turnips

Boxing Day, December 2 (and anticipating December 9)

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Dear John,

We skipped produce pickups while we were out of town. We ate radishes and peppers and carrots dipped in ranch fun dip on the road. We took squash and sweet potatoes and parsley and peppers to family and friends. But sick weeks followed by travel weeks meant we ended up with some very sad foods in the fridge. Some got tossed in the compost (applesauce that molded weirdly quickly), some got sauced (lettuce into a cream dip), some is destined for soup (chard once the Royal Coronas finish cooking).

The chill is finally in the air. I want to curl around casserole dishes and soup bowls. I also want to be able to eat soon after coming in the door and not after the oven has preheated and the casserole has baked for an hour. So, um, things to consider.

CSA Box

  • Braeburn Apples
  • Goldrush Apples
  • Gala Apples
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Purple Carrots
  • Red Veined Arugula
  • Stripetti Squash
  • *Arkansas Black Apples
  • *Cranberries
  • *Fuji Apples
  • *Broccoli
  • *Carnival Squash
  • *French Breakfast Radishes
  • *Green Chard
  • *Purple Gold Potatoes

*Items are predicted for next week since I was not actually able to sit down and do this properly until Sunday.

Community Produce

  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Apples
  • Oranges
  • Cucumbers
  • Zucchini
  • Green Pepper

Things in the fridge and on the counter

  • Asian pears
  • Apples
  • Reddening cherry tomatoes
  • Celery
  • Greens: Lettuce
  • Chard
  • Beets with greens
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Leeks
  • Sunchokes

Picked at the Garden

  • Closed for the season? At least I haven’t stopped by
  • Though we should try to do a final clean up of our plot
  • Maybe there’s some more parsley? Or collards?

Open Preserves

  • Fridge still organized!
  • Fridge still not inventoried!
  • Fig jam
  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel
  • Pickled peach
  • Curdito
  • Fermenting green cherry tomatoes

Pantry Beans

  • Yellow Split Pea
  • Split Red Lentil
  • Black Caviar Lentil
  • Garbanzo Bean
  • Buckeye Bean
  • Good Mother Stallard
  • Pinto Bean
  • Christmas Lima
  • California Corona
  • And maybe one more on the shelf?

Cozy meals

  • We walked in the door at 5:15. We considered ordering delivery, but that requires it’s own decision tree. I made the chickpeas and pasta while you unloaded the rental car. Solid meal from the pantry, yes please. Since then we’ve made dragon noodles with carrots and the remaining leaves of cauliflower or broccoli. Crispy potatoes with the aforementioned lettuce cream sauce.
  • We have three pumpkins and another three squash currently serving as decor. They are overdue for being eaten. Chop one, roast, and serve with the tahini yogurt sauce a la Ottolenghi and Tamimi. Pumpkin Parmesan from the Good Food Cook Book? A curry with tofu? I’m trying to think what else I want to eat that will be better with whole pumpkin/squash chopped than puree and kinda thinking puree for the freezer/muffins/soups/pies/pasta sauce sounds reasonable. But then make puree in either oven or instant pot or crock pot. (I should use the better squash for puree for the cheesecake that looks so tempting.)
  • At Thanksgiving, you saw a kid’s magazine with a spread of cucumbers topped with cream cheese and pretzels or pickles or berries. We should put the cucumber to use.
  • I was trying to remember what baked rice dish surprised me last year with how well it worked. Remembered correctly that I’d texted it to a friend–not as a link but photo from a cookbook and found the Golden Carrot Bake in Simply in Season. Wouldn’t you know it, we have plenty of carrots right now. Also saw the kimchi rice bake, which is probably better for a rushed weeknight.
  • Zucchini feels harder to deal with when there’s snow in the air. Zucchini and pepper and some beans for a chili? A zucchini dal? Or with the royal coronas in a pizza beans set-up? I think the pizza beans if we have time, but the dal if I want to come home to an already made meal. The trick of cooking the rice and the dal at the same time seems worth trying at least once!
  • Speaking of the instant pot, we are at the time of year where I switch to oatmeal breakfast. Definitely going to be tossing a handful of cranberries into the pot with the oats and water. As a reminder, 1 cup of oats + 2.5 cups water + 15-20 minutes at pressure.

Love,

Sarah

PS If the swap box has cabbage, take it so we can make cran-kin-kraut!

Boxing Day, May 13

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Green to white ombré.

