Grow For Flavor: Tips and Tricks to Supercharge the Flavor of Homegrown Harvests

I'm conflicted on how many stars to give this book. On the one hand, the content is very good. James Wong has done a lot of research and the information is some I have never heard before. On the other hand, the font is very tiny and there are some places where it looks like the ink is about gone; you can hardly see the print - and I am not exaggerating! You need a very bright light and a magnifying glass to read it. I'm wondering if I just got a bad copy, or if they're all like this. I am going to write to the publisher.

I freaking love this book. I'm a rookie gardener, and I loved the author's take on the different fruit & veg growing techniques! I constantly go back and reference this book. I feel really confident that the author knows his stuff, as he's a botanist, and bases everything off of science and studies in addition to his personal growing experiences! And as an added bonus, the photography is DIVINE and it makes you want to grow ALL THE THINGS! 100000% recommend!

The sheer range of vegetables and edible plants that are covered in this book is amazing. I will never grow many of the varieties that James mentions, but I know where to go to find out what new variety to try when I want to venture out. The research that backs up the book is wonderful, both in terms of the scientific papers that are the basis of James’ information, and James’ own taste trials. This is a resource I will keep handy (on my phone) to refer to often. So fascinating for a novice backyard wanna be gardener.

This book will pay for itself with the advice on which varieties to choose alone. Wong has done all the work by sampling thousands of varieties of garden vegetables and picked out the best of the best. What an overdue insight: that grocery store varieties and commercial growing methods are picked for their benefit and not ours - the best for bumper crops and storage perhaps, but here Wong guides us towards the best for eating. He includes a list of suppliers as well to help us track down (as he calls it) "the weird and wonderful". From now on I'll definitely garden the "Wong" way!

This book is amazing!!! A beautiful assortment of delicious varieties of fruits and vegetables are recommended. I'll be ordering pretty much all my seeds based on his enticing descriptions. The hardest part will be narrowing down the list. There is also some excellent and unusual gardening advice which is backed up by scientific trials. You can't go wrong with this book. Also makes a great gift for the seasoned gardener. I bought one for my Mom. Thank you Mr. Wong!!!

I bought this book in January of 2019 and have loved it as a reference to refresh on garden edibles as well as for many useful tips! The illustrations are very useful and help the reader in many ways including pruning. This is a fantastic resource for anyone just getting into edible gardening or even those that have been experienced in Horticulture for many years like myself. I love being in a growth mindset and I love refreshing/updating my knowledge palette in the realm of plants and nature. Awesome book!

Stellar book with a lot of information on specific varieties of plants as well as techniques on growing that maximize both nutrition as well as flavor. I read this back to back with his book Home Grown Revolution and found both to be interesting to read with more detailed information on what to grow as well as techniques than I could absorb in a single or even a handful of readings. These books are going to be true reference books that I refer back to time and again.

His book has made me go back to the garden and plant more yummy things. Great book!

I must admit I wasn't sure about whether I would find this book interesting but a flash sale on Amazon delivered it to my kindle app for the princely sum of 99p so I figured there wasn't much to lose! In fact it is really useful and packed with useful information. I have quite a number of 'grow your own' type books but what distinguishes this one is the scientific explanation for particular recommendations and tips. It has some truly inspirational ideas yet all delivered in a very readable and straightforward style. Having read it on the Kindle app on my tablet, I am now about to buy the hard copy.

I only bought this because it was on a very special offer(!)However it is rammed, jam-packed, full to the brim, bursting with all sorts of interesting titbits about food growing that you will find it hard to put down the first time you open it.With Wong, you get the sense that he doesn't just spout out 'gardening hacks' like so many sites on the internet, but actually *knows the science* behind what he writes. He is certainly not afraid of busting a few gardening myths here. Nor is he shy about encouraging people to try new techniques that scientists have been trying out too.I have used the tips when growing my strawberries and I will certainly try out infusing water with honeysuckle flowers.Hats off to the designers too. It's colourful yet easy to read and I would proudly leave this out on the coffee table.In short, even if I had to pay full price, it would have been worth it.

Once you start reading this book, all that you previously learned shifts a gear and you just have to rethink the ways that you learned in your youth. I have been using James Wong's methods this (very trying ) summer and it seems to work. Yes, the tomatoes are smaller but the flavour just about blows your socks off! After this growing season and before I order seeds I shall look through this book and his unusual food crop book ( Homegrown Revolution) and perhaps launch myself on a brand new style of allotmenting

I have studies horticulture, so am familiar with RHS vegetable growing books, which are exceptionally comprehensive but not exactly an exciting read! This on the other hand has me pretty excited! It is uses science with the lightest of touch to explain how to grow crops that should not only taste better but contain more of the good stuff. This makes is fully accessible for scientists and non-scientists alike. So, if you don't know what an antioxidant is, it doesn't really matter, you can choose the right cultivars and grow them according to James Wong's instructions and be assured that there is science backing the methods used, rather than anecdotes. For me, I wouldn't want this to be my only veg book, as there are lots of aspects of vegetable growing that is not covered, (the less exciting but necessary stuff, such as building crops supports, pest and diseases, crop rotation etc) but as a companion to a traditional style of book, this would make the perfect partner!

This book has taught me so much in regard to improving my gardening so as to get better yields. This is my second year of looking after an allotment and I am always searching for information towards improvement. This book shows that gardening doesn't have to be complicated. One just has to be determined and always ready to learn. The author's passion is contagious. I've caught the bug!