questions you never thought to ask. What would Southern California be without citrus groves or palm trees? Why does the Australian eucalyptus cover so much of this western state, and who were the elite conservatives who saw their own survival in the battle to save the redwoods? Find out here!
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