This probably should be in the book forum, but it's really a tale for people who see life through gardening and understand it's healing and nourishing effects.
The full title is: The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America by Patricia Klindienst .
I hate doing book reviews so I copied this from Amazon:
Quote:From Booklist
Klindienst celebrates gardens created by immigrants who resisted the intense pressure to assimilate into mainstream American society, in a lyrical account of her three-year journey to collect the stories of ethnic Americans for whom gardening is tantamount to cultural endurance. Survivors of the Pol Pot regime fled the killing fields of Cambodia for the healing fields of New England, while the Yankee inheritor of land wrested generations ago from Native Americans during the infamous Pequot Massacre of 1637 atones for that atrocity through the simple act of sharing seeds of corn with the tribe's descendants. Klindienst profiles 15 valiant and thoughtful gardeners intent on preserving their native birthright and on restoring and protecting their adopted land, individuals and families evincing a stewardship that not only resists cultural absorption but also sustains an ecological imperative. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
I was especially moved by the Gullah gardeners on St. Helena Island in So. Carolina. I had heard of them, but I never knew the full story of their language and how many of their traditions could be traced back to specific parts of Africa. It's amazing what survives - and what will probably soon be lost.
If you want to curl up with a good book this winter I highly recommend it.
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