Purslane please

Yesterday I took a cooking class with one of the company chefs, a guy who runs the raw food veggie cafe that I always passed up in favor of the curry at the next cafe over. My bad. The main emphasis of the class was on IDing and prepping different types of produce, rather than working through specific recipes. Best tip of the day: at the farmer's market, head to the damaged goods bins - they have the fruit that was ripe enough to be bruised on the way to market that day.

He had quite a lot of produce that was grown on campus (lemon cucumbers!), and a whole lot of fantastic nectarines and figs from a nearby orchard. I was totally That Girl - the depth and breadth of my summer squash knowledge wowed everyone, I could tell.

Chef also brought out purslane, which I'd never had before. It looks like a weed, and has the slightly slimy texture of okra, but is seriously tasty.Because the on-campus gardens don't produce enough food to be used regularly by the cafes, Chef asked us to take as much as we liked home. My already-stuffed fridge is now the owner of even more fruits, vegetables, and herbs. And purslane, whatever category it falls into. Or maybe I shouldn't be trying to categorize it at all; maybe produce is a spectrum, and purslane is that girl in English class who says she's straight but keeps giving the BDOC the eye.

Wellesley/vegetable metaphor over.