Great produce need never go to waste in this gardening and cookbook that looks back to the classic skills of pickling and preserving. The Produce Companion is a beautifully crafted food and gardening title in two parts – section one concerns producing, growing and storing fruit, vegetables and herbs; while section two covers what to do with the produce in the kitchen.
The gardening component of the book, written by influential and well-respected horticulturist Meredith Kirton, includes comprehensive notes on cultivation, choice of varieties to extend seasons, methods of harvesting, how to best keep produce and when to pick it. The cooking section, by food writer Mandy Sinclair, contains more than 100 recipes, covering drinks and syrups, sauces and salsas, pickles and chutneys, pastes and pestos, vinegars and salt, jams and jellies, and confit and preserves.
It's the perfect guide to making the most of your garden bounty!
I'm always on the lookout for books that will help me use what my garden produces to the fullest, and I've been consistently disappointed with the limited scope of everything I've found thus far. Until now.
I found this book on the sale table at my local bookshop while Christmas shopping. It caught my eye because it is drop dead beautiful, with gorgeous board covers and a rich dark purple edging on the pages. The price seduced me and I bought it after a quick flip through. I started reading it as soon as I got home and it is just what I've been looking for.
The first half of the book has 2-3 page briefs on growing different types of fruit, vegetables and herbs. Growing descriptions aren't the focus here although they do include a few really useful tips. The focus here is the different ways each plant/fruit can be preserved and includes some of the more unique options instead of just the standard bottling and canning. This was just what I've been looking for.
The second half of the book is recipes: unique combinations of salsas, chutneys, butters, curds and more. I'm not as interested in this section, but there are a few that I'll definitely be trying (MT is keen to try the apricot and cinnamon curd).
I highly recommend this book to any gardeners interested in the different ways of preserving their bounty. It's published in Australia, but the authors were very careful to use both metric and standard measurements as well as keeping the growing tips hemisphere agnostic, something I've rarely seen done in any gardening book.
Possibly my best find of 2016.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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11 December, 2016:
Finished reading
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11 December, 2016:
Reviewed