Amish Garden

Starred review from April 15, 2013
Amish gardener Lapp offers an intimate journal of a year of gardening, cooking, family life, and friendships in the small, rural valley in Pennsylvania where she lives. She begins in January, with the study of catalogues. She chronicles the hope-filled days of spring planting with her sons, and long summer days follow, filled with tending plants, harvesting the vegetable garden’s bounty, and working in the garden as the last light fades. Gardeners will be amused by her familiar tales of the Sisyphean efforts required to water and weed, and to coax reluctant crops to grow. The gardener’s life is always one of hope, struggle, and resignation, but ultimately, satisfaction. Jeremy Hess’s photographs beautifully evoke the pleasures of the changing seasons, ripening crops, and sweet moments of family life, allowing readers to step into this world for a few moments. Color photographs.

April 1, 2013

This is a book about what it's like to enjoy having a big garden and performing the associated seasonal tasks. Though written by an Amish woman, details about the Amish are not of uppermost importance here. A former teacher, Lapp merely intended to write about life with a garden; she successfully teaches readers that Amish gardeners are a lot like gardeners everywhere: overly ambitious, optimistic, nostalgic for better growing seasons, and satisfied when something ordinary becomes something beautiful. Her high-spiritedness, curiosity, and humor are evident in anecdotes beginning with January, when she ponders seed ordering. Readers will relate to Lapp's enthusiasm for spring, marvel at her patience working with three small sons, and empathize with her envy of friends' gardens. Though partial to flowerbeds, she writes primarily of her kitchen garden and of her work preserving its harvest. Liberally illustrated with photos of six gardens and gardeners, the book is not a detailed handbook of techniques but an honest account of a gardener's year with its successes and failures. VERDICT Recommended for readers who enjoy gardening memoirs as well as those who will enjoy the hints of Amish daily life beyond gardening.--Bonnie Poquette, Milwaukee, WI

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2013
Readers will find themselves in a different world as Lapp shares her yearlong diary of planting and tending a vegetable garden amid the rhythms of Amish life in central Pennsylvania. Lapp and her family and neighbors live a pastoral existence in harmony with the seasons, and she writes about gardening as the act of turning something plain into something beautiful. The month-by-month structure takes readers from January's planninga grateful rest period for the gardenerthrough February, March, April, and May's cleanup, seeding, and sprouting sunflowers, as a tiny foal enjoys her first run in the pasture. July and August bring a harvest of cucumbers, tomatoes, and corn, followed by clearing out the garden, canning, and freezing throughout the fall for the coming winter season. Jeremy Hess' lustrous color photographs depict the garden throughout the year and document the creation of mouthwatering dishes made with Lapp's homegrown produce and recipes, which she shares. This lovely and unusual blend of personal reflections, gardening insights, and cooking suggestions will delight readers interested in nature, gardening, food, and Amish life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)