Local Food Salad Recipe (by Eden!)

An email that the lovely Eden sent me about a salad she made. Eden is my soul sista from Victoria. Lived with her for 3 years, and if there were anything to pull me back to living in Victoria, she would be it. I also eat a lot of beets, so I may just give it a shot. Anything to make root vegetables more interesting! Enjoy. Thanks Eden!

I get a local food box every two weeks here on the island, and I'm often (read:constantly) finding myself staring at my bottom fridge drawer wondering what theheck to do with the multitude of root vegetables that gather there. Beets. Turnips. Beets. Potatoes. Beets. Parsnips. Beets. Sunchokes. Beets.

Sometimes there are even leftover beets.

A week or so ago I had a BRAINWAVE. While sitting around bemoaning my fate andsilently grumbling in my head--"Why can't these beets just get out of myface-space?!"--I thought, "Hey! Salad!"

I know, right? Super simple. So here it is, without measurements. I firmlybelieve that measurements were just invented by the man to keep you down (except forthings involving yeast, because breads are just darn finnicky). Regardless ofwhether you want to jump on THAT ridiculous opinion bandwagon, I still believe thatyou'll get a lot more out of being inspired by this rough guideline andexperimenting with different amounts of things than if I gave you measurements. Experiential learning, what?!

Salad:
*grated beets
*grated sunchokes or parsnips (...or what have you. I have a fondness for sunchokes in this recipe myself.)
*grated pear or apple (From your local cold storage, if you're as lucky as me.)
*chopped nuts (Local hazelnuts here!)
*chopped kale or sprouts (Kale from your garden if you've got it, or you can makesome sprouts in your cupboard. Greens in the dead of winter! It's magic!)

Dressing:
*honey (for localness) or Maple Syrup (for veganness) or Agave Nectar (for hipsterness)
*apple cider vinegar (Spinnaker's makes it here from local apples)
*oil? If you need/want it.

Grate, chop, slice, dice and assemble the salad part in a big glass or ceramic bowl. Bloody-murder beet stained hands are cool, but it's not so cool when it happens to your mom's vintage hand-carved wooden salad bowl that she got from her great great Mennonite grandmother. Put the dressing ingredients in a mason jar,slap a lid on there, shake shake shake that booty, pour it on top and mix. Add somesprigs of sprouts or a handful of chopped nuts on top for prettiness.

Consume. Preferably with friends. Bonus points if it's friends who would love to be all enlightened by your awesome localness, or who are also bemoaning theirbeet-fate too and are needing some inspiration.

BTW, this is all organic if you can. I mean, if you're going to support localfarms, why not support the ones who are enriching the land around you through theiragricultural practices? Am I right or am I right? Finally, I super value group process. Drop Lisi here a line by leaving a comment ifyou tried this recipe and loved it/hated it/debated it/gyrated at it/etc.

~Eden (like the garden)