Thinking Like A Plant

"To live and to think in and from the middle, like a plant partaking of light and of darkness, is not to be confined to the dialectical twilight, where philosophy paints "its grey on grey." It is, rather to refashion oneself - one's thought and one's existence - into a bridge between divergent elements: to become a place where the sky communes with the earth and light encounters but does not dispel darkness."

 Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life by Michael Marder

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Review: Picnic

This book offers menus, recipes and planning suggestions for 29 portable repasts, from an "After the Wedding" Brunch Picnic to a Workday Picnic. Arranged seasonally, the suggested picnics cover all 12 months of the year, beginning with a Spring Day-Hike Picnic and progressing to a Summer Canoe Picnic, an Autumn Beach Picnic and then, in winter, an Apres-Ski Picnic.

Picnics are usually associated with lazy Sunday afternoon trips to the seashore or a riverside park and a hamper full of sandwiches, cold meats and lemonade.

Picnic:  

125 Recipes with 29 Seasonal Menus  

by DeeDee Stovel 

Storey Books, 2001

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Review: Vodka

Does the word "vodka" derive from the Russian "voda," meaning water, or the Polish "wodka," derived from "woda," or water? Historians from the two countries will argue incessantly on the origins of the world's favorite liquor, which almost certainly originated somewhere in Eastern Europe during  the 14th or 15th century.

This new volume in The Edible Series of Reaktion Books explores how a rather unremarkable liquid -- pure alcohol distilled from grain -- became such a potent spirit, both culturally and economically. Once a humble drink known only to Eastern Europeans, it is now the most popular liquor in both the U.S. and Britain, and probably the world.

Vodka

A Global History

by Patricia Herlihy

Reaktion Books, 2013

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Good Guides: The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds

The culmination of many years of research, observation, and study, The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds is factually, visually, and organizationally superior to any other photographic field guide available.

Available in Eastern and Western volumes, these easy-to-use guides feature over 4,600 North American bird species with stunning color photographs.

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region

The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region

by Donald Stokes and Lillian Stokes

Little, Brown and Company, 2013

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Reading the History: The Old Fashioned

American tavern owners caused a sensation in the late eighteenth century when they mixed sugar, water, bitters, and whiskey and served the drink with rooster feather stirrers.

The modern version of this "original cocktail," widely known as the Old Fashioned, is a standard in any bartender's repertoire and holds the distinction of being the only mixed drink ever to rival the Martini in popularity.

In this book, Gourmand Award--winning author Albert W. A. Schmid profiles the many people and places that have contributed to the drink's legend since its origin.

The Old Fashioned
An Essential Guide to the Original Whiskey Cocktail
by Albert W. A. Schmid
The University Press of Kentucky, 2013

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Reading the History: Kit Carson

Best known today for his role in the tragic "Long Walk" of  the Navajos as Col. Christopher Carson of the First New Mexico Volunteers, "Kit" Carson was a mythical hero in dime novels of the 19th century and movie Westerns of the mid-20th century who fought savages, protected the virtuous and helped open the frontier.

This biography portrays the real-life Carson as Scots-Irish border man - a trapper, guide, hunter, soldier - shaped by his culture and his times. Rather than a stereotypic Indian killer, it argues that he matured intellectually and ethically as he grew older.

Kit Carson

The Life of an American Border Man 

by David A. Remley

University of Oklahoma Press, 2012

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Fast Pitch: Top of the Heap

Perhaps more has been written about the New York Yankees than about any other sports team. And the magic that has played out on the field over the years has been rivaled only by baseball scribes' prowess on the page.

Excellence breeds excellence, and for 100 years some of the best writers in America have chronicled the New York Yankees, taking a single swing or game and somehow making it singular.

This anthology from the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing and author of Yankees Century collects the best writing about the Yankees over the course of their long history. Published to coincide with the team's centenary celebration, this is a must-have volume for fans the world over who claim the New York Yankees as their own.

Top of the Heap

A Yankees Collection

by Glenn Stout

Mariner Books, 2003

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Death by Melons

Speaking of unusual papal successions...

Massimo Montanari recounts the peculiar demise of Pope Paul II who died of a sudden apoplectic attack on a summer night in 1471.

"His doctors attributed this to a melon binge the evening before. After having spent the day in consistory, the pontiff dined late (around ten) on 'three melons, not too large' and other things 'of meager substance, as had become his habit over the past few months.' The account of this event, written in these words by Nicodemo di Pontremoli in a letter to the Duke of Milan, reveals and attitude of great suspicion toward this fruit, capable of causing not only indigestion but even death."

Medieval physicians disapproved of cold and juicy fruit, believing it could undermine the body's natural heat and upset its equilibrium. They commonly advised people to eat very little melon and, if possible, avoid them entirely.

"Melons in particular were held to be the most toxic of all fruits."

Let the Meatballs Rest

And Other Stories About Food and Culture

by Massimo Montanari

Columbia University Press, 2012

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Artwork: Ripe Melons by John F. Francis

"An Insect View of Its Plain"

"Thoreau, Dickinson and Muir had mutual interests in the relationships between science, culture, and nature, relationships that they were partly able to explore and express through the observed habits and experiences of insects. Sharing the belief that nature was a reflection of God's intention... they recognized that insects, like every other particle of nature, were lovingly created by God to serve a unique purpose."

"An Insect View of Its Plain"

Insects, Nature and God in Thoreau, Dickinson and Muir

by Rosemary Scanlon McTier 

McFarland, 2013

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Reading the History: Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey

This book is a history of the bourbon industry, beginning with its foundations in the small pot stills of American farmers in the late 1790s. It follows the growth of large distillers and rectifiers and the booms and busts of the beverage's market through wars and Prohibition, concluding with the emergence of craft distillers returning to small stills of the whiskey's origins.

"What made bourbon famous was the aging process employed by its distillers, one that took place in charred oak barrels," historian Michael R. Veach explains.

"It was known at least as early as the Roman Empire that water and wine stored in oak barrels charred on the inside stayed fresher longer. By the fifteenth century the process had been appropriated by the French to flavor and color brandy and cognac. And at some point in the early nineteen century it was adopted by Kentucky distillers and allowed them to produce a whiskey with a sweet caramel/vanilla flavor and a red color."

Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey

An American Heritage

by Michael R. Veach

The University Press of Kentucky, 2013

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Now Exploring "An Insect View of Its Plain"

During the nineteenth century, insects became a very fashionable subject of study, and the writing of the day reflected this popularity. However, despite an increased contemporary interest in ecocriticism and cultural entomology, scholars have largely ignored the presence of insects in nineteenth-century literature.

This volume addresses that critical gap by exploring the cultural and literary position of insects in the work of Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and John Muir.

An Insect View of Its Plain
Insects, Nature and God in Thoreau, Dickinson and Muir
by Rosemary Scanlon McTier
McFarland, 2013

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The Divine Appointment of Animals

In 1542, the great German monk and Protestant reformer Martin Luther lived in a household that included horses, pigs, cows, calves, chicken, pigeons, geese and a dog Tölpel "whom Luther expected to meet in heaven."

Luther believed that animals were witnesses and messengers of God's glory -- an intended worldly presence -- and not simply created for the convenience and sustenance of man, according to Laurie Shannon's analysis in "The Accommodated Animal."

"Fruits were created chiefly as food for people and for beasts; the latter were created to the end we should laud and praise God."

In his Lectures on Genesis 1-5, Luther writes that "the mouse, too, is a divine creature... It has a very beautiful form - such pretty feet and such delicate hair that it is clear that it was created by the word of God with a definite plan in view. Therefore here, too, we admire God's creation and workmanship. The same thing may be said about flies."

Shannon's analysis of Luther's comments concludes that "the here-and-now facticity of observed animals grounds their privilege and divine appointment, and their presence as such warrants a spiritual attention."

