Dear MVGers - Here it is, our year end, foodie book spectacular! Still time to get one or more of these books as a Christmas gift (or belated Hanukkah gift!), or to pick up yourself to read in the new year. We asked a few more Montgomery County food system leaders for their recommendations this year, so we've got an even longer list than usual - enjoy!
And thanks so much for taking this opportunity to make a 100% tax- 
deductible year end gift to Montgomery Victory Gardens, so we can continue to put out information like this, complete our public school garden survey, and keep spreading the word on building a local, healthy, sustainable food system!
Yours in delicious, environmentally sound local food, and with best wishes for the holidays,
Gordon Clark, Project Director, MVG
This year's recommended books:
Erica Smith, MC Master Gardener, Grow It Eat It blogger and Coordinator of the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden
The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst - A journey around the country exploring the food gardens and farms of Americans of different cultural backgrounds, some of whom (Native Americans and the Gullah people of South Carolina) have been here for a long while, others first or second generation immigrants. Klindienst, who identifies strongly with her mother's Italian heritage, wanted to discover how gardeners keep a culture alive despite the uprooting that comes with displacement and change. Full of great stories that will make you reexamine your own connections to your heritage through gardening!
Sophia Maravell, Montgomery County farmer, Brickyard Educational Farm
The Mad Farmer Poems by Wendell Berry - This now out of print book is a collection of 12 poems by farmer-poet and national treasure Wendell Berry, each accompanied by beautiful etching illustrations. My father got this for me as a Christmas present years ago, and it remains my favorite book of poems, good to re-read in a new light often. It is available used online.
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Homegrown Whole Grains by Sara Pitzer - A how to book on raising a multitude of grains in your backyard, or for your own homestead. The book gives easy to understand directions, and de-mystifies growing the food group that makes up a large percent of our diet proportionately: grains.
Gordon Clark, MC Master Gardener; Project Director, Montgomery Victory Gardens
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook. Few food gardeners will eat the tasteless tomatoes found in supermarkets and fast food joints. But taste (or lack thereof) aside, few of us realize the astoundingly negative impacts of these mass-produced imposters on our health, the environment and worker rights and well-being. (Incredibly enough, many industrial tomatoes are picked by the modern day equivalent of slave labor.) With a rich sense of history and humanity, investigative reporter Barry Estabrook reveals all this and more in riveting style in "Tomatoland," based on his James Beard-award winning article. You will never eat an industrial tomato again - and neither will your friends once you loan them this book.
Karen Devitt, Founder of the school food parent advocacy group Real Food for Kids- Montgomery
Lunch Wars - How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children's Health by Amy Kalafa. Amy brought us the documentary "Two Angry Moms" in 2008, and this book tells the same feisty story and more, full of good information and presented in a friendly, readable style. Ultimately very inspiring.
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Free for All - Fixing School Food in America by Janet Poppendieck - Poppendieck says it best in her conclusion: "I believe that the time has come for a new paradigm in school food. What is required is a thorough reconsideration, not just incremental tinkering." A very thoughtful look at the problems with school food and the solutions, and a very inspiring book.
Susan Harris, DC Master Gardener; garden writer, blogger, and coach; publisher of Sustainable-Gardening and the Sustainable Gardening Blog
Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening by Willi Galloway - Considered by many a "Bible for food growers and cooks," Grow Cook Eat is filled with practical information for both novices and experienced gardeners. Galloway covers 50 of the best loved, most delicious vegetables, herbs, and small fruits with guides that take readers through planting and growing, harvesting, storing, and finally basic preparation and recipes. It's all organic and the professional photographs are gorgeous!
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Homegrown Harvest: A Season-by-Season Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen Garden by the American Horticultural Society - This mega-guide to growing food is as simple and easy to follow as it is exhaustive. The AHS editors have brought together experts in growing healthy crops for the table year-round. Specific local and regional advice lets gardeners decide how and what to grow wherever they live in North America, from choosing the crops through harvesting, with a great "what-to-do-now" section.
Jon Traunfeld, Director, Home and Garden Information Center; Maryland State Master Gardener Coordinator
The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood 80+ Recipes by Sharon Hanna - Ounce for ounce, kale is perhaps the most nutritious food you can grow, and it's also one of the easiest, as well as one of the hardiest. A great book to learn everything you can do with this amazing leafy green.
