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So says the Cambridge Dictionary—and when it comes to our exotic kale, we agree that it’s both unusual and exciting. It may seem like it’s coming from far away in the tropics, but we’re growing it in Ohio’s rich, loamy soil, where the temperatures are anything but tropical.

As Farmer Lee Jones points out, our exotic kale is actually better suited to the cold than we are. When our farm team lovingly harvests this wonderful crop after the first frost, the starch levels have gone down, and the natural sugar levels have gone up. Delicious.

Here, you can watch Farmer Lee carve the heart of the kale so that you can see the oh-so-tender center leaves.

This is quite a different experience from when Lee was a child and the standard bluish-green leaves of kale were picked at full maturity. The leaves were already tough and leathery, and young Lee disliked picking and eating them. As chefs began educating the Jones family about the possibilities of kale, life changed.

It became unusual! It became exciting!! It became exotic!!!

These leaves could be picked when ripe (but not necessarily at full growth and maturity). Small, tender kale leaves simply burst with flavor and look stunning on the plate.

So, thanks to our friends in the chef world, we now hand-harvest the center leaves of kale in six gorgeous varieties in a rainbow of hues: deep purple, emerald green, milky lavender, and baby red. Leaves range from round with contoured edges to elongated and spiky.

Farmer Lee’s Favorite Applications

Q: Do you prefer exotic kale raw or cooked?

A: Both.

Q: What’s one way that you like it when raw?

A: In a flavorful salad dressed with a drizzle of vinaigrette

Q: How about when it’s cooked?

A: Sautéed for a minute and then tossed with pasta and a handful of fresh parmesan

Q: What’s another good way to use exotic kale?

A: Well, it pairs really well with tender game. And, oh. With pomegranates, wild mushrooms, and ingredients high in acidity.

Q: What’s your go-to snack with exotic kale?

A: Sautéed in olive oil with just a sprinkle of crunchy sea salt

Q: How should we use exotic kale in our restaurants?

A: Our talented chefs know far more than I do. Use your imagination. Let it soar!

Q: How can chefs get exotic kale for their dishes and menus?

A: Reach out to your product specialist today and ask for the incredible exotic kale.

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If you have a phobia of watching someone hold lusciously edible leaves in the dark, do not watch Farmer Lee in this video! Repeat: do NOT watch this video . . .

Or perhaps you’re like Farmer Lee, someone who loves to embrace, use, and enjoy vegetables in uniquely beautiful ways; then feel free to watch the video multiple times as you imagine how to include the lovely and flavorful beet blush in your creative dishes and menus.

Origins of the Beet Blush

Colonists who came from Europe stored root vegetables in underground locations to survive the cold, lean winters. When storing beets, leaves sprouted from the mother beet, and the colonists ate those leaves to enjoy something green during the winter.

The same thing happened at the farm when we stored our beets, and upon seeing the leaves’ potential, we began growing beet blush for our chefs. We grow beet blush in the dark, including from the candy stripe beet, golden beet, and traditional red beets, and they’re absolutely gorgeous.

Because diners eat with their eyes first, that’s a true bonus! But beet blush is far more than just a pretty face.

All the Flavor of Gnarly Beets in a Delicate Leaf

These delicious leaves have a subtle note of earthy beet beneath the overarching sweetness, and chefs often use these edible leaves like they would chicory or endive. These exquisite beauties have won over many people who claimed that they just don’t like beets—and when they taste one, they have a look of pure wonder on their faces.

Our farm team carefully monitors the growth of these eye-catching leaves, meticulously choosing ones that are perfectly sized and shaped to grace your tables.

Final Note About Beet Blush

Unlike early colonists, Farmer Lee doesn’t limit his enjoyment of the beet blush to just winter. It’s a treat that he enjoys all year long.

Please let your product specialist know what beet blush you need for your menus. We look forward to serving you!

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Just between you and us, though, Farmer Lee loves this vegetable so much that we sometimes have a bit of trouble tracking him down during the spinach season. He even talks with the spinach!

