Tenderheart Cover
We’re deep into summer produce season, and if you’re anything like me, you’re trying to figure out new ways to use cucumbers, summer squash, all of the green leafy things, and multicolored heirloom tomatoes. Whether you grow these varied beauties in your garden, acquire them at a farmers’ market, or drop by your local farmstead in search of the summer’s finest (we love to visit the one at Holly Hill Farm), they should be a delight to prepare and serve.
Enter Tenderheart. Organized alphabetically by vegetable, from Asian Greens to Zucchini, the book is spacious, personal, and out-of-the-ordinary. On first glance, I noticed that some of the produce pictured isn’t actually perfect: a bunch of kale sags in a vase, bits of brown just out of focus. Slender, vibrant violet eggplants are nicked in places. Having seen many cookbooks that seem to have been photographed in a magical fairyland in which garden pests are non-existent, and people never leave things in the fridge for too long, I found this refreshing.
