What is Kohlrabi?

Eat your Greens

The beet greens and the hakurei turnips both have lovely greens this week.  The kohlrabi, too, only we had to cut the greens off some of them to get the boxes to close!  The roots and greens will both store best if you separate them.  Beet greens are a close cousin to chard, and my favorite green to eat.

The turnips are from our second succession, this one covered with insect net fabric instead of the spun fabric row cover we use to cover most everything else.  We have to keep the turnips covered until harvest because of a persistent pest, the turnip root fly.  The larvae feed on the root.  The problem with the row cover is that it doesn’t allow enough air circulation and the greens are more likely to succumb to fungus.  Well the greens on these turnips look amazing.  And it’s all thanks to the insect netting.

What is a kohlrabi, anyway?

Kohlrabi is a vegetable in the cabbage family.  I can’t understand why it hasn’t seen the same boon in popularity as some other brassicas (I’m looking at you, cauliflower).  It is sweet, crunchy and mild in flavor.  Just make sure you peel it well and remove the tough outer skin.  Then you can eat it raw on salad or with dip.  Roast it with root vegetables, throw it in a stir fry or saute, steam it, put it in soup or a pot roast or a curry.  It is a versatile vegetable.  Until the carrots come in, kohlrabi is my favorite field snack.  Or at least it was until we started growing strawberries.

Why the Wednesday and Saturday shares aren’t always the same

This newsletter is accurate as far as what is in the share boxes on Wednesday.  That’s easy, I don’t write it until after the shares have been packed.  However, its not always on target for the Saturday shares.  Sometimes I will go to harvest something on Friday and find I don’t have enough or it hasn’t grown as much as I expected.  Spring vegetables are not always patient.  Sometimes I go out to the field on a Friday and find something that NEEDS to be harvested.  Last week it was the arugula.  I thought, “this arugula is perfect right now.  If I wait until next week it will be bigger and possibly not as nice.”   While I would love if what we got out of the field were more consistent, we thank you for be flexible.  I hope this helps shed some light of why the list isn’t always accurate.

Small shares

• hakurei turnips with greens
• beets with greens
• kohlrabi
• arugula (Wed only, Sat will get salanova lettuce mix)
• red oakleaf lettuce
• strawberries

Full shares

• hakurei turnips with greens
• beets with greens
• kohlrabi
• arugula (Wed only, Sat will get salanova lettuce mix)
• red oakleaf lettuce
• strawberries
• Green head lettuce