Photo from the Grown & Gathered website.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #00adef;”] B[/dropcap]ack in August, on our family trip to Sydney we stopped and had lunch at Some Cafe in Collector.
As we were waiting for our table I picked up a copy of the only cookbook they were selling.
It was ‘Grown & Gathered – Traditional Living Made Modern‘ by Matt & Lentil.
I couldn’t put it down.
Even though I had plenty of holiday reading already in the car, I just had to buy it.
And spent the whole holiday devouring it cover to cover.
Matt and Lentil are people after my own heart.
They love veggies, cooking things from scratch, and growing their own food.
And given they’ve supplied Melbourne restaurants with flower and vegetables, they’re much much better gardeners than me!
Speaking of gardening, if you’re interested in growing your own food, Matt & Lentil’s second book ‘The Village – Good food, gardening and nourishing traditions to feed your village‘ is a must!
Photo from the Grown & Gathered website.
It’s packed with inspirational food growing projects.
But the part I’ve found incredibly helpful are the Seasonal Planting Guides which detail what you could be planting each season. And whether to sew seeds directly into the garden, plant seedlings in the garden or start seedlings in the greenhouse.
It’s completely revolutionized my approach to planting.
Both books contain a whole host of beautiful whole foods recipes.
If you’re struggling to decide which one to get, I’ve cooked more from Grown & Gathered but have used The Village more as a gardening reference.
Both are worthy of a place in your cookbook collection. And as a minimalist I don’t say these things lightly. :)
Anyway I reached out to the lovely Lentil to answer a few questions…
3 quick questions with Lentil
1. What’s the story behind ‘The Village’? Why did you decide to write it now?
The Village – in essence, it’s about sharing. It’s about abundance. After writing the first book, we felt this was the next piece of the puzzle – living with the seasons, growing, gathering, cooking, eating – together. That is where the joy lives.
2. What’s one of your favourite simple weeknight dinners when it’s been a long day?
So many favourites from The Village, but mine would have to be the “So good salad”, it’s super adaptable, use what you have and good year round!
3. What are the 6 ingredients you would never be without?
This one is hard, as we very much move with the seasons, so as long as I have 6 seasonal ingredients I am sure I could make a meal!
But, some foundations of our cooking, that I feel I would be sad without are: really good olive oil, unrefined salt, and our passata!
If Stonesoup readers want to find out more about you, where’s the best place(s) to go?
Our books! Our story, philosophy, farming/preservation/food theory, recipes… It’s all in there!
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Have fun in the kitchen (and the garden!)
With love
Jules x