The oyster mushroom gets its name from its cap which, some say, resembles an oyster. The stem of the oyster mushrooms is perhaps more distinct; it unfurls something like one of those old-time paper lady's fans. The oyster mushroom has...

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December 2006 Monthly Archive

Winter Apple Varieties

Late season or winter apples are great for cooking and are also the best keepers. Most will last through the winter until early spring if chilled at just above 32°F (0°C).

Choose apples with tight, smooth, unblemished skin with good color for the variety. Apples should be firm to hard. The scent should be full and fresh. Avoid fruit that is slightly soft, the flesh could be mealy and mushy. To test the degree of ripeness, give the apple a flick close to the stalk--a dull sound indicates ripeness, a hollow sound is a sign of over-ripeness.

Taste is always more important than looks when it comes to apples. Get to know the varieties that grow in your region. Taste several to discover which ones you favor.

Here are some of the winter apples you will find at the farm market this week:

Arkansas Black: from Benton County, Arkansas; very dark color; crisp, juicy, slightly acid; good for eating out of hand, for desserts and applesauce; good storage keeper.

Ashmead's Kernel: heirloom that is highly regarded in the UK; yellow with orange-brown blush; great flavor fresh or juiced--intense nutlike flavor with a balance of sweet and tart; tart when tree ripe, mellows with storage.

Baldwin: from Wilmington, Massachusetts since 1740; bright red and streaked with yellow; sweet-tart with sharp full flavor; juicy; crisp texture; great for munching, baking pies, cider, and applesauce; good to store for winter eating.

Black Twig: heirloom found only at farmers markets; dark red, almost purple; hard, juicy, fragrant; golden flesh and grassy, intense flavor; great for eating out of hand.

Braeburn: from New Zealand; medium size, mottled red and yellow skin and orange red over yellow; crisp, sweet-tart flavor, aromatic, firm texture; stores well for up to12 months; eating out of hand, applesauce, pies, baking.

Brown Russet: heirloom before 1870; very late harvest; with patches of green and red; good fresh, stored, or use for sweet apple cider.

Cortland: from Geneva, New York since 1915; large, round, smooth, shiny red with flat ends; fine-grained very white juicy flesh, crisp, fragrant, sweet; flesh resists browning; fresh eating, perfect in salads, good for cooking and oven-baking, remains firm when baked, perfect for pies, desserts, applesauce. Does not store well.

Cox's Orange Pippin': from Bucks, England about 1830; found in farmers markets in U.S.; skin is clear yellow with orange and red stripes; crisp juicy, excellent flavor; for eating out of hand, applesauce, or blended with other varieties for pies; good keeper.

Enterprise: medium size, red blush; firm, sweet; keeps well.

Esopus Spitzenburg: from Esopus in Ulster County, New York since 1790; medium to large, bright red with yellow dots; crisp, sweet tender pale golden flesh; rich complex flavor, tangy and spicy; choice for dessert, good all-around.

Fuji: cross between Ralls Janet and Red Delicious; esteemed in Japan and China; introduced into the U.S. from Japan in 1980s; medium to large, green to yellow with under color blushed with red; flesh yellow green with red strips; firm, crisp, juicy, fragrantly sweet, excellent honey-like flavor; stores well; use in applesauce blends, eat out of hand; too hard for pies but holds texture well when baked.

Golden Russet: unknown origin before 1870; hard to find outside of farmers' markets; small or medium size and round; skin russeted redish-brown and golden; flesh is firm and yellow; flavor rich and aromatic; excellent eating out of hand, cooking and making fresh cider; keeps well in storage.

Gold Rush: medium size, yellow; dessert quality, excellent fresh or for baking; best after storage.

Idared: from Idaho since 1942; large, dark red with greenish-yellow spots; firm, juicy, fragrant, tangy-tart flavor, aromatic flesh; all purpose, excellent baked, remains firm when cooked or baked; for applesauce; keeps well.

