Fruit

River Cottage Handbooks #9

by Mark Diacono

Growing fruit at home is a delicious and altogether more enjoyable alternative to buying it in the shops. Mark Diacono offers a practical and accessible guide to making the most of your garden and what it has to offer. The first part of the book is an A-Z of the different varieties of fruit, with old favourites like apples, cherries, plums, blackcurrants, white currants, redcurrants, strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries, raspberries and rhubarb as well as more exotic species like figs, grapes, cranberries, Japanese wine berries and apricots. Each is accompanied by a photograph, with detailed advice on when and how to grow and harvest. In the second part of the book, Mark gives straightforward guidelines on techniques like pruning and training, as well as how to deal with problems or pests. There is a section dedicated to growing under covers and in containers. Introduced by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and with 30 delicious recipes, beautiful, full-colour photographs and a directory of useful addresses, this is the ideal reference for any aspiring fruit grower.

Genres: Cooking, Cookbooks, Gardening, Food, Horticulture

255 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2011

Reviews

[IE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, never thought I could learn so much about fruit from a delightful English chap who I’d so love to meet in real life!

[Lucy Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good book on growing fruit and some very interesting recipes

[J Grimsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have grown a fair range of fruit in this book and have cooked/made about 10 receipts. The book is good but really is too optimistic for me. Good advice I am certain of but he under estimates the time and work needed. I would like a few more disaster stories and mistakes he has made. It's all a little easy.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is of course a ' starter ' to the world of fruit, not a comprehensive guide, as are the rest in the series.
I am not particularly interested in the subject matter, however like other handbooks River Cottage publish, I found it of great interest.