This vegetable sits in a bed of cranberries at Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck on Rt 34, off rt 18. I placed the mysterious black creature there, and yes, I have eaten it many times—always raw, with salt. Blogfinger photo ©
Delicious Orchards has an amazing selection of produce along with fabulous baked goods (espec. their famous pies,) coffee, chocolates, soups, and first class meats and fish. In some cases their prices are better than Wegmans, as with scallions: one bunch for $1.29 at Wegmans; two bunches for $1.25 at D.O. But the green beans were much more expensive at D.O.
The first reader who correctly identifies the vegetable above wins a signed black and white print by me. These prints are mounted on an art board and can be displayed without a frame—just sit it on a shelf. A selection of these prints is available for sale. Contact me if interested for more information.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
AIMEE MANN from Season II of the HBO series Girls. “How Am I Different?”
Hi Pat. Thank you and congratulations. You won both contests with your decisive answers. I thought people from Middletown couldn’t make up their minds. Your prizes will arrive sometime soon. —-Paul
Love your blog, the pictures, music, banter, issues. Love Ocean Grove, the ocean, music, houses, ice-cream, gardens. My father ate radish sandwiches. There is a town in France with my maiden name, Rougeux, where the “old timers” came from. I have a background in horticulture and worked at a botanic garden. Thanks so much for your BF contests. I’ve won before, so will try to let others win in the future. (Just couldn’t pass up your original artwork!)
Jennifer: You can’t beat a black radish. Funny, but when we got home, we realized that the young man at the register charged us for a beet.—Paul
My father’s family was from Ireland and Scotland. Yes on the liverwurst & onions on the Irish side. Kippers on the Scot side. To call them aromatic is kind. A kipper is a tiny, whole herring, an oily fish that has been split from tail to head, salted, pickled, and cold-smoked over wood chips. They are squeezed into a small rectangular tin and best used to tease small children.
The Welsh eat Lavabresd
Is this a beet?
Pat: You are correct–it is a black radish. If you peel it, it is snow white inside. The aroma can be strong. The thing to do is to peel it and slice it. Then take a piece of Jewish rye bread with big black seeds (they have Pechter’s bread in Wegmans) and lather on some butter or, even better, chicken fat. Then place a couple of slices of black radish on top. Add a sprinkle of salt, and you have a taste of the old country (at least the old country my mother’s family came from—-a Jewish shtetl in Poland before WW II.) Onions are popular in Jewish and Italian foods.
How many ethnic groups have aromatic foods that they love? How about garlic among Italians, sauerkraut among Germans, smelly cheeses among the French, and what else? I think Irish eat liverwurst with onions. Anybody have any smelly foods in their background?
Pat wins a double prize today. Sorry it isn’t a trip to Paris. —Paul
Black radish. Slice on a mandolin, spread sweet butter on a slice of crusty French bread (baguette) and top with a few radish slices. Mmmmmmm
Radish