Where’s the rhubarb? I empathize with the older gentleman I overheard about a week ago in our Durham Co-op saying he’d come in looking for rhubarb. It ought to be in season, right? After all, if I hadn’t carelessly let my own ‘barb go to seed, I’d be harvesting it from the garden. (Update: after removing the flower heads, I’m happy to say loads of new stalks are rioting up, but they’re still babies as yet.)
There may not be rhubarb to play with, but we are one week in to the Duke Campus Farm’s summer CSA. A lush box of greens was awaiting pick up last Friday: lettuce, mint, kale, dandelion greens, Asian greens, and easter egg radish. I’m someone who usually does not get all that excited by a box of greens, but the email heralding the week’s CSA box was full of interesting recipes to try. The tart with dandelion greens is fabulous! I was working with super-huge eggs (Bella Bean Organics source these from Bee Blessed, a local honey farm), so I reduced the number to 3, and also added the various things to the pastry case separately – the mix of sauté-ed onion, mushroom, garlic, and greens first, then a fistful or two of grated gruyère cheese (not local, sadly), and finally the egg and milk mixture got poured in over the top. (And yes, I cheated and bought the pastry case. But it was a weeknight, okay? Cut me some slack!) Thirty-five minutes later and it came out perfect. Really delicious. I served it with a salad of lettuce, locally grown garden peas (currently sold in their pods at Durham Wholefoods), finely sliced mint (possibly even chiffonaded mint – just learned that word the other day), and oil and balsamic dressing.
I’m also realizing that you can’t have too much kale. Honestly never thought I’d ever say that, but it’s turning into a favourite thing. One of the salads I’m enjoying most this spring is kale-based, and all local. I’ll call it Carolina Spring Salad.
Carolina Spring Salad
Take three or four stalks of youthful curly kale, remove the tough stems, and chop into bite-sized pieces. (I use kitchen scissors for all of this.) Toss the kale with sliced easter egg radish, finely sliced asparagus, chopped pecans (I found them in Harris Teeter), and goat cheese. If you’re in the Triangle area, I recommend the Smoked Chèvre Log from Goat Lady Dairy. Season with salt and pepper, dress with olive oil and balsamic, and the salad is ready to go. (I ran out of olive oil the other day, and discovered that sesame oil worked really well too.) Enjoy!
l’m still on the hunt for rhubarb though… If you know where I can get any, locally grown, drop me a comment on Instagram.