It’s good to have a few good books lying around at all times
These days, The Garlic Papers is sitting on my kitchen counter. That way I can steal a few pages here and there throughout the day.
This book arrived in the mail a few days ago. My buddy JC had seen it and remembered all my recent talk of big garlic and grosses gousses and sent the book my way.
I was ecstatic when I opened the package.
I didn’t know Stanley Crawford had written another garlic book.
Stanley Crawford’s previous garlic book – A Garlic Testament, Seasons On A Small New Mexico Farm – just might be my favourite garlic book.
A Garlic Testament was more of a memoir than a handbook, and Stanley Crawford grows in a different climate, so I don’t consult this book as often as some of my other favourite garlic books.
But when I do, the rhythm of the writing pulls me in so quickly. I love the steady pace as the pages unfold and blossom into the next chapter and then the one after that.
The Garlic Papers is just as entrancing.
Yes, it is a book about a legal battle against the largest importer of Chinese garlic in the US.
But it is also a book about growing garlic.
And it is about 50 years on a small farm. From Stanley and Rosemary buying the farm, to building the farm over the years, to the farm’s present day.
I’ve got to wrap this up now, and get back to the kitchen, I have a few more pages to read before getting some lunch together for the kids.
What is on your kitchen counter these days?