Melrose: from Ohio, the official apple of Ohio; cross between a Jonathan and a Delicious; medium to large, round; skin yellow with bright red blush; white flesh, mildly tart, aromatic; good for storage, good dessert apple.

Mutsu (Crispin): developed in Japan as Mutsu; renamed Crispin in Europe and America; large, round, harder than Golden Delicious; pale yellow skin with light red blush; cream colored flesh, crunchy, moderately sweet to tangy; eat out of hand, excellent in pies and for dessert; long storage life.

Newtown Pippin' (Yellow Pippin', Yellow Newtown): developed in the Borough of Queens, New York before the American Revolution; large; skin is pale green and soft yellow with occasional red streak; crisp, faint citrus scent and complex sweet and tart taste; excellent for cooking, pies and applesauce.

Northern Spy (Red Spy): from East Bloomfield, New York about 1800; skin bruises easily so seen usually in farmers' markets; large, round shape with pale yellow pink to red blushed skin; tender, fine-grained flesh; juicy, sprightly flavor, aromatic; excellent dessert, baking, and cooking apple; eating out of hand and applesauce.

Pink Lady: crisp fall nights bring the bright pink color to the skin; sweetly tart taste with hints of kiwi and raspberry; for snacking and baking.

Rhode Island Greening: yellow-green grassy colored skin; distinctive sweet-tart spicy flesh, sometimes sour and hard; for eating out of hand, pies, applesauce; intensifies in flavor when cooked.

Rome: from Rome Township, Ohio; older than the Rome Beauty; large, round, yellow-to green skinned with mottled red overtones; crunchy texture and tangy flavor; best as a baked apple; mealy and flavorless when stored too long.

Rome Beauty (Red Rome): from Ohio; medium to extra large, round, smooth red, tough skin; firm greenish-white flesh; juicy, crisp, slightly tart, firm; outstanding for baking, keeps its shape with sweet flavor; use for whole baked apples; fair for eating out of hand; season from September to early November, holds until June.

Sierra Beauty: intense sweet and tart flavor, crisp and juicy.

Stayman (sometimes mistakenly called Winesap): cross between Red Delicious and Winesap; grown mainly in the southeastern United States; rich red color with green undertones, russet dots; fine-grained, firm flesh, juicy with lively, complex flavor; all purpose, excellent cooking apple.

Tydeman's Late Orange: full flavor around Christmas; excellent for storage.

Winesap: small, bright red sin with areas that look almost purple; fine grained, firm , juicy with lively, slightly fermented winey flavor; good eating out of hand, good for applesauce and pies, apple cider; stores into June.

York or York Imperial: from York County, Pennsylvania since the 1800s; off-center, lopsided shape; light red or pinkish skin dotted with yellow; yellowish flesh, crisp, moderately juicy, mildly sweet; good for drying, cooking, or baking; add to pies or applesauce.

Harvest to Table's New Encyclopedia:
The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide

A practical vegetable and herb garden encyclopedia

The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide is a how-to guide on planting, growing, and preparing more than eighty vegetables and herbs. This handy home companion is perfect for avid cooks, foodies, and both beginning and expert small scale vegetable gardeners.

Winter Apples

Have you noticed fresh, local apples at the farm market in the past couple of weeks? Fresh, local apples at the end of December? Apples that have not traveled half way around the world?

What’s up?

Well, the answer is simple.

There are more than 7,000 varieties of apples but not all of them come to harvest at the same time. In the course of a year, there are actually three apple harvests: an early-season harvest, a mid-season harvest, and a late-season harvest.

The harvest for early-season apple varieties begins in July and peaks in August and September. The harvest for mid-season apples begins in August and peaks in September and October, and the harvest for late-season apples begins in September and peaks in October and November--and sometimes runs right into December.

The apples you are finding at the farm market now are late-season apples.

