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Purple Sprouting Broccoli

The time has finally come – the first purple sprouting broccoli spears of 2009 have been harvested! And I ate them last night, too. Hopefully there are a lot more to come.

I’m sure there was something else I was going to say, but I’ve forgotten. In the meantime, the collaborative ebook now has a title, and it’s own blog: Dig, Grow, Eat, Blog and all future ebook-related excitement will take place over there!

Collaborative book project: We need a title

Behind the scenes, the busy beavers on the collaborative book project have been working away at the theme and the contents – but for us to go any further then we need to give this book a title!

We’ve come up with ideas, but now we’re looking to you to help us choose the right name for the book. Head over to the survey and let us know which one(s) you think fit the bill (yes, you can choose more than one!).

We’re looking for a title that sums up the idea of a book about kitchen gardening, written by people who blog – but most of all we’re looking for a title that will catch people’s eyes and make them want to stop and find out more about the book.

Thank you :D

Collaborative book project: the chosen theme

The poll for the eBook theme closed at the end of January – and so the theme for the book has been chosen! We’re going to go forward with a book that’s laid out like a kitchen garden.

This is a collaborative book project, so if you have any ideas or suggestions then feel free to leave them in the comments or send me an email. There’s still plenty of time to volunteer to be a contributor, just drop me a line. I’ll post a final date for submissions at some point, but it won’t be for a while.

Collaborative book project: theme

At Christmas I was talking about starting a collaborative book project, with food growing bloggers sharing their expertise with a wider audience, and the proceeds going to a gardening charity.

Despite the vagueness of the original idea, I’ve had a few volunteers:

Suzanne Griffith isn’t currently blogging, but writes a gardening column for Nation News, Barbados’ leading newspaper.

VP from Veg Plotting is a well-known ‘plot blogger’ who needs no further introduction.

Andrew Pendrick blogs on many topics and has a lovely writing style – check out his posts on bluebells and a kite.

And Madeleine from Mad About Herbs will be familiar to everyone who listens to the AKG as she often stops by to share her knowledge.

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It’s time to move on now, and choose a concept for the book – and since this is a collaborative book project, you’re going to choose :)

This morning I have come up with three ideas:

• Open Gardens. A book based around the concept of open gardens, showing online gardens to the public. VP did this very nicely in her Open Garden Blog last year.

  Everyone who contributes would take us on a tour of their garden – noting the highlights, their favourite plants, maybe sharing a recipe and touching on their ‘hot topics’ (the things we often blog about).



• The Allotment Show, with the book arranged along the lines of Allotment Show Classes. We could cover veggies, fruit, flowers and recipes.


• The Kitchen Garden, with the book laid out as a working garden – with a vegetable patch, fruit garden/ orchard, greenhouse, cutting garden, chicken run and compost heaps.

So the question is, which book would you most like to read? Or do you have a better idea? If you do, then leave a comment or send me an email.

Voting in this poll will remain open until 31st January 2009.

There will be more opportunities to guide the development of the book as it moves forward. We still need a lot more contributors, so if you’d like to write a piece for the book do get in touch.

Food Growing Bloggers e-Book

At the end of October I wrote about a collaborative book project. Work on ‘Growing Stuff’ is ongoing; I don’t have a publication date yet, but I will let you know as soon as I do.

This morning I have been thinking that it might be good to have a Food Growing Bloggers (kitchen gardeners!) project along the same lines, with the aim of producing an e-book that will be of interest to kitchen gardeners everywhere. We could then distribute it freely, or use sales to support one of the gardening charities. We might also be able to offer a hard copy for sale via Lulu.com or another print-on-demand site.

Contributions could be on anything relevant – green gardening, composting, detailed cultivation notes on a particular plant, a report of a visit to a kitchen garden that’s open to the public, notes on how to deal with a pest or a disease, or just a collection of handy hints. It doesn’t have to be high brow, tales of gardening disasters could work too. We’ll also need photos or illustrations, and if you’re a gardening cook then perhaps you could share a recipe. Maybe you once wrote a blog post that you think deserves a more lasting audience. Each contribution would be attributed to the author, you can plug your blog/ website/ other projects/ favourite charity along the way.

Timescales tbc when I see how much (or how little) support there is for the idea. If you’re interested in contributing or helping with the behind-the-scenes work (editing, design, etc) then send me an email.

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If you’re a publisher and would be interested in taking on this rather unique project – which comes complete with an inbuilt online promotional network – then let me know.

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