Marketing Books

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets

Deborah Madison

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> General AAS
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In her previous cookbooks Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and the classic Greens Cookbook, among others, Deborah Madison scored with savory yet sophisticated fare--the kind of food even meat lovers relish. Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets finds Madison shopping those havens of quality, taste, and diversity, and devising recipes based on their seasonally available bounty. Among the 350 recipes--not all vegetarian--fans will immediately recognize the Madison hand in dishes like Soft Tacos with Roasted Green Chiles, Spinach and Green Garlic Soufflé, and Winter Squash "Pancake" with Mozzarella and Sage. There's more to the book, however: "Many people still think that the farmers' market is the place you go to for cheap food," says Madison. More to the point, they're a source for "truly local and therefore truly seasonal [food], quite likely raised by sound sustainable methods and by someone who might become your friend." It's a message most readers will embrace.

The book offers chapters deftly arranged by fruit and vegetable families as they appear in the markets, such as "The Vegetable Fruits of Summer: Eggplants, Tomatoes, and Peppers" and "A Cool Weather Miscellany," which includes recipes such as Sautéed Artichokes with Potatoes and Garlic Chives and a marvelous "essence-of" soup, Elixir of Fresh Peas. Madison also treats unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, presenting the likes of lamb quarters in a soup made with Sonoma Teleme cheese, and sugar loaf chicory simply grilled and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Recipes for delightful salads like Melon Salad with Thai Basil also appear, as do a selection of pastas and risotto, such as Winter Squash Risotto with Seared Radicchio, and sweets like White Peaches in Lemon Verbena Syrup and Date, Dried Cherry, and Chocolate Nut Torte. With sidebars like Atlanta's All-Organic Market: Late October and color photos throughout of vendors, produce, and many of the dishes, the book offers the perfect match of Madison and the markets. --Arthur Boehm

Pastured Poultry Profits

Joel Salatin

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Polyface Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $21.83

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Agricultural
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Small Business & Entrepreneurship -> Home Based
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great start 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Joel does a great job overall. I'd just like to see better illustrations, especially concerning pen construction and processing the birds. I highly recommend newbies take a look at Herrick Kimball's [...]. He does a great job illustrating how to process the birds, with great pictures. Also, the homemade plucker, which he designed, is great. It plucks 3 birds in about 10-15 seconds! Now that's good stuff! But I'd highly recommend Joel's book, in spite of the poor illustrations. Maybe he should have a talk with his publisher and put out a new edition. We just did our first 50 Cornish X Rocks, largely based on his methods and it went off without a hitch...well, I accidentally ran over a couple of birds with the pen as I moved it. So, those were a couple of "hitches", but some of the little buggers just didn't want to march to my well-sung Marine Corps marching songs! Imagine that! So, the little non-hackers went off to join Colonel Sanders in a better place. Maybe he can get them to march:)

Editorial Review:

A couple working six months per year for 50 hours per week on 20 acres can net $25,000-$30,000 per year with an investment equivalent to the price of one new medium-sized tractor. Seldom has agriculture held out such a plum. In a day when main-line farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future.

"All of us interested in seeing an American rural revival should thank Joel and Teresa Salatin for going to the effort and expense to share their experiences and recommendations for pastured poultry with you." —Allan Nation, Editor, The Stockman Grass Farmer

The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

Adam Leith Gollner

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $13.76

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Agricultural
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Cooking by Ingredient -> Fruits
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Fruit

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Delicious, lethal, hallucinogenic and medicinal, fruits have led nations to war, fueled dictatorships and lured people into new worlds. An expedition through the fascinating world of fruit, The Fruit Hunters is the engrossing story of some of Earth's most desired foods.

In lustrous prose, Adam Leith Gollner draws readers into a Willy Wonka-like world with mangoes that taste like piña coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour to sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade. Peopled with a cast of characters as varied and bizarre as the fruit -- smugglers, inventors, explorers and epicures -- this extraordinary book unveils the mysterious universe of fruit, from the jungles of Borneo to the prized orchards of Florida's fruit hunters to American supermarkets.

Gollner examines the fruits we eat and explains why we eat them (the scientific, economic and aesthetic reasons); traces the life of mass-produced fruits (how they are created, grown and marketed) and explores the underworld of fruits that are inaccessible, ignored and even forbidden in the Western world.

