It is one thing to produce tomatoes or pumpkins - or any other fruit or vegetable for pleasure, or for the table, as it comes into season, but it becomes another when you realise that most crops in the garden arrive in gluts with no more to be had for another year - unless you do something about it. This book is about how to make the best use of your home-grown produce. The first part begins in the garden, showing you how to achieve a more continuous crop as well as how to extend your harvest. Then Bob steps into the kitchen to show you the best way to preserve and cook your crop by bottling, drying, jamming, smoking as well as how best to store. Bob uses his intimate and comprehensive knowledge of each crop to advise you on how best to treat them - how, for example, the natural sweetness and acidity of fruit means that you retain more moisture when drying them than vegetables as well as tips on how to maximising flavour, for instance, by rehydrating pulses in herb-flavoured water.