Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from Americas Farmers Markets by Deborah Madison

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from Americas Farmers Markets Reviews

• 
  Rebecca

  Wow, truth in advertising, people. A seasonal market cookbook that's actually functional! I wandered into my kitchen this afternoon with the vague idea of cooking that last bunch of beets. I flipped open this book for inspiration. This method is pretty much guaranteed to end with me bookmarking a bunch of recipes that I really earnestly mean to make next time if I can ever wrangle all the ingredients into the same time and place. While I eat roasted beets for the 12948674th time. But suddenly it was hours later and I had whipped up a 3 course meal that perfectly used my farmers market odds and ends (and a friend's olive harvest.) Everything was simple and fantastic.
  
  The recipes here are so in tune with my lazy/pared-down/homestyle/clean-out-the-fridge style of cooking, but always with a fresh spin that sets it apart from anything I would cook on my own.
  
  For the record, my feast consisted of:
  Beets with their greens and Marjoram/Parsley/Olive pesto.
  Celery Root Soup with wild rice
  Japanese Sweet Potato Flan
  
  
  Next up will have to be the carrot top soup.
• 
  Bethany

  Beautiful pictures.
  
  About 5 recipes that I am very interested in.
  
  Mostly I was moderately annoyed. I was expecting a book that would give me recipes that had local seasonal ingredients. In stead, I received recipes that had one or two seasonal/local ingredients along with other ingredients that were out of season or not local.
  
  I am sure that others would love the book. It is just not what I was looking for.
  
  Ordered from B & N
• 
  Tracy

  This book is outstanding. I made the swiss chard gratin (using half chard and half spinach), and went out and planted some chard so I'd have chard to make this with in the fall and winter! Every time I come home from the farmer's market, I turn to this book to see what to do with my CSA produce. Deborah Madison is the greatest.
• 
  Rebecca Bond

  I heard of this book through Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and knew that I had to have it. We are getting most of our produce from a farm share for the first time this year and it has been such an adventure and learning process. It has been challenging, but delicious and amazing, and I have mostly stayed on top of the greens and cool weather veggies so far. But squash, which I have never been a huge fan of, has made its introduction and I know there will be more and more, and I need help. Just flipping through this book, I can’t wait to start trying recipes. I recognize lots of the produce that I have been nervous to get in the share, like fennel, endive, and kohlrabi, but also delicious looking recipes for some favorites like chard. I already love this cookbook.
• 
  Emily Crow

  Right now I am undergoing the painful process of weeding my cookbooks, which I have to do because my bookcase devoted to them is too full to accept any new ones. So anything I haven't opened up in the past few years gets reviewed, and if there aren't several recipes begging to be made, goodbye book.
  
  Unfortunately, this one didn't make the cut. I love the concept and wish I had more time to visit farmer's markets and cook from scratch, but the fact of the matter is...I don't. I go to the grocery store and cook simple stuff. This book calls for too many hard-to-find ingredients and fussy recipes for my current needs, and to be honest, most of the recipes don't really grab me, even if I had more time. I am sure that many people would love this book, but it just doesn't suit my needs.
• 
  Maureen

  Deborah Madison is probably my favorite cookbook writer. In this book she provides some great vignettes on farmer's markets and little snippets about not-so-common varieties of vegetables. There are recipes with meat in this one for those so inclined. This will be a great one to take with me to the farmer's market and meal plan around. A good companion to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle- if you liked that one.
• 
  Erika

  This actually would be handy to have around during market season. In Ohio that doesn't last all year so this book actually irritated me since I couldn't get my hands on most ingredients to make any of these drooly-looking recipes. I did however make an herbal tea and I have an herbal sugar sitting in wait, so thank you Deborah Madison. I'll have to check you out again soon.
• 
  TLP

