Today's dinner

[luzula]

I roasted the following in the oven with olive oil and salt: parsnips, parsley root, potatoes, carrots, yellow beets, acorn squash. To go with that, I took the baby summer squash and baby butternuts and put them in an oven pan, covered with a mix of bread crumbs, butter, basil, hazelnuts run in a blender, and grated parmesan cheese (I almost, but not quite, reinvented pesto there...). On the side, there was baba ganoush, and also fresh shelled beans in butter, chopped parsley, salt, and juice from flowering quince (which I use as a lemon replacement). Can recommend!

There were four vegetables from the garden in this meal that we tasted for the first time:
- Parsnips (I generally like parsnips, but hmm, ours were not top notch somehow. They were also a bit small and skinny, so perhaps a little more manure for them next year.)
- Parsley root (I had never had this before--it does taste of parsley, but also a bit earthy and mealy. I wasn't a huge fan, and as it also didn't sprout well, we might not grow this again.)
- Acorn squash (Yes! I loved the rich and nutty taste, and this was one I picked because I thought it didn't look quite mature, and it was still delicious. Will grow again, and more of it.)
- Greek Gigantes runner beans (Yum! Huge white beans, creamy and buttery and tasty. I thought at first that they hadn't been that productive, which is true in terms of number of beans, but they're so huge that if you go by weight they were still cropping well.)

Comments

[osprey_archer]

This sounds like an amazing dinner!

[luzula]

It was! Food is totally like a fandom for me now.

[sylvanwitch]

Acorn squash is among my very favorite things to eat in the cold months, along with butternut squash, potatoes of any sort, and roasted carrots. Mmmmmmmm! What a fine table you had! I hope you continue to enjoy new foods and figure out what to keep and what to let go of for next year's crops. :-)

[luzula]

Yes, I'm looking forward to thinking of what to make out of the various winter squashes! And it will be great fun to sit down and plan what we'll grow next year.

[chestnut_pod]

That sounds delectable! Well, perhaps aside from the parsley root: mealy is not a preferred texture. Huge white beans, though, are truly one of the best agricultural products, period.

[luzula]

Well, the parsley root was worth trying! As for other unusual root vegetables, we also have some common salsify and some black salsify, which we have not tried yet. Also looking forward to trying burdock root, which is apparently common in Japan.

Mmmm, yes, huge white beans.

[mergatrude]

Oh, yum! Sounds like an excellent harvest, with good prospects.

[luzula]

Indeed! It's a great joy to me.

[seascribble]

How satisfying to cook so much of your own food (even if some of it wasn't the tastiest)

[luzula]

Yes! That is super satisfying. I already have further homesteading dreams, such as having a couple of Dexter cows (or some breed like it) for milk and dairy products. They are so small and cute! But one step at a time, we should probably not take on too much at once.

[seascribble]

Oh I used to desperately want a couple of miniature Jerseys when I had land back in Nova Scotia. Cows are so lovely. Goats or alpaca would probably be an easier first herd animal step I suppose.

[luzula]

Cows can be grazed on wetter land, which is a factor for us. And it would be great if we could milk them! But this is only a dream so far...

[garonne]

Sounds delicious! And I love the sound of the almost-pesto.

I never heard of quince juice as a lemon replacement. Interesting.

Is parsley root just the root of regular parsley, or something completely different?

[luzula]

No, not quince (Cydonia oblonga), but flowering quince (Chaenomeles sp). Different plant!

Parsley root is the same species as regular parsley, but it's bred to have a large and tasty root instead of a large and tasty leaf mass. It's like the difference between beets and chard, which is also the same species.