ARTfarm Saturday stand, 10am – 12 noon: Sweet teen salad mix, loads of cucumbers, sweet potato leaves/shoots*, sweet corn, two types of basil, lemongrass, garlic chives, recao, sage, thyme, Mediterranean figs, bananas, dandelion greens, pineapple slips, mangoes and carambola from Alex at Tropical Exotics, papayas from Reuben at Solitude Farm, raw honey from Wanda’s Wright Apiary, bread from Tess, ice cream from I-Sha.
*You thought it was the sweet corn, but sweet potatoes are the ‘it girl’ of summer 2013. White, purple and orange fleshed potatoes will be here later in the summer, but right now you can enjoy the crazy sweet and delicious greens and shoots from the top of the sweet potato plants. I kid you not, these are the tastiest greens you have ever eaten. Practically suitable as a dessert item because they are so very yummy braised or sautéed, sweet potato greens will make you forget every spinach nightmare you had as a five-year-old. You can even plant some of the shoots you get in your bunch of greens – and you can continue to perpetuate and enjoy these highly nutritious leaves of sweet goodness in your own garden. If you can manage to leave just a few leaves uneaten (for photosynthesis purposes) in just 120 short summer days you will have your own delicious sweet potato tubers to bake/roast/mash and enjoy.