My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I fell in love with this book as soon as I received it. It’s beautiful inside and out, if feels substantial and well made in your hands, I love the stories wove throughout the book, and the recipes are so enticing! Pasta with a Rich Mushroom Ragout, Root Vegetables with Orange Thyme Butter, Ham Hock and Apple-Thyme Pies, Rabbit Stew with Seasonal Vegetables, Whiting with Earl Grey Tea Citrus Sauce, Orchard Apple and Pear Pie…are you drooling yet? Wait til you start flipping through, salivating over the gorgeous photos, and then you actually start to cook!!

Beef and Stout Stew with Parsley Dumplings was excellent. I do not buy stout, but I had some homemade bone broth that I substituted for it with a dash of red cooking wine, and it was delicious! Anzac Biscuits are a classic. We love them around here!

The book is divided slightly differently than I’ve seen before, and I really liked it. The Chapters are: The Salad Bowl, The Veggie Patch, Larder and Pantry, The Potato Patch, Gathering and Foraging, The Soup Pot, The Flock, The Herd, The Piggery, Birds and Bunnies, Catch of the Day, The Orchard, Jam Time, Baking Day, A Good Tea Table, The Dairy and Christmas. Combined with a good index, it is very easy to find what you’re looking for whether it’s a specific recipe, a specific ingredient, or just a category.

This book is a delight to read and to cook from. I do not think you have to be an expert cook to enjoy this book as there are recipes ranging from super easy to more complex. I highly recommend it to anyone.

I received a copy of this book from Murdoch Books through IPG for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.