5 Good Reads: Gardening, Foraging, and Cookbooks Perfect for Your Coffee Table

Top 5 Good Reads for 2026

Here we are again, friends; it’s time for my annual good gardening reads list! One of the perks of being the editor of a gardening magazine is that I get early access to many fantastic books by some extremely talented growers-or-foragers-turned-authors. I’ve read through so many great ones over the past year, it’s hard to choose favorites. However, a few stand out for their unique concepts, humorous pages, delicious recipes, and inspirational messages.  Here are my top 5 good reads to kick off the year.

1. The Preserver’s Garden – How to Grow a Garden for Fermenting, Canning, Pickling, Dehydrating, Freeze Drying & More

By Staci & Jeremy Hill 

Hang on a second; are you telling me that people plant gardens for the sole purpose of preserving and stocking their pantries rather than eating off the vine? This concept blew my mind and changed the way I think about gardening, and I have Staci and Jeremy Hill’s fantastic book to thank. Publishers send me a lot of good reads, and this is the first one I’ve received that writes about planning a garden with precision and the purpose of long-term storage. Of course, you can also eat the produce fresh out of the garden, but the goal is to keep your pantry well-stocked with a few years’ worth of food. That means selecting high-yielding varieties that retain their flavor well after storage and following good old-fashioned organic permaculture practices to keep your plants healthy.

Staci and Jeremy include an in-depth look at various preservation methods and plant profiles to help you make the right choices for your garden, and there’s even a chapter to help you design a preserving garden, even if space is limited! This book is an excellent resource for anyone looking to make their gardens work for them long after the beds (or pots!) are asleep.    

2. Go Forth and Forage – A Guide to Foraging Over 50 of the Most Common Edible & Medicinal North American Mushrooms

By Whitney Johnson

You know I’m putting Whitney Johnson’s Go Forth and Forage on my list, and that’s because we’re buds. Whitney’s a hoot; I’ve done a lot of interviews over the years, and hers stands out as one of the more fun ones I’ve done. Whitney writes how she talks, and that’s resulted in probably the most humorous, down-to-earth mushroom field guides ever created. There, I said it.

But beyond a healthy dose of humor, her book offers incredible advice on getting started on a foraging journey, the tools you’ll need, and some neat tips and tricks for finding a honey hole. With over 50 detailed mushroom profiles, this guide equips readers with the information they need to avoid mistakes out in the field. And when it comes to foraging, you don’t want to make mistakes – not the deadly kind, anyway. I love this book, and I’m pretty sure you will too.       

3. The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen – A Culinary Homage to Wild and Cultivated Mushrooms

By Chad Hyatt

So you’ve got your mushroom foraging field guide, now you need to know what to do with the treasures you find. Enter Chad Hyatt’s book, The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen. Be prepared to drool over these pages, and don’t ever say I didn’t warn you! From preserves, pickles, and appetizers, to breakfasts, salads, soups, and hearty meals, this beauty features 120 recipes, so you’re bound to find something delicious to prepare with all of your foraged or homegrown mushrooms. In fact, this book is even excellent for people who buy quality mushrooms from a local supplier at the farmer’s market!

I’m drawn to the pages for Savory Mushroom Crepes, Porcini-Potato Latkes, and Mixed Mushroom Paella. I feel instant hunger just looking at the recipe for Hen-of-the-Woods and Broccoli Pierogis, and don’t get me started on the desserts! That’s right, mushrooms can be eaten for dessert! You’ll learn a lot with this book, mainly how to eat like kings and queens while boosting your gut health. 

4. A Year of Garden-Inspired Living, Season by Season

By Linda Vater

One of the top gardening trends predicted for 2026 by the Garden Media Group is a deeper connection with our gardens as we crave slowing down and living more simply. Linda Vater has come out with a beautiful book that can help us all accomplish precisely that. A Year of Garden-Inspired Living, Season by Season, is an uplifting guide to embracing the beauty and abundance each season offers in our homes, gardens, and communities.

Find everyday joy in the simple things, like sharing a bowl of soup with a friend, hosting a cut-flower event, or making a fall leaf bouquet. Take action by decluttering the home and giving items that have been collecting dust new life. It’s all about restoring balance in our lives and finding peace and connection with ourselves, our neighbors, and the planet. This book is a true inspiration, perfect for sitting atop your coffee table. 

5. The Self-Fed Farm and Garden – A Return to the Roots of the Organic Method 

By Eliot Coleman

Eliot Coleman is widely considered the king of organic gardening, so when I saw he’d written another book on creating a regenerative, self-fed market garden, I had to grab a copy. The Self-Fed Farm and Garden’s premise is rooted in soil health and encourages gardeners and farmers of all scales to create a sustainable model in which the soil food web is continually replenished with organic matter and passes those nutrients to the crops above.

The book explores tried-and-true methods practiced by our ancestors, including growing green manure crops year-round and crop rotation systems to control disease and weeds. Gardening can be expensive, but this book shows that a self-fed system can lead to significant savings in both money and energy. When the soil is properly cared for, everything else falls into place, and this book is an excellent guide for anyone hoping to create a high-yielding home edible garden.