"This is a book," writes Gary Snyder, "about danger: dangerous knowledge, even more dangerous ignorance." Against the greater danger, ignorance, Pendell strikes a formidable blow, as he proves himself a wise and witty guide to our plant teachers, their powers and their poisons. "Pharmako/Poeia is an epic poem on plant humours, an abstruse alchemic treatise, an experiential narrative jigsaw puzzle, a hip and learned wild-nature reference text, a comic paen to cosmic consciousness, an ecological handbook, a dried-herb pastiche, a counterculture encyclopedia of ancient fact and lore." -Allen Ginsberg poet"Dale Pendell reactivates the ancient connection between the bardic poet and the shaman." -Terence McKenna author of True Hallucinations

    Not only are backyard vegetable plots popping up in places long reserved for lawns, but some renegades are even planting their front yards with food. People in apartments are filling their balconies with pots of tomatoes, beans, and basil, while others are gazing skyward and "greening" their rooftops with food plants. Still others are colonizing public spaces, staking out territory in parks for community gardens and orchards, or convincing school boards to turn asphalt school grounds into "growing" grounds.Woven through the book are the stories of guerrilla urban farmers in various cities of North America who are tapping city trees for syrup, gleaning fruit from parks, foraging for greens in abandoned lots, planting heritage vegetables on the boulevard, and otherwise placing food production at the centre of the urban community. Additional stories describe the history of urban food production in North America, revealing the roots of our current hunger for more connection with our food, and the visionaries who have directed that hunger into action.Throughout the book, sidebars offer practical tips for how to compost, how to convert a lawn into a vegetable bed, and what edible plants are easy to grow with children, among other topics.

    Obama invites you inside the White House Kitchen Garden and shares its inspiring story, from the first planting to the latest harvest.  Hear about her worries as a novice gardener – would the new plants even grow? Learn about her struggles and her joys as lettuce, corn, tomatoes, collards and kale, sweet potatoes and rhubarb flourished in the freshly tilled soil.  Get an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at every season of the garden’s growth, with striking original photographs that bring its story to life.  Try the unique recipes created by White House chefs and made with ingredients just picked from the White House garden.  And learn from the White House Garden team about how you can help plant your own backyard, school or community garden.   Mrs. Obama’s journey continues across the nation as she shares the stories of other gardens that have moved and inspired her: Houston office workers who make the sidewalk bloom; a New York City School that created a scented garden for the visually impaired; a North Carolina garden that devotes its entire harvest to those in need; and other stories of communities that are transforming the lives and health of their citizens.   In American Grown, Mrs. Obama tells the story of the White House Kitchen Garden, celebrates the bounty of gardens across our nation, and reminds us all of what we can grow together.

    Covering every aspect of vegetable gardening from preparing soil to manures, composts and fertilizers, from growing techniques to protection, pests, from diseases and weeds to making good use of space, this is a comprehensive guide to ensuring the best results from your garden or allotment. With cultivation information for over 100 vegetables, including site and soil requirements, cultivation, pests and diseases, and cultivars, this illustrated handbook is a must for vegetable gardeners of all levels and experience.

    This unique book is written by Dr. Nicole Apelian, an herbalist with over 20 years of experience working with plants and Claude Davis, a wild west expert passionate about the lost remedies and wild edibles that kept previous generations alive. The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies has color pictures of over 181 healing plants, lichens, and mushrooms of North America (2-4 pictures/plant for easy identification). Inside, you'll also discover over 550+ powerful natural remedies made from them for every one of your daily needs. Many of these remedies were used by our forefathers for hundreds of years while others come from Dr. Nicole’s extensive natural practice. This book was made for people with no prior plant knowledge who are looking for alternative ways to help themselves or their families. This lost knowledge goes against the grain of mainstream medicine and avoids just dealing with symptoms. Instead, it targets the underlying root cause and strengthens your body's natural ability to repair itself. With the medicinal herbal reference guide included, it’s very easy to look up your own condition and see exactly which herbs and remedies can help. Let me just offer you a small glimpse of what you’ll find inside:On page 145 learn how to make a powerful “relieving” extract using a common backyard weed. This plant acts directly on the central nervous system to help with all kinds of pain and discomfort.You'll also discover the most effective natural antibiotic that still grows in most American backyards. (page 150)Turn to page 275 for the natural protocol Dr. Nicole is recommending for a wide range of auto-immune conditions, after falling prey to MS herself at age 29.I could go on and on because this book contains no less than 800+ other medicinal plants and natural remedies.

    Angelic Organics is a leader in community supported gardening and biodynamics, helping to connect people with their food, their farmers, and healthful living.

    The author provides an eloquent and engaging account of the use of herbal medicine from prehistoric times to the present, reaffirming the incalculable value of medicinal plants in the healing arts. She presents a strong case for the cyclical emergence of alternative medicine at times (such as our own) when allopathic methods of treatment have lost their safety and efficacy.

    Compact Farms is an illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less. The farm plans explain how to harness an area’s water supply, orientation, and geography in order to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing effort. Profiles of well-known farmers such as Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier show that farming on a small scale in any region, in both urban and rural settings, can provide enough income to turn the endeavor from hobby to career. These real-life plans and down-and-dirty advice will equip you with everything you need to actually realize your farm dreams.

