week two!

[one expression of the amazing salad, by Lisa]

This week's yield included bok choy, tatsoi, radishes, sprouts, mustard greens, head lettuce, and a greens mix or bunching onions—the makings of a really amazing salad!

The beloved arugula from last week is already out of season! A good reminder that we are eating according to the farm's rhythms. Sometimes, as in the case of the arugula, that means a really short window of time to enjoy something in.

When I found out we were getting tatsoi and bok choy I was really excited about using them in a stir fry. As I started washing, prepping, and cutting up all the veggies, I realized that I hadn’t really made many stir frys before and thought it might be best to consult some type of recipe. But either through stubbornness, laziness, or pride I pushed forward assuming I’d figure it out as I went along.

After an hour or so of washing, drying, chopping, and dicing I was ready to give it a shot. I knew that different types of veggies would take longer to cook than others so I threw in the broccoli first followed closely by the carrots and some ginger. After a couple of minutes I tossed in some chopped onion, sliced green peppers, and the farm's bok choy and tatsoi. I let all those cook for quite awhile, about half a beer, and then tossed in the greens along with some tofu. Thoughts of Iron Chef glory were racing through my head as well as a name for my new creation, maybe Ryan’s Best Ever Stir-Fry or perhaps World’s Best Stir-Fry.

I decided it probably needed some kind of sauce to go with it so I put the few remaining drops of rice wine vinegar that we had left as well as some soy sauce, from those little take-out packets of course. For a little extra flavor I even ended up throwing in a bit of chicken stock and some cornstarch to thicken it up.

What I hadn’t anticipated was how long it would take me to track down all the ingredients for my impromptu sauce, or to open 6 take-out sized packets of soy sauce, all the while the veggies were cooking along at a nice high heat. The result was a nearly flavorless dish with almost raw broccoli, mushy carrots, and really tough stringy greens. Not ready to admit defeat, I found a bottle of store bought General Tso’s sauce sitting in the refrigerator and in one last act of desperation doused the entire stir fry with it. It did help just enough so that I could choke it down along with my disappointment. I have heard from others of you though that have made stir-frys and they’ve turned out great. I would love to hear any recipe suggestions or at least friendly advice as to where I went wrong.

On a more positive note I’ve been feeling a lot healthier over the last couple of weeks. I wasn’t sure whether to chalk that up to finally being able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful summer weather, or to the fact that I was eating a lot of local, organic produce. Based on some surfing I did, it appears that I most likely have the radishes to thank for my general feeling of healthiness. According to the site www.organicfacts.net (“Your Gateway to Unbiased Information”) radishes freshen breath, regulate metabolism, improve blood circulation, treat headaches, constipation, nausea, sore throat, fever, whooping cough, gastric problems, gallbladder stones, dyspepsia and even promote weight loss. So keep those radishes coming!