Why this book will send even armchair gardeners out into the garden – Orange County Register

“My staple go-to summer lettuce is the late-nineteenth century, French-bred Little Gem. It’s a cos type that also goes by other names. The Americans refer to it as having the crispness of a Romaine type and the sweetness of a butterhead.”

Thus enthuses Adam Alexander, an Englishman and author of “The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables” (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2022). He brings to our attention the fact that cos lettuce was discovered by the Romans on the Greek island of Cos. “Romaine, or Romaine lettuce, is the name the French gave to this group of lettuces when several popes moved from Rome to Avignon in the middle of the fourteenth century, bringing it with them to grow in the palace gardens.”

Seeds of Little Gem lettuce, also known as a mini Romaine lettuce, are highly accessible through online vendors. The Urban Farmer seed company (ufseeds.com) says it “can be served whole or as a miniature green Romaine. This lettuce produces tender green leaves with a blanched thick heart. Little Gem’s heads are about 4 inches across and are prime eating from 4-6 inches tall. The plants can be spaced 6 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches for maximum yields.”

Alexander’s mission in writing this volume is expressed in the forward to his book, penned by Tim Lang, a professor of food policy. “He wants to rescue them (vegetables) from the indignity of tastelessness. There are good and not so good, indeed downright poor veg. So Why not grow and eat the best tasting?  … One could think: What is the big deal about vegetables; they are simply plants that we eat. Well, this book will disabuse you of thinking like that, if you ever did. Plants are astonishing. Culinary vegetables perhaps even more so because they represent delicate, patient interaction of humans and plant life.”

Alexander confesses as follows: “Crammed into two fridges in the garage behind my study are jars and boxes filled with envelopes containing – at the time of writing – 499 varieties of vegetable seeds. . . I like to grow at least 70 different varieties each year: firstly, because I just love eating them and, secondly, to refresh and replenish my seed stock.” The fact that he collects the seeds from his vegetables to “refresh” his stock demonstrates that they are heirloom, open-pollinated varieties; the seeds he collects, once grown, will yield vegetables whose glorious taste replicates that of the tomato, carrot, or bean crop that produced those same seeds.

Alexander’s journey into seed collecting began in a farmer’s market in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 1988. “It was there that I met the figure who would become the most important person in my seed-hunting life,” he recalls, “and, from then on, I would always seek out such an individual when scouring food markets around the world because what she had on her stall was invariably delicious, precious, and unique. Wherever I was, she would come in the form of what is, I think, a character familiar to most: an ‘ideal granny’ type, usually of diminutive height, but always a powerful presence.

“This remarkable and wonderful breed of grower is to be found in markets worldwide, selling vegetables and fruits she has been cultivating for years. And because she has little money, buying expensive seed from a merchant is unthinkable. She saves seeds from her crops, which may well have been grown on her small plot of land for generations. From time to time, among those prosaic vegetables are some culinary gems, and so it was in Donetsk, where I made my first discovery. A tennis-ball-sized sweet pepper with a fiery heart. Multi-lobed and as red as a movie star’s lips, this simple fruit, Capsicum annuum, literally changed my life.