Edible Read: Dec-Jan 2017
Wrap it Up: Great Holiday Gifts
Our friends at Carmichael's Bookstore suggest these books as excellent gift choices for the upcoming holidays. Carmichael's represents locally owned retailers where the benefits of buying local can be experienced.
Finding the Flavors We Lost
by Patric Kuh
Ecco Press $26.99
An award-winning restaurant critic for Los Angeles Magazine and a former restaurant cook, Patric Kuh, crisscrosses the continent examining the so-called artisanal food and eat local movements that are reclaiming the once neglected honest pleasure and joy in eating. Kuh gives insight into the passions of some creative artisans hoping to broaden and deepen Americans’ food passions.
The Plant Kingdoms of Charles Jones
By Sean Sexton & Robert Flynn Johnson, Preface by Alice Waters
Thames & Hudson $24.95
This volume presents Jones’ photography in sections devoted to vegetables, flowers, and fruit, with captions taken from Jones’ own identifications, written by hand on the back of the prints. Renowned writer and restaurateur Alice Waters describes the simple beauty of the photographs in the preface. Robert Flynn Johnson contextualizes the work in the still life tradition and pieces together the fragmentary evidence about the life of this mysterious figure, who left no notes or diaries to explain why he photographed the plants he saw every day. This volume is the perfect antidote to appetites jaded by processed foods and late twentieth-century consumerism, the legacy of Charles Jones is a reminder of the bountiful riches of nature.
Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier
by Michael Ableman
Chelsea Green Publishing $29.95
Street Farm is the inspirational account of residents in the notorious Low Track in Vancouver, British Columbia — one of the worst urban slums in North America — who joined together to create an urban farm as a means of addressing the chronic problems in their neighborhood. It is a story of recovery, of land and food, of people, and of the power of farming and nourishing others as a way to heal our world and ourselves.
Victuals
By Ronni Lundy
Clarkson Potter Publishers $32.50
Ronni Lundy has been a friend of Carmichael’s almost from the day we opened, first as restaurant reviewer and music critic for the Courier-Journal, then as the author and editor of numerous cookbooks and magazine pieces. She is also an eloquent and vocal activist on the subject of Appalachian culture. In her gorgeous new book, Victuals (which The Oxford American said “promises to be the jewel in her crown”) Lundy guides us through the surprisingly diverse history — and vibrant present — of food in the Mountain South. While Appalachia is often stereotyped and dismissed as a homogenous place, here, through 80 recipes and stories gathered on her travels in the region, Lundy shares dishes that distill the story and flavors of the Mountain South.
The Whole Earth Field Guide
Edited by Caroline Maniaque-Benton
with Meredith Gaglio
MIT Press $34.95
The Whole Earth Catalog was not only a cultural touchstone, it was one of the most recognizable books on bookstore shelves in the 1960s and 1970s. Millions of mainstream readers turned to the Whole Earth Catalog for practical advice and intellectual stimulation, finding everything from a review of Buckminster Fuller to recommendations for juicers. This book offering selections from eighty texts from Last Whole Earth Catalog, is at once libertarian and communitarian, practical and mystical, scientific and hands-on. The Whole Earth Field Guide reveals the astonishing energy and spirit that motivated thousands of young people to challenge the status quo and to grapple, with remarkable prescience, with issues such as ecology and information technology that still confront us today.
Sleep Tight Farm: A Farm Prepares for Winter
By Eugenie Doyle,
Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander
Chronicle Books $16.99
Author Eugenie Doyle and her family operate The Last Resort Farm, an organic berry, vegetable, and hay farm in Vermont. A captivating exploration of how a farm gets ready for winter, Sleep Tight Farm lyrically connects each growing season to the preparations at the very end of the farm year. This beautifully illustrated and informative book paints a fascinating picture of what winter means to the farm year and to the family that shares its seasons, from spring’s new growth, summer’s heat, and fall’s bounty to winter’s well-earned rest. All year long the farm has worked to shelter us, feed us, keep us warm, and now it’s time to sleep. Becca Stadtlander, the illustrator, was born and raised in Covington, Kentucky.
The Sheepover
By Jennifer Churchman, John Churchman
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers $17.99
One cold winter night, Sweet Pea the orphan lamb becomes very sick. Everyone in the farmyard is worried about her! Under the watchful care of Farmer John, Laddie the sheepdog, and Dr. Alison the mobile veterinarian, she slowly recovers. Dr. Alison tells Sweet Pea she can have a sleepover to celebrate as soon as she is well again. When the day finally comes, her closest friends Sunny, Prem, and Violet join her in the greenhouse for a fun and imaginative “SheepOver” celebration. This charming story of caring and friendship by real-life farm owners John and Jennifer Churchman, brought to life with John’s entrancing photo-illustrations, will enchant readers young and old.
Pancakes!:
An Interactive Recipe Book
By Lotta Nieminen
Phaidon Press $14.95
Cooking pancakes has never been so satisfying nor so clean! This book is the first title in a series of interactive recipe books. The simple, straightforward recipe text brings readers through each step of cooking pancakes, while the interactive features, such as pull-tabs, wheels, and a flip-able pancake, invite them to participate in the process. Perfect for young chefs-to-be!
