Amazon Customer Reviews

"This is more than a cookbook. The recipes enclosed within the covers of this book ARE delicious, but woven between those are descriptions of the area and folks that are Featherstone Farm.

The book takes you through the seasons with the numerous vegetables available. There are basic descriptions, Latin names, storage recommendations, and basic nutrition facts and history of each vegetable or fruit. Numerous general cooking methods are presented in addition to wonderful and delicious recipes to tempt the most finicky eater.

All that and more with sidebars that inform, delight and pose thoughtful questions.

... read more reviews on Amazon.com

The Wedge Community Co-op

"Tastes from Valley to Bluff is your delightfully indispensable guide to enjoying the fruits, vegetables, and herbs that Featherstone Farm of Rushford, Minnesota, organically raises for both its community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and retail outlets in the Upper Midwest." ... read more

Mill City Farmers Market
"Featherstone Farm cookbook author to visit Mill City Farmers’ Market"
(Summer 2008)

"Mi Ae Lipe, a book editor, designer, publisher, and producer, is a woman of high achievements – and has taken time out during the past 5 years to assemble a cookbook for her former CSA farm, Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables." ... read more

Rochester Women
(July/August 2008)

Mi Ae Lipe is a book designer and editor by profession. However, she has had a long-standing interest in food writing—how food relates to culture, history and people. While she always yearned to be a food writer, she was not necessarily looking to compile a cookbook.

While living in Minnesota, Lipe was asked to redesign the logo for Featherstone Farm, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. As she herself received weekly boxes of produce, she wondered what to do with its voluminous contents and realized that other CSA subscribers likely had the same questions. This sparked her interest in cooking and recipes and led to writing a cookbook, which she intended originally for CSA members.

But as the project grew it became clear that this would be more than just a collection of recipes. Intrigued by what life on the farm was really like and how much effort goes into making crops come into season at particular times, Lipe recognized how little we often know about what goes into producing our food.

Natural Foods with Natural Sequence
Tastes from Valley to Bluff offers a non-intimidating “workhorse-type” book featuring an eclectic range of recipes with reasonable preparation times. To follow the farm’s natural cycle and emphasize the seasonality of the produce, recipes are grouped by season. Crop descriptions include a summary of the crop’s history, nutritional merit, “how-to-select,” storage, basic preparation and serving suggestions, followed by recipes incorporating that crop as a main ingredient.

For CSA members and those that follow the rhythm of shopping at the local farmers market, this book falls into a natural sequence from spring to winter. In addition to nearly 300 creative and healthy recipes, the book is packed with general information. Parents and grandparents will want to read the sections on “Making Vegetables Attractive to Children.” Jack Hedin, owner of Featherstone Farm, has an excellent description of the topography of southeastern Minnesota and the microclimates within his farm. Numerous other essays from Featherstone’s past CSA newsletters are included.

More than eight pages of bibliography and noted resources provide sources for further information. Recipe indexes are organized by type of dish, ingredient, vegetarian and vegan dishes and a general index. Indeed, this collection offers informative reading and ideas for healthy, delicious eating. “Tastes from Valley to Bluff” is available locally at Rochester Produce and the Good Food Store.

 

Edible Twin Cities
(July/August 2008)

On a recent sojourn outside of the city proper, I brought along my fresh and shiny copy of Tastes from Valley to Bluff: The Featherstone Farm Cookbook, fully intent on idyllically plowing through the wealth of recipes, ingredients, factoids, and philosophies inspired by the Rushford, Minnesota-based Featherstone Farm. Alas, my mission failed. Not due to malaise or distraction, but rather because nearly every one of my travel companions kept stealing the book out from under me.

In 2002, artist/editor/designer Mi Ae Lipe, then a CSA (community-supported agriculture) member of Featherstone, was approached by the farm about updating their logo and performing some graphic design work. Five years later, with the collaboration of Featherstone co-owner/founder Jack Hedin, Lipe’s interests, passions, and study of the farm and its elements came to tangible fruition with the self-publication of The Featherstone Farm Cookbook, a copy of which I now personally store in a secret cupboard next to the Wasabi Peanuts that no one else eats.

“Like many people, as much as I adore vegetables, I didn’t always know what to do with them,” Lipe relates from her new home in Seattle, Washington. “That’s when the idea for the cookbook was born. People want to eat better, but sometimes we don’t know what we should be doing with our foods. The cookbook is meant to be a non-intimidating, useful resource for that.”

Laid out in a smart, seasonal format, The Featherstone Farm Cookbook sets itself apart from the genre by offering readers more than just “1/4 cup sugar” and “preheat at 425” faceless directions. Rather, the book is laid out with truly engaging food histories, nutritional values, purchase resources, and genuinely well-penned sidebar essays.

“A lot of cookbooks try to emphasize the food side of things, but there is an incredible disconnect in America between where our food comes from and how it gets to our plate. The sidebars are there to educate people about what life is really like on the farm.”

The Featherstone Farm Cookbook is presently available at several area co-ops, including the three Lakewinds Natural Foods locations, Linden Hills in southwest Minneapolis, and the Eastside Food Co-op on Central Avenue in Minneapolis. Independent booksellers in Rochester and Winona also carry it, as does the Birchwood Café in the Seward neighborhood. For web purchases, check out www.wedgeworldwide.coop.