Of all of the apples out there, late-season apples are the best keepers. Keepers are apples that can be set aside at cool temperatures just above 32°F (0°C) and will stay fresh right through the winter and into spring. For that reason, late-season apples are sometimes called winter apples.

While some cookbooks like to divide apples into those that are eaten out of hand (the early- and mid-season apples) and those that are set aside and used for baking and cooking (late-season apples), it’s not really that simple.

Late-season apples--just like apples from the early and mid-season harvest times—have a variety of uses. An apple’s use depends upon the variety of apple.

•Some are right for eating out of hand; they are usually firm, juicy, crisp, and sweet to sweet-tart tasting.

•Some are best for pies; they are more dry than juicy and will have a slightly acidic flavor.

•Some are great for baking or cooking whole; they will be sweet but firm and will not disintegrate in the oven easily.

•Some are suited for jellies; they will be more acidic but juicy.

•Some are best for sauce; they will be sweet to tart and will not discolor easily.

Late-season apples include: Arkansas Black, Baldwin, Fuji, Macoun, Newtown Pippin, Pink Lady, Rhode Island Greening, Rome Beauty, Sierra Beauty, Stayman, and Winesap.

If you want a sweet tasting winter apple for eating out of hand, choose the Pink Lady. If you want a winter salad apple that is crisp but not too sweet, choose the Sierra Beauty or the Newtown Pippin. If you’re making a late-season applesauce, choose the Rhode Island Greening. If you are planning to bake a tart this winter day, choose the Winesap.

If you really want to appreciate fresh apples, get to know the varieties that grow in your region. There will be early-, mid-, and late-season apples growing close by, and there will be an apple in each season right for the use you have in mind.

Want more? You can read a roundup of winter apples here in two days.

Black Spanish Radish

There is a radish at your farm market this week that you just might mistake for a dark-skinned turnip. It’s called the Black Spanish Radish.

If you are looking for a zingy addition to a winter salad, the black Spanish radish is a great pungent choice.

Some radishes—such as the French breakfast radish—can be mild and almost sweet. Others have a peppery flavor that will zip up your palate right into your nostrils. The black Spanish radish is one of them.

The black Spanish radish is a winter-keeping radish meaning if you set it aside under the right conditions it will keep for use at the table long after your local radish harvest season has past.

Radishes are cool season crops best planted in the spring and fall. While a French breakfast radish—the rosy scarlet radish with the white tip—comes to maturity in less than 25 days after planting, the black Spanish radish takes twice to three times as long to reach maturity. That means the black Spanish radishes planted back in September are now coming to harvest. (If you live in colder regions, black Spanish radishes are already in winter storage.)

There are actually two types of black Spanish radish—the round one that is about the size and shape of a turnip and the long black Spanish radish which is cylindrical and can grow to about 8 inches (20 cm) long. Both are black skinned and have a flesh that is crisp and white and quite peppery. The long variety will be more pungent than the round, blunt ended one.

Choosing: When choosing a black Spanish radish, look for one that is solid, heavy, free of cracks, and generally unblemished. Always avoid radishes that give in to pressure when squeezed. Those radishes will likely be pithy.

Storing: The key to keeping the black Spanish radish for use throughout the winter is how it is stored. The old-fashioned way is to submerge these roots in a box or carton of moist sand in a cool place that will not freeze. The modern, easy way is to simply keep the black Spanish radish very dry stored in a perforated bag in the refrigerator.

Serving: Here is a recipe for a black Spanish radish salad: Shred the root and marinate it in salted water for two hours. (This will take the edge off its pungency.) Drain and press the shredded root dry. Serve as a salad with vinegar and oil. Sprinkle fresh minced herbs over the top.

A Toast To You

Wes hál!

Be hale!

Be in good health!

From the Old Norse language ves heill to the Old English wes hál to the Modern English Be in good health!

This toast is to you on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

From wes hál came wassail, the drink, and the Anglo-Saxon tradition of wassailing--toasting to your good health.

