Synopsis
Concerned about nutrition in the global community, the author starts off with a well-written look at our global food industry versus the local food movement and how to reconcile the two. The rest of the book addresses techniques for food growing at home. Eat Your Greens then suggests multi-use crops and new leaf crops available to most temperate climate growers. He also includes how to preserve the harvest and inventive recipes for greens you may not be familiar with.
What I Learned from Eat Your Greens
Leaf concentrate is a nutritional powerhouse that can be made on the home scale and stored for up to a year. The use of this concentrate can then easily help battle malnutrition worldwide. The associated deficiency diseases like blindness from lack of vitamin A or the malnutrition from empty calories that often lead to obesity in developed nations warrant discussion.
The Thing I Found Most Interesting and Why
The recipes! I never thought about making a green lemonade with natural ingredients that had a strong nutrient profile and not strong flavors to overpower the lemon. It also suggested some combinations like black beans and amaranth greens or peanuts and pumpkin leaves, all items I grow and never thought to put together.
What I Didn’t Like
The suggestions of useful leafy crops are so casually mentioned I almost missed it. The small section he gives to cover each plant is a paragraph or two. This is a much different format than I was expecting.
Final Thoughts
Great book for beginners and experienced gardeners alike. Highly recommended for someone who may not have much experience or money. Also, for folks looking to get the most nutrition from their crops. Experienced gardeners will likely find they have been missing out on secondary harvests on things they already grow.
