Tag Archives: rhubarb

To market, to market

Posted in Blogathon, Farmer's Market by

Market

We decided against a third season of the CSA. As awesome as our experience was last summer, I missed lazy Saturdays at the farmer’s market. Our weekly shares were so bountiful that there was simply no need to bother.

I’ll admit, I haven’t missed those boxes of vegetables one bit. These early weeks in particular are so, so green. I saw Swiss chard at a stand at Green City Market over the weekend and smiled knowing that I didn’t feel like eating any, and I wouldn’t have to. Instead, I bought purple and green asparagus, a big bag of mixed mushrooms, and rhubarb. (And macarons on the way home.)

The mushrooms and asparagus went into this Food Network recipe I bookmarked a couple of weeks ago, for Creamy Farfalle with Cremini, Asparagus and Walnuts. I’m using the rhubarb tomorrow for the rhubarb blueberry muffins I featured in this April post.

I can’t wait to head back to the market next week, and am hoping garlic scapes will make an appearance. Fingers crossed.

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So, this is rhubarb

Posted in CSA by

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Seems basic, I know.

But until last summer, my rhubarb experience was limited to only store-bought jam. I’d never cooked with it. So when our farm promised rhubarb in a weekly CSA box, I was excited.

“Rhubarb” in hand, I looked it up in the Food Lover’s Companion, my go-to guide for vegetables unknown to me. Don’t eat the leaves — they’re poisonous, it said. It’s all leaves, I thought, but … OK. After I trimmed the leaves, I was left with the tiniest red stalks, hardly enough for the recipe of rhubarb crisp I’d found. Still, they went into the pot with a lot of sugar. (Thank God.)

The finished product, with its oatmeal, cinnamon and brown sugar topping, was so pretty that I took it to my newish in-laws’ house. I’ll admit it, I was damn proud.

Until a couple of weeks later, when I was wandering through the farmer’s market and saw some “rhubarb” at a stand. Only the sign above it read “Swiss chard.”

Hmm.

Just so you don’t make the same mistake I did, this is Swiss chard. (Which, as it turns out, will work in a “rhubarb” crisp in a pinch — if the recipe calls for enough sugar.)

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