Grow Your Own Herbs

June 1, 2019

Following their well-received The Culinary Herbal, which covered 97 herbs, coauthors Belsinger and Tucker offer this slimmed-down version featuring 40 favorite herbs typically popular in home gardens. Written for beginners, the strong chapters about growing, harvesting, preserving, and using herbs in the kitchen have not been significantly reworked but have moved to the front of the book ahead of the herb profiles, which reuse some of the portraits from the previous work. However, a new layout design has moved quick-reference cultivation information into a small box on most portrait pages, detracting from the full-page, stylish photos. Arranged alphabetically by common names familiar to American cooks, this volume is more authoritative and easier to use than David Squire's Herb Gardens Specialist Guide, which is similar in scope but arranged by botanical names. Curiously, though growing things indoors is surging in popularity, this gives only cursory treatment to indoor herb gardening. VERDICT Recommended for anyone interested in homegrown herbs for cooking but not willing to purchase the authors' more expansive (and expensive) Culinary Herbal. Gardeners who cook and also want herbs for projects (green roofs, garden seats, herb lawns) might consider The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Herbs.--Bonnie Poquette, Milwaukee

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2019
Authors Belsinger and Tucker will be familiar to many, having authored (together and separately) many books on herbs and culinary gardening. Knowing and, as much as possible, replicating a plant's origins are the keys to growing it successfully. And because the most often used culinary herbs originate from a variety of locations and conditions, a gardener will need to locate or re-create this wide range of conditions. Introductory chapters cover the basics of how to accomplish this, including growing, harvesting, preserving, and preparing herbs for culinary purposes, after which the bulk of the book addresses 40 distinct herbs in detail. For each of these, specific instructions on cultivation, propagation, harvesting, preparation, and cooking are outlined, with specific details on different varieties for those herbs that have many, such as basil and mint. Large color photographs illustrate the beauty of the plants in flower and what the useful parts of the herb look like. For those using herbs culinarily, this is both a guide for beginners and a reference that can be used at any level.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)