Box Notes

With the weather cooperating nicely things are going well on the farm. Most of the challenges of the wet spring are behind us and we are focusing our energies on caring for the crops in the field and preparing for the inevitable onslaught of summer’s bounty. This time of year, one of our most important tasks is irrigation. Managing the watering of almost twenty acres of crops is a mighty task and one of the most important jobs on the farm. We use a lot of drip or trickle irrigation. This method of watering allows us very precise control over how much water each specific crop gets while also conserving a most valuable resource. For us, control of how much water the plants get is a way for us to manage flavor. The conventional wisdom of lots of water and big, fast growing vegetables goes out the window as we coax the maximum flavors out of any given crop by giving it just what it needs. Given that we have some of the most discriminating chefs in the Willamette Valley as customers, the flavor of our crops is incredibly important. We hope you can taste the difference.

The fingerling potatoes in your box this week are a European variety called ‘Princess La Ratte’. We started growing this variety about eight years ago at the request of one of our customers. We fell in love with it right away and it soon became so popular with our chefs that it is now one of only two fingerling types that we grow. Your potatoes are dirty this week for a different reason, to be honest we just ran out of time. Our goal is to provide you with the freshest produce possible and to that end most crops are practically harvested right into your boxes. The potatoes almost literally this week. As we were setting up the packing line to fill the boxes a crew was still in the field harvesting the spuds. From our field to you in under twenty four hours….now that’s fresh.

We hope you are enjoying getting the boxes as much as we are enjoying packing them.

Please feel free to contact us with any feedback on the season so far. Your input is an integral part of the process and helps us serve you better.

Thanks, Dave, Lori and ‘The Crew’

In The Box:

Baby Red Romaine Lettuce

Sugar Snap Peas

Fava Beans

Chard

Bunching Onions

Fingerling Potatoes

Broccoli or Baby Red Cabbage

Fava Beans

July 14th, 2010, week 6 

Hello

Not so much of a box note this week….No time to wax poetic about the nature of organic farming or the meaning of community, barely time to plant, weed, water and harvest. I knew after I hit the snooze button for the fifth time this morning it was going to be one of those days. I will say that there are delicious vegetables on the horizon….green beans, snap peas, cherry tomatoes and red slicer tomatoes to name a few.

Thanks

Dave, Lori and the Crew

In The Box:

Iceberg  Lettuce (not your Grandma’s iceberg)

Sugarsnax Carrots

Japanese Salad Turnips

Chioggia or red beets

New Potatoes – Your potataoes are dirty this week, not how we usually like to roll, but after our fancy (very expensive) Italian new potato harvester beat them up, we decided that subjecting them to further abuse by putting them through the root washer was too much.

Bunching onions

Basil

SPECIAL BASIL storage notes: It shouldn’t get too cold, so try to find the ‘warmest’ place in your fridge. For some that’s the door, for others that might be the produce drawer. In my own fridge, the back of the fridge tends to get coldest.... I’ve read recently that wrapping the basil bunch in a damp clean cloth (I used an old clean cloth napkin) and put that in the ‘vegetable crisper’. It worked for me! If you’re not sure about your fridge you can try keeping your basil as a flower bunch in a jar with water at the stems. I don’t recommend drying basil: it’s best used up or made into pesto and then freezing the pesto if you want to keep the flavor for another week/month.

Turnip Tips

adapted from "From Asparagus to Zucchini"

*Eat turnips raw. Slice or thickly julienne and add to vegetable platter or eat alone with or without dip.
*Grate raw into salads.
*Bake turnips alone for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees, basted with oil, or bake along with other seasonal roots.
*Cook turnips with roasting meats.
*Mash or scallop turnips, just like you would potatoes.
* Dice turnips into soups or stews, and julienne into stir fries.

Braised Baby Turnips and Carrots

from Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Vegetables

A very simple stewing is all that is wanted for very tiny and delicate turnips and carrots. Wash and trim the vegetables. Both should be tender enough to make peeling unnecessary. Trim off the carrot tops but leave a half inch or so of the stalks. Leave the tender turnip greens attached, trimming off only the leaves that are wilted or damaged. Put the young roots in a saucepan with a little butter and water, and stew gently, covered, until softened but not overcooked. Season with salt and pepper and serve. This is especially nice if you have a variety of carrots of different shapes and colors.

CARROT AND BEET SALAD WITH GINGER VINAIGRETTE

In a blender puree shallot, ginger, and garlic with rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and Tabasco. With motor running add olive oil in a stream and blend until smooth.

