Mi Ae’s path to becoming a cookbook author began in the Midwest.
A self-taught illustrator, she spent over a decade living and working in Wisconsin and Minnesota, where she met Jack Hedin, owner of Featherstone Farm one of the largest community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms in southeastern Minnesota.
After designing a logo for the farm and subscribing to its CSA program, Mi Ae found herself brainstorming ways to help people figure out what to do with the abundance of produce in their weekly CSA boxes.
The seed of a cookbook idea was planted.
In 2007, Mi Ae self-published her first cookbook, Tastes from Valley to Bluff: The Featherstone Farm Cookbook, featuring 300 recipes centered around Featherstone Farm’s crops
The book met with great regional success and acclaim, even finding its way into the Minnesota Governor’s residence via the governor’s personal chef.
Encouraged by that success, Mi Ae decided to broaden her project a few years later.
She expanded her original cookbook concept to include nearly 40 additional fruits and vegetables and to highlight remarkable CSA farms across the United States.
This effort culminated in her second book, Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook, which she self-published in the fall of 2015.
At 712 pages, Bounty from the Box is a truly comprehensive CSA resource, packed with over 350 seasonal recipes and extensive guidance on selecting, storing, and enjoying farm-fresh produce.
The cookbook bridges the gap between farmers and home cooks, showing readers how to turn local harvests into delicious meals and making seasonal, farm-to-table cooking accessible to everyone.
