Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting and Storage Tips
For those fortunate enough to have a plot of arable land, what can be more rewarding and satisfying than creating a vegetable garden? It may be just adequate enough to raise a few greens for a summer salad, or it may offer acreage sufficient to sow rows of corn or establish a raspberry patch. Gardener Galloway encourages even urban dwellers to consider raising their own fruits and vegetables. In this guide, she offers instructions on basic preparation of growing beds, including composting, an essential step for her preferred method of organic agriculture. For every potential garden product, Galloway describes its characteristics, preferred varieties, and best propagation methods from seed to harvest. She inventories commonly available greens, herbs, squashes, tubers, cabbages, and fruits. For each crop, she offers a recipe, virtually all vegetarian save for a classic grilled leg of lamb with fragrant rosemary. Color photographs accentuate the most appealing qualities of both produce and finished dishes.BooklistSustainable gardening and eating locally are popular now, and this is one of a number of new books for kitchen gardeners. Master gardener and radio commentator Galloway (former West Coast editor, Organic Gardening ) concentrates here on herbs, greens, legumes, squash, cabbage, roots, tubers and bulbs, warm-season vegetables, and fruits, giving hints on planning a garden, using good soil, planting, watering, fertilizing, weeding, and dealing with insects and diseases. Chapters describe individual crops and suggest the best way to plant, grow, harvest, store, and cook them. Galloway recommends particular varieties and notes botanical and family names, edible parts, and problems in growing. For each kind of produce, she also provides a recipe that is simple and easy to prepare. Some are unusual, such as Tartines with Gruyère and Radish Greens, Roasted Beets with Winter Citrus Vinaigrette, and Cucumber Wedges with Chile and Lime. Full-page color photographs accompany many of the recipes and produce descriptions. VERDICT This book is recommended for all readers interested in eating what they grow.Library JournalGalloway's enthusiasm and expertise inform every page of her first book. Don't be fooled by the elegant design; this isn't a book about landscaping with edibles. It's a down-to-earth look at how to organically and successfully grow your dinner. What makes this book stand out from the hundreds of other new vegetable-gardening books? It's Galloway's recommendations for varieties that thrive here, from blueberries to basil. And her eclectic recipes ensure that "Grow Cook Eat" won't languish on the book shelf. You'll have it out on the kitchen counter to try Shaved Summer Squash with Pecorino Romano, maybe with Raspberry-Infused Vodka Spritzers.Valerie Easton,The Seattle TimesLike to eat as much as you like to garden? Willi Galloway'sGrow Cook Eat...gives a recipe for each crop.SunsetThe pretty garden and food photography will draw any novice in, and the conversational tone makes the book feel like the gentle guidance of a best friend. Even old hands will make use of the introductory chapters, a useful guide to basic gardening know how.Organic GardeningFor a comprehensive guide to growing and using vegetbles in your kitchen, don't miss this book by Willi Galloway.Grow Cook Eatis packed full of growing tips, harvesting ideas and 50 recipes.Birds & BloomsAll cookbooks and gardening guides should aspire to be likeGrow Cook Eat, a marvelous hybrid by Master Gardener Willi Galloway... Feast on this book and you’ll never garden or cook the same way. You’ll certainly never eat the same way again.Greenwoman Magazine...enthusiastic and sensible. The Chicago TribuneIf there was a book that I could imagine that would teach me everything I needed to know to grow the edibles I had my heart set on from edamame and melons to garlic, tomatillos and tatsoi, this would be it... Willi Galloway presents a comprehensive, elegant manual to vegetable gardening that delivers just the right amount of guidance and hand-holding as you nurture your first strawberries or coax jalapeño peppers from flowers to fruit. And the beautiful, evocative photos of luscious, bountiful harvests are all the encouragement you need.Spade & SpatulaA recipe that will reward you for the bounty you’ve brought into the kitchen but won’t exhaust you with an additional grocery list or hours in the kitchen. An accessible and inspired compendium.Bay Area Bites, KQEDThe photos are dreamy, the recipes tantalizing (Lemony Broccoli Rabe, Strawberry Basil Ice Cream...), with plenty of tips on harvesting, storing, and how to successfully grow what you eat.The Seattle TimesOver the years, I’ve bought more than my share of gardening books for inspiration and guidance. Most have been tossed aside for a more laissez-faire approach, because it all seemed so complicated and most were so boringly dull. That is, until I got the recently published book,Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, by Portlander Willi Galloway... Grow Cook Eatis equally as valuable for gardeners with years of experience under their belt, as it is for the novice who’s been wanting a vegetable garden but was too overwhelmed to start. It is easy to follow, inspiring, and a valuable resource for all.Diane Prokop...I can't recommend it enough. Not only is it lovely to behold, it's imminently practical to use and apply. This is the gardening book you absolutely want to have on hand this coming growing season.Ashley English, Small Measure...this how-to from Willi Galloway is hotter than a serrano pepper.Cynthia Lair,Cookus Interruptus...a warm and inviting look at garden abundance that’s helped me through yet another cold, dark, wet winter.  Some people fantasize about tropical locales and swaying palm trees — I dream of warm soil and the sticky green smell of tomato plants; fresh fava beans and tender salads.  This is one dog-gone gorgeous book! ...Grow Cook Eat – and the photographs of Jim Henkens, are in another class altogether. Soft, friendly, close up shots put the reader right on their knees in the garden, in the kitchen or — best of all —  at the table(!) with Willi as she instructs and inspires gardeners to grow their own groceries.Planted at HomeI honestly didn't think there was too much more I needed to know about growing my own food. But I have been proven wrong. Former Organic Gardening magazine editor and creator of the popular blog "DigginFood", Willi Galloway, shares with us her time honored gardening techniques and ways to use every part of the plant, seed to root, in the kitchen... With this book by your side, very little of your harvest will end up in the compost pile.Project Foodie