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Asian roots: farming, gardening, cooking

Celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Pick up a "Grab and Grow" kit at any OPL location in May 2022 (while supplies last), which includes free seeds (Chinese parsley, perilla, Thai basil, mizuna), a pamphlet with growing instructions, recipes and cultural information. Browse this list for books, videos, and websites to help you grow, cook, and celebrate the contributions of Asians on agriculture and food in California and the world.

50 items

  • Nothing Left in My Hands

    the Issei of a Rural California Town, 1900-1942

    Nakane, Kazuko
    An account of the first-generation Japanese immigrants who came to the Pajaro Valley of central California in the early 1900s, where they were key contributors to the development of the region's strawberry farming.
    Book, 2008Berkeley, Calif. : Heyday Books, c2008. — 979.471 NAKANE
  • The Chinese Kitchen Garden

    Growing Techniques and Family Recipes From a Classic Cuisine

    Kiang-Spray, Wendy
    Steamed Sea Bass pg 160 (calls for chinese parsley AKA cilantro)
    Book, 2017Portland, Oregon : Timber Press, 2017. — 635 KIANG- SPRAY
  • Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard

    Grow 40 Vegetables and Herbs in Gardens and Pots

    Harrington, Geri
    Chinese parsley (cilantro): pgs 128-31 / Mizuna, pgs 14-16
    Book, 2009North Adams, MA : Storey Pub., c2009. — 635 HARRINGTO
  • Eating Asian America

    a Food Studies Reader

    Book, 2013New York : New York University Press, [2013] — 394.12097 EATING
  • DVD, 2021Santa Monica, CA : Lionsgate, [2021] — DVD F MINARI
  • The One-straw Revolution

    An Introduction to Natural Farming

    Fukuoka, Masanobu
    Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide free cultivation methods from which he created a particular…
    Book, 2009New York : New York Review Books, [2009] — 631.584 FUKUOKA 2009
  • Embarrassed about gathering watercress from a roadside ditch, a girl learns to appreciate her Chinese heritage after learning why the plant is so important to her parents.
    Picture Book, 2021New York : Holiday House, [2021] — J PICBK WANG
  • A little girl thinks her mother's garden is the ugliest in the neighborhood until she discovers that flowers might look and smell pretty but Chinese vegetable soup smells best of all. Includes a recipe.
    Picture Book, 1999Watertown, MA : Talewinds, c1999. — J PICBK LIN
  • Who Really Feeds the World?

    the Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology

    Shiva, Vandana
    Vandana Shiva is an Indian physicist, world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, and a tireless crusader for sustainable agriculture, economic and gender justice.
    Book, 2016Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2016] — 338.19 SHIVA
  • This Bittersweet Soil

    the Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860-1910

    Chan, Sucheng
    Based on prodigious research, this book chronicles the activities of the thousands of Chinese agricultural pioneers and entrepreneurs who helped make California the nation's premier agricultural state.
    Book, 1986Berkeley : University of California Press, c1986. — 338.1 CHAN
  • Oriental Vegetables

    the Complete Guide for Garden and Kitchen

    Larkcom, Joy
    Perilla: pgs 108-10
    Book, 1991Tokyo : Kodansha International, 1991. — 635 LARKCOM
  • Book, 1992Hong Kong : The Guidebook Co. Ltd. ; San Francisco : China Books & Periodicals, 1992. — 641.5951 DAHLEN
  • Philip Vera Cruz

    a Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement

    Scharlin, Craig
    Filipino farm workers sat down in the grape fields of Delano, California, in 1965 and began the strike that brought about a dramatic turn in the long history of farm labor struggles in California. Their efforts led to the creation of the United Farm…
    Book, 1994Los Angeles : UCLA Labor Center, Institute of Industrial Relations & UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1994. — 331.8809 VERA CRUZ
  • The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm

    a Cultivator's Guide to Small-scale Organic Herb Production

    Schafer, Peg, 1962-
    Book, 2011White River Junction, VT : Chelsea Green Pub., c2011. — 615.321 SCHAFER
  • Farming the Home Place

    a Japanese American Community in California, 1919-1982

    Matsumoto, Valerie J.
    In 1919, against a backdrop of a long history of anti-Asian nativism, a handful of Japanese families established Cortez Colony in a bleak pocket of the San Joaquin Valley. Valerie Matsumoto chronicles conflicts within the community as well as…
    Book, 1993Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1993. — 979.458 MATSUMOTO
  • Japanese Legacy

    Farming and Community Life in California's Santa Clara Valley

    Lukes, Timothy J., 1950-
    Book, 1985Cupertino, Calif. : California History Center, De Anza College, 1985. — 979.47 LUKES
  • Korean Home Cooking

    Classic and Modern Recipes

    Kim, Sohui,
    Stuffed fried perilla leaves pg 40 Perilla kimchi pgs 128-129
    Book, 2018New York : Abrams, 2018. — 641.59519 KIM
  • Wilted Mizuna with walnuts, pg. 30
    Book, 2001New York : St. Martin's Griffin, 2001. — 641.654 LAU