Month: May 2023

Boxing Day, May 30

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Dear John,

I know we need more canning lids.

We may need more jars.

Sometime last week, I took the fennel stems, chopped them up, and put them in brine with a few sprigs of rosemary, replenishing our fridge supply of pickled fennel. On Memorial Day, I pulled out our apple stock bag from the freezer, tossed in the cherry pits we’d stashed in there too. Ended up with one batch of apple scrap jelly from the juice. Then I took the solids, pulled the cranberries from the back of the fridge, and now we have a chutney. Last night, I made Artichoke Relish that I’m labeling “Relish the Sun ’23.” That (plus a giant batch of sunchoke burgers assembled last week, now stocking the freezer) used up our sunchokes for the season.

Today’s Box

  • Baby Fennel (+ bonus from the swap box)
  • Collards
  • French Breakfast Radishes
  • Red Romaine Lettuce
  • Red Scallions

Things in the fridge

  • Strawberries
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Bok Choy
  • Fennel
  • Some bitter greens from the neighbors
  • Red Leaf Lettuce, More greens from the neighbors
  • Scallions, Green Garlic
  • Hakurei Turnips
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Lettuce, gorgeous lettuce
  • Radishes + their greens
  • Turnips + their greens
  • Calendula leaves, from the thinning
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

New Saturday. New starts. We’ve added Gomphrena flowers and parsley and dill. Brought the cilantro home. Pulled some more calendula and passed them to another gardener to transplant. (By the way, the ones we transplanted to our house look great now that we’ve gotten some rain. I mean, look at that picture. Don’t you agree?) We came home and made a lunch of lettuce and turnips and thinned rainbow chard that were freshly picked.

Meals to consider

  • Keeping lettuce soup on the list. Ditto the fennel casserole.
  • I made a fennel pesto from the fronds that we ate on our sunchoke burgers. It was good. And worked really well thinned with yogurt and lemon juice as a salad dressing. Since we’re looking at a lot of lettuce and turnip and radish salads, maybe try making more of that.
  • Collards, huh. I kinda want to make the Lee Brother’s collard grilled cheese sandwich, but their recipe calls for way more collards than we have. Still, I might end up going that way with them.
  • Though, alternatively, I keep having a sense memory of a dish that involved some sort of greens rolled up. Spirals of greens. I think, maybe, it might possibly be the shanu chaats from Hut-K in Ann Arbor. Described as “Spiced crushed chickpeas rolled in colocasia leaves surrounded w/ mixture of baked multigrain papdi, topped w/ mixture of potatoes, peas & chickpea, hut-k special sauces & garnished w/ chickpea flour savories. Allergy information: contains wheat, chickpeas. Vegan.” (The restaurant is closed. I do not trust the internet to save this information for me.) I’m wondering how I can go from that to a collards dish.
  • STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS UPDATE! I searched for colocasia and got a recipe for colocasia pinwheels. Which is getting absurdly close to my spiraly memory. Maybe this can happen after all.
  • Otherwise, we need to cook some of these greens down. Serve with beans and be done for a day.
  • Not a meal! But, I do want to try collecting and drying some of our calendula this season. Especially from in front of the house, it should be easy to get to. We have Resina Calendula, which is especially high in resin which is good for making the salves and oils and what have you. Apparently.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, May 23 (and 16)

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Dear John,

A week ago, not long after we’d picked up our lettuce and bok choy for the week, some neighborhood friends texted. They’d gotten a CSA and now had a fridge full of greens that would surely go bad before they ate them all. Would we like some?

So, I came back home with a bag full of chard and kale and fennel and I don’t even remember what else. I suggested asking around to find someone to split the share for the rest of the season. And also sent an email with a few of our favorite ways to cook up greens, when salad won’t go through them quickly enough. I have a feeling we’ll be needing these in the coming weeks, so for easier searching.

  1. Instant pot Indian Curry – Can switch out potatoes for chickpeas pretty easily.
  2. Coconut turmeric rice with greens – What I made for dinner that night. Toss a can of beans in it to round out the meal.
  3. Beans and greens pasta – Classic.
  4. Braised beans and greens – Also classic.
  5. Green shakshuka – Kale and eggs! Maybe another way?
  6. Turmeric black pepper stir fry – Okay, not vegetarian as written. We sub the chicken for tofu and asparagus for greens. or green beans.
  7. Braised cabbage and glass noodles – They have some other cabbage and glass noodle recipes that we also use. Dried mushrooms are a kitchen staple for us now. Also, this is one that we haven’t tried with other greens.
  8. Steamed greens and tofu in a glaze – In case you have a health struggles and suddenly go on extra low-fat watch, but are still allowed sugar. But really, I’ve used this one for years. Usually with brown rice.
  9. Sweet potato, kale, and quinoa fritters – Maybe more in the fall when sweet potatoes are in abundance. definitely served on top of salad, using even more greens 😉
  10. Tacos! – Cannot vouch for this recipe. I read the list above to you and you said tacos were missing.
  11. Enfrijodlas – Ooooh. I do like this recipe though. And would totally stuff them like enchiladas, but with wilted greens
  12. When all else fails, Greens Jam – Legit good. Tips on how to use it here. Great for picnics!

