An idea came to me after visiting a local Farmer's Market...I came across an unusual vegetable that I had never seen or heard of before. Garlic Scapes. The woman "farmer" behind a table full of picture perfect vegetables explained to me that they have a delicate garlic flavor and would do nicely in a stir-fry. I love veggies and equally love to cook. However, the vegetable line up on my roster seems to be lacking some razzle dazzle lately and I think it's time to expand my horizons. This Garlic Scape "character" has got me thinking, what else am I missing. I Googled just how many vegetables are out there. The answers I found were some where between 800-1,000. That's enough produce to even make Produce Pete blush. Now let's be honest, unless I had a boat load of cash, a private jet and no fear of eating something off the rainforest floor, I probably still wouldn't be able to come close to trying all 800+ veggies that are out there. So I've come up with a plan. For the next 365 days (very Julie & Julia...I know, I know), I will "spotlight" an individual vegetable in my daily menu. Granted, they won't always be Garlic Scapes or strange veggies from the rainforest, but my plan is to at least make the effort to try something new and exciting as often as a I can. There might be times I will have to supplement a fruit for a vegetable or sometimes it might just have to be something as simple as green beans...but I will search high and low and drive far and wide to find 365 different vegetables this year.
My husband is not going to like this one bit!
