annieb123
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
What We Sow is an engaging and well written memoir on the cultural and ecological significance of seeds written by Jennifer Jewell. Released 19th Sept 2023 by Hachette on their Timber Press imprint, it's a substantial 392 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is an often profound rumination on the impact of agribusiness, food security, heirloom seeds and reclaiming the culturally significant traditional plant varieties, and the author's personal engagement with the species around her. She does a good job of knitting the threads together into an often sobering and cohesive whole.
It's set up in chapters around a calendar year, from autumn's seed setting and dormancy, through summer's production and harvest. The author also takes a look at the potentially bleak future for inhabitants of planet earth without a paradigm shift of epic proportions.
There's a lot of information in this volume, and it's well grounded and presented. The book also contains a bibliography and resources list for further reading.
Four stars. This would make a good selection for public or school library acquisition, home use, as well as for gardening groups and community garden/allotment reference collections.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.