The New York Times praised it for its “affable voice and intellectual clarity”; Julia Child lauded it for its “deep factual information.” Now, in How to Pick a Peach, Parsons takes on one of the hottest food topics today. Good cooking starts with the right ingredients, and nowhere is that more true than with produce. Should we refrigerate that peach? How do we cook that artichoke? And what are those different varieties of pears? Most of us aren’t sure. Parsons helps the cook sort through the produce in the market by illuminating the issues surrounding it, revealing intriguing facts about vegetables and fruits in individual profiles about them, and providing instructions on how to choose, store, and prepare these items. Whether explaining why basil, citrus, tomatoes, and potatoes should never be refrigerated, describing how Dutch farmers revolutionized the tomato business in America, exploring organic farming and its effect on flavor, or giving tips on how to recognize a ripe melon, How to Pick a Peach is Parsons at his peak.

    Nigella's ratings are through the roof, and she was recently featured in In Style. The cookbook is all of the delicious foods Nigella is known for but the emphasis is on fast, really fast! This is for everyone who loves good food, but just doesn't have time or patience at the end of the day for a long, drawn-out cooking session. More than 130 recipes!

    In this introductory guide to growing vegetables, Barbara Pleasant addresses common problems that first-time gardeners encounter. Using simple language and illustrated garden layouts, Pleasant shows you how to start, maintain, and eventually expand an organic vegetable garden in even the tiniest backyard. With handy tips on enriching soil, planting schedules, watering, fighting pests, and more, you’ll quickly discover how easy it is to enjoy your own homegrown vegetables.

    Batch packs everything you’ll ever need to know about preserving into one cohesive bible. Joel and Dana’s passion project takes a deep dive into the fundamentals of preserving and offers both simple and adventurous, and totally flavor-forward recipes.” —Chef Curtis Stone, New York Times bestselling author and chef/owner of Maude Restaurant     Joel and Dana’s journey into preserving began with an innocent lesson in making jam. Almost a decade later, WellPreserved.ca is an extraordinary resource for both beginners and experts alike. Their much-anticipated first cookbook showcases seven different preserving techniques—waterbath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, fermenting, cellaring, salting & smoking, and infusing—and takes readers on a trip to the market in twenty-five ingredients. Within each ingredient chapter, you’ll find multiple preserving recipes using the different methods. From apples, pears, peaches and rhubarb, to asparagus, peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and covering a variety of meat and fish, Batch teaches you everything you need to know to get the most out of your kitchen. With their signature approachable and fun style, Joel and Dana showcase techniques for a variety of skill levels, explain how to batch your recipes to make two preserves at once, give you multiple options for preserving in ten minutes or less, and serve up mouthwatering center-of-the-plate meals that take your preserves from the pantry to the table. With personal anecdotes, creative and incredible recipes, and beautiful photography and illustrations, Batch will show you how to incorporate preserving into your life and your community.

    For Portland-based baker Ken Forkish, well-made bread is more than just a pleasure—it is a passion that has led him to create some of the best and most critically lauded breads and pizzas in the country. In Flour Water Salt Yeast, Forkish translates his obsessively honed craft into scores of recipes for rustic boules and Neapolitan-style pizzas, all suited for the home baker. Forkish developed and tested all of the recipes in his home oven, and his impeccable formulas and clear instructions result in top-quality artisan breads and pizzas that stand up against those sold in the best bakeries anywhere. Whether you’re a total beginner or a serious baker, Flour Water Salt Yeast has a recipe that suits your skill level and time constraints: Start with a straight dough and have fresh bread ready by supper time, or explore pre-ferments with a bread that uses biga or poolish. If you’re ready to take your baking to the next level, follow Forkish’s step-by-step guide to making a levain starter with only flour and water, and be amazed by the delicious complexity of your naturally leavened bread. Pizza lovers can experiment with a variety of doughs and sauces to create the perfect pie using either a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet. Flour Water Salt Yeast is more than just a collection of recipes for amazing bread and pizza—it offers a complete baking education, with a thorough yet accessible explanation of the tools and techniques that set artisan bread apart. Featuring a tutorial on baker’s percentages, advice for manipulating ingredients ratios to create custom doughs, tips for adapting bread baking schedules to fit your day-to-day life, and an entire chapter that demystifies the levain-making process, Flour Water Salt Yeast is an indispensable resource for bakers who want to make their daily bread exceptional bread.