Today’s Box

  • Garlic Scapes
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Strawberries

Things in the fridge (from last week and beyond)

  • Cranberries
  • Red Butterhead Lettuce
  • Bok Choy
  • Fennel
  • Some bitter greens from the neighbors
  • More greens from the neighbors
  • Scallions, Green Garlic
  • Hakurei Turnips
  • Orange Carrots
  • Sunchoke
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Lettuce, if we’d like
  • Radishes + their greens
  • Turnips + their greens
  • Calendula leaves, from the thinning
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

And when we peek at the garden

We bought starts on Saturday. Put them in the ground on Sunday. When we arrived, I was surprised at how green our plot already was. The radishes and turnips (pictured) were thriving–we left with a shopping bag full. The lettuce was actually forming. The calendula row from last year was quickly becoming thick with plants, so we’ve thinned and tried replanting at home. One edamame was actually recognizable. The peas were tall enough to think about training them on their tent poles. I think we have cosmos volunteering, but who knows, maybe those sprouts are actually weeds.

Beyond the greens

  • Look, I picked up extra fennel from the swap box before we got fennel from the neighbors. We’ve already had fennel with braised lentils. Twice. And turnip yogurt poppy salad with fennel fronds as our herb. I’m eyeing this fennel and bean casserole. Planning to pickle up some stems (because we’ve actually used up the previous jars). Contemplating a fennel pesto vs fennel fritter.
  • We have yet to make lettuce soup, but it has been mentioned previously. This might be the week for it. (Especially since the lettuce from yesterday’s box hasn’t made it to the refrigerator yet….)
  • If we don’t feel like fried ricing it, salad from the cabbage?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, May 9 (and 2)

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Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Green Garlic
  • Green Kale
  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Rhubarb

Things in the fridge (from last week and beyond)

  • Cranberries
  • Cilantro
  • French Breakfast Radishes
  • Scallions
  • Green Garlic
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Daikon Radish
  • Sunchoke

In the Garden

  • Radishes
  • Turnips
  • Green plums from the thinning
  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Meanwhile at the garden

It looks like the bunnies left the nest. A neighbor gardener caught some pictures at the end of last week. They looked so cute! And they didn’t even damage our radishes, at least as far as I can tell.

(The photo was less blurry when I saw it on his phone, silly texting downsampling so as to not use all the data.)

Schemes and dreams for nourishment now and later

  • Two years ago, back when we first joined the garden, I picked plums from the ground and pickled them. Last weekend, we went to help thin the plums. Most went to the compost, but I brought some home. So maybe we play with that again.
  • Radish and garlic chive butter on ever so slightly toasted bread. Top with fancy salt.
  • I saw a mulberry tree dropping fruit on my way to pick up bread. I want to make the mulbarb jam. But realistically, that’s a lower priority canning job these days. Another rhubarb custard pie? Or a rhubarb rosemary crisp? Ice cream with whichever it is!
  • I picked up two extra bags of sunchokes. So all the sunchoke things need to actually happen.
  • Last weekend, I went to make shakshuka only to discover we didn’t have canned tomatoes. Green shakshuka with the kale and radish and turnip greens?

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 25

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Seasonal shift to the smaller boxes.

Dear John,

The visit was good, and I am, predictably, exhausted. We’ll have some easy meals of leftovers the next few days while you finish your conference. (Because making enough for everyone to have leftovers is more of a trick than I know how to do.) And maybe some other of our go-to easy meals. I’m optimistic that by the weekend I’ll be cooking to restock our freezer. Turn the accumulated apple cores into a chutney and a jelly. Fill the space with one last round of sunchoke burgers.

Today’s Box

  • Green Garlic
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Red Radishes
  • Spinach

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Cilantro
  • Scallions
  • Carrots of the rainbow
  • Daikon Radishes
  • Turnips
  • Sunchoke

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Meanwhile at the garden

Baby bunnies that another gardener spotted in our plot.
Hello Peter and siblings.

Here’s hoping that we have done a proper Mr. McGregor and discouraged them from staying.

Dinners for just us

  • You know what I’m thinking? This is probably our best opportunity to make a major dent in our produce stash. Smaller box (I’m ignoring the more frequent detail). Our produce isn’t coming in yet. Nevermind that I didn’t plant more last time I was there. Figured the bunnies had enough to chew.
  • I’m back to simple side salads with the spinach and carrots and turnips and red radishes. Dressed up with beans if we need it to be the meal.
  • With the sunchokes going to burgers (and maybe a relish), really the thing that’s left is the daikon. I looked at some turnip cake recipes to use them, but honestly, pizza and stirfry seem straightforward uses.

Sarah