Roasted cabbage with walnuts and parmesan.
My vegetable selection isn’t the most interesting in February. Gone are the days of Swiss chard and lettuce; I’m back to slinging cabbage, one of the longest lasting vegetables I’ve ever worked with. They’re like onions; if the outer leaves are discolored, just peel the layer off, and the cabbage is in perfect condition once more.
At the Twin Villages Foodbank Farm (TVFF), we’re distributing loads of cabbage and carrots in the coming weeks. These are staple vegetables, which the old timers know how to cook, and the young timers, if that’s even a phrase, turn their nose up at.
All that is going to change this week, because I have a recipe that will knock your socks off, and make you run for the nearest share table to grab a big head of cabbage. I can’t take credit for it, as it was passed along to me by Sara Cawthon, farm director at TVFF. She grows thousands of pounds of cabbage for the community each season, so if anyone knows how to prepare and cook this hardy vegetable, it is her. Check out the recipe, and if you try it, let me know what you think.
Cold temperatures proved problematic this week, causing me to think on my feet while making food deliveries. When the morning temperature is hovering around -6 degrees, it’s not the icy driveways, or unplowed walkways that cause delays, it’s the risk of fresh food freezing during transport.
Our van, dubbed Lulu the Lunch wagon, has a heated cab, but the rest of the van is unheated. Since we do the majority of our food and meal deliveries in warmer weather, this isn’t usually a problem. However, on the way to Wiscasset one early morning with fresh produce, I found myself at the Sherman Lake rest stop, pulling bags of cabbage into the heated cab with me, buckling them in to ensure they didn’t freeze. You might call that overkill, but trust me, I lost a few cabbages before I made that decision. On our next arctic freeze day, don’t be surprised if you see me driving in the van with a lumpy passenger buckled in.
In other news from the food rescue world, we are still receiving donations for our food drive at the Healthy Lincoln County office, located at 281 Main St. It’s so much fun to open the back door and find a bag of granola bars leaning up against it, or a box filled with single serve applesauce. It’s like Christmas all over again. See the “food drive” section of this column for more details on donating.
Lastly, I put out a call for volunteers last week for some of the food initiatives, and got an overwhelming response. The Whitefield and Wiscasset food pantries were looking for volunteer drivers to pick up Hannaford donations, and within days the new drivers were trained and the need filled. There are more opportunities coming up, so if you have a case of cabin fever, and would like to help out in the community, send an email and I’ll get you on the volunteer distribution list.
If you have comments or questions, please email Jess at jbreithaupt@healthylincolncounty.org.