The Accommodated Animal

Cosmopolity in Shakespearean Locales

by Laurie Shannon

University Of Chicago Press, 2012

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The Accommodated Animal

"Likewise to every beast of the earth and to every foule of the heaven, and to every thing that moveth upon the earth, which hath life in it selfe, every greene herbe shall be for meate."
Genesis 1:30

While the early Bible attentively noted the presence of other creatures in our world, they are never referred to by the English word "animal" in the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva Bible of 1560 or the King James Version of 1611.


The widely used noun is likewise missing from almost all of Shakespeare's oeuvre, save eight instances, while the words "beast" and "creature" appear more than a hundred times and references to specific species are everywhere:

"Exit, pursued by a bear."

The distinction is significant, according to professor Laurie Shannon, reflecting an important change in our relationship with the natural world and its non-human creatures, denying "animals" a place in the world that our thinking previously accommodated.

The Accommodated Animal

Cosmopolity in Shakespearean Locales

by Laurie Shannon

University Of Chicago Press, 2012

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Farm and Garden Picks: Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys

Not only are turkeys an excellent source of succulent meat, rich eggs, and nutrient-dense manure, but they are curious, social, and friendly as well: a perfect and profitable choice for many farmers. Don Schrider brings his hands-on experience to this one-stop reference for humanely raising healthy turkeys.

Here is everything you need to know to raise turkeys successfully, from selecting the right breeds to housing, feeding, breeding, health care, marketing, and much more.

Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys
Breeds * Care * Marketing
by Don Schrider
Storey Publishing,, 2013

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Review: Contagious

Word-of-mouth often leads to popularity, or notoriety. It is much more effective than any form of traditional advertising and it seriously impacts the products people buy, the way they behave, and what they discuss.

So, how do you get it? What makes people talk about certain subjects rather than others? What makes some online content go viral? According to marketing professor Jonah Berger, the answer came be found in the psychology of social transmission.

Continued in Selling Points

Contagious

Why Things Catch On

by Jonah Berger

Simon & Schuster, 2013

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Review: Drinking History

Food historian Andrew F. Smith takes some 300 pages in his latest book to examine the wide assortment of beverages that Americans consume, try to figure out why certain drinks have become popular, and distill his findings down to 15 pivotal events that defined the culture's drinking habits.

Those "pivotal" events include Prohibition and the Tea Parties, of course, as well as the diversity of beverages introduced to the continent with colonial settlement from Europe. The growth of the rum trade in the Americas was pivotal, as was the development of local whiskeys, hard cider, and beer.

Subsequent chapters focus on the development and impact of milk, cocktails, fruit juices, soft drinks, kids' beverages, wine, bottled waters, and coffee on Americans.

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Drinking History

Fifteen Turning Points in the Making of American Beverages

by Andrew F. Smith

Columbia University Press, 2012

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Reading the History: The Kentucky Derby

If the Super Bowl had been played in the same city each year, say a working class community like Green Bay, and still grew up to become a multi-billion-dollar spectacle attracting the world's rich and famous as well as the beer-swilling, tattooed commoners then it would be an event comparable to the Kentucky Derby, especially if you added an extra hundred years of tradition to its history.

An unabashed  thoroughbred horse enthusiast and Kentucky Derby fan, the author nevertheless provides a straightforward history and honest assessment of the event and its evolution.

The book follows the progress of the Derby through the decades as it broke away from a pack of other races to become America’s premier thoroughbred event.

The Kentucky Derby

How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event

by James C. Nicholson

The University Press of Kentucky, 2012

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Review: Hot Drinks

Original recipes and new interpretations of hot beverage classics from around the world are served up in this slim volume by  Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss.

Illustrated with historic photos, colorful advertisements and drawings, and spiced with both practical and unusual recipes, this enticingly clever text is a fun browse and a mouth-watering temptation.

