The Side Gardener, Recipes & Notes from My Garden

By Rosie Daykin, Appetite by Random House $45

In many ways, this is a very unusual book to cover. It’s almost equal parts about sharing a love of garden spaces, large or small, and sharing good food – whenever possible – made with ingredients from that garden space.

That said, this was a remarkably charming and calming book to enjoy. Written in a clear, soothing voice from author Rosie Daykin, starting off with the reasonings and rationale for working with a previously under-attended portion of the yard. It was a rather large undertaking for them, but most of us will likely be working with smaller spaces and in Alberta, within Zones 3a to 4b – so results may vary.

Nearly all the recipes are plant-centric naturally, with a few dishes using seafood or poultry, but well arranged into Snacks & Appetizers, Salads, Mains, Sides, and Sweets, with a few staples for the pantry too. Photos by Andrew Montgomery are brilliant and jealousy-invoking with rich colours and wonderful subjects, you’ll likely wonder if your spaces could ever look this good or your food even half as lovely as they do on these pages.

Starting off with the salads, there are plenty to choose from, speaking to a wide range of flavours and styles, from the “Roasted Red Pepper & Cannellini Bean Salad” (p.64), to the “Tomato, Bacon & Blue Cheese Salad” (p.93) with a fine variety represented in between.

The Mains start off with a divine “Red Pepper Bisque with Crab” (p.102) – one of my favourite soups of all time, but on to an inspiring “Beet Ravioli in Brown Butter & Sage” (p.111) which may beg to get your kitchen nice and dirty unless you are practiced at pasta making at home. The section on sides got most of my attention with “Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic & Parmesan” (p.147), which will likely make an appearance at my home when guests are coming. Throughout, plenty of photos break up the recipes, and recipes are well written with a pleasing, calming, short introduction that seems to put one in the mind of cooking.

An enjoyable read with plenty of recipes and garden thoughts that will be tried primarily for the starters and sides – perhaps a dessert or two, but if the ingredients won’t be coming from your own garden, you’ll likely get to know your local farmers’ market folks a little better in the near future.