I have often thought of “foodie” as a recent coinage, linked to millennials and ever-changing fads like sous vide and lacto-fermentation. In fact, the descriptor appeared in 1980 and continues to evolve all these years later. During the COVID‑19 lockdowns, facing shuttered restaurants, many foodies left their kitchens and headed outdoors. According to a national survey, 17 percent of Canadians started growing their own fruits and vegetables in those years. Their reasons were as varied as hybrids of lilies: they had more time to till the soil, they had long-standing desires to move away from industrial agriculture (56 percent of new gardeners said this was an influence), or they wanted to reduce their environmental footprint (50 percent were in this camp). Whatever their reasons, they realized they needed some information.
Two books provide loads of it. Both delve into the...
Barbara Sibbald is a journalist and fiction writer who gets out in nature as often as possible.
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