Look inside for some liquid holiday cheer in the form of Mistletoe and Holly (part cranberry juice, part peppermint schnapps), the traditional wassail (a British ale-based drink with spices and apples) or a basic Hot Buttered Rum.
The 50 drink recipes include mixed coffees, special teas, festive punches, spiked cocoas, warm ciders and sophisticated cocktails.

Hot Drinks

Cider, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Spiced Punch, and Spirits

by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss

Ten Speed Press, 2007.

continued in The Book Stall

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Farm and Garden Picks: Homegrown Honey Bees

This beginner’s guide to beekeeping clearly explains everything you need to know, from getting your first bees to harvesting your first crop of honey.

Spectacular macro photography brings the inner workings of the hive to life, while the playful text gives you the information you need to make it through your first year.

Everything is addressed here, from allergies, permits and restrictions, and how to deal with the neighbors to hive structure, colony hierarchy, and bee behavior.

Homegrown Honey Bees

An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping

by Alethea Morrison

Storey Publishing, 2013

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Review: Organic Gardener's Companion

This is a guide for growing organic produce specifically in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana and in the similarly semi-arid high altitude  climates of Utah, Idaho, northern Arizona and eastern Oregon. Short growing seasons, thin soils and inclimate weather makes any kind of gardening a challenge; growing organically is even more of a test.

"I've gardened in the West without using chemicals or poisons for more than forty years," notes author Jane Shellenberger.  "It's not difficult, but it helps to have a bit of education on the topic."

Organic Gardener's Companion

Growing Vegetables in the West

by Jane Shellenberger

Fulcrum, 2012

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Review: Organic Meat Production and Processing

As organic farming continues to emerge as a growth industry for both crops and meat, there is increasing demand for accurate and up-to-date information on producing, processing, marketing, and maintaining food safety in organic foods.

This textbook compiled by a team of editors and an international collection of authors focuses on the management issues facing producers of organic beef, swine, poultry and other meat species. It also includes background articles on the history of organic operations, current market and regulatory issues, the differences between organic and conventional meats, and the future of the organic movement worldwide.

Organic Meat Production and Processing

edited by Steven C. Ricke, et al.

Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

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Knack Quick and Easy Cooking

Even if time is limited and experience lacking, it is still possible to prepare healthy family meals.

Combining photographs and succinct descriptions, this book outlines the process of putting meals together, quickly and easily, without sacrificing flavor.

Includes tips on organizing a kitchen and smart shopping.

Knack Quick and Easy Cooking

A Step-by-Step Guide to Meals in Minutes

by Linda Johnson Larsen

Knack, 2009

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Review: Making Peg Dolls

"When we watch children immersed in imaginative play, and one child presents us with a bit of wood saying, 'This is my baby,' these imaginings of children at play cross the expanses of history and culture to connect us in a universal way," writes author Margaret Bloom in her introduction to this book of peg doll inspirations.

Originally created from wooden laundry pegs, the dolls in this book are designed in the Waldorf education tradition that encourages imaginative play and emotional development through neutral faces and minimal features.

The 60 designs and patterns for peg dolls included in this book are arranged by season, Spring through Winter, with three fairy tale sets in the back of the book for making dolls for The Three Bears, Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel. Introductory chapters review materials and techniques and offer a glossary of stitches.

Making Peg Dolls

by Margaret Bloom

Hawthorn Press, 2013

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Review: Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares

This engaging text introduces readers to both the heroes and the villains of the Fungi  kingdom, from the seductively flavorful chanterelle to the poisonous Death Cap, highlighting their culinary attributes, undesirable characteristics, and complex cultural histories.

Author Greg Marley is a well-known New England mycophile who frequently lectures on wild mushrooms and medicinal plants, leads mushroom expeditions, and writes books on these subjects.

Mushrooms for Health: Medical Secrets of Northeastern Fungi, published in 2009, covered medicinal mushrooms; this one explores the gustatory traits of the fungi and the lore behind them.

Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares

The Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushrooms

by Greg A. Marley

Chelsea Green, 2010

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Now Exploring Bark River

The Bark River valley in southeastern Wisconsin is a microcosm of the state's - indeed, of the Great Lakes region's - natural and human history.