An intrepid journalist and keen observer of nature -- both human and botanical -- Adam Leith Gollner has written a vivid tale of horticultural obsession.

Salad Bar Beef

Joel Salatin

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Polyface Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $21.94

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Subjects -> Medicine -> Veterinary Medicine -> General
Subjects -> Medicine -> Veterinary Medicine -> General AAS
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Agricultural Sciences -> Animal Husbandry -> Animal Production

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Excellent Book 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 17 people found this review helpful.

This book starts with the framework for grass finished cattle production, then looks at day to day operation, followed by some more detailed points and problem shooting, before closing with marketing. This is a great guide and an enjoyable read. I liked it better than Pastured Poultry, but both are great books for those interested in the future of the farm buisness.

Ryan

An excellent and green concept 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I recommend Salad Bar Beef to anyone in the country that wants to produce beef worth eating. Salatin is extremely open and honest about everything he does on his farm, and is very passionate about green farming.

This book does not contain simple homesteading information; it is a manual on how to maximize profits, production, and soil fertility, while decreasing disease and stress(both cattle stress and farmer stress). When I said it does not contain "simple homesteading information", I did not mean that this book is complicated. Salad Bar Beef is actually one of the easiest agricultural books to comprehend.

Although easy to comprehend, you can not by any means read this book with a conventional mind. Pretend you do not know anything, and carefully consider Salatin's points.

If you begin reading this book and get the feeling that Salatin is strong in the way he presents his points, that's because he is. Many do not like being convicted, but the truth is, if you're never convicted, you never learn. Salatin makes his views clearly seen in his books, and every one of them are good and practical. Personally, I do not like reading a book in which the author is weak in his presentation of views.

I have never read agricultural books as good as the ones that Salatin has written, and I recommend them to anyone interested in farming naturally. The books are high-priced, but worth double that. Before long I will raise poultry and cattle using Salatin's methods, using Salad Bar Beef as a manual. Too bad I can't give Salad Bar Beef six or seven stars.

American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where to Find Them

Clark Wolf

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $16.50

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Cooking by Ingredient -> Cheese & Dairy
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> Essays
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> General

Editorial Review:

In 1976, Clark Wolf ran a little cheese shop at the base of Nob Hill in San Francisco; in 1980 he became the manager of the San Francisco branch of the legendary Oakville Grocery. While the rest of America was on the verge of a decade of a morbid fear of butterfat, Wolf was looking for a source of local fresh mozzarella and newly devoted to the joys of rice flour-rubbed teleme and four-year-old Wisconsin cheddar. Today, we are all knee-deep in bocconcini and fresh goat cheese, and Wolf is a restaurant and food consultant. But glorious cheese, particularly American cheese, is still his passion.

In American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where to Find Them, Wolf gives us an in-depth look at the art and craft of cheese across the United States, and documents in words and beautiful black-and-white photographs the story of the talented and committed women and men who create this dairy ambrosia. He shares his expertise (with a touch of attitude) on how cheese is made, how to store it, and how to serve and enjoy it. Dividing the country into sections -- The Northeast and New England, The South, The Middle West, The Wild West -- he explores the cheese-making communities, discussing the kind of cheeses that are specific to each of the four sections of the country and profiling dozens of the most accomplished cheesemakers, from well-known national brands to the creators of small-batch, hand-crafted rarities. Each profile lists the kinds of cheeses available and contact information for producers and farms. At the end of each regional section is a selection of delectable recipes that showcase the best cheese of that area, from A Perfect Pimento Cheese of the American South to Blue Cheese Pralines from the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan.

Italian Cheese: A Guide To Its Discovery and Appreciation, 293 Traditional Types

Amazon Price: $19.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Slow Food Editore Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $15.54

