[Dlanod]

I can't forget to mention my most often referenced cookbook: From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking With Farm-Fresh Produce which comes from the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Coalition.

Shortly after becoming involved in a CSA farm we were confronted with vegetables in our weekly boxes that we didn't have a clue how to cook. This cookbook/reference was our salvation. It covers 46 different vegetables and provides many wonderful recipes for each. Even better is the fact that the oddball vegetables have more recipes than the more comon varieties.

It was always a challenge to figure out what to do with bok choy, brussels sprouts, burdock root, celeriac, chard, fennel, kohlrabi, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas and sunchokes. Most you can just boil and add butter, but we are always looking for new methods of preparing them. This book provided cooking and storage tips and delicious recipes for all of them. My partner may still have a problem with rutabagas, but for me there is nothing that goes to waste in our weekly box anymore.

There is a third edition coming out in September 2004 which covers 50 vegetables (hopefully adding ramps and pea vine) and has over 300 recipes. We will certainly be replacing our copy.

If you are part of a CSA and/or enjoy some of the non-standard or old-world "poor folk" vegetables this book is an important resource. It is published by Jones Books and the ISBN is 0-9721217-8-1.

- Donald