Harvest, Recipes from an Organic Farm. Christine Stevens with Russel Wasserfall.

This cookbook is the story about a families journey from Cape Town city life to the good life on an organic farm.

The author believes that fresh ingredients are at the core of good food. What she discovered in a short period of time after arriving on the farm, was that real organic farming, without chemicals, pesticides and artificial fertilisers, is an incredible challenge on every level.

Fresh fennel.

After deciding that they wanted to run the farm in a traditional organic way the first two years were all about pulling weeds and carting manure around the place.

It was only in the third year that everything began to fall into balance.

Life settled into a rhythm.

For Christine it’s all about the pleasure of plucking the first warm peach from a tree and yearning for the first tomatoes.

She says the smile on her sons face as he shoves a huge slice of strawberry tart into his mouth is the reward.

Oh, and by the way, Christine has a tomato obsession. Her favourites are beefsteak and marmande.

What really makes this cookbook unique is that a lot of the recipes revolve around the food grown on the farm. The families eating and cooking patterns are in tune with nature and change with the seasons. The recipes are tasty and earthy, simple organic food. Real food for real people.

The photography is by Russel Wasserfall. Simple, stunning, unadorned images, in complete harmony with Christine’s philosophy.

And the recipes? Oh my, the recipes. Tomato salsa, onion soup, roasted roots, sage mash, ratatouille, fennel chicken, spinach and anchovy tart, trout fish cakes, strawberry tart with

Sam Steven's Jack Russell waits expectantly for a scrap.

I’m not going to make a secret of the fact that this is my kind of food. This is the type of food I love to eat.

Harvest really resonated with me. I’m slowly going to work my way through the recipes and of course my challenge will be to source great ingredients.

Christine, as you can imagine, has them all on her doorstep.

Harvest, Recipes from an Organic Farm.  By Christine Stevens, with Russel Wasserfall.

Jacana Publications.

Price R249.