Staying Home
Summer is starting and it’s been three months of sheltering in place. Of working while parenting, reading, doomscrolling. We’re getting what small joys we can out of the meals in between.
Weeks 2 and 3 of the CSA gave us mixed greens, joi choi, burgundy and blue wind broccoli, green curly kale, cherry belle and easter egg radishes, hakurei turnips, scallions, arugula, collard greens, escarole, and purplette spring onions.
Photo Credit: Brooklyn Grange
These delicate varieties of broccoli are my favorites, florets, leaves, stems and all. Jon blanched and sauteed the blue winds in olive oil, perfect and simple. I tossed the burgundies in a wok and stir-fried them with joi choi, scallions, and ginger over brown rice.
Jon pulled radishes and lettuce from the garden and let Nina tug and play with the leaves.
Radishes have been an all-star. Thick slices braised in butter, vegetable stock, and sugar. Raw crunchy slivers tossed in a spicy arugula salad. Softened in a white bean and collard green stew. Leaves and stems sauteed with turnip greens and sliced garlic, drenched in lemon. And maybe the most satisfying iteration? Steamed, pureed, and fed to a delighted 7-month-old.
We’re shopping so rarely these days that we’re determined to waste nothing. Everything we’ve gotten in these early days of the season, we’ve enjoyed and appreciated. Escarole was sauteed. Kale went into a blueberry apple smoothie. Spring onions flavored a pinto bean stew. I dipped bites of lahmajun into labne sprinkled with chopped scallions and chive flowers.
Mom and I talked on the phone about missing some of our favorite dishes my grandma used to make for us. A few days later, she dropped off a big pot of her red pepper dolma and some garlic yogurt. It was that day’s lunch, that night’s dinner, and stolen bites in between. It was the next day’s lunch, with a few last bites saved for the end of a long workday. Mom feeds us, even when we’re not together.
One day, Nina will have tried it all. She’ll not only have her favorite family dishes, but I hope she’ll want to try her hand at making them. For now, we’re just enjoying the curious look on her face each time she tastes something new. For now, we’re home together and not going anywhere.
