sunchoke

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

Boxing Day, March 30

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Lettuce and spinach and dandelion greens and parsley.

Dear John,

The equinox has come. Easter is quick on it’s way. Garden scheming time is here. This weekend we pulled out our box of seeds to start scheming. I’m surrounded by slips of paper scribbled with notes. Trying to decide what goes where. This year we’re going to try planting the tall plants on the north end of the garden and the shorter on the southern end.

Currently in the north end of the plot, it turns out the plants that we thought were the garlic that we sowed but then never figured out when to harvest are actually garlic chives. Which can take over as much space as we give them. So maybe let’s give them less space? And harvest a bunch? Which means cooking a bunch. Make some compound butter. Dehydrate some and make into a salt. Try some egg noodles where the chives are the noodles. Or just some eggs. If we ever make it to the Asian grocery, pick up some dried shrimp and try these or see if the spiced tofu is gluten free and we can make this stirfry.

Today’s Box

  • Italian Parsley
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Little Gem Romaine Lettuce
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Spinach
  • Yellow Carrots
  • Yellow Onions
  • Green Dandelion

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Shallots
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Red Beets

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Dahlia bulbs
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

Goes well with garlic chives (or not)

  • It feels like a stir-fry week. Mix up some sauce, put some rice in the pressure cooker, chop some veggies, and play.
  • We have beans in the freezer that are waiting to be cooked with dandelion greens. Let’s pick up some sausage and see if we feel comfortable pinching sage leaves from the herb plot in the garden. We have some dried if not.
  • Salads! We’ve been talking about adding more fish into our diet, perhaps we try a variation on a salmon salad? The ladolemono dressing sounds yummy! Or in for a vegetarian, but add oil, approach time to top with smashed sunchoke. I’m wondering if there’s a way to use the sunchokes instead of artichokes in a quinoa salad dish like this. Maybe easier to try adapting a pasta salad that’s halfway there first? (Use last summer’s pesto from the freezer!) Or just a straightforward green salad.
  • We haven’t been eating risotto as much recently, probably because we ate it so much for required diets previously. This sunchoke risotto intrigues me.

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 9

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It is important that we keep the garden sunchokes separate from the CSA sunchokes. Nevermind that the garden sunchokes were sprouted from last year’s CSA sunchokes.

Dear John,

With the health complications of the fall, we sorta-kinda killed the yogurt starter. I tried starting up again with a sample from a Meditarrian restaurant near my parents, but it hasn’t really taken off. So I bought some packets of starter. And apparently it can take a few activation rounds before it gets good. And the milk that we were using went off quickly.

We have a lot of yogurt that I don’t want to eat but don’t really want to throw out.

So….baking projects it is! Subbing the yogurt for milk in our favorite chocolate muffins (not these, but same person). Maybe we should try her chocolate chip muffins too? Cornbread with a pot of beans and greens? (Looking at you, kale.) Morning glory muffins with shredded carrot and parsnip? Use some in the pancakes this weekend. The lemon-poppyseed scones that I made in college and keep in the freezer even though it is poison to you? I’m trying to think what else will bake and freeze decently well. Maybe it’s just chocolate muffins forever. They are a yummy recipe (she types after licking her fingers from the one nibbled while writing).

Today’s Box

  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Purple Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Beets
  • White Scallions
  • Green Kale Hearts
  • Asian Greens Mix

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Parsley
  • Half a parsnip
  • Carrots
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Shallots

Open Preserves

For when we’re not baking yogurt

  • Chard and spaghetti from Six Seasons.
  • We need to restock our Asian pantry items. We’re out of the good chili oil and low on dried shiitake. Nevermind the rice flour and rice noodles and kimchi and soon tofu. Which is to say the scallions won’t be topping stirfries until we make it to the specialty grocery. Which means…..scallion-onion-garlic galette time again?
  • Purple beets! (I know they’re red, but, have you seen them? They look purple.) These are getting roasted, pureed, and frozen. To be tossed into hummus and yogurt as we need the flavor/vegetable boosts.
  • Speaking of putting things in the freezer, time to make another batch of sunchoke burgers and stock our freezer.
  • But some of the Jerusalem Artichokes (from the box? from the garden?) should end up in a relish. (Linking to one, but let’s check the church/community cookbooks shelf too.) And of course, save some for pizza. And maybe, if we have enough, fry ’em and smash ’em and put ’em on a salad.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 26

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Spring is green indeed. All the leaves blended together, so went artsy for the photo.

Hi John,

It’s a new CSA season! We’re at a new site, picking up on Tuesdays (after a pandemics worth of Thursday pickups). We’re back to getting a small box every week instead of splitting every other week.

Meanwhile, we’re getting back to the garden plot. Despite our rapid abandonment of the plot once we were under contract, some plants survived the winter. We have some spinach that’s finally mature enough to start picking. The cilantro that I started from seed, survived the transplanting and the season, and is thriving. The carrot seeds that never took off last fall, are actually growing this spring. The garlic that we planted at the end of fall, looks to be coming up. The dahlia returned, despite not harvesting the tuber for safer preservation over the winter. And of course the rosemary and oregano are thriving.

