yau-za!

yay for yau. i decided to explore my *choy*ces and try something new, yau choy. mostly because the handwritten sign looked like it said "yay choy" and i thought that was funny. and partly because it was a really pretty looking green and i was curious. so i steamed the yau choy with bean sprouts, onion, white zucchini and red pepper. then i tossed the veggies and vietnamese brown rice noodles in a sauce i made with with garlic, fresh ginger, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and the juice of a blood orange. and, well, wouldn't you know, yau did indeed make me say yay.

let the veggies do the work, i'm tired.

last night was a clean out the fridge lazy bird style dinner. i had a crisper full of assorted random vegetables and little enthusiasm for anything complicated, so i took what i had, grabbed a lemon off the tree in the backyard, and threw together what ended up being a rather delicious and satisfying meal. i've come to believe that fresh produce, pure and simple, is like that go-to little black dress every woman doesn't feel complete without having in her closet. you know it's going to save you, you know it's nothing special or fancy or pretentious or ostentatious, but you know it works and is fail proof. so i quartered and boiled some small purple and yellow potatoes and steamed some okra, red bell pepper, onion, summer squash and garlic. then i tossed it all together with coarse sea salt, smoked paprika, black pepper, turmeric, cumin, a little cayenne and a little cholula hot sauce, and the juice of a lemon i picked from my own back yard. it was done quickly and it was delicious. had i thought about it ahead of time i probably would have screwed it up and it wouldn't have turned out so well. had i not been using such fresh and in season vegetables, it never would have stood on its on so simply. you really can't go wrong with fresh produce, even when you are tired and lazy and at a lack for inspiration.

*it doesn't hurt to enjoy lazy bird dinners while watching an episode of strangers with candy.

**it actually doesn't ever hurt to enjoy anything while watch an episode of strangers with candy.

quickles.

i bravely vowed to experiment with pickling over the weekend, and it is with tremendous joy and satisfaction that i report that i a) lived up to my promise and b) the pursuit of pickles went better than anticipated, in fact it was a pretty darn near perfect success! and it certainly turned this early bird into a pickle pirate. tasting those pickles and then registering the fact that they tasted good was a moment of satisfaction on the scale of the first time all those hours of relentless flipping and falling, flipping and falling, flipping and falling, over and over again on the front lawn stopped turning out mild concussions and grass stains and turned out an actual front handspring - an actual, real-deal front handspring, just like almost every other girl my age could do. yeah, it was a pretty basic move, more or less the bottom rung on the ladder (okay, just a slight step up from cartwheel and round-off that really you weren't even allowed to call yourself a girl if you couldn't pull off) as far as physical prowess and gymnastic ability went. but that was the source of the overwhelming pride and relief i felt when i finally pulled it off, it meant that i was at least as good as pretty much everybody else. i had not failed the simple. or maybe that was just my childhood, anyway, i hope you get my point. i have loved pickles my whole life. i mean, seriously LOVED pickles. see, my sister and i had an understood, undiscussed food divorce as very young children. just 13 months apart in age and always together, we decided to assert our independence and individuality through food. what one liked, the other was mandated not to like. somehow, in this bargain, i got chocolate and condiments (ketchup, pickles, mustard, mayonnaise - i got them ALL and loved them ALL) and my sister got cheese, the choice of vanilla or strawberry for her ice cream, and a loathing of condiments so strong, especially pickles, that if a pickle touched her plate she would dissolve into tears and be unable to eat. as an adult, i have grown into my adoration of the pickle and to explore its boundaries, to go beyond cucumbers and into other vegetables such as okra, carrots, green beans and into other cultural cuisines such as japanese oshinko and korean kimchi. and, so, as i have come to embrace how much i love to make food, how much satisfaction comes in the planning, the preparation, the presentation, the act and art of sharing it with others and giving them both something to enjoy and something that will nourish them, i have also come to yearn to master the art of pickling. it has always seemed like a natural fit for me. and so i have always found an excuse or been presented with a circumstance that has delayed my dabbling. because i have always needed and wanted it to be right. as simple as pickling is, i needed it to be perfect, i needed to be prepared, i needed to not fail. and so it took until this sunday for me to open this new chapter of my culinary life, the pickle.

