Sweet Potatoes

It's taken me forever to write this post because sweet potatoes confuse me. Whenever I see a dish or product made with sweet potatoes, the implication seems to be that they are so much healthier than white potatoes. So when I saw this chart of nutrition facts, I was really surprised to see the carb count. Fifty eight grams! I've seen iced cinnamon buns at WaWa with fewer carbs than that!

At this point, I was starting to wonder about eating sweet potatoes. They must be murder on blood sugar, right? Well, as it turns out, your blood sugar will rise about 30% less when you eat sweet potatoes vs. regular potatoes, due to their higher fiber content.

Of course I can't overlook the most obvious fact about sweet potatoes: their color. The flesh of a sweet potato is a lovely, vibrant orange as opposed to the white flesh of a regular potato, and by now we all know what that means: Antioxidants! Vitamin C! Beta carotene! It's good to know that the sweet 'tater fries I've been eating do have some redeeming qualities after all!

For further information check out the very good articles at both Livestrong and Worlds Healthiest Foods.

Watermelon

I was tempted to skip doing watermelon nutrition, because, well, it's watermelon. It's yummy, it isn't fattening, but it's mostly just water, right? Even the chart to the left didn't do much to convince me otherwise. But then I searched the internet for more info and found this article which pulled me in because it echoed my thoughts exactly: The usual notion about watermelon is they are just water with taste, harmless, but not a good choice for nutritional value.

Au contraire! Besides supplying a good amount of vitamins A and C and containing the ever-important antioxidant lycopene, watermelon is a good source of vitamin B1 or thiamine, and minerals such as potassium and magnesium, all things which help balance a body's electrolytes. Anyone who has ever spent a night with leg cramps knows how important that is!

Gerry and I love these little watermelons, because there are only two of us. Two people and a giant watermelon can be overwhelming!

P is for Peppers!

P is for peppers! Sweet peppers, hot peppers, tiny peppers, big peppers--have we got peppers! The nutritional info shown to the right is for sweet peppers, specifically, but peppers in general follow that pattern. They are low in calories, have zero fat or cholesterol, and provide a ton of vitamin C. One thing I was interested to find out is that red bell peppers, in addition to having a more mellow flavor, contain MORE nutrients than their green counterparts. So go for the color for maximum nutrition!

Just look at all the different types of peppers we've been getting!

Looks like some of those rare "cucumber peppers" got into this basket. We heard the yellow variety in this basket is HOT HOT HOT, but we've been too chicken to try them!

And my favorites, the teeny weeny miniatures!
(I like cute food.)

Cantaloupe

Most things as sweet and tasty as cantaloupe are nowhere near as good for you. Check out that calorie count: only 25 calories per cup! And unlike some vegetables which tempt you to add butter or cheese or some fruit which just begs for whipped cream, you'll likely be eating your cantaloupe as-is. Winner!

In addition to being low calorie, cantaloupe also provides a good amount of vitamins A and C and isn't too high in carbs. Compare this to watermelon which provides significantly lower levels of vitamins with about twice the carbohydrates and (this surprised me) more calories.

Carrot Time!

I was so excited to see carrots in the share for the second week in a row! This is one vegetable I absolutely l-o-v-e. We even have a little carrot (and parsnip) patch of our own, but we started ours really late, and they're way behind.


So what do carrots have going for them, besides being delicious? Looking at the nutrition facts, the one number that really stands out if vitamin A: 170% of the RDA in just a half cup! Vitamin A goes hand in hand with beta carotene, an antioxidant which enhances your immune system and may help protect against cancer. That's good enough for me!

Store carrots in the crisper section of your fridge. Remove the tops and seal in a plastic bag, but don't wash them until you're ready to use. Also keep them apart from apples, pears, and potatoes. The ethylene gas put off by those fruits and veg can cause carrots to turn bitter.


We've found that these beauties don't even need peeling. Just give them a good scrub and enjoy!

