Animal Vegetable Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver. Thought provoking easy read that may be just enough to shake up your eating habits. Recommend = Borrow or Buy but you probably won’t reference it once you’ve read it.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan. If this doesn’t scare you into action nothing will. The book that doomed my front lawn. Recommend = Buy. This one you’ll want to reference in order to defend any future food-nazism.
Fresh Food From Small Spaces – R.J. Ruppenthal. “The square inch gardener’s guide to year-round growing, fermenting and sprouting.” Perfect for city dwellers, including those in apartments and condos but this will get anyone thinking about ways to maximize edibles. The author very lightly touches on many subjects, including chickens and bees. It’s a great resource of plant varieties and plant sources. Recommend = Buy.
Four-Season Harvest – Eliot Coleman. “Organic vegetables from your garden all year long.” If he can grow food year round in an unheated greenhouse in Maine then you can in Seattle with plastic row covers, old window panes or nothing at all. This book will take you as far as you want it to. Recommend = Buy.
Carrots Love Tomatoes – Louise Riotte. “Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening.” This one was a charming read but I’m not so sure the gardening techniques were really all that useful. For instance, I planted celery amongst my cauliflower since the author said the white cabbage moth didn’t like celery but that didn’t seem to stop them from landing on the cauliflower plants and laying eggs. Recommend = Borrow.
The Home Orchardist – University of California. “Growing your own deciduous fruit and nut trees.” This book covers planting, growing, pruning, grafting and pest management for home fruit trees in a clear, simple manner. Recommend – Buy.
Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning – The Gardeners and Farmers of Terre Vivante. “Traditional techniques using salt, oil, sugar, alcohol, vinegar, drying, cold storage and lacto-fermentation.” This book presents many traditional techniques from storing carrots & beets in sand in a garage to stringing beans on thread and hanging them over the radiator to dry. Most of these techniques would not be recommended by the USDA (not that I put any credence in an organization that allows poisons in processed foods.) This book is particularly useful for figuring out what to do with native edibles like elderberry, nettles, etc. If you are interested in foraging healthy foods this will be invaluable. Want to make uncooked rosehip jam loaded with vitamin C, Sea Buckthorn berry jam or apples dried in elderberry flowers? This book has directions for that and much more. Recommend = Buy.
How to Store Your Garden Produce – Piers Warren. “The key to self sufficiency.” This book does cover quite a bit of techniques but the recipes are base and the directions are obvious. Recommend = Save your money.
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. This one is like the red and white checkered Betty Crocker cookbook. It’s a great starting point for someone with no canning knowledge. However, it’s a walking advertisement for Ball products. There are many things out there you can can without buying Ball pectin or jars and this book doesn’t bother to teach you those techniques. There are some recipes in this one that are not in the Preserving the Harvest book (following) and it is nice to compare standard recipes as you create your own. Recommend = Buy unless you can only afford one canning book, in which case I would buy Preserving the Harvest and borrow this one.
Preserving the Harvest – Carol Costenbader. This book covers freezing, canning, drying and pickling. The directions are clearly illustrated and the recipes are more gourmet in nature then the Ball Preserving book. The author has some great ideas for creating gifting possibilities so that you can share your creations with others. She also gives directions for making your own pectin from apples so that you can forego buying it in the store. I found the book inciteful and creative. Recommend = Buy.
Well Preserved – Malvina Kinard. This book only covers water bath canning: jellies, jams, marmelades, pickles, preserves and chutneys. It’s a charming book written by a woman born around the turn of the century in rural Alabama. The book is complete with fond childhood memories, making it a charming read and great resource. Recommend = Buy if you can swing it but borrowing will probably be just fine as well.
Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrating Cookbook – Mary Bell. “Everything you need to know to make delicious dried snacks, jerkies, fruit leathers, nutritious meals and even potpourri!” This one kept my dehydrator humming all summer (in fact it’s going right now, drying some yogurt fruit leather for my son’s preschool class.) There are some brilliant ideas in here and the book goes well beyond the general dried fruits. I can’t recommend this one enough for its creativity and usefulness. Of course, if you don’t have a dehydrator it won’t do you much good. Recommend = Buy the book AND a dehydrator.
Home Cheesemaking – Ricki Carroll. “Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses.” This book made home cheesemaking very approachable and covers most kinds of cheese anyone would want to make, from soft and simple to pressed or molded (like blues). The recipes are fairly clear and easy to follow. My only beef with this book is the recipes all call for using a packet of culture which you buy at very steep prices from the author. My gift to you – buy the large packet of bacteria from www.thedairyconnection.com. Use 1/8 teaspoon per gallon of milk and avoid the steep prices at www.homecheesemaking.com. Recommend = Buy.
American Farmstead Cheese – Paul Kindstedt. This book might just has well have been written in Greek. It is not geared toward the beginning home cheesemaker and definitely NOT for the person who begins the cheesemaking process around 9 p.m. at night. Recommend = Don’t bother until you get serious about making cheese commercially.
Charcuterie – Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. “The craft of salting, smoking and curing.” If you don’t have a smoker when you read this book, you’ll be online ordering one before you get to the book’s end. This book makes curing and smoking your own meats accessible to even those without equipment. The book does also cover any equipment you may want to buy which is helpful in deciding how best to spend your shopping dollars. Recommend = Buy.
Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook – Selengut, Sayers Bajger, Darcy. I got the feeling these authors were token names the American Culinary Kitchen chose to be the “faces,” kind of like the Monkeys were chosen for the on camera charm rather then their musical abilities. The book showcased only a handful of larger local producers and I found that many of the recipes might contain one seasonal ingredient and then call for 2 or 3 others that were completely out of season locally. Recommend = Don’t Bother.