There are many recipes for wassail--from mulled cider to mulled beer. Where winter celebrations and holidays are celebrated, you may find the wassail bowl--some form of a hot, spiced punch.

Sugar, ale, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon heated and served. Wes hál!

Recipe

Here is a recipe for a wassil bowl--a hot apple cider punch for the whole family:

INGREDIENTS:

½ tablespoon (7 mL) whole cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

1½ tablespoons (22 mL) of chopped fresh ginger

1¾ cups of white sugar

1 quart water (1 liter)

1 quart (1 liter) orange juice (optional)

1 cup lemon juice (optional)

2 quarts (2 liter) of fresh apple cider

DIRECTIONS:

Wrap the clove, cinnamon sticks, and ginger in cheese cloth and tie with a string.

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water and spice bag. Simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Reheat over a medium low flame stirring in the apple cider--add the orange juice and lemon juice for a slightly tart flavor. Do not boil. Serve warm. Enough for 24 servings.

Pear Eating and Cooking

Since pears—that is the European varieties--are plucked from the tree before they are ripe and cure to ripeness usually in a cool, dark place, how do you know a pear is ready for your bite?

Well, there are two ways to choose a pear for eating out of hand: smell and feel. A ripe pear ready for snacking will have a sweet, fruity fragrance. You’ll know it when you smell it. And, a ripe pear that you can munch or use as a dessert this moment will be slightly soft at the stem end. You can gently feel it.

Pears that came off of the tree in October and early November—referred to as autumn or winter pears (such as the Comice and the D’Anjou)--are ready for eating out of hand now. (Remember, most Asian pears will ripen completely on the tree and can be eaten right after they are picked.)

How about pear cooking? Pears for cooking or poaching can be slightly less ripe than those for snacking; that is they should be firm but not hard. Simple!

Pears can be served with duck, pork and poultry. Pears have a flavor affinity for allspice, bay leaf, chocolate, cinnamon, clove, honey, red wine, rosemary, thyme, vanilla and white wine.

You might be a pear and cheese person. The fine, buttery texture of the Anjou pear goes perfectly with Brie, Camembert, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Cabrales or Stilton cheese. You can even match the Anjou or Comice pear with cream cheese. Tasty!

Okay, let’s get cooking!

Poached Pears—called Pears Hélène served over vanilla ice cream and topped with hot chocolate sauce:

6 pears—Bosc, D’Anjou or Comice

1½ cups (360 mL) sugar

2 cups (480 mL) water

1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla extract or 1 inch (2.5 cm) of vanilla bean

Peel, halve, and core the pears. (Cut the pears in half lengthwise and scoop out the cores with a melon baller or grapefruit spoon. Remove any gritty flesh around the core. Peeled pears will almost immediately begin to brown: to prevent discoloration, immediately toss cut pears with lemon juice.)

Boil the sugar and water with the vanilla.

Add the pears and reduce the heat.

Simmer until the pears are just cooked through—just tender when pierced with a fork.

Cool in their syrup.

Serve over vanilla ice cream topped with the hot chocolate sauce.

Yum!!

Pears

Taste pears. There will be one that is just right for you.

There are more than 5,000 varieties of pears. Of course, it is unlikely that you will ever be in the presence of more than a half-dozen varieties at once—even at the farm market. But, nonetheless, the taste of a pear can linger in your subconscious palate, and after you have done your share of tasting around, you will no doubt remember your favorite.

The pear harvest, in most regions, came to a close a month or two ago, but here’s the catch, now is the best time to find the tastiest pears at your market. Why? Because most pears do not ripen well on the tree but instead gain sweetness after they are harvested and as their starch converts into sugar.

