Or, “Kohlrabi, where have you been all my life?”
“OLS” stands for One Local Summer, a project hosted by Liz at Pocket Farm. (More information here.) In a nutshell, you cook one dinner/supper a week using local ingredients and post about it on your blog. Each week there’s a roundup of participants and their meals at the One Local Summer Blog. The goal is to get people paying attention to where their food comes from and to search out local foods.
You might notice that there was no “OLS Week 1” on this here blog. Could we consider concession stand food “local”?
Moving on.
I usually start my own transplants from seed. This year, however, my transplants just weren’t terribly healthy for some reason (cough*neglected!*cough). So I perused the starts at local nurseries to fill in the spots where some of my own transplants mysteriously failed to thrive.
My perusings led me past some kohlrabi starts. I’ve never eaten kohlrabi, always skimming by it at the farmers market because of its strange appearance. I knew not what to do with it. But people I’ve known that do eat kohlrabi all seem to be rather passionate about it as a vegetable.
So into our garden it went.
Sunday afternoon I was wandering around the garden while Matt weeded and noticed that the kohlrabi looked like how they look at the farmers market. “I think those kohlrabi things are ready to eat,” I pointed out. Because I’m helpful like that. So Matt cut them off and handed them to me. Uh oh. Now what do I do with them?
A consultation with Betty Crocker 1956 led me to julienne and steam them, and serve them with just a little butter and salt.
We are all now converts to the passion of the kohlrabi camp.
“This is my favorite food ever!” exclaimed Rafe (a notorious hater of anything outside of the bread or sugar food groups).
“Wow!” mumbled Madeline between mouthfuls.
“Kohlrabi, where have you been all my life?” mused Matt.
(Olivia was gone camping with a friend. Less picky than Rafe, but not as amiable to new foods as Madeline, we’ll see where she sits on the kohlrabi verdict.)
A buttery, sort of cabbage-broccoli-caulflower tasting cross. And without having to pick out those pesky cabbage loopers!
To round out the meal, new potatoes and onions picked from the garden and boiled in salt water. And a Sugar Creek Farm t-bone steak, grilled. So other than the butter and salt, a zero mile meal!
Oh, I adore kholrabi! My grandmother always grew it, and I’m trying to grow it for the first time this year. I love to just eat it raw!
how many days to it’s ready to pick? (…google tangent…) you have inspired me to try to grow a fall crop. from what i just read it is even better when grown into the fall, stores well and will last in the garden well after swiss chard. you have intrigued me. bakercreek seeds will soon be sending them on their way.
Hi Kelli(I wondered what happened to you with Week One! Looks like you’ve been busy.)Matt might pick you up for his roundups, but I will keep you in mine, too, for the official OLS Midwest listing. I think people will like your site (i.e., farm living) so if you get rounded up twice, the more business you might get, the more people will buy locally, etc. etc.!I grate kohlrabi on to the tops of my salads. Very low-tech, I know, but it pairs well with vinaigrette!
You have convinced me to expand my vegetable horizons… 🙂 Thanks!
Your post was rather comical. I remember getting kohlrabi from our local CSA and thinking too, what do I do with this? LOL Glad you enjoyed it. I diced mine up into a stir fry.
It would be rather redundant for me to post my local meal since it would be almost identical to yours *secret local code needed to decipher cryptic message* except for the K thingy. That would not get past Agent E’s security.
I’ve always avoided kholrabi because I couldn’t figure out what to do with it (and it’s so weird looking). Guess I’ll have to seek some out at the Farmer’s market this weekend.
Looks Great! I nominated you for the Positive Global Change Award come check it out at: http://childreninthecorn.blogspot.com/2007/07
Actually, the best way to eat kholrabi is long before what you see at the markets. I’ve rarely bought it there since it’s so nasty when it’s that big. You should eat it when it’s small, smaller than a tennis ball, preferablly around the size of a golf ball. And then eat it raw with a little salt.Oh so yummy!If the skin is tough, peal it, but the smaller ones can be eaten peel on.I really should grow my own so I can eat it small again. Got some tennis-ball sized ones at the market yesterday; hope they are small enough for raw in my salad tonight.
We always ate kholrabi raw either by itself or in salads. It’s kinda like homemade-sauerkraut–takes an aquired taste, but we love it!