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The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables
Ever wonder how peas, kale, asparagus, beans, squash and sweetcorn ended up on our plates? Well, so did Adam Alexander.
Adam Alexander is The Seed Detective. His passion for vegetables was ignited when he tasted an unusual sweet pepper with a fiery heart while on a film-making project in Ukraine. Smitten by its flavour, Adam began to seek out local growers of endangered heritage and heirloom varieties in a mission to take home seeds to grow and share so that he could enjoy their delicious taste – and save them from being lost forever.
In The Seed Detective, Adam shares his own stories of seed hunting, with the origin stories behind many of our everyday vegetable heroes. Taking us on a journey that began when we left the life of the hunter-gatherer to become farmers, he tells tales of globalisation, political intrigue, colonisation and serendipity – describing how these vegetables and their travels have become embedded in our food cultures.
‘We are a nation of vegetable growers’, says Adam, ‘and this book explores the wonderful world of rare and endangered heritage and heirloom vegetables – and why we must keep growing them and saving their seed, not only for our gardening and culinary pleasure, but to pass these stories on – vegetables are truly our history on a plate.’
Adam Alexander is The Seed Detective. His passion for vegetables was ignited when he tasted an unusual sweet pepper with a fiery heart while on a film-making project in Ukraine. Smitten by its flavour, Adam began to seek out local growers of endangered heritage and heirloom varieties in a mission to take home seeds to grow and share so that he could enjoy their delicious taste – and save them from being lost forever.
In The Seed Detective, Adam shares his own stories of seed hunting, with the origin stories behind many of our everyday vegetable heroes. Taking us on a journey that began when we left the life of the hunter-gatherer to become farmers, he tells tales of globalisation, political intrigue, colonisation and serendipity – describing how these vegetables and their travels have become embedded in our food cultures.
‘We are a nation of vegetable growers’, says Adam, ‘and this book explores the wonderful world of rare and endangered heritage and heirloom vegetables – and why we must keep growing them and saving their seed, not only for our gardening and culinary pleasure, but to pass these stories on – vegetables are truly our history on a plate.’
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2022
63 people are currently reading
1016 people want to read
About the author
Adam Alexander
42 books5 followersAdam Alexander is a consummate story-teller thanks to forty years as a successful and award-winning film and television producer. His films have included documentaries about little-known cultures, (A Year in Tibet), popular food series, (Return to Tuscany, The Urban Chef) and gardening programmes, (A Year at Kew, A Garden for Eden). He has won awards for culturally important ethnographic series including, Hughesovka, Eutopia, Unholy Land and Russian Wonderland.
Adam’s true passion is collecting rare, endangered but above all, delicious vegetables from around the world. He lectures widely on his work discovering and conserving rare, endangered garden crops. He is a Board Member of the national charity Garden Organic. His knowledge and expertise growing out vegetables for seed is highly valued by the Heritage Seed Library, for which he is a seed guardian. He shares seeds with other growers and gene banks in the EU, the USA and Canada. He is currently growing out seed of heritage Syrian and Ukrainian vegetables for displaced people.
He has appeared on CNN’s Going Green, BBC’s Gardeners’ World and The Great British Food Revival. He has written for The Organic Way, The Sustainable Food Trust, The Cottage Garden Society, Simple Things. He is currently working with The Museum of Wales, St. Fagans reviving Welsh heritage vegetables and has provided heirloom Welsh vegetable seed to culturally important gardens including Aberglassney in West Wales. He is in demand as a consultant and advisor to private gardens and institutions wanting to showcase British heritage crops.
Adam’s true passion is collecting rare, endangered but above all, delicious vegetables from around the world. He lectures widely on his work discovering and conserving rare, endangered garden crops. He is a Board Member of the national charity Garden Organic. His knowledge and expertise growing out vegetables for seed is highly valued by the Heritage Seed Library, for which he is a seed guardian. He shares seeds with other growers and gene banks in the EU, the USA and Canada. He is currently growing out seed of heritage Syrian and Ukrainian vegetables for displaced people.
He has appeared on CNN’s Going Green, BBC’s Gardeners’ World and The Great British Food Revival. He has written for The Organic Way, The Sustainable Food Trust, The Cottage Garden Society, Simple Things. He is currently working with The Museum of Wales, St. Fagans reviving Welsh heritage vegetables and has provided heirloom Welsh vegetable seed to culturally important gardens including Aberglassney in West Wales. He is in demand as a consultant and advisor to private gardens and institutions wanting to showcase British heritage crops.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
November 9, 2023
This book is going to find a home on the shelves.
It is also a good bookend to “Epic Tomatoes”.
Crack this one open to revisit what you know and to learn new things.
It is also a good bookend to “Epic Tomatoes”.
Crack this one open to revisit what you know and to learn new things.
January 23, 2024
*Audible audio* not entirely sure when I started this (bad memory), took my best guess :) Concentration wasn't great this week either unfortunately.
---'
Insomnia brain 🧠 brings you this review 😴
Very interesting 👌 Learned some fun stuff about vegetables and not as wary to try some of them.
It did have a dry feeling to it in some parts but it wasn't boring.
The narrator did a wonderful job with the stories (sometimes I forgot he wasn't the author!).
Definitely going to get a copy for my shelves so I can refer back to it from time to time (the way my memory is these days].
My reading goal is to read out of my comfort zone every month and this one was a good start 😀.
Happy reading!
---'
Insomnia brain 🧠 brings you this review 😴
Very interesting 👌 Learned some fun stuff about vegetables and not as wary to try some of them.
It did have a dry feeling to it in some parts but it wasn't boring.
The narrator did a wonderful job with the stories (sometimes I forgot he wasn't the author!).
Definitely going to get a copy for my shelves so I can refer back to it from time to time (the way my memory is these days].
My reading goal is to read out of my comfort zone every month and this one was a good start 😀.
Happy reading!
August 1, 2022
This is a rather interesting book about growing heirloom vegetables and is an enjoyable read. I think what makes this one slightly different from similar books I've read is that it combines the history of vegetables with a memoir of sorts by the author of his love for the various "heirloom" or "heritage" varieties of seed he's run across in his travels around the world. It's this nice blend of history and memoir that makes it enjoyable.
The book is broken into two parts:
- Old World veggies: peas, broad beans, carrots, leeks, asparagus, lettuce, garlic
- New World veggies: tomatoes, regular and runner beans, corn, lima beans, chilis, squash and pumpkins
In each chapter he mentions seeds he acquired in his travels - often from what he calls a "seed granny" - and what he finds so fascinating or tasty or... (etc.) about them. Be forewarned, however, that you may or may not be able to ever find that particular heirloom because he sometimes uses a name he gave the seeds based upon where he got them. So, the usefulness for us as gardeners, who would like to grow more heirlooms is somewhat limited. Unfortunately, the book contains the usual screed against "Big Ag" (the somewhat mysterious big agriculture and chemical companies) found in so many books like this, but while this argument pops up in several places, it's minimal enough. The author also seems to romanticize Neolithic farmers and Native Americans, but... whatever.
As a backyard gardener I would love to grow more heirloom vegetables with the space I have, but older varieties are often subject to diseases and fungi that don't attack newer varieties. Also, they aren't always as prolific as some growers, including this author, make them sound - and I'm not the only one to complain about these issues. (Not only that, but taste is often subjective, and I've been disappointed at the flavor of heirlooms on a number of occasions.) In that regard, this book is limited in its usefulness because it's more memoir and history than growing guide. And I guess that's okay - it's a pleasant read as it is - but I would like to find a book that doesn't just tell us we should be growing more heirloom varieties and saving our own seed, but has some practical advice to get a well-meaning gardener started with heirlooms as well. Still, I made a number of notes from my reading and will be looking for some of the varieties he mentioned. (Thank you to NetGalley and Chelsea Green Publishing for an advance electronic copy.)
