Blog Tour: Rhubarb Rhubarb by Mary Jane Peterson and Jo Thompson

Welcome to the final stop on this fantastic Rhubarb Rhubarb blog tour! Or, to give this book its full title – Rhubarb Rhubarb: A Correspondence Between a Hopeless Gardener and a Hopeful Cook. What drew me to it was the premise: Award-winning Garden Designer, Jo Thompson and Leiths-trained Cook, Mary Jane Peterson have, through the years, exchanged advice and this book captures the warm, witty, funny – and very useful – nuggets of wisdom they have given each other.

Rhubarb Rhubarb Mary Jane Peterson Jo Thompson book review books on the 7:47

As someone who cannot claim to be a great cook or a great gardener, I am always looking for easy-to-follow glimpses into these worlds and this book delivers. Jo Thompson breaks down her tricks for an ‘Instagarden’ – easy ways to have an instant fab looking garden – and this is 100% the gardening content for me.

Alongside this, there are some great tips (apparently salad leaves are insanely easy to grow, who knew? Will be trying that very soon! Or a dash of lemonade into a vase of wilting flowers will perk them up) and amazing recipes I can’t wait to try, including for a Chocolate Biscuit Cake and Foolproof Chicken Curry. Delicious.

‘Rhubarb Rhubarb’ means… well, anything, really; it is just about wittering on about absolute rubbish. It is also rather a comforting slogan, giving one time to pause for thought when words fail.

You not only get handy, practical take-aways from this book, but the friendship of Jo and Mary Jane just pops from the page in their notes to one another, making them a joy to read. Also, there are beautiful illustrations throughout that really add to the overall delightfulness of Rhubarb Rhubarb.

As you can see above, I have so many pages marked to pop back to and read when I need a new recipe or gardening tip. This is such a useful book that strikes the perfect balance of being educational and charming and that’s a rare combo!