braised radishes

Well the radishes in the garden are pretty much done. OMG, did we grow too many of those things. Fred suggested that we not grow them next year, and I had to agree. Although the peppery bite is tasty, there is a limit to how many radishes two people can consume.

Eating them raw with butter and salt didn't turn to be as exciting as we had hoped, so we turned to braising them. A farmer at the Millerton Farmer's Market suggested this, so I found the recipe at thekitchen.com. A combination of shallots and balsamic vinegar make this really delicious. The vinegar cooks down to a syrupy consistency while the shallots caramelize, and the radishes lose some of their strong, peppery flavor. This is definitely a grown up dish. Not really the flavors that most kids would like.




Now that the radishes are done we've moved on to the other spring vegetable that we are harvesting in the middle of summer: peas. I plan to pick a bunch this weekend and make a simple pasta of peas with mint and some sort of cheese. Feta? Goat? Not sure yet.

Picking from the garden

Wow, it's amazing how much can grow in two weeks. That's how long it's been since we were last in Copake. And boy did the radishes and lettuces go crazy. The whole garden did. The tomatoes have a few flowers, the peas needed to be staked up, the carrots are really looking beautiful, and the zucchini is getting ready to stretch out and take over the back part of the garden. Very exciting stuff.



But what was equally exciting was eating the first salad from the garden. Some romaine, a little bit of arugula, and another blue/green lettuce that I don't even know what it is. I shredded a radish over the top and then drizzled a little vinaigrette. Simple and delicious. With a turkey burger from the grill, it was exactly what summer should taste like.

Is it summer yet?

The transition from one season to another is always a time of flux. And not just in terms of the weather, but what we eat and what we crave. As soon as the temperature starts to rise I immediately have visions of corn on the cob and tomato salad. The truth is that those are our culinary rewards for surviving the heat and humidity of summer. They're at their peak in August and September, and are so worth the wait. But it's hard to eat seasonally. What with strawberries from California and corn from Florida available all year long, why should we have to wait?

This spring we tried to stick to a more seasonal approach to eating veggies and gobbled up pea shoots, asparagus, and some recently sprouted radishes. But they aren't always available at the Key Food in our neighborhood in NYC, and we end up buying what's in front of us. I have moments of guilt when I buy that mix of gourmet tomatoes from Mexico or California. I think about how they were shipped across the country and how my carbon footprint just got gigantic.

I made a salad from that box of tomatoes, and although it was quite tasty, my guilt was weighing down on me. Does anyone else have this type of food anxiety: eat local versus eat organic versus eat seasonal? Or should we just be focused on eating healthy foods that are available to us regardless of the season or their provenance? Any thoughts?

Crafts with the one-armed-bandit

Well, we've been very busy lately, and not with the garden or cooking. Poor Vivi had a scooter mishap and broke her right arm. She's in a giant, hot-pink cast and getting very frustrated with only having her left arm available to do all the things that a five-year old needs to get done (bike riding, coloring, eating spaghetti.

I tried different activities to keep her busy this past weekend (and no, playing croquet was not a good idea!), and we came up with the idea of making vegetable stakes for the garden.

Vivi was a trooper and did her best at writing out the names of the veggies with her left hand. Here's the proof.



And check out those radishes in the background!