Cooked cabbage can be crisp with a mild and sweet flavor. Cabbage also can be served raw in salads and slaws and on sandwiches and burgers. Cabbage comes to harvest during the cool and cold fall and winter months. There are three kinds of round-headed cabbage: white, red, and Savoy. The leaves of the white […] More
Cook kohlrabi or eat it raw. Kohlrabi is crunchy like radish and tastes like a mild, sweet turnip with a bit of radish tang. Young kohlrabi is juicy and crisp and delicate. The peak kohlrabi harvest season is mid-spring to mid-fall. In mild-winter regions, kohlrabi and can be grown and harvested through the winter. Favorite […] More
Beets have a sweet, earthy taste. They can be eaten raw or cooked. If you bake or roast beets in their skins, you can enjoy that flavor at its most intense. You can boil beets then peel and slice them and serve with a little oil and lemon. If you have any leftovers, put them […] More
Just out of the garden, soak broccoli for about 10 minutes in salty water. This ensures any tiny bugs still hiding out will be dispatched. Then I rinse each flower head under cold running water. You’ll want to cut away the tough lower stalk leaving just 3 inches or so below the base of the […] More
Brussels sprouts have a nutty, cabbage-like flavor that makes a delicious hot side dish dressed with butter or meat-roasting juices. Lightly steamed Brussels sprouts are perfect with a lemon-butter sauce, or you can simmer them with chopped celery until tender and then fold them into a cheese sauce. Cooked and cooled Brussels sprouts can be […] More
The perfect thing about cauliflower is that the size of the head is no indicator of quality. Big heads or small snack-sized heads–as long as they are fresh–will be equally tasty. Cauliflower is best harvested in late spring or fall when temperatures are moderate to cool. Fresh cauliflower should taste mildly sweet or nutty and […] More
Fresh chopped or shredded collards can add a little spice to salads. As well, collards can be steamed, boiled, sauteed, and added to soups and stews. Collards are a good match for smoked pork. Combine collards with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or beans and puree. Collards have a very strong cabbagey flavor and are considered […] More
Swiss chard can be served raw or cooked. Swiss chard leaves have a hearty, yet mild spinach flavor. Swiss chard stalks have a delicate, celery-like taste and crunch. Serve chard greens raw alone or in a mixed green salad. You can also cook chard greens just like spinach. Favorite Swiss chard recipes Chard Soup Made […] More
Broccoli raab and rapini are not synonymous, but when it comes to recipes they practically are. Broccoli raab [rob] has long, thin rich-green stems (6-9 inches/18-23 cm long) topped with scattered clusters of broccoli-like florets. The flavor is nutty and both pungent and zesty. Rapini [rah-PEE-nee] is similar to broccoli raab but with fewer florets […] More
Chinese cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked–steamed, boiled, and quickly stir-fried. Cooked leaves and stalks add flavor to soups, stews, pasta dishes, and stir-fries. Chinese cabbage is a general name for several varieties of thick-stalked and green- or pale green-leaved vegetables that fall under the even more generic name Chinese leaves. Chinese leaves are […] More
The peak season for freshly harvested horseradish is early spring and late fall. Horseradish is a long, knobby root—it’s an herb, not a vegetable–that has no aroma until you scratch, cut, or grate it. The pungent odor and the hot taste of horseradish are due to a volatile oil—similar to mustard oil—that is released when […] More
Sunflower seeds have a pleasant, nutty flavor and a crunchy texture that makes them a welcome and simple addition sprinkled on salads, sandwiches, vegetable dishes, and yogurt as well as mixed into stuffings and granola. Ground sunflower seeds can be combined with flour to make cakes, cookies, muffins, pancakes, and bread. Lightly toasted sunflower seeds […] More
Stephen Albert