These days, when finding a recipe, any recipe, is as easy as typing a few words into a search engine, the cookbook has to bring it.

It has to be more than just a collection of nice recipes.  It has to give more, be more, and say something compelling.

Cooking Close to Home: A Year of Seasonal Recipes, is more than just recipes.  First of all, it’s co-written by a chef and a nutritionist.  That’s a good combo.  Second, it’s a guide to the locavore movement, from a recipe perspective.  It has tips and information, “Harvest Hints,” about eating, well, close to home, how to get the most from your neighboring farmer’s markets and farmers, how to buy in season, and what to do with your haul once you get it to your kitchen.

Beautiful photos, personal anecdotes, and lots of tasty, seasonal recipes.  If you know a dedicated or aspiring locavore, this book would make the perfect gift for a housewarming, a going away present, or keep it for your own.  This is a nice book to curl up with as the cool nights give way to warmer days and the Spring produce starts to show up in gardens and markets.

The publisher of this book, Chelsea Green, wants a couple of you to have this pretty hardback for free.  If you’d like to put your name in the hat, pop over to the page they’ve set up just for our readers, and sign up for the giveaway.  Here’s the link:

Cooking Close to Home, by Diane Imrie & Richard Jarmusz, Book Giveaway