Root vegetables are the backbone of the Winter CSA.
Every week you come to pick up your veggies you’ll get to fill up your basket from our smorgasbord of organic root veggies - some familiar friends, and some you’ve maybe never seen before! That’s one of the beauties of CSA - the opportunity to try new and unique vegetables that you’ve never heard of before.
This week we encourage you to grab something new from the lineup and see how you like it. Throw a daikon radish, rutabaga, or striped beet into your basket and see what you think.
Diversify your dinner and fill your life with a rainbow of colours, textures, nutrients, and Farm Fresh flavour!
Carrots, potatoes & onions: While they might look like any root veg you find at the grocery store, our organic carrots, onions, and potatoes taste like no others. Our super-sweet frost kissed carrots are Incomparable!
Beets: We have red globe beets, pinkish chioggia beets with candy cane striped centres, as well as long red cylindrical roots, all with slightly different flavours and qualities.
We like the globe beets for eating like an apple once cooked (Milo's favourite way to eat a beet), chiogga is great roasted and mixed with other veggies (think roasted potato beet salad) because it won't stain the rest of the dish, and cylindra for its ease of storing, peeling and cutting.
We love beets for the sweetness and colour they add to a veggie pate, for making beet brownies, adding nutrients and local sweetness to recipes. If you like sweet and salty like we do, you will love beets in a tangy arugula salad paired with goat or feta cheese and parsley.
Daikon Radish: These white, purple and pink roots are delicious, versatile, store well, and are beautiful to boot. Daikon is a staple in asian cuisine, and can be enjoyed either cooked or raw. If left raw they are lovely sliced, grated, or spiralized in salad, rice paper rolls, and kimchi, and aid in digestion thanks to the digestive enzymes protease and amylase.
Cooked they transform into a soft and starchy veg similar to potato and is great roasted with salt and oil. Try it spiralized and use the 'noodles' in a pad thai like dish that's filled with a selection of seasonal Farm Fresh veggies!
Rutabaga: Another new addition to this year's line-up. Rutabaga is kind of like turnip (they are related), but with yellow flesh and a slightly sweeter flavour. Our rutabaga are filled with sweet flavour and crunchy texture and can even be eaten raw. Try shredding it in a salad with apples and kale for a sweet new flavour.
Cooked try a new take on mash by boiling with carrots and potatoes to make Clapshot, or roast them to bring out that slightly carrot-like sweetness.
Watermelon Radish: These are new this year and are a current favourite snack! Just like a watermelon an unassuming rind hides a bright pink interior that is just as delicious as it is beautiful! Try them raw with dip, roasted in cubes like potato, or give them a quick pickle.
Hakurei Turnip/Sugardrop Radish: The snow white globes that we sometimes call snowdrop radishes are actually a turnip - Japanese salad turnip. They won’t be around for too much longer so make sure to grab some soon if you want to give them a try. They are delicious eaten raw, but are also great quartered and roasted with a miso glaze. Another great option is to quick pickle them - it’s a simple process and then you can enjoy them for months to come!
Cooked they transform into a soft and starchy veg similar to potato and is great roasted with salt and oil. Try it spiralized and use the 'noodles' in a pad thai like dish that's filled with a selection of seasonal Farm Fresh veggies!
Rutabaga: Another new addition to this year's line-up. Rutabaga is kind of like turnip (they are related), but with yellow flesh and a slightly sweeter flavour. Our rutabaga are filled with sweet flavour and crunchy texture and can even be eaten raw. Try shredding it in a salad with apples and kale for a sweet new flavour.
Cooked try a new take on mash by boiling with carrots and potatoes to make Clapshot, or roast them to bring out that slightly carrot-like sweetness.
Watermelon Radish: These are new this year and are a current favourite snack! Just like a watermelon an unassuming rind hides a bright pink interior that is just as delicious as it is beautiful! Try them raw with dip, roasted in cubes like potato, or give them a quick pickle.
Hakurei Turnip/Sugardrop Radish: The snow white globes that we sometimes call snowdrop radishes are actually a turnip - Japanese salad turnip. They won’t be around for too much longer so make sure to grab some soon if you want to give them a try. They are delicious eaten raw, but are also great quartered and roasted with a miso glaze. Another great option is to quick pickle them - it’s a simple process and then you can enjoy them for months to come!
Celeriac: Celeriac, sometimes called celery root, is the root of a celery variety cultivated for its bulbous root. It has an earthy taste with a hint of celery flavour, and a texture similar to turnip or potato. It might look intimidating, but it's easy to prepare - just peel off the knobbly outer layer and you're ready to go. It's a really versatile vegetable, and can be eaten raw or cooked. Treat it like a potato - roast, mash, french fry. It makes a delicious, creamy puree, either on its own or with white beans. Get the spiralizer out and make noodles to add to ramen soup or raw in salad, or make a classic french remoulade salad.
Parsnip: This isn’t a white carrot (though those do exist), it's a super sweet and starchy parsnip! There are so many ways to use this simple root - try them in a creamy pureed soup finished with chopped kale, add them to to a roasted veg medley, or add to a mixed vegetable mash or stew. Farmer Milo loves parsnip fries with miso and tahini dip, or yogurt curry dip - a fresh take on an old favourite!
Parsnip: This isn’t a white carrot (though those do exist), it's a super sweet and starchy parsnip! There are so many ways to use this simple root - try them in a creamy pureed soup finished with chopped kale, add them to to a roasted veg medley, or add to a mixed vegetable mash or stew. Farmer Milo loves parsnip fries with miso and tahini dip, or yogurt curry dip - a fresh take on an old favourite!