About the Author
Wendy Kiang-Spray is a passionate gardener, garden speaker and writer whose articles and contributions have appeared in national publications and books. She volunteers with the DC Master Gardeners, speaks at many different venues from garden clubs to regional symposiums, and blogs at www.wendykiangspray.com about Asian vegetables and at www.greenishthumb.net about family and other garden projects. Wendy works by day as a high school counselor and gardens in zone 6, Maryland.
About The Chinese Kitchen Garden
Wendy Kiang-Spray’s family has a strong culinary and gardening tradition. In The Chinese Kitchen Garden, she beautifully blends the story of her family’s cultural heritage with growing information for 38 Chinese vegetables—like lotus root, garlic, chives, and eggplant—and 25 traditional recipes, like congee, dumplings, and bok choy stir-fry. Organized by season, you’ll learn what to grow in spring and what to cook in winter. Throughout, you’ll learn how to improve soil, make compost, sow seeds, and more.
The Chinese Kitchen Garden is now available for pre-order at any bookseller.
Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: Timber Press (February 8, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160469677X
ISBN-13: 978-1604696776
The Chinese Kitchen Garden is now available for pre-order at any bookseller.
Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: Timber Press (February 8, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160469677X
ISBN-13: 978-1604696776
Editorial Reviews
“Wendy Kiang-Spray brings together clear instructions, enticing recipes, and touching family tales in this delightful and approachable guide to Chinese kitchen gardening. Divided into seasonal sections, the book includes well-known Asian vegetables such as Napa cabbage and garlic chives, as well as less familiar treats like Malabar spinach and stem lettuce. This book made me long for a Chinese vegetable garden of my own!” —Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking and Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China
“The Chinese Kitchen Garden is Wendy Kiang-Spray’s family story—a daughter’s tribute, really—told through the lens of gardening and cooking. It’s also a superb guide, packed with tips and insights for growing Asian vegetables, including water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, lotus root and winter melon. An added bonus are some of her family’s favorite recipes. Beautiful photos of both Kiang-Spray’s and her father’s vegetable gardens will inspire cooks and growers alike that cultivating a garden—small or large—is a labor of love that bestows immeasurable rewards.” —Grace Young, James Beard Award-winning author of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge
“This amazing read brings to life the Chinese way of gardening and cooking. You’ll learn wonderful methods to implement in your own garden and kitchen.” —Jere Gettle, founder and co-owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
"What a beautiful, inviting book Wendy Kiang-Spray has given us. She welcomes us into her family’s garden, where three generations grow the traditional vegetables her parents remember tending as children in China. Arranged by season and filled with moving family stories, colorful images and notes on growing and cooking a rainbow of traditional vegetables, this book will delight gardeners, cooks, fans of culinary memoirs, and students of Asian cuisine.” —Nancie McDermott, author of numerous cookbooks including Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking
“The Chinese Kitchen Garden is not just about gardening or Chinese vegetables. Rather, this is a book about food and family, how food brings family together, how food can define a culture, a heritage, a sense of self, even a bridge to one’s heritage. Kiang-Spray weaves together memories of her childhood, stories of her parents’ lives, and reports of her own daughters’ shenanigans, welcoming us into her world, at once Chinese and American. . . . The Chinese Kitchen Garden is that rarest of non-fiction books: a reference built for pleasure reading.” —Andrew Weidman, blogger on GRIT
“Garden books and cookbooks are usually meant for dipping into as information is required; this book you may want to sit down and read right through, because it holds together so well as an integrated story of family, garden, and food.” — Erica Smith, for The Washington Gardener
More...
Food & Wine - 4 New Gardening Books for Spring
Cultivating Place: Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden - NSPR radio interview
London Evening Standard - 7 Best Chinese Cookbooks
Washington Gardener Magazine - Meet Wendy Kiang-Spray
Vermilion Roots - Getting to Know Asian Greens
Timber Press - Author Interview
Workman Publishing Blog
Cultivating Place: Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden - NSPR radio interview
London Evening Standard - 7 Best Chinese Cookbooks
Washington Gardener Magazine - Meet Wendy Kiang-Spray
Vermilion Roots - Getting to Know Asian Greens
Timber Press - Author Interview
Workman Publishing Blog
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