Vegetables - The Real Dirt
Sometimes it’s all in a name, or a look and you know immediately that you have to check out whatever it is. In this case it is Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt On Vegetables, and the name and the cover shot grabbed my attention.
There it was, perched high atop the “What’s new in cooking” shelf at Barnes & Noble…Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt On Vegetables. Ever curious, I immediately wanted to know about the so-called real dirt on vegetables. But first I had to get past the front cover featuring Farmer John himself, wearing overalls, muck boots, and to tie the ensemble together? A feather boa of course.
The cover itself was enough to assure me that this book was worth being added to my ever-growing library. Author John Peterson is a lifelong farmer, who started in conventional agriculture before switching to organic farming. Without a doubt this book is the product of an eclectic mind. It’s packed full of practical advice, along with essays on food politics and what Peterson refers to as “anthroposophical nutrition.” Hey I said he was a quirky guy right?
Although you’ll get plenty of advice, essays, comedic dialogue and drawings there are plenty of recipes. The best part, they are easily adaptable for the carnivores and the vegetarians. The recipes are organized as “early season”, “mid-season,” “late season” and “extended season.” In addition all the recipes are categorized with a handy printed tag at the top of the page so that you can easily flip through quickly finding all the corn recipes, for instance.
All in all, the book is definitely worth those hairy looks I got from the nearby sales associate for climbing the shelves so that I could reach my 5 foot body high enough to check out Farmer John and his dirt on vegetables.
