Book picks similar to
To Eat: A Country Life by Joe Eck
gardening
garden
nonfiction
cooking
Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table
Jenny Rosenstrach - 2012
Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.
Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land
Kurt Timmermeister - 2010
When he purchased four acres of land on Vashon Island, he was looking for an affordable home a ferry ride away from the restaurants he ran in Seattle. But as he continued to serve his customers frozen chicken breasts and packaged pork, he became aware of the connection between what he ate and where it came from: a hive of bees provided honey; a young cow could give fresh milk; an apple orchard allowed him to make vinegar. Told in Timmermeister's plainspoken voice, Growing a Farmer details with honesty the initial stumbles and subsequent realities he had to face in his quest to establish a profitable farm for himself. Personal yet practical, Growing a Farmer includes the specifics of making cheese, raising cows, and slaughtering pigs, and it will recast entirely the way we think about our relationship to the food we consume.
Maryjane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us
MaryJane Butters - 2005
She wants nothing less than to reconnect us all with the food we eat and the heritage of farming that belongs to all of us, and nothing more than to empower and encourage rural women everywhere ... she is cultivating not just a farm but a philosophy of living. " -- Body & Soul "Carpenter, waitress, janitor, upholsterer, secretary, milkmaid, wilderness ranger, environmental activist, entrepreneur-the founder of "MaryJanesFarm" has worn many hats in her day, but none more proudly than that of modern-day farmgirl. Speaking to the farmgirl in all of us, MaryJane Butters offers a captivating introduction to the organic lifestyle, resurrects forgotten domestic arts, and shares lessons gleaned from her diverse background and two decades of life as an Idaho farmer. Whether you simply need encouragement to embrace a more authentic, wholesome lifestyle or you're looking for guidance on building a greenhouse, chopping firewood, hosting a town event, caring for a flock of chickens, making your own butter, growing a winter salad, or choosing a water filter, "MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook" is both an inspiration and a practical road map for farmgirls of all stripes." "Dreams are MaryJane Butters' business, and she has always pursued them without pausing to consult conventional wisdom. "-- House & Garden "MaryJane Butters, a natural teacher, has a gift for simplification, and makes it seem that everything she does is easy and attainable. "-- The New Yorker"
Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm
Mardi Jo Link - 2013
Still, when she and her husband call it quits, leaving her more broke than ever, Link makes a seemingly impossible resolution: to hang on to her northern Michigan farm and continue to raise her boys on well water and wood chopping and dirt. Armed with an unfailing sense of humor and her three resolute accomplices, Link confronts blizzards and coyotes, learns about Zen divorce and the best way to butcher a hog, dominates a zucchini-growing contest and wins a year's supply of local bread, masters the art of bargain cooking, deals with rampaging poultry, and finds her way to a truly rich existence. Told with endless heart and candor, Bootstrapper is a story of motherhood and survival and self-discovery, of an indomitable woman who, against all the odds, holds on to what matters most.
Fat-Burning Man: Intro to the Paleo Diet
Abel James - 2012
At roughly 44-pages, this Introduction to the Paleo lifestyle is a brief, easy-to-read, and informative resource to help you rolling right away.Abel James, host of the wildly-popular Fat-Burning Man Show, covers a brief history of the natural human diet, paleo fitness, meal ideas, 9 delicious recipes, a shopping list, and a complete paleo-in-a-page resource to get you started (or back on track) right away.Take a look at “Paleo in a Page” if you’re in a hurry to get started.Learn where the concept of Paleo came from and where it’s going.See why you don’t need to buy expensive supplements, miracle fat loss potions, or do endless hours of cardio to lose weight and improve your health.Find out principles that spur fat loss by supercharging your metabolism and muscle growth.Eating less and exercising more is not necessary. A calorie is not a calorie. You do not need to tether yourself to a treadmill. When you embrace the Paleo lifestyle, you can be lean and enjoy life. It’s a piece of (gluten-free) cake.
Farm from Home: A Year of Stories, Pictures, and Recipes from a City Girl in the Country
Amanda Brooks - 2018
In search of a quieter, simpler life away from the hustle of the city, style icon and longtime New Yorker Amanda Brooks moved with her family in 2012 from New York City to her husband's farm in England. Originally intended to be a yearlong creative sabbatical, Brooks's relocation became permanent as she discovered newfound personal and professional freedom, told here through a year's changing seasons. Creatively inspiring, warm and witty, and brimming with delicious recipes and entertaining how-tos, Farm from Home is a chronicle of the joys and challenges of a more focused way of living. For anyone who has longed for an escape from their hectic schedule, whether for a week, a year, or a lifetime, Brooks shares the unexpected satisfaction of slowing down, reconnecting with nature, and making the most of each day.
The Man Who Ate Everything
Jeffrey Steingarten - 1997
He succeeded at all but the last: Steingarten is "fairly sure that God meant the color blue mainly for food that has gone bad." In this impassioned, mouth-watering, and outrageously funny book, Steingarten devotes the same Zen-like discipline and gluttonous curiosity to practically everything that anyone anywhere has ever called "dinner." Follow Steingarten as he jets off to sample choucroute in Alsace, hand-massaged beef in Japan, and the mother of all ice creams in Sicily. Sweat with him as he tries to re-create the perfect sourdough, bottle his own mineral water, and drop excess poundage at a luxury spa. Join him as he mounts a heroic--and hilarious--defense of salt, sugar, and fat (though he has some nice things to say about Olestra). Stuffed with offbeat erudition and recipes so good they ought to be illegal, The Man Who Ate Everything is a gift for anyone who loves food.
