Eat Your Greens: The Surprising Power of Homegrown Leaf Crops

Eat Your Greens: The Surprising Power of Homegrown Leaf Crops

Turn over a new leaf with these nutritional powerhouses for your kitchen garden Our industrialized food system is failing us, and as individuals we must take more responsibility for our own health and food security. Leaf crops produce more nutrients per square foot of growing space and per day of growing season than any other crops and are especially high in vitamins and minerals commonly lacking in the North American diet. As hardy as they are versatile, these beautiful leafy vegetables range from the familiar to the exotic. Some part of this largely untapped food resource can thrive in almost any situation. Eat Your Greens provides complete instructions for incorporating these nutritional powerhouses into any kitchen garden. This innovative guide: Shows how familiar garden plants such as sweet potato, okra, beans, peas, and pumpkin can be grown to provide both nourishing leaves and other calorie- and protein-rich foods - Introduces a variety of non-traditional, readily adaptable alternatives such as chaya, moringa, toon, and wolfberry - Explains how to improve your soil while getting plenty of vegetables by growing edible cover crops Beginning with a comprehensive overview of modern commercial agriculture and rounded out by a selection of advanced techniques to maximize, preserve, and prepare your harvest, Eat Your Greens is an invaluable addition to the library of any gardening enthusiast. David Kennedy is the founder and director of Leaf for Life, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the elimination of global malnutrition through the optimum use of leaf crops, and is the author of 21st Century Greens and the Leaf for Life Handbook . "Leaf crops produce the most nutrition from the least space while requiring the fewest inputs. The trouble is...many valuable leafy vegetables are unknown to gardeners. Nor do we know how to prepare or preserve them. Dave Kennedy's Eat Your Greens provides all this information. The book should be on the shelf of every serious gardener." — Steve Solomon, Author The Intelligent Gardener and Gardening When It Counts "Kennedy's new book is a practical instructional manual on how to grow and prepare leafy edible plants, many of which are unavailable at grocery stores and farmers markets, overlooked by gardeners and rarely considered in the kitchen. It offers a simple, grassroots solution to help counter the immense public-health burden that has arisen from our high-calorie, nutrient-poor diet. Reading this book could change lives, communities and society for the better." — Sean Clark, Professor and Farm Director, Berea College "David Kennedy makes a compelling case for home gardens as a vital element of our food system and for expanding our food and garden horizons by growing super-nutritious greens, including some novel leaf crops and traditional crops used in new ways. A great resource for those wishing to increase their food security, Eat Your Greens offers detailed information on growing, eating, and preserving greens that both novice and experienced gardeners will welcome." — Susan Littlefield, Horticultural Editor, National Gardening Association "Low-fat or low-carb? Vegan or paleo? Whole grain or gluten-free? Nutrition has become complicated by competing diets and health claims. The world's biggest food corporations add to this confusion and profit from it at the same time. In Eat Your Greens , David Kennedy cuts through the fog and shows us that the journey to optimum health can begin with a single, simple step into the backyard vegetable garden. The message of why and how we can eat more fresh, nutrient-rich greens isn't a marketing ploy designed to bolster some company's bottom line. It's a timeless, universal truth and one that Kennedy tells convincingly." —Roger Doiron, Founding Director, Kitchen Gardeners International " Eat Your Greens is a refreshingly thoughtful and practical book for the new wave of savvy gardeners interested in exploring the full potential of home gardens. One of the world's experts on leafy green crops opens his garden gate to show us an amazing array of 21 beautiful and some little-known greens that will make you wonder where they've been all your life. In addition to the directive "Eat Your Greens" we can now add "Read Eat Your Greens" as excellent advice that will make us healthier and happier." — Anita Courtney, M.S.,R.D., Chairperson / Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition "Our work is with the poorest of the poor in developing countries and David's training resources have made the greatest impact on what we do but at the same time I have painfully watched the effects of nutritional poverty in the west for years. Everything that I wished could be said to my western friends is in this new book. There is now no excuse to be destined to a life of mediocre health. It may be hard to believe but a couple of small four by eight foot kitchen gardens, that take minutes a day to maintain can turn the tide of deteriorating old