The Seed Detective, Adam Alexander
The Seed Detective, Adam Alexander
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

The Seed Detective
Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables

Author: Adam Alexander

Narrator: Calum Beaton

Unabridged: 8 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Chelsea Green

Published: 09/29/2022

Synopsis

Have you ever wondered how peas, kale, asparagus, beans, squash, and corn have ended up on our plates? Well, Adam Alexander has. Adam Alexander is The Seed Detective. His passion for vegetables was ignited when he tasted an unusual sweet pepper with a fiery heart while on a filmmaking project in Ukraine. Smitten by its flavor, Adam began to seek out local growers of endangered heritage and heirloom varieties in a mission to bring home seeds to grow, share, and return so that he could enjoy their delicious taste?and save them from being lost forever. In The Seed Detective, Adam shares his own stories of seed hunting, with the origin stories behind many of our everyday food heroes. Taking us on a journey that began when we left the life of the hunter-gatherer to become farmers, he tells tales of globalization, political intrigue, colonization, and serendipity?describing how these vegetables and their travels have become embedded in our food cultures.

About Adam Alexander

Adam Alexander is a film and television producer and writer who has been collecting, growing, and sharing seeds of endangered and culturally important crops for over thirty years. His work has appeared on the BBC's Gardeners World and CNN's Going Green, and he is a board member of the national charity Garden Organic and a seed guardian for the Heritage Seed Library.

About Calum Beaton

Calum Beaton is a Scottish actor, voice artist, director, and designer based in Glasgow. He studied fine-art sculpture at Gray's School of Art and Theatre Skills and drama at Fife College. He has worked as an actor professionally since 1995, with a particular emphasis on outdoor performance. In this capacity, he has worked with Mischief-la-bas, Oceanallover, Theatre Found, Luxe, and the Hong Kong New Year parade.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on January 15, 2024

I really enjoyed this book. It really made me want to visit the author's home and visit his garden. It sounds amazing. This book is the authors attempt to describe the history of certain beans and vegetables and his search for heirloom varieties. The plants included asparagus, squash, several differ......more

Goodreads review by Robyn on January 20, 2023

Very interesting ‘biography’ of vegetables in this wonderful author’s UK garden. He divides by those that came east and those that came west. Just so revealing of the diversity in seeds and plants! A great way to spend some winter nights when you cannot garden!......more

Goodreads review by Alexa on May 03, 2024

I really enjoyed learning about all of the cultivars and adventures in this book, and I will frequently return to it when picking garden cultivars! I took pretty extensive notes on vegetable varieties that I want to try (though I haven't been able to find a single one that I have searched for yet).......more

Goodreads review by Holly on February 11, 2024

Alexander provides the history of some of our most commonly consumed modern vegetables all the while reminding us that the bland, indestructible specimens found in our local supermarkets are far removed from what vegetables were and could be. He is an avid collector of heirloom seeds representing va......more

Goodreads review by Ula on September 04, 2022

I liked the premises of this book, as I am interested both in history and botany, and even started some gardening myself recently. Unfortunately, while clearly passionate about his heirloom seeds, the author gets stuck in too many details and the result is mostly dry and encyclopedic. I think it sti......more

Quotes

[This book] is a clarion call to think about our food in new ways and carefully consider where it comes from.

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