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About Wendy Kiang-SprayI'm a passionate gardener, garden speaker and writer whose articles and contributions have appeared in national publications and books. On weekdays, I'm a high school counselor and at other times, I volunteer with the DC Master Gardeners, speak at many different venues from garden clubs to regional symposiums, and blog here about Asian vegetables and at my blog Greenish Thumb about family and other garden projects. In my spare time, I tend my garden in zone 6, Maryland.
The Chinese Kitchen Garden is my first book and is an amalgamation of all my loves: family, cultural stories, gardening, heritage vegetables, and cooking. Through writing this book, I've also found a way to record and share with you many of my favorite recipes from my mom's weeknight stir-fry, to her spicy Sichuan peppercorn quick pickles, to one of my favorite taro and coconut desserts. |
About the Dedication to Wan Lan Wong |
I did not know my grandmother, Wan Lan Wong, as she died shortly before I was born. Here's all I did know, caught as a kid by eves-dropping on adult conversations: My grandmother was a clever, practical and extremely formidable woman. She also lived a very harsh life raising my father and uncle on her own in a rural village in Shandong. While I longed to learn more about my father's life in China, and especially about my grandmother, whom I felt was a kindred spirit, I knew not to ask my father any questions, as his past was a very painful one. As an adult, when I began gardening in earnest, my father and I were sitting outside one spring evening, quietly cutting the hearts out of a large bamboo shoot harvest. To break the silence, I asked my father about the Napa cabbages I planned to grow in the fall. I was excited to find that the telling of how to grow cabbages led to the telling of how he grew them in China when he was a boy, which led to small, manageable tellings of stories about Shandong and my grandmother. I learned that although the past is too difficult to talk about outright, learning about vegetables was the vehicle to put together the pieces of history I needed to have. While I did not know my grandmother, I have always longed to, and I know her spirit runs through this book. It certainly inspired it.
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About the Photography |
While I have been thrilled to be able to include some of my own photography in The Chinese Kitchen Garden, most of the photography in the book as well as on this website is credited to Sarah Culver. Sarah's skill and artistry bring The Chinese Kitchen Garden to life, making every vegetable in the garden or in the kitchen a true work of art.
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