Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver - Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial food pipeline to live a rural life - vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation.
Jenise, I thought you might like this excerpt about asparagus:
An asparagus spear only looks like its picture for one day of it life, usually in April, give or take month. The shoot emerges from the ground like a snub-nosed green snake headed for sunshine, rising so rapidly you can just about see it grow. If it doesn't get its neck cut off at ground level as it emerges, it will keep growing. Each triangular scale on the spear rolls out into a branch, until the snake becomes a four-foot tree with delicate needles. Contrary to lore, fat spears are no more tender or mature than thin ones; each shoot begins life with its own particular girth. In the hours after emergence it lengthens, but does not appreciably fatten.
I loved this book, and was able to relate to it because of my own experience with our garden the past 47 years. Barbara's story goes well beyond just the backyard garden, however and makes for a good read.