i started this weekend with what are known as *quick pickles* - they marinate fast, they are meant to be kept in the fridge and consumed quickly. it was far easier to start experimenting with spice and vinegar and brines in this medium where i didn't have to worry about properly sterilizing jars or properly sealing them once filled or any of that *precise* stuff that comes with preservation. for *quick pickles* all you need is:

the vegetable(s) you are going to pickle

a jar with a lid (great chance to recycle jars from your pantry and cupboards)

vinegar (most often white, sometimes cider, depends on the pickle)

spices

so what pickles did i make? i made quickle versions of a basic dill pickle spear, and rick's picks windy city wasabeans and smokra. i have to give credit where credit is due, i am an honest pirate. but i'm also a pirate, and i am not about to pay $12 a jar for okra pickles, and so it was only a matter of time until i taught myself how to do it, sorry rick. i found a recipe for a quick pickle of okra using smoked paprika and inspired by rick's picks pickles. the brine deviated a bit from the specific ingredients in the rick's picks' version, so i used the amounts in the recipe as a quantity guideline and substituted with ingredients from the original smokra. i then went ahead and kept that as my base brine outline, and just swapped out all of the spices for the other two recipes. it's very much a matter of taste and trial. essentially, it's packing your jar with the clean ready vegetable(s) to be pickled, bringing 1 cup of vinegar with a combination of spices to a boil for about a minute, then pouring the hot brine over the vegetables into the jar. if the pickles are not covered compelety in liquid, then add water until they are. put the lid on the jar, close that puppy up, let it cool to room temperature and then stick it in the fridge. if your brine covers the pickles, most likely it will take 24 hours or less until you have perfect pickles. if you add water, it takes another 12-24 hours for the flavor to kick in.

smokra

in jar:

small fresh okra (i fit about 14 pieces into my jar)

2 dried chili peppers

brine:

1 cup cider vinegar

1-2 tbs smoked paprika

1 tbs sea salt

1 tsp mustard seed

1/2 -1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2-1 tsp chili flakes

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp peppercorns

garlic - at least 2 cloves smashed up well

wasabeans

in jar:

fresh clean green and yellow beans

2 dried chili peppers

brine:

1 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1-2 tbs wasabi powder

1 tbs ginger

1/2-1 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp peppercorns

garlic - at least 2 cloves smashed up well

dill spears

in jar:

quarter pickling cucumbers into spears, stand in jar

sprigs of fresh dill

3 cloves smashed garlic

brine:

1 cup white vinegar

6 cloves garlic (2 smashed well, 2 sliced, 2 chopped)

1 tbs sea salt

1 tbs mustard seed

1 tbs peppercorns

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp cumin

chopped fresh dill

and, there you have it, quickles that will knock your socks off, are super fresh, super easy, super satisfying and super way less than $12 a jar.

this 'tash don't suck.

inspired by this amazing red corn i've found and the locally grown okra that keeps calling my name (long held dreams of pickling get realized this weekend. no excuses, no delays. standby for pickle posts galore in the coming weeks), i decided to try my hand at an improvised take on vegetarian succotash. it was exceptionally easy and works well hot or cold. bonus.

1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

the kernels of 2 ears of corn on the cob (1 red, 1 white)

1/2 cup okra cut into pieces

1/2 medium size red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup shelled lima beans

1/4 cup onion, diced

salt

pepper

smoked paprika

spray medium-sized pan with nonstick spray and start cooking garlic over medium high heat. add the corn, okra, pepper, lima beans and onion. season with salt, pepper, and paprika. add about 1/2" of water, bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the vegetables are slightly tender and cooked through. drain excess water and season to taste.

so simple. the hardest part is shelling the lima beans, since they have a much tougher pod than english peas do, but it's not that hard. and, if they do hang you up, a simple trick is to use a small paring knife to make one clean incision along the seam of the pod and it will pop apart super easily for you.

