Summer Vege Bag - Week 2
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.
Kia ora!
It finally feels like things are really starting to grow. After a really tough start to the season for Crooked Vege’s Lebanese cucumbers, we finally harvested the first two on Monday. On Wednesday, we harvested four. Today we harvested nearly 10kg! Long may it continue.
And finally the first harvest from the spring carrot sowings, from Ahoaho this week! Carrots are a staple for vege bags - they’re so versatile, most tamariki like them, pretty substantial and work well on a small scale. But to harvest them through winter and into early spring, they need to be sown early. Between Ahoaho and Crooked Vege, approx 50,000 were sown in February this year. This kept us covered for vege bag carrots until a couple of months ago. We learnt a lot, and think we’ll do a better job keeping the carrots flowing longer next winter.
This week we have:
Salad mix (Ahoaho māra kai)
Cucumbers (Ahoaho māra kai)
Carrots
Radishes (Ahoaho māra kai & Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Zucchini (Ahoaho māra kai & Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Microgreens (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Parsley or Chives (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Broccoli (Live2Give Organics)
Vege highlights + suggested uses:
Radishes
Radishes are really versatile. They can be thrown into a stirfry, roasted, thinly sliced into a sandwich or toastie used as a substitute for daikon in this Kkadugi (radish kimchi) recipe (you can also sub the spring onions for garlic chives). We most frequently use them slicing them thinly through salads - they add beautiful colour and a little punch. If I’m organised, I’ll “quick pickle” them - essentially marinading them in vinegar + other flavours (e.g. garlic, herbs, mustard, honey, soy sauce, fish sauce, chilli, ginger, lime juice - get creative, or google “quick pickle” for inspiration) while I prep the rest of dinner, and throw them in the salad at the end. Keep the jar in the fridge and use it to jazz up your salad and sandwiches all week.