In separate bowls toss carrots with half of the dressing and beets with remaining half. Divide carrot salad and beet salad among 6 plates and garnish with spinach leaves. Serves 6. Gourmet, April 1994

July 7th, 2010, week 5

I’m exhausted. Sometimes managing the farm seems like a bizarre vaudeville act and after a day of spinning plates while juggling flaming chainsaws I can barely see straight to type. We’ve had a great week on the farm and finally feel like we’ve almost caught up with ourselves. The late seeded snap pea and shelling pea trials seem to be doing well and are in need of trellising. The last planting of melons will go in the field this week along with the first of the fall broccoli plantings, parsnips and salsify were seeded and the never ending battle with the weeds waged on. It feels odd to be thinking of fall crops when we haven’t had summer yet. For a minute there I thought we were going to skip summer and go straight to fall, but the forecast for the latter part of the week has thankfully dispelled that thought. Many of the fall crops, kale, cauliflower, parsnips, etc take over 90 days to reach maturity and we’ve learned over the years that any long season crops seeded after the middle of July might not make it to harvest if we get an early frost or even a cooler than normal September. We put shade cloth over the greenhouses this evening to protect the delicate seedlings from the coming heat of the next two months. Temperatures in the un-shaded greenhouse can get to well over a hundred degrees and little germinating lettuces and such don’t like it quite that hot. The crew grumbled a little as we switched to an even earlier start time, but soon saw my infinite wisdom as the temperature climbed today. The window for harvest in the mornings shortens rapidly at this time of year as the daytime temps climb rapidly. The harvest day pace shifts from the casual chat and cut days of spring to the frantic head down ‘we gotta get this crop picked, out of the field and into the walk in cooler….NOW!

 We robbed the cradle a little to bring you the first new potatoes of the year, but we couldn’t wait. (Also if I had to tell my mum she’d have to wait another week for new potatoes I’d never hear the end of it.) True new potatoes are a rare treat. A new potato is not a small potato but a fresh potato harvested from a green, growing potato plant. A somewhat scuffed, frayed appearance to the potato skin is a frequent consequence of harvesting such tender spuds and is unavoidable because the skin has not yet hardened. If left to mature new potatoes would get a little bigger and the skins would get tougher making for typical potatoes that are easier to harvest and ship. Unfortunately for the potato connoisseur the potato, once cured, always loses some of its tender moisture. New potatoes wilt and must be treated like green vegetables and stored in a bag in the fridge. When I get them as a first treat of the potato crop I never store them at all but eat them promptly. I like to steam them briefly and then roll the hot little potatoes in a little butter, a pinch of salt, and twist of pepper Much like the fava beans, these little beauties are an annual milestone for the season, another delicious sign of more good things to come.

New Potatoes

Fava Beans

Bunching Onions

Carrots

French Breakfast Radishes

Lettuce

Basil

Potato Salad

Adapted from The Art of Simple Food

     1 ½ pounds potatoes

Drain, cool, peel, and cut into bite-size pieces. Place in a mixing bowl.

Cook in simmering water for 9 minutes

     2 eggs

Cool in cold water and peel

Mix together:

     1 Tablespoon wine, cider or rice wine vinegar

     Salt

     Pepper

Pour over potatoes, stir gently, and let sit for 7 minutes or so to allow the potatoes to absorb the vinegar. Add:

     ¼ cup onion, cut into small dice or sliced very thin

     ¼ cup olive oil

Mix carefully. Taste for salt and vinegar, and add more as needed.

Chop the eggs and gently stir into the potatoes with

     1 Tablespoon fresh herbs (parsley, chives or basil)

Fava Bean/Couscous Salad

    June 30th, 2010, week 4

 One of the most frustrating aspects of the cold wet spring has been how long I've had to wait to eat the first fava beans of the season. Long a seasonal staple in the Mediterranean diet and around the world, fresh fava beans have only recently begun to gain popularity in the U.S. I think our high speed, fast food culture frowns to easily on a vegetable that requires two stages to prep and produces more compost than edible product. I'm okay with waiting.

Broccoli 

Green Onion (scallions)          

You can eat the entire scallion. They are less pungent than regular onions. The greens can be used like chives. Use scallions in any recipe that call for onions raw or cooked

Spinach

Italian Parsley                        

Adds a fresh, clean, bright  flavor  to a variety of recipes. It is appropriate for nearly everything savory. Stir it into sauces, soups, braises and sprinkle it over sautéed vegetables, meat and seafood.

Fava Beans                             

To prepare the fava beans for cooking, remove them from their pods. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and fill a large bowl with ice water. Blanch the beans in the boiling water for one to two minutes, until they slip fairly readily from their skins. Transfer the beans with a skimmer or slotted spoon to the ice water. When they’re cool, drain the water and remove the beans from their skins.

Once they're peeled, the favas can be heated in a little olive oil with garlic and salt and pepper to taste for about 4 - 5 minutes or until tender then tossed with pasta or just eaten as is.    

