We gardeners devote a significant percentage of winter to planning the spring garden, scouring seed catalogs, reading great books about gardens, and daydreaming about possibilities while we wait for spring. Farm City by Novella Carpenter is the perfect book for this pursuit.  

Farm City documents Carpenter’s efforts to cultivate her "squat farm" on a dead-end street in the Ghost Town section of downtown Oakland, California. Her farm is far from the rural idyll that we often imagine when thinking about locally-grown food. There’s a speakeasy across the street, toughs on the corner, and one of her neighbors lives in an indeterminate number of abandoned cars. In an example of natural entropy that any gardener will understand (and perhaps even envy,) Carpenter’s farm quickly expands to match her ambition. Taking over the vacant and undeveloped lot next door, she and her partner install raised beds made from scrap lumber, and gradually construct habitats for their livestock, including bees, poultry, rabbits, and (eventually) pigs.

This is not a book about an over-sized vegetable garden. There’s an added dimension here, since Carpenter’s farm has fauna as well as flora, and she unabashedly raises her livestock for meat. This effort provides some of the highlights of the book as Carpenter endeavors to live off her produce exclusively for a month, struggles to find local scraps in bulk to feed the pigs, and bonds with the owner of a local restaurant as she learns to make salami and prosciutto.

This is an epic adventure undertaken on a local scale, and provides a remarkable lens through which to view our relationship with food in general and agricultural produce in particular. Brighten your winter with Farm City by Novella Carpenter.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

I loved The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen so much that I renewed it twice — and even though I had it for nine weeks, I’ll be checking it out again in the future! Serena Thompson and Teri Edwards are friends and entrepreneurs. A number of years ago, they started an annual antiques fair and then produced a line of products, eventually leading them to write for Country Living magazine Now they have published their first book The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen, which tells their story while offering recipes and projects to make. I am already waiting for their next book to come out (and I hope it’s going to be soon).

The recipes and craft projects are easy to make yourself, and you don’t have to go out and buy hard-to-find ingredients. I made the Cherry Breakfast Swirl, and had most of the ingredients in my pantry already. It was simple to put together, and only took about 30 minutes to bake. It was so delicious that I took the ingredients and recipe with me on vacation when I had to make breakfast for ten of us.

I’d recommend this title to anyone who loves recipes, craft projects, or just enjoys reading about them. Look at The Farm Chicks online when you get a chance, but make sure to check out The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen, too.

Michele Happel – Miller Branch

I am a fan of television cooking shows. While I watch discriminately, my family has often reaped the rewards of a tempting recipe I’ve decided to try.

Tyler Florence, with his boyish good looks and charismatic charm, is a favorite of mine. His recipes are (for the most part) uncomplicated; he gets his hands dirty (fewer utensils to wash); and best of all, he’s a natural teacher. Dinner at My Place is written in the same comfortable manner with which Florence speaks. “My home is my sanctuary and the kitchen is the world. On a daily basis, I express my thoughts, feelings and emotions through my cooking…”

In this, his newest cookbook, he offers a bounty of tantalizing recipes, as well as complete menus for everyday occasions. If a cookbook doesn’t include a lot of color pictures, then more than likely, I’m not going to be interested in looking at the recipes. Chef Florence invites you into his home and kitchen with many accompanying pictures of family, friends, Jake the dog, (another reason why I like the guy), and, of course, all those culinary delights.

This is one of the menus that I put together (with leftovers for lunch during the week):
  Pineapple Mojito (I had a mojito in Punta Cana which I did not like, but this sounded yummy)
  Bibb Lettuce with Tarragon Vinaigrette
  Penne with spicy Italian sausage, cream tomatoes, and peas
  Strawberry Lemon Pudding

Buen Provecho!

Eve Olsen – Central Library

I adore being in the kitchen. Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved the smells of freshly baked bread, cookies, or cakes coming out of the oven. Special memories are attached to the kitchen for me — so when I saw A Homemade Life reviewed online, I had to put myself on reserve for it. Recipes like Jimmy’s Pink Cookies, Tarte Tatin (one of Julia Child’s creations), and Dutch Baby Pancakes with Lemon and Sugar all made my mouth water so much that I couldn’t stand it.

