One very nice thing about the vegie co-op thing, at least the way my friends practice it, is the pleasant business of dropping around to someone's place to pick up the boxes of vegies. This is a leisurely affair, from beginning to end taking up about an hour of each Saturday morning. It's a relaxed social occasion, where co-op members enjoy some tea or coffee, biscuits or cake and a chat, prior to paying their dues and hauling the two boxes off to their car and returning home for the 'show and tell' with their partners/families back in their own kitchen.
The "show and tell" is a very different story each week, as what
you get depends on whose turn it is to do the shopping. This
week's cornucopia includes lots of tomatoes, oranges, carrots,
potatoes, pears, apples, bananas, capsicums, Lebanese cucumbers
and a bunch of curly kale, half a Chinese cabbage (wombok)
a full butterhead lettuce, three baby butternut pumpkins and a
bag of small white mushrooms.
I've been meaning to cook some kale, so now is my chance. It's ridiculously trendy here in Sydney right now, but lots of people are quietly saying "ugh" when asked how they like it. So it's not one of those vegies which appeals to everyone. I suspect it just depends on how you cook it, and perhaps what you cook it with.
My favorite inclusion this week is the wombok. I love it in salads (it makes the best coleslaw) and in stir-fries. But right now though, I'm off to eat a banana!
