The Speedy Vegetable Garden
Here’s the book for vegetable gardeners in a hurry. Diacono and Leendertz present 50 crops that are at their best when grown rapidly. These include plants that are not traditionally quick to harvest, but are actually improved by being picked when immature. Think sweet, tender baby carrots, for example. Sunflower and radish sprouts can be ready for sprinkling on salads in less than a week. Micro greens, tiny seedlings of arugula, fennel, cilantro, and various herbs, provide bursts of concentrated flavor as salad ingredients and flavorings when harvested a week or so after germination. Edible flowers and early-harvest vegetables (cherry tomatoes in 65 days) are just some of the rest rounding out quick-harvest choices, presented lusciously in full-color photos. The authors also remind readers that soaked nuts and seeds, ready in just hours, are delicious superfoods due to the bioavailability of nutrients during germination. With sources and index, this unusual vegetable-growing book should attract everyone interested in planting a kitchen garden. --Whitney Scott