“The Catskills Farm to Table Cookbook,” a seasonal, brightly photographed survey of the area’s foods and farms, hews closely to what is produced in the region’s five counties in southern New York State. Spring brings nettles, ramps, fiddleheads, garlic scapes, pea pods and even milkweed buds to compelling recipes, like scalloped potatoes in a stinging nettle sauce. Summer adds corn, tomatoes and zucchini; fall offers squash and apples; and in winter there are roots and cabbage. Meats, mainly pork, show up from time to time, and desserts amount mostly to pies, crisps and crumbles. Some ingredients are not listed in order of use, but the recipes work, though the cacio e pepe with greens is better if the greens are chopped first. For the two upside-down apple desserts, a cake and a pie, the author never nods to tarte Tatin, the obvious antecedent, nor does she use the more common name, Dutch babies, for the puff pancake.
“The Catskills Farm to Table Cookbook” by Courtney Wade (Hatherleigh Press, $20).
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