Green Books campaign: The Homesteader's Kitchen

Wholesome recipes and motherly advice in a responsibly printed cookbook.

Wed, Nov 10 2010 at 12:02 AM

Related Topics:

Organic Cooking, Sustainability, Sustainable Forestry

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco-friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

“The Homesteader’s Kitchen” by Robin Burnside contains recipes focused on whole foods that can be grown at home or found at the farmers market. Not all the ingredients are easily found at the farmers market (see MNN’s style blogger Siel’s review of the cookbook for her thoughts on a lack of local ingredients), but there are plenty of recipes in this book that use basic, easy-to-find ingredients.

Recipes in “The Homesteader’s Kitchen” are divided into basic categories: Beverages; Morning Meals; Soups, Sauces and Gravies; Salads and Salad Dressings; Vegetarian Entrees; Fish, Poultry, and Meat Entrees; Embellishments; Breads; and Desserts. The recipes are as simple as how to make Perfect Oatmeal (apparently I’ve been doing it incorrectly) or as involved as Veggie Loaf.

The book also contains advice on stocking a pantry and which basic kitchen tools are necessities as well as a glossary of foods and items that might be unfamiliar.

If you’ve been cooking with natural, organic and whole foods for a while but have been sticking with ingredients you're comfortable with, this cookbook can help you take the next step by encouraging you to add ingredients like ghee (butter with milk solids removed), tempeh (a cultured soy food that can be a meat substitute), or sucanat (a natural sugar).

Since this review is part of the Green Books Campaign, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the book’s green cred. It’s printed on paper produced from sustainable PEFC-certified forest/controlled wood source.

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

Previous Post
New ChicoBags are attractive and useful

Next Post
Essential cookbooks: Readers choices

You might also like:

Join the conversation

Comments: 5

Leeswammes (Judith) Nov 11 2010 at 2:58 PM

I was wondering what you actually thought of the book. I wondered if it was a really useful with good recipes. It seems a bit old-fashioned even though cooking with organic ingredients is in fact quite modern! :-)

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Robin Shreeves Nov 11 2010 at 5:20 PM

Judith, I think cooking like this could be considered old fashioned, but to those of us that grew up on frozen dinners, it's a modern thing. I was listening to a woman that is close to my age today in the salon talk about how when she was a girl they grew all their vegetables, had a milkman, and baked their own bread. That was not the experience for me or many of my friends, and they think I cook the old fashioned way a lot. It doesn't really matter what we label it. It's just good food. The recipes

.... More

in The Homesteader's Kitchen are good solid, basic recipes that introduce cooks that haven't cooked this way their entire life to some new ingredients that aren't considered common (like the ones I mentioned above) or still buy common organic items that they could be making themselves. There are recipes for homemade yogurt, cheese, hummus, and ranch dressing. I think if you've been cooking this way for a long time, you'll find a few recipes to add to your collection - perhaps Gado-Gado (an Indian peanut sauce that can be used to sauce meats, tofu or veggetables or thinned with rice wine vinegar to become a dressing for pasta or salads). If your fairly new to this type of cooking, there will probably be many useful recipes. I think the usefulness of it depends on the user.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Lakshmi Nov 12 2010 at 10:35 AM

Gado-Gado is not an Indian peanut sauce. It is an Indonesian peanut sauce.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Robin Shreeves Nov 12 2010 at 11:07 AM

You're right, and the book has it accurately. I copied it incorrectly from the book's description.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Leeswammes (Judith) Nov 12 2010 at 6:09 AM

Thanks for your nice reply.

You're right old is new! I just wondered if this book had a old "feel' to it, or felt quite modern. But it seems with all these new recipes, that it's a very current book.

Hummus, hmm. Gado-gado I actually know and I love it!!