One of the coolest things in my life at the moment is Timothy & Clover. It’s an amazing service that delivers fresh, organic vegetables to my desk every week. The veggies are all locally sourced from small suppliers around Jozi. They are scrumtuous.

We like to order the small vegetable box, at R85 per box, excluding delivery. The Timothy and Clover team puts together a box with mixed vegetables that can last two people a whole week. What’s really nice about it is the veggies change every week. The selection is entirely in the hands of the team, which can be quite challenging. I’ve realised that I tend to buy the same veggies all the time when I shop, because I’m familiar with how they taste and how to prepare them. I often miss out on the opportunity to try a new recipe because of a reluctance to experiment with new vegetables. I await the weekly delivery from Bevan and his team with a mixture of delight and apprehension. I loathe throwing food away and I know every week at least one vegetable will make me quiver in my oven mitts.

This week was particularly challenging because of this.



“What the shit?!” was my exact response to this. I Googled, mailed friends and even posted this pic on Facebook. Nobody had any idea what it was. Eventually I decided it could only be rutabaga – a weird cross between a turnip and cabbage and certainly the strangest vegetable I’ve ever encountered. My hypothesis is still unproven, however, and for all I know this could just be very bad beetroot, so don’t take my word.

Even so, I’m no kitchen coward and the best thing to do when faced with an unknown vegetable is dig in. So dig I did.

The inside tasted nice and sweet, but the peel was bitter, so my spidey-sense told me to peel it. While the taste is very pleasant raw, I decided to cook this alien veg. I quartered it like a potato, drizzled some olive oil over it, sprinked ground cumin, paprika and pesto and Parmesan mix over it and stuck it in the oven.

The result was a tasty and strange wedge. It has the consistency of stewed apples and could be a lighter alternative to potato wedges. I saw a few recipes for mashed rutabaga, so I guess that’ll be tomorrow night’s experiment.

If you can shed any light on this weird veggie, feel free to educate me in the comments below.