The Bark River Chronicles records one couple's journey by canoe from the river's headwaters to its confluence with the Rock River and several miles farther downstream to Lake Koshkonong.

The Bark River Chronicles

Stories from a Wisconsin Watershed

by Milton J. Bates

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012

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Review: Let the Meatballs Rest

This is a collection of 100 brief essays discussing specific foodstuffs, their histories and how they have helped shape the human societies that include them in their diets.

Potatoes, for instance, were introduced to Europe in the 16th century but their bland flavor and "subterranean nature" made them unappealing. Only when other crops had failed and starvation loomed did farmers turn to widescale production of the easy-to-grow spuds.

Garlic, likewise, was once considered fit only for peasants. Eating such strong and foul-smelling food was a damning mark of poverty in the 10th century.

And eggplant, first brought to Europe by Arabs, was long associated with "the lower class and Jews." Yet the peasant cuisine that emerged from their use would later be co-opted by the upper classes.

Let the Meatballs Rest

And Other Stories About Food and Culture

by Massimo Montanari

Columbia University Press, 2012

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Eating Out with Let the Meatballs Rest

In his chapter, "The Beautiful and the Good," Montanari argues that beauty and beautiful food shouldn't be the privilege of the few.

"It is a primary need of the individual and of society. Beauty is natural, but it has to be cultivated and is therefore also culture. Beauty makes things more acceptable, more pleasing, more desirable. 

"The ancient Greeks thought that the body and the spirit were fundamentally the same and that a truly beautiful man could not be other that truly good... And so it is for food. To be be really good it has to be really beautiful. Not only the nch food of grand occasions, but even humble, ordinary, daily food. Beauty is needed every day."

~ Massimo Montanapi from "Let The Meatballs Rest"

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Review: Fish Grilled and Smoked

"I have discovered what I believe to be an exciting new fuel for smoking fish, a fuel easily found in any farm supply store, hardware store, and even supermarket," writes outdoorsman and author John Manikowski. "It's inexpensive too. Corn. Dried whole corn kernels."

In the pages of this how-to guide and recipe book, Manikowski reveals the secret of his “soft smoke” method using dried corn that can make a fish smoker out of almost any grill.

Manikowski includes step-by-step illustrated directions for building three separate smokers: a streamside smoker, a home smoker, and a large backyard smokehouse.

He discusses the best species of fish to smoke—bluefish, yellowtail, whitefish, herring, and lake trout -- and provides recipes for curing solutions and special rubs.

There's more ways to cook a fish than smoking it, of course, and Manikowski covers most of the basics, from directions on cleaning fish, techniques for boning and scaling, and advice on wine pairings.

The 150 recipes in the book include main dish meals like Striped Bass with Cattail Shoots and Morels, Grilled Butterflied Trout, and Grilled Small-mouth Bass Wrapped in Corn Husks.There are also recipes for side dishes using wild mushrooms, grilled eggplants and tomatoes, as well as an assortment of condiments, sauces, and desserts.

Fish Grilled and Smoked

150 Recipes for Cooking Rich, Flavorful Fish on the Backyard Grill, Streamside, or in a Home Smoker

by John Manikowski

Recipe Excerpt: Salmon and Corn Chowder
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Review: Animal Origami

True magic lies in transforming an angular piece of ordinary paper into a life-like representation of a living animal. Origami master Joost Langeveld offers this boxed set of challenging exercises for nimble paper artists.

Langeveld's origami instruction book explains how to fold 20 different animals from the turtles to tigers, and from elephants to whales. There are folded creatures from the African plain and hand-crafted critters from the ocean deep.

