The Beginner’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables by Marie Iannotti is a quick and easy introduction to growing veggies that have been “open pollinated and over 50 years old” with a backstory like any other family hand-me-down. This book had everything I wanted in a garden manual with the added bonus of not being too long or requiring much specialized equipment.
The ebook The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables by Maria Ianotti is available for free with your library card through RBdigital: arcplsga.rbdigital.com
The author chose these beginner-friendly plants based on her “first criteria…taste” and ease of growing. She includes lots of useful information for each vegetable, describing planting basics like sun exposure and spacing in addition to helpful extras like flavor profiles and best practices for planting, harvesting, common pests and disease tips, and water needs. She includes a helpful seed saving section that is the least intimidating that I have read on the subject with specific instructions for each vegetable type in the book.
An unexpected joy from this book is Iannotti’s engaging prose. I have not read many gardening books and websites that describe vegetables in as lush detail as hers. She describes one artichoke as “a tender little thistle, it blushes when it is ready to be picked” and a green bean as “slender and crisp as a matchstick.” The descriptive writing combined with accessible instructions inspire you to want grow and taste everything in the book, even the vegetables you don’t usually like!
