Maya Marie

Onions

Farmer Kyle with a ton of curing onions.

What’s Below:

About Onions

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

ABOUT Onions

Onions are a root vegetable in the Allium family alongside its plant cousins garlic and leeks, and has origins in Central Asia where it’s been cultivated for over 7,500 years. It’s a vegetable that’s been valued for its medicinal and flavor enhancing properties for centuries, as well as for its symbol for eternal life and veneration for the dead in African traditions such as those in Egypt. Over several centuries, onions have been bred or developed in the wild to create quite a wide variety of types. 

The type most people are familiar with are the large bulbing onions, but there are also your milder torpedo-shaped ones, small round ones, and bunching onions (aka scallions). All have the power to add savory and sweet complexity to salads, soups, stews, braises, and marinades among other culinary applications.

Here at the farm we grow yellow, white, red, and tropea onions. Tropea onions are of particular interest due to their origins in the Tropea area of Calabria Italy where they’ve been cultivated for about 2,000 years. This particular variety is sweeter than most onions (except maybe Vidalia from U.S. Georgia) and traditionally included in antipasto spreads.

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Root (Note: The stems, skin, and leaves are good for stock and broth making both for their vitamin and flavor concentration)

  • Medicine and Nutrients: Onions are packed with Vitamin C, manganese, potassium, water, and fiber. They can improve your digestion due their naturally occurring probiotics, and are also great for maintaining your heart, eye, and joint health. Alongside all of this they’ve long been recognized for their medicinal properties to clean wounds and strengthen your immune system.

  • Storage: Whole onions are best stored in a cool, dry, dark and well-ventilated area. Peeled onions can be stored in the fridge for 10–14 days, while sliced or cut onions can be refrigerated for 5-7 days. Onions can be frozen, ideally chopped or sliced

Ways to Prepare 

  • RAW: When prepared for raw salads or slaws, onions need to be thinly sliced or minced finely.

  • COOKED: Onions can be roasted, baked, caramelized, braised, fried, stir-fried, and pickled.

RECIPES

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes and Ayllen Kocher

Ginger

What’s Below:

About Ginger

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

ABOUT GINGER

Ginger is a bright, peppery rhizome (or underground stem) in the same plant family as turmeric and cardamom. This rhizome has its origins in Southeast and Central Asia specifically The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and India where it was first cultivated over 5,000 years ago. Ginger is still a beloved spice in these regions, as well as across the globe, for the flavor and medicinal properties it imparts on dishes both savory and sweet.

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Roots

  • Medicine and Nutrients: Ginger offer trace amounts of potassium and vitamin C, but its medicinal properties are far more important. Ginger is known to relieve digestive, respiratory, and pain issues as well as support a healthy immune system. It’s taken in the form of in teas or other medicinal brews and infusions.

  • Storing and Shelf Stability: Fresh ginger rhizomes need to be stored in a cool moist area like a fridge crisper or a sealed plastic bag, and can keep for about a month or so. Ginger can keep in the freezer for about 6 months minced, sliced, or pureed.

Ways to Prepare 

  • RAW: It’s best to consume raw ginger in small amounts like a spice, it adds incredible punch to dressings, vinaigrettes, salads, spreads, dips, and smoothies. They are also great added to a pickling brine or pickled alone.

  • COOKED: On the savory end, ginger is great to use in stir-fries, marinades, stews, soups and curries. On the sweet end it can be candied, baked in cakes or muffins, or infused into honey or simple syrup for drinks.

RECIPES

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes.

Potatoes

Photo Source: Markus Spiske

What’s Below:

About Potatoes

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

ABOUT POTATOES

Potatoes are a starchy tuber vegetable in the Solanum family that was first cultivated in the Andes, specifically Peru and Bolivia, anywhere between 4,500 - 10,000 years ago (depending on the type). Indigenous peoples of these regions of the Andes have a deep history of growing and cooking with potatoes, as well as using natural elements to preserve potatoes through freeze drying, dehydration, and fermentation. Indigenous peoples of the Andes have also continued to cultivate a wide variety of potatoes with flesh that come in a range of colors including red, black, and blue.

