Wow, has it really been a YEAR since I've posted?!? So much for the resurfacing I had planned to do last March. I've gone through a huge life change (known in these parts as The Big D) that basically took up two years of my life. Finally, finally, finally the wrangling and negotiations and endless attorney meetings are in the rear view mirror, and a fresh start is really, truly upon me.
So, to jump ahead a bit (and also look back), last summer I got my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share: a big bucket of locally grown vegetables that I picked up every Wednesday from June to November. There are a huge number of farms that supply CSA shares to the greater Boston area, and I chose Farmer Dave's, which has a pickup site ten minutes from my house. When I signed up for the farm share, it had been my intention to not only cook and eat the veggies, but draw and paint them as well. I thought it would be a fun challenge to come up with recipes for each week's bounty and also to turn that bounty into art. And so I came to discover how much I love to cook (and how much I love to draw radishes). Almost as exciting as the actual drawing/cooking/eating was the anticipation leading up to each week's share: the weekly email newsletter from the farm that hinted at what was being harvested, the thrill of opening the box lid to see what lay inside, the fresh smell of greens and dirt and ripeness.
Here are some of the pages from my farm share sketchbook:
Radish roots. Acrylic on paper.
Swiss chard. Ink, watercolor, and collage on paper.
Kohlrabi. Graphite, colored pencil, and collage on paper.
Pea tendril. Colored pencil on paper.
Garlic scapes. Graphite and watercolor on paper.
Pea pods. Graphite and collage on paper.
Radishes. Ink and watercolor on paper.
Leafy greens. Ink, graphite, and collage on paper.
Radish. Graphite on paper.
As you can see, I became somewhat obsessed with radishes and their amazingly intricate little roots that seemed so creaturely to me. They usually made their way onto the dinner table by way of the tried-and-true potato salad and its myriad variations (mustard, shallots, and vinegar, or yogurt and dill, and so forth). This year I decided to find a new way to cook with radishes, and I found a recipe for oven roasted radishes that is to die for. It's from Food & Wine, and you can find it here: Roasted Radishes with Radish Greens. I cooked up a bunch last week with the first radishes from this year's spring farm share (more on that in a bit), and they were wonderfully tender and sweet alongside the peppery bite from the greens.
Here's to a sustained return to the blogosphere!
