Hello everyone!
This has been an exciting week. The broccoli is doing way better than it did last year, and I'll be bringing even more to market this week. Depending on how things go I think I'll be harvesting broccoli for about another week or two.
I also have the season's first carrots, purple cauliflower, and potatoes!!!
There are still greens out there too, trying to survive a little longer in this heat. Here's a full list of all I'll have:
beets
broccoli
green, savoy & red cabbage
carrots
cauliflower
collards
fennel
kale
giant kohlrabi
green onions
parsley
potatoes
radishes
summer squash
Swiss chard
turnips
Come by and get all of these delicious veggies at both the South Durham Farmers' Market and the Chapel Hill Farmers' Market this Saturday from 8 - noon!!!
Also, here's an excerpt from Jo Robinson's Eating on the Wild Side about the benefits of broccoli and preserving its many nutrients before you have a chance to eat it (of course you could just eat it raw at the market! [mostly joking]):
More than any other vegetable, broccoli has come to epitomize health itself. At the moment of harvest, broccoli lives up to its reputation. It is rich in glucosinolates and antioxidants, which gives it a twopronged attack against disease. Few people get to benefit from those nutrients, however, because these compounds are used up soon after harvest. Like other fruits and vegetables, broccoli continues to respire after it’s been picked, but it does so at a very fast rate; it pants rather than breathes. Within a week’s time, this heavy breathing can destroy its most beneficial nutrients.
... Once you get the broccoli home, chill it immediately and eat it that day or the next. If you’re planning to keep it for more than one day, put it into a microperforated bag (a plastic bag with a dozen or so tiny pricks from a sharp knife point), and store it in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
According to recent research, the broccoli will have more than twice as much antioxidant activity than if you had put it in the crisper drawer without any wrapping or if you had stored it in a tightly sealed bag.
Eating broccoli raw gives you up to twenty times more of a beneficial compound called sulforaphane than cooked broccoli. Sulforaphane provides much of the vegetable’s anticancer properties.
One of the best ways to cook broccoli is to steam it for no more than four minutes. Steaming retains the most nutrients and also prevents the formation of unpleasant odors and flavors.
pages 161 - 164