The book is broken into two parts:
- Old World veggies: peas, broad beans, carrots, leeks, asparagus, lettuce, garlic
- New World veggies: tomatoes, regular and runner beans, corn, lima beans, chilis, squash and pumpkins
In each chapter he mentions seeds he acquired in his travels - often from what he calls a "seed granny" - and what he finds so fascinating or tasty or... (etc.) about them. Be forewarned, however, that you may or may not be able to ever find that particular heirloom because he sometimes uses a name he gave the seeds based upon where he got them. So, the usefulness for us as gardeners, who would like to grow more heirlooms is somewhat limited. Unfortunately, the book contains the usual screed against "Big Ag" (the somewhat mysterious big agriculture and chemical companies) found in so many books like this, but while this argument pops up in several places, it's minimal enough. The author also seems to romanticize Neolithic farmers and Native Americans, but... whatever.
As a backyard gardener I would love to grow more heirloom vegetables with the space I have, but older varieties are often subject to diseases and fungi that don't attack newer varieties. Also, they aren't always as prolific as some growers, including this author, make them sound - and I'm not the only one to complain about these issues. (Not only that, but taste is often subjective, and I've been disappointed at the flavor of heirlooms on a number of occasions.) In that regard, this book is limited in its usefulness because it's more memoir and history than growing guide. And I guess that's okay - it's a pleasant read as it is - but I would like to find a book that doesn't just tell us we should be growing more heirloom varieties and saving our own seed, but has some practical advice to get a well-meaning gardener started with heirlooms as well. Still, I made a number of notes from my reading and will be looking for some of the varieties he mentioned. (Thank you to NetGalley and Chelsea Green Publishing for an advance electronic copy.)
January 22, 2023
Audiobook: felt a bit like a textbook at times, but his voice is pleasant and the message he’s championing, the need for plant diversity, is fantastic and vital. It’s inspiring to hear someone so passionate and knowledgeable about plants, their history, cultivation, and taste. I can’t wait to get to the garden this spring and lean into some of this. Glad I listened. If you’re at all interested in gardening, seed saving, biodiversity, climate change, eating and/or cooking food… this book is worth a read/listen.
February 29, 2024
Lots of good history and information.
January 16, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. It really made me want to visit the author's home and visit his garden. It sounds amazing. This book is the authors attempt to describe the history of certain beans and vegetables and his search for heirloom varieties. The plants included asparagus, squash, several different beans, leeks, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, garlic, carrots and a few others. I found the history fascinating and Now I want to try some of these foods.
January 20, 2023
Very interesting ‘biography’ of vegetables in this wonderful author’s UK garden. He divides by those that came east and those that came west. Just so revealing of the diversity in seeds and plants! A great way to spend some winter nights when you cannot garden!
May 3, 2024
I really enjoyed learning about all of the cultivars and adventures in this book, and I will frequently return to it when picking garden cultivars! I took pretty extensive notes on vegetable varieties that I want to try (though I haven't been able to find a single one that I have searched for yet). That being said, this book was a bit too history-focused for me (lots of dates, lots of variants, lots of people), so that was a bit challenging to focus on. Also, it was very Euro-centric, which was thoroughly addressed (and also makes sense because gardens we have today are reminiscent of the idea of gardens back in England). SO, I don't see as an inherent issue, but it was just a bit less interesting to me than learning about landrace varieties of vegetables as used in their home countries.
February 11, 2024
Alexander provides the history of some of our most commonly consumed modern vegetables all the while reminding us that the bland, indestructible specimens found in our local supermarkets are far removed from what vegetables were and could be. He is an avid collector of heirloom seeds representing varieties of food sources developed over time by farmers/gardeners who selected, saved, and planted only the best specimens with certain characteristics of taste or color or ease of harvest. As a gardener myself, I welcomed the information but was left wistful that I, too, do not have the means to go seed-hunting around the world.
September 5, 2022
I liked the premises of this book, as I am interested both in history and botany, and even started some gardening myself recently. Unfortunately, while clearly passionate about his heirloom seeds, the author gets stuck in too many details and the result is mostly dry and encyclopedic. I think it still will be interesting to people who are looking for very specific information about their plants, but if you’re looking for an engaging popular science book, it may not be the best choice.
Thanks to the publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
Thanks to the publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
October 9, 2022
Mostly a horticultural history lesson, partly a travel memoir, and wholly a love letter to seed saving and growing heirloom vegetable varieties. This was an interesting history lesson about vegetables and where they came from, how they have evolved, how they became a part of our diet, etc. 3 stars.
July 2, 2022
The author has a legitimate query: “Why don’t people drool over shops with cornucopias of veg in their windows as one sees people drooling over cake or clothes shops?” This book is not just for garden nerds — it’s an interesting treatise about why when you go to a regular, not specialized or ethnic, market you have certain choices. Mr. Alexander understands that a worldwide food system depends on monoculture – growing just one variety of crop at scale, instead of multiple varieties.
The book is a great history of vegetables, especially peas, beans, leeks, carrots (which changed color from red and white to orange), garlic, brassica family plants, and corn.
A traveling journalist by trade, Mr. Alexander started his interest in unique vegetables with one special pepper that he discovered in Donetsk, Ukraine, and now he has 499 varieties of vegetable seeds, grows 70 varieties annually, and is a “seed guardian” for the Heritage Seed Library. He is often interrogating Someone's Granny (SG) in world markets about the origin of their heirloom wares.
I found the stories fascinating and I learned how the way the world produces its food changed fundamentally with the so-called Green Revolution, which started in Mexico towards the end of World War II. We were successful feeding the world, but variety was nearly lost. The protectors of heirloom veggies and seed guardians like the author are working to make sure our past doesn’t go extinct.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5. My thanks to Chelsea Green Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced ebook copy. I hope the final book has lots of photos of the remarkable vegetables that were described.
The book is a great history of vegetables, especially peas, beans, leeks, carrots (which changed color from red and white to orange), garlic, brassica family plants, and corn.
A traveling journalist by trade, Mr. Alexander started his interest in unique vegetables with one special pepper that he discovered in Donetsk, Ukraine, and now he has 499 varieties of vegetable seeds, grows 70 varieties annually, and is a “seed guardian” for the Heritage Seed Library. He is often interrogating Someone's Granny (SG) in world markets about the origin of their heirloom wares.
I found the stories fascinating and I learned how the way the world produces its food changed fundamentally with the so-called Green Revolution, which started in Mexico towards the end of World War II. We were successful feeding the world, but variety was nearly lost. The protectors of heirloom veggies and seed guardians like the author are working to make sure our past doesn’t go extinct.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5. My thanks to Chelsea Green Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced ebook copy. I hope the final book has lots of photos of the remarkable vegetables that were described.
April 25, 2025
2.75 stars rounded up. It’s clear Alexander is passionate about seeds and vegetables, and has collected samples from all over the world to then grow at home. For any gardener, this book will
probably appeal in widening their knowledge and inspiring them - for anyone like me who was maybe hoping for slightly more about the travels, and stories of growing them, then the in depth knowledge and many different names will feel very dry.
I received a free ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.
probably appeal in widening their knowledge and inspiring them - for anyone like me who was maybe hoping for slightly more about the travels, and stories of growing them, then the in depth knowledge and many different names will feel very dry.
I received a free ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.
September 6, 2024
4.5/5 - I rounded up because I am getting inspired to have my own garden. It was a fun book in the sense that it made me think about the food we eat and the foods we're losing as we get more and more removed from where our food comes from. The book felt cozy to read and it's clear the author is really passionate about finding heritage vegetables. I honestly wish there was more to the book, a lot of it boils down to older generations growing their food hold the seeds for delicious varieties of foods that the general populace doesn't know exists.
