Tokyo turnips.
Those are the two words that come to mind when asked how I am enjoying my new CSA membership as part of Tuv Ha’Aretz here in the Bay Area.
I have to admit, turnips have never been high on my list of favorite vegetables. While I certainly don’t harbor any negative feelings toward them, they just don’t usually find their way into my grocery cart, even though I kinda like their dirty white peel, with that lovely purple splotch at the bottom.
But these little gems took me to a whole new level of turnip. They are pure white, and small, like radishes. In fact, one could easily mistake them for radishes, even by taste. According to some random web site I found:
Tokyo turnip (Tokyo White, Tokyo Market, Tokyo Cross, etc.) is a fairly new addition to the North American market and proving to be a gem of turnips. Although it can be left in the ground to grow larger, it is usually picked when about an inch in diameter. At this stage when eaten raw, it is quite similar to radishes, giving a bittersweet, juicy, nip. Cooked, it mellows to a buttery flavour.
I chose the cooked option, braised, actually, in a bit of vegetable broth along with some of the most flavorful zucchini I’ve ever had, also from our box. I’m now singing the praises not only of Tokyo turnips, but of the fact that my CSA introduces me to things I wouldn’t usually buy.
I have to admit, I was a little slow to jump on the CSA bandwagon. Obviously, I’ve known about it for years, living here. But I liked buying what I wanted to. For awhile, my former roommates and I just got organic fruits and veggies delivered, but they weren’t from any one farm. Then, a brand-new farmer’s market started up in my neighborhood last summer. It was walking distance, even, and it was on Sunday, so I didn’t have to go on Shabbos. That ended my subscription to Organic Express once and for all.
But joining the CSA has other benefits, and no one says you have to stop going to the farmer’s market. One of the benefits to ours, are the eggs. I remember reading that part in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, where Michael Pollan describes the look and taste of an egg, fresh from Polyface Farm. When our farmer Nigel Walker came down to introduce us to his farm, he brought plenty of eggs with him. Not having had dinner before, we went right home and scrambled some up for dinner, with some of the spring onions he had brought. Oh. My. God. Even though they cost upwards of $6.50 a dozen (he makes no profit on them, he told us) they are still such a difference from the cage-free, vegetarian feed eggs found at Whole Foods or Berkeley Bowl. I was skeptical about how much better the eggs could really be, but I was quickly dispelled of that notion.
Walker told us he doesn’t even want to be doing the eggs, but he has customers who would revolt if he stopped.
The whole community-aspect of the CSA at shul is fun, too. I volunteered the first two weeks, and was surprised to learn that almost all the subscribers are friends or acquaintances of mine. I find myself talking with friends about how they cooked what was in the box that week.
And last week, a community-member came to get her box on pick-up day, which is Wednesday, who was so pregnant, she looked as if she could deliver on the spot. She placed the box on her head to carry it to the car, because she couldn’t hold it in front of her. At a Shabbos birthday picnic, a friend told me she had delivered her baby on Friday. The box had given me an opportunity to wish her well, since I don’t see her very often.
Meanwhile, it’s been a week since my introduction to the Tokyo turnip, and I am left wondering whether I will get the opportunity to taste their likes again this summer…