By Alyssa
I am almost not sad to see our summer produce begin to fade away. I know, I know. It’s an unusual opinion. I admit, there’s nothing quite as beautiful as the rainbow of summer produce – and from August to October I glut myself on that bounty. But now, as the weather turns and the nights grow long, all I want to eat are our fall brassicas. The cauliflower! How white and sweet and blooming! The truly enormous collard greens that stand so tall in the field! The big purple and green cabbage plants that shine with dew under the morning sun! The fair, swelling kohlrabi! The winter field is a big, brassica buffet. I want to eat (and pickle) everything. I’ve been dying to make these collard greens braised in coconut milk and beef broth, or this savory cabbage tarte tatin.
I think one of the prettiest is our purple daikon radish. This year, we grew just one bed of it, but the germination was amazing and the roots grew so big! So we will have daikon for months now. The purple-skinned variety that we grow tends to be hardier for us against insect damage than the classic white-skinned varieties, and I love the purple speckling in the interior. I find them the tastiest now, just after they’ve been harvested – they will still be good food in February, especially in stews, but they will have lost some of their current fresh sweetness.
I grew up eating daikon mostly in a dim sum dish called lo bak go in Cantonese – turnip cake, or radish cake. It’s a labor-intensive dish to make at home, especially if you’re tracking down the correct ingredients, but it is truly delicious if you’re looking for a weekend project. For weekdays, I usually eat daikon in other ways. Most frequently, I throw it into miso soup for breakfast or a light dinner, the daikon cut into half-moons or julienned, and thrown into my dashi while it heats, alongside sliced scallions and spoonfuls of silken tofu. My dad makes this Chinese beef stew with daikon – his mom, my Ma-Ma, used to make this with regular turnips too. Sometimes I’ll pickle it, in Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese or Cantonese styles. These recipes are just the tip of the daikon-pickle iceberg – here is another Japanese-style daikon pickle. Or I’ll make daikon kimchi, or a Chinese-style preserved daikon radish. For dinner, this stir fried carrot and daikon or this boiled daikon radish, to serve alongside steamed fish or a rich stew. Really, you can eat daikon radish the way you would eat any other kind of radish – steam it, roast it, stew it, sauté it. I prefer using it in Chinese recipes, because we don’t grow a ton of Chinese vegetables, but the world is your oyster! You can even make spicy roasted daikon “french fries,” or this trio of roasted radishes with horseradish sauce dubbed “triple radish yum.” No matter what you choose to cook this week, I hope you join me in celebrating the remarkable, singular, sweet abundance of fall.
Upcoming Farm Events:
Potluck This Friday 10/25 at 5:30 pm
Fall Harvest Festival Saturday 11/16 10 am - 3 pm
Open Field Farm 2024 | The "ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW" guide for members
CSA Barn Hours:
Current Summer hours: 2:30-6:30 PM
(Winter hours: 2:30-6PM)
Pick List:
Eggs
Sangre Red, Harvest Moon Purple, La Ratte Fingerling, and Yellow Finn Potatoes
Yaya Carrots
Rhonda Beets
Purple Daikon and Watermelon Radish Radish
Rutabaga
Ailsa Craig Sweet, Monastrell Red, and Cortland Yellow Onions
Leeks
Fennel
Poinsett 78, Green 18, and Silver Slicer Cucumbers
Addis Pickling Cucumbers
Mutabile, Goldini, and Cocozelle Summer Squash
Sweet Peppers
Cabbage
Song Cauliflower
Lettuce
Dazzling Blue Kale
Rhubarb Chard
Regiment Spinach
Basil, Dill, Parsley, and Cilantro
Frisee
Tomatillos (last week)
Hot Peppers, including Highlander Green Chile
Tomatoes (Last week)
Pick your own strawberries, raspberries, cherry tomatoes, padron peppers, green beans, ground cherries, flowers, and herbs
Sonora Wheat Flour
Tea Blends (Please BYO jars!)
Beef Bone Broth for sale! (Made by Olla Products)
Saltonstall Olive Oil for sale (Please BYO jars!)
Revolution Bread for sale on Tuesday and Friday