    Learn the process of fermentation from start to finish, and stock your pantry and refrigerator with delicious fruits, vegetables, dairy, and more. Fermenting is an art and a science, and Alex Lewin expertly takes you through every step, including an overview of food preserving and the fermentation process. Get to know the health benefits of fermented foods, and learn the best tools, supplies, and ingredients to use. Then start making wholesome preserved foods and beverages with step-by-step recipes for sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, yogurt, preserved lemons, chutney, kimchi, and more, getting the best out of every season’s bounty. The book is filled with beautiful photos and clear instructions help you build your skills with confidence. It’s no wonder people are fascinated with fermenting—the process is user friendly, and the rewards are huge. Inside you’ll find:an overview of the art and craft of home preservingwhy fermented foods are good for youhow to troubleshoot recipes, and how to modify them to suit your tastewhich vegetables and fruits are best for fermentationthe best seasonings to usehow to ferment dairy products to create yogurt, kefir, and buttermilkhow to create fermented beverages, including mead, wine, and ginger aleWith this book as your guide, you’ll feel in control of your food and your health. See why so many people are discovering the joys of fermenting!

    With a focus on fruit, Ripe is equal parts cookbook, primer on produce and gardening, and affectionate ode to the inspiration behind the book--Slater’s forty-foot backyard garden in London.   Intimate, delicate prose is interwoven with recipes in this lavishly photographed cookbook. Slater offers more than 300 delectable dishes--both sweet and savory--such as Apricot and Pistachio Crumble, Baked Rhubarb with Blueberries, and Crisp Pork Belly with Sweet Peach Salsa. With a personal, almost confessional approach to his appetites and gustatory experiences, Slater has crafted a masterful book that will gently guide you from the garden to the kitchen, and back again.

    Mayim Bialik has teamed up with Dr. Jay Gordon to help parents face those challenges head on. Interested in providing nutritious, delicious meals for your kids? Take their advice. Because, believe it or not, your child will eat greens if you just try a fruit-sweetened green smoothie.From dispelling myths about a vegan diet to tackling the food pyramid, Bialik and Gordon outline how your family can eat healthier even on your busiest days. But don’t mistake this for a diet diatribe: this lively book offers 125 fuss-free recipes that will please everyone from the pickiest eaters to the savviest palates. This comprehensive guide helps parents set a foundation for lifelong healthy and delicious eating.

    This complete guide, from the proprietors of Kombucha Kamp, shows you how to do it from start to finish, with illustrated step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting tips. The book also includes information on the many health benefits of kombucha, fascinating details of the drink’s history, and recipes for delicious foods and drinks you can make with kombucha (including some irresistible cocktails!). “This is the one go-to resource for all things kombucha.” — Andrew Zimmern, James Beard Award–winning author and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods

    Canning and pickling is a way of doing this. Not only do you source produce from your garden, farmer s market, or local shop, you can also ensure the preparation is wholesome and the ingredients are pure. In this detailed guide, 1950s icon Irma Harding offers her firm guidance on how to properly prepare and preserve your own foods. The book explains how to preserve foods by canning, pickling, freezing, smoking and curing fresh vegetables and meats. Step-by-step techniques and tasty recipes from food artisans in Austin, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan and other places are included. Along the way, Irma Harding provides her no-nonsense advice and some colorful images and a brief history of her checkered red cloth past. This colorful book delivers both the techniques and recipes necessary to keep their food local and fresh and the life path direct and true.

     "Takes the pressure off cooks who don't have much time... but still want to savor the season's bounty." -Chicago Tribune (Review of the prior edition) The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving takes the guesswork out of home preserving. Both beginners and pros can make the most of fresh fruits and vegetables when these are readily available and inexpensive. Because these recipes require a minimum of time and fuss, home cooks will enjoy creating the preserves almost as much as everyone will enjoy tasting them. Included are both traditional and new recipes. Detailed instructions provide the safest and latest processing methods. Some recipes are suitable for microwaves. A brand new chapter features freezer preserving as an alternative to the traditional methods. The more than 300 enticing recipes include: Jams, jellies and low-sugar spreads Conserves, butters and curds Pickles, relishes and chutneys Salsas, mustards and marinades Flavored oils Dessert sauces, syrups and liqueurs. With delectable recipes and professional tips, The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving is the ideal guide for anyone who craves home-made preserves but doesn't want to spend all day in the kitchen. (20010521)