January 3, 2025
I really enjoyed this book it was wonderfully informative and entertaining. It brings attention to how important the protecting and preservation of heritage seeds is vital for food security and cultural heritage.
It reaffirms to me how vital food sovereignty is for everyone especially for those of us in The lower economic class. We can grow our own food and be healthy and more prosperous for it.
It reaffirms to me how vital food sovereignty is for everyone especially for those of us in The lower economic class. We can grow our own food and be healthy and more prosperous for it.
March 27, 2025
soooo interesting and inspiring!!!! i want to have a garden when i’m older and i need to shop at more farmers markets!! in awe of the respect and care that the author and the people he talks to have for their seeds. amazing that he could be halfway across the world and someone would share a seed that has been in their family for generations with him. comparing that to the corporations who hunt people down and sue them for saving their seeds is so insane. i can’t believe how many species of fruits and vegetables have been lost hey that doesn’t seem good at all! bring back biodiversity 🙌🙌🙌🫛🫛🫛
March 22, 2023
To Say this book Surprised me would be an understatement.
I expected it to be interesting, no doubt. I did not expect it to engage me, pull me in, make me want to keep reading to see what happens next. I mean, it’s a book about seeds and plans. How much of a page turner could it be? The answer is, quite!
The author tells his story well, with passion, and keeps the book engaging throughout. The stories of his world travels and seed collecting journeys, interspersed with more “dry” scientific facts just the right amount to keep forward momentum throughout the book.
On top of it all, now I’m excited to garden this spring. I’ll never be as dedicated a Gardner as he is. But I’ll till my soul and sew my seeds (mostly, unfortunate, more commercial varieties) and remember how much pleasure I got reading this book.
Five very enthusiastic stars.
I expected it to be interesting, no doubt. I did not expect it to engage me, pull me in, make me want to keep reading to see what happens next. I mean, it’s a book about seeds and plans. How much of a page turner could it be? The answer is, quite!
The author tells his story well, with passion, and keeps the book engaging throughout. The stories of his world travels and seed collecting journeys, interspersed with more “dry” scientific facts just the right amount to keep forward momentum throughout the book.
On top of it all, now I’m excited to garden this spring. I’ll never be as dedicated a Gardner as he is. But I’ll till my soul and sew my seeds (mostly, unfortunate, more commercial varieties) and remember how much pleasure I got reading this book.
Five very enthusiastic stars.
October 24, 2023
Fascinating. One for dipping into and savouring.
March 26, 2024
Interesting, fact filled story/book about a guy and his quest to grow heritage crops. It was actually well done & fun to listen to,
August 21, 2023
Adam Alexander is a seed collector, seed conserver, seed distributor, gardener, and a fascinating writer. He set out to find the origin of many vegetables, dividing the book into crops arriving from east of his home in Wales, and crops arriving from the west. He is a researcher and traveler, gourmet foodie, and one-time market gardener who couldn’t sell red Brussels sprouts.
He has joyfully searched out and found many rare, sometimes endangered (and in at least one case, the last known) seeds. He grows out the seeds he is given, and returns some seed to the person who lent them to him. He is very respectful of people’s cultures, and won’t grow for financial gain any crop that has been entrusted to him. He has enchanting stories of his efforts to seek out the seeds he’d heard about, in vegetable markets and dusty cupboard corners.
He has a website, podcast, videos and seed list at https://theseeddetective.co.uk/ He has 499 varieties of vegetable seeds, and grows out around 70 of them each year, in his garden, which includes a polytunnel (hoophouse). For some of the crops, he works with the Heritage Seed Library in the UK. If you live in the UK, he will send you a packet of seeds for a donation of £1 plus £1.50 for postage. As I write this, in August, many varieties are out of stock. Seeds are maturing, be patient.
Adam explains why garlic was fed every day to Egyptian pyramid builders; how chilies from 6000 BCE were found in a Mexican cave; why there is so much confusion between squash, pumpkins, zucchini/courgettes and marrows; and why giant Christmas lima beans are popular in northern Myanmar.
Agricultural history and archeology contain intriguing stories, and Adam tells these tales with humor, passion, insight. Maritime history is included, so we understand why and how certain beans were valued as storable foods for the crew on long journeys, incidentally spreading the leftover beans in the land of their arrival.
From the east, Britain received various peas, fava (broad) beans, carrots before they were orange, leeks (no, they really are not native to Britain!), asparagus, lettuce, garlic and many brassicas with unfamiliar names. From the west came tomatoes, green (“French”) beans and their dried offspring, maize in its many types, lima beans, runner beans, chili peppers and the whole squash-pumpkin hyphenated extended family (except Lagenaria siceraria gourds).
This book includes global histories and geography, and starts from a British perspective in the demarcation of East and West. There is a mistaken reference to Thomas Jefferson’s New York State home of Monticello. Elsewhere, the author correctly locates Monticello in Virginia. Jefferson did rent a house in New York City while Secretary of State. “The only person who never makes a mistake is the person who never does anything!” (Theodore Roosevelt)
Adam truly wants us all to enjoy healthy food – this is far from dry research. Vegetables have been industrialized to maximize profit for some at the expense of those who toil in the fields. Crops have, in some cases, been patented. Their flavors and nutrients have been ignored. We can change this. We can rebuild biodiversity, bring back flavor and the enjoyment of eating vegetables! We can put plants “at the heart of good cuisines and health” as Tim Lang says in his Foreword.
In his previous life, Adam was a film and television producer, used to travelling widely. In his introduction, Adam tells of an evening when his film crew took over the kitchen of their hotel in Donetsk, because they were hungry and the kitchen staff were on strike in protest at the foreign film crew staying there. Adam was able to shop well, with a very favorable currency exchange rate. He found some tennis-ball sized sweet red peppers with a fiery heart. They enjoyed their dinner and Adam was able to take some seeds home. This started his seed detective journey. From then on, he used every opportunity to seek out farmers’ markets and ask the stall-holders about local varieties. He started to build a seed library, because he realized some of the seeds were in danger of going extinct.
His began to wonder about how those crops had arrived in that country, and what was their place of origin. There were eight Centres of Diversity identified by Nikolai Vavilov, who created the world’s biggest seed bank, the All-Russian Research Institute. Since then, additional Centres of Diversity have been recognized, such as in Australasia and Africa. In this book, we meet plants from just three of those Centres: the Fertile Crescent in the Middle east, Mesoamerica, and the northern parts of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. These hilly or mountainous, tropical or sub-tropical regions are now associated with drought, but at the time of domestication 12,000 years ago, were rich in natural resources including rainfall. Our current day vegetables are the result of Neolithic farmers selecting plants to save for seed.
According to the historian Mary Beard, the Romans were the first society to export their food culture as part of their brand, Cabbages, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, lettuce and leeks all travelled with the legions, as familiar comfort food to fuel them for the invasions. Sophisticated Arabic irrigation systems enabled Moors invading Spain in the eighth century CE, to plant saffron, apricots, artichokes, carob, eggplants, grapefruits, carrots, coriander and rice, which all became basic ingredients of Spanish cuisine. Vegetables have been travelling the globe for a long time! Here I cannot include much of the particular seed tales, so read the book!
Adam’s first tale is of a local pea variety in Laos. Through an interpreter, he asked a market stall-holder about some pea seeds she had for sale. To his every question, her unvarying reply was “Of course”. They were peas, they grew tall, she saved the seed herself, and had been doing so for a long time, and of course, the whole pod was edible. When he got them back to Wales and planted them in late spring, they grew, and grew, topping his extended trellis. They produced abundantly and were delicious. His short row of peas also produced over a kilo of seeds!
