What the heck is that???

I know that is what I asked the first time I saw this green ball-like veggie. This is a kohlrabi, a member of the cabbage family grown for its swollen, turnip-shaped stem. The exterior can be purple or green with a creamy white interior.  We grew the green variety this spring and are planning on growing both green and purple this fall. It can be eaten either raw or cooked. I think a cooked kohlrabi tastes like a sweet broccoli stem. Kohlrabi is a good source of vitamin C and potassium. It is low in both sodium and calories. One cup diced kohlrabi contains only 40 calories and 140% of the RDA for vitamin C. We usually cut into coins, and then cut off the outer skin, it’s easier than peeling.  Try cutting it up into veggie sticks and dipping into ranch dressing, or put it into a stir-fry.   

Speaking of the cabbage family, you will also have a head of fresh cabbage in your baskets. Keep in mind if you are going to cook it, fresh cabbage cooks a LOT faster than cabbage from the store. Or you can make some homemade cole slaw. This recipe will make a sweet slaw dressing:

Ingredients

Cabbage (about 1 head)

Shredded carrot (for color-optional)

2 tablespoons diced onion

2/3 cup Miracle Whip (this does not taste as good if you substitute regular mayo)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional)

Rinse cabbage and either drain dry or spin in a salad spinner.

Mix the Miracle Whip, vegetable oil, sugar, vinegar, salt, and poppy seeds in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Pour dressing mixture over cabbage and toss to coat. Putting it into a Tupperware type container with a lid and shaking to coat the cabbage pieces works well. Chill at least 2 hours before serving-overnight is even better. It will shrink in volume.

Summer temperatures have set in this weekend.  Most of the spring greens have decided that it is time for them to bolt and grow their flower tops. Once this happens the plants become bitter and inedible. This happened almost overnight to the Chinese cabbage, we will not see them again until fall. We may or may not get one more week out of the purple bok choy. The romaine lettuce has also bolted, although we still have a lot of leaf lettuces that should keep us in salads for a little longer.

Bolting Chinese cabbage and Romaine lettuce

One good thing about the higher temperatures…our heat loving plants are taking off.  We have flowers on all the tomato plants.  As we mentioned last week the beans are flowering and beginning to form pods.

This will be the last week of the official spring session. However, you may still receive spring like produce for another week or two as we transition to the summer plants. For those of you who are starting up with us in the summer session, this gives you the opportunity to share what good stuff the spring folks have had. We will also confirm with our summer folks about day and times of deliveries during this coming week.

Till next time,

Jeff & Sandra