My Farmers' Market Basket, December 2, 2023

That one basket is definitely smiling

This week’s Taproot Farm purchases: Swiss chard, spinach, arugula, curly kale, lacinato kale (also known as “Tuscan” or “Dinosaur”), parsley, onions, round cabbage, tomato puree, buttercup squash, honeynut squash, delicata squash, shallots, and rutabaga. I also purchased ground beef and chipsteak.

This week’s Taproot CSA box contents: white sweet potatoes, garlic, kohlrabi, spinach, green curly kale, tomato puree.

From Primordia Mushroom Farm we purchased some creminis. And from Canter Hill Farm (meat) we bought a spinach-feta sausage and a package of their peri-peri spice. Wayne, of Canter Hill Farm, is originally from South Africa. This is their spice blend, and I love it sprinkled on vegetables.

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Vegetable Spotlight

So, if you’ve never signed up for a CSA before, here’s one of the many great things that can happen when you have one. A few weeks ago rutabaga was in the box. I’ve had rutabaga. I like it ok. It’s SCD legal. I knew we’d use it, eventually.

Yet there it sat in my fridge, day after day, failing to grab my attention every time I rummaged around trying to locate some other vegetable. Thank goodness it keeps well. Not until last week, with Chris here for a visit, did I give any regard to my forlorn rutabaga. We were thinking of making a beef stew.

“Do you like rutabaga or, um, ‘swede’?” I asked Chris, being sure to politely respect our vocabulary differences. Chris is Welsh born (with 17 years of living in Australia) so I can state with certainty that the saying “two countries separated by a common language” is true. We’d talked about this vegetable once before, a while back. He’d never heard of “rutabaga;” I’d never heard of “swede.” Believing we were talking about different things, our conversation tripped all over itself until a quick dive into the internet straightened us out. (Early in our relationship we stumbled through a similar, but even messier, conversation about “arugula” and “rocket.”)

While lackluster, his response to my question was affirmative. We agreed that I could roast it up then add it to the stew. A good enough use for some of it.

But then…

after roasting,

before putting it into the stew,

I sampled a bite and, oh my, I’d forgotten:

I more than like rutabaga, I LOVE the stuff. Cubed and roasted, steamed and mashed, rutabaga is delicious with the slightest hint of a nutty sweetness and, like winter squash, a little reminiscent of potatoes for those, like Anna, who can’t eat potatoes. Chris, too, tried some and agreed. I had to restrain myself from finishing off the pan.

In the end, though it worked as a perfectly pleasant addition to the stew—and, from perusing my cookbooks, this does seem to be a popular use for it—I felt that the stew overpowered the rutabaga’s wonderful flavor and texture that I had just rediscovered. I couldn’t wait until my next opportunity to cook up the remaining rutabaga, just plain roasted. A couple of my cookbooks also suggest roasting rutabaga along with other winter vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, and celery root.

Now here’s a very different idea: Erin French’s The Lost Kitchen cookbook includes a “Rutabaga-Vanilla Bean Puree” recipe. When Erin French makes that, I bet it’s amazing; if I were to attempt that, I bet it’d be awful.

Julia Child’s The Way to Cook includes a “Gratin of Rutabaga or Winter Squash” recipe which sounds yummy but, honestly, you say “gratin” of almost anything to me and I’m in.

At the market, I’ve walked by rutabaga, without a thought, plenty of times. But, thanks to having a CSA, that rutabaga is now front and center in my cold weather culinary thoughts. I purchased some this week and, likely, will continue to do so until it stops appearing at the market. A CSA can expose you to things you otherwise would never try, or remind you of things you’d forgotten you loved.

Note: in the photo above, rutabaga is right next to purple top turnips. According to an article in SpruceEats by Danilo Alfaro:

The rutabaga is thought to be an ancient cross between a turnip and a cabbage, and therefore a hybrid.

