The Best Seasonal Cookbooks

If you are new to eating with the seasons, meal preparation can be challenging. The last thing you want to do is end up trashing all that fresh grown produce! Seasonal cookbooks are a treasure trove of information to help you eat your way through a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share, find new ways to use local farmer’s market produce, and figure out how to preserve your garden bounty so it doesn’t go to waste.

Seasonal cookbooks can also help you find your way in your own kitchen. Learn what flavors go well together and how to make substitutions to use what you have on hand.

Winter is an especially difficult time for local and seasonal eating since there is less fresh produce available. Meal preparation during the cold months takes a bit more thought and effort than simply whipping together a salad like I do during the other seasons. I use seasonal cookbooks to guide me through those more challenging times.

As you learn to eat with the seasons you will slowly curate your own collection of favorite recipes and meal planning becomes a lot easier.  In the meantime use this list of the best seasonal cookbooks to get you started using the produce that is available in your area each time of the year.

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Seasonal Cookbooks

Bounty From the Box – The CSA Farm Cookbook (Mi Ae Lipe)

With over 600 pages this seasonal cookbook wins the award for most comprehensive CSA resource. The author breaks down information first by season and then by fruit or vegetable. There is a good explanation of each type of produce, how to prepare it, and recipe ideas. Additionally, there is a lot of history and miscellaneous tips for cooking your way through a CSA box. If you are someone who is inspired by colorful food pictures, this is NOT your cookbook. You will find some black and white pictures and hand-drawn sketches.

The Love and Lemons Cookbook: An Apple-To-Zucchini Celebration of Impromptu Cooking (Jeanine Donofrio)

If you love drooling over beautiful food pictures, then look no further than the Love and Lemons Cookbook. It is a visual feast! From one of my favorite food bloggers comes a vegetarian cookbook that lists recipes by name of produce.  That way you can easily look for inspiration for that eggplant or artichoke that you have no idea what to do with. The author shares my passion for local, seasonal cooking.

Nourishing Traditions (Sally Fallon) 

I read my cookbooks like regular books. There is a stack on my nightstand to read through the introductions, kitchen basics, and produce descriptions. I carefully study how to layer flavors and what spices taste best with certain types of veggies. Nourishing Traditions gets a prominent spot for bedtime reading and I come back to it over and over again. There is an excellent section on nutrition as well as easy to follow ancient techniques for making veggie stock and fermenting foods. Although there are no colorful food pictures in this book, the author does include a handy catalog of vegetables with recipes. This is a must have for every seasonal cook!

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (Sarah Page, Judy Kingry, Lauren Devine)

One of the biggest challenges of home cooking with seasonal produce is that you cannot predict the weather. Different types of produce do well in dry years compared to wet and also vary with the heat. Some years you may have a bumper crop of green beans, the next tomatoes. Figuring out what to do with all that extra produce can feel daunting. On the other hand, you may intentionally want to save extra produce so you can eat local all year round. In both situations, The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving comes to the rescue. It is the most comprehensive book on safe canning. You can dream of eating your bounty in the dead of winter while also learning the basics of this age old technique.

Simply In Season Children’s Cookbook: A World Community Cookbook (Mark Beach, Julie Kauffman)

It is super important to get our children involved in cooking early on. This helps to cement healthy eating into lifelong habits. Take the next step and also teach your children the importance of eating with the seasons. This seasonal cookbook is a great resource to keep in your kitchen. The book is separated into sections by season and provides very simple kid-friendly recipes along with a lot of extra information about the fruits and vegetables that are featured. There are beautiful pictures, lots of fun food facts, and even some poems! Let’s get our children cooking with the seasons!

6 Reasons to Eat Seasonally

How to Eat the Seasons: A Complete Guide

Seasonal Food Guide: What Fruits and Vegetables are in Season?

How to Choose a CSA