Think we’re kidding?

All joking aside, we think your diners will love our spinach, too. And, thanks to our use of cold frames, as fall transitions into winter, the sugar content of our spinach will continue to rise. Think about vintners using frozen grapes to make incredible ice wine—and that’s the same concept that we use when we grow our ice spinach.

Ice spinach freezes at night and thaws in the day, continuing to bring sugar levels up to the point that brix readings are as high as those of an apple.

As Bob Jones, Jr. explains it, spinach leaves are little solar receptors that capture sunlight through photosynthesis. This light energy is converted to chemical energy—and while we won’t get into all of the technical details here, the result is natural sugar. In fact, if you look at the root of a bunch of our ice spinach, it’s even turning pink because of the concentration of natural sugars near the soil line.

Our ice spinach is a deep, rich green in hue with leaves that are full of life and energy—and of vigor and vitality.

And, oh. Mum’s the word, but Bob explained the talking-like sound coming from the spinach that Lee is holding. It comes from the cell walls’ integrity and amount of calcium—which translates into an incredible shelf life for you and your restaurants.

Ready for farm-fresh spinach on your winter menus? Just let your product specialist know!

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Although quite gnarly,
the overgrown beet,
grown just right,
they’re a culinary treat.

At this point, Farmer Lee suggests that we switch the artistic spotlight to where it belongs: to three of our cherished chefs and how they use the beautiful variety of beets that are regeneratively farmed at The Chef’s Garden—ones grown just right.

Chef Isai S. Coca

Beets from The Chef Garden, Chef de Cuisine Isai Coco says, “are a dream come true.” He prepares outstanding dishes and menus at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida, that use delicious farm-fresh beets—and, while he has wonderfully nostalgic memories of eating beets in his native Peru, he really appreciates our farm’s varieties.

Chef Isai may, for example, braise baby beets in different vinegars, depending on the variety, or bake them over salt to intensify the flavors. For other salads, he uses sliced raw beets as a way to complement his dishes. Plus, in one of the signature salads at Stirrups, a southern-inspired fine dining restaurant located at the Equestrian Hotel, Chef Isai assembles this signature dish: starting with a spread of pistachio dill sauce on the bottom of a dish, he adds braised beets, piped Smokey Mountain goat cheese from North Carolina, the farm’s mesclun mix, shaved fennel, shaved candy stripe beets, dill blooms, smoked sea salt, and a benne seed cracker.

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What are Powerhouse Vegetables? 

In 2014 the CDC published a study called “Defining Powerhouse Fruits and Vegetables: A Nutrient Density Approach” where the author used the content of 17 different nutrients (potassium, fiber, protein, calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, zinc, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, and K) to calculate a nutrient density score for 47 different fruits and vegetables. There were  41 of the initial 47 fruits and vegetables that met the Powerhouse criteria of providing 10% or more of the daily value (%DV) of 17 nutrients. It is important to note that the powerhouse criteria do not consider phytonutrients.

A Few of Our Favorites

1. You can’t even talk about Powerhouse vegetables without talking about watercress because it is #1 on the list. It is packed full of vitamins and minerals, including those that support bone health, like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorous. Watercress is often found near streams in the spring and is a wonderful addition to spring green salads or to make a spring greens pesto. Watercress has a lightly peppery flavor that comes from one of the phytonutrient categories it contains, glucosinolates. Glucosinolates may be helpful for cancer prevention. Chewing watercress thoroughly helps to activate the glucosinolates so that they have the most benefit in your body.

2. Dandelion greens are a delicacy in the spring if you ask me and they’re towards the top of the list for nutrient density. They are so versatile and wonderfully bitter. I enjoy using dandelion greens to make pesto, which I put on pizza with grilled green onions and asparagus, or dress zucchini noodles with dandelion green pesto. It does not have to be all or nothing either, it is great to even incorporate a few dandelion leaves (to your liking) into pesto, salads, etc. you will hardly notice them as they help support healthy digestion with their bitter flavor and add more nutrient density to your meal.