Dear John,

We hosted. Success! We reset, at least a little. We home maintained–getting both HVAC and plumbing professionals out to diagnose leaks. We came down with colds and have had soup for three of the past four meals. Here’s some things I’m thinking about if we get to feeling better. Perhaps to serve to our next guest who arrives in…40 hours or so. Hopefully we’re feeling better by then!

Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Collards Fennel
  • Green Garlic
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • White Scallions

Things in the fridge

  • Asparagus ends
  • Sunchokes
  • Rhubarb
  • Radish
  • Lettuce

In the Garden

  • Radishes
  • Carrots
  • Hardy Greens Mix (Kale/Collards/Mustard)

Open Preserves

  • Still to be done. Though we did use a vinaigrette on a celery and chickpea salad we took to a picnic with friends this weekend. One fewer jar!

Sniffling through springtime
(still dreaming of the celebrations though)

  • Despite the lack of rhubarb in our first box, I had plenty to work with when it was delivered from a visitor’s yard. I made a rosemary rhubarb crisp and two rhubarb custard pies. And then we got more delivered in last week’s box. Another custard pie is tempting. But so is rhubarb vanilla jam. Or rhubarb mulberry jam. Nevermind that I haven’t spotted mulberries yet.
  • It’s spring allium season. I think it might be time for triple threat galette. We didn’t make it for Easter this year, but we can still celebrate.
  • I picked up the fennel from the swap box (and left collards) thinking of the fennel sardine pasta. Looking at my search bar history, I’m tempted to try the fennel fritters again. But fennel and white beans sounds yummy too. Perhaps in another soup? Or maybe make the cassoulet?
  • The soup we are making in the next day or two is one more round of the asparagus ends soup. Use the leftover potato peels instead of oats!
  • How do we want to use the turnip tops this week? I’m tempted to go beans and greens route and cook up the kale and collards from the garden at the same time. (Coming soon: an inventory of our beans so that we can better consider which beans might integrate into our menu each week.)
  • Turnip bottoms into the Six Seasons turnips and yogurt salad.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, October 10

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Dear John,

Lasagna is a lot to put together, I know. I’m so glad you made it last week because it was delicious. (And also, I’m glad that I told you to stop that one evening because actually eating dinner was good.) The combination of crunchy and soft noodles. The layers of flavor. The using up a lot of veggies and having leftovers.

All that said, the time commitment is substantial. And while I would like more crispy pasta soon, I have had the realization that maybe we could do baked pasta instead of full on lasagna? I’m definitely partial to Smitten Kitchen for these–I think I imprinted on Deb’s mushroom marsala pasta bake our first winter with this CSA. Perhaps using that gluten free ravioli you found for a skillet chard-ravioli (with broil time). I bet the broccoli rabe could be switched for any number of heavy duty greens. If you’d rather make it a mostly pantry meal, tomato sauce + pasta +cheese sounds pretty good; though, I bet you could reference this recipe too and add roasted veggies to use up whatever we have on hand.

So polish up your bechamel skills and figure out a favorite tomato sauce. It’s cool enough to turn on the oven and bake that pasta.

PS This recipe for pesto stuffed pasta shells in squash sauce sounds delicious. Stuffing is more work. We aren’t having you do that.

Today’s Box

  • Jonagold Apples
  • Yellow Bartlett Pears
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Ginger
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Green Savoy Cabbage
  • Sweet Onions

Things in the fridge

  • Apples
  • Plums
  • Pears
  • Asian pears
  • Lemongrass
  • Tomatoes
  • Fennel
  • Greens: Chard, lettuce, cabbage
  • Radish
  • Squash: Acorn
  • Yummy peppers
  • Poblano peppers
  • Hot peppers

In the Garden

  • Habaneros, jalapenos, fish peppers, other peppers, still getting peppers
  • Dried beans
  • Edamame
  • Beets
  • Parsley if we want (we should pop some on the dehydrator)
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlias and cosmos and gomphrena for the table

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled kale stems
  • Pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Tomatillo salsa
  • Cran-kin kraut
  • Cranapple chutney
  • Watermelon rind dill pickles
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Non-pasta meals to make me happy

