Books on food forests

A selection of reference books that feed our work on food forests and forest gardens. You can get them for your own library — or gift us one for ours.

Breeding Hardy Passion Fruit

Developing new passion fruit varieties for temperate climates in Europe — Raphael Maier

This book takes on what’s described as “one of the holy grails of passionflower breeding”: creating a robust, highly productive cultivar with attractive flowers and tasty fruit, suited to cultivation in temperate European conditions — potentially even as an annual or in a pot. In his foreword, Myles Stewart Irvine highlights work that’s “meticulously documented, pulling together information from many sources in a way that hasn’t been done before.” It’s aimed not at commercial growers but at home gardeners and European Passiflora enthusiasts looking to get started with growing their own.

Where to find it: Amazon — this one is already in English, published for exactly this audience.

Le Nashi

A book dedicated to the nashi (Asian pear). French-language only.

Reference: ISBN 978-2-901002-44-4

Maladies et ravageurs des arbres et arbustes d’ornement

A guide to identifying and understanding diseases and pests of ornamental trees and shrubs. French-language only.

Reference: ISBN 978-2-84138-045-9 — available second-hand.