Why buy it?
Hunter, grower, gatherer, cook, and blogger, Anderson delivers an antidote to our modern reliance on artificial convenience with this handbook for living self-sufficiently. As the bullets on the beautifully rustic cover suggest, this book isn’t a proposition for the squeamish. It’s not all blood and fur on the chopping block, either, but this is a guide to living off the land and, for Anderson at least, killing your own meat is a far less sinister than buying factory-farmed animals. If you’re inclined to give this way of life a try, Whole Larder Love is full of useful information for the responsible hunter, from obtaining licences to finding out about the laws in your area. Of course, many of us don’t have access to grassy fields hopping with wild rabbits ripe for the pot, but choosing to eat with minimal interference between the land and your stomach can begin even on a small balcony. You’ll find gardening tips, such as what to grow and when, as well as guidance on foraging. There are lovely, rich recipes that look alive with flavour and goodness, such as the furred game and kale cannelloni, made with happy, free-living rabbit you’ve skinned yourself, and beachcomber’s pasta made with fistfuls of molluscs found at the beach. There are also tips for making your harvest last through the winter with pickling, curing and storing. Whether everything in this book is achievable in your lifestyle or not, it’s still a great cookbook and presents an idea that’s well worth doing your best to accommodate where you can.
Cookability
The recipes themselves are simple, but the measurements aren’t precise. They’re given as more of a guide, which can be frightening for novices. But if you’re willing to kill and skin your own hare, you’re likely to be okay with winging it a little on the measurements.
Must-cook recipe
Field-foraged ragu. There’s a lot of pasta in this cookbook, but these ribbons of pasta clinging to the wild mushroom sauce is true edible comfort.
Most surprising dish
Gardener’s payback paella. A humble paella topped with your common garden snail. Are we really going to eat these land-dwelling crustaceans leaving silvery trails on the garden path? Yes we are, just be sure to purify your snails for a week on a diet of washed lettuce before eating!
Kitchen wisdom
Although Anderson has taken steps in his own life to live a back-to-basics, peasant lifestyle, he’s a realist and understands we don’t all have the luxury of picking up a rifle and shooting our own dinner. And that’s what makes Whole Larder Love such a lovely book; it’s not preachy, you can merely use what works in your life and leave the rest.
Ideal for
People fed up with being, what Anderson calls, "food victims" – dictated to by big-business supermarkets and exclusive farmers’ markets. If you want to eat locally grown and sourced produce at a reasonable price, pick up Whole Larder Love and have a go at creating your own food.
Recipes from Whole Larder Love by Rohan Anderson, with photographs by Rohan Anderson (Viking, $29.99).
Portrait photography by Kate Berry.
