Winter Vege Bag - Week 5
Click on any vegetable that has a link to see previous posts with recipes and cooking tips. You can also browse the filter the whole vege bag archive by vegetable here.
Final chillies & introducing Mingiroa Farm
The frosts this week have finally dealt the outdoor chillies at Crooked Vege a fatal blow. This’ll likely be their final week in the vege bags until next year (we’ll be starting next seasons plants in just 6 or so weeks) - maybe there’ll be a few stragglers next week. Remember you can freeze chillies!
We’ve run down the spuds that Ahoaho grew as part of this summers Carb Club project, so Mingiroa Farm in Bulls are supplying spuds for the coming months. In 2015, Sally and Richard began the process of moving the family farm toward organic and regenerative practices, diversifying their dairy operation by reintroducing vegetables, diversifying their pastures and focussing on supporting their local biodiversity. You can read more about their family farm here. They were also featured on country calendar a few years ago, you can watch that for free here.
This week we have
Potatoes (from Mingiroa Farm)
Spinach or Radish (Ahoaho māra kai)
Carrots (Ahoaho māra kai)
Salad (Ahoaho māra kai)
Chives or Chillis (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Coriander or Parsley (Crooked Vege Ōtaki)
Swiss Chard (Crooked Vege)
Mini Daikon (Crooked Vege)
Vege highlights, tips & recipes
Mini Daikon & Radish
These “mini” (mostly) purple daikon are something we occasionally grow for a couple of nice restaurants in Paraparaumu. We grew an extra bed for the vege bags as we think they’re beautiful and delicious.
Daikon is high levels of vitamin C, and a good source of fibre, calcium, folate & potassium. It happens to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and diuretic properties. It contains digestive enzymes that break down proteins, fats and carbohydrates. So it’s a popular food used to relieve symptoms of indigestion and general puku problems.
Both radish and daikon are super versatile. They’re great thinly sliced/grated in a salad, roasted, stir fried, in a boil up or a brothy soup (e.g. miso or ramen). They can be used somewhat interchangeably in recipes (radishes have a sharper spiciness).
Both radish and daikon (and any other crunchy vege!) make delicious quick pickles - here’s a basic recipe that’s ready overnight.
Here’s a very simple Miso Tofu Daikon Soup. “Dashi” is Japanese stock based on kelp - you could add a little bit of seaweed and regular stock to replace it. And you could replace the tofu with a meat of your choice.
We really like Kimchi, and a favourite kimchi recipe of mine is this daikon-based Kkakdugi recipe. You can get gochugaru at some asian supermarkets.
Ka kite ano,
Jon
