The Earth Knows My Name by Patricia Klindienst
As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast:
The Earth Knows My Name by Patricia Klindienst
This book came out in April of 2007, and the subtitle is Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans.
Patricia Klindienst is a master gardener and an award-winning scholar and teacher.
She lives in Guilford, Connecticut, and teaches creative writing each summer at Yale University.
Patricia Klindienst went to many different urban, suburban, and rural gardens to write this book. She had seen an old family photo of her Italian immigrant family.
She was inspired to learn about her ancestor’s struggle to adapt to America and eager to hear stories from other families.
The jacket to Patricia’s book reminds us, "
As we lose our connection to the soil, we no longer understand the relationship between food and a sense of belonging to a place and a people.”
How do gardens and growing food help people maintain their culture?
This is the question Patricia explores in her book.
Vegetables, fruits, and flowers provide much more than sustenance, food, and beauty. They convey who and where we are and what we are about.
In her review of this book, the author Deborah Madison said,
"We who are far removed from our own immigrant roots will do well to study these eloquent stories and learn from them. Patricia Klindienst has given us nothing less than a great gift."
The book is 208 pages of ways we can connect to the earth - all shared with today’s gardener in mind.
SI HORTUM IN HORTORIA PODCASTA IN BIBLIOTEHCA HABES, NIHIL DEERIT.