It sounds like the kind of thing I'd love, but I've never eaten kohlrabi and have only ever seen it in pictures, so I can only imagine the taste and texture. I wish I could try it! If you're doing all of these test runs, aren't you going to be sick of kohlrabi by the time you need to make it for the feast? (asks the one who plans to roast a plain turkey later today or tomorrow. lol!)

Sounds delish with both kohlrabi and brussel sprouts. Both would be an expensive splurge for me and both are only rarely in my local grocery. I end up subbing cabbage for most dishes featuring some other vegetable from the mustard plant family. We eat a ton of cabbage, that's what we can afford. That and broccoli when it goes on sale. I can get turnips and rutabaga regularly too. I might try this with a rutabaga, I can see making strips of that vegetable and stir frying it . . .

It's $3 per bunch here. Maybe not cabbage cheap, but not outrageous.

PM, I'm surprised you don't have kohlrabi there! It should grow fine. The flavor of the round part, which is technically the stem, I think, is somewhere between mild turnip and cabbage, which makes sense considering it's been called a ”turnip cabbage”. The leaves are thick, and also turnip-leafy, but greener tasting.

There are a number of vegetables I won't eat. I can't deal with Brussels sprouts because of the sulphur. If I try to hold my nose, I get it through my mouth and have to spit it out. i force myself to consume bitter greens for the health value. The only way I've found to choke them down is in what is known in my household as ”yawn trimmings” (a portmanteau of yard and lawn), That's a medium sized apple, a small large cucumber, a bunch of kale, a bunch of chard, a bunch of spinach and a handful of basil, chopped up in the Vita-mix, and served in at least half water with a goodly amount of Ceylon cinnamon. Note both spinach and chard are pretty sweet, as are the apple and cuke. And the cinnamon helps a lot! I've tried dandelion greens, mizuma and collards in it, individually, and I could barely deal, often resorting to honey to mask the bitterness. I think you're the one, PM, who saw a picture of it in a green glass and said you wouldn't drink it!

Which is a long way of saying, I try to find different ways of using the vegetables I like, rather than getting tired of them. I'm currently trying to figure out something with spaghetti sqaush, kohlrabi and lots of lemon. :)

I don't regularly buy either fruits or vegetables that go over 2.00/lb. Not saying never, just rarely. We eat mostly apples, bananas, cabbage, winter squash, potatoes, carrots, and green peppers, with seasonal green veggies that go on sale or if we make it to a larger produce market with cheaper prices. The exception is dark greens, because of their high nutrition content. Rutabagas and turnips are also in my price range but I'm not as crazy about them as I am some of the others. I eat them though, I like them well enough. Tomatoes are canned mostly after the season is over, as are other fruits, although some go on sale at certain times of the year. I load up on cranberries that go on sale after Thanksgiving and freeze them, for example. When oranges come into season we buy them, etc.

Ah. Right. The price difference between California and the Midwest. It's usually less, and quick google turned up that the price of kohlrabi in Michigan in general is $2.00, but it doesn't say what quantity, and Instacart has it at a ridiculous $4.59 per "each" but some show individual and some a bunch. Either one, that's a lot of money! Whereas the $2.00 to our $3.00 seems more normal. I get it about your budget. If they'e really the ridiculous price it's not worth it. Though you could try planting some id you really want it. ;)

I'll have to remember this recipe. I did grow kohlrabi, but with my big garden we have so many vegetables available at the same time that some just don't get used. We used exactly ONE head/bulb/whatever of kohlrabi and no one cared for it. We just ate it raw, cut into sticks, with hummus to dip. Elery and I agreed that we probably wouldn't grow it again because I couldn't 'figure out what to do with it. So, maybe next year, I'll grow a dozen, instead of a row! Frankly, I haven't figured out what to do with bok choi either, no matter what I do no one really likes it very much, although it's tolerated in a stir fry.

I have enough asparagus, broccoli, corn kernels and mashed rutabaga in the freezer to keep me occupied all winter, and I've canned green beans, kale, tomatoes, beets and carrots. Onions, potatoes and winter squash are in storage with the garlic. I wish I could grow brussels sprouts, but they seem to get about the size of my thumb nail and then just stop growing. I have lettuce still growing in the hoop houses. I'm making Mustangs/Cathy fig and proscuitto salad for Thanksgiving, but because I have the greens, I need to buy the proscuitto and parmesan, even more expensive than the lettuce!

Annie

Annie, I so get it about the bok choi! I've had it in a restaurant, stuffed, breaded and fried like an Asian chili relleno, with a lot less crust, and it was really good. In general, it's watery when cooked sufficiently, but still kind of ...tough..? Very strongly flavored in a way which doesn't play well with others. I don't mind eating it I'm served it, but I don't choose it.

Kohlrabi is another story. Just a standard roast, with slices rolled in oil and cooked untill starting to char is delightful. Fried, with or without coating. Anything you'd do to a turnip.

I have to repeat, the whole of this recipe, all the bits in one forkfull, is what makes it great. Just the kohlrabi in it is fine, but not a standout. Perhaps, roasting first and then a light sauté with pepper would be great....or just add the pepper and pepper flakes to the roasting, never mind the cheese and nuts.

