The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook

There was a discussion at Doris and Jilly Cook the other day about the divide between "preservationists" and "artisans", in which (if I've got it right) preservationists are those who grow, cure, can, pickle and dry foods for socially, economically and environmentally responsible reasons, while artisans are those who are merely interested in the aesthetics of the food they produce and preserve.

In this context, I fear I must confess to a weakness for "artisanal" pleasures, and books like garden designer Jennifer R. Bartley's The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook aren't doing anything to help. As soon as you start talking about your "potager" instead of your "truck garden", "vegetable patch" or "allotment", you're on the slippery slope to artisanism, and I fear I'm sliding along with you.

Yes, The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook is a gardening manual and a cookbook. It's partly about creating sustainable edible gardens that yield throughout the seasons. But it's also a mouthwatering picture book, from the absolutely gorgeous magenta radishes against their bitter chartreuse plate on the cover to the plentiful close-ups of swelling fruits and berries and the numerous brilliant bouquets of "whatever was in bloom at the time", artfully presented in ostensibly spur-of-the-moment containers: galvanized buckets, earthenware, pressed tin.

Picking it up at this time of year, the last gasp of Canadian winter, I'm so starved for colour that I find myself almost drooling over the vivid crimson of spring strawberries, the manic orange of fall squash and the melting mauve and olive of autumn artichokes. When I can tear my eyes away from the photos, I find that the book in fact offers a practical capsule description of scores of useful edible plants, along with instructions for seasonal garden design and lots of recipes of the type I like best: simple ones that let the ingredients shine, like Tomato and Basil Quiche, Sweet Potato Muffins, Rustic Cherry Tarts, and Spring Peas with Mint Cream.

A warning for new gardeners in Canada: Bartley is based in Ohio and writing mainly with Americans in mind, so not all of the plants she mentions will thrive in the same way here. But the book has inspired me to take a little thought this year about the appearance of my community garden plot – not just how many plants I can crowd into the row, but also perhaps what they'll look like. (Some gratuitous nasturtiums, maybe?)

To that end, I do wish Bartley had offered some instructions for a couple of absolutely ravishing rustic trellises she has photographed... but I bet I can figure it out with some leftover bamboo stakes or windfall branches and a few yards of spare grapevine.

"The goal is to pick something for the vase or to munch on throughout the year" writes Bartley. Not quite a preservationist manifesto, one must admit, but there is something to be said for enjoying beauty as well as utility. Now pardon me while I run over to cut some of my mom's forsythia for forcing before the weather warms up...

David at Foodwithlegs offers a thoughtful analysis of this book too.