Very nice cookery book from the design to the recipes .... Of course I haven't tried everything yet. My daughter likes it, I gave it to her as a present and she is a demanding and ambitious cook :)

Some of the recipes are a little elaborate or contain ingredients that are not very common, but if you like cooking and trying out new things, you will enjoy them. I am thrilled!

The author grew up in Ontario on her parents' two-acre property, and from an early age was out and about in the garden, helping in her parents' farm shop and earning a little pocket money harvesting and later selling the garden produce. Her mother and grandmother prepared healthy and wholesome meals from the garden produce. To finance her tuition fees for her degree in environmental ethics, she worked as a waitress in a restaurant. A year later, she enrolled on a nutrition management course. She worked for a Canadian "farm to fork" chef. Her training, as in every restaurant she has worked in and still works in today, took place virtually in real time. She says: "In this time-pressured, passionate environment, I learnt one thing: you are never too qualified or too experienced to slice a basket of pears, scrub a stack of pots or show empathy for an unhappy guest when you serve other people for a living. Because if you want to inspire and enrich others, these monotonous and sometimes frustrating tasks are simply part of the job. The everyday hard work gives meaning and substance to all the greatness you can achieve with food." She also learned about the eating habits of people and families when she volunteered in a community youth programme on cooking and nutrition education. She gave workshops to teenagers on preparation and handling and felt the openness and enthusiasm for the real, healthy, home-cooked food that reminded her of her own childhood. She goes on to say that eating and living plant-based gives her more energy, a new love of cooking, inner clarity and a higher purpose in everything she does. And: "My vegetable garden makes us eat well and it also makes me a better person." The book begins with the chapter on the larder and kitchen equipment, shows ideas for a quiet short breakfast but also longer sociable weekend brunches, gives inspiration for soups and stews, brings a great variety of salads and dressings, convinces with hearty main courses and sumptuous meals, but also smaller meals with vegetables and grains, invigorating drinks, small snacks and desserts and small delicacies. It is a firework of colours that open up, the love for the vegan diet and for the food in her garden that the author makes visible here. With a few exceptions, the book avoids gluten and uses natural sweeteners. Her recipes are full-flavoured, nutritious and filling, using cooked, baked and raw foods as well as fermentation and spice preparations. In each recipe, the author provides a glimpse into her everyday life and describes her motivations. The recipes are not complicated, but versatile and varied and are real eye-catchers. I was also guided by the title "Wild & Vegan" when choosing the book. Wild is meant here in a different sense than wild herbs. But that doesn't detract from the book. The colourful and varied variety and the many different preparations will make the heart of any true vegan or passionate food gardener beat faster and it's not just these two who will definitely enjoy the recipes here.