I was really happy that Alys Fowler agreed to write the book’s foreword. She visited me for 3 days in 2010 when she was writing the book the Thrifty Forager and she devotes a whole section to my garden, its plants and The Modern Monk (guess who) :) In the foreword to my book, there’s a picture of Alys reading my old copy coverless copy of Cornucopia II in the garden!
The first time I gave my talk “Around the world in 80 plants” was 8 (eight) years ago on 6th November 2006 for the local group of the Norwegian Botanical Society (NBF-TLA) under the Norwegian title “Verden rundt med 80 arter – som smaker”. After the meeting, the leader of the group, Arne Odland told me I should write a book. The thought had occurred to me, but this was the spark I needed….but that it would take 8 years is surprising, but there was still a lot of testing of plants, trying of many recipes, a full time job, a large garden to look after and some rewriting……….
I was invited back to the Botanical Society to give a quick 10 minute introduction to the book. Then this afternoon I had a panicky call whether I could make a longer talk as the main lecturer had to cancel…..
I used the same picture from my 2006 lecture and just changed the date, here it is :)