Combining history, natural history, folklore, food, and armchair travel, The Field Guide to Fields is a celebration of these rural treasures, painting a vivid picture of their unique histories and many facets.  From the terraced paddies of Asia to the meadows of Europe, and from the paddocks of Australia to the wide-open prairies of the Great Plains, fields are an integral part of the modern landscape. In their myriad forms, they are the most familiar and well-tended part of the countryside -- and have been for millennia.They are places in which we work and play, tranquil spaces to be explored or simply admired from afar.  The Field Guide to Fields is a celebration of these rural treasures, painting a vivid picture of their unique histories and many different facets. The text combines many aspects, including history, natural history, folklore, food, and armchair travel. It also includes practical feature spreads on subjects such as collecting and drying wild herbs, as well as identification guides to help you spot different types of flora and fauna. Beautifully presented in cloth binding, and illustrated throughout with a combination of photographs and specially commissioned linocut-style artwork, The Field Guide to Fields is a pleasure both to own and to read.  CONTENTS: / What is a field? / Field Forebears / Shaping the Landscape / Brave new World / Flora / Fauna / Tools & Technology / Nature's Bounty / Field Folklore / ID Guides

Fields (Collins Field Guide)

LAWS, BILL

Collins

Real Ale is full of fascinating facts about ale, from its 5,000-year-old origins to the history of brews like Black Beer, created as a prophylactic against scurvy. Included are recipes for brewing and cooking classic beer dishes like Beef and Guinness stew and Welsh rarebit.

Real Ale: Recipes, History, Snippets

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Ebury Press

A green thumb is not the only tool one needs to garden well―at least that’s what the makers of gardening catalogs and the designers of the dizzying aisle displays in lawn- and-garden stores would have us believe. Need to plant a bulb, aerate some soil, or keep out a hungry critter? Well, there’s a specific tool for almost everything. But this isn’t just a product of today’s consumer era, since the very earliest gardens, people have been developing tools to make planting and harvesting more efficient and to make flora more beautiful and trees more fruitful. In A History of the Garden in Fifty Tools, Bill Laws offers entertaining and colorful anecdotes of implements that have shaped our gardening experience since the beginning. As Laws reveals, gardening tools have coevolved with human society, and the story of these fifty individual tools presents an innovative history of humans and the garden over time. Laws takes us back to the Neolithic age, when the microlith, the first “all-in-one” tool was invented. Consisting of a small sharp stone blade that was set into a handle made of wood, bone, or antler, it was a small spade that could be used to dig, clip, and cut plant material. We find out that wheelbarrows originated in China in the second century BC, and their basic form has not changed much since. He also describes how early images of a pruning knife appear in Roman art, in the form of a scythe that could cut through herbs, vegetables, fruits, and nuts and was believed to be able to tell the gardener when and what to harvest. Organized into five thematic chapters relating to different types of gardens: the flower garden, the kitchen garden, the orchard, the lawn, and ornamental gardens, the book includes a mix of horticulture and history, in addition to stories featuring well-known characters―we learn about Henry David Thoreau’s favorite hoe, for example. A History of the Garden in Fifty Tools will be a beautiful gift for any home gardener and a reassuring reminder that gardeners have always struggled with the same quandaries.

A History of the Garden in Fifty Tools

Reference

University of Chicago Press

Fifty Railroads that Changed the Course of History (Fifty Things That Changed the Course of History)

History

World

Firefly Books

Celebrate the Emerald Isle's lush green fields, distinctive architecture, charming homes, and exquisite handmade crafts. With more than 150 striking color photographs, this gorgeous volume showcases the breathtaking designs and whimsical style of the Irish countryside.

Irish Country Style

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Gramercy

From the crops that have fed billions of people over the centuries, to the plants highly regarded for their medicinal qualities, this informative volume unearths the stories behind some of the world's best-known plants.

Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History

David & Charles Publishers

Vegetables may be associated with dull monotony, but, as Bill Laws reveals in this illustrated book, the humble vegetable has had a far from mundane history. 
There are garlic inscriptions on Egyptian pyramids; peas, leeks, lettuces and beans are among the oldest vegetables in the world; while maize, cultivated in Mexico 2,500 years ago, is a relative newcomer. Potatoes were venerated by the ancient Peruvians yet caused division between Catholics and Protestants in the mid-1700s. Suspicious of this 'devil vegetable', which had to be buried like a corpse before it would grow, the Protestants even brought the fight to politics - in 1765 their slogan was 'No potatoes. No Popery.' Victorian critic John Ruskin believed growing vegetables would better your position in society and improve your table manners. President Woodrow Wilson saw it as a cure for the 'extravagant and wasteful' ways of his people.
From guinea gardens to genetic modification, from aphrodisiacs to allotments, from poets to pop stars, and from tales of the market trade to the wicked secrets of the vegetable show, Bill Laws here unearths the curious, intriguing and entertaining story of the vegetable. It will appeal to everyone with a taste for gardening or food history.

Spade, Skirret and Parsnip: The Curious History of Vegetables

Cooking Education & Reference

Sutton Pub Ltd

Spade, Skirret and Parsnip

The History Press

Starting at the front door, this book takes a look at our homes through different eyes, revealing the history of every part from the bricks and beams to pelmets, lights and water pipes; from wallpaper, windows and paints to floors, fires and fitted kitchens.

Nails, Noggins And Newels: An Alternative History of Every House

"The great affair is to move: to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. This book celebrates the history of walking for leisure and pleasure. There’s no shortage of the famous, and the not so famous, exponents of a good, long walk: Dr. Johnson and his faithful Boswell on their Hebridean jaunt; John Taylor, whose Penniless Pilgrimage, a record of his 1618 journey from London to Edinburgh, provided the first account of a walking tour; and Samuel Coleridge who conceived his epic tale of the Ancient Mariner on a ramble through Devon. The author also includes the stories of key inventions: the cagoule, the Thermos flask, the rucksack, Gore-Tex, and the walking pole. Fully illustrated throughout, this is an engaging history of one of man’s favorite pastimes.

Byways, Boots & Blisters

Europe

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Books by LAWS, BILL