  • Quick note. Last year our ginger went moldy before we used most of it. We can mince it, freeze it, and have ginger handy for smoothies/stirfries/soups.
  • The roasted apple salad from Pulp was delicious. More of that please.
  • And try to remember to add radish and turnip to salads when appropriate.
  • Do you want to save the cabbage for slaw or do a cabbage and glass noodle stirfry?
  • Stuff those peppers! Rice and beans and tomatoes and spices.
  • The beets have been hanging around for a while. Maybe time to roast, puree, freeze. And use for all the beet yogurt dips and beet hummus dips I want a whim.
  • Speaking of beet yogurt. I’ve been making an open faced sandwich recently with almond butter, beet yogurt, and thinly sliced apple. It’s good. Feel free to mix in chevre and celery. Maybe some craisins.
  • Time to cycle through the peppers on the dehydrator. It’s amazing how much they shrink between getting halved and getting their water removed. The fridge full of peppers no longer feels obviously sufficient to make enough chili powder for everyone’s presents. We’ll just have to stretch things with one more batch of hot sauce.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 4

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Dear John,

The fireworks are echoing down the street. I’m wiped from watching parade in the summer heat. You’re in the kitchen making everything neat.

Today’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • White Peaches
  • Fennel
  • Red Beets
  • Red Spring Onions
  • Slicing Cucumbers
  • Yellow Patty Pan Squash

Things in the fridge

  • Cherries
  • Watermelon
  • Peaches
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, Chard, Collard
  • Carrots
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Green beans from neighbors
  • Rainbow chard
  • Turnips + greens
  • Radish + greens
  • Beets + reds, beet + greens
  • Sad looking ending the pea season
  • All the lettuce (17 slugs, 1 earwig)
  • Basil leaves getting pinched with flowers
  • Dill flowers
  • Garlic chives weeding forever
  • Calendula flowers getting dried by the trayful
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos bouquet

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

We pulled the peas, and planted beans to take over the tent. Two volunbeans, four from the soup pack. Harvested the last of the spring planted radish and turnips. I’m debating if we plant something else short there, or wait for the cucumber and strawberry to spread as they grow.

The beans we planted (two weeks ago?), have all popped up. The chard keeps getting thinned, so even though it’s growing, I feel like we might not be totally overwhelmed. Nevermind how loaded the bike was before we left.

I checked the internet’s horticulture wisdom and realized we needed to prune all of our tomatoes – it’s an indeterminate year.

Meals to make to celebrate summer

  • Internet browsing brought me to a newsletter with a series from Pandemic Part I. There’s this salad that looks great for cleaning out bits and ends. I made it last week and it was a hit. Not sure it’s calling me again so soon, but wanting to save.
  • It’s been so long since we made smashed cucumber salad. I miss it. We are making it this week. (I spied the first baby cucumber fruiting today. Maybe we’ll have some of our own to harvest.)
  • And the patty pan squash means it’s time for my annual making of the roasted squash and herbed chickpeas from chocolate & zucchini.
  • Green beans and tofu?
  • We just tossed fennel pesto that had gone moldy. So we can make some again. But learn from our mistakes and FREEZE it. Also, toss fennel on a salad of lettuces + peaches + toasted pecans.
  • How to use this week’s beet greens? (The beets will keep. Fine dice and roasted. Sliced on pizza. I’m not worried about them.) And what about the supply of chard? Last week brought a quiche with a mix of parm, cheddar, and gouda. Another quiche, but this time with chevre sounds potential. Honestly, it’s been a bit since we had pizza. That sounds kinda good. So does having it with pasta in a tomato sauce.
  • Last thought, if we have extra cucumbers, maybe this salad but with fennel.

Love,

Sarah

PS The wedge salad was as good as I dreamed and makes me want to get iceberg lettuce again. The toppings we used–roasted beets, toasted nuts, green onions, parsley, blue cheese dressing–feel so similar to my autumnal salads. But those are served with kale and that makes all the difference.

Boxing Day, June 13

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Dear John,

At a party this weekend, I passed on a bag containing the last of the dahlia bulbs we thought were likely viable. To be fair, there’s still a package left to be taken to the post office. And the package to your brother is puttering around the postal system–at least now it looks like it’s in the right zip code. I am late sending my parents the last of the calendula seeds. But also thrilled to have grown things to the point of sharing no only the produce but hopefully some future plants.

Guess the next test is if any of it actually grows for anyone.

In the days when the sky is eerily orange. When the rain is too little, or far too much. When the heat keeps me inside with air conditioning (that helps me now, but maybe only makes everything worse?). When I find another dead bee as I water the plants. It’s hard not to obsess about the challenges of creation.

