Cafe continued from page 13 BRINGING YOU PRODUCTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD AURORA 12303 E MISSISSIPPI AVE (720) 858-8818 BROOMFIELD 6600 WEST 120TH AVE (303) 410-8168 hakurei turnips as “honorable,” “beautiful” and one of the cornerstones of the food-as- medicine movement. Mark depicts them as “an apple-jicama-radish” mashup. He loves to campaign the turnips’ high calcium and vitamin A properties amid describing them as “nature’s Tums,” an all-natural way to cure acid refl ux when eaten raw. Hakurei turnips have also been revered as a hangover cure after a night of heavy drinking. Ollin Farms has youth programs that edu- cate Boulder County children about farm- ing and agriculture. Mark enjoys telling the kids how hakurei turnips “are the vegetable world’s karate student, dressed in white, ready to fi ght for you and keep you healthy.” The Guttridges also remember when a churlish-looking, bearded biker gentleman would shop at Ollin’s Longmont Farmers Market stand weekly and exclusively pur- chase generous amounts of turnips, then mo- rosely go on his way. After numerous weeks of this encounter, Mark fi nally inquired of him, “What’s with the turnips?” The gentle- man opened up and told Mark and Kena that his father was going through chemotherapy, and eating their hakurei turnips was the only thing that would quell his stomach pain and allow his father to actually have an appetite. They are a “magical veggie,” Mark says, “one of the most important foods at Ollin.” Their magic has, over time, caught on with other local chefs, as well. At his award-win- ning restaurant Rootstalk in Breckenridge, chef Matt Vawter describes hakurei turnips as “a purposeful highlight of our spring and autumn menus.” Vawter, who used to cook in Denver, was introduced to the product a few years back through Christian Toohey at Toohey & Sons Organic farm stand. He embraces the challenge the turnips bring to cooking as they progress in fl avor and growth throughout the season. “The turnips have dif- ferent nuances as they move from thumbnail size to golf ball and subsequently as big as a clementine,” Vawter notes. “It’s up to our chef team to use their fl avors wisely as they grow quickly into the summer.” When still early in the season, he shaves the turnips raw in a fennel salad with pop- pyseed yogurt, accompanying wild-caught king salmon. At his new Italian-inspired restaurant Radicato, also in Breckenridge, Vawter and team vaunt the “root to stem” mantra, using both the turnip root and greens as an accompaniment to grilled Spanish octopus, spicy ’nduja sausage and a classic herb and garlic gremolata. Andrew Zimmern once said that all food has a story, and the best foods have the best stories. The story of hakurei turnips is just beginning to be told. Front Range farmers put it on a pedestal for its medicinal values and growing accessibility; locally inspired chefs are obsessed with its unique fl avor and versatility; and home cooks in Colorado are lucky to have easy access to it at our many farmers’ markets. These are defi nitely not your grandpar- ents’ turnips. 14 Paul C. Reilly is an award-winning local chef with two seasonally focused Denver restaurants, Apple Blossom and Coperta. He loves turnips and loathes ketchup. We Deliver RedGingerDenver.com 720-627-5769 Open everyday 11am – 9pm Dine-in · Takeout · Delivery 4660 S Yosemite St, Greenwood Village dumplingfactoryco.com (720) 420-9461 Mon, July 11 5:30 p.m. - sellout: The following styles will be available in 100% Sourdough: Sicilian, Detroit & New York 3920 Tennyson St, Denver (303) 477-7000 JULY 7-13, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com
