FOOD PRESERVATION

Every spring the 635s clear out at the library. This is the general dewey number for Gardening books. This area of the shelves stays pretty bare until August or September, and then patrons begin asking for books on Food Preservation so that they can enjoy their garden harvest for months to come. We have several books on canning and preserving at the library. One example is Putting Up: a year-round guide to canning in the Southern tradition by Stephen Dowdney.

Here are some others on this subject:

Well-preserved: recipes and techniques for putting up small batches of seasonal foods by Eugenia Bone

Jam it, pickle it, cure it: and other cooking projects by Karen Solomon

Preserving in today's kitchen: new faster techniques for preserving foods at their peak of flavor by Jeanne Lesem

URBAN FARMING

I started a vegetable garden this year, and already I'm addicted to gardening books. I really like the new one by Novella Carpenter titled "Farm City: the education of an urban farmer". She lives in Oakland and takes over a nearby abandoned lot to create a garden. She even raises "meat birds", a goose, turkeys, and chickens, in her very small backyard. It's very well written and a fast, enjoyable read.

Zombies and Sea Monsters

If you haven't heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you might want to get your name on the waiting list for it because a second Quirk classic is about to debut: "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters." Called a literary mash-up, the creative folks at Quirk Books take a classic novel and mix it with scary creatures and bloody mayhem. The result is hilarious, and the first Austen title became a bestseller. Watch a book trailer for the new title coming out in September. The library will be ordering it soon, so also watch for it in the library's catalog. Monsters set in a regency time period - classic...