Peas were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent over 8,500 years ago, from a twining winter annual in Syria. Peas we eat today come from two species, the round (mostly grown for drying) and the wrinkly (most fresh-eating peas). 2,000 years ago, the Syrian pea crossed with a wild climbing pea from the eastern Mediterranean area. This “modern” pea spread across the much of Asia and Europe. A third species of pea was independently domesticated in Ethiopia. In Europe up until the seventeenth century, most peas were grown to be dried and stored for winter. Later, farmers developed peas for fresh eating. At the end of the nineteenth century, the USDA had recorded 408 varieties of peas grown commercially, but by 1983, 90% had been lost, and only 25 appear in the records. This threat to human survival is mirrored with all edible crops.
Mysteries and scandals abound. One tall pea tale involves seed reputedly grown from one live among three seeds taken from an Egyptian tomb. It was shown to be identical to a common Dwarf Branching Marrowfat pea. And yet the charlatan continued in business, selling to gullible gardeners. In 1861 the Royal Horticultural Society in London tested 235 varieties of peas, and found only 11 worthy of merit (but what were their criteria?)
One of the peas in Adam’s collection is named Avi Joan, and came from Catalonia. Over ten feet tall, covered with pods of sweet tasty peas, still good when mature. A truly local variety, with only one known grower, it could have died out, but now has many growers in the UK.
The other tales of seeds from the east cover fava beans from Syria, carrots from Afghanistan, becoming orange in Holland, leeks domesticated in Egypt and Mesopotamia at least 4,500 years ago, Greek krambé (leafy greens) 2,600 years ago, asparagus depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs in the third millennium BCE and growing wild (feral?) in Britain 2,000 years ago, lettuce domesticated eight thousand years ago perhaps in Kurdistan and Mesopotamia, and garlic originally from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The oldest garlic remains, dated to the fourth millennium BCE, were found in an Israeli cave near the Dead Sea.
After this Adam considers arrivals from the west. Excavations in Mexico have given us a timeline of South American ancestors transitioning from being hunter-gatherers to farming 12,000- 9,000 years ago, after the supply of game decreased, and pressure on gathered crops reduced availability. Many crops were introduced from outside the immediate area, including amaranth, maize, squash and chilies. About 3,000 years ago, almost all the diet was farmed. About 500 years ago, these foods reached the Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
At this point we must acknowledge that European colonizers violently displaced and killed most of the native people in North America and the Caribbean and brought in abducted and enslaved Africans. In the history of Europe, we mentioned invaders from one country to another, in much earlier days, in some cases thousands of years earlier. The past history of the human race was not all peaceful. Current events are not all peaceful. The flow of foods from one culture to another is generally a better aspect of ourselves.
Columbus, when returning to Spain from the Bahamas in 1493, brought maize, tobacco, sweet potatoes, chilies and two species of beans. Twenty years later, Cortés brought from Mexico avocadoes, pineapples, cocoa, squash, more bean species, tomatoes, cassava and potatoes. These crops from a small corner of southern Mexico have become embedded in European food culture.
Tomatoes are all descended from the wild tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium, indigenous to coastal Peru. “Common” beans, Phaseolus vulgaris originated in an area from Northern Mexico to Argentina, and were grown in Britain by 1597.
Identifying the wild ancestor of corn took scientists until the 1930’s, because the changes from teosinte to modern day maize are profound. Teosinte is a short weedy grass without any cob-like ears. It has a head consisting of about 12 kernels in two rows along a hard stem. It is now accepted that a single domestication event brought maize into the world. Domestication was a feat of impressive crop selection from genetically diverse teosinte enabling rapid mutations. The common idea that evolution takes centuries of gradual changes is not true. As if by magic, maize suddenly appeared at archeological sites. It didn’t take many generations of Neolithic plant breeding 10,000 or more years ago in the Balsas Valley in SW Mexico to open the way for breeding the 20,000 landraces of teosinte and maize that exist today.
The oldest evidence of lima beans is from 8,500 years ago, in Guitarrero Cave in Peru.
In northern Mexico and Puerto Rico the limas are the smaller more drought-resistant and heat-tolerant Sieva type. Ships returned to Europe and to Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Columbus’s time with lima beans to feed the crew. Portuguese ships from the fifteenth century on sailed round the Cape of Good Hope to southern India. The pallar types of Lima beans from northern Chile and Peru, probably crossed the Pacific to the colony in the Philippines, from the sixteenth century onwards. By the end of the eighteenth century, both types of lima beans were commonly found in China and India.
Lima beans do not grow outdoors in the British climate, but their close relative, runner beans, native to high elevations of Mexico and Central America, do very well. There is some evidence that they were domesticated by 4,000 BCE. They reached England around the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The next tale is of chili peppers (spelled chilli in the UK). What is the fascination with eating the hottest possible peppers? The earliest find of domesticated chilies is in a cave in the Tehuacán Valley in south-central Mexico, and dates from 5,000-6,000 BCE. Five species have been domesticated, starting 7,000 years ago in Mesoamerica. The species with the hottest peppers, C. chinense, is native to the Caribbean, the Yucatan and Central America, and includes the habanero, (there is no tilde over the n, no ny pronunciation – that is just English speakers trying too hard to sound foreign!), the Dragon’s Breath, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion and Scotch Bonnet, popular in Jamaica.
The Arawak people in the Bahamas were eating chilies when Columbus arrived in 1492 and they had arrived in Europe by 1542. Chilies traveled so fast that a Dutch botanist named the C. chinense species believing they came originally from China! People in India might not realize chili peppers came from Mexico! Chilies became such a big part of cuisine on the Indian subcontinent that every region now has its own special variety. Surprisingly, chilies did not reach North America until the Spanish brought them at the end of the sixteenth century.
Lastly we turn to the pumpkin and squash family (Cucurbita). Domestication of squash started 10,000 years ago in the Americas. Before Columbus brought back squashes from the Americas, white-flowered bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) were widely grown in the so-called “Old World” for the edible seeds and as containers, and sometimes the flesh was eaten (some was toxic). This led to confusion in names between the two incompatible genera.
Today we divide squash into 4 species. C. pepo is native to North America, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. Acorn squash and maxima squashes, such as those cultivated by the Algonquin, were valuable to the early colonizers who did not have ovens, but were able to bake hard-skinned squashes (emptied of seeds and refilled with milk and spices) in the fire ashes.
There are two types of C. moschata (native to Mesoamerica, probably northern Peru), the ones we know as Butternut squash, and the giant crooknecks, such as Tahitian Butternut, not to be confused with C. mixta Cushaw squashes (native to Florida). Many names were used for different subgroups of squashes, pumpkins, melons, gourds, cucumbers. Immature squash of many kinds have been consumed, and often called zucchini. Most canned pumpkin and commercial pumpkin pies are made from butternut squash.
C. maxima is probably a descendent of wild C. andreana, native to parts of Argentina and Uruguay, where it became one of the key crops of the Native Guarani people. 1,500-year-old whole squashes have been found in Salta, in the mountains of northwest Argentina. The Spanish brought C.maxima north, where it became a widespread part of the cuisine of Native Americans, and by the end of the sixteenth century, it was found across the European colonies there. C. maxima squashes reached Japan in the eighteenth century, where they were bred to make distinctive varieties and types like Kabocha and Kuri.
A fascination with growing giant pumpkins (or squash) has developed in the last 500 years. This is not about the food supply any more than the quest for the hottest chili is.
Today, desires for nutritional value, flavor and quality are moving public opinion away from the drive to more, bigger, better at any cost. That path led us to poor quality food without much flavor, that relied on pesticides rather than pest resistance or tolerance, fungicides rather than disease-resistance, and heavy inputs of chemical fertilizers to achieve the touted high yields.
