gardening
BY RACHEL FOSTER
Corvallis garden expert’s latest book
T
he Good Earth Home and Garden Show is coming
up in Eugene this month. One of the scheduled
speakers is Carol Deppe, Corvallis plant breeder,
expert gardener and an authority on duck keeping. Deppe
will also be signing her latest book, The Resilient Gardener:
Food Production and Self-reliance in Uncertain Times,
published by Chelsea Green. This exciting book could
hardly be more timely. The uncertain times of the title
extend from personal adversity to the shared uncertainties
that now confront all of us.
Widespread fi nancial insecurity. An industrial food
supply that denies us proper nourishment. Global climate
change that promises shortages of food and water and an
increase in “natural” disasters.
Not surprisingly, people are increasingly interested in
growing some of their own food — it’s a way of exercising
some level of control in our lives. Maybe it just means
having something in the garden to fall back on if we forget
to shop for greens, or a bed or two of something special that
is prohibitively expensive to buy. A small but growing band
of gardeners are producing a substantial portion of their
food supply. Whatever our level of gardening, Deppe points
out, most of us still garden for the good times. She wants
us to prepare for the challenges that must come sooner or
later, including wild weather, special dietary needs, failing
strength and unavailability of inputs (water, fertilizer, fuel,
even seed). So diet, health, labor and exercise, tools, soil and
fertility, watering and seed saving are all addressed with this
very smart author’s characteristic depth and thoughtfulness.
Deppe’s book lays out in great detail how to grow, store
and use “the fi ve crops you need to survive and thrive —
potatoes, corn, beans, squash and eggs.” Many people could
get by without the eggs, but Deppe believes (based on her
own experience) a purely vegan diet is not for everyone.
Each of these staples gets a chapter to itself. Other crops are
discussed in earlier chapters, often with valuable insights you
won’t fi nd anywhere else. Chapter notes include references
to books that provide more basic gardening know-how.
There’s not much point in growing something if you
don’t know how to store it successfully, or get it to the
table in a palatable form. Deppe grows several varieties of
her staple plant foods, both for fl avor variety and because
some are good for one thing, some another. Some corn
varieties, for instance, are good for polenta, some for baked
goods. Why corn, not wheat? Deppe is gluten intolerant
and highly allergic to wheat, and she has lots of experience
with alternatives, especially corn: “delicious, traditional
corn varieties,” that is, not the modern hybrid corn of
agribusiness. But she also explains that corn is much easier
to grow and harvest than other grains, and gives a higher
yield than all crops except potatoes.
Potatoes reign supreme among staple foods for their ease
of production, versatility and nutritional value. They are a
good source of high quality protein as well as calories, and
can be grown in areas too cold and wet to grow grain, and
on poorer soils. Remarkably, Deppe grows potatoes without
irrigation, and her storage method is about as simple as you
could imagine. The chapter on potatoes is one of the most
densely useful pieces of gardening literature I’ve ever read,
not least for its treatment of potato diseases: how to avoid
them, how to spot them and what to do about it.
I asked Deppe, by email, why she didn’t include rabbits
in her brief discussion of meat animals. She replied giving
several reasons in great detail, adding, “I didn’t have the
KEANE MCGEE/NICHOLS GARDEN NURSERY
Survive and Thrive
Carol Deppe
room or the personal experience ... And The Resilient
Gardener was designed to cover certain topics in much
greater detail than they are normally covered, not to be
yet one more superfi cial treatment giving just a little bit
about everything.” That is the strength of The Resilient
Gardener: its wealth of detail of the kind that refl ects a
lifetime of experience, carefully observed. If sometimes,
just sometimes, the level of detail seems a bit over the
top, that’s easily forgiven. I’m confi dent that everyone,
beginner or expert, will learn from this book and feel better
prepared to carry their gardening to a new level.
Go to www.caroldeppe.com for a free download of
the table of contents and fi rst chapter of The Resilient
Gardener. You can also sign up to receive a list of the new
seed varieties Deppe is releasing this year.
Deppe will speak at noon Jan. 22 at the Good Earth Home
and Garden Show, Lane County Fairgrounds. Book signing
follows at 1 pm. She will also speak at noon Feb. 12 at a
fundraiser for the Benton County Master Gardeners, at the
LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St. in Corvallis.
ew
Rachel Foster of Eugene is a writer and garden consultant. She can be reached
at rfoster@efn.org
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EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 13, 2011 33