Continued in ... Animal Origami

Animal Origami

by Joost Langeveld

Thunder Bay Press, 2011

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Review: Taylor's Encylopedia of Garden Plants

Unlike other encyclopedias that become dated due to political, social and scientific changes, the Taylor's Encyclopedia of Garden Plants is sure to stand the test of time as probably the most complete and authoritative guide to ornamental flowers, trees and shrubs in North American gardens. The information in this text will be as accurate and as valuable at the end of this century as it is today. Its pages will yellow and its cover will wear out before there is much change in the nature of the 1,000 species covered here.

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Taylor's Encyclopedia of Garden Plants 

edited by Frances Tenenbaum  

Houghton Mifflin, 2003

Cover Art: Taylor's Encyclopedia of Garden Plants
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Review: Legends

The Legends series of books by the magazine Western Horseman, now numbering five volumes, collects biographical sketches of horses acclaimed for their speed, formation, or sire or production record by the American Quarter Horse Association.

Continued in ... Legends

Legends 

Outstanding Quarter Horse Stallions and Mares

edited by Pat Close 

Western Horseman Magazine, 2001-2010

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Artwork: Legends, Volume 8

Farm and Garden Picks: Tractors of the World

Tractors come in all different shapes and sizes, and Tractors of the World covers the field from the early steam-driven monsters to the traditional "two large, two small" wheel configuration; the Row Crop models with two small front wheels placed close together and two large rear wheels; and finally to the ultimate modern, four-wheel-drive, multi-geared, mega-beasts with GPS devices and on-board computers.

Tractors of the World

by Mirco de Cet

Arctrus Publishing, 2012

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Review: Christmas in the Old West

The "Old West" in this book is the 19th century, as it was lived in the Western states and territories of the rapidly expanding United States. It was a time of explorers and trailblazers, cowboys and cavalry, prospectors and outlaws, settlers and homesteaders.

Christmas in the Old West is a collection of heart-warming tales, memories, meals, news accounts, pictures and memorabilia of a time before television and electric lights and gas stoves.

Continued in ... Christmas in the Old West


Christmas in the Old West
A Historical Scrapbook
by Sam Travers
Mountain Press, 2003


Artwork: Christmas for the Men on the Trail by Charles M. Russell
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Review: Home Cheese Making

The notable primer on making cheese at home, Cheesemaking Made Easy, was revised and updated as Home Cheese Making with more recipes, profiles of cheesemakers, and sources for supplies and equipment.

Home cheesemaking can be a fun hobby or educational activity, or it can be a lucrative sideline for farmers market sales or even a steady business. While this book is intended for beginners, it includes recipes and instructions for taking the art to a commercial level.

Continued in ... Here's How To Make Cheese

Home Cheese Making 

by Ricki Carroll

Storey Publishing, 2002.

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The Nature Pages Review: Hunter's Log

The essence of autumn on the northern plains of America, and North Dakota in particular, is bagged and brought home in this collection of hunting poetry.

In a preface to his work, the poet explains that hunting has taught him accuracy of observation and, as a writer, accuracy of expression. Both skills are effectively employed in poems like "Missouri Breaks":

A blooded dog quarters the feral rye,
and my body's long quarrel with my mind
is silenced by a landscape and a sky
legible as a Bible for the blind.

Inspired by Ortega y Gassett's "Meditations on Hunting," gifted to him by his father, Timothy Murphy feels "the killing of the game is a ritual preparation for our own mortality." In "The Blind," the poet describes an outing with an aging father:

By some ancestral code
fathers and sons don't break,
we each carry a load
of which we cannot speak.

Here we commit our dead
to the unyielding land
where broken windmills creak
and stricken ganders cry.

Father, the dog, and I
are learning how to die
with our feet stuck in the muck
and our eyes trained on the sky.

Continued in ... The Nature Pages

Hunter's Log

by Timothy Murphy

The Dakota Institute, 2011.

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Review: Specialty Cut Flowers

At a time when farmers struggle to make a profit from crops of corn and potatoes and soybeans it rankles the mind to learn of folks who buy spotted knapweed and Johnson grass as ornamentals, and of gatherers and growers who make money off such weeds. The fresh and dried cut flower business is blossoming in American but its not coming up roses.

