I joined Stearns Farm in Framingham, Mass., in 2015, convinced by a friend to write the weekly member newsletter in exchange for a CSA share. It changed how I cook. Instead of choosing recipes and shopping for ingredients, I had to decide what to make after bringing home my weekly haul. How could I use up that bumper crop of spinach? What to do with kohlrabi?

Over time, as I became more familiar with the rhythm of the harvest–bok choy in June, blueberries in July, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers in August and September, root vegetables always–I pulled together recipes that I turn to every season. I pored over my cookbooks and scoured the internet, but I got some of the best ideas from fellow sharers during weekly pickups. Those conversations inspired this book.

Eat Your Share: Cooking & Preserving the Stearns Farm CSA Harvest includes more than 35 recipes from Stearns Farm members and farmers that span the Massachusetts growing season. More than a cookbook, it reflects our farm community in ways I didn’t imagine when I started working on it just before Thanksgiving in 2019. Members came to a kickoff meeting to brainstorm. More signed on to test submitted recipes. Photographers in our midst captured the beauty of our fields and flower gardens, as well as the planting and harvesting (on the cover, purple basil and collard greens).

The book is currently available exclusively from Stearns Farm, and you have to pick up your copy in person (because the farm is staffed by volunteers, they don’t offer shipping). If you’re local, I hope you’ll stop by at some point . All proceeds support the farm and its mission of land stewardship, fair compensation for farmers, education, connecting members to each other and the land, and the food security of local residents.