By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

During World Wars I and II, allied governments encouraged their citizens to produce home-grown food in “victory gardens,” which replaced residential flower beds, appeared on apartment rooftops, and transformed vacant lots. The program was a terrific success: at its peak, home-grown produce is said to have accounted for 40 percent of all the vegetables consumed in victory-gardening countries.

The current sour economy gives us another excuse to grow our own food, and two books by Steve Solomon can help.

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades (Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2007; $21.95) is indispensable for growing food in mild parts of the Pacific Northwest, which is why it’s now in its 6th  edition. In it, he covers planning, variety selection, planting, fertilizing, pest control, harvest, and all the tricks it takes to get you from novice to serious food grower.

Gardening When it Counts—growing food in hard times (New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, 2005; $19.95) is more like a short course in vegetable gardening. Here you’ll learn about tools, seeds, soil, watering, composting, and choosing varieties that are easy to grow. It’s definitely more text-booky than the other volume but you’ll come away with a master gardener’s way of seeing and doing things.

I first met Solomon in the late 1970’s, not long after he moved to the Northwest and started Territorial Seed Company. He was standing in a cabbage patch in Lorane, Oregon, patiently explaining to me the advantages and disadvantages of growing hybrid varieties. He had the studious intensity of a college professor and the hands of a dirt gardener.

Having sold Territorial Seed years ago, he lives in Tasmania these days, still growing half the food he eats (his estimate), still writing, and still helping people get excited about the alchemy that turns dirt, sunlight, water, and seed into the best food you can put on your table.