THE HEIRLOOM GARDENER: TRADITIONAL PLANTS AND SKILLS FOR THE MODERN WORLD

Well, it’s only August so there’s still time to do some creative, thoughtful gardening, and “The Heirloom Gardener” is a good place to start reading and planning.

Author John Forti is an heirloom gardener who fervently believes the old ways are the best ways, especially in our relationship with the earth. In his mind this commercialized “age of excess” is not sustainable, but the old ways are. And this well-written book is convincing. Forti is an award-winning heirloom gardener, garden historian, an ethnobotanist and executive director of the Bedrock Gardens in New Hampshire (however, he lives in southern Maine).

This is a collection of 58 short essays, beautifully augmented with woodcut-like illustrations by Mary Azarian. Forti writes about plants, the earth, recipes and celebrations, providing colorful histories and personal observations. He says “heirlooms are the keys to the past,” but that we should not live in the past; rather, let the past live in us now, using traditional methods (saving seeds, avoiding chemicals) and products from our gardens and our experiences (foods, teas, tonics, liquors, medicines and more).

Essays cover everything from plants like Angelica, Elder, Yarrow and Quince to herbaria, distillation, the “household botany” of kitchen gardens, medicinal herb products and uses, as well as how to make delicious cordials (apertif) from cherry, ginger and elderberry. Forti describes how all the plants featured were used by indigenous peoples and colonists for food and medicine, and how useful they all are today.

Discover why gardening “is medicine for our mind, body and spirit;” how to make fragrant “toilet water;” what “gruit” really is; why flowers are considered “nature’s poetry;” and what the terms xeriscaping and wuttahimneash really mean.

See also “The Healing Garden” by Deb Soule (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021).

 

ON HARBOR’S EDGE: BOOK ONE, 1912-1913

Regarding marriage, an unknown pundit once said: “All things that a husband and wife want are to be forgiven a little, encouraged a little and loved a little.” Too bad fisherman Thaddeus Gale doesn’t understand any of that.

“On Harbor’s Edge” is Maine author Kate Hotchkiss’ debut novel, an intriguing, well-written, yet worrisome story of a newlywed man and woman painfully struggling to learn about marriage and each other on a gossip-mongering Maine island in 1912. And not much turns out well for either. This could easily be a 1912 primer titled “How Not to Treat Your Wife.”

Thaddeus of Popplestone Isle married Mildred Combs of Crescent Island, settling on Popplestone in the house he built. He’s a fisherman, she’s the schoolteacher, both virgins, each having very different views on love and their roles in marriage. Thaddeus makes clear that his needs come first above all else, but that “you ain’t a slave, just a wife.” When he finally tells Mildred the real reasons why he married her and brought her to Popplestone, she realizes she’s been tricked.

This is a tight, isolated island community where everyone really does know everybody’s business, and gossip is the currency of the day. When an abusive father disappears, islanders believe Thaddeus killed him, applauding him for getting rid of a brutal menace. Mildred knows the truth, however, and must carry the burden of that secret, as well as the pressure to produce babies as fast as she can.

Mildred is a smart, strong-willed woman who finally solidly establishes herself in her marriage and with the community, although her friendship with a bachelor jeopardizes everything. This is a thought-provoking tale complete with suspense and tension, as well as humor, kindness and warmth, making it a satisfying and convincing read.

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.

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