The process of sweetening up pears can take place on your cool kitchen counter or it can go forward in refrigerated cold storage. It’s probably the case now that the pears you select this week at the market or farm stand have been gaining sweetness in a cooled warehouse since late in the summer. Ask your grower to know for sure

There are several species of pears, but generally pears are divided into two groups or classes: those that originated in Asia and those that originated in Europe. The difference: European pear trees generally require more days of winter chill than Asian pears in order to be productive, and Asian pears will often ripen right on the tree, unlike European pears.

Here are three European pears that I found at the farmers’ market in San Francisco this week:

• The Bosc pear with its thin neck and russeted brown to yellow skin has a sweet and spicy taste. The skin of this winter favorite is thicker and rougher than many other pears, but its flesh is creamy white and crisp. If you don’t mind the rough skin, the Bosc is good choice for eating out of hand, otherwise use this pear for baking and cooking.

• The Comice—whose full name is “Doyenné du Comice,” which translates “top of the show”—is a fat, blunt pear with a short neck that is greenish-yellow colored with a deep red blush. This prize winner is considered by many to be the best eating pear of all. It has a yellowish-white flesh and buttery smooth texture. Its taste is sweet and fruity. The Comice is a great choice for fresh pear desserts, and it’s also the pear you are most likely to find in one of those holiday mail-order gift boxes.

• Taylor’s Gold is a large, round pear with a golden to bronze skin akin to the Bosc. It has a buttery texture, and its juicy sweet flavor will immediately remind you of the Comice. In fact, some believe Taylor’s Gold is a cross between a Comice and a Bosc, but in all likelihood, Taylor’s Gold is a natural mutation. Whatever its lineage the Taylor’s Gold pear is an excellent choice for either baking or munching.

As for Asian pears, there are more than 100 varieties ranging in size from very large to very small. These brown to yellow-green pears which are generally round in shape originated in Japan and China and are sometimes called Chinese pears after their heritage or apple pears after their shape and crunch. Asian pear trees bloom later than European pears and, for that reason, generally come to harvest later as well.

The Shinko Asian pear that I found at the market this week was round just like a small apple and tasted equally of juicy pear and apple sweetness. Blindfolded, it might have been a tough call. Asian pears are great in a mixed fruit salad or you can slice them raw onto a green salad.

Whatever pear you choose, look for those that are firm and well shaped and free of blemishes. Don’t choose a pear that is bruised or too ripe. Pears that have been left on the tree too long will be gritty and granular.

European pears should be ripened off the tree in a cool, dark place sitting on their bottoms. A pear that is ripe will have a matte skin and will yield slightly to the touch at the neck end. Pears that are a few days from ripe will have bright, shiny and taut skins.

A pear should ripen on its own, but if you want to hurry up the process, place it in a pierced paper bag with an apple or a banana.

Candied Citron Recipe

Here's how you can candy citron (and by the way, it works for other citrus as well):

Grate moist citron peel to release the oil from the cells. Cut the peel into thin strips and place in a heavy pan: Use 2 cups of citron peel.

Cover with 1½ cups (360 mL) of cold water. Bring slowly to a boil then simmer for 10 minutes or longer to dim the acidy taste.

Drain and repeat this process 3 to 5 times, draining well each time.

For each cup of peel, make syrup of ¼ cup (60 mL) of water and ½ cup (120 mL) of sugar.

Add the peel and boil until the peel absorbs all of the syrup. The peel will become transparent.

Roll the peel in powdered sugar and spread on a rack to dry.

When thoroughly dried, store in a tight container.

Citron—Buddha's Hand

If you have seen the fingered citron--known as Buddha's hand, you will have not forgotten. Hanging from the tree, it looks like a bright yellow, multi-tentacled octopus and sitting on a table top it looks like--well, the hand of the Buddha, that is the bright yellow version.

Besides the Buddha’s hand, there is also a non-fingered citron that looks like a big lumpy lemon. Either way this semi-tropical fruit which originated in northeastern India along with the lemon and lime, can grow big—to 1 foot (30 cm) in length.

