It was Rasputin’s favourite, he conjectures: “You could see it in his eyes.” A murderous vegetable, the beta vulgaris has been collected and consumed at least since the Neolithic period it is descended from a leathery green perennial that dotted the coastlines of Europe, northern Africa and southern Asia.

After reading The Book of Difficult Fruit, you will never think of sweetness the same way again.In his novel Jitterbug Perfume (1984), Tom Robbins describes the beetroot as “the most intense of vegetables”, a “deadly serious” root whose leaking liquid resembles blood. What if the primary way you show love is through baking, but your partner suffers from celiac disease? Why leave in the pits for Willa Cather's plum jam? How can we rely on bodies as fragile as the fruits that nourish them? Kate Lebo's unquenchable curiosity promises adventure: intimate, sensuous, ranging, bitter, challenging, rotten, ripe.

Here, these fruits will take you on unexpected turns and give sideways insights into relationships, self-care, land stewardship, medical and botanical history, and so much more. What makes a fruit difficult? Its cultivation, its harvest, its preparation, the brevity of its moment for ripeness, its tendency toward rot or poison, the way it might overrun your garden. In a work of unique invention, these and other difficult fruits serve as the central ingredients of twenty-six lyrical essays (with recipes). Q is for quince, which, when fresh, gives off the scent of 'roses and citrus and rich women's perfume,' but if eaten raw is so astringent it wicks the juice from one's mouth. M is for medlar, name-checked by Shakespeare for its crude shape, beloved by gardeners for its flowers.

D is for durian, endowed with a dramatic rind and a shifting odor-peaches, old garlic. A is for aronia, berry member of the apple family, clothes-stainer, superfruit with reputed healing power. Every sentence is as sensuous as the first bite into a cold, juicy plum.' -Hillary Kelly, Vulture ' dazzling, thorny new essay collection.' -Samin Nosrat, The New York Times Inspired by twenty-six fruits, the essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history. ' glorious mash-up of memoir, love note, and cookbook.

Kate lebo the book of difficult fruit