Frank Tozer has been fascinated by gardening, food plants and edible wild plants for as long as he can remember. He grew up in England, but moved to the United States as a young man and travelled extensively before settling down to grow plants, first in Connecticut and then in California and Washington. For a time he was an apprentice at the UCSC Farm and Garden in Santa Cruz, where he learned how to grow vegetables more methodically and abundantly. In many respects his journey closely parallels that of many earlier European settlers in America. He arrived with nothing, travelled overland across the country, settled in the Santa Cruz mountains, built a house (almost singlehandedly), carved a productive garden from the surrounding woods and raised a family. He has had many paying jobs over the years, as a gardener, carpenter, plumber, jeweler, solar installer, general contractor, farmer and writer. Tozer is the author of four books. The Uses Of Wild Plants, The New Food Garden, The New Vegetable Growers Handbook and The Organic Gardeners Handbook.