Research and development on how to feed the planet with the climate in chaos, population growing and available land shrinking, is turning more towards cultivating biodiversity and valuing sustainable and traditional farming methods. It is important for the well-being of us all that we do not divide the people who are scraping together to buy the cheapest, mostly ultra-processed, unhealthy food, from the people who can afford to feed themselves organic, sustainably produced food. Small-scale diverse vegetable farming is capable of generating more income per acre than large-scale monocropping. Our task is to ensure food justice.
Diverse farming will give us resilience in the face of climate change. Collaboration between farmers in distributing their produce is a success for us all. Home gardeners providing food for their households are part of the bigger picture of feeding the world. I learned from Adam’s book that there are more than a million acres of gardens in the UK, which represents more than 8% of all land growing crops. Maintaining local varieties can produce high yields, and, again, give us resilience. Restoring and maintaining seed libraries of local varieties around the world will bring us more strength than being in thrall to agrochemical mega-businesses.
He has joyfully searched out and found many rare, sometimes endangered (and in at least one case, the last known) seeds. He grows out the seeds he is given, and returns some seed to the person who lent them to him. He is very respectful of people’s cultures, and won’t grow for financial gain any crop that has been entrusted to him. He has enchanting stories of his efforts to seek out the seeds he’d heard about, in vegetable markets and dusty cupboard corners.
He has a website, podcast, videos and seed list at https://theseeddetective.co.uk/ He has 499 varieties of vegetable seeds, and grows out around 70 of them each year, in his garden, which includes a polytunnel (hoophouse). For some of the crops, he works with the Heritage Seed Library in the UK. If you live in the UK, he will send you a packet of seeds for a donation of £1 plus £1.50 for postage. As I write this, in August, many varieties are out of stock. Seeds are maturing, be patient.
Adam explains why garlic was fed every day to Egyptian pyramid builders; how chilies from 6000 BCE were found in a Mexican cave; why there is so much confusion between squash, pumpkins, zucchini/courgettes and marrows; and why giant Christmas lima beans are popular in northern Myanmar.
Agricultural history and archeology contain intriguing stories, and Adam tells these tales with humor, passion, insight. Maritime history is included, so we understand why and how certain beans were valued as storable foods for the crew on long journeys, incidentally spreading the leftover beans in the land of their arrival.
From the east, Britain received various peas, fava (broad) beans, carrots before they were orange, leeks (no, they really are not native to Britain!), asparagus, lettuce, garlic and many brassicas with unfamiliar names. From the west came tomatoes, green (“French”) beans and their dried offspring, maize in its many types, lima beans, runner beans, chili peppers and the whole squash-pumpkin hyphenated extended family (except Lagenaria siceraria gourds).
This book includes global histories and geography, and starts from a British perspective in the demarcation of East and West. There is a mistaken reference to Thomas Jefferson’s New York State home of Monticello. Elsewhere, the author correctly locates Monticello in Virginia. Jefferson did rent a house in New York City while Secretary of State. “The only person who never makes a mistake is the person who never does anything!” (Theodore Roosevelt)
Adam truly wants us all to enjoy healthy food – this is far from dry research. Vegetables have been industrialized to maximize profit for some at the expense of those who toil in the fields. Crops have, in some cases, been patented. Their flavors and nutrients have been ignored. We can change this. We can rebuild biodiversity, bring back flavor and the enjoyment of eating vegetables! We can put plants “at the heart of good cuisines and health” as Tim Lang says in his Foreword.
In his previous life, Adam was a film and television producer, used to travelling widely. In his introduction, Adam tells of an evening when his film crew took over the kitchen of their hotel in Donetsk, because they were hungry and the kitchen staff were on strike in protest at the foreign film crew staying there. Adam was able to shop well, with a very favorable currency exchange rate. He found some tennis-ball sized sweet red peppers with a fiery heart. They enjoyed their dinner and Adam was able to take some seeds home. This started his seed detective journey. From then on, he used every opportunity to seek out farmers’ markets and ask the stall-holders about local varieties. He started to build a seed library, because he realized some of the seeds were in danger of going extinct.
His began to wonder about how those crops had arrived in that country, and what was their place of origin. There were eight Centres of Diversity identified by Nikolai Vavilov, who created the world’s biggest seed bank, the All-Russian Research Institute. Since then, additional Centres of Diversity have been recognized, such as in Australasia and Africa. In this book, we meet plants from just three of those Centres: the Fertile Crescent in the Middle east, Mesoamerica, and the northern parts of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. These hilly or mountainous, tropical or sub-tropical regions are now associated with drought, but at the time of domestication 12,000 years ago, were rich in natural resources including rainfall. Our current day vegetables are the result of Neolithic farmers selecting plants to save for seed.
According to the historian Mary Beard, the Romans were the first society to export their food culture as part of their brand, Cabbages, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, lettuce and leeks all travelled with the legions, as familiar comfort food to fuel them for the invasions. Sophisticated Arabic irrigation systems enabled Moors invading Spain in the eighth century CE, to plant saffron, apricots, artichokes, carob, eggplants, grapefruits, carrots, coriander and rice, which all became basic ingredients of Spanish cuisine. Vegetables have been travelling the globe for a long time! Here I cannot include much of the particular seed tales, so read the book!
Adam’s first tale is of a local pea variety in Laos. Through an interpreter, he asked a market stall-holder about some pea seeds she had for sale. To his every question, her unvarying reply was “Of course”. They were peas, they grew tall, she saved the seed herself, and had been doing so for a long time, and of course, the whole pod was edible. When he got them back to Wales and planted them in late spring, they grew, and grew, topping his extended trellis. They produced abundantly and were delicious. His short row of peas also produced over a kilo of seeds!
Peas were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent over 8,500 years ago, from a twining winter annual in Syria. Peas we eat today come from two species, the round (mostly grown for drying) and the wrinkly (most fresh-eating peas). 2,000 years ago, the Syrian pea crossed with a wild climbing pea from the eastern Mediterranean area. This “modern” pea spread across the much of Asia and Europe. A third species of pea was independently domesticated in Ethiopia. In Europe up until the seventeenth century, most peas were grown to be dried and stored for winter. Later, farmers developed peas for fresh eating. At the end of the nineteenth century, the USDA had recorded 408 varieties of peas grown commercially, but by 1983, 90% had been lost, and only 25 appear in the records. This threat to human survival is mirrored with all edible crops.
Mysteries and scandals abound. One tall pea tale involves seed reputedly grown from one live among three seeds taken from an Egyptian tomb. It was shown to be identical to a common Dwarf Branching Marrowfat pea. And yet the charlatan continued in business, selling to gullible gardeners. In 1861 the Royal Horticultural Society in London tested 235 varieties of peas, and found only 11 worthy of merit (but what were their criteria?)
One of the peas in Adam’s collection is named Avi Joan, and came from Catalonia. Over ten feet tall, covered with pods of sweet tasty peas, still good when mature. A truly local variety, with only one known grower, it could have died out, but now has many growers in the UK.
The other tales of seeds from the east cover fava beans from Syria, carrots from Afghanistan, becoming orange in Holland, leeks domesticated in Egypt and Mesopotamia at least 4,500 years ago, Greek krambé (leafy greens) 2,600 years ago, asparagus depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs in the third millennium BCE and growing wild (feral?) in Britain 2,000 years ago, lettuce domesticated eight thousand years ago perhaps in Kurdistan and Mesopotamia, and garlic originally from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The oldest garlic remains, dated to the fourth millennium BCE, were found in an Israeli cave near the Dead Sea.
