Handwritten signs urge passersby to pick what’s ripe in Kamloops, British Columbia. (Photo courtesy of Elaine Sedgman).Today's pick, Public Produce, comes from our Associate Editor, Courtney Lix.
I used to live in a dense, urban neighborhood in Washington DC. One day, walking to the grocery store I noticed someone had spilled a bag of peaches on the sidewalk. Then I looked up and realized, with delight, that the peaches had dropped from the limbs of an improbably large peach tree growing on the corner. Cities can be full of surprising possibilities for growing food, a subject which touches on health, cooking, equity, and sustainability. In Darrin Nordahl’s revised and expanded edition of Public Produce: Cultivating Our Parks, Plazas, and Streets for Healthier Cities, he delves into the idea of bringing agriculture back into our cities, and the myriad creative ways it can be accomplished. Darrin is one of the most dynamic writers I’ve had the pleasure of working with as an editor, and his descriptions of produce grown in humble places from median strips in Los Angeles to the State House grounds in Montpelier, Vermont to Seattle’s ambitious Food Forest, will inspire you as much as they make your mouth water.
Public Produce and all our other hardcover and paperback books are on sale for 50-70% off through September 30. 