The Gardening Chef Field Guide Library
Practical garden-to-kitchen guides. One plant, countless possibilities.
A growing collection of field guides for cooks, gardeners, preservers, and anyone who wants to grow with purpose. Each guide helps you understand one crop, ingredient family, or preservation system more deeply—how to grow it, cook it, store it, preserve it, and use it well.
Browse the library. Pick a guide. Follow the harvest.
Featured Field Guides
Types of Onions and Alliums
Garlic, Shallots, Leeks, Scallions, Chives & More
The onion family is the foundation of countless meals. This guide helps you choose which alliums to use raw, cooked, stored, grown first, preserved, and layered into deep garden-to-kitchen flavor.
The Pepper Library
Sweet Peppers, Hot Peppers, Dried Chiles & More
Peppers are one of the garden’s most versatile flavor crops. This guide follows them from fresh to roasted, dried, powdered, fermented, and preserved so you can build better meals and pantry value.
Types of Tomatoes
Cherry, Grape, Slicer, Paste, Heirloom & More
Tomatoes are not one ingredient. This guide helps you choose the right tomato for slicing, snacking, sauce, roasting, drying, preserving, and building meals around the harvest.
Garden-to-Kitchen Guides
Herb Flavor Multiplier Guide
Fresh Herbs, Flavor Pairings, Garnishes, Sauces & More
Herbs do more than decorate a plate. This guide shows how basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, parsley, and chives can multiply flavor, brighten meals, and connect the garden directly to the kitchen.
Squash and Cucumber Abundance Guide
Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Cucumbers, Pickles & More
Squash and cucumbers can overwhelm a garden fast. This guide helps you turn abundance into fresh meals, pickles, storage crops, simple preservation, and smarter kitchen planning.
Garlic Field Guide
Cloves, Scapes, Storage, Roasting, Flavor & Garden Value
Garlic is one of the most valuable crops in the kitchen garden. This guide follows garlic from planting and scapes to curing, storage, roasting, preservation, and the deep flavor it brings to everyday meals.
Potato Field Guide
Baking Potatoes, Waxy Potatoes, Fingerlings, Storage & More
Potatoes are one of the most practical crops a garden can grow. This guide helps you understand potato types, kitchen uses, harvest timing, storage value, and how this humble crop becomes a foundation for filling meals.
Beans and Peas Field Guide
Snap Beans, Shell Beans, Dry Beans, Garden Peas & More
Beans and peas turn a garden bed into a source of fresh meals, freezer staples, dried pantry food, and soil-building value. This guide helps you understand which legumes to grow, when to harvest them, and how to use them from vine to kitchen.
Leafy Greens and Bitter Greens Guide
Lettuce, Kale, Chard, Mustard Greens, Dandelion, Endive & More
Leafy greens and bitter greens bring speed, nutrition, and variety to the garden. This guide helps you understand tender greens, cooking greens, tonic greens, harvest timing, flavor balance, and how to use them well in everyday meals.
Preservation and Pantry Guides
Root Cellar Guide
Storage Crops, Temperature, Humidity, Shelving & Winter Food
A root cellar turns the harvest into a longer season. This guide helps you understand cool storage, humidity, airflow, shelving, crop separation, and how potatoes, onions, squash, apples, and roots can last longer with the right conditions.
Preservation Pantry Guide
Drying, Canning, Freezing, Fermenting, Storage & More
A preservation pantry turns seasonal abundance into year-round value. This guide helps you understand the major preservation paths, when to use each one, and how drying, freezing, canning, fermenting, and storage work together.
Oils, Fats, Lard, and Cooking Grease Guide
Cooking Oils, Rendered Fats, Lard, Grease Storage & Kitchen Use
Cooking fats are part of the preservation pantry too. This guide helps you understand oils, rendered fats, lard, saved grease, storage safety, cooking uses, flavor, smoke points, and how fats support a practical kitchen system.
Additional Crop Family Guides
Brassica Field Guide
Cabbage, Kale, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts & More
Brassicas are one of the most useful crop families in the kitchen garden. This guide helps you understand cool-season growing, harvest timing, cooking uses, storage value, pest pressure, and how cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and related crops fit into real meals.
Berry Family Guide
Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Currants & More
Berries bring fresh eating, desserts, jams, sauces, freezing, and long-term garden value into one crop family. This guide helps you understand berry types, harvest timing, kitchen uses, preservation options, and how berries can become one of the most rewarding parts of the garden.
A Library That Grows With You
New field guides are added regularly. Follow one guide, then follow the connections between crops, kitchen use, preservation methods, pantry value, and real meals.
Grow with purpose. Cook with confidence. Preserve the harvest. Honor the Harvest.