Yes, I said turnip tacos, and I know that sounds incredibly strange. What’s even more strange is that the idea came to me out of the blue, standing in my kitchen. I thought, Why is it that so many turnip recipes, or vegetable recipes in general, are for side dishes? What about main dishes? I thought, Isn’t there a way to treat a turnip like a meat? Isn’t there a way to make the sweet turnip somehow savory or, even better, spicy?

Guess what? There is!

After all, turnips, sweet root v

So remember that lovely rainbow chard
Chard = bitter, fresh
Sausage = sweet, rich

This is why so many chard dishes contain sausage, and it’s also why I can often get my husband to eat — and actually enjoy, without making faces — chard when I add a little sausage inducement. In this case, I chose a Polish Kielbasa, which I can usually find in turkey instead of pork to cut some fat, but most any precooked, link sausage will suffice.

While the sausage browns and releases some of its

Its official, the move from www.seasonaldish.com to www.localdish.net is complete! We hope this didn’t cause too much trouble for patrons of the site. As always, let us know if you have any issues. Finally, make sure to bookmark the new address of this site as well as change your subscription feeds.

Enjoy.

We are completing the move of this web site to www.localdish.net

CSA shares are wonderful. Farmers Markets are amazing. But even those most dedicated to eating local food can’t eat solely from those sources — at least not without bending over backwards and devoting a huge chunk of your life to the task. And for those just getting their feet wet in local food, it’s hard to know where to start.

How about the grocery store?

Rocky Ford melons at King Soopers this week! Rocky Ford is less than 100 miles from Colorado Springs. As opposed to 1,200 miles

Science Talk: Chard is a leafy, green vegetable related to the beet, though the beet is cultivated mostly for its roots while chard’s leaves are the valuable part for most cooks. It was first called Swiss chard to differentiate it from French spinach in the 19th Century (source
Chard is a great place to start tackling new produce. Consider it spinach’s firmer cousin — unless it’s very young, it’s too tough to eat raw — though it’s often described as more biting/bitter than spinach. But as y

We wanted to let you know that Kate and I will be speaking the Colorado Springs Entrepreneurs Meetup

• Date: July 29, 2009
• Time: 6pm-9pm
• Location: Colorado Springs East Library* Address: 5550 N Union Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80918

We hope you can make it!

Or does it never gets warm enough for high summer? I have no idea, personally. But from most Borscht recipes I am coming across, I’m getting an inkling that they certainly are swimming in late spring/early summer produce. It’s as if my entire CSA share this week was dumped into one pot of this famous Russian soup.

Not that I’m complaining. Unlike many soups or stews, this vegetarian version of borscht was bright, light and fun. Come on, it’s bright red! It has to be fun.

The recipe I

During recent discussions, feedback, and talking with people at various events, we have decided to rename and move this site to a different location. Here are the changes that will be taking place soon:

1. Our new name will be Local Dish instead of Seasonal Dish.
2. Our web address will change from www.seasonaldish.com to www.localdish.net.
3. Our Twitter account will change from localdish instead of seasonaldish.

We feel the new naming conventions align more succinctly with the message and servi

• Turnips are thought* The smaller the turnip, the sweeter the flavor. Larger turnips, while still usable, are woodier and need to be cooked longer.
• Look for smooth, unblemished skin. The condition of the greens bears no significance — unless you’d like to eat the greens, too, in which case they should be fresh, unwilted and thoroughly washed.
• Some say* In a sealed bag, turnips will keep about one week in the fridge.
• Turnips should be scrubbed but need not necessarily be peeled* Nutrit

Beets. Turnips. Parsnips. Rutabagas. Not familiar staples of the American diet, at least not since we all left the farm, moved to cities and grew used to our vegetables not having real dirt clinging to their roots. Root vegetables are often funny shaped, funny looking and — people fear — funny tasting.