So we care for our flowers. And try to share a bounty of blooms. Continue the work. Share life’s glories.

Today’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • English Peas
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Kale
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Red Chard

Things in the fridge

  • Breakfast radishes
  • Fennel stems waiting to get pickled
  • Lettuce
  • Collards
  • Zucchini
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Lettuce, still pretty, still with slugs. And earwigs
  • Radishes + their greens
  • Turnips + their greens
  • Beets + their greens
  • Rainbow chard
  • Calendula flowers getting dried
  • Peas for the sampling–snap, snow, and shelling
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

You found cucumber starts! We got more stakes! So there’s now a mound with bush pickle cukes where the turnips and a couple of calendula plants used to be. And a mound with a trellis and burpless cukes where the edamame was. I attempted to transplant the edamame to the center of the new bean tent. Soup beans by the thick poles, volunbeans by the thinner ones.

So….I think we’re done planting for a little bit. Time to let things grow. Hope for rain. And tend what we can in the meantime.

Meals to consider

  • So much chard getting thinned. Let’s consider the chard and PB banana wraps. They’re a curiosity to me.
  • Beet greens in the turmeric ginger rice. Radish and turnip greens and the bitter greens with chickpeas. More chard with pasta? Mix the greens, creams, and eggs?
  • The snap peas and shelling peas got shelled, zapped in the microwave. There was enough for us each to have a spoonful. We don’t have much more of the snow peas, but maybe we can add them to a stirfy.
  • Summer rolls with lettuce or chard, and all the other veggies?

Love,

Sarah

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 20

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Psst, photographer…hide the twist ties/rubber bands. Or at least make them less prominent?

Hi John,

My parents texted this morning that they’re on the road. They’ll arrive tomorrow and be here through next Tuesday, when we switch from the one-size winter box we split to the small-size summer box that’s just us.

Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Cilantro
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Dandelion
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Red Scallions
  • Spinach

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Red Radishes
  • Cilantro
  • Carrots of the rainbow
  • Sunchoke
  • Red Beet

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Dinners with visitors

  • It turns out that the parsley I picked up as a bonus last week is actually cilantro. And we got more cilantro today. And rotted cilantro is a heartbreak. So, let’s use this. Cabbage and peanut slaw with cilantro on breakfast tacos and maybe in spring rolls. Roasted beets and carrots in a Thai-inspired curry. Ginger-garlic-not-quite-pho. Note: all of these should also use up the scallions.
  • Usually we’ve cooked up dandelion greens with beans. But we have pizza dough left from earlier in the week. Dandelion greens, garlic, and goat cheese?
  • The cilantro slaw will presumably be our main salad of the week. But let’s have spinach + turnip + carrot as our go to side salad.

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 23

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The return of greens. Chard and lettuce and mix. Don’t worry, we still have plenty of roots.

Dear John,

In the time between when I started this draft and, ahem, starting the next draft we had some produce experimentation. We dug up some sunchokes from our pots–surprisingly easy to clean off the the soil. I guess the potting mix is better aerated than our yard. The pizza was delicious and I am eagerly anticipating the burgers.

We also split our dahlia tubers. Sorted between viable and edible. Washed and peeled a few of the latter. Sauteed in butter with salt and pepper. They felt more like radishes than potatoes. Decent chip though. Not a food I’d seek out (bred for looks as it were), but might as well with the ones that are otherwise destined for the compost pile. I’m scheming what pickling we might attempt.

Today’s Box

  • Asian Greens Mix
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Gold Beets x2
  • Purple Daikon Radishes x2
  • Purple Viking Potatoes
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Red Chard

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Parsley
  • Half a parsnip
  • Half a cabbage
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Sweet Potatoes
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Black Futsu squash (from the farmers market)
  • Shallots, onions

Open Preserves

Home meals

  • The greens look so perfect for salads. We should make a dressing and keep it simple and on the side. Chop a turnip. Add some fruit. Maybe add some roasted beet wedges. Toasted pumpkin seeds. Oh look, it’s a meal size salad now.
  • I’m cheating cause you already made it, but twice baked potatoes. (We should have used the turnip greens for that instead of the frozen spinach. But whatevs. It was yummy cozy.) Prep them all and freeze what we’re not eating for that meal.
  • The radishes are calling for a fried rice situation. At least that’s how I’m feeling at the moment.
  • But some of them can go in okonomiyaki. With that half cabbage from the last box.
  • Swiss chard and sweet potato gratin? (Unless we do the sweet potatoes discussed last week.)
  • Purple potatoes for gnocci!

