New CSA

Well, I love my new CSA, the one with Full Moon. This week's share included potatoes, arugula, green peppers, baby salad turnips, head lettuce, bok choy, beets, and eggplant. I feel like I'm drowning in arugula, peppers, and eggplant because I just got all of that on Tuesday from my other CSA that just ended, so I'm all ears if you have any recipes to share that use lots of those ingredients. Today I made Potato Salad with Bok Choy, Turnips, and Basil, a (slightly modified) recipe that was sent out in the CSA newsletter. It's very fresh tasting on a cool fall day!

1 pound medium-sized potatoes
5 stems of bok choy, with leaves
4 turnips
3 tablespoons finely minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
Place potatoes in pot. Cover with cold water and a little salt. Bring to boil then reduce heat to medium, cover, and boil 15-18 minutes, till done. Chop choy (stems and greens) into small dice. Thinly slice turnips and mince basil. Combine vinegar, garlic, salt, sugar, oil, and basil and whisk together. Drain potatoes and cut into bite sized pieces while still warm. Toss in bowl with choy and radishes. Pour dressing over top and combine well. Refrigerate till completely cooled.

Thinking of food, health, and nutrition (as usual), this is a very important quote from The China Study that I want to share with you. I do not share it to be an insult to doctors, but to shed some light on a typical doctor's knowledge of nutrition. It's not a subject that's taught in medical school.

"You should not assume that your doctor has any more knowledge about food and its relation to health than your neighbors and coworkers. It's a situation in which nutritionally untrained doctors prescribe milk and sugar-based meal-replacement shakes for overweight diabetics, high-meat, high-fat diets for patients who ask how to lose weight, and extra milk for patients who have osteoporosis. The health damage that results from doctors' ignorance of nutrition is astounding."

I saw evidence of this just the other day while my friend was in the hospital with her newborn. She was served bacon, fried potatoes, eggs, and Fruit Loops for breakfast, and those choices were made specifically for her as a nursing mom. Some of the lunch choices included fried fish, hot dog, BLT, and hamburger. I was shocked and appalled by this information. In a hospital, in a place that is supposedly all about health and healing, they are serving the very food that is at the core of our modern diseases. It's really sad because the vast majority of Americans don't know any different.