What do you think?
Rate this book
A Year at Otter Farm
WINNER OF THE ANDRE SIMON FOOD BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2014
'Otter Farm is all about flavour. It starts and ends with the What do I really want to eat?'
The taste of a perfectly ripe mulberry was Mark Diacono's inspiration for creating Otter Farm, a unique smallholding in Devon with every inch dedicated to extraordinary produce. Sprouting broccoli, asparagus, artichokes, borlotti beans and chard flourish in the vegetable patch; quince and Chilean guava grow in the edible forest; and pigs and chickens roam freely.
Here Mark shares his colourful, beautiful recipes, all brimming with flavour and with fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit – including a warm salad of Padron peppers, cherries and halloumi, a stew made from chicken, pork and borlotti beans, a curried squash and mussel soup, and cucumber ice cream, quince doughnuts and fennel toffee apples. He charts the seasonal challenges and excitements of rural living, and offers practical advice for cultivating the best of the familiar, unusual and forgotten varieties at home. With luminous photography that captures life in the kitchen and outdoors, this ground-breaking book reveals how even the most exotic and exciting tastes can have their roots in British soil.
'Otter Farm is all about flavour. It starts and ends with the What do I really want to eat?'
The taste of a perfectly ripe mulberry was Mark Diacono's inspiration for creating Otter Farm, a unique smallholding in Devon with every inch dedicated to extraordinary produce. Sprouting broccoli, asparagus, artichokes, borlotti beans and chard flourish in the vegetable patch; quince and Chilean guava grow in the edible forest; and pigs and chickens roam freely.
Here Mark shares his colourful, beautiful recipes, all brimming with flavour and with fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit – including a warm salad of Padron peppers, cherries and halloumi, a stew made from chicken, pork and borlotti beans, a curried squash and mussel soup, and cucumber ice cream, quince doughnuts and fennel toffee apples. He charts the seasonal challenges and excitements of rural living, and offers practical advice for cultivating the best of the familiar, unusual and forgotten varieties at home. With luminous photography that captures life in the kitchen and outdoors, this ground-breaking book reveals how even the most exotic and exciting tastes can have their roots in British soil.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2014
3 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 8, 2017
Beautiful, beautiful book. A wonderful mix of prose, good solid information and stunning looking recipes. I haven't yet made any of them but I am certainly looking forward to doing so and will be including some of the more unusual growing fruits, vegetables and herbs in my plot for 2018.
September 10, 2014
This book is ravishing. I admit to some partiality only because I grew up here, and was warned frequently about the River Otter as a child, but self-indulgence aside, it's an exciting read. Beautiful photos, full of lovely recipes and a year on a mid Devon small holding full of forgotten treasures and old English wonders; mulberries, medlars, quince. And the writing is great, funny and he's clearly not a knob. Which is a relief.
August 29, 2014
A beautifully produced book combining the stories of the farms, some hard won experience and lots of recipes. I'm not going to wax poetic in the review, but it's well worth a read.
October 25, 2015
slightly discoloured by the use of 'kiwi' instead of kiwifruit.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews