Edible Reads - Bounty from the Box
Typically, cookbooks are written with a chef or theme in mind: The author provides a journey into a single chef’s style or the nuances of a particular cuisine or cooking technique. This passion project, Bounty From The Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook, allows multiple farmers and chefs to hyper-focus on nature’s fresh ingredients. Author Mi Ae Lipe includes hundreds of recipe contributors highlighting farm-fresh perishable crops in their weekly community-supported agriculture (CSA) harvest subscription food box.
The cookbook’s logical arrangement by harvest season allows us to follow American CSA farms’ contributions. Season by season, Bounty From The Box covers history, nutrition, selection, storage, trimming and cleaning, best cooking techniques, equivalents, complementary herbs, seasonings and serving suggestions for over 90 different crops.
Mi Ae Lipe set out to create a useful and enjoyable reference. In her success, we are offered details for preparing many of the fruits, vegetables and herbs from CSA farms, farmers’ markets, home gardens and grocery stores across the country. Make no mistake, this cookbook has an encyclopedia’s worth of information and resources. As a comprehensive overview of everyday shopping, storage and preparation techniques, Lipe offers an easy-to-use guide to successfully utilize what the local agriculture has to offer.
This collaborative cookbook is refreshing as it focuses on best practices for the treatment of crops from post-harvest to our plates. From spring artichokes and rhubarb to winter cabbages and squash, this book sparks all of us who are interested in the food we eat into cooking creatively with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs.
Planted within the informative pages of this cookbook, Lipe adds an acre of information (90+ individual sidebars) highlighting the love, labor and people that make CSA something to cherish.
After reviewing this cookbook, it is clear that Lipe has another mission: reduce America’s food waste. By placing a spotlight on proper consumer handling of fruit, vegetables and herbs, she guides us into a more complete product utilization. Through this cookbook, we are inspired to begin eating a wider range of local fresh food and to more efficiently eat all edible parts of the plants.
The vast amount of information provided in these 712 pages, as well as the quality of the recipes, suits the beginner cook to the avid chef. More than just a typical cookbook, it becomes your fresh ingredient reference manual and recipe inspiration. Bounty From The Box stands clearly as a reminder that we are all connected locally through agriculture.
Title: Bounty From The Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook
Author: Mi Ae Lipe | Copyright: 2015 | Pages: 712 Fruits, vegetables and herbs explored: 90+
Recipes: 350+ diverse recipes from a wide variety of cuisines and cooking styles
Sidebars: Nearly 100 sidebar essays—many written by farmers exploring topics from farming and food politics to cooking and nutrition.
Online price: $35
Website: BountyFromTheBox.com
