Gardening to Eat

by Becky Dickinson

[annieb123]

Originally posted to my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Gardening to Eat is a tutorial gardening guide with some recipes by Becky Dickinson. Due out 28th Feb 2021 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 152 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

I liked the no-nonsense logical layout of the book. Beginning with an exposition about why to grow food, what the benefits can be, the payoff in terms of mental and physical health, the benefits locally and globally, the author moves along to a short (and very encouraging!) very basic gardening how-to tutorial.

The second section of the book (and the lion's share of the content) is given over to chapter by chapter treatment of individual veggies, resources, varieties, how-to-grow info, and a selection of recipes using the harvest. All of the "big name" veggies are of course represented: tomatoes, peppers, cole crops, sweetcorn, onions and beans of many types... but I also appreciate that the author also has included many overlooked crops which might not immediately suggest themselves to beginning gardeners: blackcurrants, blueberries, chard, and rhubarb as an example.

The recipes are meat-free, varied and simple and interesting and allow the tastes of the vegetables to shine through on their own. There's a lovely traditional gazpacho, but also a rather unexpectedly adventuresome beetroot burger recipe. Recipe ingredients are provided in standard metric measures (yay!) and should be available at well stocked grocers. Nutritional information is not provided. The photography throughout is gorgeous - clear, colourful, and appealing. The author's style is very upbeat and positive and a lot of fun to read.

Five stars. This is a beautifully made garden-to-table book which will certainly get readers' fingers itching to get started. I would recommend it for home gardeners, public or school library acquisition, allotment garden associations' lending libraries, gardening clubs, and similar groups.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.