We are on the porch @ Cafe Bocado EVERY Friday 11am-3pm offering you local produce harvested same day.
We are at the Show Low Farmers Market ALL summer EVERY Saturday 9am-11am. Residents and Visitors check out our summer workshop offerings and farm tour schedule.
This week July 11 & 12 we feature Turnips, the great under-rated vegetable that your grandparents routinely ate. Here’s a recipe shared by one of our Lodestar Gardens Grassroots Co-Op members, Tom Thompson:
TOM’S Turnip dish
I prepared a turnip/rutabaga dish yesterday based on this recipe I found online:
https://www.yahoo.com/food/how-to-make-crisp-golden-roasted-potatoes-82007174444.html
Just substitute the turnips and/or rutabaga for the potatoes. Since I cook for one, I used one medium turnip and one medium rutabaga. And, of course, since I can’t just follow something simple, I added three medium sweet peppers (one each red, orange, yellow) one serrano pepper, a couple of mushrooms, a 2oz piece of ham and several shredded leaves of chard, kale, mustard green and maybe something else. Because I had so much stuff, the time in the oven was close to one hour. I will double the greens the next time because as you know, the greens shrink up when heated. And they tend to crisp up a bit… You should stir the mixture about every 10 minutes so that nothing sticks to your baking dish/pan (I used a long loaf baking pan – probably aluminum but anything will work.) Be sure you stir the greens because they tend to stick more than the other items…. Because I had a lot of stuff in the pan, the turnips/rutabagas did not crisp as the potatoes in the photo did but they were still a bit crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside… I did use olive oil but was tempted to use avocado oil and I’m sure any oil of your choice would work. And add whatever spices/herbs you’re in the mood for. I almost always use turmeric, ginger, and cumin along with the usual salt and pepper and then just go with whatever herbs come to mind… It’s a very easy one-dish meal and, if I do say so myself, quite tasty… 🙂
At Lodestar Gardens Learning Center we mix all forms of art with agriculture. (Check out our SINGING HANDS Workshop August 4-15 where we exercise our creativity in a beautiful setting.) We offer you a poem in keeping with the season of the Monsoons written by Alberto Rios, professor of English @ ASU, named Arizona’s first poet laureate:
In the desert, water is the animal hunters track first.
To visit the river quickly, cut an onion.
Water falls down wet and gets up green.
Water is the blood of the land.
In water, the stars and the animals see themselves side by side.
Water is how we are all related.
Nobody owns water–drink some and try to keep it.
Water rules kings.
Raindrops on the hard dirt make the ghosts rise.
Water hums its song into stone.
Water is the desert’s medicine.
Water is the solid ground of dreams.
Water speak, but you must listen with your mouth.
Water is our common language.
Leave a Reply