Florists whose cut flower arrangements were predominantly roses, carnations or mums a dozen years ago are now experimenting with and creating a steady market for asters and bellflowers, coneflowers and dogwoods, lobelias and statice. Even stem cuttings of ornamental onions, sage and thistles are growing with value.

Specialty Cut Flowers

The Production of Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Woody Plants for Fresh and Dried Cut Flowers 

by Allan M. Armitage and Judy M. Laushman 

Timber Press, 2003

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Reading the History: American Windmills

From the earliest days of European settlement, Americans have cherished the sight of a windmill—an instantly recognizable feature of the American landscape. Boasting nearly two hundred striking images,
this book is the first devoted to photographs illustrating historic wind machines throughout North America.

T. Lindsay Baker, an expert historian on windmills, has written about wind-power history for twenty-five years. His album contains historic images captured by professional windmiller B. H. “Tex” Burdick and from corporate archives of windmill manufacturers. It depicts windmills in a wide range of settings and uses—not only on ranches and farms but also alongside railroads, in industry, and even in urban areas.

The photos chosen for this book illustrate windmill manufacture, distribution, and use in all regions of the United States, with an emphasis on the Great Plains.

American Windmills

An Album of Historic Photographs

by T. Lindsay Baker

University of Oklahoma Press, 2012

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Farm and Garden Picks: Organic Gardener's Companion

Lifelong gardener Jane Shellenberger brings us this comprehensive, hands-on guide to growing organic produce in the Rocky Mountain and western region, including Colorado, parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and eastern Oregon.

The text covers soil cultivation, plant selection, water, microclimates, and other concerns specific to semiarid and high-altitude climates.

Organic Gardener's Companion

Growing Vegetables in the West

by Jane Shellenberger

Fulcrum, 2012

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Now exploring Tales of a River Rat

Kenny Salwey is the last of a breed of men whose lifestyle has all but disappeared in this fast-paced, high-tech digital world. For thirty years, this weathered woodsman eked out a living on the Mississippi River, running a trapline, hiring out as a river guide, digging and selling roots and herbs, and eating the food he hunted and fished.

In Tales of a River Rat,  Salwey informs and entertains readers as he weaves his life story on the Mississippi River.

Tales of a River Rat

Adventures Along the Wild Mississippi

by Kenny Salwey

Fulcrum, 2012

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Review: The Dreaded Broccoli Cookbook

Packed with vitamin A, vitamin C and fiber, broccoli is obviously a nutritious vegetable. Rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants, broccoli certainly deserves a prominent place in any diet.

Barbara and Tamar Haspel, a mother-daughter team of food writers, became very interested in broccoli and other healthful foods after their husband-father suffered a heart attack and had to make some radical changes in his diet. Determined to find ways of making low-fat meals full of flavor, they experimented with techniques and ingredients, documenting their recipes and ideas in a light-hearted and fact-filled newsletter called "Dreaded Broccoli."

The title of this book, and the newsletter, comes from a recurring joke that Barbara and her husband shared about vegetables served in restaurants. "The broccoli of the title isn't the actual broccoli of our old marital joke," Barbara explains. "It's the stuff that's good for you, that you know you should be eating, and that you haven't a clue how to get into your diet. It's all those vegetables and whole grains you keep hearing about."

The Dreaded Broccoli Cookbook

A Good-Natured Guide to Healthful

Eating with 100 Recipes

by Barbara and Tamar Haspel

Scribner, 1999

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Review: Little Old Lady Recipes

This is a collection of simple recipes culled from writer and comedian Meg Favrea's friends and neighbors as well as old out-of-print cookbooks. All are the nostalgic favorites of mothers and grandmothers who prepared daily meals for families and special dishes for church potlucks.

A nostalgic return to the kitchen of June Cleaver with casseroles, pot roasts, canned goods and comfort foods, the book is illustrated with wonderful portraits of ladies who may or may not have contributed recipes (none are identified) and spiced with quotes like: "Club soda is a wonderful thing. You can use it to remove any stain, or mix it with gin and drink until you don't care about the stain anymore" by 72-year-old Chastity, a deli clerk.

