“Beautiful gardening book” is redundant. But “beautiful food gardening book” isn’t. That’s a smaller fruit patch. It’s more rare that a food gardening book combines luscious photography with inspiring, muscular prose, speaking to the meaning of the pastime.
But “Growing Beautiful Food,” by Matthew Benson (Rodale), was balm to my gloom-wearied eyes. Going without a food garden other than my perennial herbs this year has been tough; Benson has kept me company and helped me believe I’ll plant again. His musings on the seasonal processes are distilled into four chapters: “Dream,” “Plant,” “Grow” and “Gather.” They’re interspersed with short essays on, say, his greenhouse, his heirloom apple varieties and a hen that turned out to be a rooster.
The solid advice for growing 40 food crops is accompanied by Benson’s gorgeous photos of pocked, speckled and irregularly shaped organic fruits and vegetables. Walking with Benson on his path from city shooter to gentleman CSA farmer is a journey rich in reward. — Susan Clotfelter, The Denver Post