and there, my faithful friends, you have succotash that doesn't suck.

red-dy or not.

is that corn on the cob? yes.

is it really red? yes.

you can eat red corn? yes.

does it taste like corn? yes.

really? YES.

having grown up in new england, i saw a fair amount of red corn. however, it was always dried and usually as part of some sort of thanksgiving or autumnal decoration. and it was referred to not as red corn, but as the not-so-politically correct name "indian corn" - a sloppy nickname derived from the fact that native americans were the first to grow the corn plant in north america. so, imagine my curiosity when strolling through the produce section i saw three bins of corn: white, yellow and red. red? really? of course i had to buy an ear, cook it, and taste it myself. well, it was delicious. it tasted just like a fresh sweet ear of any other variety of corn (white, yellow, bi-color). and what makes the kernels red are antioxidants (the same anthocyanins that give other red foods like pomegranate seeds or red grapes their hue), so not only is it more visually exciting than the yellow corn on the cob we've all grown accustomed to, it is also healthier. red corn - looks better and is better for you? well, there you have it, sometimes looks do make all the difference.

i'll take that to go. please.

insta-picnic saturday day trip with the tiger.

so yesterday marked the one month anniversary of arriving here in beautiful, bodacious, bountiful berkeley, and, thanks a to rather brilliant last minute idea of ryan's, it found us on the most amazing day trip road trip around a little piece of totally new to us northern california. and if you are an early bird like me just trying to give a greener living a go, day trip road trip means PICNIC! the whole last minuteness of the plan left me in a position where ryan was picking up the car at 9a and i had from 830a when my 7a yoga class ended until we hit the road, which clearly we wanted to do as early as possible, to plan a menu, procure the ingredients and prepare it. it felt like a crazy gameshow. and i love crazy gameshows, so challenge accepted. let the games begin.

(*and when i say let the games begin, believe you me, i honestly saw myself standing in front of the basket-o-ingredients on "chopped", awaiting the secret ingredient reveal on "iron chef", and also crouching down to get a good spin in on the wheel in "the price is right". i know, that last fantasy has nothing to do with food, but as soon as i feel like i'm on a gameshow, i'm spinning that wheel, holding plinko chips, or thinking "no whammy no whammy and...STOP!" yesterday was a wheel day, come hell or high water i was gonna get myself $1 or land on a green spot).

okay, the clock is officially ticking. i hit shattuck avenue after yoga and make a b-line for the berkeley bowl, which opens at 9a. there is a line formed of people patiently waiting, making small talk, getting to know one another. and when they do open the doors, the berkeley bowl employee says, "good morning. be good to each other." yeah, toto, we are definitely not in kansas (*brooklyn) anymore. i've got my shopping list in my head and a basket on my arm. i had decided to try a variation on a potato salad and shrimp for dinner. it seemed easy and pliable enough that i could do something new and tasty with the old potato salad standby and that the food would be cooler-friendly. plus, i had noticed the day before that there were these totally amazing little turnip and carrot-like potatoes from new zealand that come in red, yellow, and apricot called oka potatoes. they were so adorable and strange looking at the same time that i absolutely had to find an excuse to use them. what better excuse than potato salad? and they are so small, they will take no time at all to cook. that, my dear friends, is what the early bird calls a *win-win*. so i grab them, the rest of the stuff that i need, hit the checkout, and have earned an invitation to round 2.