The citron is almost all skin. The peel is extremely thick and it would take a very good squeeze to recover any juice. Nonetheless, citron juice was once considered something akin to lemonade. (In Italy it was called acquacedrata.)

If juice is not the objective—as is usually the case, one citron will go a long way. Since the citron is almost all peel, the peel is usually sliced or grated and then candied. You can sprinkle candied citron on pasta or fish to add a hint of lemon to the flavor. Candied citron keeps for months and months.

Choose: Select fruit that is firm and unblemished. Avoid soft fruit. Fresh citron should have a strong citrus fragrance. In fact, you can use it to freshen a room simply by sitting it on the table.

Serve: Sprinkle candied citron peels over fish or pasta. Use candied citron as a confection to add zest to cakes and desserts. The flavor of citron has an affinity for almonds, chocolate, cinnamon, coriander, cream, grapefruit, hazelnut, honey, lemon, lime, pinenuts and ricotta.

Rainbow Chard

Chard—which is often called Swiss chard in the United States and is known as silver beet or sea kale beet in Britain—can still be found locally fresh just about everywhere that snow has not yet hit the ground.

Chard is harvested from late spring until late fall. Right now keep your eyes peeled for rainbow chard. The variety you are likely to find is called “Bright Lights.” It is a cacophony of dazzling multicolored stems: gold, pink, orange, purple, red, mauve and white in electric and pastel variations. The stems are set off by deep green or bronze leaves.

Chard can be harvested at maturity when the leaves reach about 6 inches (15 cm) in length or when smaller for the mild baby chard taste. If you choose rainbow chard, you’ll want to wait until the plant is mature and the stems are at their most colorful.

Choose: Select chard with stalks that are crisp and unblemished and with leaves that are tender and evenly colored. Chard can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Serve: You can prepare chard stalks like asparagus and the greens like spinach. Be sure to prepare them separately. You can blanch the stalks in salted water for 1 to 2 minutes or until tender. If you steam the stalks allow 8 to 15 minutes and if you braise them in the oven allow 20 to 30 minutes for them to cook. Tender, fresh chard leaves can be served raw in salads just like spinach or they can be cooked like spinach, allowing 5 to 8 minutes when steaming or boiling.

Regional and Seasonal Food

Can you eat regionally and seasonally?

The tastiest fruits and vegetables are almost always those that come to you at the peak of their natural harvest time. The freshest fruits and vegetables are almost always those that travel the least number of miles or kilometers to your plate after harvest.

Following the seasons and the harvests in your area—say within a radius of 150 miles--is one way to begin thinking about eating regionally and seasonally. Visiting farmers markets or produce stands in your area will give you a start on getting the hang of fresh and local eating. With a little luck, you might be able to eat regionally and seasonally half of the year, and if you are in the right place, you might be able to do it all year round.

If you can’t get to a farm market on a regular basis, take a look at the boxes your produce man is unloading or even at the stickers on the produce. It doesn’t take much investigation to find out how far your produce has traveled.

Remember, it’s almost always harvest time for your favorite fruit or vegetable somewhere in the world. The key is to figure out how far your produce traveled to get to you and what it might have cost in taste doing so.

The tastiest fruits and vegetables—and probably the most nutritious--are almost always those that come to you at the peak of their natural harvest time, not those that are ripening in the packing crate or on the market shelf.

Turnips: The Gold Ball

You might not think of a turnip the way you do a carrot, but you could.

Turnips can be eaten raw or cooked. Like a carrot, the turnip can be boiled or steamed. You can serve them in soups and stews or puréed, stuffed or braised.

There are two seasons of the year when turnips are worth their weight in gold, that’s in the spring and in the fall. The fall harvest can last well into winter.

Right now you can find Gold Ball turnips at your farm market. The Gold Ball has been long noted for its flavor, slightly sweet and smooth with an aftertaste of almond.