    Would meditating on the starflower help heal you? Does the spirit of sweet violet have something to offer you today? Contemporary herbalist Maia Toll, author of The Illustrated Bestiary and The Illustrated Crystallary, profiles the mystical, magical, bewitching personalities of 36 powerful herbs, fruits, and flowers in this stunning volume. The book includes a deck of 36 beautifully illustrated oracle cards — one for each plant — and ideas for readings and rituals to help you access your intuition, navigate each day's joys and problems, and tap into each plant's unique powers for healing, guidance, and wisdom. Also available: The Illustrated Herbiary Collectible Box Set and The Illustrated Bestiary Collectible Box Set.

    With yields of up to 200 calories per square foot, you can break your reliance on the grocery store with just a few seeds or starts and a shovel. Most root crops are easy to store through the winter and require no special harvesting or processing equipment.So why don't we all grow roots? To keep them happy after harvest, these crops need a cool, damp storage spot like a root cellar. This book walks you through building a root cellar out of a junked fridge for $10, and also presents some slightly-higher-cost options for winter storage. Other highlights include tips for growing storage vegetables and feeding those roots to your family or your livestock.69 photos.Self-sufficiency begins with the potato!

    But his blog GuerrillaGardening.org attracted other guerrillas from around the world to share their experiences of the horticultural front line with him and become a focal point for guerrilla gardeners everywhere. On Guerrilla Gardening is a lively colourful treatise about why people illicitly cultivate land and how to do it. From discretely beautifying corners of Montreal to striving for green communal space in Berlin and sustainable food production in San Francisco, from small gestures of fun in Zurich to bold political statements in Brazil, cultivating land beyond your boundary is a battle many different people are fighting. Unearthed along the way are the movement’s notable historic advances by seventeenth century English radicals, a nineteenth century American entrepreneur and artists in 1970s New York. Reynolds has researched the subject with guerrilla gardeners from thirty different countries and compiles their advice on what to grow, how to cope with adverse environmental conditions, how to seed bomb effectively and to use propaganda to win support. On Guerrilla Gardening gives entertaining inspiration, practical reference and no excuses for not getting out there and gardening.

    You've created your own house of plants, so what's next? The authors of House of Plants follow up their successful debut book with Root, Nurture, Grow – a practical and detailed guide to propagating and sharing indoor plants.The stylish handbook shows you how to make the most of your favorite houseplants through simple, beginner-friendly propagation techniques (such as stem cutting, rooting in water, runners, offsets, grafting, division and more), as well as resourceful DIY projects including homemade rooting mediums, seed-bombs, and a self-watering plant pot.It shows you how to look after and nurture your new plant babies, and how to share them with friends by making beautiful gifts and displays.

    . . and one of nature’s last truly wild foods: the uncultivated, uncontrollable mushroom.Within the dark corners of America’s forests grow culinary treasures. Chefs pay top dollar to showcase these elusive and beguiling ingredients on their menus. Whether dressing up a filet mignon with smoky morels or shaving luxurious white truffles over pasta, the most elegant restaurants across the country now feature an abundance of wild mushrooms. The mushroom hunters, by contrast, are a rough lot. They live in the wilderness and move with the seasons. Motivated by Gold Rush desires, they haul improbable quantities of fungi from the woods for cash. Langdon Cook embeds himself in this shadowy subculture, reporting from both rural fringes and big-city eateries with the flair of a novelist, uncovering along the way what might be the last gasp of frontier-style capitalism. Meet Doug, an ex-logger and crabber—now an itinerant mushroom picker trying to pay his bills and stay out of trouble; and Jeremy, a former cook turned wild food entrepreneur, crisscrossing the continent to build a business amid cutthroat competition; their friend Matt, an up-and-coming chef whose kitchen alchemy is turning heads; and the woman who inspires them all. Rich with the science and lore of edible fungi—from seductive chanterelles to exotic porcini—The Mushroom Hunters is equal parts gonzo travelogue and culinary history lesson, a rollicking, character-driven tour through a world that is by turns secretive, dangerous, and tragically American.

    Apartment dwellers, schoolteachers, and anyone else who wants to grow a lot of food in a little space will find a great small garden resource in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet.Small-space gardeners, find your start in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet, packed with information on window boxes, potted plants, patio gardening, raised beds, small square-foot gardening, container gardening, and everything else related to growing your own small garden. Whether you want to grow a full garden, grow tomatoes, grow an herb garden, or just pick up great tips for small gardens, Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet is the resource you need.Reviews:"Beautiful color photographs and step-by-step instructions distinguish this guide to growing vegetables, fruit, and herbs in small spaces." - Library Journal

    No one knows this better than author and dietician Julene Stassou, who recommends the Mediterranean diet to anyone looking to leave fad diets behind for lasting results. Serving up mouthwatering recipes and weekly meal plans alongside realistic routines for losing weight, The Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Solution is your go-to reference for a long-term lifestyle change. Not just another diet book to help you lose weight—The Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Solution is a plan to keep it off.The Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Solution includes: A 28-day meal plan to jump-start your weight loss with tips for food prep Over 90 guilt-free recipes with guidelines for portion control and nutritional information Exercise routines with training day schedules Illustrated charts to help you set your personal goals and track progress As Mark Sapienza, MD, says, The Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Solution is a “simple yet actionable plan that so many of us, swept up in the chaos of everyday life, can on our own put to good use to lose weight and improve health.”Set yourself up to stay on track when you eat right and lose weight with The Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Solution kick-start guide.