best buys in January 2008
Celebrate Our Winter
Baby Salad Greens are our main winter greenhouse crop. Sunnier than normal skies have helped us keep enough supply; and also provides you with exceptional colours, flavours, and textures. Our new Seedling Salad provides a delicious alternative to leafy salads. A little can go a long way.
In season now, Fava Bean Leaves add a lovely tender, buttery flavour wherever they are used.
The sunny days have also been good to our many Seedlings. With a dearth of fresh greens at this time of year, now is a good time to experiment with adding some of these attractive and tasty garnishes to your favorite dishes.
Specialty Winter Favourites
In celebration of the season, get to know some specialty root vegetables. Parsley Roots grew quite large this year. So they are a most convenient flavouring for your soups and sauces. White Salsify is likewise conveniently large. Introduce your customers to its lovely delicate oyster-like flavour. Fuseau Artichokes are the very easy to clean French Jerusalem Artichokes. For very easy slicing, please ask for extra large ones. Crosnes (Baby Artichokes) are stunning little morsels which are more a garnish than a vegetable. Serve them raw or quickly sautéed.
A drawback to fresh garlic is small hard-to-peel cloves. Hard‑neck Garlic provides large easy-to-peel cloves and our bred-in-Ontario “Music” variety tastes just great.
Squash is another sign of winter. We continue providing our old standby Nugget Winter Squash. Its uniform small size makes it great as a container for hearty soups. We have a good supply this year, so we can select just the right uniform size for memorable banquet soups. Kikzuna Squash is a fine Japanese selection with a delicate hint of “green-tea”. Golden Acorn Squash is a new cousin to ordinary Pepper Squash, but oh-so smooth and moist.
From Our Winter Root Cellar
The perfectly balanced flavour of Japanese Red Carrots is considered by many to be ichiban (number one). The rich flavour of heirloom Afghan Purple Carrots is memorable. Black Carrots are an in-process recreation of a nearly extinct version once common in India and the Middle East. From the Roman cuisine come delicate White Carrots. Slavic Yellow Carrots are another fine version of heritage carrots. And the newest carrot on our list is the Medieval European Orange Nantes Carrots, which were developed to perform well in the heavy soils surrounding Europe’s major cities, to become the French cuisine’s most celebrated carrot. For colourful preparations consider presenting our rainbow of carrots as a local alternative for imported winter peppers.
Golden Beets have a mellow flavour – even confirmed by “beet haters”. Candy Cane Beets look beautiful and taste great pickled in a marinade. White Beets make great “stainless” Borscht, Pickles, and Salads. Red Cylinder Beets can be cut length-wise for mysterious red strips; or quickly cut cross-wise into even slices.
White, Red, and Amber Turnips are all much more accepted than folk-wisdom would suggest. Just take care to avoid overcooking them. Our new Japanese Turnips are the totally delicious carrot-shaped heirloom Hinona Kabu. Closely related to turnips, is our selection of winter radishes. Red Valentine, Green Flesh, Black Icicle and Red Icicle Radishes are all lovely accompaniments in colourful winter salads, stunning garnishes, quick pickles, or amazing grilled vegetables.
Waxy and luscious Fingerling Potatoes are deservedly our most popular. Starchy Ratte Potatoes are ready to absorb rich sauces and drippings. Ask for large ones to prepare classic mashed potatoes. Stunning and luscious Black Fingerling Potatoes maintain their colour and texture. Maybe consider them as a garnish. Blue Potatoes are pale blue when freshly cooked; then turn a stunning royal blue after a few hours in the fridge.