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, January 26

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Our box. Minus the black turnips. Plus extra sweet potatoes and parsnips.

Dear John,

Last week, someone on the neighborhood listserv started a thread sharing lifehacks. The first responses were about grocery lists and meal planning. Bulk cooking sauces and dressings on weekends to prepare for the week ahead. Making meals large enough that leftovers get packed in lunchboxes. Having regularly occurring menus. Which a reminder that, I can still tell you that growing up Saturday morning is pancakes, Saturday dinner is pizza, Sunday morning eggs, Sunday lunch spaghetti, and Sunday dinner hot dogs and popcorn.

I contributed using a melon baller to core an apple. Truly it works quickly, and then you have a half ball of core to toss in the apple core bag in the freezer.

Because, the apple core bag, is definitely one of our more recent tricks. Apple and pear cores (and other fruit), tossed in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make jelly and mostarda or chutney. I opted not to put that one the listserv though. It feels a bit of an advanced cooking to reduce waste move. I’ll share with you, here, though.

It led to a fun discussion of our other hacks:

  • Freezer scrap bags: In addition to the apple cores, we have kale and green stems that become pesto, veggie peels become stock, and one day I might figure out the secret of saving Parmesan rinds for stock
  • Second curtain rod over the far side of the shower for hanging washcloths to dry
  • Family account on one password with shared passwords
  • Cryptomator + shared drive for secure file sharing across computers
  • When mood is bad, eat something, drink water, and go for a walk and talk.
  • This blog for sharing the menu planning process

Speaking of….

Today’s Box

  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Black Radishes
  • Celery
  • Parsnips
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Scarlet Turnips
  • Shallots

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Rutabaga (picked up from last week’s swap box leftovers)
  • Black Futsu squash (from the farmers market)

Open Preserves

Home meals

  • Sweet potatoes topped with celery and shallot and cheese. This recipe is a better fit for this box than I remembered!
  • If we want something salad-y, I think the turnips are the first thing to try. I don’t know scarlet turnips! Maybe shave them and some apples and do a mustard dressing? We can also try grating the rutabaga.
  • Two weeks ago, we made the parsnip soup with celery relish from Six Seasons. Honestly, it’s worth a repeat.
  • Oh, root vegetable tangine sounds really fun. Aka it would do exactly as titled and mix up our routine. And we have preserved lemon waiting to be used!
  • That blog had an older post that reminds me we can make gnocci with the root veg. We’re out of our sweet potato gnocci, so that’s tempting. But maybe one of the four pounds of rutabaga goes to that? We already have grocery store potatoes on hand.
  • Last week, I used the last fall squash in a winter chili adapted from Simply in Season. This one looks like it’d be fun to stuff, but maybe play on that theme? Beans and cheese and some canned tomatoes and spices with heat.
  • I was debating how to use the chard–it’s not quite a salad green but I wanted to get the crunchy freshness of barely cooked greens. I think returning to the pandemic winter favorite of turmeric rice with greens is the way to go. (You know if it came a week we had cilantro, I’d be making that soup.)

Love you,

Sarah

Catching up

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From the box: Broccoli and Bok Choy. Lettuce and asparagus.

Dear John,

The past month has brought lots of heartburn and plenty of fatigue. Meal planning has been sparse at best, partly because it’s hard to know what I’m going to be up to eating.

I think we went three weeks between garden visits at one point? The radishes came! The spinach bolted! The cilantro is off to seed! The mixed stirfry greens have filled many grocery bags with their leaves already! The peas didn’t take off, but the nasturtium are looking pretty leafy. The dahlia that we neglected to dig up last fall has already started blooming.

We bought starts for peppers and tomatoes and tomatillos and ground cherries and herbs. They’re in the ground in the garden and in pots at the house. The sunchokes are in giant pots and earlier today I thought I saw the barest beginnings of a sprout. (The potato that had sprouted went mouldy before we got it in a pot. It is in the compost instead.)

At the house, the lead service line is finally replaced. Without having done any soil testing of our yard, I don’t want to plant edibles there. Flowers sound lovely. A couple more dahlia bulbs. Seed bomb from a friend’s CSA. Extra zinnias and nasturtium. Why not? We can see what wins out in the rocky, bricky, soil + weeds underneath the mulch.

