Heirloom Vegetables A Guide To Their History And Varieties - A book Review

I have just finished reading this book by Simon Rickard and I found it to be far more entertaining and interesting than the average book about vegetables.

Rather that present an A-Z of different vegetables and their related information Simon has grouped different vegetables in their plant families, including information about flowering plants that also fit in the family, with additional chapters on Heirlooms in general and growing your own.

The chapters cover the following plant families:
 - The Pea Family
 - The Gourd Family
 - The Grass Family
 - The Carrot Family
 - The Cabbage Family
 - The Nightshade Family
 - The Amaranth Family
 - The Daisy Family
 - The Amarylis Family
 - Odds and Ends

Each chapter highlights the plants you expect to find in the group as well as some less know family members,  For example did you know that the humble petunia and the goji berry are both part of the nightshade family along with tomatoes (including our native bush tomatoes) eggplant, capsicum, tobacco and potatoes, and dainty little Alyssm (Sweet Alice) is related to the humble cabbage.

Simon tells a great story and there is good humor throughout.  I really did find this book far more entertaining than I expected, and while it is far from being a dry reference book it still contains plenty of information that is easy to understand and presented in a manner that keeps you engaged.

If you see this book at your local library I highly reccomend it and if they do not have it maybe suggest they order it for thier collection