Two decades ago Andrew Yeo-man & Noel Richardson left their city jobs and Calgary's hot, dry summers and frigid winters for ten acres of apple orchard and sloping hillside on Vancouver Island's mild and usually snowless Saanich Peninsula.

This orchard, too dependent on sprays, and the raising of chickens and ducks, too often depleted by marauding raccoons, gradually gave way to cultivation of the herbs that have made Ravenhill Farm a destination for artists, photographers and students of horticulture, landscape design and cooking.

In Herbal Celebrations Cookbook (Whitecap $17.95) Noel Richardson and her daughter Jenny Cameron-an experienced chef, caterer and cooking instructor-collaborated on a seasonal collection of wide-ranging herb-infused menus for a herbal tea parties, summer wedding lunches and seafood Christmas Eves.

Noel penned the accompanying stories; Jenny introduces the recipes; Andrew provided the occasional herb-growing advice sidebar.

It's one of the seven reasons why cookbooks from the West Coast have dominated the Cuisine Canada Culinary Book Awards this year, taking eight of the twelve nominations.
The other two titles from Whitecap Books are Jamie Kennedy's Seasons and Inn on the Twenty Cookbook by Anna & Michael Olson. [Louise Donnelly / BCBW 2001]