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Can anyone recommend a book on gardening with heirloom vegetables (or similarly any to avoid)?

There are a few on amazon, but with hardly any/no reviews.

Thanks.

I can't recommend a book, but have you looked at the Realseeds website and the HDRA has lots of info (although you might need to be a member to view some of it - not been there for a while).

There are also a couple of US sites, Bakers Creek is one that springs to mind, which look pretty good, although we can't always get the same varieties over here.

Otherwise pick a few books you like the look of and see if you can get them from the library - saves costly mistakes.

[quote="Green Aura"]I can't recommend a book, but have you looked at the Realseeds website and the HDRA has lots of info (although you might need to be a member to view some of it - not been there for a while).

You certainly havent,they are now blessed with the title ' Garden Organic'!! same crew at Ryton though,and definitely the best place to start.

It was realseeds book suggestions bit that made me come here instead, good stuff on there but lack of heirloom recommendations.

I'll have a look at the websites, thanks. Maybe they'll have a book recommendations bit, I just like having a book to snuggle up with and read, I read Ken Fern's PFAF cover to cover in one sitting, which I guess is a little weird. I dunno, nowt like a book!

green_pea wrote:I read Ken Fern's PFAF cover to cover in one sitting, which I guess is a little weird. I dunno, nowt like a book!

I didn't manage it in one sitting but I read PFAF from one end to t'other as well and frequently refer to it or the online database.

Completely agree about the book thing, but they're so expensive you need to know you're forking out for something you'll go back to (like PFAF!)

The two things I was going to recommend have already been suggested - Gardenorganic (which is the HDRA website) I think they produce a newsletter but I can't find any book recommendations on their site - I can recommend going to their gardens in Ryton though, have been meaning to sign up for their membership thing ever since where you pay a subscription that entitles you to a few packs of their heirloom seeds, I have recently sown lots of the "realseed" seed this year and would be very interested to see what suggestions you get on decent heirloom books?

my sisters mum told me about ryton/henry doubleday yesterday, it's only 10 minutes from where we're staying at the moment so must go there when we get some spare time.

i found a book on heirlooms for 1p today (was meant to be £74 but a used one came up cheap!), will let you know what it's like if you're interested.

What was the name of the book "Green Pea" ? - I didn't think much to the indoor heirloom bit at Ryton - Although it was okay for kids? - The gardens were good though and they have a decent size shop and stock of veg seed - but poor selection of plants when we visited, was also good to see veg patches within the gardens! - I can't recall how much they charge to get in, but if you are ten minutes down the road, well worth the visit!

Sorry if I am going off topic !

It's called Heritage Vegetables by Sue Stickland, I like it quite a lot actually, it's an old library book. Lots of nice photographs to accompany text, and lots on the history of crops and where they originated, the importance of keeping diversity, info on the different varieties etc, and a list of resources and recommended reading at the end. Have only flicked through so far but as far as I can see it looks like a penny well spent.