March 2020 Cookbooks

 

The Homestead Canning Cookbook by Georgia Varozza

Georgia Varozza has been home canning for over 40 years and is a Certified Master Food Preserver. In this book she talks about her own history with canning, gives a history of canning, how to get started, the basics of water bath and pressure canning, then lots of recipes. The recipes are divided into categories like butters/jams, pickles, tomatoes, soups/stews, etc. The last chapter is called "what went wrong" and helps home canners figure out problems or issues with their canning process or canned goods. I really like that in her introduction she gives tips on "how to fit canning into a busy life." I work full time and can a lot, especially in the summer and a lot of people ask me how I do it. But, you fit in what you want to do and what you value and food is very important to me - plus I don't want to waste all the organic produce from my garden! I really liked all the tips and information Varozza gave because it would benefit new canners or more established home canners. While I didn't find a lot of recipes I wanted to try, I would still recommend this one just because it has a lot of helpful information. But, as I always say with any canning book - it's better to take a class or learn how to can from someone experienced, not from a chapter in a book.

Start Simple: eleven everyday ingredients for countless weeknight meals by Lukas Volger

I should have realized by looking at the list of eleven ingredients that this was a vegetarian cookbook, but I didn't realize it until I started reading the introduction. While I have no problem with people who want to be vegetarian for whatever reason, I don't like it when they try to tell you that meat is the main environmental issue. Factory farmed ANYTHING is the problem. Small-scale, sustainable meat farming is not only not bad for the environment, but the meat is better for you. So, I kind of got off to a not great start with this cookbook, but I wasn't totally close-minded because I do like vegetable-based meals too. But, there just wasn't a ton of recipes that jumped out to me. And again with the pushing vegetarianism to save the planet I was kind of turned off. I did find a few recipes I want to try, but overall I would not recommend this one.