Oh, and just for fun, check out the Carrot Museum website! Carrot collectors, record-setting carrots (19 feet long), even a carrot clarinet!

Tomato Talk

The cover of this month's AARP Magazine includes a blurb that says, "The Food That Cures (Almost) Everything." I flip to page 24, eager to see what it could be, and it's...tomatoes. Well, darn, I thought, that's too bad because...

I will never, not ever, eat a tomato. Okay, maybe that's a little extreme. My attempt to eat one raw was an utter failure, but I am willing to give it another shot. I'm hoping to be a little more successful with cooked tomatoes, because it sounds like cooking them tempers the acidity, but I'm afraid I'll never develop a taste for them. And so, due to my utter ignorance, I am turning the tomato discussion over to Gerry.

First of all, the AARP magazine. The DAY I turned 50, I joined AARP--for the discounts! As a bit of cruel fun, I had them send me a card in Susan's name along with mine. I am 10 years older than Susan, so when you do the math, clearly the AARP card in her name was both unecessary and vicious. But I digress...

At this time I think I am supposed to wax poetic about the tomato. I will, I will, but let me tell you a little story first. When I was but a small boy, I developed a "food allergy." Keep in mind that this was LONG before food allergies in children were as common as they are today. It turned out I was allergic to--gulp--tomatoes! If I TOUCHED a tomato, I would break out in a rash. Luck being what it is, my rash always manifested itself most intensely on my face! Yeah, a red-headed, freckle-faced kid, kinda chubby, with a lovely red, itchy rash on his face. Adorable, huh? And then one day it just went away--poof--gone, no more rashes from tomatoes!

So move ahead to today, a new century, 45 years on from my rashy days, and you'll find that I LOVE tomatoes. They are so versatile. I love them in salad, on a hamburger, as a sauce, broiled with some parmesan cheese on top, fried Irish-style, marinated in Italian dressing, or just plain, with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. They are delicious, especially when they're local and in season.

Okay, Gerry, okay. We get it. You like tomatoes. So what about nutrition? That AARP article I mentioned explains that tomatoes may help prevent certain types of cancer, heart disease, and even diabetes. They are an excellent source of vitamins A and C, a good source of potassium, and are packed with lycopene, the antioxidant compound which gives tomatoes their color.

One interesting thing I found out while reading about tomato nutrition is that cooking your tomatoes raises their nutritional benefits. Never knew that!

Spotlight on Spinach

It's hard to write about spinach without going the Popeye route, so let me just get it out of the way: Are you really strong to the finish if you eats your spinach? Pretty much! On the vitamin and mineral front, spinach is a real superpower and holds a spot on most lists of the top ten most nutritious vegetables. Vitamin A, calcium, vitamin C...it's got it all.

I fully expected to hate spinach, but I've found I don't really mind a bit of spinach mixed in with other greens in a salad. Gerry likes to use spinach in egg dishes for some extra color and nutrition.

So what about the Popeye claim? Well, the Wikipedia entry for spinach specifically adresses this!

The cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man is portrayed as having a strong affinity for spinach, becoming physically stronger after consuming it. A frequently circulated story claims that this portrayal was based on faulty calculations of the iron content. In the story, German scientist Emil von Wolff misplaced a decimal point in an 1870 measurement of spinach's iron content, leading to an iron value 10 times higher than it should have been and this faulty measurement was not noticed until the 1930s. However, recent study has shown that this is just another long standing myth, and spinach was chosen and promoted in Popeye for its vitamin A content alone.

Red Hots

To me, radishes have always seemed like one of the punctuation marks of the vegetable world. They provide little exclamations of flavor to salads, but they are never the whole focus of a dish. I guess that's why I never gave much thought to what sort of nutrients they were providing. As it turns out, those cute little red balls are related to some of the heavy hitters of nutrition known as cruciferous vegetables and are an excellent source of vitamin C.

