“After reading Adam’s book, I won’t look at a handful of seed the same way again!”-Joe Swift, garden designer; writer; presenter, BBC’s Gardeners’ World

Across the world, chefs, farmers, plant scientists and backyard growers are doing something extraordinary: creating new generations of fruit, vegetables and cereals, all bred specifically to flourish locally, taste delicious, and contribute to our food future.

In The Accidental Seed Heroes, Adam Alexander dons his seed detective homburg to meet these twenty-first century seed heroes, who are not only championing traditional varieties but also breeding delicious new ones that will help create a sustainable future for our planet.

We don’t all need to become backyard breeders or even, like Adam, accidental ones. We don’t even need to eschew, as growers, the modern hybrid cultivars our seed catalogues are stuffed with or, as consumers, boycott those same uninspiring specimens that populate our supermarket shelves. Adam just wants that choice to be better informed and infinitely more diverse and enjoyable.

This story is a celebration of the locally and sustainably grown produce, whether traditional or innovative, that is at the heart of all our food cultures and empowers our rural communities and farmers. Adam believes these new varieties of fruits, vegetables and even grains will not just offer us all nutritious and delicious food but also be part of the solution to combating climate change and returning fertility to our soils and biodiversity to our land.

In The Resilient Garden and Allotment Handbook, expert organic gardener Sally Morgan shares a wide range of ecological concepts from permaculture, regenerative gardening, agroecology and more to boost your garden’s biodiversity and enrich your soil. This must-have guide will help you:

• Build your soil so it’s full of healthy organic matter and protect it through no-dig practices,  composting, cover crops and mulching
• Increase resilience through productive plant combinations and polyculture
• Create wildlife-friendly habitats utilising walls and fences, log piles, water features and wild corners
• Choose the right plants to  attract pollinators  and plant defenders
• Combat disease and keep pests at bay  using natural predators, companion planting and trap and barrier crops

PLUS

• The importance of collecting genetically diverse seeds from plants that have adapted to local conditions
• Sustainably manage water in your garden, especially in times of drought or excessive rainfall

Whether you’re a passionate gardener, allotment holder or grower, The Resilient Garden and Allotment Handbook will help you future-proof your garden by giving it everything it needs to adapt and succeed, whatever the climate challenge.

(Previously published as The Healthy Vegetable Garden, now updated and revised)

‘A must-read for anyone who wants to know how to grow their own zero-food miles, pesticide-free veg, while treading gently upon our planet.’  Dave Goulson, author of The Garden Jungle and Silent Earth

 ‘This book could not be better timed, and given Sally’s lifetime experience of organic gardening, it’s bound to inspire all those who want to ‘grow back better’.’ Helen Browning, Chief Executive, Soil Association

Wrap up warm and retreat to the wintry countryside with farmer and Countryfile presenter Adam Henson, as he recounts his Christmas memories tending to an assorted cast of animals, and celebrates the farmers who make our celebrations possible.

Adam Henson has spent his whole life on Bemborough farm – over 50 winters and Christmases. During that time, the troughs have frozen over, snow has fallen so thickly riding shire horses out to the fields has been the only option, puppies have been found under the Christmas tree – and crises out in the world have almost brought the farm to a close…

Christmas for a farmer takes a different shape to everyone else’s, because the animals always have to come first. So settle down – ideally by a fireside and with a cup of something hot – to hear the tales that have defined festivity for the Henson family, and the turbulent times that have ensured Christmas is now more important than ever for Adam and his loved ones.

Heart-warming and full of Christmas spirit, Christmas on the Farm will give you a new respect for the people who work on them.

A portrait of life at Helen Rebanks’ Lake District farmhouse that beautifully captures the unsung work of keeping a home and raising a family.

As dawn breaks on the farm, Helen Rebanks makes a mug of tea, relishing the few minutes of quiet before the house stirs. Within the hour the sounds of her husband, James, and their four children will fill the kitchen. There are also six sheepdogs, two ponies, 20 chickens, 50 cattle and 500 sheep to care for. Helen is a farmer’s wife. Hers is a story that is rarely told, despite being one we think we know.

Weaving past and present, Helen shares the days that have shaped her. This is the truth of those days: from steering the family through the Beast from the East and the local authority planning committee, to finding the quiet strength to keep going, when supper is yet to be started, another delivery man has assumed he needs to speak to the ‘man of the house’, and she would rather punch a cushion than plump it.

This beautifully-illustrated memoir, which takes place across one day at the farm, offers a chance to think about where our food comes from and who puts it on the table. Helen’s recipes, lists and gentle wisdom helps us to get through our days, whatever they throw at us.

Readers love The Farmer’s Wife

‘Lovely. . . the book equivalent of getting up before everyone else to enjoy the silence of the day.’
‘Evocative and thought-provoking. . . a beautiful, lyrical read that gives voice to the ‘pushes and pulls’ of everyday life.’
‘A beautifully written manifesto for the life she’s chosen to lead’
‘A beacon of light. . . I’ve never read a memoir quite like this.’

Organised seasonally, each conversation is paired with a selection of recipes, carefully created by chefs in response to the ideas discussed. Themes explored include gut health, rewilding, mushrooms, farming, microbes, soil, fasting, sleep and mental health.

Among the recipe and conversation pairings, Harry Boglione’s discussion of regenerative farming is followed by Jeremy Lee’s foraged dishes, Isabella Tree and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are paired on the theme of rewilding, Rachel de Thample’s fermented recipes respond to Dr Alanna Collen’s discussion of microbes, Simon Rogan’s mushroom recipes are inspired by Merlin Sheldrake’s passion for fungi and following Charlie Morley’s interview on lucid dreaming are Skye Gyngell’s recipes, all designed to enable good sleep.

Everybody thinks they know what sheep are like: they’re stupid, noisy, cowardly (‘lambs to the slaughter’), and they’re ‘sheepwrecking’ the environment.

Or maybe not. Contrary to popular prejudice, sheep are among the smartest animals in the farmyard, fiercely loyal, forming long and lasting friendships. Sheep, farmed properly, are boons to biodiversity. They also happen to taste good and their fleeces warm us through the winter – indeed, John Lewis-Stempel’s family supplied the wool for Queen Elizabeth’s ‘hose’.

Observing the traditional shepherd’s calendar, The Sheep’s Tale is a loving biography of ewes, lambs, and rams through the seasons. Lewis-Stempel tends to his flock with deep-rooted wisdom, ethical consideration, affection, and humour. This book is a tribute to all the sheep he has reared and sheared – from gregarious Action Ram to sweet Maid Marion. In his inimitable style, he shares the tales that only a shepherd can tell.