In his book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, author Michael Pollan advocates, “Don’t eat anything that your great-grandmother would not recognize as food”. One of the best ways to follow this advice is to rely on produce from home gardens and local farms. Learn more about how to grow and cook fresh seasonal foods with a book from the Lititz Public Library.
Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting and Storage Tips by Willi Galloway
The author encourages everyone who enjoys good food to grow and harvest their own vegetables and herbs and offers advice on storage, preparation techniques and recipes.
Fresh from the Farm: A Year of Recipes and Stories by Susie Middleton
Memoir from a former Fine Cooking editor in chief shares recipes and stories of life on her rural farm where she sells the vegetables and fruits she harvests at her farm stand.
The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table by Liz Thorpe
The country’s first French-certified cheese master visits pioneers of artisanal American cheese-making, assessing each and revealing cheese-making secrets.
Homegrown Harvest: A Season-By-Season Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen Garden by Rita Pelczar
Learn tips and techniques for applying sound ecological principles to fruit and vegetable gardening in a few containers or a substantial plot.
Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling and Preserving by Kevin West
Practical guide includes more than 100 recipes organized by seasons for preserves, pickles, condiments, cordials, candies and easy-to-can vegetables and fruits.
The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Niki Jabbour
Nova Scotia-based gardener shares her secrets for growing food during every month of the year, providing in-depth instructions and tips for selecting the best varieties for each season.
Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting and Sprouting by R. J. Ruppenthal
Business professor and trial-and-error gardener provides techniques for sustainable food production using every square inch of space to create a productive garden that supplies homegrown food every day of the year.
True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure by Andrew Weil and Sam Fox
Holistic-wellness pioneer gathers more than 125 recipes that conform to his anti-inflammatory diet and incorporate cooking methods and ingredients from Mediterranean and traditional Asian cuisines.
Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes by Mark Bittman
Columnist advocates choosing food intelligently, becoming aware of where food comes from and paying attention to balanced nutritional principles.
Cooking Light Pick Fresh Cookbook: Creating Irresistible Dishes from the Best Seasonal Produce edited by Rachel Quinlivan West
Learn the secrets of growing and cooking fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs with basics for starting and maintaining a home garden.
Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm by Forrest Pritchard
The popularity of organic livestock and produce offered the author an opportunity to save his family’s multigenerational Shenandoah Valley farm.
Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal and Local Ingredients by Jesse Ziff Cool
Restaurateur encourages readers to embrace an organic lifestyle that includes the freshest and ripest organic, local ingredients to enhance flavor.
If It Makes You Healthy: More Than 100 Delicious Recipes Inspired by the Seasons by Sheryl Crow and Chuck White
From big entertaining menus to small home-cooked meals, the singer shows how to eat healthily by choosing seasonal, locally grown foods.
Originally published on April 11, 2014 in the Lititz Record Express.