We brought our featured vegetable for the season, “Gobo” (or burdock), to both Beban and Gabriola farmers markets last week. We hope you were able to get some and enjoy the flavour.

As I was harvesting Gobo, I couldn’t believe how they grew in this not-so-ideal location… I thought I cleaned out major rocks from this bed but here is after mass of harvesting about one third of the bed.

It was so full of rocks that I needed to use pickaxe to dig out Gobo.  They must have fought their way amongst rocks to deep down the soil and extract nutrients, so must be full of anti-oxidant.

On Thursdays I usually cook a big batch of hearty soup so that I have enough left over to eat on Fridays. I barely have time for cooking on Fridays when I prepare and bake bread from early morning to late night.  Last Thursday, I cooked “Tonjiru”. 

Ton” means pork and “Jiru” means soup.  It is a miso soup with pork and various vegetables including Gobo.  I am sharing the recipe here.  You can substitute pork with dried shiitake or other mushrooms and you can still make flavourful miso soup.
– Cut vegetables into bite size.  This time I used carrot, potato, onion, cabbage, and green onion for garnish.
– Slice pork as thin as possible so it remains tender when cooked.

Heat one table spoon of sesame oil in a pot, stir fry pork first until it slightly browns, add onion and carrot, sauté a few minutes, add potatoes and cabbage, sauté a few more minutes.
– While pork and vegetables are being cooked, slice gobo thin and immediately add to the pot and sauté it for another minute.  Gobo turns black if it is left after being cut.  One way to avoid this is to submerge them in the water until it is time to cook but some of nutrients will be lost into the water.  So, it is better to cook them right after they are cut.

Add water into a pan, high heat until it boils, turn the heat low and simmer. Remove scum on soup surface for better flavour.

Simmer until vegetables become tender.
– Add your choice of miso into soup to your taste.  I used a combination of our home-made Shiro-miso and Aka-miso.  Shiro-miso (white miso) is sweet and Aka-miso (dark red miso) is more salty and sour.  I like the combination of them.  Do not simmer too long after miso is added so it retains miso flavour.
– Garnish soup with green onion and enjoy.

Besides those tough and determined-to-grow burdocks, lettuces are still growing in our garden.  We might have planted them a bit too late, but aren’t they beautiful?  I hope hard frost comes late this year so they have chance to grow and find a way to your salad bowl.

With the arrival of cooler season, we revamped and reintroduced cinnamon and raisin loaf to our bread roster.  The bread is made with organic true cinnamon for its subtle and sweet aroma, fermented with our raisin starter.  It is available at both Gabriola and Nanaimo market.

We have a news! We are opening our place for gertie tour on Monday, October 26th. For more information and registration, please click here.

Our market schedule is as follows. Please note that the Wednesday market will be indoor from this week. We will still be outside for the Saturday market but the hours has been changed as follows :

• Island Roots Farmers’ Market: Beban Park, 2300 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, 3 – 6pm on Wednesday
• AGI Market: AGI Hall, Gabriola, 10am – 1pm on Saturday

Thank you for reading our newsletter. Have a wonderful fall week!