Another thing I didn't know about radishes is that the leaves are also edible and, of course, full of nutrients. Just be sure to separate the leaves from the roots before you store them and use the leaves within a couple of days. I found this out too late to sample a leaf this week, but hopefully we'll have more to experiment with in the weeks to come!

Cucumbers=Happiness

Watch out! Now that I've figured out how to do it, I'm going to be including nutrition charts in my veggie exposes!

Cucumbers. Love them. And these cucumbers? Oh man, they are wonderful. They're crisp and crunchy and full of flavor--no limp, watery cucumbers here! And with the temperatures and humidity shooting up, they're a perfect refreshing snack.

You might glance over at the nutrition facts and think, "Oh, not much to see there." It's true that cucumbers aren't nutritional powerhouses compared to the likes of spinach or blueberries, but they do contain some vitamin C, potassium, fiber (leave the skin on!), and anti-oxidants.

The cucumbers we're receiving from the Myerov CSA are a variety that originated in Israel called Beit Alpha. After reading more about cucumbers and this type in particular, I realize it's a crime that I've been peeling them! It's perfectly okay to leave the thin, tender skin on, saving time and gaining the benefit of extra fiber.

Fridge, Freeze, Dry or ??

I couldn't resist taking this picture of the three herbs! The color of those chive flowers along with the green--isn't it beautiful?

Now, how to keep them beautiful. Last year, storing the herbs we received was one of our biggest failures. It seemed like no matter what we did, they looked terrible by the next day. My mom keeps telling me to dry them, but I want to use the NOW, of course! I do like the idea of freezing leaves of mint and lemon balm into ice cubes. That would be a convenient way to add a little different flavor to iced tea. Of course I gave all of our ice cube trays away when we got a fridge with an ice maker!


For now, I have the stems submerged in a glass of water, like flowers in a vase. I've been searching online for other tips. Some sites recommend putting a plastic bag loosely over the tops of the herbs after you've put them in water and then putting the whole thing in the fridge. Other sites say to wrap them loosely in a moist paper towel. Or there's Oprah's $30 solution, the Herb Savor. Pfft! What really works?

Luffa Love

Remember that luffa we got back at the end of October? It's been drying in a dry, well-ventilated spot all this time, on a table in our living room. Yes, that's right--We've had a gourd sitting on an end table for two months.

All this time, it's been getting lighter and lighter and a little more shriveled bit by bit until, finally, it got to the point where it was frightening people. Seriously. People would touch it and be freaked out and yell, "Get it away!"

So I decided it was time to open it up and get my sponge! Of course, by this time, I've lost my directions, and it seems like no one online can agree on the best way to proceed. After reading several opinions, I pretty much decided to wing it and hope for the best.

So, the picture up top is what it looked like once it dried out. I actually thought it felt kind of neat and leathery. And the seeds inside made a nice rattling sound.


I started by pushing my thumb into the flower end of the gourd. The flower end would be the end opposite the stem end. (Probably obvious to everyone but me.) Then I turned it upside down and shook and shook and shook and shook to get the loose seeds out.


Next, I submerged it in a sink full of water for about fifteen minutes.

Then I just started peeling off the skin. It came off very easily. Looks like an ear of corn, doesn't it?

See how easy it was? One piece!


Looks like I missed a LOT of seeds! I soaked it some more, then I carefully poked in there with a chopstick.

Finally, it's mostly clean!

Almost every set of directions tells you to dry the sponge on a baking rack for a few days. I just set mine on the radiator, and it dried overnight.

I have to admit, I thought this whole thing was pretty cool. If you have kids, by all means, grow some luffas next summer!

Just When You Thought It Was Over...

The CSA season had come to an end, but I guess things were still growing! Last week, we received an email from Neil at the farm, saying he had some winter vegetables for sale. As soon as Gerry heard there were PARSNIPS, he shot back an email with a list of what he wanted: parsnips, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and conehead cabbage.

