Spring Vege Bag - Week 12
Click on any vegetable that has a link to see previous posts with recipes and cooking tips. You can also browse and filter the whole vege bag archive by vegetable here.
This final silverbeet share marks the end of our winter crops. Sown all the way back in february!
It’s been a tough little gap - obviously the wind has been hard, causing a fair bit of damage, but the rain and lack of sunlight has made things especially tough. Plants create energy from the sun (surely one of the most magical processes of life!). They exchange “sun energy” for soil minerals (“nutrients”) through their root systems with bacteria and fungi. There needs to be air to exchange around their roots and around their leaves - like us, plants also need to respire. So, when the ground is saturated, the air is 100% humidity, and there’s very little sunlight, we struggle. We’ve seen very little growth over the last month, and a fair bit of crop failure. Even with the longer and warmer days, growth was much better 2 months back. It’s made it tough to maintain the quality we aim for with Ōtaki Vege Bags.
The last few days have been ok, and the forecast looks alright - so hopefully we’re through the worst of it!
This week we have:
Salad mix (Ahoaho māra kai)
Radishes (Ahoaho māra kai)
Rhubarb (Ahoaho māra kai) or Parsley (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Zucchini, or Beetroot (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Coriander or Lemon Sorrel (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Silverbeet or Pak Choi (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Celery (Live2Give Organics)
Spring Onions (Live2Give Organics)
Vege highlights + suggested uses:
Lemon Sorrel
Somewhat uncommon, and never available at the supermarket, sorrel has an intense lemon-y flavour. It’s really handy to give a bit of punch to a salad, stirfry or a pesto. Earlier this year, a vege bag member shared a recipe, Sai Bhaji with us, where sorrel is more widely used. This is a Sindhi recipe, where sorrel is widely used. There are lots of varied recipes out there, but this one felt more approachable in ingredients. Obviously we don’t have aubergines now, but zucchini is a good substitution!
