Our inaugural Winter Season CSA box arrived this week, and more than a couple Pennsauken picker-uppers were perplexed by the small bag of sunchokes in the shares. Also called Jerusalem Artichokes, not because they came from Jerusalem (they’re native to North America), but through a linguistic bastardization of the Italian for sunflower, girasole (“jeer-ah-SO-lay”), these…
Tag: csa
Out of the deep freeze
Hey, maybe you haven’t heard—since, you know, the hysteria-industrial complex only reported it 23/7—but it’s been cold. Not just cold. C-c-c-c-c-cold. When just going outside to let the dog do his thing requires two layers and ends with crystalized eyelashes, going out the store—or out to eat—is out of the question. I know I’m not…
Leek week
And leak week. It seemed like a good investment seven years ago, when we were spec’ing the renovations. But when that fancy, ultra-high-efficiency water heater recently began “evacuating” all over the floor every few hours, its return curve changed slope dramatically. So while Plumber #4 and I wait for parts to arrive from Italy (really?),…
Squashapalooza 2.0: Butternut Cupcakes
As promised on Thanksgiving, here’s the recipe for those killer butternut-squash cupcakes. Inspired by one of the most beautifully art-directed cookbooks I own, Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home, these moist, delicately scented cakelets are reminiscent of carrot cake—and from henceforth are my go-to, bring-along sweet for fall potlucks. Jamie dubs them muffins, but after I sampled a…
Wonder and Bounty
My Thanksgiving prep is nearly done. The crucifers are cut and ready to roast; the butternut squash cakes are frosted (and tucked into covered pans set in the garage, since there’s no room in the fridge); and the cranberry relish is already ready to relish. I’m grateful always, but today especially, for those who grow…
Pickled Daikon & Carrot Coins
Twenty-eight weeks of CSA deliveries this year, and not a single daikon radish had crossed my cutting board. So when I saw them – a bundle of three, nearly as long as my forearm – in Thursday’s swap box, it was bye-bye, kale. I shredded half a radish into a slaw, set one aside for…
I Cannot Tell a Fibonacci
No lie. I’d never cooked Romanesco before today. I wasn’t really trying to avoid it; it’s just that whenever it’s been an either/or option in my sharebox, I’ve always drawn a box with the “or.” But last week, I guess because there are fewer subscribers in the fall, everybody got one. Yippee! With its hypnotizing,…
Heads up: Addictive Cauliflower Pasta
Cauliflower’s been spectacular this past month here in southeast Pennsylvania. The co-op included big heads in our last couple-three shareboxes of the spring/summer season (which ended with October) – and it was the centerpiece of last week’s inaugural fall-season box. Twice now, I’ve made crispy cauliflower, roasting half a head at high heat with a…
Squashapalooza 2.0: Squash and Beet Risotto
Eight. Again. Thanks to the swap box, a few forfeited shares, and my own carryovers from the past couple weeks, I now have eight squash clogging my kitchen counter. It’s Squashapalooza 2.0: Winter Edition. But at least these cool-weather varieties don’t demand immediate consumption (or preservation) like my week-long zucchini fest this past July….
The Knights Who Say Nehi: Concord Grape Shrub
No romantic childhood memories in the lede this week, unless you count the Monty Python film festival my college pal, Becky, and I binged on in 1983 at London’s Barbican Centre. Nope, I’m a newbie. I’d never even heard of shrubs when Bryn brought a blackberry version to a Mann Center picnic a few years back. Then,…
Boxing Day 