Week 1 bounty:

• garlic scapes
• turnips with their greens
• fresh peas
• cabbage
• 2 heads of lettuce
• parsley
• rainbow swiss chard
• green onion
• kohlrabi

The lettuce this week was just phenomenal- I don’t think I have ever seen a head of lettuce this big. It was bigger than my face! We could barely make it through, so when we got lettuce again the second week, I actually gave it to a colleague to spread the joy. You can only eat so much lettuce!

The item that posed the biggest hurdle was the kohlrabi, which is something I had never cooked with before. It’s thicker skin and tender center reminds me somewhat of a broccoli stem, and the slightly sweet and peppery taste when raw is reminiscent to a radish. The leaves are milder and peppery as well, and I added them to my breakfast smoothie for a quick and easy serving of vegetables.

I peeled and chopped the kohlrabi for a stir fry, which was very tasty and crunchy. It does soften right down, but I cooked it just enough to retain a bit of texture.

The rainbow swiss chard was easy to integrate into my dishes- while the leaves were chopped and used as green addition to chopped vegetable salad or sauteed with garlic for a tasty side dish, the stems ended up in my lentil curry with rice for work lunches. They have a slight bitterness that softens when they’re cooked, and the texture is very similar to celery.

Week 2 bounty:

• one lettuce head
• garlic scapes
• fresh dill
• carrots and their greens
• red beets and their greens
• two zucchinis
• baby bok choy
• one large English cucumber
• a small jar of Quebec maple syrup

Stay tuned- I’ve developed a really tasty tartine spread using some of the veggies from week 2!