Several years ago I was watching a TV show on healthy eating in which the host was playing a game with school children. He’d hold up a vegetable and ask the kids to name it. The results were rather sad. The kids couldn’t name some basic veggies. I was feeling rather superior, calling out “Asparagus!” and “Radishes!” with glee until the host picked up an odd, green leafy thing and I was stumped.

“It’s a leek!” he told the kids. I still didn’t understand what he meant. A leek? What the hell was a leek? I Googled it and discovered there was indeed a vegetable called a leek and according to this site it was related to the onion in some way. And now, Farm Fresh Delivery has dumped one on my doorstep. So I ask you, dear readers, what shall I do with my leeks?

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By popular demand, last night I carefully documented the process of chopping and cooking the rainbow chard I received this week. “But PastaQueen,” you might say. “Those don’t look like your hands.” And I would say, “You think I don’t know the back of my hands like the back of my hand?” But I would also agree that, yes, those are not my hands. After feeling somewhat intimidated by staring at the chard on the bottom shelf of my fridge for several days, I decided to hand this project off to an expert, namely my mother.

As my mother commented last night, she has greatly neglected my culinary education. She grew up in a small town in southern Indiana where they had a vegetable garden in the back yard. Eventually her parents bought their own farm and the vegetable patch grew to be larger than the house. Because of this, she came to be very experienced in the art of washing and properly chopping vegetables, not to mention canning, peeling, and other lost art forms. So [...]

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All right, y’all, the Farm Fresh Delivery peeps sent me some rainbow chard and dill fenouil this week. I only know that they sent me rainbow chard and dill fenouil because that’s what the labels say on these odd, green, leafy plants. If someone had asked me to name 100 vegetables last week, I would not have listed either rainbow chard or dill fenouil because I had never heard of them before. Any suggestions on how to prepare these veggies are welcome. I would especially appreciate any warnings, like if the fuzzy ends of the dill fenouil are poisonous or if the rainbow chard only turns rainbow colored when it’s gone rancid. Thanks!

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Farm Fresh Delivery has been delivering vegetables to my front door for two months now, and it’s going fairly well. I have yet to trip over a parsnip on the way out the door, and I’ve eaten several good-for-me plants I wouldn’t have otherwise. Yes, I threw out half the bok choy when it started to rot, after telling myself every night I’d do stir-fry for dinner and then popping open a can of soup instead. And I think they sent me a rutabaga instead of a beet last week. But I have been eating most of the fruits and vegetables before they turn slimy, and I’m content to continue the service.

My best discovery so far was how tasty snow peas can be. My roommate has a vegetable steamer and showed me how to cook the snow peas with it. They made for a crunchy snack that I know I would never have made otherwise. Broccoli and cauliflower definitely taste better chopped up fresh instead of defrosted from the frozen foods section. And I’ve [...]

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Last week Farm Fresh Delivery dropped off a crate of fruits and veggies at my door, as I have paid them to do. Included among the familiar apples, pears and mangos were these items:

At first glance they appeared to be a mutant strain of lettuce and a set of reindeer antlers. However, I have since determined that they are bok choy and ginger root. I figured this out after eliminating everything else on the invoice that I could identify.

I have absolutely no idea how to cook bok choy or ginger root. Actually, I’ve seen ginger root in the grocery store and considered buying it for my old Lick the Produce series, but decided it look far too funky for me to attempt cooking with it. Am I supposed to slice it? Grate it to get ground ginger? Tape it to a headband, paint my nose read, and call myself Rudolph? I have no clue, but now I have some in the house, so I’d better do something with it!

After some Googling, I’m leaning towards trying [...]

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