The Victorian Kitchen Garden Companion

In the style of Italian Food Lovers' Book of Days, this book is divided into the 12 months of the kitchen gardener's year. It is filled with: useful lore, from preserving to pressing flowers to astrological gardening; planting, growing, harvesting and cooking tips; and advice.

Behind high redbrick walls at Chilton Foliat in Berkshire lies an extraordinary example of a traditional Victorian kitchen garden. This book traces its recent restoration from a neglected patch of weed-choked ground into a productive and well-ordered plot, cultivated with the use of Victorian tools and techniques and planted with 19th-century varieties of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The garden reflects the characteristics of the era - the inventiveness and interest in science, the constant quest for improvement and the strict social hierarchy.

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

Home is a collection of more than 200 original recipes by Stephanie Alexander. Each recipe is a finely crafted tribute to her passions and preferences for produce and flavour, and each reflects her consummate skill in communicating the fundamentals of technique. There are detailed recipes for the more ambitious home cook, but also simple ways to combine beautiful ingredients to make dishes for everyday eating. Essays on people, places and experiences offer inspiration to readers looking to deepen their knowledge and appreciation of food. Beautifully designed and photographed, Home is a celebration of the sensual and social delights of food and an essential addition to any kitchen shelf. The recipes - classic, masterful and delicious - will be cooked, shared and enjoyed for years to come. This is a specially formatted fixed-layout ebook that retains the look and feel of the print book. PRAISE FOR HOME 'Stephanie Alexander is one of the few chefs with the heart of a home cook: every recipe she writes is infused with warmth, vibrancy, and a deep understanding of the pleasures of both cooking and eating; no kitchen should be without her. And behind each of her recipes is her vast knowledge and keen intelligence, which she shares so generously and with such clarity and economy. There is really no one to match her: an enthusiast for farm-to-fork eating and a well-seasoned enthusiast with a peerless palate, she has always been both a repository of tradition and yet always ahead of her time. I bow down before her!' - Nigella Lawson

Illustrated with period drawings, engravings and colour photographs of the kitchen restored for the BBC television series on which the book is based, this is an insight into a bygone age. The upstairs/downstairs image is of maids in starched aprons overseen by an outwardly stern cook with a heart of gold, but what was life really like below stairs in Victorian times?