On Amaranth And Other Greens

If you've read Michael Pollan's In Defense Of Food, you might've noticed that he encouraged you to eat plenty of green leafies.

So here's the scoop on locally-grown green leafies right now:

• Brassica (cabbage/mustard/broccoli) family tender greens popular with East and Southeast Asians aren't, overall, being sold so young anymore.
  By this I mean "gai lan" ("Chinese broccoli"), "yu choi," etc.
  I just learned today that Thai and Laotian people tend to like them mature and flowering--so they're still "going strong" if that's your perspective.
  But apparently Chinese & Vietnamese people tend to like the first-growth broad leaves--which just aren't quite as easy to find as they were a month ago. If your stir-frying taste is more "Chinese"/"Vietnamese," you might want to move on to cooking another form of green leafy vegetable.


• Brassica (cabbage/mustard/broccoli) family greens popular with Europeans and southeastern Americans are huge, meaning you get the best bang for your buck, and not too old, either--they're going to taste awesome.
  I'm talking beet greens, turnip greens, radish greens, collard greens, kale, Swiss chard, and curly mustard greens. This is is a great time to eat local at the Wedge, too, because these are the brassica greens that our co-ops tend to carry!
  The thicker "Asian" plants of this family are also easy to find big but not yet flowering--bok choy and thick-ribbed mustard greens.
  All of these high-season brassica plants are extremely good for you and priced at about peak quantity per dollar.


• Locally grown spinach of the kind popular in salads in America is past its first peak season. But it will have a 2nd season. In fact, remember that e. coli bagged spinach scare? What the Minnesota news stations didn't bother to tell you was that the co-ops all had overflowing fresh-as-can-be buckets of locally grown spinach.


• Non-brassica green leafies in full swing this time of year are sweet potato leaves, leaves off various vines of the squash & cucumber family, and amaranth.

And an interesting note on amaranth (the grain):

• Today I spoke to a farmer who has more amaranth leaves than I can imagine anyone knowing what to do with!
  I asked, "Is the Minnesota growing season long enough for the seeds to ripen?"
  Because I know natural foods shoppers love amaranth grains and couldn't believe I'd never seen them locally grown.
  His response: "Yep. But the birds eat almost all of 'em."

Time To Eat Local! (Earlier)

You might have noticed that the "eat local" challenge has moved up a little bit. Here are some differences you might notice:

You might not hit local peach season.
You will enjoy a lot more local raspberry season!

All summer is a great time to eat local, and I hope you'll share your experiences, challenges, and recipes with the rest of the Wedge community.

What's in season on July 2

New local produce additions from today:

1. Cauliflower
2. Garlic scapes
3. Gongura
4. Raspberries

I haven't seen anything go out of season yet this year, so I think you can use all 2009 lists to plan your grocery list, but I imagine asparagus, spinach & strawberries are getting awfully close. Pea shoots might be getting close, too, and since green beans are starting to come in, whole snap peas are probably at their peak quality now, rather than later.

What's in season on June 30

Same list as June 23-25, I imagine, but I saw a few new items:

1. Beans (green, yellow wax)
2. Bitter melon vines
3. Cucumbers
4. Mystery brassicae (variety #1 (photo 2, photo 3) variety #2-gai laan (photo 2), variety #3 (photo 2), variety #4, variety #5, variety #6, variety #7, variety #8-(sounds like 'zow pa de'))
5. Mystery leaves (sounds like "zow toon doo")

Phenological associations: Yellow "trumpet" daylilies are in full bloom, orange "common" daylilies are getting pretty noticeable, pink/white/peach asiatic lilies are starting to bloom (but oriental lilies haven't yet started to bloom & curl back their petals), rosebush flowers have mostly fallen off, clematis in full bloom.

P.S. Locally grown parsley, mint, green onions, and tomatoes are finally all in season together, so try a tabbouli salad!

What's in season on June 23/June 25

Hello, fellow Wedge shoppers!

I've been chronicling both common urban garden plant / tree events AND food availability this year, because I've heard they correspond pretty well.

Here's my conclusion: If you want to eat locally grown foods because you want to eat "healthy" but are on a tight budget, you'll get the most cheap, fresh produce availability for your shopping excursion once rosebushes are in full bloom. That's slightly earlier than today--but the locally grown food abundance precedes this week, too.(Note--not the little fancy roses. Those bloom later.) A slightly earlier cue is, "once the peonies are in full bloom."

(By the way, my "May 30" post coincides w/ honeysuckle flowers being almost all gone, "Korean lilacs" just after full bloom, "plain" lilacs fading away or gone, "solanum dulcamara" nightshade (a weed) coming into bloom, and many of the early colors of irises fading away.)

Now the list!
Here's what I saw ripe in the Twin Cities on June 23 or 25:

1. Asparagus


2. Beets (red, white, orange; bulbs are small & greens are tender)


3. Bok choy (2 varieties)


4. Broccoli


5. Chard


6. Chilis (dried)


7. Chives (common, garlic)


8. Cilantro


9. Collards


10. Dill


11. Gai lan


12. Garlic (fresh hard-necked, fresh soft-necked)


13. Kale (curly green)


14. Kohlrabi (green, purple) (big but not hard-skinned)


15. Lettuce (green leaf, red leaf, green romaine, red romaine, green boston, red boston, red oak)


16. Mint


17. Mustard greens (rapini, curly, mizuna?, and many other kinds)


18. Nightshade (common) (don't eat it unless you grew up w/ it starting w/ small batches)


19. Onions (abundant as green onions, both slender-based and bulb-based; bulb-based in purple & white)


20. Parsley (flat, curly)


21. Peas (sugar snap, snow, shelling)


22. Potatoes (red, white)


23. Radishes


24. Rhubarb


25. Rosemary


26. Spinach (abundant)


27. Strawberries


28. Sweet potato greens


29. Tomatoes


30. Watercress


31. Zucchini

51 things available if you add in the separate, named varieties. Bon appetit!
(P.S. Eat your strawberries now if you like 'em. Raspberries are ripening right now, so strawberries will be gone soon.)

What's in season on May 30

Looks like I never got that October 26 list up, but here's what I saw ripe in the Twin Cities on May 30:

1. a mystery brassicaceae family plant


2. Bak choy, 2 varieties
   (both baby size)


3. Basil (at least 3 varieties)


4. Cabbage: napa
   (baby size; only available as thinnings because of an overplanting)


5. Cilantro


6. Dandelion leaves


7. Garlic chives


8. Lettuce (at least 5 varieties)


9. Mint


10. Mushrooms: morel


11. Mustard greens, 2 varieties
    (both Southeast/East-Asian-favored varieties, one of which was sold both as “top part” for pickling and “bottom part” for cooking)


12. Onions, green (at least 8 varieties)


13. Pea shoots


14. Radishes (red)


15. Rhubarb


16. Spinach
    (mostly baby size)


17. Sugar snap peas


18. Tomatoes
    (greenhouse-grown)


19. Zucchini
    (very small, and very pricey)

Not a bad selection if you add varieties to the count. I haven't even finished my spring chores like storing my winter coat in the attic, and we have all this. Wow.

Killing Freeze

I have another list of "Produce Available From Around The Twin Cities" to publish--this one from October 26.

But first a news flash:
There was a hard freeze, or "killing freeze," in the Twin Cities last night. Most likely, temperatures were even lower outside the Twin Cities.

So expect local produce availability to look very different from my list.

(But come back when it's time to plan your last pre-freeze purchases next year!)