The late fall harvest particularly favors the Gold Ball which like most good tasting turnips comes to maturity during the times of the year when the outside temperatures tend to stay uniformly cool. That’s fall and spring. (Summer heat can make almost all turnips tough and bitter tasting.) Young Gold Ball turnips should still be available now.

Like its name suggests, the Gold Ball has a golden-yellow skin and flesh. At maturity, it is about the size of a small ball, not more than 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter. Like all turnips, if harvested at half its mature size, it will be the most mellow tasting.

The exact origin of the Gold Ball is unclear, but it is an old-time variety that dates back at least to the early 19th century in Scotland and the North of England. It was registered in the United States patent office in 1855 as Robertson’s Gold Ball.

Turnips, in general, have been in cultivation for more than 4,000 years and probably originated in the Near East. The Greeks and Romans were known to have developed several varieties. Besides the root, turnip leaves can be eaten much like spinach.

If you want the best tasting turnips, select small turnips—no bigger than 3 inches (7.5 cm) in diameter--with unblemished skin and fresh, green leaves. The flesh of larger turnips can be woody. A turnip should feel heavy for it size.

Turnips can be kept in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for up to 1 week.

Raw turnips can be shredded with cabbage and carrots and served with a sharp mustard vinaigrette. Young turnips can be sliced raw and added to salads or served as substitutes for radishes.

Steamed and boiled turnips can be served with butter or cream. You can add sugar to the water to improve the flavor. You should allow 10 to 15 minutes when boiling turnips and slightly longer when steaming them.

If you bring home Gold Ball turnips this week, you might follow the advice of many experienced cooks: pair them with carrots. The taste is excellent.

Pineapple Guava

A flavor somewhere between pineapple and strawberry: this is how you might describe the pineapple guava, also called feijoa (fay-YOH-ah).

This is a high-altitude South American native that has an oval fruit about 3 inches (7 cm) long. It has a granular cream-colored flesh with a jelly-like center filled with tiny seeds. It sometimes is mistakenly called guava.

The pineapple guava is grown for a late fall harvest in California. New Zealand grown feijoas come to market in the northern hemisphere in spring and early summer (which is, of course, is late fall in the southern hemisphere).

Choose: Pineapple guavas should have a rich, perfume-like fragrance. The green to reddish-pink blushed skin should give slightly to the touch.

Serve: Remove the bitter peel and serve fresh and ripe. Use in fruit salads or as a garnish. (The fruit will ripen after a few days if placed in a paper bag with an apple at room temperature.)

Florence Fennel: Finocchio

There are three types of fennel: bitter, sweet and Florence. The leaves and seeds of the first two are used chiefly as flavoring. The third, Florence fennel, is used as a vegetable.

Florence fennel, which is also called finocchio, has a bulb-shaped base and spiky celery-like stalks. The fennel bulb which has onion-like layers can be eaten raw—like an apple--or cooked. The taste is similar to licorice or anise—but lighter. Cooked Florence fennel is delicate and sweeter than raw.

Choose: Select large, squat bulbs that are clean and crisp looking. If the feathery leaves are attached, they should be fluffy looking—not wilted.

Serve: Cut Florence fennel stalks into slices, simmer them in water or stock until tender; butter and serve.

Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are at the farm market fresh from September to March.

But the tastiest Brussels sprouts come on the market after the first good frost of the year. If you poke your head outside or look at the weather map, that means you are going to find fresh, great tasting Brussels sprouts just about everywhere right now.

The Brussels sprout resembles a small cabbage and it grows in the leaf axils of the plant’s upright stems. Each stem—which can grow to about 3 feet (1 m) tall--can bear as many as 20 to 40 sprouts or heads. (A sprout or head is really a green bud.) At the market, you might find individual sprouts or whole stems covered with sprouts. A tender, harvestable sprout will be ¾-1½ inches (2-4 cm) in diameter.

Brussels sprouts can be juicy and sweet and slightly assertive or tough and harsh. Obviously, juicy and sweet is best. Sprouts that are smaller and fresher will be the tastiest.

