Tonight I picked up two weeks of food from Fair Shares. (Last week's pick up was postponed for a week because of the snow and ice.) There was a couple of new items, including a Garlic Focaccia Bread made by Yellow Dog Farms of Warrenton, MO. We have received fresh greens and lettuces from Yellow Dog Farms throughout the growing season so I was glad to see they are finding ways to supplement their income in the winter months. I love focaccia bread, and this was as good as I was hoping for. I cut off a couple of slices to eat with fresh pasta and tomato sauce. I used a jar sauce that I always love, but added some Ozark Forest Mushrooms and Claverach shoots.
That is where I made my mistake. I picked up radish shoots this afternoon and didn't realize they had a strong flavor. I had thrown shoots into sauces in the past to increase the nutritional value of the sauce, but they had been mellower shoots. Tonight the radish shoots did not compliment the other ingredients.
When we started receiving shoots last spring I didn't know what to do with them, but I was willing to try. Everything I read pointed to the higher nutritional value of the shoots, than the actual vegetable. One cup of radish shoots has 28% of the daily recommended levels of vitamin C, and is high in other vitamins and potasium, too.
I sometimes throw the shoots into sauces, and once added shoots to a meatloaf, but a couple of weeks ago we used them as the main ingredient in a chef salad. As usual we were in a hurry and needed to create an easy, nutritional meal. We opened the refrigerator and started pulling out whatever we could find - which wasn't much. What we did have was a cucumber, a bag of pea shoots, a lot of cheeses and a stick or hard salami. I made a simple dressing and my husband made a salad with the other ingredients. It was quite tasty, easy and healthy.
Gah I want to do Fair Shares but I think I need 1) more cooking experience and 2) to explore the farmer's markets this summer. I didn't move here until September so I only got a good month with the markets. We have a good one in Edwardsville so I really want to try and get some things there weekly!
ReplyDeleteMake sure you check out the Tower Grove Farmers Market on Saturdays, http://www.tgmarket.org/tgfm-home.php,
ReplyDeleteand the Maplewood market at Schlafly's on Wednesdays.
http://www.schlafly.com/community/farmers-market/
Both of these host local farmers and producers so you get to talk to the growers/producers themselves. Some of the other area markets (Kirkwood, Soulard) have a lot of people that are middle men buying from all over the world.
I still go to Tower Grove and Shclafly to pick up things in the peak of the season and enjoy talking to the growers themselves. I've got some great recipe ideas that way. One of my favorites was a pasta with watercress and sausage.