A Summer Treasury Book Review

As we continue to embrace the summer vibe, today’s book review is for A Summer Treasury of Recipes, Crafts, and Wisdom! Along with the Spring Treasury book I reviewed last year, A Summer Treasury is part of the enchanting Little Country Cottage series (also known as Little Homesteader) written by Angela Ferraro-Fanning and illustrated by AnneliesDraws.

Similar to its spring counterpart, this book includes nearly 30 pages of fun DIY crafts and recipes you can make at home. A Summer Treasury focuses on gathering the crops that were planted last season and having fun in the warm weather outdoors. It also includes a lot of fun facts about summer bugs, fruits, and vegetables. Also, both the book itself and the featured projects highlight eco-friendly practices and sustainability, which is really neat.

Now, I have to confess: I’ve never been the biggest fan of insects, and I never really cared for them whether in real life or in picture form. So naturally, I was a bit hesitant about going through all the pages featuring summer bugs. However, even I have to admit that it was fun reading facts about them!

Annelies’ charming art style was definitely a big factor in making the bugs all look very cute and pretty, and I never felt uneasy or put off at all. The book features a good mix of info and crafts for summer bugs and crops. If you are neither an insect enthusiast like Flick of Animal Crossing nor have a green thumb, don’t worry! There’s still plenty of interesting content to go through and enjoy. Likewise, if you don’t live in a tropical country, I would say that there are still many crafts and recipes that you can try out. Overall, A Summer Treasury also makes for a delightful addition to your shelf if you like collecting cute books.

As someone who has spent her life in tropical climates, I do admit I was a bit more excited to go through this book than A Spring Treasury, as I could personally relate to the season more. There were also many DIYs in the book that were much more likely for me to follow and recreate. Some interesting and exciting crafts and recipes that struck me in particular were the following:

• Baking a summer solstice cake
• Making homemade shampoo
• Upcycling a picnic blanket
• Building a bug hotel (reading about it at least, and not making it!)

There were several yummy and refreshing recipes featuring two particular summer crops (tomatoes and watermelons) as well.

If you have the book, you can try making a summer crafting or cooking challenge by recreating a DIY or recipe. You can put your own unique spin on each project as well. Otherwise, you can always do them for fun in your own time.

Whether it’s for stress relief or boosting your creativity, A Summer Treasury definitely has a lot to offer, even if you only feel like reading it and not doing any crafts or recipes.

You can get this book along with other titles in the series from Amazon (UK/US) and Bookshop (UK/US). Like what I did for Spring Treasury, I will be recreating a recipe from A Summer Treasury on the blog soon, so stay tuned!