Look at those beautiful curves and the saucy way the leaves curl. And that ombre color palette… Wow!
There’s no way around it; this is the Marilyn Monroe of cabbages. (Or the Kim Kardashian. You pick.)
In addition to its radiant beauty, we also are talking about a substantial cabbage here. This brassica beauty weighs a whopping seven pounds! That’s more than Blue Cayenne’s Chief Quality Officer Sweet Juliet.
(Cook’s dilemma: What in the world does one do with a seven pound cabbage?)
This is not just any supermarket cabbage either. This cabbage has decidedly “good bones,” coming as it did in my weekly Community Supported Agriculture box.
If you are unfamiliar with CSAs, Community Supported Agriculture is a world-wide agricultural movement. Today, CSAs stretch from China to the Americas to Europe.
The first CSAs were the brainchild of German philosopher Rudolf Steiner in the 1980s with the aim of directly connecting farmers with local consumers. Today there are more than twelve thousand CSAs in the United States. It’s an equal opportunity “take” on farming, too; women make up around forty per cent of the CSA farm operators.
This particular cabbage was grown at Irvine-based CSA Tanaka Farms. Tanaka Farms was first opened in 1945 in Orange County by descendants of a farming family that had immigrated to the United States from Japan in the early 1900s. Today’s 30-acre farm is the only remaining family-operated farm in Irvine. Luckily for locals (and me), the farm produces more than sixty different varieties of fruits and vegetables and engages local families and schools in tours and agricultural education onsite. Here is a link to their website: Tanaka Farms.
Back to the question at hand: “What does one do with a seven pound cabbage?”
I’m recommending this delicious Spicy Caramelized Cabbage dish adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe (Bon Appetit).
