The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn A Review

ABOUT THE BEE-FRIENDLY GARDEN

For every gardener who cares about the planet, this guide to designing a bee garden helps you create a stunningly colorful, vibrant, healthy habitat that attracts both honeybees and native bees.

In The Bee-Friendly Garden, award-winning garden designer Kate Frey and bee expert Gretchen LeBuhn provide everything you need to know to create a dazzling garden that helps both the threatened honeybee and our own native bees. No matter how small or large your space, and regardless of whether you live in the city, suburbs, or country, just a few simple changes to your garden can fight the effects of colony collapse disorder and the worldwide decline in bee population that threatens our global food chain. There are many personal benefits of having a bee garden as well! Bee gardens:

· contain a gorgeous variety of flowers
· bloom continuously throughout the seasons
· are organic, pesticide-free, and ecologically sustainable
· develop healthy and fertile soil
· attract birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects
· increase the quantity of your fruit and vegetable harvest
· improve the quality, flavor, and size of your produce

Illustrated with spectacular full-color photos, The Bee-Friendly Garden debunks myths about bees, explains seasonal flower progression, and provides detailed instructions for nest boxes and water features. From “super blooming” flowers to regional plant lists and plants to avoid, The Bee-Friendly Garden is an essential tool for every gardener who cares about the planet and wants to make their yard a welcoming habitat for nature’s most productive pollinator.


Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press (February 9, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1607747634
ISBN-13: 978-1607747635
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

KATE FREY is an international garden designer and consultant specializing in sustainable, insect-hospitable landscaping and small farms. She won two gold medals at the Chelsea Garden Show in London for ecologically themed gardens and is a popular speaker at garden shows and clubs. She has written for Gardens Illustrated and Pacific Horticulture magazines, and lives in Hopland, CA. Learn more at freygardens.com.

GRETCHEN LEBUHN is a professor of biology at San Francisco State University and the author/editor of two books on pollinators, Field Guide to the Common Bees of California and Attracting Native Pollinators. She is the founder and director of The Great Sunflower Project (www.greatsunflower.org), a national citizen science program designed to gather information about bee diversity and activity.

MY REVIEW

  The Bee-Friendly Garden is an amazing book. Full of useful information for the gardener and lovers of fruits, flowers and trees.
  Some of the chapter titles are Plants for Your Bee-Friendly Garden, Bee Garden Basics, Designing Your Bee Garden.
   You will learn about the different kinds of bees and what they like and don’t like in a garden. What plants they pollinate.
  I was amazed at two pictures in this book which told about the produce choices with bees and produce choices without bees.  An remarkable difference. It would be a very bland earth without bees.
  I think this book is so good to help us realize we need our bee friends. God put them on the earth for a reason and they should remain.
  In the back of this book it tells of different projects you can join and gives you a great list of recourses. A great book to have in any library.

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Thanks to WaterBrookMultnomah for providing this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

The New Sugar & Spice by Samantha Seneviratne A Review

ABOUT THE NEW SUGAR & SPICE
Raise your desserts to a whole new level of flavor with The New Sugar & Spice, a collection of more than eighty unique, unexpected, and uniformly delicious recipes for spice-centric sweets. Veteran baker Samantha Seneviratne’s recipes will open your eyes to a world of baking possibilities: Her spicy, pepper-flecked Chile-Chocolate Truffles prove that heat and sweet really do go hand-in-hand, and a fresh batch of aromatic, cinnamon-laced Maple Sticky Buns will have the whole family racing into the kitchen.

Discover new recipes from around the globe, such as Sri Lankan Love Cake or Swedish-inspired Saffron Currant Braid. Or, give your classic standbys a bold upgrade, such as making Raspberry Shortcakes with zingy Double Ginger Biscuits. Filled with fascinating histories, origin stories, and innovative uses for the world’s most enticing spices—including vanilla, cinnamon, peppercorns, and cardamom —The New Sugar & Spice guarantees that dessert will be the most talked-about part of your meal.

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press (September 8, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1607747464
ISBN-13: 978-1607747468
Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.9 x 10.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SAMANTHA SENEVIRATNE is a New York–based food writer, recipe developer, and food stylist. She is a graduate of the International Culinary Center and has worked as a food editor in the test kitchens of Good Housekeeping, Fine Cooking, and Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. She blogs about dessert at Love, Cake (Lovecommacake.com).


MY REVIEW
Amazing cookbook that I find very interesting. The different chapters include Peppercorn, Chili, Cinnamon, Nutmeg so on. Every Spice you can think of.
In each chapter there are over ten recipes. You won’t believe all of the different recipes you can have from spices.
At each chapter you will find out how different spices were discovered, where they come from like the bark of a tree, seeds or leaves.
Many Baking tips, equipment and ingredients for you to read about and use. A very handy cookbook, but very different. Very good ideas and the recipes will make you a hit at any gathering or party.


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Thanks to WaterBrookMultnomah for providing this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

The Blender Girl Snoothies by Tess Masters A Review

ABOUT THE BLENDER GIRL SMOOTHIES

A beautiful collection of vegan smoothies from powerhouse blogger The Blender Girl, featuring photographs, flavor boosters, and nutritional add-ons for every recipe.

The Blender Girl takes smoothies to the next level in this comprehensive guide, helping you blast your way to good health and blended bliss. These 100 creative and delicious recipes are designed to fit your every need, whether you want to detox, lose a few pounds, get energized, or guard against seasonal colds. Each smoothie has three optional boosters (like chia seeds, ginger, coconut oil, or wheat grass) that allow you to ramp up flavor, nutrient value, or both. Featuring gorgeous photography throughout, a smoothie pantry that demystifies unusual ingredients, icons to identify smoothies that fit your particular dietary needs, and strategies for achieving smoothie success, this accessible handbook makes it fun and easy to find your perfect blend.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press; Reprint edition (June 30, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1607748932
ISBN-13: 978-1607748939
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Australian-born TESS MASTERS is a writer, actor, voiceover artist, and self-professed blendaholic. She shares her enthusiasm for healthy living at theblendergirl.com.

As a presenter and recipe developer, Tess collaborates with leading food, culinary, and lifestyle brands. She has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Real Simple, Thrive, Vegetarian Times, Living Without, Allergic Living, and New Idea; and online for Today, Shape, Glamour, Food Network, Parents, and Chow, among other publications and websites.

Away from the blender, Tess enjoys a diverse performance career. She has toured internationally with stage productions, worked in film and television, and lent her voice to commercial campaigns, audiobooks, and popular videogame characters. Tess and her partner, Scott Brick, live in Studio City, California, with their West Highland white terrier (and blender-cuisine maven), Cookie.

MY REVIEW
  The Blender Girl Smoothies is an excellent book. The recipes, ingredients and photos are very professional.
  Each recipe of course tells you the ingredients and also what can go with this smoothie to boost it even more. Each one is very healthy and good, but with the extra boost it is even more so.
  Above the recipe Tess Masters tells you what the smoothie will help you with and gives you a little extra advice to help with your health and well being. Also you will find at the end of the recipe the nutritional facts that we all like to know.
  If I didn’t think the recipes were so delicious sounding the pictures would win me over. Crisp, clear and may I say delicious looking pictures.
  You will find smoothie recipes for your immunity, weight loss, detoxifying, energizing and protein.
  The last chapter is called the Smoothie Pantry. It tells you all about tons and tons of fruits, vegetables that you can use to make nutritious and delicious smoothies.
  Love this book and know you will also. A recipe book that you will love and your body will thank you for it. Highly recommended.

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Thanks to WaterBrookMultnomah for providing this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255