Pomona's Harvest
Pomona's Harvest

Author: H. Frederic Janson

Publisher: Timber Press (OR)

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13:

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In Roman mythology, fruit was believed to be a gift from the goddess Pomona, and the study of fruit culture is therefore called pomology. Pomona's Harvest is an illustrated in-depth review, never attempted before, of the European literature dealing with fruit from antiquity to the Industrial Revolution. Frederic Janson draws readers into this arcane yet fascinating subject by placing it against the background of history, showing the connections among pomology, social history, and the history of ideas. Janson divides the first part of Pomona's Harvest into specific periods: antiquity and the Middle Ages; orchardist authors to Louis XIV; the Jeffersonian literary approach to fruit; Enlightenment and Revolution; fruit books for the bourgeoisie; and more. Noblemen, clerics, estate gardeners, lawyers, scholars, and poets render their individual pomological theories. The second part of the book is a detailed bibliography that describes over 600 fruit-related works and critically abstracts their contents. An 8-page color spread and 139 black-and-white illustrations delightfully augment the text, each one telling a story about the nature of the period.

Apples and Orchards since the Eighteenth Century
Apples and Orchards since the Eighteenth Century

Author: Joanna Crosby

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-11-16

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1350378496

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Showing how the history of the apple goes far beyond the orchard and into the social, cultural and technological developments of Britain and the USA, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach to reveal the importance of the apple as a symbol of both tradition and innovation. From the 18th century in Britain, technology innovation in fruit production and orchard management resulted in new varieties of apples being cultivated and consumed, while the orchard became a representation of stability. In America orchards were contested spaces, as planting seedling apple trees allowed settlers to lay a claim to land. In this book Joanna Crosby explores how apples and orchards have reflected the social, economic and cultural landscape of their times. From the association between English apples and 'English' virtues of plain speaking, hard work and resultant high-quality produce, to practices of wassailing highlighting the effects of urbanisation and the decline of country ways and customs, Apples and Orchards from the Eighteenth Century shows how this everyday fruit provides rich insights into a time of significant social change.

English Orchards
English Orchards

Author: Gerry Barnes

Publisher: Windgather Press

Published: 2022-08-31

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1914427211

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Old orchards have an irresistible appeal. Their ancient trees and obscure fruit varieties seem to provide a direct link with the lost rural world of our ancestors, a time when the pace of life was slower and people had a strong and intimate connection with their local environment. They are also of critical importance for sustaining biodiversity, providing habitats, in particular, for a range of rare invertebrates. Not surprisingly, orchards and the fruit they contain have attracted an increasing amount of attention over the last few decades, from both enthusiastic bands of amateurs and official conservation bodies. But much of what has been written about them is historically vague, romanticized and nostalgic. Orchards have become a symbol of unspoiled, picturesque rural England. This book attempts, for the first time, to provide a comprehensive review of the development of orchards in England from the Middle Ages to the present day. It describes the various different kinds of orchard and explains how, and when, they appeared in the landscape – and why they have disappeared, at a catastrophic rate, over the last six decades. Chapters discuss the contrasting histories of fruit growing in different regions of England, the complex story of ‘traditional’ fruit varieties and the role of orchards in wildlife conservation. In addition, a chapter on researching orchards provides a practical guide for those wishing to investigate the history and archaeology of particular examples.

Fresh
Fresh

Author: Susanne Freidberg

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0674263626

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That rosy tomato perched on your plate in December is at the end of a great journey—not just over land and sea, but across a vast and varied cultural history. This is the territory charted in Fresh. Opening the door of an ordinary refrigerator, it tells the curious story of the quality stored inside: freshness. We want fresh foods to keep us healthy, and to connect us to nature and community. We also want them convenient, pretty, and cheap. Fresh traces our paradoxical hunger to its roots in the rise of mass consumption, when freshness seemed both proof of and an antidote to progress. Susanne Freidberg begins with refrigeration, a trend as controversial at the turn of the twentieth century as genetically modified crops are today. Consumers blamed cold storage for high prices and rotten eggs but, ultimately, aggressive marketing, advances in technology, and new ideas about health and hygiene overcame this distrust. Freidberg then takes six common foods from the refrigerator to discover what each has to say about our notions of freshness. Fruit, for instance, shows why beauty trumped taste at a surprisingly early date. In the case of fish, we see how the value of a living, quivering catch has ironically hastened the death of species. And of all supermarket staples, why has milk remained the most stubbornly local? Local livelihoods; global trade; the politics of taste, community, and environmental change: all enter into this lively, surprising, yet sobering tale about the nature and cost of our hunger for freshness.