round 2 is all about improvisation. i've got this rough notion in my head of what i want to make. i start getting my ingredients sorted and ready to go, my pots boiling, and my chopping on. the clock is ticking, the car is waiting, and i am cooking...and, then, relatively early on in my culinary endoeavors, i abandon my original thought for the salad dish, which would have been a mexican-flavored version of the classic indian potato and pea dish aloo matar. i thought that since it also has tomato in its base, masala being the gravy for that dish, it would be easy to switch from masala to salsa, a natural substitute to take it in a whole new direction. visions of ethnic fusion danced in my head. (so enticing! so dangerous! so sure to earn me bonus points from the judges if i can pull it off!) but, instead, as i start to season and put together the vegetables for the potato salad in one bowl and construct the salsa in another, i come to the realization that i was biting off more than i could chew and making this about a too hasty leap to glory and that, for the sake of the meal, it was better to keep the two separate. but equal. definitely equal. what kind of person do you think i am? so having failed to unite mexico and india, i improvise a smoked paprika based potato salad with green peas, sugar peas, okra and red bell pepper. i also marinate shrimp in garlic, sea salt, smoked paprika, cholula hot sauce and lime juice. and, of course, i make a large batch of my infamous salsa (see previous post). the bell dinged. chefs step away from the stoves. round 2 was over. but i didn't even need to wait for the judges to weigh in, i knew i had won. it looked good, it smelled good, it tasted good. i packed it all up into portable containers, then i packed those containers into the cooler. and voila! mission accomplished. homemade, locally-inspired, delicious and healthy picnic for two: DONE. i will take my imaginary prize and accolades, and i'll shoot my post-win wrap up confessional later, this bird has got a day trip to get started...

and i am pleased to report that it all survived a day in the cooler quite beautifully. and it all tasted fantastic when we finally enjoyed our picnic dinner at the end of the day.

this recipe could change your life.

okay, there are few things i will brag about. my salsa is one of them. so, i decided to take advantage of the abundance of tomatoes at berkeley bowl. (i mean, seriously, look at those pictures it's like you've died and gone to tomato heaven in there right now) and the 99 cent bag-o-produce that included bell peppers and a jalapeno (yes, berkeley bowl has this awesome bargain produce section with 99 cent bags of fruits and vegetables that either aren't that pretty or are nearing the end of their freshness. it's amazing the goodies you can find, especially if you hit in the morning before it's been ransacked) and make some salsa. it's quite easy to make, it's all in the chopping and the freshness of the ingredients. so if you're willing to gather the produce and show a little patience while you chop it all, you can have salsa that will knock your socks off. and then you can take that salsa, top flounder with it, bake it and that meal will help someone fall in love with you. and by *you* maybe i mean *i* and, yes, that is a true story. i cannot guarantee the same results for everyone, but it's still damn good salsa - that stands on its own as a salad, makes one heck of a dip for chips, will send your burrito or taco over the top, and also goes fantastically with fish. like a single girl playing the field, you've got options.

salsa fresca

fresh tomatoes (anything goes as long as they are fresh, i always like to mix it up and use a combination of tomatoes. in this batch i used 2 medium red tomatoes, 1 large beefsteak tomato, and 1 large yellow heirloom tomato)
1/2 medium sized onion (you can use a red onion or a sweet onion, whatever you prefer or have handy)
3 or 4 scallions
garlic (to taste, i like a lot so use 3 or 4 cloves)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 small bunch cilantro
2 limes
salt

chop the ingredients and add to a large mixing bowl, in this order (perhaps it's superstition. perhaps it's just a matter of if it ain't broke don't fix it, but this is the order i always go in and i do believe it makes a difference. no matter what, the jalapeno and cilantro should go in last):
garlic (chop/mince finely)
onion (small dice)
scallion
tomato (small dice)
jalapeno (seed first, if you like heat throw some seeds into the bowl, otherwise discard seeds and mince)
cilantro

stir the chopped ingredients gently with a large spoon to mix, then squeeze the juice of the limes onto the salsa and salt to taste. stir gently and serve immediately or store in fridge in airtight container for later enjoyment.

