This week, pirates.

Artsy photo of Pirat Lettuce, a butterhead..

The lettuce this week is called Pirat.  You may either affect a French accent and say “pee-RAH” lettuce or you may add an “e” at the end and say “Arrrrrhh.”  I’m going to go the pirate way at market, I think, although my mood may change.

This variety of lettuce is an heirloom variety which means the seeds have been passed down from generation to generation for at least 50 years. I have never seen this variety in the grocery store.   More on the significance of heirlooms in the weeks to come.  But now something just as important:

The Importance of Eating Organic Potatoes Like Ours

Potatoes are one of the “Dirty Dozen.”  This means that, if conventionally grown (meaning NOT organic), they are among the twelve most pesticide-contaminated specialty crops.  Persistent, toxic chemicals.

Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of conventionally-grown potatoes (not ours!), they're treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they're dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. Yikes!  

Jeffrey Moyer, the former Vice Chair of the National Organic Standards Board’s Crops Committee, once said:  "Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won't," says Moyer.  "I've talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals."  Yikes, again.

The solution?  Buy potatoes that are organically grown from farms like ours.

Also in the share this Tuesday is more chard and kale.  (The chard is the spinachy, beet greensy bunch of leaves with yellow, majenta or white stems.) 

STORING: All greens go in a re-usable container/bag in the fridge!
STORING FRESH GARLIC:  The easiest thing is to keep it on the countertop with lots of air around it (not in the fruit bowl) and eat within a week for the juiciest experience.  It will continue to dry or "cure" until the flavors condense and the outer layers dry out, making it easier to peel.  Garlic will keep in this way for weeks and often months!

Blue Potato.  Tastes blue.

Chard! A descendent of the beet.

More chard.  The ribs/stems can be eaten, too, 
but might take a little longer to cook,
depending on your own personal mouth.

Hey HEY!  Goldy squash is on its WAY.