It
is my great pleasure to host Emma Cooper, author of Jade Pearls andAlien Eyeballs, as part of her virtual book tour. Emma graciously sat
down with me to answer a few questions about her book, the plants she
loves, and writing. And don't forget to listen to the reading at the end! It's really wonderful. Any questions for Emma? Send them along in the comments
and I'll share them with her. And on Wednesday, Emma will stop by again to continue our conversation. Don't miss it! - JB
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Emma Cooper, ready for action! |
What
inspired you to write this guidebook? You touch on it in the
introduction, of course, but I'd love to hear a bit more about it.
I
first started thinking about writing this book in the middle of 2010,
and for very personal reasons it was put on hold several times. To be
honest, I can no longer remember the first spark of inspiration that
led me to develop the concept, but I was (and still am) interested in
why people choose to grow unusual edibles. I’d met a lot of
interesting people online who were doing just that, and I thought
they would have some interesting stories to share.
What
were the first plants you ever grew? Not unusual edibles, but the
very first plants you grew that inspired you to keep gardening.
I
grew coriander and leaf beet, mint and garlic, potatoes in pots,
lettuce and beetroot and some other herbs. I think it was probably
the leaf beet that inspired me to keep gardening. It was a plant I
hadn’t known about before, that was very easy to grow, and which
could easily be incorporated into the type of meals we were eating at
that time.
What
was the first unusual edible you grew? How did you find it or how did
it find you?
Achocha,
from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL). This was way back in 2005, and
it’s all a little hazy, but I’d joined up with the HDRA (now
Garden Organic) to learn more about organic gardening, and found out
about their HSL. I blogged at the time that achocha was my ‘top
choice’, so I was obviously thrilled to find something unusual to
grow. I continue to be an HSL member; in the intervening years I have
bemoaned the lack of unusual edibles in their catalogues, but they
now offer a lot more that they have collected via the Sowing New
Seeds project.
What's
the most interesting thing you've learned from growing unusual
edibles?
I
find it fascinating that the knowledge regarding our food plants is
so comparmentalised, and buried in people’s heads rather than being
easily accessible. For example, while I was checking through the
manuscript for publication, I was talking to Owen Smith about
strawberry spinach, and he told me that you can eat the roots. Which
is not surprising, as they are related to beetroot, but it wasn’t
something I had come across before. I sent him some seeds, so
hopefully he will do some experiments this year and we can all read
about them on his blog.
Here Emma does a short reading from Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs to intrigue and inspire!
Here Emma does a short reading from Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs to intrigue and inspire!
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