We’ve planted short rows of radishes. Spattering of a mix of stir-fryable greens. A bean tent with a variety of peas. Dill, though I’m not sure if what’s coming up is volunteers or from our seeds. A half border of nasturtium. Planning on buying starts for the basil and tomatoes and tomatillos and peppers and maybe a cucumber or three. Hoping the ground cherries have self-sown, as promised/threatened. We’ll see what the season truly brings.

In This Week’s Box

  • Green Garlic
  • Green Kale
  • Red Butterhead Lettuce
  • Red Chard

Still in the Fridge

  • Strawberries (farmer’s market)
  • Cranberries
  • Mushrooms
  • Greens: Lettuce, Cabbage, Microgreens
  • Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Winter Radishes
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Growing in the Garden

  • Spinach
  • Radish sprouts as we thin them
  • Radishes
  • Cilantro (as we want)
  • Weedy wild onions (if we trust our nose)

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals for now, meals for later

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 17

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We had enough sweet potato from the last box. We gave our fellow share splitters the sweet potatoes from this week.

Hi John,

Friday afternoon I was curled up in your office, just starting the next book for bookclub, when you answered a phone call from my dad. Everything’s fine. But they were on the road home from visiting my sister and realized that the weather for the weekend wasn’t conducive for travel. With three hours notice, we managed to prepare for our for guests since we moved–slightly organize the moving chaos, wash the towels, and make dinner.

We’ve done minimal hosting these past two years. Occasional picnics with friends. Two visits from my sister, once where we had my cousin come over for dinner the day after he moved to town. Sometimes taking a dish over to a friends’ house. I think that’s it.

So it was reassuring to realize that we could still cook for more people (than just us). We had turnip fried rice, butternut and bean soup (using the volunbeans!), shaved cabbage salad with a lemon-garlic dressing, baked oatmeal, and wood ear mushroom congee. Successful hosting! Without intentionally stocking up for the visit! Or running to the grocery store! (To be fair, we have been able to keep a stocked fridge and pantry. And, while I’m trying to stockpile fewer dry goods than I was at this point of 2020, we still try to keep food on hand so that we could quarantine for two weeks.)

In This Week’s Box

  • Broccoli
  • Cilantro
  • Flat Leaf Spinach
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Topped Turnips
  • White Scallions

Still in the Fridge

  • Cup of cooked volunbeans
  • Cranberries
  • Broccoli
  • Mushrooms
  • Celery
  • Greens: Green Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Breakfast radishes
  • Turnips
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Onions
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals for now (and maybe later)

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 17

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We took mushrooms last week and left beets and turnips this week. Sharing!

Hi John,

We have not made the shepherd’s pie, yet. So it feels like a lot of last week’s veggies are still hanging around. But! I did use the spaghetti squash (from October?). The seeds inside had almost universally started sprouting and the whole thing tasted bitter. Maybe it shouldn’t be stored for months and months at room temperature? (And we should probably prioritize that butternut squash too. Pizza with goat cheese?)

We also, finally, made the sunchoke veggie burgers and used up the Jerusalem Artichokes. I know. Those have been sitting in the back of the fridge since before I started keeping track of what’s still in the fridge. So of course this week’s box replenishes our supply.

I’m excited about it though. Despite what one might think from them being our lingering food, I’ve found I like sunchokes. Those veggie burgers are amazing! (They take a while to make. But the serving size on that post is way off. I made a half recipe and we got 6 normal size patties and 1 small one. And they freeze well! Once a batch is made it’s easy to make into a meal.) I like putting thin slices on a pizza. I liked Bryant Terry’s sunchoke cream for when we’re cooking a creamy vegan dish (though would use real cream if I wasn’t trying to serve a vegan meal). I like artichoke relish when we have sausage in the summer. And smashed sunchokes with siracha mayo.

All to say, there are plenty of ways we can use the new ‘chokes. I think one of them might need to be looking for eyes on the tubers we got and putting them in a five-gallon bucket. I don’t want to curse anyone, including ourselves, with a plant they can’t get rid of. And the tubers have a reputation of proliferating. So contain. And then see what happens.

In This Week’s Box

  • Collards
  • Garnet Sweet Potatoes
  • Green Cabbage
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Purple Carrots
  • Red Onions

Still in the Fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Winter radishes
  • Turnips
  • Squash: Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Dishes to dine on (that aren’t mentioned above)

  • We’ll cook up the collards. How’s the peanut and greens stew sound? It uses sweet potato too!
  • While I was looking for that recipe, I saw a coconut carrot curry soup. I think I’m intrigued. I haven’t tended to try these before because I didn’t like cooked carrots when I was a kid. But we’ve got carrots accumulating, so now is the time. And this recipe also uses a sweet potato! (Which means we will either use two of our sweet potatoes OR we will weigh a potato and use half of it in each recipe.)
  • Cabbage + carrots + onion does sound like we might make okonomiyaki again. Check Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds for recipe guidance.
  • And please, let’s make that shepherd’s pie. We have all the ingredients! Just need to decide to do it on a cooler day instead of one where we’re feeling the warmth of spring.

Sarah