Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets |
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List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $46.25
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2002-06-11
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Local Flavors, bestselling cookbook author Deborah Madison takes readers along as she explores farmers’ markets across the country, sharing stories, recipes, and dozens of market-inspired menus. Her portraits of markets from Maine to Hawaii showcase the bounty of America’s family farms and reveal the sheer pleasure to be found in shopping for and cooking with local foods.
Deborah Madison follows the seasons in her cross-country journey, beginning with the first tender greens of spring and ending with those foods that keep. Recipes such as Chard and Cilantro Soup with Noodle Nests and Lamb’s-Quarters with Sonoma Teleme Cheese launch the market season, followed by such dishes as an Elixir of Fresh Peas or a Radish Sandwich. Recipes for Whole Little Cauliflowers with Crispy Breadcrumbs and White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage illustrate the range of the robust crucifers, while herbs and alliums provide the inspiration for a lively Herb Salad, tisanes, and Sweet and Sour Onions with Dried Pluots and Rosemary.
Deborah Madison challenges the conventional view of what’s seasonal. A Young Root Vegetable Braise celebrates that early crop of delicate roots, while Braised Root Vegetables with Black Lentils and Red Wine Sauce offers an elegant centerpiece dish for the heartier roots of winter.
Superlative fresh eggs, along with handmade cheese, are featured players at the markets everywhere, and here they appear in such simple dishes as Fried Eggs with Sizzling Vinegar and Warm Ricotta Custard featuring fresh whole-milk ricotta. Because organically raised poultry and meats have an increasingly important presence in our farmers’ markets, they are included, too, paired with other market produce that highlights their flavors, as in Roast Chicken with Herbs Under the Skin.
Late summer corn and beans inspire Corn Fritters with Aged Cheddar and Arugula and Shelly Beans with Pasta and Sage. When markets are filled with squashes and melons, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, Deborah Madison shows us that they’re perfect ingredients for simple, vibrant dishes, such as Braised Farmers’ Long Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic or Tropical Melon Soup with Coconut Milk. For the happily overwhelmed cook, Platter Salads suggest how to go ahead and use all of the market’s bounty.
Fruits, another vital part of farmers’ markets, are generously featured. Huckleberries, unusual grapes, and figs; stone fruits like plums and peaches; heirloom apples, persimmons; winter citrus and subtropical fruits are all here. Fig Tart with Orange Flower Custard; Peach Shortcake on Ginger Biscuits; a Rustic Tart of Quinces, Apples, and Pears; and a Passion Fruit and Pineapple Compote are just a few of the luscious desserts. And, because the market features more than fresh foods of the moment, recipes based on dried fruits, oils, vinegars, preserves, and other long-keeping foods help the reader continue eating locally once the market season has ended.
By going behind the scenes to speak with the farmers and producers, Deborah Madison connects readers directly with the people who grow their food. Full-color photographs of gorgeous produce, mouthwatering dishes, and evocative scenes from the markets will entice every reader to cook from the farmers’ market as often as possible.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Much More Useful Than I Thought It Would Be
Comment: I am on box #3 for my CSA, and have to say this book is the book I use the most. Three great spring recipes so far, all very easy to prepare and two for ingredients that few of my other cookbooks cared to mention even in passing (nettles and sorrel). I live in Minnesota, and I was concerned buying a California based book, but the utility has been outstanding. The Greens chapter is particularly useful, as we have a CSA (Harmony Valley Farms) that loves to pile on the greens.
I agree with the other Minneapolis reviewer - this combined with "Asparagus to Zucchini" decodes many an interesting CSA box. Add in "Vegetable Love" and you are really set.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Cookbook! And really fun to read
Comment: I purchased this book after reading about it in Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" I shop at our local market a lot so I thought this book would be helpful. I LOVE reading Madison's stories and I agree with her advocation of local markets. This book is great for figuring out what to do with veggies when they are in season. The book is arranged by type of food for example - Greens, Nightshades, Stonefruits, which is both beautiful and useful. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that I do find this organization a bit confusing if I want to make a whole meal. For example, the soups are spread across all of the chapters, so you need to know what your ingredients are, not that you want to make soup - but this is often how we shop at the market, so I think it will just take a bit of getting used to. Bottom line - if you love your market, you will love this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Resource for Local Cooking
Comment: As a member of a Community Supported Agriculture program, I find "Local Flavors" (along with "From Asparagus to Zucchini...") to be a fabulous resource for exploring meal options for many of the unique produce items I receive. Deborah Madison's directions are clear and easy to follow, and the pictures are mouth-watering. As a non-vegetarian living with a vegetarian, I find that Deborah Madison's vegetarian recipes produce meals that satisfy meat-eaters and vegetarians alike.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Recipies and Wonderful Pictures
Comment: Perhaps it is unsophisticated for me to enjoy pictures in cook books as much as I do - but I find it hard to cook without them. This book is full of lush vegetable and food photos. The recipies are true to the title, teaching the reader how to use ingredients from local farmers' markets and/or farm shares. The recipies range from simple to more advanced. I've already ordered more to give as gifts. This is one of the best books I've used in years. Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Farmers Market Neighbor. Very Good Read
Comment: `Local Flavors' by leading vegetarian cookbook author and teacher, Deborah Madison is quite a bit different from her most famous and critically successful book, `Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone' which I consider a candidate for top ten positioning in anyone's list of cookbooks and easily near the top of your list of vegetarian cookbooks.
