The Gardener's Table: A Guide to Natural Vegetable Growing and Cooking

The Comprehensive Kitchen Garden Guide
 
Noted horticulturist Richard Merrill and award-winning cookbook author Joe Ortiz have teamed up to bring you the ultimate no-nonsense guide to cultivating and cooking from a kitchen garden. Exhaustively researched and easy to use, The Gardener’s Table offers a complete plan for maintaining a cook’s garden and organizing a gardener’s kitchen. Detailed information on composting, pest management, soils, fertilizers, and more helps you grow hearty, robust vegetables, while over 50 imaginative, healthful recipes let you make the most of your garden’s bounty. The Gardener’s Table is the most complete guide you’ll find to creating and enjoying your own home vegetable garden.

The natural link between kitchen gardening and cooking is seamlessly conveyed by Merrill, who directs the horticultural department at Cabrillo College, and Ortiz, who wrote the award-winning The Village Baker: Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America. Assuming nothing, they start with basic instructions for designing a garden and outfitting a proper kitchen. Organic methodsAfor building the soil, starting and growing vegetables, and controlling pestsAdominate the book, but the authors also include instructions for using fresh produce and recipes for condiments, stock, and vegetable dishes. Finally, a "Grow-It & Cook-It Compendium" conveniently lists vegetables by plant family, culinary uses, botanical name, detailed growing information, and harvesting and storage tips. This book isn't as extensive as Anna Pavord's classic, The New Kitchen Garden (DK, 1996), which includes fruit and herb information, but it's still a good general guide. Recommended for public libraries.ABonnie Poquette, Shorewood P.L, WI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.