If you love the joys of eating home-garden vegetables but always thought those joys had to stop at the end of summer, this book is for you. Eliot Coleman introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. He shows how North American gardeners can successfully use that sun to raise a wide variety of traditional winter vegetables in backyard cold frames and plastic covered tunnel greenhouses without supplementary heat. Coleman expands upon his own experiences with new ideas learned on a winter-vegetable pilgrimage across the ocean to the acknowledged kingdom of vegetable cuisine, the southern part of France, which lies on the 44th parallel, the same latitude as his farm in Maine. This story of sunshine, weather patterns, old limitations and expectations, and new realities is delightfully innovative in the best gardening tradition. Four-Season Harvest will have you feasting on fresh produce from your garden all through the winter.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Know Your Location's Relative Cloudiness Before Buying:
When first reading this book, I got really excited about the prospects of greenhouse growing in Michigan during the winter. That is until someone reminded me how cloudy MI is during the winter...so I did some research, and sure enough, the part of Maine the author lives in has *more* sunny days than the US average in winter, whereas Michigan is among the cloudiest of all areas, with a number of sunny days far below the national average. It's still a good book, but I think the author should've made as much a... more info
Not A Waste Of Money:
I've been familiar with Eliot Coleman's work for a few years now. I found an interesting article in Mother Earth News, 2004, regarding his daughter, Clara, and her attempts at gardening in the winter. It peaked my curiosity, so I saved the article. I have yet to get myself organized enough to attempt what she did, but I took it another step and purchased this particular book so that I would have more step-by-step help. Still, yet, I'm not quite brave enough to try, but if I can't do it with the help of this... more info
Useful book:
This seems like a very helpful book. We all need to learn to grow year round.
New take on gardening:
An interesting and different look at gardening. I plan to test the information I picked up this winter. I didn't really care too much about the travel log, but it did help explain the thought process. Well worth a read.
