Carol Deppe - The Tao of Vegetable Gardening: Cultivating Tomatoes, Greens, Peas, Beans, Squash, Joy, and Serenity

Praise for The Tao of Vegetable Gardening

If you want to read the complete, deepest-down lowdown on how to grow organic vegetables successfully, this is the book. It also stands as a guide to the most genuine, independent lifestyle possible, relying only on nature and the authors awesomely detailed knowledge of plant life to achieve successful food production and a contented way of life. The reader learns not only how to grow and cook vegetables, but how to breed new varieties and save the seed. And while you read her book, you are also charmed with the Tao philosophy of livingsomething I have come to believe is a sure path to tranquility.

Gene Logsdon, author, Gene Everlasting and The Contrary Farmer

The Tao of Vegetab le Gardening is another absolutely brilliant book from Carol Deppe. Its smart, ultimately sensible, refreshing in the way old assumptions get questioned, vastly informative about gardeningplus its a really good read. I mean, how many gardening books make you laugh out loud and get you to pick up the phone and order a tool from a place called Red Pig? Im so grateful for this bookI will have it memorized by the time the soil is ready to work.

Deborah Madison, author, Vegetable Literacy

There are many knowledgeable gardeners but very few wise ones. Carol Deppe is both. Her excellent new book, The Tao of Vegetable Gardening, serves up generous portions of homegrown know-how gleaned from three decades worth of experimentation. It will, no doubt, make you a better gardener. What sets this book apart, though, is its potential for making us into happier gardeners by sharing the deeper life lessons our gardens have to teach. The Chinese word tao can be defined in different ways but my favorite is path, and Carol Deppe shows us that the timeless path to health, happiness, and wholeness cuts right through our own backyard, if we choose to take it.

Roger Doiron, founding director, Kitchen Gardeners International

Why do different ripe tomatoes harvested from the same plant in the same season taste different? What does bean seed color have to do with vigor and flavor? After nearly forty years in the seed business, I still learn amazing things from each new book by Carol Deppe. The Tao of Vegetable Gardening melds the observational skills and curiosity of a molecular geneticist with the sheer joy and inner harmonies of a practicing participant in the gardens dance of life.

CR Lawn, founder, Fedco Seeds

In The Tao of Vegetable Gardening Carol Deppe uses Taoist philosophical concepts to communicate gardening wisdom learned through longtime practice and experimentation. She seamlessly integrates excellent how-to advice with her reflections on cultivation, plants, soil, the elements, and life. This book is as profound as it is practical, and will be a great source of information and inspiration for both experienced gardeners and those just starting out.

Sandor Ellix Katz, author, The Art of Fermentation

With the insight of a skilled breeder, Carol Deppe has drawn together the best of ancient wisdom and traditional crops. Gardeners rejoice! The past has never promised us a better future than in these pages.

Roger B. Swain, host of PBSs The Victory Garden

Also by Carol Deppe

Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardeners and Farmers Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving

The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times

Tao Te Ching: A Window to the Tao through the Words of Lao Tzu

Taoist Stories: A Window to the Tao through the Tales of Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu

Copyright 2015 by Carol Deppe.

All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs copyright by Carol Deppe.

All Tao Te Ching passages are from Tao Te Ching: A Window to the Tao through the Words of Lao Tzu , copyright 2010 by Carol Deppe. All the Taoist stories are from Taoist Stories: A Window to the Tao through the Tales of Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu , copyright 2013 by Carol Deppe.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Bill Bokermann

Developmental Editor: Benjamin Watson

Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad

Proofreader: Michelle Moran

Indexer: Barbara Mortenson

Printed in The United States of America.

First printing January, 2015.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 16 17 18

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative ( www.greenpressinitiative.org ), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. The Tao of Vegetable Gardening was printed on paper supplied by Thomson-Shore that contains 100% postconsumer recycled fiber.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Deppe, Carol, author.

The Tao of vegetable gardening : cultivating tomatoes, greens, peas,

beans, squash, joy, and serenity / Carol Deppe.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60358-487-6 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-60358-488-3 (ebook) 1.

Vegetable gardening. I. Title.

SB321.D43 2015

635--dc23

2014036464

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

in memory of

Christina (Kit) Ward

beloved editor, literary agent,

mentor, and friend

Contents

Acknowledgments

I thank Ben Watson for his expert, gentle editing of this, our third gardening book together.

I thank Margo Baldwin, my very hands-on and innovative publisher, and the rest of the Chelsea Green Publishing team for contributing their myriad skills, experience, wisdom, and wizardry.

For information, encouragement, company, and camaraderie I thank Charlotte Anthony, Nancy Baumeister, Nick Estens, Nate France, Paul Harcombe, Nonie Harcombe, Bruce Hecht, Mike Hessel, Alan Kapuler, Linda Kapuler, CR Lawn, Rose Marie Nichols McGee, Keane McGee, Stewart Pollack, Dane Rogers, and Merry Youle.

For believing in me and supporting my work I thank Denise-Christine, Mark Deppe, Kathy Ging, Kinsey Green, Sarah Kleeger, James Rodell, Nick Routledge, Janet Russell, Jerry Russell, Andrew Still, Roger Trevisiol, Helen Trevisiol, and Janice Wilson.

Anything I accomplish in this world is in its turn part of the accomplishments of my mentors, whom I pause to remember and acknowledge here: my science mentors, geneticist and orchid breeder Henry Wallbrunn, biochemist Arthur L. Koch, and fungal geneticist John R. Raper; my writing mentors Roger Swain and Christina (Kit) Ward.

This book is dedicated to Kit Ward, one of the great editor-mentors and later, agent-mentors. Kit passed away in fall of 2012. She is sorely missed. But she lives on in her family and friends, and in the authors she helped shape, taught, nurtured, and guided.

Finally, I thank Colleen Mohyde of Doe Coover Agency for being there after Kits death with caring, comfort, and encouragement.