I like cabbage and use it a lot. Turnips, however, are another story. They are the one and only vegetable I’ve encountered that I do not like, no matter what I do with them and, believe me, I’ve tried lots of things. For the most part, I think any vegetable is all about how it is prepared and, therefore, any vegetable has the potential to be really good—except maybe turnips. But, that’s just me. Whenever turnips appear in a CSA box, I usually pass them along to my next-door neighbor who loves turnips. Judging from the way she reacts when I offer them to her, they might even be her favorite vegetable. Different tastes, for sure. But I write all of this for anybody who shares my turnip aversion: If you are not familiar with rutabagas, don’t discount them because of their similarity to turnips. You may find them to be a better experience, possibly even a delicious one.

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In the Market Community

How much do Chestnut Hill Farmers’ Market customers love Neil, of Randalia Honey? In 2022, Neil’s schedule got so busy that he had to take several months away from our market and, during those months, a number of customers inquired about his absence. Each time, I’d explain about his schedule, the plan for his return, and then let them know that his products were for sale on Etsy and Amazon. Then they’d clarify: yes, they certainly liked his products, but they were asking only because they wanted to know that that dear man was ok. They’d been worried. And they missed him. I understood. Though I hadn’t been worried, I missed him too. His warm and engaging presence enhances our market.

This past Saturday Chris and I chatted with Neil (who now attends once a month) for a little while. As both Chris and Neil have lived in Australia, they always relate on Australian things and, this visit, they traded stories about encounters with Australian wildlife. Neil also shared some endearing anecdotes about conversations he’d had with customers at other markets. “That’s why I love this job: talking with people,” he said. I agreed and said “It’s what makes a farmers’ market special.” Nodding, Neil added that he’d heard mentioned on a podcast he enjoys (“Intelligence for Your Life”) that farmers’ markets are a place where people feel comfortable. Indeed

Neil at the market in October

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I also caught up with Justin, of Rineer Family Farms. Justin began working at Rineer Family Farms as a young teen and never stopped. Now an adult, he has a great deal of responsibility in helping to run things including, most weeks, overseeing the stand at our market. He’s also a new father and, with a sweet smile, he told me adorable stories about his baby son.

Last summer a customer, speaking to me about the people who work at the Rineer Family Farms stand, said to me “Don’t you just love giving them your money? They're always so cheerful and friendly over there. I just love giving them my money." This is, more often than not, what it’s like to shop at the Chestnut Hill Farmers’ Market.

Next Saturday, if Rineer still has them, I may pick up one these boxes filled with a mix of their colorful, cruciferous vegetables.

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Till next time…Happy Marketing!

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Newsletter Housekeeping

Also, for the time being, I’ve selected a Substack setting that has possibly made “My Farmers’ Market Basket” unable to be searched on the Substack site. This is only because I got a bunch of strange, presumably spam, subscriptions. I wasn’t expecting this, and don’t know how to think about it. So I want to take some time to figure out the best way to address it going forward. But any shares from any of you, with anybody you think might like this newsletter, is all good with me. And it may actually still be searchable, that’s a little unclear. In any case, the setting I selected appears to have stopped the spam-type subscriptions.

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Finally

Congratulations to Jon, my friend and one-time boss, who just self-published Volume 1 of his guide to Philly trees The Philadelphia Understory. Even in his emails and texts, Jon has always been a fun and entertaining writer, so his book is sure to be wonderful. He worked on this for many years, and now it has arrived–what an accomplishment! I look forward to reading my copy.

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Thanks to…

Chris for his tech support; Lena for her proofreading and editorial input; and Anna for her culinary companionship. I love you guys!

Thanks also to my friend Beverly who, during a conversation about leaving my market manager job, knowing I needed a relevant creative outlet, brainstormed some straightforward suggestions that grew into this newsletter. And thanks to my friends Anne, Eve, Nem, and Phyllis who also provided valuable input and support during the incubation process.

And thank you, everybody, for subscribing!

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