Oh! I haven't made this in a long time, but my favorite thing to do with turnips for an appetizer is slice really thin on a mandoline, line up flat on parchment on a baking tray, or on an enamelled tray, and micrplane some extra sharp white cheddar on them. Each slice only gets a few wisps of the cheese. Broil until starting to brown. Serve off the baking tray because they'll all be gone before you can get them on a dish anyway. SO good. And I'd bet they'd be just as good with kohlrabi.

There was an excellent Fall crop of Kohlrabi this year. It's usually in for about three weeks, but has been at least double.

They just don't have kohlorabi at the store at all where I live right now. Same with leeks and celery root, they are a once and a while treat. And when they do appear, often overpriced, IMHO. Not what one would necessarily find in a bigger MI market. The winter squash and apple selection is also rather pathetic, considering MI is such a big apple growing state. Just my local market, not a MI thing in general.

I think you need to find a few like minded people where you live and put together a vegetable co-op, No leeks? Crummy apples? Ridiculous! Maybe you should find a distributor of top quality, big variety produce in the big city, and bring a lot back to sell at a sufficient markup to pay for the trip, your time and a little profit.

plllog, leeks are terribly expensive here, at least in my opinion, and often there just aren't any. The last time I saw them at Meijer they were $3.49 a pound. Same with celery root, which I like a lot. I've also been spectacularly unsuccessful at growing the celeriac, but leeks grow like crazy and actually store pretty well. I still have a couple of dozen of them in my vegetable store room, they'll be fine until Christmas, probably, as long as I take off the top couple of layers.

I'm still able to buy fresh apples from this year's crop at a couple of local markets, but I'm right in the middle of the fruit ridge...

Annie

Y'see! I'm not a great gardener, but I did think leeks would grow well in Michigan, and wasn't Michigan a major recipient of Johnny Appleseed? Apples like North. Kohlrabi wants to be planted after or before frost, but that stritrure assumes a place with frost! We wrap up the orange trees, and put heaters in the groves when (highly unusual but not unheard of) frost is threatened. Michigan is so well known for its produce, I'm surprised you don't have all the grocery store vegetables, at least in season, even in the small towns. That's why I was encouraging Lpink to start a rebellion. :D

Rural areas just don't have the demand to make these vegetables profitable. Never have been. When I grew up, no one had ever heard of bagels, and don't get me started on vegetarian options, so there has been quite the revolution. At least I can get kale!! And fresh greenhouse grown dark greens are also part of the food revolution. Kombocha too, who would have imagined that at the local grocery . . . and all kinds of International foods.

It's quite common for folks living in small towns to make trips to the nearest big city for shopping options of various sorts. I go for the plant nurseries, good restaurants, and a wonderful farm market chain we have in MI called "Horrocks." It is a Mecca for foodies, full of everything from soup to nuts. They have all kinds of produce that is a bit out of the ordinary, at good prices. But on an everyday level, I stick to what is inexpensive. That's how I got into canning, I can make my own gourmet additions at a fraction of the price. It may be just scrambled eggs, but I make mine dolled up with my home made and home canned Harissa sauce . . .

I don't get leeks either Annie, because they could come in from quite a distance so I just don't get why they are so expensive and why my small town Meijers rarely has them at all. They are dead common in Europe . . . they were actually a national symbol in Wales . . . I also am not getting why apples are so expensive in MI now . . . fruit belt and all . . . even the common ones like Gala, Delicious and McIntosh. Hubs got Honeycrisp today, they were the only ones below 2.00 a pound . . .

On the plus side, brussel sprouts were on sale at Aldi's for $2.00 a pound so we are pigging out on them right now . . . No comparison to cabbage though, on sale at 59 cents a pound.

Apples aren't that expensive here, although I get them at a small local orchard, not at a chain. Lastest price was $6 a quarter bushel, so higher than last year due to the increase in the price of spraying, paying workers, diesel for the tractors, etc, but still about 50 cent a pound. They have big wooden crates, though, and I can pick out my own "mix and match". Current choices are Honeycrisp, Ida Red, MacIntosh, Jonagold, Blondee, Gala, Mutsu and Empire, so a nice mix of eating and cooking apples.

Annie

I find it so sad that I don't live within 25 miles of an apple orchard. Any savings would get eaten up by gas. We had an orchard outlet here but it closed two years ago. I grew up with three in our county, one run by close family friends. All shut down and the apple trees either dying or cut down for firewood. We were all so excited when the outlet opened but who knows, they never had many customers and with the pandemic . . . the actual orchard is the closest one to me and they are hanging by a thread . . .

We have a slow rolling economic food/farming crisis in this country and hardly anybody has a CLUE!! Don't see that on grievance TV shows.

It's partly to blame for inflated food prices. Competition declining, and longer and longer supply chains which are very susceptible to various crises, including big fuel hikes. Fossil fuels aren't going to go down much over time, they are not making new . . . we have to face that the savings will be in developing alternatives, long term. IMHO.

I feel much sadder and less secure seeing these local food sources go out of business. No political party did it to them, it is long term economic conditions that are hard to counter, particularly with America's distaste for group solutions to group problems . . .

Glad I planted an apple tree last year . . . :)