It is Cabbage Season. Steve Solomon, in his great book Growing Vegetables West of The Cascades, mentioned these seasons, but I was skeptical. Cabbage years—that can’t happen. There's always something else to eat. Well, it is here. The long dank spell in December, followed by Solstice, has shut down green growth. Sunbow has been closed for three weeks. We went to the co-op today looking for local greens from the larger farms. Nothing. No chard, no spinach, no kale! There was a small bowl of salad greens, which Mark scooped up. No broccoli, no cauliflower, no….wait—there is cabbage. In the corner of the produce shelf, piles high—red and green cabbage. Locally grown. Still looking lively. Cabbage. “What,” Mark asked apprehensively, “Are you going to do with that?”
What am I going to do with it? I looked in the cookbooks. Alice Waters and Deborah Madison, the Grand Dames of local food, had no thoughts on the matter—except for sautéing it in duck fat. Cabbage is clearly a low-brow vegetable. Molly Katsen—not much. There’s a Creamy Cabbage Soup in Moosewood….and there’s lots of lovely variations of coleslaw in my book of winter vegetables. In comparison to say, corn or tomatoes, it's pretty slim pickings. Here’s the plan…
Monday: burritos with chipolte slaw
Tuesday: Cabbage sauteed with onions, a ton of dill and black pepper, and served over noodles
Wednesday: Onion and Olive pizza with steamed cabbage and a scrap of broccoli
Thursday: Squash Gnocchi and salad, stretched with shredded cabbage
Friday: Fried rice with old carrots, new cabbage, onions, and some frozen peas
Saturday: Salmon and peas—no cabbage
Sunday: White Dinner—cabbage and potatoes mashed together with butter and maybe a bit of paprika for color and seared tofu with red pepper and lots of garlic
I’m hoping for some red mustards, at least, next week!
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