Bounty from the Box: The Only Cookbook You’ll Need for CSAs (and More)

Before you sign up for that CSA – or renew your membership – we highly recommend Mi Ae Lipe’s Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook. From amaranth to zucchini, this 700-page encyclopedia tells you everything (and we mean everything) you need to know about fresh produce: how to select, prepare and store; recipes from celebrated chefs and food bloggers; stories about farmers; anecdotes and resources; and indexes so you can search for recipes by ingredient. You can find copies for sale from Bee Heaven Farm, at Aragon 101 or order it online.

CSAs are a terrific way to get fresh, weekly produce. But when you're looking at week number four of eggplant or bok choy, it can challenge even the most talented home cook. Bounty from the Box is  a great resource for new ideas. Even better, Lipe includes tropical produce and takes into account South Florida’s growing season, which is generally the opposite of the rest of the U.S.

“That was one of the fascinating ​parts of doing this book – seeing the vast differences in the growing seasons and types of produce in both Floridian and Hawaiian CSAs and farmers markets,” she says. “I grew up in California, which grows many of its crops year-round, and then I moved to Wisconsin and Minnesota, where the distinct four-season climate very much dictates (and limits) what can be eaten fresh there. Folks in Florida are extraordinarily blessed to have such diversity and availability – ​it can be easy to take that abundance for granted.​ And your fruits are beyond incredible!”

In researching the book, Lipe says she learned how South Florida once provided the entire eastern U.S. with fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter months. “And it has been an eye-opener to see how farms in the tropical regions (Hawaii, too) have to adapt to the hot temperatures in the summer – the extreme heat and humidity and subsequent problems with funguses and blights is just too hard on both the plants and the farmers trying to control them.”

Lipe also says CSAs differ widely across the country. "My research assistants and I knew that there are a lot of CSA farms (it's estimated that around 7,000 exist throughout the United States), but we had absolutely no idea of their incredible diversity and enormous commitment to helping humanity in myriad ways," she says. "We found farms that help political refugees rebuild their lives, that grow food specifically for food pantries and cancer patients in hospitals, that use horticultural therapy to help rehabilitate adolescents in trouble with the law as part of their court orders, that provide oases in so-called urban food deserts, and that even use unused neighborhood backyards to help grow food for the local community, just to name a few. In a world where the media is constantly reporting bad news and tragedy, these stories really re-inspire faith in humanity."