History of the vegetable garden

0,00 €

TopicGarden & Nature

AuthorFlorent Quellier

PublisherDunod

From the medieval courtil to the workers’ garden, via the aristocratic fruit garden of the Ancien Régime, this book traces the long history of the vegetable garden in the West.
It is a history of plants, that of cabbages, peas and beans, the “pot” vegetables of the modest peasant garden; that of early vegetables, the guarantee of social excellence for aristocrats and bourgeois. A history of know-how and techniques, that of the acclimatisation and selection of plants from Europe and elsewhere. A social and political history, that of an everyday garden which reflects the food fears of a population in the grip of crises and conflicts; that of a skilfully designed garden which, like the King’s Kitchen Garden in Versailles, had to take on the glittering attributes of modernity; and finally that of the invention of a popular leisure activity. From the humble peasant or worker’s garden, to the noble fruit garden of the elite, to the discreet monastic or priest’s garden, the vegetable garden has had many faces over the ages, simultaneously a matter of prestige for the powerful and survival for the weak. There is no doubt that the vegetable garden, cleared and turned upside down by the historian Florent Quellier, has a lot to tell us…

Florent Quellier holds the CNRS Chair in the History of Food in the Modern World and is a lecturer at the François-Rabelais University in Tours. He has notably published Des fruits et des hommes. L’arboriculture fruitière en Île-de-France, 1600-1800 (2003), awarded in 2003 by the Académie des sciences morales, des lettres et des arts de Versailles et d’Île-de-France, and Gourmandise, histoire d’un péché capital (2010), Prix Jean Trémolières 2010.

“There’s a book I’d like to recommend to all those who listen to us, it’s brilliant.” Europe 1

“A beautiful book, a little marvel, it’s very intelligent, it’s the only book that really tells the story of the vegetable garden.” RMC