SIMPLY PRODUCE

McInnes provides an informative primer on vegetables and fruits.

In her preface, the author writes that she’s spent 25 years gathering “tidbits of useful information from a variety of sources on how to make the most of my fruits and vegetables.” The result is a detailed guide to buying, caching, and preparing produce. McInnes provides the reader with an overview of general topics, including peak seasons, tips on selecting produce, necessary supplies for working with produce, storage principles, cooking methods for vegetables, and freezing methods for fruits. The author goes on to discuss every vegetable and fruit typically found in a North American grocery store, with a section on each containing information about the item’s availability, warning signs to watch out for, storage options, preparation ideas, and applicable cooking or freezing methods. McInnes’ enthusiasm for produce shines throughout, and her facts and tips are generally engaging and helpful, such as her advice to store scallions standing up and to avoid keeping onions with potatoes. The text lacks professional polish at times, containing repeated images, the occasional typographical error, an overabundance of semicolons, and questions that go unanswered. The author writes, “Eating a mango before bedtime will help lull you into a deep, quality night’s sleep,” an intriguing fact that will surely prompt readers to ask, “Why?” But the book does not provide an answer. In addition, the author’s decision to discuss cooking suggestions for vegetables but to only provide freezing instructions for fruits (with the exception of oranges, which, she notes, can be juiced) ignores the fact that many fruits can be juiced, stewed, and/or baked. Nevertheless, this extremely practical guide would make an excellent side dish for a more theoretical book about plant-based eating, such as Alicia Kennedy’s No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating(2023).

A tasty, instructive, but somewhat underdone guide to successfully eating your fruit and vegetables.