After this Adam considers arrivals from the west. Excavations in Mexico have given us a timeline of South American ancestors transitioning from being hunter-gatherers to farming 12,000- 9,000 years ago, after the supply of game decreased, and pressure on gathered crops reduced availability. Many crops were introduced from outside the immediate area, including amaranth, maize, squash and chilies. About 3,000 years ago, almost all the diet was farmed. About 500 years ago, these foods reached the Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
At this point we must acknowledge that European colonizers violently displaced and killed most of the native people in North America and the Caribbean and brought in abducted and enslaved Africans. In the history of Europe, we mentioned invaders from one country to another, in much earlier days, in some cases thousands of years earlier. The past history of the human race was not all peaceful. Current events are not all peaceful. The flow of foods from one culture to another is generally a better aspect of ourselves.
Columbus, when returning to Spain from the Bahamas in 1493, brought maize, tobacco, sweet potatoes, chilies and two species of beans. Twenty years later, Cortés brought from Mexico avocadoes, pineapples, cocoa, squash, more bean species, tomatoes, cassava and potatoes. These crops from a small corner of southern Mexico have become embedded in European food culture.
Tomatoes are all descended from the wild tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium, indigenous to coastal Peru. “Common” beans, Phaseolus vulgaris originated in an area from Northern Mexico to Argentina, and were grown in Britain by 1597.
Identifying the wild ancestor of corn took scientists until the 1930’s, because the changes from teosinte to modern day maize are profound. Teosinte is a short weedy grass without any cob-like ears. It has a head consisting of about 12 kernels in two rows along a hard stem. It is now accepted that a single domestication event brought maize into the world. Domestication was a feat of impressive crop selection from genetically diverse teosinte enabling rapid mutations. The common idea that evolution takes centuries of gradual changes is not true. As if by magic, maize suddenly appeared at archeological sites. It didn’t take many generations of Neolithic plant breeding 10,000 or more years ago in the Balsas Valley in SW Mexico to open the way for breeding the 20,000 landraces of teosinte and maize that exist today.
The oldest evidence of lima beans is from 8,500 years ago, in Guitarrero Cave in Peru.
In northern Mexico and Puerto Rico the limas are the smaller more drought-resistant and heat-tolerant Sieva type. Ships returned to Europe and to Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Columbus’s time with lima beans to feed the crew. Portuguese ships from the fifteenth century on sailed round the Cape of Good Hope to southern India. The pallar types of Lima beans from northern Chile and Peru, probably crossed the Pacific to the colony in the Philippines, from the sixteenth century onwards. By the end of the eighteenth century, both types of lima beans were commonly found in China and India.
Lima beans do not grow outdoors in the British climate, but their close relative, runner beans, native to high elevations of Mexico and Central America, do very well. There is some evidence that they were domesticated by 4,000 BCE. They reached England around the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The next tale is of chili peppers (spelled chilli in the UK). What is the fascination with eating the hottest possible peppers? The earliest find of domesticated chilies is in a cave in the Tehuacán Valley in south-central Mexico, and dates from 5,000-6,000 BCE. Five species have been domesticated, starting 7,000 years ago in Mesoamerica. The species with the hottest peppers, C. chinense, is native to the Caribbean, the Yucatan and Central America, and includes the habanero, (there is no tilde over the n, no ny pronunciation – that is just English speakers trying too hard to sound foreign!), the Dragon’s Breath, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion and Scotch Bonnet, popular in Jamaica.
The Arawak people in the Bahamas were eating chilies when Columbus arrived in 1492 and they had arrived in Europe by 1542. Chilies traveled so fast that a Dutch botanist named the C. chinense species believing they came originally from China! People in India might not realize chili peppers came from Mexico! Chilies became such a big part of cuisine on the Indian subcontinent that every region now has its own special variety. Surprisingly, chilies did not reach North America until the Spanish brought them at the end of the sixteenth century.
Lastly we turn to the pumpkin and squash family (Cucurbita). Domestication of squash started 10,000 years ago in the Americas. Before Columbus brought back squashes from the Americas, white-flowered bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) were widely grown in the so-called “Old World” for the edible seeds and as containers, and sometimes the flesh was eaten (some was toxic). This led to confusion in names between the two incompatible genera.
Today we divide squash into 4 species. C. pepo is native to North America, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. Acorn squash and maxima squashes, such as those cultivated by the Algonquin, were valuable to the early colonizers who did not have ovens, but were able to bake hard-skinned squashes (emptied of seeds and refilled with milk and spices) in the fire ashes.
There are two types of C. moschata (native to Mesoamerica, probably northern Peru), the ones we know as Butternut squash, and the giant crooknecks, such as Tahitian Butternut, not to be confused with C. mixta Cushaw squashes (native to Florida). Many names were used for different subgroups of squashes, pumpkins, melons, gourds, cucumbers. Immature squash of many kinds have been consumed, and often called zucchini. Most canned pumpkin and commercial pumpkin pies are made from butternut squash.
C. maxima is probably a descendent of wild C. andreana, native to parts of Argentina and Uruguay, where it became one of the key crops of the Native Guarani people. 1,500-year-old whole squashes have been found in Salta, in the mountains of northwest Argentina. The Spanish brought C.maxima north, where it became a widespread part of the cuisine of Native Americans, and by the end of the sixteenth century, it was found across the European colonies there. C. maxima squashes reached Japan in the eighteenth century, where they were bred to make distinctive varieties and types like Kabocha and Kuri.
A fascination with growing giant pumpkins (or squash) has developed in the last 500 years. This is not about the food supply any more than the quest for the hottest chili is.
Today, desires for nutritional value, flavor and quality are moving public opinion away from the drive to more, bigger, better at any cost. That path led us to poor quality food without much flavor, that relied on pesticides rather than pest resistance or tolerance, fungicides rather than disease-resistance, and heavy inputs of chemical fertilizers to achieve the touted high yields.
Research and development on how to feed the planet with the climate in chaos, population growing and available land shrinking, is turning more towards cultivating biodiversity and valuing sustainable and traditional farming methods. It is important for the well-being of us all that we do not divide the people who are scraping together to buy the cheapest, mostly ultra-processed, unhealthy food, from the people who can afford to feed themselves organic, sustainably produced food. Small-scale diverse vegetable farming is capable of generating more income per acre than large-scale monocropping. Our task is to ensure food justice.
Diverse farming will give us resilience in the face of climate change. Collaboration between farmers in distributing their produce is a success for us all. Home gardeners providing food for their households are part of the bigger picture of feeding the world. I learned from Adam’s book that there are more than a million acres of gardens in the UK, which represents more than 8% of all land growing crops. Maintaining local varieties can produce high yields, and, again, give us resilience. Restoring and maintaining seed libraries of local varieties around the world will bring us more strength than being in thrall to agrochemical mega-businesses.
April 3, 2025
I enjoyed listening to this while puttering around with my garden seedlings. Lots of interesting plant history.
February 13, 2024
Some good and interesting information here but also some things I did not agree with. I may come back and edit my review when I check my notes.
April 10, 2023
Had me craving veggies, not as interesting as expected. I think it was because the histories are so confusing because botanical names were not consistent through time. Definitely has me taking a closer look at the seeds I choose to purchase and support.
February 4, 2024
I wish this book were what it’s title (and introduction) claims it will be.
That is, this puts itself forward as a collection of stories about someone who has adventures around seeds and cultivation – implicitly ‘mysteries’ – that he solves. Instead, it’s a series of mini-lectures or, perhaps better said, ‘enthusiasms’ – things we’re told as ‘fun facts’ or reported information.
In other words, there are almost no stories here, no mysteries or adventures that our author has solved.
Early on, he talks of going to a market in Eastern Europe where he finds an old woman selling heritage (or heirloom) vegetables that look striking to him. He buys them, and…that’s the story. He sets it up as an exemplar of his greatest adventures, but there’s nothing more to it than his buying some seeds. Later ‘adventures’ consist of his trading for seeds, or his getting seeds from seed banks, and from friends giving him seeds.