As quite loudly proclaimed by the subtitle, this book is really all about regional, seasonal, and organic produce from farmers' markets. As such, it is very close to Jack Bishop's book, `A Year in the Vegetarian Kitchen', as the primary organization of chapters is a cross between the seasons and types of vegetables. This is not quite as awkward as it may seem, as most members of a particular vegetable class, such as the cabbages and the onions typically come into season at about the same time. The book may be either more or less valuable than Bishop's book, depending on how close you live to either a Farmer's Market or a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative. If either is within an hour's drive, this book will be a great resource in making the best of these organizations.
Part of my modest reaction to this book is based on the fact that I live within 10 to 40 minutes drive of seven different permanent or semi-permanent `farmer's market' organizations, and I believe but three of those seven sites' produce comes primarily from things grown by the chap behind the table, or a close family member of the chap behind the table. And, it is precisely this direct contact with the farmer that Madison believes is so valuable to the Farmer's Market experience. Even with these seven locations, the only produce from all these sites together which is truly local is the corn, the apples, the strawberries, some peaches, and some of the tomatoes. Almost all the other produce comes from Florida, California, or South America, with some summer stone fruits from the Carolinas and Georgia. So, almost everything Madison explains about getting the most out of your Farmer's Market experience is wasted on me.
Madison's most important service in this book aside from the seasonally organized recipes is the clarification of what is the value of our patronizing Farmer's Markets. It is definitely not price. I strongly concur on this, as my local corn farmer's stand charges 50% more than my favorite megamart, in spite of the fact that the stand is a mere 35 yards from the cornfields. The real values are from acquiring exquisitely fresh produce (a REALLY big issue with corn and tomatoes) which is, if so advertised, free of artificial pesticides and free of treatment by herbicides or, with chickens, treatment with growth hormones or antibiotics. Additional values accrue from the fact that while the farmer gets about 9% of the sale of the produce at the megamart, they get 100% of the sale at a Farmer's Market, less the fee to rent the stand and the time required to truck in the goods and set up the stand at some ungodly hour of the morning.
The value is also not in the acquisition of the most attractive produce. I often thought that the poor looking produce at farm stands was due to the absence of artificial fertilizer and pesticides. It turns out that the real reason may be due to the fact that the farmer is selling things at the stands that may fall below the standards of his commercial distributors.
I think Madison's second most important contribution to her readers with this book is the advice to plan to stay a fair length of time at the market to get the lay of the land and talk to the vendors and to fellow customers. I really think this is a pretty good measure of how well the producers know their stuff. Nothing turns me off of a store faster than asking a question of a salesperson and they simply have no clue of what you speak, and volunteer no opportunity to speak to the store owner or some other potential expert. This is clearly a sign that this store is not a store or stand with which I want to do business. And, I am often surprised at how few merchants are aware of this fact. Within a block of one another there are three Italian delis in Little Italy in Manhattan with very similar wares. They even look a lot alike. Two are practically empty of customers. The third, DiPalo's, is crowded enough to require you to take a number when you enter the little store. This is because the DiPalo family members behind the counter really know what they are talking about and go out of their way to be sure you get what you want.
Getting back to the book, I will suggest that you take a by on this one unless you are within acceptable driving distance of a genuine Farmer's Market. Many of the recipes and subjects are covered in much greater detail in `Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone' and, when I went to actually make one of the recipes, I found a fairly serious lapse in the instructions which neglected to tell me how to prep an onion for the cooking. If I would have followed directions literally, I would have put an unpeeled onion in a pot of hot olive oil.
On the positive side, I give Ms. Madison good marks for covering eggs and cheese and poultry in addition to the veggies. The bibliography and sources are slanted toward Farmers' Markets, but there is still a fair overlap to `Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone'.
If you are close to a Farmer's Market and fully intend to spend time there OR if you are an inveterate foodie who must have every title by important cookbook authors, then buy this book. Otherwise, buy `Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone' or `The Savory Way'.
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