Many of you may not know that Gesang Suolang (Margaret Park Esterman) was an avid Gardner and inventor. She actually received patents for some of her inventions. However, I think that one of the greatest gifts she left us was the system of gardening she devised that enabled her to grow much of the food her family enjoyed every year from her very small garden and the book she wrote on More Food from Small Spaces. I don’t believed she patented any of her innovations and creative solutions to the problems of urban agriculture and eating better for less, but her family certainly ate very well.
Gesang’s husband, Mark Esterman, tells me you can order the printed book shown in the above YouTube video at https://www.greatriverbooks.com/MoreFoodFromSmallSpacesPage.html. There is a discounted ebook version available from that website. There are also more videos on a youtube channel she created: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sEJBZXAlotHD6tBigl_5g. Enjoy!
I asked Mark what percentage of their food came from this garden. He said, “I don’t remember ever figuring that out, or what number Margaret might have told you, but with her extraordinary skills and knowledge of what to plant when, it seems to me that from early Spring through late Fall we were always eating vegetables from the garden, and whatever was in season was always in abundance. Actually, more than the two of us could consume, and there was plenty to give away. The few vegetables we didn’t grow, like potatoes (cheaper to buy) and corn (took up too much space) and perhaps some others we either occasionally bought or didn’t miss.” Add the perennial rhubarb plants and asparagus and maybe a couple of dwarf fruit trees and some herbs like mint, dill, cilantro, chives, basil, safe, thyme, oregano, etc and you have all you need for some very good eating.
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