This handbook is a complete reference for growing, preparing and conserving 117 traditional varieties of food plants. It has been written especially for Australia and New Zealand. Authors are Michel and Jude Fanton, founders of the Seed Savers' Network. They describe the seed collecting, growth cycles, propagation, cultivation and traditional kitchen and medicinal uses of vegetables, culinary herbs and edible flowers.

Contents include:

• Why collect?
• Seed Savers at work
• Seed homelands
• Life in a freezer
• Green non-revolution
• Anyone for hybrids?
• Designer genes
• A variety of sources
• Plants move
• Seeds adapt
• Regional cooking
• Pollination
• Keeping them pure
• Annual, biennial, perennial
• Criteria for selection
• How many to select
• When to collect
• Cleaning
• Drying
• Diseases
• Storing
• Germination tests
• Seed starting
• Rules of thumb for planting
• Planning a seed garden
• Permaculture
• Principles of practical permaculture
• Characteristics
• Hand pollination
• Planting the seeds

ISBN 0 646 10226 5