The Kohlrabi Chronicles, or What Can I Make With This?

You think it's so easy getting those recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables this time of year? Dodging cars as they head to Honk Your Horn 4 Corn roadside stands; extracting yet another round of crisp twenties from the ATM as you prepare to be swept away at the farmers market; swabbing those juice stains on your shirt front.

There's an embarrassment of riches, ripe and colorful and unbound by shrink-wrapped foam trays. Ich bin ein Vegetarian, eh? At least until the burgers come off the grill.

So you pick what beckons, and the stuff comes home in heaps. Or better yet, it comes in a box each week, straight from the community-supported agriculture membership you signed up for in the winter.

You keep things simple; you make what you know. As the weeks go by, however, small demons run amok. Those chef contestants on television aren't doing Zucchini Four Ways. And the ingredients outside your comfort zone: What's to be done with them? Everything does not fall into either the "slice thinly for a salad" or "saute in olive oil" categories, does it?

Well, the very folks who bring you all that farm-fresh tsoris are the ones who can help solve the problems. Local growers are used to handing out recipes, but increasingly, they're playing Answer Man. They try new varieties; some go over like gangbusters, some do not. They do a lot of explaining. So we asked a few to share their stories and strategies.

MIKE KLEIN, Good Fortune Farm in Brandywine, who is in his third season as a full-time farmer:

Stumpers: Green radicchio, daikon radishes, giant kohlrabi, two-pound zucchini.

Strategies: The radicchio is "a novel crop that none of my CSA clients had seen before," he says. "It didn't form heads. Kind of bitter, but not as much as arugula and Batavian endive. It's kind of good for salads, but not great. We're telling people to marinate it with a sweet vinaigrette, or grill it."

About kohlrabi: "I tell people to roast it, or shred it and make coleslaw. Use small ones, as you would turnips."

About radishes: "You can eat only so many radish chips," he says. "We've told people to try making daikon coleslaw, or to pickle them."

His squash harvest began rolling in early. Klein admits that some zucchini might have gotten a bit larger than he'd intended: "Some days, we didn't look under the right leaf. But I haven't saturated anybody's appetite yet, it seems."

BECKY LATANE, Blenheim Organic Gardens in Washington's Birthplace, Va., who has been selling at farmers markets for seven years and to CSA members for four years: