From Seed to Skillet

From Seed to Skillet

By Jimmy WIlliams & Susan Heeger

A Guide to Growing, Tending, Harvesting, and Cooking Up Fresh, Healthy Food to Share with People You Love

About the Authors

Urban farmer and landscape designer Jimmy Williams grew up in a family of 12 children in eastern Long Island, NY. He learned to garden from his Gullah grandmother Eloise, a descendant of Caribbean slaves who believed that working the soil fed the soul as well as the body.

After his first career as a New York sportswear designer, Williams moved to California in the 1980s and planted his own garden in the spirit of hers. This tiny city lot quickly spawned an heirloom seedling business and then a design operation that sidelined sportswear forever. These days, when he’s not overseeing his growing grounds or planting edible gardens for clients, Williams, along with his son Logan, dispenses cultivation and cooking tips, plus vegetable, herb, and fruit seedlings, at three Los Angeles farmersâ€™ markets.

Susan Heeger, a California native and graduate of Harvard University, is a longtime magazine and newspaper feature writer with a specialty in garden, design, home, lifestyle, and food stories. A contributing editor for Coastal Living and Martha Stewart Living, where she served as staff writer for several years.

She also co-wrote The Gardens of California, which was published by Clarkson Potter. She has written extensively on edible gardening for publications ranging from The Los Angeles Times Magazine to Country Living and Whole Living. With the support of their son Simon, she and her husband Rob Steiner, a landscape architect, grow their own vegetables year-round in Los Angeles.

Testimonials

As Americans head back to the kitchen garden in record numbers, they soon find themselves in need of a guiding hand and a trusted coach. Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger are as fine a coaching team as a vegetable gardener could wish for. Steeped in their long experience and deep horticultural knowledge, From Seed to Skillet contains everything the kitchen gardener needs to make the transit from vague dream to bountiful harvest and delicious meal. Not only that, it’s a beautiful and beautifully written book— certain to delight as much as it will instruct.

– Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma

This volume simply and straightforwardly demystifies vegetable gardening. You don’t need immense amounts of equipment,
or space, or expertise to get started.
Don’t read it if you want an excuse not to garden—
by the time you’re done, you won’t have any