I have an admission to make which is that this book went over to the neighbours who are Passionate Pickle Makers. I think it may have been returned somewhat reluctantly but they also kindly returned it with jars of Tomato Kasundi, Moroccan Peach Chutney, Onion Marmalade, Bread and Butter Pickles and Mexican Tomato Sauce. No you can not have these neighbours for yourself but you can go and buy this excellent recipe book.

The bottom line is that good home made preserves taste a great deal better than store bought versions and this New Zealand publication will whet your appetite to get into all manner of tasty preserves, both savoury and sweet. The recipes are straightforward and they work well (so I am told). I can vouch that they taste delicious.

The typeface is large; the photos by James Ensing-Trussell are mouth watering; the book opens flat which makes it easy to use. I felt mean taking back ownership of the review copy but there are options for all year round and I intend to try many more as time allows. Anyone for hot lime pickle, orange slices in star anise syrup, sticky date jam (soaked in hot tea and vanilla) or pickled pears? Some recipes are a delicious new take on old classics with interesting and appetising flavour combinations. Preserves are a great way to lift a plain meal or to make cheese and crackers more appealing. The seventy or so recipes in this book may be all you will need for the next decade. This book is worth owning and I will be buying another copy for my daughter.

Author: Susan Johnston
Publisher: Wakefield Press ($45.00)

I suspect the author sees herself as the Australian Mrs Beeton of the new millennium. It is a curious book, full of recipes that I am unlikely to use but nevertheless an interesting read. It certainly has its roots in the slow food, wild food, Farmers’ Market and organics schools of thought but not vegetarian. Not at all.

It is a recipe book – there are 200 recipes organised by seasons – but also a lifestyle book. The Australian whanau home for Christmas were a bit stunned by the recipe for cockatoo – it does not feature on Aussie dinner plates and step one must be to get a licence to shoot them. Nor will we be killing the resident quail in our garden to eat them, let alone any pheasants or guinea fowl that pass by. It is possibly the first book I have seen to give a recipe for Bird in Bird. Henry VIII’s version started with a swan and went down in concentric layers to a lark. Mrs Johnston’s version which I suspect she made once only in 1993, was a turkey stuffed with a guinea fowl stuffed with a partridge which contained a snipe – all except the snipe were boned out in case you are wondering. A snipe, we are told, has a good gamey taste of rotten liver. Charming.

The author has a walnut farm so there are a reasonable number of recipes for walnuts though I can’t imagine peeling the fresh nuts (she does say it takes an unbelievably long time and is rather tedious) to make the pasta with green walnut sauce. Chemistry daughter was horrified at the recipe for Nocino (walnut liqueur) which instructs one to go the chemist and procure 90% alcohol. She told me I must point out that pharmaceutical alcohol is made in a laboratory and, as far as she understands, is not deemed as fit for human consumption. Use vodka, not pure alcohol.

But there is a charm to this book, based on the principles of using local, seasonal produce and many of the recipes are easily managed. It has both an international and an historical flavour (she is a classics graduate who has travelled and lived overseas). It is a personal journey and if you relate to the author, you may love the book and the recipes though you will likely find the inadequate index irritating.

The illustrations are charming contemporary lithographs which add to the olde worlde slow food ambience and the publishers are to be commended on the nicely bound, hard back presentation which is often sadly lacking in books published in this country these days.

Authors: Alison Main and Newell Platte
Publisher: Wakefield Press (Price Unknown)

Every now and then a gem of a book turns up for review and this is one. Japanese gardens are a unique identity, resolutely spurning most international gardening influences in favour of symbolism and allusion which can appear austere, stark even, to the uninitiated. Over a number of visits throughout the seasons, the Australian authors have tracked down 120 gardens the length and breadth of the country which took them well beyond the better known gardens featured in most publications.

At one level it is a travel guide and each garden is given one page and one photograph only, with brief and practical advice on how to find them. Other snippets of travel advice are included. The section on Japanese business hotels is very charming.

But it is not just a travel guide. It also gives the historical context for each garden (the different periods for Japanese gardens are an integral factor) and it decodes the symbolism without rendering the whole mystique merely mundane.

Even if you are never likely to go garden visiting in Japan (and it would take real stamina to get to 120 of them) this is a delightful book which gives an insight into the self contained world of Japanese gardens. Anybody who is interested in international gardening would enjoy having this book on their shelves.

Author: Dennis Greville
Publisher: New Holland, $34.99

Subtitled “How to grow delicious vegetables and herbs in New Zealand”, this new publication by Christchurch writer Dennis Greville is a large format, colourful and appealing guide for the beginner vegetable gardener. Home grown produce is probably the single biggest gardening craze at the moment and while there is a wealth of information around, it is not always easy to know where to start. You could do worse than starting with this book.

The first 40 pages have basic information – soil preparation, sowing seed, organic spray recipes and the like, followed by 90 pages of alphabeticised listings of most popular vegetables and herbs and then a short month by month guide. So it is the one to two page spread on each of 60 crops which is the bulk of the book. It is not without fault or omission – how far apart to place the plants is not always included (and that is really basic info), nor is the length of growing season always given. There is little detail on successional plantings. But that said, it is a practical, hands-on book with mouthwatering photography written for New Zealand conditions. Despite the publisher’s hype, I would call it a book for the learner or the beginner. Once you have been motivated to master the basics and enjoyed the initial harvests, you probably move on to the less pictorial but more comprehensive Yates Guide.