So, yeah, there are virtually none of the mysteries we’re promised, none of the stories that are implicitly supposed to be the sugar that helps the medicine of the history of seeds and cultivation go down.
On the other hand, there is a lot of good information here. It’s just told rather than shown.
And, as Alexander tells it, we get a sense of him as a plant nerd. I mean that sympathetically. He’s the sort of guy you sometimes find yourself next to on an airplane, someone who can talk for hours about things that fascinate him. And, while he can drone on, he also brings an energy that is infectious.
By way of grand example, he organizes this book by discussing seeds that come to us from Eurasia in part one and from the Americas in part two. It’s never clear why he does that; he just asserts that it’s an important distinction, and then he runs with it.
For that matter, he doesn’t really discuss the fundamentals of selective breeding. He refers to them often – I love his implying that countless generations of ancient farmers bred wild plants into the food we know – but he never takes time to explain that. And it’s a shame because a focused discussion of those axiomatic principles would help. They underpin everything here as much as would the missing adventures.
What does remain, drained of the stories and the axioms, is an energetic celebration of “veg’s,” a nerd’s delight in different kinds of food.
My favorite chapter is the one on tomatoes, in large part because I grow tomatoes from seed myself most years. As he talked, I found myself matching him in nerd energy, in an interest that few people share but that we recognize in each other.
In fact, I found myself wishing the tomato chapter were a whole book. Consider this: since tomatoes come from the Americas, they didn’t exist in Europe until the early 16th Century. It took barely a century for them to become synonymous with Italian cuisine. You can’t, after all, have tomato sauce without tomatoes.
And each Italian village developed its own favorite tomato cultivar, all the product of selective breeding in the new growing conditions of the Old World.
There’s good stuff, given to us almost randomly. As I read, I found myself appreciating an irony: my garden if a mess with weeds everywhere and few things in straight lines. Alexander’s garden may be well-planned, but his book has features like my garden – mostly a mess, but with some good eating sprinkled around it.
That is, this puts itself forward as a collection of stories about someone who has adventures around seeds and cultivation – implicitly ‘mysteries’ – that he solves. Instead, it’s a series of mini-lectures or, perhaps better said, ‘enthusiasms’ – things we’re told as ‘fun facts’ or reported information.
In other words, there are almost no stories here, no mysteries or adventures that our author has solved.
Early on, he talks of going to a market in Eastern Europe where he finds an old woman selling heritage (or heirloom) vegetables that look striking to him. He buys them, and…that’s the story. He sets it up as an exemplar of his greatest adventures, but there’s nothing more to it than his buying some seeds. Later ‘adventures’ consist of his trading for seeds, or his getting seeds from seed banks, and from friends giving him seeds.
So, yeah, there are virtually none of the mysteries we’re promised, none of the stories that are implicitly supposed to be the sugar that helps the medicine of the history of seeds and cultivation go down.
On the other hand, there is a lot of good information here. It’s just told rather than shown.
And, as Alexander tells it, we get a sense of him as a plant nerd. I mean that sympathetically. He’s the sort of guy you sometimes find yourself next to on an airplane, someone who can talk for hours about things that fascinate him. And, while he can drone on, he also brings an energy that is infectious.
By way of grand example, he organizes this book by discussing seeds that come to us from Eurasia in part one and from the Americas in part two. It’s never clear why he does that; he just asserts that it’s an important distinction, and then he runs with it.
For that matter, he doesn’t really discuss the fundamentals of selective breeding. He refers to them often – I love his implying that countless generations of ancient farmers bred wild plants into the food we know – but he never takes time to explain that. And it’s a shame because a focused discussion of those axiomatic principles would help. They underpin everything here as much as would the missing adventures.
What does remain, drained of the stories and the axioms, is an energetic celebration of “veg’s,” a nerd’s delight in different kinds of food.
My favorite chapter is the one on tomatoes, in large part because I grow tomatoes from seed myself most years. As he talked, I found myself matching him in nerd energy, in an interest that few people share but that we recognize in each other.
In fact, I found myself wishing the tomato chapter were a whole book. Consider this: since tomatoes come from the Americas, they didn’t exist in Europe until the early 16th Century. It took barely a century for them to become synonymous with Italian cuisine. You can’t, after all, have tomato sauce without tomatoes.
And each Italian village developed its own favorite tomato cultivar, all the product of selective breeding in the new growing conditions of the Old World.
There’s good stuff, given to us almost randomly. As I read, I found myself appreciating an irony: my garden if a mess with weeds everywhere and few things in straight lines. Alexander’s garden may be well-planned, but his book has features like my garden – mostly a mess, but with some good eating sprinkled around it.
October 1, 2022
My first concern when I started reading this book was that Alexander seemed to be haphazardly importing non-native varieties that could create issues into the UK. Thankfully, he isn't. He is thoughtful about what he grows and they're not plants that are likely to escape out of his garden into the wilderness of South Wales, and after all, haven't we all accidentally smuggled a few foraged seeds?
Peppers, tomatoes, corn, squashes and beans have been cultivated around the world for a very, very long time, and local varieties are more interesting, beautiful, flavourful and nutritious than the commercial varieties that are ubiquitous in supermarkets. If that wasn't enough, it's also a good idea to increase genetic variety to prevent another Gros Michel situation. If that sounds like something you'd like to read about, you'll like this one.
Further reading:
Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them
The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Peppers, tomatoes, corn, squashes and beans have been cultivated around the world for a very, very long time, and local varieties are more interesting, beautiful, flavourful and nutritious than the commercial varieties that are ubiquitous in supermarkets. If that wasn't enough, it's also a good idea to increase genetic variety to prevent another Gros Michel situation. If that sounds like something you'd like to read about, you'll like this one.
Further reading:
Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them
The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
November 5, 2022
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
The Seed Detective is a very well written and accessible history of 14 vegetables and fruits and how they came to be in their current forms in our culinary lives. Released 29th Sept 2022 by Chelsea Green Publishing, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
The author is a gifted storyteller and this could easily have been a dry-as-dust recitation with lots of facts and figures. It is emphatically anything but that. The story of food is the story of civilisation and tracing our interactions with the development of different kinds of crops from the first 8 "founder" crops developed and cultivated by our ancestors to our modern specialty brassicas and coloured sprouts.
There are chapter notes with annotations for further reading as well as an abbreviated glossary and index. There are no illustrations in the eARC sent for review, but in my opinion, they would've been superfluous to the text anyhow.
The historical tie-ins are varied, relevant, and educational (including the fact that favism could be the reason Pythagoras (yes, that one) actually died - which was a new one for me).
Four and a half stars. This would be a superlative selection for public or school library acquisition, gift giving, and for gardeners who enjoy natural history. It will make a nice break for long autumn evenings from the knee-high stack of glossy seed magazines dreaming of springtime.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The Seed Detective is a very well written and accessible history of 14 vegetables and fruits and how they came to be in their current forms in our culinary lives. Released 29th Sept 2022 by Chelsea Green Publishing, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
The author is a gifted storyteller and this could easily have been a dry-as-dust recitation with lots of facts and figures. It is emphatically anything but that. The story of food is the story of civilisation and tracing our interactions with the development of different kinds of crops from the first 8 "founder" crops developed and cultivated by our ancestors to our modern specialty brassicas and coloured sprouts.
There are chapter notes with annotations for further reading as well as an abbreviated glossary and index. There are no illustrations in the eARC sent for review, but in my opinion, they would've been superfluous to the text anyhow.
The historical tie-ins are varied, relevant, and educational (including the fact that favism could be the reason Pythagoras (yes, that one) actually died - which was a new one for me).
