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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.

LEEK

Leeks look like fat spring onions with flat leaves. There are two forms: those propagated by seeds and those by offsets, which are known as multiplier leeks. The Levant or Elephant Garlic belongs here botanically, but only its swollen base is used. It is usually propagated by replanting the cloves.

Plant Names

Botanical Family:

AMARYLLIDACEAE

Common Name:

LEEK

Genus:

Allium

Species:

ampeloprasum porrum

About the Name:

allium is Latin for garlic; prason is simply the Greek for leek.

Origins:

Native to Europe and western Asia, having been cultivated since ancient times

Plant Description:

Variety Notes:

Old named varieties include Scotch Flag, Cannell's Mammoth, and Eel-head leek with its pale grey leaves. The multiplier leek is late to go to seed, therefore producing for longer, and has the advantage of being a perennial in the garden.

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