From the Cook's Garden: Recipes for Cooks Who Like to Garden, Gardeners Who Like to Cook, and Everyone Who Wishes They Had a Garden

Vermont is the home of The Cooks Garden, America's premier organic seed catalogue. Since 1984, The Cook's Garden has been the ultimate source for kitchen gardeners seeking European-style greens, heirloom vegetables, radiant flowers, and pungent herbs. Each winter more than one million eager gardeners await the arrival of The Cook's Garden catalogue, looking forward to reading about new seed varieties as well as reliable classics.

Successfully growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers is just part of any gardening challenge, but what do you do once they are harvested?

Ellen Ogder's recipes are one of the most delightful aspects of The Cooks Garden catalogue. As Deborah Madison, bestselling author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Local Flavors writes in her foreword: "These recipes, which are entirely guided by the garden and choice of seeds that grow in it, bridge the gap between a dream on a page promised by a seed packet and how the seeds can be used in the kitchen."

Ellen's recipes are simple yet elegant and speak of freshness whether you harvest ingredients from your own garden or select them at your local store -- flavorful soups such as Zesty Lemon Cucumber Soup and Brilliant Butternut Bisque, salad combinations such as Arugula and Roasted Pear Salad, and Leaf Peeper's Carrot and Red Cabbage Salad, main courses such as Savory Vegetables in Polenta Crust or Herbed Chicken with Cider Sauce. Too many tomatoes or pears? Ellen offers ideas for preserving the bounty of any garden.

Illustrated with full-color woodcuts by Caldecott winner Mary Azarian and packed with topics from Ellen's favorite culinary herbs to favorite autumn vegetables, From The Cook's Garden offers a yearround garden of culinary delights.

Other than its high production values, what is so special about this book? It presents an extraodinarily wide variety of produce as delectable dinner-time treats. For me, it gives depth to my already broad repertoire of veggie dishes. As an added bonus, I can give this cookbook to our friends and family who are reluctant to try cardoons or don't know that beets and chard come in a rainbow of colors. Suddenly, it's OK to give them strange veggies, because they know what to do with them. For those of you who don't know the joy of strolling through your own kitchen garden to decide what's for dinner, you can now stroll with confidence through the trendiest green grocer or farmers market, pick up what ever is freshest, and in season, and head home knowing you can find a delightful way to prepare and enjoy your find.

We've tried several of the recipes. They're yummy! All are inspiring.

And if you decide to try growing your own, remember there are those who farm many acres that started with a single grow box for fresh salad greens on the deck of their townhouse.

This makes eating your vegetables a joy!


foody heaven   October 9, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

As a foody who lives part of the year in Central London with all great restaurants and who also lives in the Dordogne with all its great produce, I have really enjoyed reading and cooking from this book. It's imaginative, easy to use, beautifully illustrated and inspiring. It is quintessentially American, and I will be introducing it and the recipes to all my friends in Europe.