Farm Happenings 2015, Week 46

Japanese Persimmons: These are my favorite autumn fruit. Read below for suggested ways to prepare and enjoy them!
We are going to be planting 6-8 more trees on the farm this week. Both American and Japanese varieties of trees are available for sale at the hardware store.

Persimmon season is here! I absolutely love this unique fruit and crave it during the crispness of November each year. The Japanese persimmons that we grow are larger than their American counterparts, and unlike American persimmons, can be eaten in both ripe and under-ripe stages. We will have dozens available at the farm stand this week, and you can eat them like you would an apple as their texture is still firm. My mom cooked a delicious dinner Monday night for my family in which she roasted the persimmons alongside turnips and beets, immediately becoming a new favorite way for us to enjoy this fruit!

Alternatively, you can put them on your windowsill and let them ripen until squishy-soft, and then make a persimmon pudding.

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I also discovered a delightful new way to enjoy radishes this week. I don’t know about you, but I feel so guilty when I constantly toss out the tops to root crops, as they are perfectly edible as well, and thus did some research on recipes with radish greens. Pictured above are roasted radish roots mixed with radish tops and lettuce that I am wilting in a cast-iron skillet. (I bet this may also work for turnips and turnip greens!)

Roasted Radishes with Wilted Radish Greens

2 bunches radishes, washed and greens trimmed
olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
salt
pepper
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Chop up radish roots and cook in skillet on medium heat with olive oil, salt, and pepper until slightly browned in spots. Remove and put in oven at 500F for approximately 15 minutes, until crisp-tender. Remove and place back in skillet, this time with butter and lemon juice and the radish tops (or try lettuce, mustard, or arugula). Cook until greens are wilted, 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve as a side dish or as the base of a wilted salad, adding arugula, boiled egg, nuts, broccoli, or other desired ingredients.

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Starflower (ipheion uniflorum) bloom all over my yard in March, one of my favorite parts of the springtime. I have dozens of clumps that I need to move to make way for new landscaping, and am going to have large clumps available for sale at the hardware store this week. These dainty little flowers multiply readily and relatively quickly, so if you want to try and establish them across your own landscape, these clumps of bulbs can easily be divided and planted out separately, like you would any other small bulb.