This week your basket contains: potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli or raab, radishes, turnips, sorrel (full shares only), GREEN ELEPHANT GARLIC, and salad mix (spinach, arugula, endive, lettuce & mustard greens).RHUBARB is ready!  You can order a bunch (approx. 1 lb) for $3. We also need egg cartons (no plastic, please).  Just place them in your empty basket for us.

The turnips in your basket were planted in February.  Most years this timing gives us full sized turnips by mid-April at which time the number of daylight hours each day triggers the plant to start flowering.  This year, with the particularly cold February & March we endured, the turnips did not grow very much, but that didn’t change their daylight hour timeline.  We have started to see signs of flowering (which makes the turnips fibrous), so we have decided to harvest them before they go bad.  The greens are great, and if you have decent sized roots, we recommend this recipe.  It makes a large amount of food; we usually make a half batch.

MOROCCAN TURNIP AND CHICKEN STEW

2 cups cooked chickpeas

2 small (2 1/2 lb) chickens

3 Tb butter

1 Tb oil

2 onions

5 cups chicken stock

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp powdered saffron

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 lb small  turnips

2 cups chopped turnip leaves and stems

1/4 cup lemon juice

salt and freshly ground pepper

Rinse chickpeas in water and rub lightly to remove skins; drain and set aside. Cut chickens into quarters, removing wing tips and backbones; put them aside for stock. Melt butter and oil in a casserole and lightly brown chicken on all sides, cooking in two batches if necessary. Slice onions and stir into butter and oil to color. Then add the chickpeas, stock, pepper, ginger, saffron, and turmeric. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add turnips and greens and simmer 20 minutes more. Remove chicken and turnips to a covered warm dish. Boil sauce to reduce, mashing some of the chickpeas against the side of the pan to thicken the sauce; it may take 10-15 minutes to produce a nice thick sauce. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Reheat the chicken and turnips in the sauce and serve.   Serves 6 to 8.  From The Victory Garden Cookbook.

Green elephant garlic is like a garlic-flavored leek (try it in potato leek soup!) This is a great recipe for the turnip greens or sorrel.

GREEN GARLIC AND GREENS

1 to 2 Tbsp. olive oil or other cooking oil

3 green garlics, chopped

1/8 tsp. salt plus more to taste

2 slices prosciutto, sliced (optional)

1 bunch collard greens, kale, or Swiss chard thinly sliced or chopped

Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Fresh lemon juice (optional)

Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add oil. Swirl and add green garlic and salt. Cook, stirring, until wilted, about 1 minute. Add prosciutto, if using, and cook, stirring, until it loses its bright pink tone, about 1 minute. Add greens, stir to combine, add 1/4 cup water. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and cook until greens are well wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir, cover, and cook until tender. Depending on the greens used (chard will take a shorter time than the others) and your taste, this will take anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste, as you like.

The following recipe can  be made with any combination of greens you may have on hand with or in place of the sorrel.

GRATIN OF SORREL AND POTATOES

3 cups sorrel leaves

2 oz. butter

3 lbs yellow Finn potatoes

salt and pepper

nutmeg

2 cups milk, stock, or combination

¼ cup grated Swiss cheese

2 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 and butter a large baking dish.  Remove stems from sorrel, rinse, and spin dry.  Melt half of butter in sauté pan, add sorrel and cook until completely wilted.  Set aside. Peel and thinly slice potatoes.  Layer half of the potatoes in the baking dish and season with nutmeg salt and pepper.  Spread the sorrel over the potatoes, layer the remaining potatoes on top, and then pour the liquid over it all.  Cut the rest of the butter into pats and distribute over the top of the potatoes and sprinkle with cheeses.  Bake for 1 hour, or until the liquid has been absorbed and the top is brown.  From Shepherd’s Garden Seed catalog.