Growing in an urban space

The Side Gardener: Recipes & Notes from My Garden
by Rosie Daykin

Toronto: Appetite by Random House, 2024
$45.00  /  9780525612179

Reviewed by Rebecca Coleman

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What was your “pandemic project?”

Remember how, in the first half of 2020 when we were all advised to stay home from work, school, and social engagements, many of us took up new hobbies? Learning to make sourdough was a popular one. Folks tried learning a new language, learning to knit or crochet, cooking from scratch more… and puzzles. A lot of puzzles.

Rosie Daykin, owner of Butter Baked Goods in Dunbar (she sold the bakery in 2021) and author of three cookbooks (her ginger cookie recipe is one of my all-time faves), decided her pandemic project was going to be to finally start a garden. Boy, did she lean in.

Now, a few years later, she has both a thriving garden complete with flowers, vegetables and chickens, and a new book, The Side Gardener.

Part manual, part coffee table book, and part cookbook, The Side Gardener provides inspiration for all you urbanites who have been thinking about planting a little vegetable patch in the back yard. For Rosie, it became so much more: while it may have started as a desire to be able to live a more independent, sustainable life, the garden became a place of peace and calm during a time when our world was anything but. It brought hope to a time when things were feeling pretty dark.

The first and last parts of the book are more instructional: garden basics for those of you with brown thumbs, and a primer on chickens. The middle is recipes, and the focus is on using the produce you’re now growing in your garden. The beefiest section (as you might expect) is the one on salads, but there are also sections for snacks and appetizers, mains, sides and sweets, as well as a chapter of pantry staples.

I tested 5 recipes: Roasted Red Pepper and Cannellini Bean Salad, Red Pepper Bisque, Warm Cabbage Slaw with Apples and Fennel, Roasted Beets with Pink Grapefruit, and Rhubarb Banana Bread with Crumble.

First of all, what I appreciated about all of these recipes, is their simplicity. While I consider myself to be a pretty advanced cook, I lead a very busy life, and to be honest, I just don’t have the time or energy to make fresh pasta for dinner every night. And my guess is, most people are like me: they want to get something on the table in a relatively short period of time that’s going to be healthy, delicious, and everyone is going to like.

Most of the recipes here are heavily plant-based, as using the produce you’re growing in your garden is the focus. Many recipes use less than 10 ingredients, or if they use more, the additional ingredients are primarily garnish. The basic recipe for the Savoury Dutch Baby, for example, uses just 4 ingredients, and would make a pretty impressive brunch dish.

In a word, the recipes are accessible. Most people should be able to make them, and they don’t require any crazy ingredients you’re going to have to go all over town looking for, or special equipment you’ll pay too much for and then will just end up collecting dust.

Another thing I appreciate about these recipes is the attention to texture. Palates get bored if dishes are all one texture, and there’s a lot of thought given here to topping salads with a crunchy element, like pine nuts or curried cashews.

I simply cannot say enough about the photography in this book by Andrew Montgomery. There are a lot of photographs: both of the garden, Rosie, the chickens, and nearly every recipe. The food styling is simple and fairly rustic, which lets the actual recipes shine. There is page after page of drool-worthy dishes and vibrant colours on vintage plates. I would go so far as to say it’s worth the purchase simply for the visuals, even if you never make any of the recipes.

But you should! All of the recipes I tried were good. I was a bit hesitant about mixing rhubarb into banana bread, but hey! It was rhubarb season, so I thought I’d try it, and my taste-testers all liked it. It made for a very moist loaf. The red pepper bisque was delicious, though we all agreed it was a bit thin for a bisque. The tiny bit of heat was a nice counterpoint to the creamy coconut milk. The Roasted Beets with Pink Grapefruit reminded me of a dish from Nightingale, and both of the other salads, the warm cabbage slaw and the roasted red pepper one, were very delicious and I’d make them again.

You don’t have to be a gardener to love and appreciate The Side Gardener. I live in a downtown apartment, and I have a 5’x3’ box on the roof where I grow herbs, strawberries, salad greens, peas, beans, and zucchini. It’s pretty amazing how much you can coax out of a tiny plot of dirt, even in the middle of the city. But even if you don’t have a garden, a quick trip to your local mom-and-pop neighbourhood produce store or the farmer’s market will produce the same results. I’m looking forward to continuing to cook from this book all through the summer growing season.

Who knows? Maybe Rosie’s pandemic project will inspire you to start your own side garden.

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Rebecca Coleman is a content creator, foodie, and 2x cookbook author. She specializes in vegan/vegetarian food, and is always on the hunt for the world’s greatest donut. Rebecca lives in Vancouver, BC, with her son and their tuxedo cat. She has previously reviewed books by Desiree Nielsen, Steven Hodge, Denise Marchessault, Jillian Harris & Tori Wesszer and Jessica Schacht. Visit her website at: https://cookingbylaptop.com

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The British Columbia Review

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Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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