A New Guide To... Preserving.

Food preserving expert Cathy Barrow presents a beautiful collection of essential preserving techniques for turning the fleeting abundance of the farmers’ market into a well-stocked pantry full of canned fruits and vegetables, jams, stocks, soups, and more.

Beyond the core techniques of water-bath canning, advanced techniques for pressure canning, salt-curing meats and fish, smoking, and even air-curing pancetta are broken down into easy-to-digest, confidence-building instructions.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry shows you how to create a fresh, delectable, and lasting pantry—a grocery store in your own home.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry:

Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round Preserving

by Cathy Barrow

W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Cookbooks
Farm Kitchen

A New Guide To... Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits.

Artisanal foods are making a comeback as more and more people seek to stock their pantries, and their bellies, with handcrafted or locally grown and made foods. Specialty markets and sections at grocery stores are catering to this new desire for the special, the unique, the carefully made foods.

Small Batch: Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits and the Return of Artisanal Foods colorfully details the landscape of the newest wave of the artisanal food revolution by looking at four foods that whet our appetites for specialty..

Small Batch

Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits, and the Return of Artisanal Foods

by Suzanne Cope

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Cookbooks

Book Stall Review: The Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Fruit Ripening.

The science of fruit ripening has advanced greatly in recent years, from investigations of single genes and enzymatic reactions to complex studies of the regulatory networks controlling the process. This volume covers these advances and presents them in context with general fruit biology.

Herein the molecular and biochemical basis for the ways colour, flavour and texture are effected in ripening fruit is explained.

The Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Fruit Ripening
by Graham B. Seymour, et al
Wiley-Blackwell, 2013

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Science Writing

Book Stall Review: Drink More Whiskey.

This guide to whiskey is for a new generation of drinkers venturing far beyond the staid whiskey sours and Manhattans of their grandfather's day.  It is a book for urbanite men and women eager to experiment, try new things, and play with their taste buds.  

"The 1970s and 1980s were marked by a surge of vodka consumption because people didn't want to taste their alcohol," claims author Daniel Yaffe. "Things are changing."

Today, the universe of flavored liquors - including vodkas and whiskeys - is exploding. The Big Bang of fine spirits is circling the globe and seeping into nightclubs, bars and private homes everywhere.

Drink More Whiskey

Everything You Need to Know About Your New Favorite Drink

by Daniel Yaffe

Chronicle Books, 2013

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Good Spirits Online
Whiskey

Good Old Books: Christmas Make-It Book

Here is a new book about an old holiday, glowing with ideas for family fun and family savings.

Step-by-step illustrations and clear directions show how to make hundreds of unusual decorations, gifts, and ornaments.

You will delight your family, impress your friends, and enjoy Yuletide more than ever with this gay book to help. And the things you make with the Christmas Make-It Book will save its purchase price many times over!

Christmas Make-It Book

by Barbara Baer

Hearthside Press, 1954

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Christmas Ornaments, Stockings and Decorations

Farm and Garden Picks: Apples of Uncommon Character

While supermarkets limit their offerings to a few waxy options, apple trees with lives spanning human generations are producing characterful varieties—and now they are in the midst of a rediscovery. From heirlooms to new designer breeds, a delicious diversity of apples is out there for the eating.

With more than 150 art-quality color photographs, Apples of Uncommon Character shows us the fruit in all its glory.

Apples of Uncommon Character

Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little-Known Wonders

by Rowan Jacobsen

Bloomsbury USA, 2014

Farm and Garden Books
Growth Spurts
Home Grown
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Book Stall Review: Canning, Pickling, and Freezing with Irma Harding

Created by farm equipment manufacturer International Harvester (IH) to peddle home appliances to rural women, Irma Harding was an iconic figure of the 1950s - much like Betty Crocker - who taught women how to can, pickle, and store foodstuffs in newly available freezers and refrigerators.

From their base in Evasnville, Illinois, a sales force of young educated women armed with pamphlets and recipes traveled throughout the Midwest as Irma Harding (IH) deputies, educating rural housewives on the advantages of freezing and refrigerating.

This book republishes some of those Irma Harding recipes, along wth several IH advertisements and period photographs, but the bulk of the volume's how-to information has been updated and complemented by fresh and time-saving approaches to retro cooking techniques.

Canning, Pickling, and Freezing with Irma Harding

Recipes to Preserve Food, Family and the American Way

by Marilyn McCray and Michael Perry

Octane Press, 2014

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