Thursday, July 5, 2007

High summer

For the first time so far, I managed to pick up my share on time today. This meant that I got to peruse the list of my fellow share-holders as I checked off my name on the list and gathered the farm's weekly newsletter and recipe sheet. Apparently, I'm in good company. A fellow member known only as "Governor's Mansion" had already collected their bounty.

This week, Gov. Spitzer and I will be enjoying:

1 bunch of kale
1 bunch of broccoli
1 head of red leaf lettuce
1 bunch of red scallions
1 bunch of heirloom globe carrots
4 summer squash
6 cucumbers
1 pint of those strawberries--already, the last of the season!
1 bunch of beets
1 bunch of red kohlrabi

Those last two, like the turnips, present a challenge for me. As delicious as the first week's beets were, roasted, then served with a dijon vinaigrette, I couldn't finish them. I still have last week's left, along with the turnips, and I fear a similar fate for the kohlrabi. The irony is, I like these vegetables. Why do I fail to see their potential? Can anyone help?

3 comments:

Meema said...

Sometime around 1956 I made borscht for my new in-laws not knowing that my new mother-in-law disliked beets. I used a recipe from Volume I Gourmet - my only cookbook at the time. It was wonderful. That recipe probably calls for canned beets but you can roast your fresh beets until just tender and use them - also, add the turnips with the other vegetables. Or you can pickle the beets - they will be wonderful with salad.

Millie Rossman Kidd said...

I hardly ever used my turnips or parsnips from the weekly veggie box either. I'm not a huge fan, and on the rare occasions I cook them, it tends to be a winter thing. A "roasted chicken and root vegetables" kind of thing. Not so much a summer thing for us...

Our CSA always recommended eating the kohlrabi raw, but I'm not a huge an of that either. Was a bit too much like raw potato. Think you could grate it as a substitution for jicama in a slaw recipe? We have a good jicama slaw recipe in the next issue of Dinnerwhere, which is out today! Yay!

I love the beets though. Roasted and over salad, esp an arugula salad. The earthy sweetness to the beets was a nice contrast to the spicy arugula.

monika said...

Too funny - I always had a problem with the beets too! Once there was a recipe that came with our golden beets -- it used walnut oil, which our daughter is terribly allergic to; something we didn't know at the time. So much for that recipe... Last week, I actually had a fabulous beet salad at the hospital cafeteria (the hospitals here are famous for their AMAZING food, believe it or not!). The beets were in a 1/2" dice, had some herbs (couldn't tell what... margoram?) and were lightly vinegary. Actually, the dressing was lovely. Made me inspired to find a good beet salad.

As for kholrabi, where I came from, it is a staple, and it is enjoyed raw, like carrots. Actually, with rye bread spread with high quality sweet butter (munched on the side, not with the bread). Probably a Czech thing...