The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities
Will Allen - 2012
But after years in professional basketball and as an executive for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Procter & Gamble, Allen cashed in his retirement fund for a two-acre plot a half mile away from Milwaukee’s largest public housing project. The area was a food desert with only convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to serve the needs of local residents.In the face of financial challenges and daunting odds, Allen built the country’s preeminent urban farm—a food and educational center that now produces enough vegetables and fish year-round to feed thousands of people. Employing young people from the neighboring housing project and community, Growing Power has sought to prove that local food systems can help troubled youths, dismantle racism, create jobs, bring urban and rural communities closer together, and improve public health. Today, Allen’s organization helps develop community food systems across the country.An eco-classic in the making, The Good Food Revolution is the story of Will’s personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats.
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick And Easy Guide To Freezing, Canning, Preserving, And Drying What You Grow
Susan McClure - 1995
Preserving Summer's BountySurefire techniques and great recipes for keeping the harvest!
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats
Daniel Stone - 2018
But as a new century approached, appetites broadened, and David Fairchild, a young botanist with an insatiable lust to explore and experience the world, set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater.Kale from Croatia, mangoes from India, and hops from Bavaria. Peaches from China, avocados from Chile, and pomegranates from Malta. Fairchild's finds weren't just limited to food: From Egypt he sent back a variety of cotton that revolutionized an industry, and via Japan he introduced the cherry blossom tree, forever brightening America's capital. Along the way, he was arrested, caught diseases, and bargained with island tribes. But his culinary ambition came during a formative era, and through him, America transformed into the most diverse food system ever created.
Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
Gabrielle Hamilton - 2001
Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.
Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites
Mary Beth Lagerborg - 2009
Filled with all-new cycles - two one-month cycles, two two-week cycles, and three specialty cycles: gourmet, summer, and gluten-free - their trademark method remains the same: You shop for an entire cycle all at once, buying in bulk and saving money. You do all the food prep for the cycle the next day, freezing and refrigerating what needs to be kept cold, stocking the pantry when appropriate. Then, as the family assembles for mealtime, you do some quick finishing and it's ready - fast and delicious! Once-a-Month Cooking(TM) Family Favorites has something for every kind of eater and includes such soon-to-be favorites as:-Adobe Chicken-Baked Mediterranean Cod-Chicken Wild Rice Soup-County-Style Ribs-Texas-Style LasagnaWith the perfect plan in hand and bulk shopping at economically-friendly prices, the Once-A-Month Cooking (TM) technique is a surefire way to get a delicious dinner on the table fast so that you can spend more time with your family!
Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet
Chauney Dunford - 2015
Apartment dwellers, schoolteachers, and anyone else who wants to grow a lot of food in a little space will find a great small garden resource in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet.Small-space gardeners, find your start in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet, packed with information on window boxes, potted plants, patio gardening, raised beds, small square-foot gardening, container gardening, and everything else related to growing your own small garden. Whether you want to grow a full garden, grow tomatoes, grow an herb garden, or just pick up great tips for small gardens, Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet is the resource you need.Reviews:"Beautiful color photographs and step-by-step instructions distinguish this guide to growing vegetables, fruit, and herbs in small spaces." - Library Journal
Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter
David Buchanan - 2012
How can we strike a balance between preserving the past, maintaining valuable agricultural and culinary traditions, and looking ahead to breed new plants? What place does a cantankerous old pear or too-delicate strawberry deserve in our gardens, farms, and markets? To what extent should growers value efficiency and uniformity over matters of taste, ecology, or regional identity?While living in Washington State in the early nineties, Buchanan learned about the heritage food movement and began growing fruit trees, grains, and vegetables. After moving home to New England, however, he left behind his plant collection and for several years stopped gardening. In 2005, inspired by the revival of interest in regional food and culinary traditions, Buchanan borrowed a few rows of growing space at a farm near his home in Portland, Maine, where he resumed collecting. By 2012 he had expanded to two acres, started a nursery and small business, and discovered creative ways to preserve rare foods. In Taste, Memory Buchanan shares stories of slightly obsessive urban gardeners, preservationists, environmentalists, farmers, and passionate cooks, and weaves anecdotes of his personal journey with profiles of leaders in the movement to defend agricultural biodiversity.Taste, Memory begins and ends with a simple premise: that a healthy food system depends on matching diverse plants and animals to the demands of land and climate. In this sense of place lies the true meaning of local food.
At My Grandmother's Knee: Recipes & Memories Handed Down By Women of the South
Faye Porter - 2011
If her roots are in the South, your grandmother's recipe box probably includes a dish or two you've longed to recreate.How about her legendary chicken and dumplings or the loaves of zucchini bread she always baked from her garden's summertime bounty? Does your mouth water when you think back on her Sunday pot roasts or the hash brown casserole she always made on Thanksgiving morning? You remember the strawberry pudding cake she whipped up for special birthday dinners? The meals you enjoyed at your grandmother's table may very well have been your first exposure to the notion of Southern hospitality and the idea that we really can show our love through food.Faye Porter's "At My Grandmother's Knee" celebrates grandma's cooking and the stories from the grandchildren whose own memories are sure to spark a few of your own. Throughout this collection, you'll sit at the tables of dozens of Southern grandmas and sample recipes that have made them famous with their family for decades. Don't be surprised if you see a few of your own family favorites along the way.