3. Besides being a vibrant “rainbow” of green, orange, yellow, and pinkish reds, Swiss chard is near the top of the list of Powerhouse vegetables. I love to lightly sauté our rainbow chard, sliced thin in ribbons (I leave the colorful rib in the middle; it adds color and crunch), in butter or olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. It makes a wonderful side dish or can be incorporated into pasta to brighten it up and add more nutrients.

4. Microgreens are a great way to get the most nutrients from a plant. Gram for gram, microgreens have more nutrients than their full-grown counterparts. Picking my favorite microgreen is like picking my favorite child, so I usually go with a blend. Our superfood blend often contains watercress, bull’s blood, parsley, mustard, arugula, dandelion, and chive microgreens, all of which are on the Powerhouse list and delicious in the Spring. Microgreens are so versatile and full of flavor.

5. Although not really a Spring vegetable, as I walked through one of our greenhouses yesterday, I saw the first little green tomato just starting and lots of yellow blooms (soon to be tomatoes)! Tomatoes come in so many different colors, sizes, and shapes, they offer a world of possibilities and contain nutrients like lycopene which is an antioxidant that may help protect your skin from sun damage, help support cardiovascular health, and can help support eye health. Colorful cherry tomatoes of different sizes and shapes are a great snack for children, and our family even enjoys cooking with green tomatoes before they ripen up.

Food as Medicine

At The Chef’s Garden, we farm regeneratively, meaning that we are farming in harmony with nature, caring for our soil, and consciously farming in a way that puts nutrients back into the soil. Our on-site nutrient testing lab has found that our vegetables often have higher levels of minerals than the USDA average, as we are on a journey to grow the absolute best Food and Medicine possible. Food as Medicine to us is about the ability to receive the nourishment that your body needs to stay optimally healthy from food that is satisfying and enjoyable to you. The Powerhouse Box is a great way to know that you are receiving the vital nutrients your body needs in a colorful, flavorful, and enjoyable experience without relying on supplementation.

Delivered Right to Your Door

The Powerhouse Box comes in two sizes (small and large) to accommodate the needs of your family. The contents change regularly based on what looks best here on the farm. We harvest our vegetables to order, meaning they are harvested and then shipped to your home the very next day. This means you receive the freshest, most tasty, nutrient-dense vegetables possible. We hope that you will give our Powerhouse Vegetable Box a try and would love to see what you make with it.

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Plating Food: The Wondrous Winter Radish

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Other cooking methods include blanching them like carrots or slicing them thinly and then frying them until crispy to make parsnip chips. “They brown very easily,” Jamie warns, “so watch them closely.”

To make a delicious parsnip puree, dice the parsnips, brown them in a pan, cover them in stock or dairy, cook the ingredients, and then blend until smooth. “You can make a cannoli from fried parsnip skins,” Jamie says, “and then fill them with this puree. Parsnip seeds have a super intense flavor, so you can use some of them, as well.”

Or you can split the parsnips, blanch them, and then put them on the grill. “They have just the right shape and moisture content for grilling.”

In a hurry? “Parsnips can have a beautiful floral flavor when raw,” Jamie says, “and I love that.”

Parsnip Recipes

Here are a couple of parsnip recipes to get you started:

• Parsnip Fries
• Celery Root Soup

In the first recipe, parsnips are front and center. With the second, they add a delicious flavor to a tasty soup—and parsnips can also be a wonderful ingredient in vegetable stock.

Health Benefits of Parsnips

Amy Sapola, Director of Health and Wellness at The Chef’s Garden, highlights some of parsnips’ health benefits.

First, Americans, on average, do not get anywhere near enough fiber, consuming 10-17 grams daily. The Institute of Medicine, meanwhile, has established the adequate intake (AI) to consume twenty-five daily grams for women and thirty-eight for men. Parsnips are a good source of fiber, containing about 5.6 grams of fiber per cup of cooked (boiled) parsnips.

