What’s that Purple Thing from the CSA and what do I do with it? – CSA week 4

Joining a CSA Farm is like a box of chocolates. You just never know what you’re going to get.

The adventures of my first summer with a CSA continue. Here is what I’ve learned so far:

• Don’t expect to live on what you get in your CSA share. In spring and early summer, you’ll still have to supplement your local produce with things like peppers and other salad vegetables
• Locally grown produce from a Northeast CSA will not include summer plums and peaches and berries, so you will still have to buy that at the supermarket
• Expect to get a lot of Kale.  Learn different ways to prepare it, you’ll be surprised how much you like it.
• Don’t expect vine-ripened tomatoes until at least late July

This week, like last, we received  a bunch of sugar snap peas.

They can be prepared in stir-frys and salads, but my family likes them best raw. Easy enough.

We also received some beautiful purple basil which I shredded and used as a topping for pasta. It’s also good in Thai cooking.

But last week, after getting back from a great trip to see the family back in NYC, I went to pick up our family’s half of the share from our friends. They took the basil because they knew I have a ton of it in my own garden.

What they gave me was this:

This weird, bulbous thing is called Kohlrabi. It’s pronounced: Call Robbie. It looks like it could have grown on futuristic farm on Venus. Just the sight of it made my sons laugh. I have never had Kohlrabi, neither did our CSA partners, so they let me be the brave one and try it first.

So what to do if you encounter Kohlrabi in your CSA share this summer:

• First you peel the purple away. I thought this was a bit disappointing because it was the vegetable’s purpleness that made it so intriguing to my kids. Underneath, you will find a white flesh, like a turnip.
• Slice it thinly with a sharp knife. Kohlrabi is tough!
• Toss it with Olive oil Salt & Pepper and place it on a single baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees. It has a sweet taste and the texture of roasted potatoes
• Make a Kohlrabi Green Apple Slaw, as featured in A Veggie Venture 
• Make a Kohlrabi puree, as recommended by Farmgirl’s blog 

I will wait patiently for the mounds of zucchini and tomatoes we’ll get in our CSA share. But in the meantime, I’ll have fun with this strange vegetable that looks like it was grown on another planet.