NEWS

Mark Cullen thinks The Untamed Garden is one sexy read. Read more…

Incredible Edibles wins Silver at the Canadian Cookbook Awards. More below.

DISCOVER SOME SPICY STUFF ABOUT PLANTS

My seventh book, The Untamed Garden – A Revealing Look At Our Love Affair With Plants is now on sale. Published by McClelland & Stewart, it contains delicious tales and tidbits that may surprise you. Why? The plant world is a far sexier place than most people think — and I reveal some of its lusty secrets in this gorgeously illustrated little volume.

I’m also immensely proud to report that the folks at Indigo are thrilled with this book. They’re featuring it in their 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. So is the Chicago Botanical Garden. Indeed, it makes a perfect gift for anyone–male or female–who loves plants. And it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. (The price is $26.99 in Canada, $24.95 in the U.S. )

Rave reviews are also starting to appear on both sides of the border.

Why do people like it? Well — whoo hoo — you can read about:

  • A luscious-looking rose whose name scandalized the Victorians.
  • A suggestive plant that caused a Spanish queen to faint at court.
  • The real forbidden fruit which caused the downfall of Adam and Eve.
  • The amazing Coco De Mer, which resembles the pelvis of a naked woman.
  • The reason why men fall in love with orchids.
  • The night-blooming flower with a scent that turns men on.
  • Love potions and lots more.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK
A remarkably sexy butternut squash (shown here) provided the inspiration. The “buttocks” of this squash had somehow managed to insinuate themselves into the backyard fence of a garden in downtown Toronto. After I wrote about her curves in my Toronto Star gardening column — and they ran the photo — it got me thinking: Why not a book about plants and sex? Could be fun. Thus The Untamed Garden was born.

What the book is — and where to buy it:

  • Hard-cover, in full-colour, with easy-to-read. entertaining chapters that follow the “arc” of a love affair.
  • Packed with remarkable illustrations and photographs. Some are contemporary, others are classic paintings by famous artists of bygone days, like Leonardo da Vinci.
  • Buy (or order it ) at any bookstore. Or get it online from Indigo or Amazon. Click on Appearances for a list of bookstores where I’ll be autographing copies before Christmas.
  • Also published as an E-book. Go to Amazon or Indigo for instructions on how to download it.

BESTSELLER INCREDIBLE EDIBLE GETS A NOD
Whoopee! My colourful little book on growing food in the city won Silver at the Canadian Cookbook Awards gala Monday night, Nov. 7. The book contains over 30 recipes and one (Chard a la Aldona) also picked up an award in a cooking contest.

Both events took place at the Royal Winter Fair. Incredible Edibles was among five titles competing for the Book of the Year (Special Interest category). During the Fair, two culinary students from Liason College in Kitchener prepared Chard a la Aldona before a panel of judges at the Journey to Good Health Cooking Stage. I was there too, supposedly supervising the students (poor things).

The book contains many recipes that I’ve devised myself (or gathered from friends) and they’re all easy to prepare. Chard a la Aldona had interesting beginnings. It was dreamed up by Toronto Botanical Garden chief, Aldona Satterthwaite, during a dreadful storm in England. She was visiting a friend in the country, howling rain and winds made it impossible to go out, and the only things they had in the fridge were blue cheese and garlic. So they ventured into the veggie garden, picked a pile of chard and improvised. And surprise — their resulting dish is absolutely delicious.

HOW’S YOUR TURKISH?
Incredible Edibles is going overseas. A publisher in Turkey called Inkilap has bought rights to the book and will publish a version in Turkish in 2012.

Here at home it continues to find many fans and is selling well in Canada and the U.S.

I’M DOING VIDEOS NEXT YEAR
My column in the Toronto Star, The Real Dirt, ends for the season Dec. 9. But you can still read 2011 columns on line. Go to http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/94588

When it resumes on April 9, some videos about gardening techniques will be on line to view too. We’re going to shoot these in my country garden, northwest of Toronto.

Comments are closed.