Garden Wisdom

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Lessons Learned from 60 Years of Gardening

Jerry Apps
With photography by Steve Apps and recipes by Ruth Apps

From nostalgic stories and personal reflections to practical tips and delicious recipes, this book has something for beginning and experienced gardeners alike.

216 pages, 7 x 9, 71 color and b&w photos
Paperback: $26.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-494-4
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-598-9
Publication Date: 1/23/2012

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Description

Step into the garden with writer and rural historian Jerry Apps and learn how tending a garden can lead to a deeper understanding of nature and the land. This treasure trove of tips, recollections, and recipes combines Jerry's own hard-earned advice for garden success with traditions passed down through generations of Apps.

Gardening has always been a group endeavor for the Apps family. In Garden Wisdom, readers will learn gardening basics along with Jerry’s grandchildren as they become a new generation of gardeners. They’ll devour Ruth’s recipes for preparing and preserving fresh garden veggies— from refrigerator pickles to rutabaga pudding. And they’ll savor son Steve’s beautiful color photographs, capturing the bounty of the family garden throughout the growing season.

Author Bios

Jerry Apps

Celebrated storyteller and rural historian Jerry Apps was born and raised on a central Wisconsin farm. He was a former county extension agent and professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Apps authored more than fifty fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, including Every Farm Tells a Story: A Tale of Farm Family Values, The Quiet Season: Remembering Country Winters, When the White Pine Was King, and Barns of Wisconsin, all published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

Ruth Apps

Ruth Apps earned a degree in home economics from University of Wisconsin–Stout. She worked for the University of Wisconsin as a county home economics agent and for Madison Area Technical College. Ruth canned, froze, and otherwise prepared garden produce since she and Jerry were married.

Steve Apps

Steve Apps is an award-winning sports and documentary freelance photojournalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. In his thirty-five-plus years at newspapers, he worked as a chief photographer or staff photographer for the Wisconsin State Journal, The Post Crescent (Appleton, WI), Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune, and Wausau (WI) Daily Herald. He has also photographed hundreds of NFL games, mostly Packers games, which has earned him five-time recognition from the the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Steve is currently a part-time adjunct faculty at Madison College in the photography program.

Jerry Apps has tapped into the wisdom of five generations of family—from his grandparents to his grandchildren—to create a richly personal and practical guide to growing, storing, and using foodstuffs in the Badger State. This is a wonderful book for all Wisconsin gardeners.

Jerry Minnich

Author of “The Wisconsin Garden Guide” and “The Rodale Book of Composting”

“Just as every garden needs fertile soil to grow, every gardener needs a dose of this book to inspire their gardening soul. Garden Wisdom reclaims our gardening roots for modern times, poetically fueling today’s gardening generation to continue and grow our seasonal and local food heritage.”

—Lisa Kivirist, coauthor of Farmstead Chef, Rural Renaissance, and Ecopreneuring

“Whether sharing boyhood memories, the times he spent gardening with his children and grandchildren, or his knowledge of growing vegetables and fruits, Apps combines memoir, useful information, and gardening philosophy with warmth and humor.”

—Library Journal

“Those who have also grown to love the slow rhythms and quiet satisfactions of growing one’s own food will enjoy the company of [Apps’s] recollections. The collection is filled with humorous anecdotes and quiet observations of the cycle of life in the humble vegetable patch—plus an unexpected recipe for sorghum cookies. The pleasures he discovers in the garden come through on each page.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Want to know how to transplant tomatoes, hoe a row of rutabaga, or put up a peck of pickled peppers? There’s an Apps for that!. . . . As informative as it is entertaining, Apps’s heartfelt chronicle transforms the standard gardening guidebook into a deeply personal appreciation for nature’s bounty.”

—Booklist

“Jerry Apps sets the stage and draws readers in for a crop-by-crop, season-by-season saga as old as home vegetable gardening itself. He weaves the tale using the perfect balance of experience, folklore, and science. In the end you feel more a part of the society of gardeners everywhere and a little bit a part of the Apps family.”

—Sharon Morrisey, UW Extension consumer horticulture agent and cohost of FOX6-TV’s “Wake-Up News” gardening segments