Although potatoes are often associated with European countries like Ireland, they wouldn’t reach Spain until the mid-1500s, and this would be after Spanish colonizers invaded and began to exploit the resources and Indigenous peoples of Peru and Bolivia. European colonizers would then take potatoes to Europe, and by the late-1700s were being widely cultivated in Ireland.

Potatoes continue to be an important crop in the diets of people across ethnicities and class lines due to them being a delicious, reliable, and inexpensive storage crop that offers an incredible source of energy.

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Tubers*

  • Nutrients: Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, fiber, potassium, vitamin C and B6.

  • Storing and Shelf Stability: The best place to store potatoes is in a cool, dry area of your kitchen, with good ventilation and out of direct sunlight. At warmer or more humid temperatures, they have a tendency to start sprouting or going bad; and when they’re too cold they develop sugars that can make their texture gummy when cooked.

  • Cooking with them: Potatoes can be baked, roasted, boiled, fried, grilled, and slow cooked; and can also be the basis for soups or salads.

RECIPES

*Note: Although potatoes are commonly called root vegetables, they are not true roots, but are tubers and their “roots” are the little eyes they have. Tubers are a swollen underground stem. Whatever you want to call them is fine though.

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes and Ayllen Kocher

Salad Mix

Photo Source: Aspen Center for Environmental Studies

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About Salad Mix

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

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ABOUT SALAD MIX

Typically a salad mix is a combination of tender greens that can include any variety of lettuces and baby mustards/brassicas.

Although Lettuces have their origins in Egypt, and Mustards have their origins across West and Central Asia and Italy, the concept of a salad mix was first recorded in Southern France where mesclun salads were gaining popularity in the early 20th Century. However, it’s worth noting that gathering a mixture of greens has been a common practice across the world for millennia, and it’s very likely that indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, and Asia were gathering and combining wild, tender greens and flowers for consumption even if there aren’t very many records of what they called those mixtures or how they dressed them.

The word salad comes from the Latin/Spanish word for Sal, and speaks to the use of salt, oils, and vinegars used to dress lettuce greens in ancient times throughout the Mediterranean. 

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Leaves and tender stems

  • Medicine and Nutrients: See collard, kale, and lettuce profiles. 

  • Storing and Shelf Stability: Store washed salad mix in a paper towel lined container in the refrigerator for 7-10 days

COOKING WITH IT 

  • RAW: Salad mixes are typically eaten raw and tossed with a dressing or vinaigrette. To make it into a complete meal you can add nuts, seeds, smoked meats, roasted vegetables, dried fruit, and cooked whole grains. 

  • SAUTE: Salad mixes can also be sautéed or stir-fried to go with rice, noodles, or alongside a broth or eggs (scrambled, fried, or poached are some great egg preparations to eat with sauteed greens).

RECIPES

LEARN MORE

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes and Ayllen Kocher

Parsnip

What’s Below:

About Parsnips

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

ABOUT PARSNIPS

Parsnip is a root vegetable that’s plant cousins with carrots, dill, and parsley. It has a texture that’s similar to turnips, slightly sweeter than a carrot, and sometimes has a hint of spice like a radish. These creamy colored roots have origins in the Mediterranean where they’ve been foraged for in the wild and cultivated for thousands of years, with the exact date being unknown. Although parsnip tops can be eaten, they have a small level of toxicity that mostly irritates the skin when touched, therefore they’re best eaten cooked and typically don’t come with their tops.

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Roots (and the leaves if handled properly)

  • Medicine and Nutrients: Parsnips offer a rich source of vitamins C and B6, as well as potassium, iron, magnesium, and fiber.

  • Storing and Shelf Stability: Parsnips will stay firm and fresh for about 2-3 weeks if kept in a cool, moist area of the fridge like the crisper or in plastic bag.

Ways to Prepare 

  • RAW: Parsnips can be eaten raw in salads tossed with your other favorite fruits and vegetables, they’re best when shredded thin or cut small.

  • COOKED: Parsnip roots are excellent roasted, sauteed, or stir-fried with other vegetables, and also are a great addition to your favorite soups and stews.

RECIPES

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes.