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Cooking by Ingredient -> Cheese & Dairy
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Reference
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> European -> Italian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Slow Food is sweeping the nation, at a snail’s pace. This international organization was started in Italy by people who perceive McDonald’s as the symbol of a society that is overshooting its own limits. The greatest loss of all is the pleasure of eating foods that are made without the restrictions of time.
Many of the cheeses portrayed in this delightful book—stracciata, giuncata, formaggio di fossa, formaggetta della valle Argentina—are not household names and they probably never will be. They’re a few of the 201 traditional Italian farmhouse cheeses lovingly described in this new book from Slow Food International as a “contribution to the conservation of a vast heritage of local products, born of Italy’s extraordinarily varied landscapes, natural environments, dairy breeds, and cheesemaking techniques.”
Starting with illustrated descriptions of traditional and industrial cheesemaking, Slow Food’s authors take us through the processes of buying, tasting, and storing cheeses. Dictionaries of tasting terms and the language of cheeses and cheesemaking provide essential preludes for the heart of this book—descriptions of Italy’s farmhouse cheeses, traditionally made from cow’s, ewe’s, and goat’s milk.
Organized by region and accompanied by elegant color photographs, each description covers how the cheese is made and matured, along with historical and geographic nuggets.
Written by people in love with farmhouse cheeses, and with everything small, local, slow, and traditional foods and food systems represent, this is an informative and hopeful book, celebrating a rich, rural European tradition. This book will make you start packing your bags for a cheese lover’s tour of Italy.

Olive in California: History of an Immigrant Tree

Judith Taylor MD

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> California
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Thorough and affectionate 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Those of us who have enjoyed California olives for a long time will read many previously unknown facts about this complicated and risky agricultural pursuit.

Dr. Taylor has obviously spent long hours and many miles in her research of the subject. The Bibliography alone consumes 20 pages! Furthermore, there are 10 pages of Acknowledgements.

The end result is a comprehensive chronicle of olives in California with a strong emphasis on ripe olive processes (both olive oil and pickled in cans). Her writing style reflects a love of the subject.

Editorial Review:

A symbol of peace, strength, and nourishment, the olive tree has been imbued with a sense of history, place, and charm since its earliest cultivation in the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. From the first Spanish ships to touch California's shores to the rise of a thriving industry with hundreds of olive growers and oil makers, this text traces the path of this sturdy, life-giving tree as it developed into a California agricultural phenomenon. With a foreword by Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California, Dr. Taylor's book is endorsed by the California Historical Society.

Cash from Square Foot Gardening

Mel Bartholomew

List Price: $9.95 By: Storey Books Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $2.49

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Marketing & Sales -> General AAS
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Reference
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Vegetables

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Wonderful and workable idea 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 18 people found this review helpful.

A very practical approach to using your garden to make money. Anyone can do it, as long as there are people to feed near you! Don't hesitate to grab this book as soon as possible if you dream of selling your crops for cash.

Enjoyed the book, rather helpful 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Mel Bartholomew wrote a very helpful book for a beginning gardener. Even without using the money making guides, it still provides plenty of information about the square foot gardening system.

Editorial Review:

In his best-seller, Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew showed gardeners his revolutionary system of planting in square foot sections to boost vegetable yields. Now in his follow-up, Mel tells you everything you need to know to be a successful square foot gardener. Earn $5,000 or $10,000 or even $20,000 per year - even with limited time and space.

This book takes the Square Foot method beyond normal home use and shows how to produce an ABUNDANT HARVEST for profit, to feed a large family, or to provide food and/or business experience for a group or institution.

The Fruits of Natural Advantage: Making the Industrial Countryside in California

Steven Stoll

Amazon Price: $50.00 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of California Press Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $25.00

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Agricultural
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Economic History
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Production & Operations

Editorial Review:

The once arid valleys and isolated coastal plains of California are today the center of fruit production in the United States. Steven Stoll explains how a class of capitalist farmers made California the nation's leading producer of fruit and created the first industrial countryside in America. This brilliant portrayal of California from 1880 to 1930 traces the origins, evolution, and implications of the fruit industry while providing a window through which to view the entire history of California. Stoll shows how California growers assembled chemicals, corporations, and political influence to bring the most perishable products from the most distant state to the great urban markets of North America. But what began as a compromise between a beneficent environment and intensive cultivation ultimately became threatening to the soil and exploitative of the people who worked it. Invoking history, economics, sociology, agriculture, and environmental studies, Stoll traces the often tragic repercussions of fruit farming and shows how central this story is to the development of the industrial countryside in the twentieth century.

Marketing of Agricultural Products (9th Edition)

Richard L. Kohls, Joseph N. Uhl

Amazon Price: $96.00 List Price: $120.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $63.98

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Reference -> Shopping & Commerce
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General

Editorial Review:

For beginning-level food marketing courses in departments of agricultural economics. Marketing of Agricultural Products has provided instructors a comprehensive and balanced treatment of food marketing systems since its introduction in 1955. It blends marketing and economic theory with real world analytical tools in order to assist students in better understanding the food system and making profitable marketing decisions.