Farmers' Market Specials

I’m almost as happy about the return of farmers’ markets as I am about the warmer weather. There is nothing more delicious than fresh veggies direct from local farms, well, except for veggies from my own garden but at the moment my garden consists mainly of herbs and a few small green tomatoes and a yellow squash, not quite enough to consider subsistence agriculture.

KOHLRABI:

This year at the farmers’ market I found an exotic looking vegetable that seems like it came from another planet. It has a purple or light green bulb with stems emerging from the sides and twisting around and up like the tentacles of some sort of beautiful and dangerous underwater creature. After talking to the farmers and doing my research on google, I found out that Kholrabi is part of the cabbage family as its German name means cabbage turnip. It is found around the world and is very easy to cook. It is also very nutritious with lots of fiber and vitamins including potassium and folic acid. Here are some ways to eat it:

Salad:
1. Cut off the stems and leaves, wash, dry, chop and place in a bowl
2. Peel the skin off and grate the white part over the leaves
3. Add other salad ingredients, some that I think go well are: grated carrots, snow peas, shredded red cabbage, sesame seeds
4. Add dressing: Tablespoon lemon juice, Tablespoon finely chopped ginger, 1 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 teaspoon honey, a little salt, a little pepper (or any salad dressing you like)

Roasted:
1. Take off the stems and leaves
2. Peel the skin
3. Chop into julienne strips
4. Toss in a bowl with a little olive oil and finely chopped garlic
5. Roast in the oven (400 degrees F) for about 40 minutes in a glass pan, mixing them around occasionally

SWISS CHARD

Another one of my favorite, easy to cook, veggies is Swiss chard. There are many recipes for this but I like it in a stir fry:

1. In a wok or big pan heat a little sesame oil and chopped ginger
2. Add chopped yellow onions, soy sauce (or even better, Braggs Amino Acid), Sriracha sauce, and a little water. Simmer till the onions are a little soft.
3. Add firm tofu diced or Portobello mushrooms and allow it to simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Wash and chop the Swiss Chard into small strips and add to the pan. Slowly simmer for 3-4 minutes. I like the chard still crunchy so I don’t cook it too long, but some people like it more cooked.

Where is the best place in the world to be a MOTHER?

Norway! Norway topped the 2011 Mother’s Index that is put together by Save the Children NGO. Norway has the highest ratio of female-to-male earned income, one of the lowest under-5 mortality rates and one of the most generous maternity leave policies in the developed world. Sitting at the bottom of the rankings is, not surprisingly, Afghanistan. The differences between the two countries are stark. A Norwegian woman on average has 18 years of formal education and can expect to live to be 83 years old. An Afghani woman will typically have fewer than 5 years of schooling, will live only to be 45, and has a 1 in 5 chance of losing a child before his/her fifth birthday.

The U.S. ranked 31st out of 164 countries. To me, it is disturbing that the country with the largest GDP in the world ranks so low in providing for the well-being of mothers. The rate for maternal mortality in the U.S. is the highest of any industrialized nation. In addition, the U.S. only allows about 12 weeks of maternity leave, while several developed countries provide a year or more of maternity leave.

Another interesting note is that many developing countries rank higher than developed countries for the ratio of estimated female to male earned income for equal work. In no country do women earn more than men for the same work; however, in Mozambique and Mongolia women earn almost 90 percent of a man’s salary. In China women earn 68 percent, in the United Kingdom they earn 67 percent, and in the US, ranking 56th, women earn only 62 percent of a man’s salary. Women earn the least in West Bank/Gaza and Saudi Arabia, earning only 12 and 16 percent of a man’s earnings respectively.

For more stats see: State of the World's Mothers 2011

Give your mother some love this Sunday for Mothers Day and always!