Grow a Pizza Garden released

My latest book, Grow a Pizza Garden, is now available for purchase!

What is it about?

Learn how to grow toppings for pizza and make a fresh, homemade pizza. This step-by-step gardening guide will help children learn how to successfully grow tomatoes, basil, oregano, peppers, and onions. They will then learn how to make pizza sauce with these homegrown ingredients and add it to a pizza. Simple, easy to follow recipes teach kids (with adult help) how to make a pizza themselves. With tips along the way, kids can get their hands dirty planting, caring for, and harvesting their own vegetables and herbs. A big garden is not required, only a patio or balcony with a few pots will be enough space for growing. The tastiest foods are the ones that are homegrown, so let’s get started gardening!

Where to buy?

All major bookstores. Check out this link for a list: www.books2read.com/grow-pizza.

Review:

Thank you to Readers’ Favorite for this review:

Benzee gives children step-by-step instructions on how to grow each item until it is time for harvesting. After the harvest, it’s really fun as you carefully follow the instructions to make the sauce and prepare everything you will need to assemble your pizza. … He details everything so well that it’s impossible to get it mixed up. I strongly encourage you to consider Grow a Pizza Garden for your children who are old enough to learn the responsibility of using a stovetop and oven. —Readers’ Favorite, five stars

New Book Coming Soon

I’m delighted to announce a new book I wrote and illustrated: Grow a Pizza Garden!

Summary: Learn how to grow toppings for pizza and make a fresh, homemade pizza. This step-by-step gardening guide will help children learn how to successfully grow tomatoes, basil, oregano, peppers, and onions. They will then learn how to make pizza sauce with these homegrown ingredients and add it to a pizza. Simple, easy to follow recipes teach kids (with adult help) how to make a pizza themselves. With tips along the way, kids can get their hands dirty planting, caring for, and harvesting their own vegetables and herbs. A big garden is not required, only a patio or balcony with a few pots will be enough space for growing. The tastiest foods are the ones that are homegrown, so let’s get started gardening!

eBook release is on June 7, 2022, and print release (hardcover and paperback) is on September 6, 2022. Now available for preorder from your favorite store! https://books2read.com/u/4DPgPk

What am I? Fruits turns 1

Happy Book Birthday to What am I? Fruits! 🍰 My second children’s book turns one today, April 2nd. To celebrate, all of my books will be on sale (20% off) this month from this link: https://aerbook.com/store/author_john_benzee Use the coupon code LEMON when purchasing.

Here’s to another year of guessing fruits in fun, rhyming riddles, from sweet strawberries to tart cherries and all yummy fruits in-between.

Happy Read an eBook Week

Read an eBook Week, the first week in March, is a international promotion of eBooks and an effort to have people around the globe discover and try all types of eBooks. EBooks allow the easy access of literature, from poetry to novels to cookbooks to textbooks, with a simple tap of a finger or click of a button.

My poetry book, Tree Verse, is available on eBook on all devices, which is available from the below stores.

Many local libraries also offer downloads of eBooks. Check out the Libby app from OverDrive for more details.

Free eBooks are also available through Project Gutenberg, a collection of mainly classics and digitized works from around the world.

Happy exploring of all the digital books at your fingertips!

Christmas Fruits

Christmas is a time for gift- giving and feasting, which often involve particular fruits. What fruits are associated with Christmas?

Orange

Oranges, clementines, and other citrus fruits are commonly found in Christmas stockings. There are several explanations of this tradition: 1). They represent gold (or bags of money) from St. Nicholas that he slipped in hanging stockings of those who needed it. 2). Before being easily found in grocery stores, oranges were a special treat since they were so rare. The bright, sweet fruit was a joy to eat in a cold, dark winter.

Plums, figs, or raisins are one of the key ingredients in figgy pudding or plum pudding. This Christmas dessert made with 13 ingredients represents Christ and the 12 apostles. Traditional figgy pudding was made just before Advent in preparation for Christmas on Stir-up Sunday, in which stirring in an east to west direction commemorated the travels of the Magi.

Apples were used as to decorate trees, particularly during Christmas Eve plays that included the story of Adam and Eve. Apples represented the biblical forbidden fruit. A shortage of apples may have lead to the creation of baubles or glass ornaments to hang on trees instead.

Dried fruit, including oranges, apples, raisins, cherries, and currants is a staple in many Christmas breads. Stollen and fruitcake use dried fruits as a major ingredient. When fruitcake was invented in the Middle Ages, dried fruits and sugar were expensive and were only used in large amounts for special occasions, such as Christmas.