The Curious Kitchen Gardener is for cooks and gardeners interested in bringing novelty and variety into their lives and homes. It follows each season of planting and harvesting--featuring nearly 35 often overlooked edibles, with illustrations, and a delicious recipe for each, encouraging us to see our gardens as an integrated whole and a year-round practice. Calling upon decades of Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver experience, Linda Ziedrich includes fascinating cultural context and personal connections to each plant. The result is the story of how and why an adventurous gardener cultivated a unique cuisine for herself and her family--and how you can too.

Whether you're making a pint of sauerkraut or a peck of pickled peppers, The Joy of Pickling provides all the tools for pickling success!

By working a special kind of magic on an abundance of produce, Christopher Kimball writes in the foreword to this inspiring, comprehensive, and eminently practical book, Linda Ziedrich has transformed what might have become a lost art into something both necessary and delightful.

Putting up pickles is a time-honored technique for preserving the harvest and getting the most out of fresh produce, whether you grow it yourself or purchase it at the supermarket or farmers market. But pickling isn't just about preserving: It's a way to create mouthwatering condiments and side dishes that add endless variety and loads of big, vibrant flavors to the table.

Making these salty, sour, sweet, and tangy treats isn't hard, as long as you have this authoritative and user-friendly volume to guide you. This new edition includes 50 brand-new recipes, many focused on the latest trend in pickling: fermentation. It also includes:

• Pickles from all over the globe, from down-home American favorites to adventuresome new ideas from Asia, the Middle East, and Europe
• Recipes for canned and put-up pickles and also for super-easy quick pickles for the fridge or freezer
• New techniques for preventing yeast and mold growths on fermented pickles
• Recipes for using pickled produce in chutneys, salsas, relishes, and more
• Expert safety guidance and tips

From Lower East Side Full-Sour Dills to Cabbage and Radish Kimchi, Pickled Whole Watermelons to Quick Pickled Baby Corn, the 300 recipes in The Joy of Pickling make the harvest last, deliciously and freshly, all year round.

First Fruits offers a fascinating look at the lives of Pacific Coast horticulturists Henderson, Jonathan, and Seth Lewelling. Traveling across the Overland Trail--Henderson to Oregon in 1847, with a wagonload of fruit trees, and Seth and John to California three years later--the brothers would establish themselves as pioneers in the West's growing fruit industry. By recounting how Henderson planted the first orchard of grafted fruit trees in Oregon, how Seth originated the Black Republican and Bing cherries, and how John led the development of the Napa Valley wine industry, First Fruits preserves the Lewellings' place in history.

However, the Lewellings were not simply planters, grafters, and breeders. They were also adventurers, colonists, gold seekers, reformists, and explorers--experiencing firsthand the westward expansion of the nation. Their stories provide a unique glimpse into the social, economic, and political history of the day. From their Quaker upbringing in North Carolina and Indiana to Henderson's attempt to start a utopian colony in Honduras, John's efforts to grow the Grange in California, and Seth's contribution to democratic reforms in Oregon, the Lewellings' legacy extends far beyond their agricultural endeavors.

In the first biography to reclaim the brothers' histories, Linda Ziedrich splendidly captures their dedicated support of one another and their communities, their contributions to the development of the modern fruit industry, and their lasting influence on the cultivation of fruits synonymous with the Pacific Coast region.