A History of Gardening in 50 Objects
A History of Gardening in 50 Objects

Author: George Drower

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2019-07-04

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0750991887

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The earliest record of an enclosed space around a homestead come from 10,000 BC and since then gardens of varying types and ambition have been popular throughout the ages. Whether ornamental patches surrounding wild cottages, container gardens blooming over unforgiving concrete or those turned over for growing produce, gardens exist in all shapes and sizes, in all manner of styles. Today we benefit from centuries of development, be it in the cultivation of desirable blossom or larger fruits, in the technology to keep weeds and lawn at bay or even in the visionaries who tore up rulebooks and cultivated pure creativity in their green spaces. George Drower takes fifty objects that have helped create the gardening scene we know today and explores the history outside spaces in a truly unique fashion. With stunning botanical and archive images, this lavish volume is essential for garden lovers.

Green Desire
Green Desire

Author: Rebecca Weld Bushnell

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-07-05

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 150172245X

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For Rebecca Bushnell, English gardening books tell a fascinating tale of the human love for plants and our will to make them do as we wish. These books powerfully evoke the desires of gardeners: they show us gardeners who, like poets, imagine not just what is but what should be. In particular, the earliest English garden books, such as Thomas Hill's The Gardeners Labyrinth or Hugh Platt's Floraes Paradise, mix magical practices with mundane recipes even when the authors insist that they rely completely on their own experience in these matters. Like early modern "books of secrets," early gardening manuals often promise the reader power to alter the essential properties of plants: to make the gillyflower double, to change the lily's hue, or to grow a cherry without a stone. Green Desire describes the innovative design of the old manuals, examining how writers and printers marketed them as fiction as well as practical advice for aspiring gardeners. Along with this attention to the delights of reading, it analyzes the strange dignity and pleasure of garden labor and the division of men's and women's roles in creating garden art. The book ends by recounting the heated debate over how much people could do to create marvels in their own gardens. For writers and readers alike, these green desires inspired dreams of power and self-improvement, fantasies of beauty achieved without work, and hopes for order in an unpredictable world—not so different from the dreams of gardeners today.

Preserving with Pomona's Pectin, Updated Edition
Preserving with Pomona's Pectin, Updated Edition

Author: Allison Carroll Duffy

Publisher: Fair Winds Press

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1631599836

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Craft intensely flavored jams, jellies, and pie fillings without all the sugar! This updated and expanded edition of the official Pomona’s Pectin cookbook is your guide. If you’ve ever made jam or jelly at home, you know most recipes require more sugar than fruit—oftentimes 4 to 7 cups!—causing many people to look for other ways to preserve more naturally and with less sugar. Pomona’s Pectin is the answer to this canning conundrum. Unlike other popular pectins, which are activated by sugar, Pomona’s is a sugar- and preservative-free citrus pectin that does not require sugar to jell. As a result, jams and jellies can be made with less, little, or no sugar at all and also require much less cooking time than traditional recipes, allowing you to create jams that are not only healthier and quicker to make, but filled with more fresh flavor. If you haven’t tried Pomona’s already (prepare to be smitten), you can easily find the pectin at your local natural foods store, hardware store, or online. In this updated and revised edition of Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin, you’ll continue to learn how to use this revolutionary product and method to create marmalades, preserves, conserves, jams, jellies, as well as new recipes for pie fillings and no-sugar options. The recipes, both sweet and savory, include: Classic Strawberry All-Fruit Cherry-Peach Jam Cranberry-Habanero Jelly Vanilla-Plum Preserves Gingered Lemon-Fig Preserves Savory Blueberry-Ginger Conserve Graperfruit-Honey Marmalade Pear Cardamom Pie Filling Alternative Sweetener Grape Jelly And many more From crowd favorites to intriguing flavor combinations, you’ll find endless ways to delight your family all year round.

Apple
Apple

Author: Erika Janik

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2011-10-15

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 1861899580

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Gravenstein. Coe’s Golden Drop. Mendocino Cox. The names sound like something from the imagination of Tolkien or perhaps the ingredients in a dubious magical potion rather than what they are—varieties of apples. But as befits their enchanting names, apples have transfixed and beguiled humans for thousands of years. Apple: A Global History explores the cultural and culinary importance of a fruit born in the mountains of Kazakhstan that has since traversed the globe to become a favorite almost everywhere. From the Garden of Eden and Homer’s Odyssey to Johnny Appleseed, William Tell, and even Apple Computer, Erika Janik shows how apples have become a universal source of sustenance, health, and symbolism from ancient times to the present day. Featuring many mouthwatering illustrations, this exploration of the planet’s most popular fruit includes a guide to selecting the best apples, in addition to apple recipes from around the world, including what is believed to be the first recorded apple recipe from Roman gourmand Marcus Apicius. And Janik doesn’t let us forget that apples are not just good eating; their juice also makes for good drinking—as the history of cider in North America and Europe attests. Janik grew up surrounded by apple iconography in Washington, the “apple state,” so there is no better author to tell this fascinating story. Readers will eat up this surprising and entertaining tale of a fruit intricately linked to human history.

The Book of Pears
The Book of Pears

Author: Joan Morgan

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1603586660

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"First published in the United Kingdom by Ebury Press in 2015."--Title page verso.