I had the library get me two books on Oriental vegetables
(inter-library loan). I've read them both now, so here's my
brief review of them.

'The Edible Asian Garden,' by Rosalind Creasy -

This is a 'quality paperback' and a large book - about 11" x
17", but slender - it's not a thick book. The photography
is stunning, gorgeous, beautiful. The author is apparently
well known for her books on edible landscaping (although I'd
not heard of her).

The book is somewhat shy of real information: didn't tell
me much (if anything) that I hadn't already known. The
first section is mostly lovely pictures of her (totally
unrealistic in my life!) garden.

She even made bamboo supports and bamboo fencing, to be in
keeping with the Oriental theme. Right. This gal and I are
on different planets. I wish I lived on her planet
(complete with gardener, no doubt) but I don't. Duct tape
and chicken wire holds my life together....sigh.

The second section (only 40 pages) is an 'Encyclopedia of
Asian Vegetables' - with information on growing individuals
plants, recommended varieties, how to use them, etc. This
is heart of the book and it's not terribly useful for me. I
didn't learn much, if anything, from it.

The third section consists of recipes using Asian
vegetables.

The author lives in northern California, which makes her
climate quite different from most in the USA. She's made an
effort to include an Eastern type of climate by
collaborating with someone in Vermont. Still, I don't think
she quite realizes what heat and humidity a lot of us have
to cope with. But every author has to live somewhere, I
can't blame her for that.

The pictures are inspiring and really a joy to look at, but
I'm awfully glad I didn't spend any money actually buying
this one. I will request other books by Creasy from the
library, more to enjoy the photos than any other reason. And
you never know: I might learn more from her other books.

Moving right along (for anyone who may still be reading..)

The second book is 'Oriental Vegetables' by Joy Larkcom.
This is a quality paperback also about 9.5" x 7". It's
quite thick.

I'll tell you right off the bat that, after reading this
one, I ordered a used copy from Half.com. I'm impressed.

It has one very major flaw, to my way of thinking: the book
is typeset in irritating newspaper-style columns - I can't
imagine why. It took me quite a while to get over being
irritated at this and to be able to read it with pleasure.

Larkcom lives in England and she doesn't comprehend American
climates. I don't think any of the British really do. My
husband (English) had no idea of the tremendous variation in
our climates until he had lived here. The British are
fortunate not to have our extremes of either heat or cold,
and - in fact - most of the island enjoys a climate similar
to that of northern California (where Creasy lives).

Larkcom has made an effort - by traveling to the USA and
talking to various gardeners (notably the Rodale Research
Institute) to learn how the various vegetables grow here,
but this is - from an American standpoint - a weakness of
the book.

But there's so much that's really informative and helpful
about this book, that I can accept the climate problem. The
author discusses a large variety of Oriental vegetables,
places them in a somewhat logical order, tells how to grow
them, and suggests uses for them. Larkcom says that she
spent ten years researching this book (I believe it), and
she traveled to China as part of her research.

I learned a lot from reading this book, and will learn more
on re-reading it which I've no doubt that I'll do several
times. For example, I'm growing choy sum this year - I'd no
idea that it's grown for the flower stalks. Now I know.
It's always nice to know what part of the plant to eat. ;-)

This one's a keeper, IMHO. The copy I ordered from Half was
$8.95 and I think the book is well worth it for anyone who
is at all serious about growing Asian vegetables.

I'm going to order a few more types of seeds from Evergreen
now - these are things I'd not known about before reading
'Oriental Vegetables' but will enjoy trying.

Pat
--
Pat Meadows
Plant pots and 6-cell packs for starting seeds, at wholesale prices.
Photos and details may be seen at:
http://www.wellsborocomputing.com/pots01.html

The Creasy books are coffee table material.

..... on the other hand, growing Asian vegetables have no mystique to it. One
thing though, in our community garden no one filches my shisho , wing beans,
taro, Chinese broccoli, tatsoi and bitter melons --'cuz people do not know
how to cook them. :-)

The Creasy books are coffee table materials. I have a library full of her books
-- Edible Mexican, etc.

The Internet has more info than any book on any edible plant

/z.

Rosalind Creasy is indeed famous as a garden writer. She has an
almost year-round season and seems to plant every inch of her pretty
suburban-style yard. Must be nice.

Regards, Dianna from the highly variable Midwest
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

I don't know where you got the notion that N. Calif. has anything like
the British climate. We have what is referred to as a Mediterranean-type
climate: moderate temps year-around, wet winters and DRY summers
(typically no rain for 3-6 months or even longer). Pacific Northwest is
a lot more similar to Britain.

On 18 Apr 2003 23:18:00 GMT, (Zphysics1)
wrote:

The Creasy books are coffee table material.

Yes, that was my opinion of 'Edible Asian Vegetables' too -
but it sure is beautiful. I'll have the library get me her
other books, just to enjoy the lovely pictures.

Pat

On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 22:07:23 -0700, Bill Ranseen
wrote:

I don't know where you got the notion that N. Calif. has anything like
the British climate. We have what is referred to as a Mediterranean-type
climate: moderate temps year-around, wet winters and DRY summers
(typically no rain for 3-6 months or even longer). Pacific Northwest is
a lot more similar to Britain.

My mistake: I thought that northern California (very
northern) shared the PNW climate.

I'm an easterner and not very clued in on western climates.

Pat