Food@Home - almost ready to eat!

 Home-grown fruit - and a home-grown book

My book food@home is finally in print, and will be launched on May 1^st. More information about it is on line here, and it can be ordered directly from Canterbury University Press here – or try your nearest book shop after May 1.

If any readers of this blog who live in or near Christchurch would like an invitation to the launch (which will be preceded - if fine – with a stroll around the community garden at Canterbury University) please drop me a line (ecogardenernz [at] gmail.com) and I will forward you the invitation.

What's in the book?

Chapter 1 - 'Culinary Confusion' – sets out where and how New Zealand has lost its way when it comes to growing and eating healthy food, and food produced in environmentally friendly ways. But I don't dwell too long on the bad news before moving on to the good news about all the alternatives to 'zombie food' which are being practised successfully today. Chapters 2 – 7 cover growing food at home and with the local community, dining better at home, re-skilling ourselves for cooking at home, and obtaining healthy and delicious food grown closer to home (foraging, farmers' markets, farm shops, community kitchens, organic cafes and restaurants, organic box schemes and more). The last chapter covers the social and personal actions we all need to take before everyone in the country eats well.

The book ends with two special (and unique) appendices – A Kitchen Garden Planning Guide (what to plant when in order to be self-sufficient in veges), and a Guide to Harvesting and Keeping Home-Grown Fruit and Vegetables (how to look after what you have grown so that it keeps fresh and edible for the longest possible time). Plus – each chapter has a delicious recipe based on garden produce, and there are lots of photos taken around the country illustrating everything I write about.

I hope you'll have a taste of food@home soon, and share it with friends. At $35 it is a very affordable gift for anyone in your life who wants to eat well – and I hope everyone in your life is in that category!