Book Reviews from the Shop

From the Garden to the Kitchen

 

In their 1939 book, The Englishman's Food: A History of Five Centuries of English Diet, Jack Drummond and Anne Wilbraham wrote:

 

“We acquired from the continent the knowledge of how to grow garden vegetables but we did not trouble to learn how to cook them properly.  It is one of the tragedies of English domestic life.”

 

As a child growing up in England in the 1950s that was certainly the case in my family.  I had parents and grandparents who were avid gardeners of vegetables as well as flowers.  The beautiful produce flowed from their gardens into their kitchens where everything was given the same treatment – boiled to a soggy mess.  It wasn’t until I was in my late teens that my mother discovered the joy of cooking vegetables in a variety of ways that brought out their flavours and textures. 

 

Even given their poor treatment in the kitchen, I was fortunate to grow up seeing where my food came from and the magic of vegetables and fruit growing from seed, root, tree, and vine.  Many children nowadays have no notion of where their food comes from.   But more and more we are recognizing the importance of informing children about where their food comes from and making healthy choices. 

 

The Shop in the Garden has five great books that speak to these issues – two for adults and three for children. 

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 First off is The Canadian Garden Cookbook by Jennifer Sayers Bajger, a chef and writer for over 15 years, and James Darcy, a food and travel writer.  The authors believe that cooking and eating with the seasons enhances our enjoyment of food, and say in the introduction “Since the beginnings of human civilization, gardening and cooking have gone hand in hand.”  We no longer have to grow the food we eat, but growing it reminds us that once produce was strictly seasonal which makes it both healthier and tastier.  They provide 75 recipes to show new ways of incorporating our garden vegetables, fruits, and herbs.  Full colour photos of each recipe leave the mouth watering for such delights as Basil Aioli Shrimp Rolls or Three Pea Saute with Tarragon.  Many of the recipes are unusual, such as Parsnip Breakfast Saute or Rutabaga and Daikon Sprout Salad with Miso Ginger Dressing.

 

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While the preceding title is a cookbook only, the next one provides good information on how to grow various vegetables and fruits, followed by several recipes for each.  The Cook's Garden: 135 Recipes and Expert Growing Advice from the Editors of Canadian Gardening Magazine, edited by Liz Primeau, is “dedicated to hardy gardeners everywhere who cope with early frosts in fall, late frosts in spring, drought, blight, and humidity to grow and cook some of the best food on Earth.”  It is organized seasonally from spring (peas, rhubarb, radishes, etc.) through to winter (beets, squash, brussel sprouts, etc.).  More than 200 colour photographs accompany the text.  It’s the perfect book for those who want to combine their passions for cooking and gardening, or for a household that has one member who loves to cook and one who gardens.

 

Showing how to grow plants and then how to use them in delicious child-friendly recipes, Grow It, Cook It: Simple Gardening Projects and Delicious Recipes (edited by Deborah Lock) encourages children to take an active role in creating their food and in healthy eating.  Easy to follow instructions and excellent photographs make it easy for kids ages 9 to 12 to follow.  It goes beyond simple growing and cooking, and includes sections on how plants grow, photosynthesis, pollination, how to make compost, and seed collection.  The recipes have appealing names such Giant Beanstalk Stir-fry, Rainbow Salad, and Tomato Eggplant Towers.  There is a very basic section on kitchen know-how, and, although only children are shown gardening and cooking in the photographs, alerts are given for times when adult supervision is required.

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For the very young child, Growing Vegetable Soup is an excellent starting point.  Well-known children’s author / illustrator Lois Ehlert depicts through bold simple illustrations the process of going from the idea of vegetable soup to the final pleasure of eating the soup.  Along the way, the reader sees a variety of seeds being planted, growing into sprouts, then into plants, and then the resulting vegetables.  Watering, weeding, harvesting, washing, and cooking the vegetables are shown.  For ages 3 to 6, this is the perfect introduction to nurturing the plants that we eat, to the pleasures of gardening and cooking, and to the yearly life-cycle – as the soup is eaten, plans are made to grow more vegetables next year.  An easy vegetable soup recipe is also included.

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And finally, what child doesn’t love a good story?  Tomie de Paola won prestigious awards for his first Strega Nona picture book.  His latest is Strega Nona’s Harvest, and it follows the same two characters – Strega Nona (which translates as Grandmother Witch – though a very benign kindly witch living in a medieval Italian village) and her bumbling sidekick Big Anthony.  In this story, we see Strega Nona’s annual ritual of planting her seeds and using her magic to make them grow by singing special songs and blowing kisses to the moon.  But part of her “magic” is also saving her seeds each year, rotating her crops, and using compost and manure – all depicted through the story and illustrations.  Strega Nona grows a very orderly garden but when Big Anthony tries to out-do her in his garden, his ends up looking like a jungle.  Between them they grow enough vegetables to supply not only themselves but their entire village with a huge harvest feast.   An excellent read-aloud story for children 3 to 8, with the side benefit of good information about gardening.

 

And if all this discussion of vegetable gardening and cooking has made you hungry, here’s a seasonal recipe I tested from The Cook's Garden: 135 Recipes and Expert Growing Advice from the Editors of Canadian Gardening Magazine:

 

Rhubarb Custard Tart

 

Pastry for 9” pie shell

4 stalks rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1/2” pieces

2/3 cup (150 ml) granulated sugar

1 tsp (5 ml) ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp (2  ml) salt

1 tsp (5 ml) all purpose flour

3 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups (625 ml) milk

 

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).  Line pie pan with pastry.  Distribute rhubarb evenly over pastry and set aside.

 

In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, nutmeg, salt, and flour.  Add beaten eggs and whisk to blend thoroughly.  Set aside.

 

Pour milk into a heavy saucepan and set over medium-high heat; remove from heat just before it boils.  Gradually whisk hot milk into contents of mixing bowl.  When well combined, pour over rhubarb in pie shell.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool to barely warm before serving.