July 26
Molokhia greens on our drip-drying table. Serrated edges, slightly reddish stems.
This week's harvest:
NEW: Molokhia greens; a hot-weather crop. See the Recipes section below.
New baby lettuces, the start of the second batch after the hot week.
ONGOING: Basil, chard, summer squash, teaser tomatoes. Carrots (Purple carrots are either Dragon, which we had last year, or Lila Lu, a new variety).
THE LAST: Kale, potatoes. Maybe the last snap peas.
Recipe suggestions:
A Provencal pattern for stuffing summer vegetables like the Rond de Nice summer squash.
Lots on a very heat-tolerant green that I planted in case of a terribly hot summer:
Your first cut of molokhia was rubber-banded to the onion for easy ID. The flavor is not surprising for a cooking green, but the texture might be. Like many hot-weather-loving plants, it's a little gooey (the goo hangs on to water). There are familiar dishes that use this, like gumbo: here's a comparison of molokhia with sassafras (gumbo) and filé. A herbalist who farms next to me said, of the texture, That's demulcent! like slippery elm; good for sore throats.
The seed description included this minimal cooking instruction: "Francois's sister in-law, Linda prepares this vegetable by chopping the leaves "very fine, do you hear me? VERY FINE! OK." Then cooking it in chicken stock with rice and lemon juice."
And for a cook's challenge, a complete and complex recipe: rich fragrant molokhia stew.
Storage notes:
Washed and unwashed: Some crops don't wash well or don't store well when wet, and those will be delivered OUTSIDE the big plastic bag. Basil and cilantro and peas, for instance, will be in a small plastic bag OUTSIDE the big plastic bag, because I think they will keep better this way. Rinse before eating.
Basil and cilantro keep best with their stems in water, like little bouquets, I find. Basil outside the fridge, cilantro in the coolest part of my house or the warmest part of my fridge.
Everything INSIDE the big plastic bag has been triple-washed and drip dried.
In general: root veg, including carrots, should have their greens taken off, after which the roots like cool dark storage. The greens on our root veg are all edible. Greens like cool humid storage. Potatoes need to be kept in the dark, but don't need to be in the fridge.
Looking forward:
The summer crops are growing well, lots of blossoms and tiny fruit behind them. Tomatoes, zucchini, basil, cucumbers, okra; there are even blossoms on the pepper plants.
There are also pests coming, including way more cucumber beetles than last year -- which eat all the squashes, squashes are all related to cucumbers. Sometimes predators turn up in mass and eat our pests for us. Sometimes I have to literally wipe them all off each plant stem and squish them, ew but -- not toxic!