Melons

2021 Pollinators Amanda and Alexx enjoying some cantaloupe.

What’s Below:

About Melons

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

ABOUT MELONS

Melons are deliciously juicy fruits that grow on bushy vines and are plant cousins of cucumber and squash. They have multiple points of origin across Africa and Southeast and West Asia where they’ve been cultivated for about 4,000-5,000 years. There are many types of melons that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, however the most well known ones are watermelons, cantaloupe, honey dew, and bittermelon.

Here at Rock Steady Farm we’re growing watermelons and cantaloupe which you can learn more about below.

D enjoying a cantaloupe.

Cantaloupe has origins across Southeast and West Asia, specifically India and Iran, where its been cultivated for at least 4,400 years. The word cantaloupe is believed to come from the Italian town of Cantalupo where it became popular thanks to a Pope being obsessed with it at the time. They’re also known as muskmelons which comes from the Persian word for perfume, and in India the Hindi word for melon is Kharbhuj खरभुज. All this is to say that there are many names for this sweet little fruit, that speak to its honey like scent and taste which has helped it maintain its popularity in Mediterranean and South West Asian cuisines to this day.

Mika enjoying some yellow watermelons!

Watermelons are native to Egypt and Libya, as well as Southern Africa, where they were first cultivated over 5,000 years ago and became valued for to their drought tolerance. Early watermelons had really bitter flesh and were most prized for their nutrient dense seeds. Overtime they would be bred to have a sweeter flesh surrounding the seeds, but the nutritious seeds have remained important especially in West African dishes like Egusi.

In the African diaspora of the Americas watermelon have come to symbolize liberation and joy for many Black people. And despite decades of harmful marketing campaigns, that are still somewhat pervasive in the minds of people today, many Black folks have resisted such stereotypes by continuing to both grow and enjoy the refreshment that watermelon has to offer.

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Fruit and seeds

  • Medicine and Nutrients:  Both Watermelons and Cantaloupe are a great source of vitamins C and A, as well as potassium.

  • Storage: Melons can be kept at room temperature until they’re fully ripe, and when ripe they should be kept cool in the fridge. There’s lots of debate as to whether or not melons can ripen off the vine on their own, but if you place a melon in a paper bag with an apple or banana it will encourage the melon to ripen somewhat. Ripe melon slices or cubes can be stored in an airtight container or wrapping for about a week. Melons can also be cut up and stored in the freezer, which make a sweet alternative to ice cubes for drinks.

  • Ways to Prepare: Although the raw pulp of melons are the most popularly eaten part of the plant, their seeds are prized in some Black and Brown cultures (particularly West African and South East Asian cuisines) to make soups and stews, or toasted as a snack. The rinds of melons can also be cooked like winter squash, used to flavor dishes like soup, or brined to make a crunchy pickle.

RECIPES

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes

Spinach

Image Source: Elianna Friedman

What’s Below:

About Spinach

Cooking & Storage

Recipes

ABOUT SPINACH

Spinach is a delicious tender green that’s related to beets, chard, and celosia flowers, but a lot milder in flavor. These greens have origins in Southwest Asia, specifically Iran, where they’ve been cultivated for over 2,000 years and become one of the most popular leafy greens to eat across the globe. There are many varieties of spinach to try out there but three main types of spinach include flat-leaf (with spade shaped leaves), savoy (with curly, wrinkled leaves), and semi-savoy (which have only somewhat curled leaves). Here at the farm we grow the flat-leaf type which are really versatile to cook with in the kitchen.

COOKING & STORAGE

  • Edible parts: Leaves

  • Medicine and Nutrients: Spinach is a nutrient rich leafy green that is packed with vitamins C, K, and E as well as minerals like iron, magnesium, and potassium.

  • Storing and Shelf Stability: Place spinach in an airtight container with a dry paper towel to absorb any excess moisture and store in a cool part of the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

Ways to Prepare 

  • RAW: The leaves are a great base for a salad with a light dressing, topped on a sandwich, or blended into your favorite green smoothie.

  • COOKED: Spinach leaves have a really short cooking time and are best suited for quick dishes like stir-fries, sauteed with other vegetables, or put in a soup or stew at the final cooking stage.

RECIPES

Authored and compiled by Maya Marie of Deep Routes.

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