In The Most Recent Box

  • Asparagus
  • Bok Choy
  • Broccoli
  • Head Lettuce

Still in the Fridge

  • Strawberries (farmer’s market)
  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Kale
  • Alliums: Green Garlic, Garlic Scapes, White Scallions, Red Scallions
  • Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Rainbow radishes
  • Turnips
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Growing in the Garden

  • Radishes
  • Stirfry greens
  • Nasturtium leaves (as we thin the plants)

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 that use the greens when heartburn makes things tricky

  • Still trying to eat salads. This week was greens + potatoes + hard boiled eggs + radishes or turnips + parm + mustard vinaigrette. Also arugula or other greens + strawberries + turnips + chevre + almonds + rosemary infusing olive oil. (It’s a new batch and the rosemary flavor isn’t strong yet.)
  • Omelettes. Scrambled eggs with greens. Breakfast tacos with greens. We haven’t made a quiche yet, so I think that’s coming soon.
  • Twice baked potatoes.
  • Risotto with turnips and their greens.
  • Pad see ew with stirfry greens
  • Summer rolls (aka salad you can eat with your hands) with peanut butter dipping sauce
  • Coconut turmeric rice (if coconut milk is available. *sighs at supply chains and decades old planting decisions and climate change and sighs*) with added beans and greens.
  • Saag aloo, nearly omitting the peppers. Womp womp. But it meant I could sleep at night.
  • Do not make pizza. Even if it’s kale stem pesto instead of tomato sauce and has plenty of cheese. It took a couple of days to recover an appetite after that single meal.

Hoping the heartburn dissipates soon!

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, March 3

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End of day photo means the greens look a bit wilty. It’s okay. Water will perk them up.

Heya John,

After two years of pandemic, a flood, a rebuilding, a death, and I don’t even remember what else, we made the trip to visit your parents at their home. The snow was timed perfectly for us to be able to go skiing. (Though my rental skis resisted sliding so it was somewhere between skiing and snow-shoeing in long, narrow shoes.) You provided tech support. We both considered which furniture might be worth making the cross-country move. And, we mostly let your mom do the cooking.

There are more unused veggies this week than sometimes. I think we’re making a dent in them, but it might be time to make some meals to freeze.

In This Week’s Box

  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Celery
  • French Breakfast Radishes
  • Italian Parsley
  • Purple Top Turnips
  • White Mushrooms
  • Green Kale Hearts

Still in the Fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Winter radishes
  • Turnips
  • Squash: Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple
  • 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
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Can we talk about that sweet potato?

That is seven pounds + nine point two ounces.

In the back of the veggie pile, the potato looks large. But then you actually see pick it up and realize that is closer to the size of my head than a baby’s head.

It’s a lot of sweet potato.

My plan is to wash it, prick it, and then put it in the instant pot for, oh, let’s start with an hour. It should go quicker if I cut it up first. But it looks a bit unwieldy for the cutting.

Anyway, later today we should have much sweet potato mash. Once it’s cooled, I’ll put it in the freezer. We can use it for sweet potato waffles/kofkas/crème brûlée/whatever. Presumably for quite a while. (Especially considering we have other sweet potatoes to use between now and then.)

Meal-spiration

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 3

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Not pictures, sweet potatoes we left for the box sharers.

Hi John,

The boxes are fewer, though it still feels like they surround me in most rooms. The kitchen is inching towards usability, and in fact gets cooked in most days. At least the counters mostly make sense. We haven’t figured out a good place for dishes to go between being washed and dried, but I could clear a space to pose for this week’s produce picture.

That said, my summary of the past few weeks is that for someone who wants to be less consumption focused, I sure am spending a lot of time shopping. Both you and the friends who have heard this comment remind me that there’s good reason for that. We’re at a confluence of life transitions. Getting furniture now that fits the house we expect to be in for years makes sense. For instance, we’re currently on the lookout for the right kitchen island/cart. The cabinets don’t actually have a place that fits most pots and pans. Or the baking sheets. It’s a bit of a problem. While a kitchen remodel is probably in the long-term plans for the house (along with figuring out better insulation in that space), it’s not the top priority. So, we get to figure out what we can add that will make the existing facilities more functional. A 44 inch kitchen cart sounds promising.