**disclaimer! caution! #1: man oh man, hot peppers are no joke, so please watch it. make sure you wash your hands well as soon as you are done handling the jalapeno. and whatever you do, don't touch your face or eyes.**

**disclaimer! caution! #2: this salsa may ruin your ability to enjoy salsa that comes in a jar and has been sitting on a store shelf. so prepare and eat at your own risk.**

sea, i told you so.

from sea to shining sea. today i returned to the west coast and my new home of berkeley after a few days on the east coast. much to the dismay of my weary traveling self (i flew out of boston at 6am this morning, which meant hanging out at the airport after the last movie in town got out at 2am), the berkeley bowl was closed today because of the holiday. so new adventures in fresh produce will have to sit tight and wait another turn in a day or so. instead of adventures in new culinary frontiers, my weary, not overly hungry self decided to turn to quick easy out of the pantry cupboard but healthy as humanly possible tonight. yes, that translates to seaweed.

i love seaweed. from the nori that wraps sushi rolls to the kombu that is the basis for the broth of miso soup (and a ton of other soups) to arame, wakame and hijiki. i can't get enough. i like things that are salty or tangy. and seaweed fits both those criteria. there are many types of seaweed. and many methods to prepare them. but they are all unbelievably healthy. in fact, seaweed has been called the most nutritionally complete food that there is. i will get into more detail on that later. first, dinner.

seaweed is simple. most often it comes dried and only requires soaking in water for a minimum of 15 minutes to revitalize it. you could stop right there, drain it and use it as is. alone. in a soup. on a salad. or add it to any other dish that would be complemented by seaweed. tonight i *recreated* (and by recreate i do mean improvise based on recollection) one of my favorite sea vegetable preparations - that of angelica kitchen in my old neighborhood of the east village in manhattan. angelica kitchen essentially soaks and then simmers hijiki and arame in a combination of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar with onion and carrot. i have only glanced at the recipe and would not dare to betray their copyright (if you need their exact recipe, by all means please go buy their cookbook, it would be a terrific addition to anyone's cookbook collection), but that is the gist of it. and when it comes to rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, i definitely measure via eyeball and to taste.

basic simple sea vegetables

1/3 cup arame

1/3 cup hijiki

1/4 cup carrot, sliced thinly (matchsticks)

1/4 cup onion, sliced thinly

organic tamari reduced sodium gluten free soy sauce (to taste, i used ~1/3 cup)

organic rice wine vinegar (again, to taste, i used ~1/3 cup)

in a bowl, soak arame & hijiki in cool water for 15 minutes. drain most of the liquid.
in a saucepan, simmer onion & carrot in 1/2" of water for 5 minutes. drain the water from the pan.
add the drained arame & hijiki, along with remaining liquid to onion & carrot in the saucpan.
add the soy sauce & vinegar (and a touch of sea salt if you so desire).
bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat and allow to simmer on low for at least 15 minutes. drain any excess liquid.

you may serve these right away hot or you may store them for later use. they are great on salads or with rice or grains.

**i do need to take a moment to lay down the disclaimer that hijiki can be difficult to find. most grocery stores will have at least some seaweed, usually nori for sushi rolling and some combination of arame, wakame or kombu. in new york, when i did stumble upon hijiki, which is by far my favorite seaweed, it was astronomically expensive (read anywhere from $8-12 per package was the price range i often saw). well, just when i thought the bay area couldn't make me any happier, anna and i went to a supermarket in japantown, where i found hijiki for $1.99. ONE DOLLAR AND NINETY NINE CENTS. i don't say that to brag about my good fortune, but, rather, to advise that you try to find a real japanese market if you can and look for hijiki there. you might actually be able to afford it.**

okay, so what's so special about seaweed? pretty much everything since *sea vegetables* possess the broadest range of minerals of any food. every mineral in the ocean is absorbed by seaweed. it contains all of the essential minerals for the function of the human body: potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron, iodine and zinc. it also contains trace elements that are not commonly found in other foods. the same is true for vitamins. seaweed is loaded with vitamin c, beta-carotene (vitamin a), vitamin b1, b2, b6, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, and, most impressively, trace amounts of vitamin b12, which almost never exists in land vegetables.

i know, you are thinking wow these sea vegetables seem more special than a double rainbow, but, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? well, i'll tell you and i'll do it without a youtube video, without auto-tune, and without selling out to microsoft. read on.

