So what do kitchen gardeners do during the lazy days of summer? Well, first on the list should be enjoying the fruits of our labors in the form meals made with delicious, seasonal ingredients. Those looking for sustenance of the literary sort might want to nibble on one of these recently released books (all of which are available for purchase in our online store or at your local independent bookstore, if you still have one.

Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon (Crown Publishing). You've heard of Atkins, South Beach, and Weight Watchers, but have you heard of the “100 Mile Diet”? It's not so much a low-carb diet as a low carbon one. Co-authors Smith and MacKinnon came up with the idea after feasting on a delicious, locally-sourced meal eaten while on vacation in the wilderness of British Columbia. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives back in urban Vancouver? Every day? For a whole year? What followed was a year long adventure in local eating. The two not only survived, but lived to tell the tale.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins). If Plenty is an urban locavore's story, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is its country cousin. Kingsolver is perhaps best known for the Poisonwood Bible, her fictitious account of a missionary sent off to Africa. In her latest effort, she discovers that the truth is not only stranger than fiction, but tastes better too. Like Plenty, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is about a year-experiment in local eating, but approaches the topic from the producer's perspective as well as the eater's. Kingsolver writes about true flavors of the home garden and family kitchen and the hard, yet honest work that goes into creating them.

The Revolution will not be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz (Chelsea Green). What do slow foodies, raw food advocates, seed savers, CSA farmers and dumpster-divers all have in common? For one, they all appear in Sandor Ellix Katz's inspiring new book. The book's title is a play on The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron about the political and social turmoil of late 1960s and early 1970s. Katz sees America in a similar state of social upheaval when it comes to food. An expert in and author on sauerkraut-making, Katz describes the bubbling ferment that is the alternative American food scene.

Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck (Bloomsbury). You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl. That is one of the central themes of this popular book which challenges the conventional definition of health food. Planck left the family farm as a young woman in favor of the big city lights of New York and London. There she experimented with a number of “virtuous” urban diets (low fat, no fat, vegan, vegetarian, etc.) only to conclude that none of them made her feel particularly good. This realization led her back to her farmfare roots of real eggs, raw milk, grass-fed meats and fresh produce, traditional food roots which she argues we would all do well to rediscover.

Food Fight by Dan Imhoff (University of California Press). The Farm Bill is one of the most significant, yet least understood, pieces of legislation our country has. The Bill largely dictates who grows what crops, on what acreage, and under what conditions--all with major impacts on the country's rural economies, health and nutrition, national security, and biodiversity. As debate and wrangling over the 2007 Farm Bill intensifies, Food Fight offers an eye-opening and visually engaging overview of legislation that literally shapes our food system, our bodies, and our future.