Vegetables in Manhattan (A summer fluff piece)

I almost cried when I saw the artichoke; it seemed to be trying to hide from me as I lifted off a small cardboard cover. I did not yet know what other surprises awaited me but it almost didn’t matter because I knew that a Sicilian-style stuffed artichoke was in my near future!

This is the story of my third weekly shipment of fruits and vegetables from Misfits Market, a delivery service that brings farm-fresh produce right to my door. I also like how it forces me to plan my meals a little more thoughtfully as I need to eat (and/or cook and refrigerate) everything while it is still fresh.

As some of you may know, I live in Manhattan. There are no farms here, at least none that I am aware of. I had a dream once of growing vegetables on a rooftop garden. I took a bunch of books out of the library and researched what I would need to do to build an elevated garden based on the square-foot gardening system. Unfortunately, even though it was entirely possible for me to construct the frames and buy the potting soil and other supplies, I never lived in a building that would allow me “rooftop access” for this project. [Here is a NYTimes article about the method that has a nice couple of photos.]

A few years ago friend in Italy sent me a fun duo of melamine plates that I usually use on special occasions. But yesterday I decided to use the orange colored plate as I prepared a cucumber, mango, and blueberries for breakfast. I was struck by how pretty it all looked arranged it on the cheerful plate. I took a photo of it and created a “painting” using a filter. I have used it as my main photo (above).

This week’s shipment reveal:

LINK to Misfits Market – This post was my idea, I wanted to write about something from my ‘regular’, non-musical, day-to-day, life. I am not getting paid to promote this produce delivery service. However, as luck would have it, I got this referral link in my email yesterday and if you click on it and subscribe you will save 30% off your first order and I will get 50% off of one of mine. So, as we say in NYC, “Such a deal!”

Here is a photo of everything that arrived this week, with a few descriptions of how they were prepared and/or consumed. I buy the smallest box they sell but it is the perfect amount for me right now.

Starting at the upper left are 3 onions which are all gone now, 2 days later, as I chopped one up and mixed it into veggie burgers, one was added to some pasta sauce, and the last one was sautéed with the 2 zucchini (upper right corner). At the top is a bunch of “Organic Sweet Baby Broccoli” which I steamed and served as a side dish with the burgers.

You can see the beautiful artichoke (which I did stuff and eat and it was delicious!) next to the zucchini and next to that you can see I also got 3 apples. I ate one of the apples, but I still had some left over from the last shipment, and so I will be making either applesauce or apple cake, it all depends on how hot I want my apartment to become in July (turning on the oven to bake is not always the best idea.)

Underneath the artichoke is a small bunch of red-leaf lettuce that was immediately thrown into a salad. (I don’t think it was more than an hour or two after I had put everything in the refrigerator. It was the first thing totally consumed from this group of goodies.)

The butternut squash, tucked under the red leaves a bit in this photo, is still waiting to be roasted. I am waiting for a cooler day as the oven will need to be on for an hour to properly cook that. The same goes for the 5 small red potatoes, if I decide to roast them I will need to wait. I may end up boiling them, will see.

It is hard to see, but in the plastic container is a bunch of fresh blueberries. They did not last long. Half of them went in my breakfast (see photo of orange plate full of fabulousness), and I do not know who ate the rest. There are also 2 mangos and an English cucumber. They have not been eaten yet as I still had a whole mango and half a cucumber leftover from last week. It takes a few days for the mangos to ripen and so far I have gotten 6 of them. I now seem to have one ready to eat a couple of times a week, love that!

Lastly, nestled in the green plastic bag at the lower left corner of the photo, are 2 green bell peppers. I am glad I cut the bag open and checked on them because they must have had a rough trip to my apartment. One of them had a spiky, sword-like, stem; it attacked the other pepper with it, sliced it open! Not a problem at all, I simply washed it, chopped it up, and sautéed it with one of the onions then added it all to some sauce–served over linguini. It was very tasty.

Each week I have received a different mix of things. It is like a produce christmas day. I get so excited to see what is in the box! In the last shipment I received a beautiful eggplant, a bunch of red radishes and some gangly but tasty carrots which have been making me happy for days, adding color and crunch to my salads. It is also one of my favorite lunches to eat thinly sliced radishes on Wasa or other crispy flatbread. I use a little Olivio (olive oil spread) on the flatbread, spread out the radishes and sprinkle with a little salt. I make a nice hot cup of green or white tea (unsweetened) and I am all set. Yes, so happy!