Parsnips are Ger's favorite. Looks like Isabella has a new favorite too.

14 Carrots

Ah, carrots. After potatoes, carrots are probably my favorite vegetable. When they started showing up in our shares, I declared, "Mine!" and squirreled them away for myself. (I am spoiled, aren't I?)

We all know that carrots are good for your eyes and filled with antioxidants (called carotenoids) which help protect against cancer and heart disease. But did you know they also come in different colors? Originally, carrots were purple or yellow, and orange carrots didn't show up until the 16th century. Now we're starting to see some of these different colors again--yellow and even purple on occasion. I don't care what color they are...I just love carrots!

For Later...

Now I'm starting to understand the joke about people leaving zucchini on their neighbor's porch, ringing the bell, and running! We've been getting a lot of summer squash for just the two of us. Gerry's used it in some dishes, but mainly we've been making zucchini bread and muffins. We eat them here, I take them to work, I took them to a party, and still the squash is piling up. Time for Plan B: Bag it up and freeze it!

Using our food processor, it took no time at all to shred all the squash. Ger then scooped two cups per bag, just enough for a batch of bread. From everything I've read on the internet, you don't have to worry about blanching it if you're freezing it shredded, so what could be easier?

Deep Freeze

You know how peppers can be $3/lb. in January? I don't think that'll be a problem for us!

Good Idea!

Dinner is always better with fresh salad, home baked bread...


...and good company.

Yes, I allow my cat on the dining room table. I promise I'll clean it well if I invite you over for dinner.

But more importantly, the salad greens. For the past few weeks we've received a bag of salad in our share, washed and ready to eat. Bagged salads are popular at the grocery store for a reason! It is so convenient. Gerry and I both love it. Thumbs up for that idea, Myerov Farm!

Tomato Fest

Because I'm not a fan of tomatoes, I haven't been paying too much attention to the different varieties in our shares. Here's a list of the heirloom varieties which could show up in your share:

Amish Paste-red, 8oz, oblong, heart shaped
Black Prince-dark red purple, 6oz, Russian heirloom
Cherokee Purple-burgundy, 10-12oz,
Garden Peach-yellow, 2-4oz, skin has a peach fuzz
Mr. Stripey (Hillbilly)-16oz, orange-yellow fruit
Prudens Purple-dark pink, 10-16oz
Carolina Gold-yellow, 10-12oz
Sun Gold Cherry-orange
Sweet Chelsea Cherry-red 1oz, intense fruity flavor
Piriform-red pear shaped with ribs, 7-9oz from Italy
Black Japanese Tiffle-dark red pear shape with ribs

Here's what we got this week (minus three which had already been eaten):

Different colors, different sizes, different shapes. Sadly, I don't know one from the other. I was looking for Mr. Stripey, though, because I've been following his progress over the past couple of months. I first spotted him as a mere sprout in the greenhouse.

Then he graduated to a spot in the field. I haven't seen him lately, as I haven't been making the pick ups. Hope you've enjoyed your summer, Mr. Stripey! I'm sure tomato lovers have been enjoying you!

You Say Yellow Squash...

Okay, this has been bugging me for a while now. Is it still a zucchini if it's yellow? Someone commented that they've always called the GREEN stuff zucchini. Did I screw up?

Well, Googling seems to suggest that there's both green and yellow (or gold if you want to be fancy) zucchini. Of course you can call it all summer squash too. Or you can call them courgettes, like they do in Ireland. That doesn't sound as funny as "zucchini" does it? I guess if you want to be a real wiseguy, you could call them swollen flower ovaries. 'Cause that's what they are. No joke.

Pretty in Purple

Okay, I have looked, and the info out there about Red Dynasty cabbage is all pretty boring (early maturing...yawn), but it is getting its own post anyway, because it's so pretty!

This is how it looked in the field, about a month ago. Hey, my feet!