Category: What the veg?

Information about common items in the vegetable shares

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What the veg?

Garlic Scapes

Origin
Garlic scapes are the top of the garlic plant; the young unfurled seedpods that form on hard neck garlic plants in June. This delicious stalk has a taste that is milder than mature garlic. Garlic scapes are traditionally used in Southern, Eastern European, and Korean cuisine because of their subtle garlic flavor, tender-crisp texture, and nutritional potency.

Storage:
Store in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to 5 days.

AKA: garlic stemps, garlic spears, garlic tops

Cooking tips:
Remove the top head (the bulbous lighter part). You can cook with it as you would regular garlic. But you can also use raw in everything from soups to salads to garnishes and stir-fries b/c the flavor is less intense than a garlic clove.

Substitutions:
Garlic

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What the veg?

Red Batavia Lettuce

General Facts
Batavia lettuce is a non-hearty lettuce with frilly leaves. Its crunchy nutty flavoured leaves grow upright to form a loose leaf head. Batavias are in the same family as iceberg and have an excellent shelf life, maintaining their crispness from the time they’re harvested until the time they reach the dinner table.
It is of French origin but is very popular all over Northern Europe. Here it is often found in home gardens and farmers markets.

Storage
Leaf lettuce should be washed and dried before storing in the refrigerator to remove their excess moisture. It should be stored either in a plastic bag or wrapped in a damp cloth and stored in the refrigerator crisper.

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What the veg?

Peppers


Peppers come from the colorful Capsicum family which splits into two main categories – sweet bell peppers and the spicy chilies, such as jalapenos. Chilies have capsaicin, sweet peppers do not.

General Facts
You can’t differentiate the sweet bell pepper varieties when they’re still young because they all look green. As they ripen, they’ll change color. Depending on the stage of ripeness and their variety, their colors range from orange, yellow, red, purple, brown, black, ivory or green, and so do their sweetness.

AKA
Sweet bell peppers are also known as capsicums, sweet peppers or green / red peppers.

Storage
Store unwashed bell peppers in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Sources say they will stay fresh for about a week but we have seen them keep a couple weeks. Green bell peppers will stay fresh a little longer than the yellow and red ones.

Green Pepper Nutrition
One cup of chopped green pepper has 3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar and one gram of protein. It contains 200 percent of your daily allowance of vitamin C! It is also a good source of potassium and maganese.

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What the veg?

Kohlrabi


AKA:
Kohlrabi is also called German or cabbage turnip. It is a low, stout cultivar of the cabbage that will grow almost anywhere. It has been selected for its swollen, nearly spherical shape.

Origin
The name comes from the German Kohl (“cabbage”) plus Rübe ~ Rabi (Swiss German variant) (“turnip”), because the swollen stem resembles the latter. However, the actual “Kohlrübe” exists too and corresponds to the rutabaga in English, which is distinct from the kohlrabi. Kohlrabi has been created by artificial selection for lateral meristem growth; its origin in nature is the same as that of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, and brussels sprouts: They are all bred from, and are the same species as, the wild cabbage plant (Brassica oleracea).

Cooking tips:
Boiled, steam, or eat raw. Be sure to peel the outer layer. Don’t forget you can eat the greens!

Substitutions:
turnips, white radish, broccoli stems.

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What the veg?

Chinese Broccoli

Nutritional Data:
1 cup of cooked Chinese broccoli has about 19 calories, 1 gram of fat, sugar and protein, and 2 grams of fiber. It has unusually high Vitamin A content at 29% of our daily recommended intake and 41% Vitamin C! It is considered a good source of vitamin E , folate, calcium, iron and zinc among other things.

General Facts:
Chinese broccoli is also known as Kai lan or Chinese kale. It has a long stem, leaves, and broccoli like flowers that are smaller than standard broccoli. The flavor is similar to broccoli rabe and some suggest it is one and the same though we found conflicting information on that front. It is in season in Spring or late Summer.

Storage
Wrapped in plastic, it will keep in the refrigerator vegetable crisper for up to a week.

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What the veg?

Green Beans

Nutrional Data
1 cup of raw green beans has 34 calories, 2 grams of both protein and sugar, 4 grams of fiber and 30% of your daily intake of Vitamin C.  Green beans are a low sodium food and considered a good source for Vitamin A, folate, and iron.

General Facts
Green Beans are available year round, but peak of the season is May thru October.  They were first served by the French but were initially found in hot regions of the Americas, India, and China.  They are considered nitrogen fixers, which means they have the ability to draw nitrogen from the air and return it to the soil. Because of this, farmers often plant beans and legumes in their crop rotations to replenish the soil.  Green fruits and vegetables help maintain vision health and strong bones and teeth. They may also lower the risk of some cancers.

Offbeat Fact
Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company test kitchen.

Storage
Store unwashed fresh green beans in a resealable plastic bag for up to 4 days. Wash just before using, removing strings and ends if necessary.

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What the veg?

Butternut Squash


photo via thebittenword

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Mushrooms

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What the veg?

Sage

via Casers Jean


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What the veg?

Rhubarb

History
Rhubarb is a very old plant, dating back to 2700 BC in China where it was cultivated for medicinal uses. It is available in the spring.

General
While rhubarb is used as a fruit it is actually a vegetable. Field grown rhubarb (aka cherry rhubarb) has deeply colored red stalks and tends to be more juicy, with a bolder acidity than a hot house produced rhubarb (aka stawberry rhubarb). The leaves of rhubarb are INEDIBLE and toxic when eaten in large quantities. The stalk has a sweet tart, lip puckering taste that is good for baking and in compotes.

Nutrition
1 cup of rhubarb is just 26 calories. It is a good source of Vitamins C and K. It is also a good source of Magnesium and Calcium.

AKA
pie plant

Cooking tips
Use in pies, compotes, muffins and cakes.

Storage
Rhubarb will keep up to a week when stored in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Recipes