Book Review | The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-To-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle
Jennifer McGruther
The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-To-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle
Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA 2014
Which sounds healthier and more enjoyable: a meal of restricted carbohydrates and fats, or a meal made from fresh seasonal ingredients harvested locally? The way our food is produced and prepared contributes to our body’s nourishment, and also to the nourishment of our families and our communities. Local food advocate Jennifer McGruther understands this connection and in The Nourished Kitchen she celebrates back-to-basics cooking that forgoes packaged foods and restrictive diets. Instead, she embraces the foods and cooking methods of our grandparents and great grandparents, the foods of local farms and backyard gardens. Based on the Traditional Foods Movement that grew out of research by Weston A Price, this focus on real ingredients includes learning to prepare raw cultured dairy such as kefir and yogurt, probiotic-dense fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kombucha, and vitamin and mineral rich organ meats. With 160 inviting recipes there is something for everyone: Maple Glazed Root Vegetables with Orange and Thyme, Roasted Lamb with Leeks and Potatoes, and a tempting Portugal Cake that includes a pound each of butter, almonds and sugar, so don't eat the whole cake!
Gail Lord is a freelance writer living in Massachusetts. Please send book review copies to 51 North Street, Grafton, MA 01519 or email socbookreviewer@gmail.com.
