Sabrina Currie's debut cookbook, West Coast Kitchen Garden (TouchWood Editions, 2026), offers a year of seasonal recipes from her Vancouver Island kitchen garden, including salmon burgers with dill caper yogurt, niçoise-style sheet pan chicken, and balsamic roast strawberries with sweet cream.
From lawn to kitchen garden
For more than 15 years, Currie's kitchen garden has taught her patience. The Campbell River, B.C.-based food writer and former chef shares a spin on one of her favourite quotes: "The best time to have planted a fruit tree is 10 years ago. The next-best time is now." When she first planted apple and fig trees, she felt it would be an eternity before they bore fruit. A few years later, she was harvesting bounty to give away, preserve, and roast. "Time moves along, whether you do something with it or not," she says. Gardening has also provided reassurance, whether from pollinators returning or regrowth after a forest fire. "As things regrow, they regrow differently, but sometimes better. That's a life lesson I try to tell my kids."
Reviving a culinary career
Currie grew up in a fishing family in Port McNeill on Vancouver Island's northeast coast. Her father taught her to smoke and sun-dry fish and what to do with bycatch; her mother and grandmother showed her how to preserve fruit and can salmon. She enrolled in the culinary program at North Island College out of high school and loved it immediately. "It lit a fire that never died," she says. She cooked in logging camps and restaurants, but 30 years ago, high-end spots on Vancouver Island were scarce, and pay was limited. "As I became a mother, it wasn't practical anymore. So, I had a break from it, but I always felt like I would somehow get back into it."
Currie's kitchen garden brought her back. She launched a blog in 2018 as a creative outlet and has since carved out a full-time career as a food photographer, writer, stylist, and recipe developer. With West Coast Kitchen Garden, she hopes to encourage seasonal eating, whether by growing food or buying from local farmers. "Gardening doesn't need to be daunting," she says, adding that herbs are a gateway. "A little bit of mint over your beans, a little bit of parsley on your meat, a little bit of basil on your salad. That little bit pinched from your herb grower elevates things so much."
Recipes from the book
The book is organized seasonally, with gardening tips and recipes using homegrown produce and local ingredients. It centres on the West Coast, but most vegetables, fruits, and berries are available across Canada. Currie recommends readers think locally for regionally specific elements.