    Forced into a radical life change, she returned to her native rural Michigan.  There she learned to live on a limited budget while remaining true to her culinary principles of eating well and as locally as possible. In The Feast Nearby, Mather chronicles her year-long project: preparing and consuming three home-cooked, totally seasonal, and local meals a day--all on forty dollars a week.  With insight and humor, Mather explores the confusion and needful compromises in eating locally. She examines why local often trumps organic, and wonders why the USDA recommends white bread, powdered milk, and instant orange drinks as part of its “low-cost” food budget program.  Through local eating, Mather forges connections with the farmers, vendors, and growers who provide her with sustenance. She becomes more closely attuned to the nuances of each season, inhabiting her little corner of the world more fully, and building a life richer than she imagined it could be.  The Feast Nearby celebrates small pleasures: home-roasted coffee, a pantry stocked with home-canned green beans and homemade preserves, and the contented clucking of laying hens in the backyard. Mather also draws on her rich culinary knowledge to present nearly one hundred seasonal recipes that are inspiring, enticing, and economical--cooking goals that don’t always overlap--such as Pickled Asparagus with Lemon, Tarragon, and Garlic; Cider-Braised Pork Loin with Apples and Onions; and Cardamom-Coffee Toffee Bars.  Mather’s poignant, reflective narrative shares encouraging advice for aspiring locavores everywhere, and combines the virtues of kitchen thrift with the pleasures of cooking--and eating--well.

    In Grow Great Grub, Gayla Trail, the founder of the leading online gardening community (YouGrowGirl.com), shows you how to grow your own delicious, affordable, organic edibles virtually anywhere.                    Grow Great Grub packs in tips and essential information about: - Choosing a location and making the most of your soil (even if it’s less than perfect)- Building a raised bed, compost bin, and self-watering container using recycled materials- Keeping pests and diseases away from your plants—the toxin-free way- Growing bountiful crops in pots and selecting the best heirloom varieties- Cultivating hundreds of plants, from blueberries to Thai basil, to the best tomatoes you’ll ever taste - Canning, and preserving to make the most of your garden’s generosity - Green-friendly, cost-saving, growing, and building projects that are smart and stylish- And much more! Whether you’re looking to eat on a budget or simply experience the pleasure of picking tonight’s meal from right outside your door, this is the must-have book for small-space gardeners—no backyard required.  GAYLA TRAIL is the creator of the acclaimed top gardening website yougrowgirl.com. Her work as a writer and photographer has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, Budget Living, and ReadyMade. A resident of Toronto who has grown a garden on her rooftop for more than 10 years, she is the author of You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening.

    John Kallas makes it fun and easy to learn about foods you've unknowingly passed by all your life. Through gorgeous photographs, playful, but authoritative text, and ground-breaking design he gives you the knowledge and confidence to finally begin eating and enjoying edible wild plants. Edible Wild Plants divides plants into four flavor categories -- foundation, tart, pungent, and bitter. Categorizing by flavor helps readers use these greens in pleasing and predictable ways. According to the author, combining elements from these different categories makes the best salads.

    In The Kind Diet, actress, activist, and committed conservationist Alicia Silverstone shares the insights that encouraged her to swear off meat and dairy forever, and outlines the spectacular benefits of adopting a plant-based diet, from effortless weight loss to clear skin, off-the-chart energy, and smooth digestion. She explains how meat, fish, milk, and cheese--the very foods we've been taught to regard as the cornerstone of good nutrition--are actually the culprits behind escalating rates of disease and the cause of dire, potentially permanent damage to our ecology.Yet going meat- and dairy-free doesn't mean suffering deprivation; to the contrary, The Kind Diet introduces irresistibly delicious food that satisfies on every level--it even includes amazing desserts to keep the most stubborn sweet tooth happy. Alicia also addresses the nutritional concerns faced by many who are new to a plant-based diet, and shows how to cover every nutritional base, from protein to calcium and beyond.Whether your goal is to drop a few pounds, boost your energy and metabolism, or simply save the world, Alicia provides the encouragement, the information, and the tools you need to make the transition to a plant-based diet deliciously empowering.