  I'm a big fan of Deborah Madison's vegetarian cookbooks. I find her recipes creative and different. This book is mostly vegetarian with that same creativity. She is, as always, educating us on ingredients along the way...
• 
  Mayuri

  interesting and good recipes, but the ebook is terribly formatted and I had a lot of trouble reading it!!
• 
  Marjorie Elwood

  Lovely, simple recipes made with unique fruits and vegetables.
• 
  Sarah

  Way too much goat cheese. Also, quite disorganized.
• 
  Rhonda

  Recipes for a lot of ingredients I don't typically see at my Farmers Market.
• 
  Laura

  great for hard to access heirloom and foraged vegetables. a wide range of interesting recipes but feel rather hard to access
• 
  Crystal

  I have mixed feelings about this cookbook. It really is a charming book, full of homey shots of farmer's market merchandise and smiling family farmers and their families and customers. And the recipes--most of them sound delightful! some of them are a bit plain for my taste, but probably taste amazing too. The anecdotes and information gathered at the various farm markets around the country was interesting and sometimes informative as well. I love reading about the diversity of food around the country, when provided by individual farmers and producers, instead of consolidated into gigantic homogenized factory farms.
  My problem is that these recipes are EXACTLY how I'd eat if I had a choice. IF I didn't have health and dietary restrictions to my diet. Dairy and gluten intertwined with bountiful fresh produce, and just the occasional meat dish. However, gluten and dairy are not my body's friends, and so these recipes, almost all of them with dairy and/or gluten intertwined in them, feel almost cruel to me. Some of them sound so incredibly delicious, and yet very challenging to adjust to a recipe I could safely eat, if possible at all.
  So I read through all the recipes. Found 3 or 4 recipes that were simple enough and safe enough for me to try at some point, passed over the less exciting ones, and mourned for the rest that I couldn't have. I'm not sorry I read this, but I think I need to go make myself a safe treat now to comfort me. and take this book back to the library.
• 
  Maze Branch Oak Park Public Library

  We really enjoyed our tasting and discussion of Local Flavors! With the exception of one attendee who is not a fan of vegetables, we really liked most of the recipes that we tried. These included Cucumber Salad with Chile and Roasted Peanuts, Big Tomato Sandwich, Greens with Red Beans, Cilantro and Feta, White Pizza with Sage, Goat's Milk Panna Cotta and Rustic Almond Truffles with Fruit Center.
  
  We found the recipes to be written clearly for the home cook, and the accompanying text provided engaging background information into farmers markets. Using seasonally available produce made a big impact on the flavor of the recipes, and several of us used ingredients from our own gardens.
  
  Having success with more familiar ingredients has inspired us to stretch our cooking comfort zone and our plant selections for next year's gardens so that we can try more of Madison's recipes.
  
  This cookbook was a big hit!
  
  Each month we'll ask you to make two recipes from a designated cookbook: we'll choose the first recipe and ask you to make it at home; you choose the second and bring it to our discussion to share.We'll meet to discuss both recipes and to sample the one you chose. We'll have a potluck of tasty treats! This month's selection is Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, and our recipe choice is Big Tomato Sandwich. Copies of the book are available at Maze.
  When:
  Sunday, September 8, 2013 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
• 
  Jennifer

  This book has some good recipes in it, but it is nearly just as much a showcase of different farmer's markets around the country - which is less useful (but interesting nonetheless) to those of us stuck in one location. Also, the author is from the southwest. Here in Midwest farm country we don't see many avocados or mangoes at the local farmer's markets. So keep those caveats in mind when looking this one over for recipes - especially if you are trying to cook like a local-vore. I still liked the book, and will probably purchase it (hopefully I can find a used copy...) The pie crust recipe mentioned in the back is just what I had been looking for as well, so that was another selling point. (the recipe includes an egg yolk, which makes a great crust)
• 
  Mjlibrary NDSCS

  641.5973 M265
  In an attempt to eat more healthy food, many consumers are looking at ways to eat locally and seasonally. Food from local markets of locally grown food fills this bill, and it also adds more variety to the diet than one would expect. Instead of food needing to be able to be shipped across country to many markets, local markets sell unusual items that can’t handle long distance travel. The recipes here are from all over the country but the discussions for each might help make you more aware of what is available right here in the Red River Valley. At the least, the book could make you very hungry! Madison is the founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco and winner of several awards
  
• 
  Morgan

  This book is actually a 3.5. It's beautiful. It has a wonderful concept; eat fresh, local food, in season and see all this wonderful world has to offer.
  
  The problem? Well, maybe just my farmer's market. I don't know about you, but there are no morels here. Hardly ever any squash blossoms. And as for rose geranium leaves? Haven't even heard of them. I think her markets (or garden) are just a bit more varied then mine. So a lot of the receipes seem a bit far reaching. The ones with readily avaliable ingredients, well those look great. But it's not likely a cookbook I'd use on a weekly basis.
• 
  Dioscita

  Adding to my one-note-ness lately (Pollan, Kingsolver, Smith and MacKinnon) with this from Madison ... plus I love her Greens cookbook ... I'm already afraid I have to add this to the "buy it ... now!" list and am looking for a used copy (though Madison is re-releasing this book in May, 2008 for far less than the current edition costs (the new one may only be in paperback, though). Will then consider it "read" enough to move from the "currently reading" list (because how much does one truly "read" a cookbook, anyway?).
• 
  Toni

  I love this cookbook - for reading as well as for the recipes. I get so inspired each time I go through it. Indispensable during the summer months when I need a little bit of inspiration with the small mountain of produce that I bring home from the farmers' market. Sometimes you just want to try something new with that bag of Swiss chard (try the Chard and cilantro soup with noodle nests) or a quick cucumber and onion pickle recipe. There's even a chapter on eggs and cheese (must try the fried eggs with sizzling vinegar soon!) and a few recipes including beef, chicken, and lamb.
• 
  Stephanie

  I enjoyed this book from a visual point of view; it was very pretty, the photos were outstanding.
  
  The recipes looked good; some were too complex for me, but that's my failing, not the book's.
  
  Unfortunately for this Canadian reader, this book is US-based, and so things that are "local" and "in season" for the author and the various markets she visits are not at all local or in season for me. And that's too bad for me.
• 
  Cherie

  A A terrific book, full of recipes and information about cooking locally; lots of information about farmers, farming, farmers' markets; absolutely fascinating. A must for any locavore! I am so excited b/c there are TONS of recipes; I should just buy this book b/c the amt of recipes in here I want to cook is out of control. Not strictly vegetarian, but most of the recipes are. Yum yum, and oh, YUM!
• 
  Elizabeth

  I'm delighted by this cookbook. It's a good read, and the recipes seem quite doable. Most importantly, for my purposes at least, she does focus on seasonality, so while there are exceptions, for the most part recipes feature ingredients that are in season together. Hooray!
  
  Updated to add: while I genuinely enjoyed this cookbook, I kept it for two years and made maybe 2 recipes from it. It's lovely but not all that useful.
• 
  Adrianne Mathiowetz

  So far I've made the eggplant gratin from this book. Now granted, I began with the ultimate test, because I hate eggplant. But this book claimed that farmers' market eggplant is soooo much better than supermarket eggplant, and I wanted to give that a try.
  
  The census? It was absolutely delicious, except for the eggplant.
  
  Update: well, the farmers markets are all closed: but I'm looking forward to joining a CSA next April, and picking this back up.
• 
  Sarah Weichhand

  Yay!!! Cookbooks!!! I love Local Flavors!! It is a fresh food lover's dream come true! It has great recipes, but most of all, it reminds me of cooking healthy, great tasting whole food recipes for the people that I love!
  
  Check it! Check it! It also reminds me of my times with DBC Natural Holistic Health Center and my friends and fellow whole food eaters!
  
  Fav. recipe in here is the a tomato and avocado salad. Yum!