Product Description

In a lyrical gardening journal, the author uses the phases of his garden to plot a year in his life, providing anecdotes about making tomato sauce with a neighbor and a rafting trip with old friends.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1761574 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This engaging account will strike a responsive chord in gardeners. Shepherd, a freelance writer, grows his tomatoes in a raised bed in the front yard of his San Diego home. His year begins with the arrival of seed catalogues in December; he plants the seeds in March, nurtures the seedlings until planting-out time in April. Shepherd then waits expectantly for the harvest, battling caterpillars and blossom-end rot. He compares his plants with those of his neighbors and relatives (some friendly competition here) with whom he exchanges advice on tomato culture. But Shepherd goes beyond just growing tomatoes?he warmly embraces family, friends and neighborhood for a thoroughly satisfying story.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Even if one shares Shepherd's love of tomatoes and of gardening, it seems astonishing that someone can keep a diary for a year and get it published. Admittedly, Shepherd's family life is admirable, his San Diego neighbors interesting, and his writing graceful and felicitous. He adds flavor with a visit to the Guernsey Tomato Museum and drama with a saxophone career-threatening injury to his son's finger. There's a little weather, a little soccer, a little tomato history, odd facts about this and that. Overall, however, the book recalls a personal garden column in a small-town newspaper. For comprehensive tomato collections.?Carol Cubberly, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The topic may be somewhat prosaic, but the content of Shepherd's year-long journal is enchanting, warm, and thoughtful. His account portrays one man's life as it is touched by family, friends, and a colorful cast of neighbors in a San Diego community. Vegetable gardeners in particular should delight in endless musings on aspects of growing numerous tomato varieties; and any literate reader can savor getting acquainted with Shepherd through his lively diary. On a practical level, gardeners who haphazardly plant tomatoes anticipating a bumper crop will find practical horticultural tips peppering the narrative. Aficionados (who already know the joy of gardening efforts paying off in fine yields of this succulent fruit of summer sunshine) will find unequaled kinship, because Shepherd is a soulmate immersed in tomato-related trivia. Alice Joyce

Customer Reviews

A pleasant surprise. Not just about tomatoes, about life.
This book is to tomatoes what "Trout Fishing in America" is to trout.I knew Richard Brautigan from Enrico's restaurant and bar in San Francisco in the 70s. I cherish his autographed inscription "to Richard from Richard" on my dog-eared copy of "The Tokyo-Montana Express".I look forward to meeting Steve Shepherd.He, too, is a keen observer of life. However, Shepherd sees the joys of life. He writes with a wry humor and a twinkle in his eye. You'll want to have his Italian-American neighbors over for dinner. You'll want to move to San Diego. You'll want to raise tomatoes. As an ex New Yorker and big fan of the New Jersey tomato, I found this book a joy to read. The title is great, too. "In praise of tomatoes." This book would make a great gift for anyone who has ever tried to grow anything, any place, at any time.

Inspiration for the novice tomato gardener
I picked up this book because I've decided to grow tomatoes on my patio in Southern California. I figured that any advice I could glean from the Shepherd's years of growing tomatoes in San Diego would be helpful to me in Laguna Beach...what I didn't expect was the charming "day-in-the-life" subplot to the main tomato growing narrative of life in a working class, multi-cultural San Diego neighborhood. The simply told year-long narrative about of how growing tomatoes has brought Shepherd's neighbors together makes this a heart-warming and interesting book--not to mention all of the wonderful tomato lore that makes the book a gardener's delight.

Every season before starting my tomatoes I read this book!
What a simple pleasure, a good book can bring to one's life. I dream of gardens... filled with flowers and tomatoes. I love this book so much that it is one of the few books I do not let my fellow gardening friends borrow -- I buy them their own copy. If you love, really love tomatoes read this book.