“Remember,” Amy adds, “adequate does not mean optimal.”

Plus, 90% of the United States population does not meet the adequate intake for choline. Choline has many essential functions in the body, including building healthy cell membranes, donating methyl groups for metabolism, and helping to produce acetylcholine, which influences memory, mood, and muscle control. Choline is especially important during pregnancy, and cooked parsnips contain 42 mg of choline per cup.

Here’s another health benefit: When cooked, parsnips contain 570 mg of potassium per cup, and a higher potassium intake may help lower blood pressure, especially in salt-sensitive people. Nearly one-third of Americans have high blood pressure, so getting enough potassium is key.

Regeneratively Farmed Parsnips

At The Chef’s Garden, we regeneratively farm for healthy soil, healthy crops, healthy people, and a healthy planet. Using this approach, we grow crops that have more minerals than the USDA baseline while also providing you and your family with fresh vegetables that are bursting with flavor, delivered to your front door.

In season, you may find parsnips in your vegetable boxes.

The post Celebrating the King of the Kitchen: Parsnips appeared first on The Chef's Garden.

“Just split the fall squash in half,” suggests Culinary Vegetable Institute Chef Jamie Simpson, “and then remove the seeds. Place the squash halves on a sheet tray with the flesh side down. This speeds up cooking time by automatically creating steam pockets that cook the squash while the outer shell protects it from drying out or burning.”

He shares that how long you cook the fall squash depends upon your final application. If you intend to eat the squash after roasting it or use it as part of a diced veggie dish, you won’t want to cook it all that long. If you’re making squash soup or a puree, then you’ll want to keep cooking until it is soft.

You can also cook the squash on high heat through grilling, searing, browning, blackening, or charring. “Squash has natural sugars, and their flavors come out with high heat.”

Plus, because fall squash has a fair amount of starch, something that differentiates this crop from summer squash, you can shave the neck of a butternut squash and then fry the shavings into flavorful chips.

Delicious Fall Squash Recipes

Look at these flavorful squash recipes and try ones that intrigue you:

• Roast Squash with Curried Lentils and Rice
• Squash Toasts
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts Harvest Mix
• Warm Spinach Fall Harvest Salad
• Fall Squash Soup
• Fall Squash with Apple Cider Reduction, Sage, and Thyme
• Warm Spinach Fall Harvest Salad with Acorn Squash

“Plus,” Jamie adds, “remember that although not everyone eats fall squash raw, you certainly can. You can shave it and put it in a salad with bitter greens, pecans, etc. Or you can use raw squash as a carrot replacement in a crudités plate.”

Mixed Fall Squash

When you order our mixed fall squash, you’ll probably notice how different varieties come with different nuances of flavor. “They can range from the brassy, bright, and acidic varieties,” Jamie says, “to ones that are dense, dark, and buttery and others that are almost spicy.”

Culinary possibilities are endless!

So . . . Is Squash a Fruit or Vegetable?

You may have noticed that we haven’t referred to fall squash as a vegetable. That’s because scientifically speaking, it’s a fruit because it carries seeds and comes from a flower. When it comes to cooking fall squash, though, it’s treated like a vegetable.

Health Benefits of Fall Squash

We recently delved into fall squash at The Chef’s Garden, a blog post that includes insights into the health benefits of fall squash, thanks to its vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. We shared information from medical sites that note how this food can help to:

• Protect people from cancer
• Improve eye health
• Enhance skin health
• Manage blood sugar
• Counteract the impact of salt on blood pressure
• Protect your heart

Its vitamin B6 may even help people avoid depression, and butternut squash contains enough vitamin A to meet (even exceed) a person’s daily requirements.

Jamie has one more piece of advice. When it’s the season for freshly harvested fall squash, you should enjoy it in multiple ways. You can also preserve extra squash in your freezer and in mason jars for delicious eating year-round.

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