With Practical Advice on Growing, Pollinating, Picking, and Preparing an Extraordinary Harvest

by Amy Goldman, photographs by Victor Schrager

 

This year's heirloom tomato is a melon! Acclaimed gardener Amy Goldman, known to viewers of Martha Stewart and PBS, is a dedicated seed saver working to preserve fast-disappearing varieties of heirloom melons. Her book is a celebration of the speckled, bumpy, oh-so-sweet world of the melon—from Minnesota Midget and Georgia Rattlesnake to Ali Baba and Sweet Siberian. Here she profiles more than 100 varieties, each showcased in a full-color photographic still life recalling 18th- and 19th-century botanical paintings and engravings. Goldman also offers expert advice on cultivating your own melons, as well as the rudiments of seed saving.