Roasted Root Vegetables for the Win

We are not vegans.  Not by a long shot.  We love beef, chicken... all sorts of meat.  In fact, as soon as our bull, Nick, breeds the cows this spring, he's off to the processor.  We're even talking about butchering some of our goats this year.  Our herd is growing, and there's only so much grass to go around.  Bottom-line is, we like meat.

But that doesn't mean that we don't immensely enjoy some vegetables.  Often, we'll eat meals that don't contain any meat.  Lately, it's the time of year where we're harvesting a lot of root vegetables.  On the left in the photo below is an example.  It's a Bull's Blood Beet.  On the right is an Italian beet variety called the Chioggia.  More on that in a minute.

We like to cut up carrots and beets and (I know it's not a root vegetable) cauliflower to the mix.  We toss it all in olive oil and minced garlic, put it on a stoneware tray and roast in the oven.  So tasty!

I'm not a big fan of turnips.  I do like turnip greens, but primarily we grow them for the cows, BUT we diced up some smaller turnips an roasted them using the same recipe as above, and I think these were really good.

At the very beginning of the post, I talked about chioggia beets, an Italian variety that we get from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  You can find them at www.rareseeds.com.  Pictured on the cutting board below is the mature chioggia beet.  They seem to get a little larger than the Bull's Blood Beet or the Detroit Dark Red beet.

With the chioggia, you've got to brace yourself for a surprise when you slice into it.  It's not red.  Instead it is a beautiful pinkish-red and white.  I always say it looks like a Brach's Starlight Mint.

What a pretty sight to see the chioggia beets all cut up and on the roasting pan!

You may be asking, "Why don't you show the finished product like you did in the second photo in this post?"  The answer might surprise you.  It's because when you pull them OUT of the oven, they're quite ugly.  They're nothing like the beautiful photo above.  No sir, when you pull them out, they are a solid dull-white color.  They don't look appetizing.  But that doesn't bother us.  They certainly do taste good!

Sunday Night Rambling

Perhaps tomorrow night we'll talk about the world situation and how it relates to FOOD.  What can you do to prepare at this late time?  Tonight, I don't want to talk about serious things.  I'd rather just relax and show you some photos and discuss things lighter in nature.

What you are seeing on the stoneware baking sheet below are sweet potatoes.  These are an heirloom variety that comes up every year in the garden.  They are called Golden Wonder and come from Tennessee.  A guy called "the barefoot gardener" (Jeff Poppin) mailed them to me, we planted them, and the grow every year alongside the existing Beauregard variety.

Each year we dig up over a hundred pounds!  We harvested back in October and still have some left.  We always eat the biggest first.  What we're left with now are the smaller ones.  We like to cut them in half, brush them with melted butter and bake them.  They are so sweet and delicious!  I expect to see the slips (sprouts) coming up in the garden for this year's crop any day now.  Usually by the time the existing crop is gone, the new crop is on its way.

I picked the last of the carrots from the fall crop this weekend.  I had picked all the Danvers variety (orange) last week.  On Saturday, I pulled the last of the remaining Cosmic Purple Carrots and Atomic Red Carrots.  Sounds kind of psychedelic, doesn't it?  They are pretty.  They taste like a normal carrot, though. 

The Cosmic Purple carrots are purple on the outside, but the interior is orange.  The Atomic Red carrots, however, are red through and through.  

As we switch the seasons from fall to spring, we had some work to do on preserving the crops.  We had a few heads of cabbage left and it gave us an idea.  We'd make Kimchi.  We hadn't done that in a while.  Kimchi is a Korean side dish made from cabbage, carrots, ginger, green onions, radishes, and garlic.  All of those items are shredded and mixed up.  Then salt is added and whey.  The mixture is pounded to release the juices and then packed tightly into quart jars.  It is set out on the counter for three days at room temperature.  It ferments and then is put into the refrigerator for long storage.  The longer you keep it, the better it tastes.  Here it is on the third day of fermentation before putting it in the fridge.

It has a tangy flavor and is a good, cool, side dish.  The fermented radishes we showed you In This Post are done now.  We've been eating them in salads and just as a tasty snack.  Tomorrow we'll tackle weightier subjects.