Four and a half stars. This would be a superlative selection for public or school library acquisition, gift giving, and for gardeners who enjoy natural history. It will make a nice break for long autumn evenings from the knee-high stack of glossy seed magazines dreaming of springtime.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
September 7, 2022
Adam Alexander has written an incredible book- not a phrase used lightly but worthy of such a statement. The Seed Detective explores the variety of vegetables around us ; exploring the origins of the plants and the development , variation and propagation of their seeds as they “ migrate “ around the planet over centuries of human movement and seed collecting. Mr Alexander is a seed collector and has travelled to the furthest corners of the planet in his desire to save and share seeds. His passion is really infectious and the stories he tells of the people he has met are a delight. As well as a book of facts and details, this is a book with a clear message - a call to arms- that WE the reader, consumer, gardener and plant lover need to be aware more than ever about the beauty of the everyday vegetable and the variety of types and flavours we are losing through the advancement of the global market and seed contamination and cross pollination. However this is not a book with negative tales of woe but a bright light being shone on these incredible plant species that humbly take a role in our everyday lives.
This is a a book to savour- no pun intended - but to be read slowly; this is a book to be devoured in several bites or one long feast … this is also a book to return to when a new growing season begins or throughout the year as plants reach that value point of ‘ going to seed ‘ A must for gardeners, environmentalists or anyone who cares deeply about what they eat and the world around them. this is an incredible tour de force and Adam Alexander needs to be given a heartfelt thank you for writing such an important and informative book
This is a a book to savour- no pun intended - but to be read slowly; this is a book to be devoured in several bites or one long feast … this is also a book to return to when a new growing season begins or throughout the year as plants reach that value point of ‘ going to seed ‘ A must for gardeners, environmentalists or anyone who cares deeply about what they eat and the world around them. this is an incredible tour de force and Adam Alexander needs to be given a heartfelt thank you for writing such an important and informative book
August 13, 2022
*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.
Alexander knows a lot about plants, particularly what it takes to collect and continue heirloom varieties from around the world (just reading about his setup I am very jealous). I, on the other hand, can't seem to start plants from seeds for anything. But that's ok, the more people explore this work, the more chance I have of picking up an heirloom plant at a farmer's market or other locales.
Separated into East and West, Alexander explores the heritage of well-known plants, not only narrating his own explorations but also digging into the history and origin of the plants as well. I appreciated that he sometimes went into obscure areas, as there are so many varieties of edible plants out there that people just don't know about due to the homogeneity of what we generally find in stores.
That being said, it could get dry at times, and there were certain sections I found myself skimming. While I largely enjoyed the information, some just seemed to be more detail for the sake of detail. But it was nice to see how tomatoes crossed the world (indeed it seemed like the largest chapter was dedicated to them), how many classifications of peppers there are (no it's not just hot and not-hot), and just where beans really originated. I wouldn't have minded a few recipes thrown in for how he uses some of his crops based on the way he described taste and function.
An interesting book, but definitely one for someone who is really into seeds, gardening, or food history.
Review by M. Reynard 2022
Alexander knows a lot about plants, particularly what it takes to collect and continue heirloom varieties from around the world (just reading about his setup I am very jealous). I, on the other hand, can't seem to start plants from seeds for anything. But that's ok, the more people explore this work, the more chance I have of picking up an heirloom plant at a farmer's market or other locales.
Separated into East and West, Alexander explores the heritage of well-known plants, not only narrating his own explorations but also digging into the history and origin of the plants as well. I appreciated that he sometimes went into obscure areas, as there are so many varieties of edible plants out there that people just don't know about due to the homogeneity of what we generally find in stores.
That being said, it could get dry at times, and there were certain sections I found myself skimming. While I largely enjoyed the information, some just seemed to be more detail for the sake of detail. But it was nice to see how tomatoes crossed the world (indeed it seemed like the largest chapter was dedicated to them), how many classifications of peppers there are (no it's not just hot and not-hot), and just where beans really originated. I wouldn't have minded a few recipes thrown in for how he uses some of his crops based on the way he described taste and function.
An interesting book, but definitely one for someone who is really into seeds, gardening, or food history.
Review by M. Reynard 2022
November 14, 2024
Fascinating look into the histories of most of the vegetables we eat. Recommended by the Slow Food Foundation, the book is divided into two main sections for those originating in the Old and New Worlds. It was also encouraging to learn about seed banks and efforts to save heirloom varieties. I think the book would have benefitted from illustrations, for example, depicting the evolution and diversity among specific vegetables. Overall, an enjoyable read for those interested in botany, cuisine, history and travel.
"The need for a long shelf life revolutionised lettuce cultivation, but in my humble opinion did nothing to improve the quality of our diet. Sadly, the modern iceberg, although ubiquitous in American food culture, is a tasteless addition to any sandwich, burger or salad. It is therefore with considerable relief that the Americans are finally seeing the error of their ways and turning to better fayre. Now, slightly more flavoursome, but still pretty disagreeable in my view, pre-packed, loose-leaf lettuce takes number one spot. It is also refreshing, both figuratively and literally, to see many traditional varieties as well as modern hybrids filling the salad aisles of the better-quality supermarket across the land. The ghastly iceberg, like its chilly namesake, is melting away, although a large, cold wedge drenched in sweet, thick dressing remains a staple of many Americans' diets." p133
"The need for a long shelf life revolutionised lettuce cultivation, but in my humble opinion did nothing to improve the quality of our diet. Sadly, the modern iceberg, although ubiquitous in American food culture, is a tasteless addition to any sandwich, burger or salad. It is therefore with considerable relief that the Americans are finally seeing the error of their ways and turning to better fayre. Now, slightly more flavoursome, but still pretty disagreeable in my view, pre-packed, loose-leaf lettuce takes number one spot. It is also refreshing, both figuratively and literally, to see many traditional varieties as well as modern hybrids filling the salad aisles of the better-quality supermarket across the land. The ghastly iceberg, like its chilly namesake, is melting away, although a large, cold wedge drenched in sweet, thick dressing remains a staple of many Americans' diets." p133
July 18, 2023
This book is really enthusaistic about the value of diverse varieties of open-pollinated vegetables. They are important for the world's food cultures, our connection with growing food and crop resilience. I found this inspirational.
The author also covers some history of many of the vegetables we are familiar with today. I found it interesting to think about the process of domestication and subsequent dispersal of crops around the world. However, I found these sections were sometimes not clearly structured, and when I read them carefully I found gaps or inconsistencies in the knowledge presented. I wouldn't use this as a text to learn the history, but the book does serve as a general introduction.
The historical information is interspersed with stories of the author's travels to collect seeds from around the world, and then grow them in his garden. For most readers, these probably serve as a reminder of how our growing and eating culture (speaking from the UK) is so different to that in many other places. While we have gained food security and availability of a wide range of vegetables year-round, many of us have lost any connection with how they can be grown year after year through seed-saving, and in much greater diversity than is suitable for mass production for supermarket customers.
This is an easy read and, although I think it could have done with more editing, I recommend it as an inspirational book.
The author also covers some history of many of the vegetables we are familiar with today. I found it interesting to think about the process of domestication and subsequent dispersal of crops around the world. However, I found these sections were sometimes not clearly structured, and when I read them carefully I found gaps or inconsistencies in the knowledge presented. I wouldn't use this as a text to learn the history, but the book does serve as a general introduction.
The historical information is interspersed with stories of the author's travels to collect seeds from around the world, and then grow them in his garden. For most readers, these probably serve as a reminder of how our growing and eating culture (speaking from the UK) is so different to that in many other places. While we have gained food security and availability of a wide range of vegetables year-round, many of us have lost any connection with how they can be grown year after year through seed-saving, and in much greater diversity than is suitable for mass production for supermarket customers.
This is an easy read and, although I think it could have done with more editing, I recommend it as an inspirational book.
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