But no matter what root vegetable you have and no matter what it looks like, let me assure you. If you make potatoes and you like potatoes, you know what to do with any root veggie. Cross hear

Savory, meaning the opposite of sweet. Summer savory, meaning the great fresh herb. It may not be as well known as parsley, sage, rosemary or thyme, but it’s equally useful in a variety of applications. In this case, RIBS!

Non meat eaters, look away. You just might get a little jealous.

Sure, barbecue sauce is the traditional choice and always yummy. But I’m not usual satisfied with just traditional. There are lots of ways to make a nice, all natural, country-style pork rib yummy.

When does farm-fresh produce — excepting fruit, of course — give you an opportunity to create a tempting dessert? Well, when that produce includes a few handfuls of fresh mint.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, fresh mint might be just the thing to get you out there to buy one. There’s nothing more refreshing in the summer than a fresh, cold dessert, and ours gets a lot of exercise this time of year.

In order to impart their fresh mint flavor, the leaves are steeped in a custar

As a first-time CSA member, I’m learning about juggling my produce needs. We absolutely love the veggies and herbs that arrive in our CSA share (or rather half share, since we split with another couple), but there are other fresh ingredients that you just have to go to the store for. There are items we aren’t getting right now or aren’t getting a great deal of — onions, beans, tomatoes. Plus the seasonings, sauces, dry ingredients, meat and dairy products you can’t find in most farmers markets.

I have mentioned in the past that almost anything can be made into risotto — including beet greens

Fantastic. Leeks and freshly shelled peas were nothing short of fantastic in this simple risotto, driving home to me yet again that when you prepare fresh, quality ingredients in a straight-forward, down-to-earth fashion, it’s impossible to be disappointed. The creamy risotto, the savory and not-too-soft leeks, peas popping in your mouth like punctuation.

A quick word about washing leeks. DO

Salads are great, and pastas are yummy. But sometimes even a veggie nerd like me needs plain old meat and potatoes.

Well, I guess I shouldn’t say plain, because life is too short for food to be bland and boring, and this meat-and-potato meal certainly wasn’t.

Potatoes Girarrosto-Style. Sounds fancy schmancy, I know, but really? These are excellent buttery, garlicy Italian-style hashbrowns, and our tiny little Venetucci potatoes were the perfect size either halved or even whole, making

I passed out some postcards at the market pick-up today, so I’m thinking that we might have our first visitors. Welcome, and make yourselves at home.

We’ve just launched this new Web site devoted to seasonal eating in Colorado this week, so we’d love to use you guys as testers and see what you think. Therefore….

• Browse the blog* Check out the recipe database* Send us feedback using that button on the left. Report a bug, suggest improvements or say whatever your heart desires.
• *Send

The double Dutch in this recipe’s title refers to the two cheese the original calls for: Gouda and Edam, both from the Netherlands and therefore Dutch. But I really found that combination a little greasy and a little pricey. Besides, this is Mac and Cheese, people! A basic Mac and Cheese, mostly like my grandma’s recipe, although with a few more spices.

Please: Feel free to use whatever combination of cheese you want. I’m thinking I’ll try White American mixed with Gouda (Single Dutch?), but yo

Venetucci Farm

Beef
This Angus cattle comes from Ranch Foods Direct ranch in St. Francis, Kansas, where it arrives hormone- and antibiotic-free to Venetucci for the last five months of their lives. They spend their days grazing happily on a diet of grass, alfalfa and legumes, and will be processed with Ranch Foods Direct in Colorado Springs. Note: Orders for pre-sales of quarter, half and full portions are given preference and are listed first here.

• Bulk purchase: $3.50/# hanging weight,

So remember when I told you about the amazing jerk pork sandwich I had in Taos at Graham’s Grille
Pork? A meat? I thought this blog was supposed to be all about seasonal eating with fresh, local produce. Sorry. My produce is still there, see? On the right? That’s my kohlrabi
So basically, that means we took that

With a creamy mustard dressing and the crunchy apple alongside the kohlrabi — which it turns out tastes a little like apple, but not as sweet, and a little like jicama — this salad