In This Week’s Box

  • Cilantro
  • Kossak Kohlrabi
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Radishes
  • Purple Top Turnips

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: last of the season
  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes
  • Red beets
  • Squash: Spaghetti, Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple
  • Sunchokes

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

What to eat

  • We’ve already discussed that next time you are making soup, consider making one and a half recipes so you’d use all the parsnips instead of leaving a single, half pound, parsnip in the fridge. That said, I’m thinking some sort of shepherd’s pie situation is in order. Probably want to buy some mushrooms for it. Consider having the topping include kohlrabi as well as potatoes.
  • Oh! Buy enough mushrooms to use some more in the Freekeh, Mushrooms, Turnips, and Almonds recipe from Six Seasons. We’ll substitute another grain, of course. Perhaps sorghum? Or maybe change it to French lentils.
  • Chard and Cilantro means we get to make this soup again! Bonus for using some of the dried volunbeans.
  • Confession: I haven’t touched the beets. I think it might be time to roast, puree, and freeze. (To be added to hummus or yogurt or the beet pistachio soup from Midnight Chicken at some later date.) Maybe save one or two to shred for a salad with carrots and walnuts and some citrus. This might actually be sounding good. Use up the rest of the cabbage to go with it or nah?

Sarah

Boxing Day, October 21

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Offcamera, frustration at the squash that had been on display and is now rotting. Oooops.

Hi John,

It’s Wednesday and I am walking for my errands. I’ve wandered through to the next neighborhood over, because it is my favorite place to listen to episodes of a favorite podcast, and I am thinking about things I love.

I love Little Free Libraries, and pop-up protest art, and the Little Free Art Gallery that make each walk a hunt for treasure.

I love the sparrow splashing in the bird bath in the front lawn.

I love the feel of sunlight through green-brown leaves, and the shelf of fungus around the tree trunk.

I love all the different ways that parents are carting their kids on bicycles, from the dad walking his bike with his little in the seat clinging on the handlebars, to the full-on cargo bikes, to the back-wheel kiddo racks.

I love the way this neighborhood throws itself into holiday decorations and being a quaint little town, despite it’s actual location centered in the metropolis. I love the house that has become a pirate ship and the garden boxes crawling with spiders and the robotic raven that squawks whenever anyone walks by. I love the scarecrows and pumpkins and my memory of the chute that people built last year to deliver candy.

I love not knowing what the fruit is on the trees on the center of the boulevard, asking the guy who is also waiting for the light to change if he does, and the camaraderie of shared curiosity.

And you.

In This Week’s Box

  • Bosc Pears
  • Granny Smith Apples
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Jalapeno Peppers
  • Leeks
  • Mixed Carmen Italian Peppers
  • Red Dandelion Greens
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Thumbelina Carrots
  • White Cauliflower

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Deciding how long to wait on the final jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Last of the tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans for drying
  • Maybe a tomato? Maybe?
  • Dahlias
  • Radish sprouts when we thin them

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Gala, Empire, Jonagold U-pick
  • Bartlett Pears, Asian Pears
  • Greens: 1/2 a cabbage, 1/2 bunch collards, Savoy Cabbage, Romain lettuce
  • Herbs: Fennel tops
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Tomatillos
  • Broccoli
  • Edamame
  • Peppers: Yummy, Lombok, Starfish, Banana
  • Carrots
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Spaghetti, Robins Koginut
  • Garlic
  • Potatoes: Blue, Sweet
  • Sunchokes

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
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Blueberry peach jam
  • Apple sauce
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Things we may enjoy eating

  • Soup of the week: Curried apple soup from Enchanted Broccoli Forest looks interesting. And can help keep our fruit drawer manageable.
  • The edamame’s been around too long wanting for the right moment. We gotta just boil it and snack on it. It is time.
  • It’s still looking like side salad season. Though greens + turnips + granny smith apples + blue cheese + vinaigrette = meal
  • Volunbeans and dandelion greens and fennel and miso! Basically follow the recipe from Cool Beans.
  • Time to roast up the last of the tomatillos, some onion, a few of those jalapenos for one last salsa verde. Freeze what we won’t eat immediately. It’ll be gone soon.
  • Broccoli should be tossed in salads or roasted or stir-fried. I don’t know how we want to use it, just that we really should.
  • Are the pomegranates looking good in the grocery store? My notes for the roasted cauliflower and hazelnut salad say to make again when the pomegranates are in season.
  • I think I’m going to hold onto the leeks for one week, in case we get potatoes next week (and make potato-leek soup). Or chard (and try to adapt the wheat berries & swiss chard with pomegranate molasses from Jerusalem).

Love,

Sarah