Eating on the Wild Side: A Book Recommendation

There's only thing I love as much as gardening, and that's reading. When the book is about gardening, I am in heaven. Heaven.

Over the winter, I'll be sharing recommendations on gardening books. My view on gardening books is wide -- although the community garden here is all about veg and herbs, the books I'll share may be about flowers, landscape design, food politics, and cooking, in addition to growing veg & herb, heirlooms, organic methods, etc.

The first book is actually a recommendation from one of our gardeners. I haven't read it yet, but I bought it right away when she emailed me (I have a nasty habit of not censoring myself when it comes to ordering books from Amazon.com). I'll chime in on the book once I've read it, but here's her recommendation:

"I just read a really great book of getting the most good stuff from veggies.

The book I like so much is Eating on the Wild Side, by Jo Robinson.

I learned so much from this outstanding book. Jo Robinson tells you how to shop, cook, and eat to maximize your intake of protective phytonutrients that nature puts in plants. Highly recommended reading for all who are health conscious."

Here's the Booklist blurb on the book:

"For some, locavorism isn’t enough. Farmed food of any sort lacks the full panoply of flavors and textures that wild foods bring to the table. Moreover, wild foods offer some nutritional advantages and may be richer in some vitamins and minerals than their cultivated cousins. Some laboratory studies have concluded that medical benefits, including protection from cancer cells, can be found in vegetables such as brussels sprouts. Despite her impassioned advocacy for eating foods culled from woodlands and creek beds, Robinson is not so doctrinaire as to believe that everyone has the time or the access to such foods. So she offers a guide to buying the best, most flavorful produce in supermarkets. Robinson guides readers through ranks of greens, explaining how to judge lettuces by color and why to select loose spinach rather than the bagged variety. Such guides can benefit grocery shoppers who lack the means of foraging their dinners. --Mark Knoblauch"

For more about the book and its author, click here for an interview on Epicurious.com and here for an interview on NPR.