seaweed removes toxins from the body, aids in digestion, metabolism and thyroid function, boosts the immune system, nourishes the brain, fights heart disease, promotes healthy hair, and has cancer fighting and preventative properties.

all of the sea vegetables i've discussed in this post are classified as brown algae. these plants can detoxify the body. in nerd speak, they are high in alginic acid and bind with any heavy metals in the intestines. this leaves those heavy metals indigestible and they are eliminated from the body.

the minerals found in sea vegetables, like arame, are thought to promote healthy hair and hair growth.

seaweed contains lignans, which are phytonutrients that have been shown to help prevent or slow cancer growth. they do this in two major ways. first, by inhibiting angiogenesis (blood cell growth) and, therefore, the process through which fast-growing tumors send out cells to metastasise in other areas of the body. and secondly, by inhibiting estrogen synthesis in fat cells and, therefore, cutting the risk of breast cancer, particularly in post-menopausal women who synthesize estrogen in fat cells. seaweed also contains folic acid and connections have been made between diets high in folic acid and a decreased risk and occurrence of colon cancer.

sea vegetables are the richest natural source of iodine, a mineral that is essential to human life. the thyroid gland adds iodine to the amino acid tyrosine to create the thyroid hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine. the body cannot synthesize these hormones, which regulate metabolism in every cell of the human body and, therefore, play a role in all physiological functions, without sufficient iodine.

the folic acid in seaweed prevents a number of birth defects, including spina bifida.

seaweed is good for the heart and cardiovascular system because of its folic acid and magnesium content. folic acid is required to break down homocysteine, which is a dangerous intermediate chemical produced during the methylation cycle (*long story short, one of the most important cellular cycles in the human body, one which produces a wide variety of chemicals that the body needs to function and carry out other cellular functions) that has the ability to damange blood vessel walls and in high levels is associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. seaweed is an excellent source of magnesium, which is known to reduce high blood pressure and prevent heart attacks.

whoa sally sells sea shells down by the sea shore, that's a lot. and that's not even all of it, or even an adequate exploration and explanation of all of it. but, it's more than enough to make the point that seaweed is good and, if you haven't already done so, i highly recommend that you go explore the wonderful world of sea vegetables. they couldn't be simpler to prepare and they couldn't be healthier for you. it's a win win.

finders keepers. losers, well there are no losers.

sometimes being nosy and looking around leads to trouble. other times, it leads to grapes! yesterday morning i came out of the lake, walked back up the dock, poked around the vines on the rocks and came across these beautiful red grapes. so perfect, so pretty, so right there. *local* defined. that sure as heck is my idea of *convenience* food. maybe, hopefully, that's what we will all think of someday in the not too distant future.

cheaters sometimes win.

for the first time in a long time i baked something this morning. for the first time ever i baked something that is gluten free.

and it tastes delicious!

how did this come to be? well, i'm glad you asked. i have been hankering to explore the world of gluten free baking now that i have a big kitchen and access to so many wonderful ingredients. but i have been nervous and reluctant to try. i've heard rumors about such gluten free baking endeavors. the rumors weren't good. it seemed like it might be difficult and set up for failure. would it come out like a brick? or a tub of paste? how would i pull this off without a vat of canola oil or any of the other cover-up-the-lack-of-flavor-by-adding-a-ton-of-fat substitutes i've seen listed on boxes and in recipes? well, it turned out all i needed to do was come home to massachusetts, go to the local grocery store and buy the gluten free baking for dummies box. substitute egg whites for eggs, applesauce for oil, bananas for canned pumpkin, add some blueberries, and you've got blueberry banana bread! and it's gluten free and dairy free! and literally could not have been any easier to make!!

blueberry banana bread
*disclaimer: i used a gluten free quick bread & muffin mix. i am a cheater.*

