Book for a Gardener/Seasonal Eater

[MBK]

I'm looking for a book to buy someone who loves food - but from the perspective of growing one's own fruits and vegetables, buying the rest from farmers' markets, and eating seasonally. Could be a cookbook, could be about gardening, could be about local seasonal eating ... any recommendations? I found From Seed to Table by Janette Haase online, not sure if anyone has any thoughts on it ...

[porcupine]

The $64 Tomato is amusing.

[Seanchai]

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets by Deborah Madison. Surprisingly, there are decidedly non-veggie options as well.

[thistle]

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle, Marian Morash's Victory Garden Cookbook, Judith Olney's The Farm Market Cookbook (not sure if the last 2 are still in print, but the library should have them) & a strong second for the Deborah Madison book (& all of her others, too).

[KMango]

May be a little basic for someone with an already-established garden, but The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden has detailed-yet-inspirational information, recipes, and several garden design considerations.

One day I'll have enough land (and enough time) to create an entire landscape based on such ideas.

[Anna Blume]

If you don't find Jamie Oliver's chipper writing style annoying, his latest actually is quite good. I think this is it.

"My wife says I have a mistress. And I do. It's my veggies which I'm always sneaking off to snog. Boy do I love to dig in the earth, get me 'ands all loamy. I invented gardening..."

That kind of stuff. And in some respects the book's a rip-off of Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, a far superior book in many ways as a record of a year of eating. Nonetheless, JO is all about the garden and the recipes it inspires (Rhubarb Bellini purée is worth the price) and there are more pastoral photos of what that entails. Slater's more about the food and the photos are cookbook-traditional if in the latest style of non-glamorous, laisez-faire, blackberry ooze not wiped off of pristine white rim.

Haven't read it, but Amanda Hesser's got one out called The Cook and the Gardener about a year spent being both in France.

I echo praise for Madison book above, though it's a celebration of farmers markets throughout the US (including Hawaii) and not about the gardens.

I am one of very few who have problems w the Kingsolver book, as much as I like her fiction. If your friend's a good cook, forget about it. I recall being horrified by the recipe for a tomato sauce that the family canned and don't think the others in the book are all that inspirational.