Celeriac – Ohio Farm Share Week 21

Celeriac – Ohio Farm Share Week 21 held some quandaries. What do we do with Celeriac and Turnips? I’m thinking soup might be a good idea so I’m defrosting some chicken to come up with a combination of Chicken Vegetable Soup that will use up some of these strange things we’ve never eaten before. We love Chicken Vegetable Soup and Celery is usually an ingredient so why not Celeriac instead? As for the Turnips, I assume they’re a good substitute for potatoes so we’ll see how that works out. I want to use my Butternut Squash in it because it’s great as a thickening for the broth. I’ll let you know how it comes out!

This week our small Vegetarian farm share included (above featured photo)…

Collard Greens – 1 bunch
Broccoli – 1 head
Turnip – 1 large bulb/root
Celeriac – 1 bulb with tops
Pepper – 2 pale yellow – unexpected surprise!
Apples – quarter peck of some type of golden
Carrots – 1 bunch
Cauliflower – 1 large head
Acorn Squash – 1 not pictured

My half of the Vegetarian small share this week (above photo) and what’s left since Thursday, October 22…

Collard Greens – 1 bunch – mom’s tired of greens so I’m doing something with these this week if I can muster up the energy!
Broccoli – 1/2 head
Turnip – 1 large – we didn’t split this — if the soup turns out good, I’ll share with my parents so they’ll know what it’s like.
Celeriac – 1 bulb with tops – we didn’t split this — if the soup turns out good, I’ll share with my parents so they’ll know what it’s like.
Pepper – 1 pale yellow – unexpected surprise!
Apples – 3 golden colored
Carrots – 1/2 bunch
Cauliflower – 1/2 large head
Acorn Squash – 1 pictured above but it went to my parents to try.

RESULTS…

We remembered last minute that my parents were traveling on farm share pickup day and wouldn’t get their half of their share for several days, so this week was definitely a storage experiment week.

Most of my cooking has been centered on one pot new recipes I’m working on for the blog, so it’s been a bit repetitive and not necessarily working with what we have coming in from the farm share at the moment. I have to get better at finding a way to concentrate on both.

I tried something different with the Collard Greens and it worked. I moistened paper towels and wrapped the bunch, unwashed, then put them in a plastic shopping bag. They’re rather large and hard to fit into the refrigerator. They’re also kind of tough and rubbery so they get dried out if I just stuff them in a bag. I found this suggestion on MarthaStewart.com and it worked great, even though I couldn’t follow the whole directions and fit them in my crisper drawer.

I cut the broccoli and cauliflower in half, then bagged half for us and half for my parents. These stay super fresh for over a week like this, sometimes even for two weeks and this week was no different.

The Turnip and Celeriac were a quandary so I had to do some research on what to do with them. After visiting several sites, I realized the Turnip could be handled like any other root vegetable by cutting off the top and leaving part of the stem, then storing in the crisper. I had to wash the Celeriac leaves as they were super muddy, so I let it dry in a drainer all evening, then patted the leaves more dry before wrapping the bulb portion in damp paper towels and bagging the whole thing with leaves attached in the grocery bag. So far, it’s still looking good. The Turnip may not make it much longer without being bagged. I left it unwrapped for some reason and outside of the crisper — either I was tired, or I read it somewhere. More than likely I was tired and neglected to bag it and it wouldn’t fit in the crisper drawer.

The Apples and Acorn squash sat on the counter since Thursday and they’re fine. One apple had a couple nicks in it so I put that one in the refrigerator so we wouldn’t get gnats or ants.

The final quandary was how do I store all this until my parents can get their share? It took some finagling at first because I also had to fit 3 huge bowls of my Chili Vegetable Soup for a Chili Cook-off I was participating in. Oye! Best laid plans and all that. LOL We ended up emptying our little drink refrigerator so we could store a few things from the larger refrigerator in there. Things like the Apple Cider that I wasn’t super concerned about the exact temperature.

Now that my mom picked up their half of the share last night, I know which items I need to work with this week. We finished up the last of the Chili Vegetable Soup leftovers because, as usual, I made enough for an army. HA But that actually worked out great because we still have enough in the freezer for another night when I don’t want to cook and we got to treat mom to a new recipe for lunch yesterday. I’ll be sharing my Chili Vegetable Soup recipe soon. because I’ve realized it’s perfect for those who love Chili but Chili doesn’t love them. This recipe is less acidic and doesn’t bother my tummy at all. Just what I was looking for because I love, love, love Chili but can’t eat it most days. This soup is broth based so it’s not as rich as Chili and easier on the digestion but still has some good flavor. I’d show a photo but somehow I forgot to take one! Aye — I’ll be making this again when I can do a photoshoot of the ingredients and steps.

This is the LAST WEEK OF THE SUMMER SHARE COMING UP — can you believe it? We made it through a whole season of Farm Share on this blog as of this coming week.

WHAT’S NEXT? WINTER SHARE! Yes. You heard that right — we’re not stopping but continuing with the Winter program. Pick up won’t be as frequent so it will be less hectic on my end but just as interesting, I’m sure.

One more week of SUMMER SHARE COMING UP!

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