DOOR STEP HARVEST Delivery Newsletter
Merry May! All leafy vegetables are washed in vinegar water and spun in salad spinner, and sealed in zip bag with moist paper towel to preserve crispness. Most items will last nearly a week in the fridge when stored this way. Your veggies are grown from seeds that are either/or heirloom, organic, and from a seed savers exchange network. The flower bouquet this week is made from iris, Mock Orange, Smoke Tree, peony. The fresh living food on your doorstep this week includes: Salad mix, Red Russian/Curly Leaf Kale, Dinosaur Kale, Typhon Holland Greens, Mixed Greens Saute, Radish, Baby Spinach, Large leaf spinach, Arugula, baby beet tops, peppermint, dill, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary, lemon balm, spring onion greens, rhubarb, sugar snap peas, a very little berry teaser, and the surprise of the week is: grape leaves. Attached is a page of information on how to cook greens to inspire you. Here are some interesting facts about the foods this week:
*Salad Mix: Made of several varieties of lettuces, and a variety of other salad greens. Enjoy with an olive-oil vinaigrette salad dressing blended with ginger, garlic, and herbs from this week’s delivery. It’s even great on sandwiches!
*/**Red Russian/Curly Leaf Kale: It tastes great in sauté with onion, garlic, mirin, vinegar, and olive oil. (Wikifact: kale contains sulforaphane, which is believed to have potent anti-cancer properties. Also, it contains indol-3-carbinal which boosts DNA repair and blocks cancer growth.)
**Dinosaur Kale: Cook with kale or by itself above. (wikifact: see above and, in East Africa, it is an essential ingredient in making a stew for ugali, which is almost always eaten with kale. Kale is also eaten throughout southeastern Africa, where it is typically boiled with coconut milk and ground peanuts and is served with rice or boiled cornmeal.)
**The Global Mixed Greens Saute: Swiss Chard, Chinese Tatsoi, Taiwan sweet mild mustard, Typhon Holland Greens.
* Cherry Belle Radish: Enjoy with your salad. (Wikifact: Radishes are rich in ascorbic acid, folic acid, and potassium. They are a good source of vitamin B6, riboflavin, magnesium, copper, and calcium. One cup of sliced red radish bulbs provides approximately 20 calories, largely from carbohydrates).
** Black Radish: (Wikifact: Citizens of Oaxaca, Mexico, celebrate the radish in a festival called Noche de los Rábanos (Night of the Radishes) on December 23 as a part of Christmas La Navidad celebrations. Locals carve religious and popular figures out of radishes and display them in the town square)
*Baby Spinach: Use in salads with nuts, in ethnic cuisine, and on pizza with mushrooms and feta! (Wikifact: During World War I, wine fortified with spinach juice was given to French soldiers weakened from hemorrhage).
*Large leaf Spinach: just in time for sandwiches.
**Tyfon Holland Greens: This brassica is a cross between Chinese Cabbage and Turnips. Tyfon contains no mustard oil so the flavor is very mild. Cook like mustard greens. See attached cooking info about greens.
**Beet Tops with wee little babies attached: Cook these tops like greens above…and enjoy the itty-bitty bite of beet at the end.
*Arugula: Cook like greens (on attachment), chop small and add to meatloaf, or add fresh to salad (shred and add feta, balsamic vinegar, walnuts, dried cranberries, and drizzle with olive oil or flax oil). This week we made up a new recipe: Chop one onion into tiny pieces, shred two large handfuls of arugula, add 1 tbsp each of thyme, oregano, sage, salt, and 1 tsp black pepper. Heat oiled skillet while blending above with one pound ground beef (use hands to mix). Make balls larger than golf ball size but smaller than tennis ball size. Flatten into patty and cook like hamburgers in skillet. While cooking, sprinkle CHIPOLTE pepper on the patty. Yum. If proportions are just right, hamburger patty will hold up to grilling, but this takes practice… Arugula makes a nice pesto too.
*Sugar Snap Peas: we were surprised to find these so early… they are still not fully formed but still taste great. Sugar Snap Peas are a variety to eat whole, shell and all. (Later in the year we’ll have shell peas and snow peas.)
*/**Berry Teaser: Just a taste! The mulberries in our yard in town are turning, some of the strawberries are ripe, and the gooseberries at Grandma’s are green but my aunt and great grandma ate them green their whole life. In a few weeks, these gooseberries turn dark purple, loose their crisp quality, and become soft.
**Rhubarb: Enjoy a good crisp during your summer BBQ over memorial day weekend!
*Thyme: Can be used to season pasta, salad dressings, tomato sauce, and meats. Keep in fridge for two weeks and use fresh as needed. After that, keep on counter in paper bag to dry. After it’s dry, keep in Ziploc bag for future use.
*Dill: Enjoy chopped in salad or with beets.
*Rosemary: great for simmering with a roast…
*Oregano: great for seasoning pasta, meats, salad dressings… Store as thyme above.
*Sage tastes great with winter squash and ground lamb. It’s also good seasoning for other meats, stews, and it is a key ingredient in meatballs and sausages when it’s dried and crushed. Store as Thyme above.
**Peppermint is great added to salads, made into tea (place a handful of leaves into quart jar, poor boiling water over it, and let it steep until cool enough to drink), used in Asian cooking, or try shredding it and adding it to strawberries!
*Lemon Balmcalms stomach disturbances, and soothes the nerves. Enjoy it as a soothing tea (add boiling water to crushed leaves). It may also be used in your salad mix. (Wiki Fact: When crushed, it can be applied to skin and used to repel mosquitoes.) During the hot spell, I tried it. I crushed it and rubbed it into my skin and it seemed to work. Let me know if it works for you or not.
*Onion Greens taste great in salads or diced and sprinkled on soup.
**Wild crafted spring garlic: Use it blended in salad dressing, minced into hamburger patties, or diced into sauté.
The surprise of the month are Domestic Grape leaves and Domesticated Wild Fox Grape leaves. Make stuffed grape leaves according to instructions below. The Greeks love their stuffed grape leaves. Preserved grape leaves are found in ethnic food stores and even health food stores these days sell canned stuffed grape leaves (dolmas). There’s nothing like fresh dolmas. If you don’t have time to make dolmas right away, preparing the leaves below prepares them for freezing well. Then, later, thaw them out and stuff. Dolmas are great snacks to pack.
*Organically grown in my 4-H Garden on Cedar Street. **Grown in my 4-H garden at Grandma’s in the country.
STUFFED WILD GRAPE LEAVESfrom Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill:
30 grape leaves
2 Quarts water
2 teaspoons salt
Collect grape leaves at least 6 in. across and cut off stems. Add leaves to boiling salted water for a few minutes. Drain, and rinse the leaves under cold running water. Set aside and make stuffing or freeze and use later.
Stuffing can be made so many various ways and very in simplicity and complications. View the web for complicated versions view the JOY OF COOKING. My mom makes simple things by blending ground lamb or ground beef with simple ingredients including things like nuts (pine nuts or pecans are most common), herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano), cooked rice, salt and pepper. We make the shape of the meat small enough to fit inside the “palm” of the leaf. Fold left and right “arms” toward the middle over the meat, then roll toward the tip and then you have a little roll. Lay them in a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and a touch of vinegar then bake at 300 degrees for one hour. See the enclosed copy of a more complicated version by Steve. My mom does make them a pressure cooker and they do stay very moist that way.
Arugula pesto: Substitute arugula for basil and use walnuts in place of pine nuts. Pesto easily freezes in ice cube trays for use over baked chicken and pasta.