This Week's Harvest News

Raspberries, Kohlrabi, and Chigger Bites

Our CSA members will be glad to find they are only getting two of the three of these treats in their harvest bags this week. Sherry, on the other hand, has gotten all three. Wild raspberries don’t really want to be captured;  the thorns themselves should let you know this. The problem oft times is not the thorns, though they are sharp and hurty, but it’s those hidden warriors that are the real guardians. Poison ivy, mosquitoes, chiggers, snakes, and heat stroke are all real and present dangers.

I myself don’t seem to be prone to chigger attack, but Sherry, my precious wife, seems to be irresistible not only to me but to these parasitic creatures. When she goes afield she is most assuredly coming back with chiggers. I didn’t even know we had chiggers here in East Central Indiana until she arrived here at the swamp.

Sherry risked life and limb Wednesday to snatch a few pounds of these heavily guarded morsels—the raspberries, not the chiggers—for our members. She returned from the field punctured, mosquito bitten, hot and chigger plagued.

Be sure to read Sherry’s post about her raspberry picking adventure.

Kohlrabi

Another item in this week’s harvest is kohlrabi. Kohlrabi, German for cabbage (kohl) and turnip (rabi), is a funny looking vegetable for sure and surely delicious. All of the plant is delicious but it is the swollen base of the stem that is typically the prize. The leaves can be cooked and eaten as greens or with greens, like collards. Try some cut up and in your salad. The bulb grows above ground and has the stem of the leaf circling the orb top to bottom. You can eat the bulb raw or cooked in the way you might cook turnips or Brussel sprouts.

I will include a recipe at the end of this post, in case you're interested in trying this vegetable the next time you see it in the store.

  Well that’s all I have for now and I’m done talk’n,  --Matty G

Recipe Spot

Matty’s Roasted Kohlrabi

Ingredients:

• 4 kohlrabi bulbs, peeled and cubed
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
  
• 1/3 teaspoon pepper
  
• ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
  

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Pour onto baking sheet. Roast at 450 for about 15 minutes, turning cubes every 5 minutes or so. Makes 2 servings.