When you are at the market, choose buds that are small, firm, compact and bright green. (Avoid sprouts that are yellowed, puffy or wilted.) The color should be uniform and so should the size. If you choose sprouts that are all the same size, they will cook through at the same time. But don’t forget that Brussels sprouts picked young and fresh can be sweet enough to serve raw in a salad.

Two Brussels sprouts varieties that are considered the sweetest are Prince Marvel and Rubine Red. Rubine Red has purple leaves and sprouts.

When you buy Brussels sprouts, do so with the intention of serving them within a day or two. You can store them in the refrigerator in a plastic container with a paper towel, but even fresh sprouts will turn bitter within a few days of harvest.

As you might imagine by looking at them, Brussels sprouts are a subspecies of the common cabbage. Some cookbooks and produce guides don’t even list Brussels sprout separately; they lump them together with cabbage.

Preparation is the key to serving good tasting Brussels sprouts that have been cooked.

Brussels sprouts can not be undercooked but they can be overcooked. If they overcook, they will turn mushy.

Brussels sprouts can be boiled whole or you can halve or quarter or slice them to cook them quickly and uniformly. For a mild flavor, cook them in salted water. For the distinct Brussels Sprout taste, steam them.

Brussels sprouts can be boiled in about for 8 to 12 minutes. When steaming or braising allow about 15 minutes. The key to cooking Brussels sprouts is to taste them often while they are cooking. They should be served slightly crunchy and the flavor should be delicate.

A tradition in Belgium is to cook Brussels sprouts with peeled chestnuts.

If you are wondering about the name: yes, Brussels sprouts are named after the city in Belgium. Some say that Brussels is where these sprouts really caught on culinary speaking sometime in the thirteenth-century. Others say this vegetable got its start in Italy and came to Northern Europe with the Roman legions.

We do know that Thomas Jefferson planted them in his garden in 1812. And that the first mention of Brussels sprouts in a cookbook came in England in 1845.

Oro Blanco Grapefruit

There is the grapefruit, and there is the pomelo. The pomelo is an ancestor of the grapefruit, but it is bigger, firmer and less juicy than the grapefruit.

And then there is the oro blanco—sometimes called the oro blanco grapefruit. The oro blanco is a cross between a pomelo and a grapefruit. Oro blanco in Spanish means white gold.

The oro blanco is worth its weight in gold if you want a sweet grapefruit flavor that is without the grapefruit bite or acidity. And if you want a fruit that is almost entirely seedless with a thick, peelable skin that comes right off. Sounds good!

The oro blanco is coming to harvest now and should be easy to get right through May.

Choose: Like a grapefruit, choose an oro blanco that is heavy for its size; it will be more juicy. You can keep it at room temperature for 2 weeks or put it in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Serve: Just picked is best. Great served with fish or seafood or in a green salad.

Dandelion Greens

Dandelion greens can be added to a lettuce salad to add some tang. They can also be cooked like spinach.

If your dandelion greens are young and bright green—they are salad perfect. If they are more mature, that’s when they are great cooked.

This time of year you are likely to find dandelion greens that are hothouse grown. They will probably come to market young and sweet and ready for salad mixes. Spring is a prime time for tender, free-range dandelion greens.

Choose: The leaves of younger plants will be less bitter. If you pick your dandelion greens wild, do so before the plant flowers. That usually happens between January and March.

Serve: Dandelion and bacon salad (a French tradition): Dice bacon and brown in a frying pan. Mix the dandelion leaves with a white wine vinaigrette. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to the diced bacon and stir, Pour the contents of the frying pan into the salad bowl. Add a sliced hard-boiled egg.

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December 2006 Monthly Archive

Harvest to Table's New Encyclopedia: The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide

A practical vegetable and herb garden encyclopedia

Harvest to Table's New Encyclopedia:
The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide