In a Country Garden: Life at Ravenhill Farm

Pleasance Crawford is a Canadian landscape and garden-history researcher
and writer and the co-author of Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian
Garden Writing.

Nцel Richardson’s “Cooking from the Garden” columns have appeared
monthly in CityFood magazine for the past several years. This book is a
collection of 31 of these pieces, grouped according to the four seasons
and augmented, in some cases, by Richardson’s recipes and by gardening
tips supplied by her husband, Andrew Yeoman.

The setting is Ravenhill Farm on the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver
Island. Richardson and Yeoman have lived and worked there since 1979,
growing and preserving herbs, raising a mélange of animals and
vegetables, welcoming numerous visitors (including those attending
Richardson’s cooking classes), and writing three other books about
gardening and cooking. Richardson’s love of the area, its history, and
its people shines through in these essays, as does her appreciation of
wholesome (preferably organic) ingredients, good food and drink, and
favorite writers. Such a warm personality and gentle sense of humor
infuse her writing that even snowbound gardeners and confirmed urbanites
will find this book nourishing and inspiring.