So... Just How Do You Cook a Radish?

I spent a decent amount of the girls naptime on Wednesday researching how to cook radishes. I have never bought radishes in my life. From time to time I would see them shredded in salads and deftly pick them out. Yet as I was sifting through my very first CSA share I saw 2 bunches of radishes and thought, "Oh, buddy, here we go!".

Let me back up a little. More than likely if you're reading this, it's b/c you're my friend on Facebook and I posted a link saying, "Hey, check it, Sam's got a food blog!". However, on the off chance someone else is reading I'll fill you in. This year I've decided to take my family on a new eating adventure. I've got 2 toddler girls and they have truly inspired me to take better care of myself, and of them.

I grew up with my wonderful Mom fixing us homecooked meals. I've known my way around the kitchen since before I was in middle school. Dinners were good, easy, with simple ingredients. Grab that can of veggies (mainly corn and green beans) and open it up, throw it on the stove! Want a casserole? Grab some cans of cream of this and that, some meat here and there, mix it all up and bake it! Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not being all high and mighty mocking canned goods. You will never hear me say that my parents didn't take excellent care of us. My point is that I had no idea where my food was coming from. Sure, I knew it was grown, somewhere on some farm with some dude and a tractor and a field. But I had no idea or concept of how it was grown, how it was picked, what it was treated with, basically anything that occurred before I dumped it out my can.

Since my girls have been born my creative outlets have been slightly more limited. Scratch baking has become a hobby. I've gotten sucked completely in. Fancy breads, bagels, pastries, cakes... Definitely cakes. Anyone who knows me knows I get carried away with those. As I started studying the sciences of baking, the chemical that reactions that occurred between different ingredients, I became more aware of the quality of products I needed to have to have that truly decadent dessert or that light, airy bread with a crispy crust. So I started reading about eggs, butter, flour, milling, churning... Did you know you can make your own butter? It's pretty easy actually. Anyway, that's for another post. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. Why is it better to make my own bread, than have the preservative loaded one at the store? Why are whole grains so important?

All of this studying and curiosity made me think about my other foods as well. I have definitely been on a produce kick since I first got pregnant in '08. I even had a fairly successful garden last year. Well, if you define success by having too many tomatoes to possibly count and some zucchini the size of a baseball bat. We definitely didn't capitalize on all the food possibilities we had. That zucchini had so much flavor though. So much more than any I had bought at the grocery, even when in season. The tomato sauce I made from those tomatoes, sooo good. I'll take it over Prego any day. But I wanted more. I wanted fresh foods. I wanted to know where my food was grown. If I had a yard big enough, I'd end up with a massive (probably out of control) garden. The farmers market was an option, but I am lazy. Definitely not a morning person, and I think trying to shop weekly with the girls in a place like that might just reduce me to eating Spam.

Then I heard about CSAs. In short, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically it's a farm, or group of farms, that you commit to buying from for a season. Some places you pick up, others deliver, some are weekly, some are biweekly, but the gist of it is you pay farmers to grow your food for you. No grocery, no middle man, from the field to you. You get fresh, in season produce, at the peak of its nutritional value. It sounded completely ideal to me. The more I researched, the more I was convinced I wanted to do it. The hubs wasn't quite on the bandwagon yet though. He wanted to know is it worth the money? Will we actually eat the veggies we get? And just what in the world is a kohlrabi?

So I searched around until I found the farm I thought would be best for us. There are many choices out there, and so many with great reviews that it was difficult. But in the end, we chose Avalon Acres because they do pasture raised meats and eggs, as well as produce. They also have a very active Facebook community, and that was important to me so I would have a place to go for tested recipes.

I started watching the Facebook page, noting weekly what people received in their share packages. I started buying the same produce items at the store and learning how to cook them one at a time. I learned when in doubt, saute it, if that's gross, roast it. I tried vegetables I had never heard of or eaten before in my life. And my kids seemed to enjoy it. Well, my 18 month old is a bottomless pit who will eat anything, and I consider the 2-1/2 yr old not throwing her food across the room a success. My hubs was enjoying my new occasional cooking style. So I crunched the numbers, showed him the plan, and we decided to go for it. He kept me grounded, which he does well, or else we'd probably have not only a giant unruly garden but 6 chickens running around as well.

Which brings us to the present. The official season will start May 9, but I picked up my very first CSA share yesterday. I was seriously so excited. Almost the equivalent of Christmas stocking excited. It is beautiful! A giant head of lettuce, a bag of spinach, radishes, onions, kohlrabi, 2lbs of pork ribs, and the best strawberries I've ever had. I am still excited. And though I was stumped on the radishes, I threw some in a salad, roasted some in the oven, and even made a delicious soup out of them today.  

So now you know the story. This blog will be chronicling an adventure for us. Learning about new foods, trying new recipes, and a place for other people to chip in. It definitely won't be your typical "look at my pretty food photography!" blog, and I imagine several pictures will be an afterthought camera phone pic, but I'll do what I can. I hope you enjoy!

Oh! And if you have any other radish suggestions, feel free to comment. I have a feeling there will be plenty of times I need help with this!

-Sam :)