You may not know this, but vegetables? They grow in dirt*. I KNOW. SHOCKING. This is not such a problem by the time they get to the grocery store, as the people who grow the vegetables very kindly clean them for you before shipping, so they're pretty much ready to go by the time you buy them (except leeks--filthy little bastards, those leeks). However, when vegetables are harvested straight from their natural environment, they are dirty. Real dirty. Especially fall vegetables, because they tend to be root vegetables. That is, vegetables in which the edible part is underground. You know, in the dirt. And that dirt must be removed before preparing said root vegetables for eating.
This is surprisingly time consuming.
Take beets, which we had for dinner last night. Beets require some serious prep time. First, they must be pulled out of the ground. Then the worst of the dirt is dunked off in the rain barrel. Then the leaves are cut off. Then they have to be scrubbed with a plastic brush, then rolled up in aluminum foil and roasted for, like, 24 hours* if they're really big, which these were. Then they have to be peeled, and then, FINALLY, they can be eaten. That is a serious time commitment, right there.
Don't even get me started on the cleaning of leeks. The pain in my ass, it is substantial.
Days like yesterday, when I foolishly decided to have the aforementioned annoying beets; plus potatoes, which must also be divested of their dirt and peeled; PLUS a pumpkin that had to be hacked into pieces, the innards scooped out, roasted, scooped into a ricer and riced, then mixed with various spices and things to try to make it taste like something (it didn't--my suspicion that those "pie" pumpkins were too big to be really edible was well-founded) are just . . . exhausting. Too many damned vegetables with too much damned prep time. And that's not even counting the roast and gravy.
This healthy eating thing is going to wear me out in the end.
* Except the ones that are grown in sand or hydroponically or something, but let's stick to the main point here.
** Maybe a slight exaggeration, but at least an hour and a half.
I love beets. Hate hate hate cleaning them & peeling them. I have a chopping board that I use ONLY for chopping beets. One upon a time, it was a piece of lovely blonde pine. And we were happy together. Now, it's blotchy and purple. If I didn't know better I'd say that it had sprouted some manner of un-appetizing tropical disease. I handle it with trepidation.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me started on trying to get the purple off my hands!!
Forget pumpkin for cooking, use butternut squash, it's the best!
ReplyDeleteA second here on the butternut squash, all orangey and pumpkiny. We like the 'neck pumpkins' too. Like butternut but w/ a longer neck , hence , more 'meat'. I have always washed, chopped off all but about an inch or a little more of the beet top and boiled them.Yep, the water is yucky in the end , but so easy. When they are soft and done, just slip the skins off and munch.
ReplyDeleteOh, gosh, this sounds like way too much work. Tell me you feel the reward after planting, weeding, sowing, cleaning, chopping, and cooking the vegetable and/or crop, compared to going into a grocery store and buying the same product and cooking it and putting it on the table. It's true that home grown tomatoes don't taste the same as store bought, but you sound like you have a whole big FARM of vegetables, and a whole heck of a lot of work. Wow. You are woman, hear you roar! :)
ReplyDeleteYour exactly right..so much more work involved...I got my woodstove lit Sunday and in the process of garthering limbs to get started and then hauling wood to the porch, I thought ...One day..I wont want to do this anymore..But until then, I press on...(smile)
ReplyDeleteDude. Where you having Christmas Dinner? Sounds like a big fancy feast.
ReplyDeleteAnd now that you've said "roast" I want some.
Next week...
And remember if any kitties poop in said dirt they can pass toxoplasmosis onto you and the wee one and that's a very bad thing. So, clean well!
ReplyDeleteUm. sorry. I'm guessing my PSA didn't help. But I'm a country midwife and that's me job!
I considered growing leeks, but I think the cleaning would wear me out. Green onions are smaller, but much quicker to clean.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the lazy days of cleaning vegetables for hours, because you can. Those days are about to change, sister, and it's called BABY!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite recipe for beets:
ReplyDeleteRoasted Beets
5-6 large beets (or more if your beets are smaller, like mine are.)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 or 2 cloves minced garlic
Whatever other spices sound good - oregano is one of my favorites.
Chop off the ends of the beets, peel them with a veggie peeler, and slice them into wedges (or just quarters if they're small.) Toss with the rest of the ingredients, place in a glass baking dish, and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour.
Tara: grow golden beets! They don't stain a darn thing. (Says the mother of two small children, that learned from experience.)