Little Old Lady Recipes

Comfort Food and Kitchen Table Wisdom

by Meg Favreau

Quirk Books, 2011

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New Guides: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Facebook Marketing

Millions of people use Facebook every day, and many of them could be your future customers. Facebook makes it easy for you to expand your customer base and nurture existing relationships with such tools as Marketplace, Places, and Deals. This book shows you how.

Covers all aspects including Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Places, and Facebook Deals.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Facebook Marketing

by John Wayne Zimmerman

ALPHA, 2012

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Farm and Garden Picks: The Timber Press Encyclopedia of Flowering Shrubs

Rich attributes including vibrant color, fragrance, and sheer variety of form make flowering shrubs the most rewarding of garden plants, but this vast group with its scores of tempting plants — including abutilons,camellias, viburnums, and witch hazels — requires careful navigation.

Leading expert on woody plants Jim Gardiner has distilled several decades of knowledge and experience into The Timber Press Encyclopedia of Flowering Shrubs, an incomparable pictorial reference of hardy shrubs that excel in temperate-zone gardens.

The Timber Press Encyclopedia of Flowering Shrubs

by James M. Gardiner

Timber Press, 2012

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Farm and Garden Picks: Organic Meat Production and Processing

Consumers purchase organic meats for what they perceive as superior taste, better nutritional value, long-term health benefits, or enhanced product freshness. Many consumers also believe organic meat is safer than conventional, perhaps containing lesser amounts of pesticides or foodborne human pathogens. Organic livestock farming, which is reputed to be environmentally friendly and sustains animals in good health resulting in high quality products, has a defined standard with a greater attention to animal welfare and requiring at least 80 percent of feed grown without pesticides or artificial fertilizers. The higher guarantee of the absence of residue is certain, but the effect of organic farming on qualitative characteristics of the products is unknown. Substantial growth in organic food sales of all categories has occurred in recent years and certified organic food production has evolved into a highly regulated industry in the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan and many other countries.

Organic Meat Production and Processing examines in detail the challenges of production, processing and food safety of organic meat.

Organic Meat Production and Processing

edited by Steven C. Ricke, et al.

Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

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Review: The Book of Draft Horses

As the name implies, "draft horses" are renowned for their size, strength and proficiency as beasts of burden - pulling wagons, plowing fields, hauling cargo. But the ancestors of today's Clydesdales, Percherons, Belgians were the expensive possessions of medieval royalty. They were more likely to be found in festivals and battles ridden by knights in armor than working on a farm.

It wasn't until the 1800s that the draught horse or dray horse found its calling in the fields, and the career was short-lived. The advent of trucks and tractors driven by internal compustion engines brought an end to the age of horsepower.

As freelance writer Donna Campbell Smith illustrates in this book,  the advent of the engine didn't mean an end to the heavy horse. They are still being used in many parts of the country for hauling and plowing, as well as for pleasure driving and county fair pulling contests.

The Book of Draft Horses

The Gentle Giants That Built the World

by Donna Campbell Smith 

Lyons Press, 2007

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Review: Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners

From Abelia, those ornamental shrubs named after Dr.Clarke Abel (1780-1826), to the Zygopetalum of the orchid family, this thick reference provides the etymology of 6,000 botanical names. These are cross-referenced with about 3,000 vernacular plant names to provide a detailed guide to garden nomenclature.

The author, the late William T. Stearn, was a botanical scholar who served as a botanist at London's Natural History Museum.

This work, now reprinted in trade paperback, began as a revision of the late A. W. Smith's "A Gardener's Book of Plant Names" (1963). Originally published in 1972, it was greatly amended and expanded on 20 years before it appeared as "Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners" in 1992.

Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners  

A Handbook on the Origin and Meaning of the Botanical Names of some Cultivated Plants 

by William T. Stearn

Timber Press, 2002 

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