Showing titles in Agricultural & Food Sciences

Brought to you by Penguin. A raucous, behind-the-scenes account of the year Blur got back together There is nothing that can touch the sound made by a close-knit group of people who have been playing together for years and years and years, playing as though their lives depended on it. For many...

‘A must read for all wildlife lovers’ Dominic Dyer Foxes, buzzards, crows, badgers, weasels, seals, kites – Britain and Ireland’s predators are impressive and diverse and they capture our collective imagination. But many consider them to our competition, even our enemies. The problem is...

Dirt Rich Living: From Corporate Cubicles to Udder Chaos is the brutally honest, often hilarious story of starting over the hard way. With no manual, no backup plan, and no clue what he’s doing, Morgan shares the flubs, the breakthroughs, and the grace that comes from betting big on yourself.

This fascinating yet disquieting audiobook finds that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are, and have long been, using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations.

Brought to you by Penguin. ‘The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The twenty-first will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power.’ This landmark work of reportage exposed how a handful of...

Cannabis for Dummies presents the science behind the use of this amazingly therapeutic plant. In this book, you'll find the hands-on knowledge and education you need to make an informed decision about your cannabis purchase, as a patient and a consumer.

Brought to you by Penguin. How does Britain get its food? Why is our current system at breaking point? How can we fix it before it is too late? British food has changed remarkably in the last half century. As we have become wealthier and more discerning, our food has Europeanized (pizza is...

Winner of the James Beard Award for Literary Writing "Engrossing...hard to put down." — The New York Times Book Review “Frostbite is a perfectly executed cold fusion of science, history, and literary verve . . . as a fellow nonfiction writer, I bow down. This is how it's done.” — Mary...

Framed by the author’s personal experience with backyard hens, Chickens: Their Natural and Unnatural Histories explores the history of the chicken from its descent from the dinosaurs to the space-age present. En route, Lembke surveys chickens in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 19th century, and modern times, including the role of chickens in Jewish and Muslim practices. She also investigates the birds’ contributions to science and their jaunty appearances in literature.

Brigit Strawbridge Howard was shocked the day she realized she knew more about the French Revolution than she did about her native trees. And birds. And wildflowers. And bees. The thought stopped her — quite literally — in her tracks. But that day was also the start of a journey, one filled with silver birches and hairy-footed flower bees, skylarks, and rosebay willow herb, and the joy that comes with deepening one’s relationship with place.

Penguin Audio presents The Plant Messiah by Carlos Magdalena, read by Roy McMillan. Carlos Magdalena of Kew Gardens is not your average botanical horticulturist. He's a man on a mission to save the world's most endangered plants from ecological destruction and thieves hunting for wealthy collectors. He is a plant messiah. From the planet's tiniest waterlily - the Nymphaea thermarum - to Huarango trees with roots over 50 metres long, Carlos has a miraculous ability to bring breathtakingly beautiful plants back from the brink of extinction.

In his first all-new book in 15 years, Eliot Coleman returns organic farming to its ethical roots, exploring the very soul of organic growing. In The Self-Fed Farm and Garden, he presents the organic method as a self-sustaining system rooted in soil health care and shows listeners how they can shift to a self-fed model that continually recharges the soil with organic matter, thus allowing the soil food web to provide all the nutrients crops need for healthy growth and excellent yields.

This book will appeal to foodies & those who are deprived of cookbooks in the audio format. Molecular Gastronomy documents the sensory phenomena of eating and uses basic physics to put to bed many culinary myths. This audiobook presents pieces conventional wisdom - such as whether it is better to make a stock by placing meat in already boiling water, or water before it is boiled - and gives its history before making scientific pronouncements.

AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag and the National Book Award finalist Iron Curtain, a revelatory history of one of Stalin's greatest crimes—the consequences of which still resonate today In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural...

'A moving, vulnerable portrait of love, nature and a life well-lived' RORY STEWART 'Touching and extraordinary, this true story seems like a fairy tale' JOANNA LUMLEY 'Tender and inspiring... Deeply moving and quietly radical.' HELEN REBANKS The long-awaited memoir of life and love on a Devon...

After a chance meeting in the pub, Roger Morgan-Grenville and his friend Duncan decide to take up beekeeping. Their enthusiasm matched only by their ignorance, they are pitched into an arcane world of unexpected challenges. Coping with many setbacks along the way, they manage to create a colony of beehives, finishing two years later with more honey than anyone knows what to do with. By standing back from their normal lives and working with the cycle of the seasons, they emerge with a new-found understanding of nature and a respect for the honeybee and the threats it faces.

Picking up where she left off in Where the Blind Horse Sings, Kathy Stevens regales us with more tales of the rescued animals at Catskill Animal Sanctuary (CAS), some touching, some hilarious, all provocative. We meet Barbie, the broiler hen found hiding under a blue Honda in Brooklyn who falls for the animal ambassador Rambo, a ram with an uncanny sense of what others need. Then there’s Norma Rae, the turkey rescued from a "turkey bowl" just before Thanksgiving.

Bees are like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and, for the most part, unseen. While we might overlook them, they lie at the heart of relationships that bind the human and natural worlds. In Buzz, the beloved Thor Hanson takes us on a journey that begins 125 million years ago, when a wasp first dared to feed pollen to its young. From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing.

Have you already bought property and tried to make a living from your off-grid lifestyle? Whether you already have experience or you are looking to learn the basics to live off-grid, this audiobook offers more than 50 ways to become a successful off-grid dweller. You’ll learn how to live off-grid without sacrificing the things you love. You will feel closer to your family and to the land, where you know you are doing your part to reduce climate change and help to create a more sustainable life.

Since his early days of plant restoration, amateur plant scientist Matt Candeias has been enchanted with flora and the greater environmental ecology of the planet. Now, he looks at the study of plants through the lens of his ever-growing houseplant collection.