1 package gluten free quick bread & muffin mix (market basket brand)
3 large cage-free organic egg whites
1 1/2 cup mashed ripe organic bananas
1/2 pint fresh local blueberries
1/4 cup unsweetened natural applesauce

preheat oven to 325 degrees. spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.
wash the blueberries and mash the bananas (3 bananas will yield 1 1/2 cups mashed)..
in a large bowl, mix bread mix, egg whites, applesauce, and bananas.
mix well.
stir in blueberries.
pour into loaf pan and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours (*package says to bake for 1 hour, it took my bread almost an hour and a half to cook all the way through)

cute cukes.

what's cooler than a cucumber? a little round yellow one.

hey ma, look what i found! it's called a lemon cucumber, that's cucumis sativus for you latin lovers. it looks kind of like a summer squash, heirloom tomato, and acorn squash got freaky and decided to pull a madonna and tell the raging jealous zucchini, "papa don't preach, i'm keeping my baby."

but.

it turns out it's just a regular old variety of cucumber. called lemon because of the color and shape and small size, not for its taste. it actually tastes just like a sweet cucumber. i don't know, people seem to think cucumbers can be bitter, i personally love them and think they are a very refreshing and very mild, so it's hard for me to relate. anti-nukes i can get behind, anti-cukes i just don't understand. but, for those who sometimes avoid regular old green cukes for fear of a bitter flavor, these lemon cucumbers are touted for their (even) milder and sweeter taste. so these might be the cucumber that changes your mind.

i found these guys at the local farmer's market in gloucester, ma. they were grown organically on a farm in nearby dracut, ma. i had no idea what they were, there was no signage, so i was thinking weird squashish thing, which i was prepared to purchase and try, but the farmer told me, "that's a lemon cucumber" and even though this weird little yellow thing had me at first sight (i mean they are so cute, who could resist?!), now there was no going back. i had to see if this round yellow vegetable in my hand was, in fact, anything like a cucumber. so i paid the farmer, threw the lemon cuke in my bag and made my way back to my mom's house.

and i'll be darned, if that lemon cucumber doesn't look just like a cucumber when you slice it! and taste just like one when you eat it! well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are, it's a duck. and, so, it seems that i do indeed have myself a cucumber here. from what i just researched, this cucumber variety tends to be a little harder to find at markets, but fairly easy to grow as plants. so guess what i intend to plant?

plums 101.

plum [pluhm]: the plum belongs to the "prunus" genus of plants and are relatives of the peach, nectarine and almond. they are considered "drupes", a term which describes fruits whose seeds are surrounded by hard stone pits. when dried, plums are known as prunes. the plum season extends from may through october, with the japanese varieties first to hit the market from may and peaking in august, followed by the european varieties in the fall. few fruits comes in such a panaroma of colors as the plum and its hybrid offspring.

apriums & pluots.
these are hybrid fruits which are genetic combinations of plums and apricots. we have fruit geneticist floyd zaiger, a uc davis graduate and a nebraska-born, iowa-raised biologist, to thank for these creations.

apriums: aprium were first produced by zaiger in the late 1980s and are a complex cross of plums and apricots, which require several generations of crossed to create the new fruit. genetically speaking, apriums are 1/4 plum and 3/4 apricot. they resemble apricots on the outside and have a sweet taste, more intensely apricot than plum. they are grown on planted trees (largely in santa clara county, san jose, california - hence their abundance at my market in berkeley, california) and are smaller than most apricots.

pluots: pluots were first produced by zaiger in the late 20th century and are a complex cross of plums and apricots, genetically speaking, pluots are 2/3 plum and 1/3 apricot. they resemble plums on the outside and have an intense, sweet taste, due to a high sugar content, and fleshy pulp. like apriums, pluots are also grown in california. there are many varieties of pluots including: crimson sweet, dapple dandy, dinosaur egg, early dapple, emerald drop, flavor delight, flavor fall, falvor finale, flavor grenade, flavor heart, flavor jewel, flavor king, flavor prince, flavor queen, flavor rich, flavor royal, flavor supreme, flavorosa, geo pride, raspberry jewel, red ray, spash, sweet treat, and tropical plumana. (i'm pretty certain i have actually seen all of this list at berkeley bowl over the last 2 weeks)