Kim Williams Ckbk/Com

This cookbook also served as a combination diary and advice column for Williams, the late amateur naturalist, teacher, author and occasional commentator on National Public Radio. Williams's credo of living healthily off the land results in such recipes as rhubarb pie with dandelion-flower topping, sweet-potato salad, venison pot roast and split-pea soup garnished with nasturtium flowers. Her love of hiking gave birth to all sorts of recipes for trail mixes and cookery for camping out; and her insatiable curiosity is present in the dandelion-bud omelette and ""Hi-Pro Chili,'' which is made with a half cup of prepared earthworms. The recipes, divided by seasons, are interspersed with commentaries on everything from the joys of eating sun-ripened fruit to hunting for the first morel, to reusing Christmas cards. This book is a worthy epitaph to a vibrant woman. (March)