In Your Share (Nov 26th edition)

You can download the Recipe Packet for this week’s share HERE. It includes some great recipes for beet salad, red onion jam & caldo verde among others.

This week your share may include…

Beets: Looks like we have another great crop of beets this winter! We grow a special variety called Winterkeeper (aka Lutz) which is the only beet I’ve ever found that can withstand the months and months of winter rain here. There is a roasted beet recipe in your packet or try  some of my old favorites at Beets 101.

Cabbage: All of the crops in the brassica family (broccoli, collards, turnips etc) are much sweeter in the winter and cabbage is no exception. This will make a great slaw or there are several recipes for cooked cabbage in your packet.

Carrots: What could be better than sweet winter carrots!

Celeriac: An ugly gnarly root with a lovely delicate celery flavor. This is an entertaining article about celeriac (though he doesn’t have very nice things to say about celery) and it includes a great recipe for Celeriac Remoulade (aka Céleri Rémoulade)

Collards: In the cooking class that Katherine Deumling did last month at Luscher Farm, we used collards. I started to take the ribs out, then cut one up to taste it and it was so sweet & tender that I passed it around and gave everyone samples! When collards sit on the shelf for awhile, the ribs tend to dry up and become tough. In that case, you should take them out. If collards are kissed by the frost and just picked from the field, then cook the sweet ribs too. Try them in the Simple Garlicky Collards recipe from your packet.

Garlic: Two interesting varieties again this week. Asian Tempest, an asiatic garlic from South Korea, is fiery hot when raw, but mellows with cooking. Chesnok, a Middle Eastern hardneck from Shvelisi Georgia, is nice for baking because it has a very creamy texture.

Onions: The variety this week is Redwing, a great red storage onion variety that we’ll have through the winter.  It should be great in the  onion jam recipes from your packet.

Potatoes: I really like Fingerling potatoes because they are so easy either roasted in chunks or boiled. They’d be great in the Caldo Verde recipe from your packet too.

Turnip: These are the old-fashioned type Purple Top turnips. There may also be some heirloom Golden Ball Turnips in the mix too.

Winter Squash: The spaghetti squash is an interesting variety because when cooked, it comes out of the shell in long strands like spaghetti. You can top it with almost any traditional pasta sauce, or do the simple butter & herb perparation from your packet.

Coming soon… russet baking potatoes & butternut squash!!