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The Seed Savers Handbook: 60,000 Sold Worldwide

Help Seed Savers to keep going. Order The Seed Savers' Handbook here.

8th Print run of original version. 30 000 sold.

The Seed Savers' Handbook has been adapted and translated into five languages:

1. Italian version, 2005

2. Japanese edition, 2002, copies in over 900 public libraries

3. UK version with additions for colder climate vegetables 1996 (now out of print).

4. Macedonian short version of the Handbook (1999)

5. Abbreviated translation of the Handbook in Basque (1999)

Community Seed Saving Book for the Pacific

Clearly written by one of our former interns, and beautifully illustrated, this 70 page book is a practical guide for saving seeds in the villages of the Pacific. We provide it as a pdf here as it is out of print.

Seed Savers Handbook Translation Into Macedonian

This is a pdf of an abbreviated translation done by the Bulgarian Seed Savers. If you have any comments please email michel@seedsavers.net. We are working in the Balkans over the next few years and would love to make contacts.

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Seed Savers' Handbook

This is a complete reference for growing, preparing and conserving 117 traditional varieties of food plants. Written especially for Australian and New Zealand conditions in 1993 by

Michel and Jude Fanton, founders of The Seed Savers' Network.

The Seed Savers' Handbook has 180 pages with stunning original illustrations. Translations into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Bulgarian and Macedonian. 45,000 sold worldwide.

Order the Handbook on-line now.

Buy the Book

Here is an extract from our best-selling "The Seed Savers' Handbook". The full version also has cultivation, propagation, seed saving, variety notes and culinary and medicinal uses for each of 117 edible plants.

You can own a full version copy of the handbook by clicking here.

ENDIVE

Endive has two basic forms: frilly, which has white, yellow and green leaves, and scarole which has puckered leaves like Mignonette lettuce. Endive can be confused with chicory (Cichorium intybus).

Plant Names

Botanical Family:

ASTERACEAE

Common Name:

ENDIVE

Genus:

Cichorium

Species:

endivia

About the Name:

cichorium is derived from the Arabic for chicory.

Origins:

Endive seems to have developed from wild chicory around the Mediterranean, the Caucasus mountains and Turkestan, but its common ancient name, in tongues from Europe right through to Siberia, suggests that it was domesticated simultaneously in many cultures in Central Asia.

Plant Description:

Endive has two basic forms: frilly, which has white, yellow and green leaves, and scarole which has puckered leaves like Mignonette lettuce. Endive can be confused with chicory (Cichorium intybus).

Variety Notes:

Golden Heart, Large Pancarlier, Staghorn, White Moss, Batavia, Hooded Winter, Italian. For summer and autumn choose the Green Curly endive. Most of these varieties have very decorative leaves. Bianca Riccia da Taglio is specially suited as a plucking green, reputedly lasting all year round.

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