Sassy Food

How to Grow Food with Your Own 'Farm" Any Size Anywhere/Any Time of Year with Any Budget and How to Cook It

Non-Fiction - Hobby
172 Pages
Reviewed on 12/21/2021
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

Author Biography

Ja-ne de Abreu always liked to write stories. After getting a degree in Creative Writing, she spent twenty years working in the mediums of photography, videography, and writing for other companies. Fulfilling their creative projects prompted multi-Telly award winner, Ja-ne de Abreu, to manifest her own. De Abreu received several book awards with non-fiction books, Sassy Food and Chasing the Surge, in 2021. In addition, de Abreu also published five books in the Richard Tregaskis Classics Collection under the JMFdeA Press imprint this year. Ja-ne wanted to share the joy along with the knowledge she surprisingly discovered when she started growing food at the beginning of the pandemic.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite

Sassy Food by Ja-ne de Abreu is a self-help guide for those who are ready to begin or want to learn more about “How to Grow Food with Your Own 'Farm" Any Size Anywhere/Any Time of Year with Any Budget and How to Cook It”. Ja-ne uses her vast experience as a photographer to create a pictorial book that would be at home on a coffee table with full color, glossy images of the Hawaiian landscape, plentiful harvests, and a variety of women of all ages clothed only in the earth's bounty. Alongside the photography is a comprehensive tutorial on all things gardening, complete with instructions on different sizes and types, environment, timeframes, hydroponics, cultivating, harvesting, and recipes, among many, many other things.

I went into Sassy Food thinking that, despite the 'any size anywhere,' a shoebox home in central London was probably not what Ja-ne de Abreu had in mind. I was proven wrong, and a micro-tent with potted herbs is currently housed on my 3ft terrace. Ja-ne gifts us with such an incredible wealth of information and does this with a palpable sensitivity to compassion, love, and oneness. In the chapter covering Peaceful Pest & Disease Control, she describes a heartbreaking loss after months of care, stating, “I lost a quick battle of disease with my Kajari melon. It felt like a real death.” The photography is raw and moving, without the use of manipulation to really show the landscape and the women who grace it in gorgeous, realistic imagery. This is a book that nurtures the heart and soul of a reader in the same way Ja-ne teaches us to care for the bounty. Very highly recommended.

Emily-Jane Hills Orford

Life certainly got more complicated with the challenges, both health and basic life challenges, we all faced with the worldwide pandemic. Covid-19 made us think outside the box, so to speak, and many of us resorted to exploring healthier lifestyles, including growing our own food. Indeed, the growing concern of food shortages had a decided impact on these decisions. But, there’s more to growing our own food that leads to a healthier lifestyle. We have to understand what we are growing, what suits our personal diet best, and what grows well in the geographic location in which we live. And, then again, we have to consider how to process what we grow.

Sassy Food: How to Grow and Cook Food with Your Own "Farm" Any Size Anywhere Any Time of Year with Any Budget, by Ja-ne de Abreu (with graphic design from Cipriano Mauricio), is an informative and fun look at food and how we can benefit from growing it ourselves. The author provides insights into why gardening at any level of expertise is good for the soul as well as the body. With bright, bold photographs and detailed descriptions of the different food groups and what grows well and where, this book is both an educational and empowering tool, as well as a fun guide to enjoying your own garden. In fact, this book is so much fun, it’s somewhat silly in parts, especially given the rather suggestive photographs that combine food and humanity at their finest. In spite of the ugliness of the pandemic and people’s responses to it, this book sheds a bright light on what is beautiful all around us and how we can benefit from the world’s nurturing beauty. And it’s all very healing, both the act of growing and the act of consuming the product grown. Very empowering and encouraging.

Jamie Michele

Sassy Food: How to Grow Food with Your Own 'Farm" Any Size Anywhere/Any Time of Year with Any Budget and How to Cook It by Ja-ne de Abreu is a book born from necessity when Abreu and her mother found themselves in a situation where access to fresh food was threatened during the 2020 pandemic. Through trial and error, and with her entire being committed to the project, Abreu made a success of the home venture and has now compiled all of the knowledge she's amassed so we can find the same success by learning from her mistakes instead of our own. Full produce growth, start to finish, recipes, stories, and artistic photographs round the non-fiction book out. “With the pandemic, many people are forced to stay home and do things they never thought possible, including cooking.”

Sassy Food by Ja-ne de Abreu is the book everyone with the intent of living sustainably should have. Whether it is off the grid, off the beaten path, in the suburbs, the city, or—if you're as fortunate as Abreu—in the jungles of Hawaii, you're going to want to see this. Creativity reigns supreme with each moment and every page. Cute chapter headers like Thrilling Trees & Fantabulous Fruit and photography as organic as the foodstuffs are shown, extraordinary women with strategically placed fruits, vegetables, and foliage are incorporated. Even though cultivating produce and nutritious aquatic foods is the primary goal of the book, living an authentic, organic life is more than just what we grow and eat. It is a way of life that begins with a single step and continues, slowly at first, until we are all up and running. Sassy Food is the starting line for all.