Thursday, January 7, 2010

Root Vegetables





It's not snowing now, but it did snow a few weeks ago! Right as I was packing to go home for Christmas, the sky just opened and dumped about four inches of snow on Greensboro. Though I was hoping for the twelve inches that the Weather Channel had promised me, having a white-almost-christmas was great. My dad came up on the train to help me drive back (really, I Think he just wanted to ride the train), and we had a nice time in the snow.
When I did get home, I had a nice Christmas, and finally got around to reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. This book chronicles the year that Kingsolver's family decided to go totally locavore on their farm in Virginia. Let's underscore that part - they did have a farm, and both Kingsolver and her husband and co-author of the book, Steven Hopp, are biologists by training. They both knew what they were doing in terms of farming. I certainly don't think this would work if you are say, a 24 year old English teacher with a small apartment and no yard.
However, she writes beautifully, includes great information about farm life, and makes some very convincing arguments against factory farming, eating vegetables out of season, and even (gasp!) vegetarianism! (Though with caveats, of course).
I thought I was doing pretty good at cutting out meat (mostly), and getting a free range turkey. I knew that eating local vegetables was better, but I didn't know how much better. I also didn't realize that buying from small farmers (small in terms of the farm and organization, not stature) was also a way of sticking it to the man. And there is nothing I love more than sticking it to the man.
So I headed over to Deep Roots (because I came back a day too late for farmer's market Sunday, my fave day of the week), and stocked up on vegetables. Since it's winter and snowy (at times), most of these vegetables are root vegetables. In honor of that, I thought I'd put up some recipes for two side dishes that I whipped up (one of them, literally) for dinner last night.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
2 lbs Sweet Potatoes
1/2 Cup Milk (Whole or Low fat- I used low fat)
2 tbsp Maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon

1. Place sweet potatoes in a large stockpot. Cover with 1 inch of water. Sprinkle with salt.
2. Bring to a boil, and then let simmer for fifteen minutes.
3. Pour into colander, and let sit till all the water drains
4. Mash with 1/2 cup milk, maple syrup, and cinnamon. I used my kitchaid, but you could rice the potatoes and then mix in the other ingredients, no problem. Serve immediately.

Baked Turnips
1 Lb Turnips
1 Onion
Herbs aux Provence
Salt, Pepper
Olive Oil
(I served these over collards, if you do this, you need a bunch of collards and 4 cloves of garlic)

1. Slice turnips about the size of french fries ("jullienne" if we want to get fancy about it). Put in a medium sized mixing bowl
2. Quarter and slice onions. Add to the mixing bowl
3. Drizzle with 4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp herbs aux provence, salt, and pepper.
4. Spread onto a baking sheet and cook at 325 for about 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, if you are so inclined, saute collards with garlic for about ten minutes, then mix with turnip greens.

My news years resolution: to be better about this thing. Not that anyone reads this but my mom. Hi mom!

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