The Raw Stuff: Three Weeks in May
I woke up 3 hours before my alarm this morning. I don’t understand why, but I’m suddenly wide awake and happy. I’m going to go with it ‘cause I’ve got an 11-hour-day of hustle ahead of me bookended on both sides by a two mile walk.
We’ve been getting some really beautiful produce in at Fair Shares. I can’t get over how good looking it all is – significantly better than what you get at the grocery. It’s so much fresher than the stuff trucked in from California, and it tastes better to boot! There’s just something special about veggies and fruit ‘picked yesterday’ or ‘this morning’. It makes you want to cook.
The greatest thing about eating seasonally is that you’re actually excited to see the stuff come back after having gone 10 months without it. I’m eating close to a pint of strawberries a day in an attempt to burn out on them for the next year. (I’ve infused a quart of them in a quart of vodka in an effort to preserve some of their flavor for later in the summer, but I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do with it). The Girods, one of the Amish families that grow for us, sent along an extra quart of strawberries for each of us at Fair Shares. This is a special treat because we got to visit their farm a few months back and can really associate the food with a specific family and a specific farm. Here’s a picture of their place from during our visit: (You should click on the full size to get a sense of how beautiful a day it was!)
The first bok choi of the year came in from Biver Farms yesterday. They’re one of only a couple certified organic farms that grow for us (the rest choose not to get certified). Their stuff is always exceedingly beautiful and totally covered in dirt. Like seriously muddy. I’ve told members at Fair Shares that as long as you’re paying for their dirt to be certified organic you might as well take some of it home with you.
Even more exciting for me than the bok choi is the year’s first cabbage! (no, seriously) We got a big batch of it in from Carl Saunders at Yellow Dog Farms. These things still have the big outer leaves on them, which isn’t usually the case when you by cabbage at the store. I love to eat cabbage for breakfast with a fried free-range egg. Sort of like Molly does it here. I tend to add garlic or garlic chili paste and other good stuff. I also stopped using the Huy Fong hot sauces and chili pastes because they have a ton of preservatives and I’m, you know, a discerning consumer (read: food snob). I’ve been using some Lee Kum Kee brand chili paste because it doesn’t have all the additives, but it doesn’t taste as good. Kind of a conundrum, no? Anywhoo, the cabbage!:
Now, off to fry some eggs!