Molly Wizenberg’s stories share the setting of a kitchen. When her father died of cancer, family and friends told her to take it easy on herself, but she couldn’t go back to her life in Seattle. Instead, she journeyed to Paris, a place which brought back great memories of a trip she and her father had taken when she was much younger. Instead of writing her dissertation for graduate school, though, she found herself tasting cheeses and chocolate, and reading cookbooks until dusk. She finally realized her heart was in food and the kitchen, not in her studies.

As something to pass the time, Molly started her blog Orangette, and shortly had an international following. Every week people logged on to find out what Molly was reading, eating, cooking, and thinking, until one reader found himself infatuated with her. Their emails eventually turned into a long-distance romance — he in New York, and she in Seattle.

The writing is wonderful, and I can’t wait to try the recipes, but Molly also expresses great love for her new husband. “I used to think I had a good dowry. I can make a nice meatball and bake a fine chocolate cake. I can find my way without a map around Paris, Seattle, and Oklahoma City… But Brandon brought with him more than I could have ever thought to want… Sometimes when I see him across the room, I can hardly believe that I get to be his wife.”

Maybe we should all try the Winning Hearts and Minds Cake, or Our Wedding Cake. It sounds like a keeper.

Michele Happel – Miller Branch

With a title like this one, how could I resist picking up the book? I’m glad I did. In some ways, The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark reminded me of The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four. However, I found Newmark’s book much more lighthearted and entertaining, although not quite as spine-tingling.

The book takes the reader on a romp through Renaissance Venice via the Doge’s kitchen. Luciano is a street kid, scrounging to make a living by rummaging through trash piles and stealing in the Rialto, Venice’s famed marketplace. One day as he’s lifting a pomegranate, he is caught by a chef. Instead of turning him over to the authorities, the chef makes Luciano his apprentice, and so the intrigue begins as Luciano’s master is more than he first appears.

Extremely practical Luciano tells the story, and the author maintains a fairly strict point of view. Fortunately, our young cook has an insatiable curiosity and loves to spy. The Doge (who is suffering from syphilis) is searching for a book that is supposed to contain the recipe for immortality — and he’s willing to kill for it. Many other influential people, including the Borgia Pope, also express an interest in the book for other reasons. As Luciano puzzles over what and where the book might be, we get a glimpse of political maneuvering that would put Machiavelli to shame.

Newmark does a credible job of building suspense and tying up her loose ends, but the true wonder of this first novel comes from the sensory overload of Venice’s docks. We can almost hear the polyglot of languages, smell the spices and fresh produce, and see the wonders of the world. Newmark makes Venice, at the height of its power as the world’s crossroads, a character in its own right. And in the end, I was reminded that while immortality may not be contained in a book, a certain kind of magic can happen in a kitchen.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

If you occasionally wish for simpler times, then take a mini-vacation and visit another era with Little Heathens, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. Reading it will provide a glimpse into how some people lived during the Depression, without cell phones, DVDs, video games, or computers to interfere with everyday life.

The author’s family (her mother and three siblings) grew up on a farm in Iowa which belonged to her grandparents. Besides walking to school every day in all kinds of weather, the children were expected to help out with chores from milking cows, hauling water from the pump to the house for weekly baths, to bringing in kindling for the stove for the next day’s cooking. Any child who forgot to gather the kindling the night before would be roused from bed and instructed to go get it immediately.

Along with the anecdotes about her life on the farm with her siblings and cousins, Mildred shares some of the family recipes she’s known since childhood. I am hoping to try a few myself sometime, they sound so good- marshmallows, pie crusts, apple candy pie, and applesauce cake.

Something that stays in my mind after reading this book is that when the children did actually have free time, they spent it playing ball with their friends and cousins in a nearby field, making games out of what they had on hand, but never finding themselves bored. For if they did say that they were bored to one of the grown-ups, they would immediately receive a job, like stacking wood for the fire, or scrubbing the porch. I wonder what kids today would think of that?

Try Little Heathens, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. You’ll be glad you did. And it’s only 290 pages, for those of you who may find it hard to squeeze in time to read just for fun.

For more information on the author, her book, and tasty recipes, visit www.little-heathens.com.

Michele Happel – Miller Branch