[Week 16] Operation Vegetable Revive

Oh Farm Share Friends,

Last week was a scramble. Due to some scheduling conflicts, I could not get to the CSA pick-up site to grab our vegetables, so a friend kindly dropped them off. When I finally got around to tending to them hours later, I pulled the tomatoes out of the bag, but chucked everything else, still in the bag, in the fridge.

I didn’t open that bag till Saturday, and as you can imagine, when I did, I found some sorry looking items: a floppy head of bok choy…

… and a sad bundle of scallions.

And so I plunged the bok choy into a bowl of cold water…

… and thankfully it perked up very quickly. I’m always surprised by how well this works. You can do this with all sorts of greens such as kale, chard, mustard greens, and others. I drained and dried the greens, then made this Chili Crunch Boy Choy.

The scallions cleaned up nicely, too:

Regarding the scallions, one of you commented recently that your scallions turned brown within a day of storing them in water on the counter. This was a bummer to hear, and I really don’t know what to say except that I have learned over the years that different varieties of herbs and vegetables respond differently to various storage techniques.

For instance: my farm share basil thrives in a glass of water at room temperature. The basil I buy from the store, however, does not: it will shrivel within an hour of being set in a glass of water. I find this type of basil lasts longer in an airtight bag in the fridge.

Recently, I have noticed the scallions are tiring more quickly than earlier in the year, but I still find they hold up best at room temperature in a jar of water. As needed, I trim away scraggly ends:

Overall, I find this method keeps their stalks firmer and crisper than the fridge.

Friends, apologies for never getting out a newsletter last week. I had the last round of edits for my pizza book due on Friday, and, well, as noted, it was a scramble. The good news is that it’s in — like in in. I can’t make any more changes to it, which is both awesome and scary.

This week, I’m so looking forward to receiving broccoli rabe, because I finally