Fifty Weeks of Green

Laugh, love, and cook along with Sophia Verde in this funny feminist response to Fifty Shades of Grey.

Still stinging from being laid off, Sophia stumbles into the Bee’s Knees Farm booth on her way to pick up her friend’s produce box at a farmers’ market in Midtown Raleigh. She is deeply attracted to Roger Branch, who is earthy, elegant, and curiously private. City-savvy Sophia becomes captivated by the farmer’s slow, sensual ways. Although, or perhaps because, he’s not a power broker like she’s used to, she finds herself longing to become part of his dance with nature and the seasons.

It’s a romance for the 99%.

Sophia barters her skills for a produce subscription of her own, discovering the pleasures of organic farming, seasonal cooking, and generous lovemaking.

Along the way, she learns cooking tips and shares over sixty seasonal, plant-powered recipes. Let her help you cut the cholesterol and the cost of your own favorites with core recipes such as Cashew Cream, Flaxseed “Eggs,” and Good Baking Mix. Discover new favorites too, perhaps Chocolate Sweet-Potato Breakfast Cake, Lentilicious Sunshine Spread, Sweet-and-Tart Collard Tangle, and Potluck-Pride Peach Cobbler. The index makes finding them easy.

Sexy without being explicit and deeply amusing, Fifty Weeks of Green may inspire you to save money, eat scrumptious food, and ignite your inner frisky while making a difference.

Here’s the start of my talk at the book launch for Fifty Weeks:

See the rest of the talk: part 2: romancing CSAs, part 3: a steamy scene,  part 4: 60 recipes that help Sophia get in touch with herself and nature,  part 5: optivores and voting with your fork;  part 6: a recipe for growing up. Love people and love the planet.

News & Observer reporter Lori Wiggins writes “Hallelujah, sister!”

Linda Watson brings romance – and, yeah, the sexy, too – back to cooking, with a wholesome twist….

But don’t be fooled by the spoof. Watson knows real food, how to buy organic – and save, how to cook for good health – and to lose weight, and how to teach us to do it with little cost or time – and bank the benefits.

Readers agree Fifty Weeks is a page turner!

From farmer Haruka Oatis:

omg! steamy!! You’re putting sexy into farming!

Ok, an hour later and I have finished reading the book! It’s a real page turner and it makes me hungry at the same time with yummy recipes! Bravo!

From a sustainable-agriculture advocate Alice Alexander:

WOW. I had to read the whole thing, couldn’t stop late last night This is light entertaining read, a hoot! but with so much good info woven in, from the benefits of sustainable ag, to using measuring cups from dry to wet – you’ve got it all in there! And it’s real, while obviously a spoof.  How you managed to weave in so many important aspects in an entertaining way – well, you are one fabulous educator, and a romance novelist to boot!

From blogger Wendy E. N. Thomas on Live to Write — Write to Live:

There are books that are read for sheer pleasure and there are books that are read for information.

How delightful it is when you find a book that skillfully combines the two. In short, I absolutely ate this book up.

Fifty Weeks of Green is by Cook for Good’s chief cook and researcher, Linda Watson, author of Wildly Affordable Organic. This romance with recipes is set at the Midtown Farmers’ Market at North Hills in Raleigh, North Carolina and in the Triangle area. It features at least twenty real Midtown businesses.

For signed and personalized copies

Order Fifty Weeks of Green from Quail Ridge Books, my local bookstore. Check out their discounts for educators, seniors, and more.