The Practical Produce Cookbook

A newer canning book I found at The Stringtown Grocery, north of Kalona, Iowa, is called The Practical Produce Cookbook…How to Plant, Pick, Prepare and Preserve Produce.  Published by Ray and Elsie Hoover and their family from Stratford, Wisconsin, in 1997, it covers most garden and farmer’s market produce with plenty of recipes for preparation, growing, harvesting and preserving them.

What I like about this book are the many good recipes for almost any vegetable, including more unusual ones that Myrna and I like and remember from our Grandmother’s big garden, like ground cherries and kohlrabi.  They include one of our very favorites, ground cherry jam, which we fought over as kids.  Since they are so uncommon now, we didn’t give the recipe, but we know where you can find it!  The same is true for everything from asparagus, rhubarb, and salsify to turnips, rutabagas, and squash and in-between. 

The 332 page book, with a nice spiral binding that lays flat, includes over 800 recipes including soups, salads, sides, main dishes, breads, desserts, canning, freezing, including yields and planting instructions.

Practical Produce can be purchased very reasonably at their website at Homestead Publishers

Here are some recipes from this great book:

Home Canned Green Beans

Coleslaw to Freeze

Scalloped Corn

Sautéed Corn

Harvard Beets

Creamy Cucumber Dressing