8 New Books We’re Reading this Spring

In A Woman’s Guide to the Wild, geologist and outdoor enthusiast Ruby McConnell gives women the tools (and confidence) to safely navigate the backcountry solo. Tips run the gamut from first aid and camp setup to shopping for the ideal sports bra. ($19, Sasquatch Books)

Inspired by the content and design of 19th-century merchant Thomas Etty’s seed catalogs, Heirloom Plants, written by garden historian Lorraine Harrison, offers fun facts, detailed descriptions, and growing advice for nearly 500 heritage vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. ($30, Ball Publishing)

Mother Earth News Almanac, the back-to-the-land bible of hippie homesteaders in the 1970s, has been revised and updated – but it’s still filled with quirky line drawings and thrifty wisdom on hundreds of farm topics. ($20, Voyageur Press)

Gorgeous images alternate with recipes from top local chefs like Greg Higgins and Naomi Pomeroy in Ellen Jackson’s Portland Farmers Market Cookbook, which pays homage to the devoted food tribe that makes this year-round agora one of America’s best and most vibrant. ($28, Sasquatch Books)

Aussie chef Guy Turland and filmmaker Mark Alston became viral YouTube darlings after posting beachy, guerrilla-style cooking videos of camp-stove meals. The business partners keep the momentum going with an exuberant new cookbook, Bondi Harvest, packed with lush lifestyle spreads and healthy-yet-indulgent recipes – think salami-studded chicken salad (below) and citrusy pork tacos with apple slaw – from their eponymous Sydney restaurant. ($30, HarperCollins)

Kate Sears

Written by Ohio chef Cara Mangini, one of the first official “vegetable butchers” at Eataly in Manhattan, The Vegetable Butcher features more than 150 tasty, produce-centric recipes, plus step-by-step instructions for peeling tomatoes, dicing chard, and prepping fiddlehead ferns. ($30, Workman)

In The Bio-Integrated Farm permaculture expert Shawn Jadrnicek explains how to grow more efficiently and sustainably with free resources like wind, sun, convection, and gravity, and gives in-depth intel on designing bio-integrated greenhouses, rainwater-harvesting systems, and more. ($40, Chelsea Green)