Baby beets                             

water, sprinkle with Salt, cover tightly and bake at 350 until they can be

easily pierced with a knife-30 min-1 hour Uncover and cool, slip off skins,

cut into wedges and sprinkle with vinegar salt and olive oil. The tops are

edible too!

French Breakfast Radishes

Strawberries

Recipes:

Fava Bean Purée
Adapted from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food

1/4 cup olive oil
2pounds fava beans
2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
A sprig of fresh parsley, thyme, or tarragon, or another herb of your choice
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper.   

To prepare the fava beans for cooking, remove them from their pods. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and fill a large bowl with ice water. Blanch the beans in the boiling water for one to two minutes, until they slip fairly readily from their skins. Transfer the beans with a skimmer or slotted spoon to the ice water. When they’re cool, drain the water and remove the beans from their skins.

To make the puree, heat the ½ cup of olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the shelled, skinned beans, garlic, herbs, water, and a good couple of pinches of salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender (about 15 minutes), adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent burning, and adding more water if necessary. Remove the pot from the heat, and remove the herb sprig.  Mash the beans with the back of a spoon or pass the mixture through a food mill.

Stir in the ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil and a bit of water if necessary to achieve a nice, thick but spreadable consistency, along with a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of grated zest, if desired. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with toasted baguette slices.

Sorry for the technical difficulties last week. I can drive a tractor all day, but I'm always crashing the computer. 

June 23rd, 2010, week 3

       Sometimes I wonder why we even make a plan. The uncontrollable variables inherent to our work always seem to get in the way and the days streak off on their own trajectory. The Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka proposes in his book ‘One Straw Revolution’ something akin to a system whereby you simply cast your seeds to the wind and what grows is what is meant to be. (I don’t think he has a mortgage.) Then there are days, like today when everything seems to fall into place and the plan comes together. The tractors start when needed, the irrigation pump works first time and the crew seems to know where to be even before I do. There is an eeriness to it. The sense that something is about to go wrong, I just don’t know what. And then it doesn’t, it all works and all you can do is smile an almost giddy smile. Everything that needed to happen, happened. Hey, there’s always tomorrow.
        Things are finally starting to feel like they are returning to normal, the routine of the season finding its footing and taking hold. The crew, new hires and returning die hards alike, starting to move through the days with a confidence that comes from repetition. My mumbled instructions in morning meetings becoming more concise, a list of names and tasks with less and less detail needed. Casting job assignment into the air and seeing it all manifest. Perhaps Fukuoka’s onto something after all.
       With summer officially here and a few warm sunny days behind us (well, two anyway) you can expect to start seeing some more diversity and volume in the boxes in the coming weeks. This has been a most challenging spring for us and for many other farmers in the valley. The saving grace for many of us has been our greenhouses. A year in which the productivity of a farm can be measured by how much ground is covered in greenhouse plastic can never be good. Crops that we waded through the mud to plant are starting to recover. The summer squash is starting to set fruit, The carrot tops are greening up and the broccoli and cauliflower are forming heads. The corn won’t be knee high by the fourth of July, but we’ll settle for mid calf. The tomatoes in the greenhouses are showing signs of color and the field tomatoes are starting to pull out of their funk. As we readjust to account for the shortened growing season, we do it with equal amounts optimism and grit (alright, that might be mud) knowing that through it all we’ve learned a little more about our farm, this valley and how to better deal with a spring like this should we be so cursed again.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

 Dave, Lori and the crew
                                                                   

Red and Green Romaine Lettuce

Broccoli

IDEAS FOR CHARD

- Saute chard with garlic in olive oil.  Put a cover on the pan and allow chard to steam for about 5 minutes.  Add a squeeze of lemon  juice and , if desired, some hot pepper flakes before serving.
- Blanch the leaves and add to soup.  Try substituting chard for spinach or arugula in soup recipes.
- Make a gratin with the stems: Boil the stems until tender (about 30 minutes).  Put them in a gratin dish, add seasonings (such as a little garlic and parsley), top with a bechamel sauce and cook under broiler until golden brown.
- Blanch the whole leaves and stuff them with meat or vegetable fillings.

Food writer Fay Levy says that in Lebanon, chard leaves are wrapped around rice fillings, like grape leaves.

Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens
Adapted from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

½ pound medium or large dried white beans, cooked
3 tablespoons olive oil or clarified butter
Fine grained sea salt
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ baby chard, washed and roughly chopped, or 1 bunch kale, cut into wide ribbons
Fresh ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Freshly grated parmesan for topping

Drain the beans, then heat the oil or butter over med-high heat in the widest skillet available. Add the beans to the hot pan in a single layer. If you don’t have a big enough skillet, just do the sauté stop in two batches or save the extra beans for another use. Stir to coat the beans with the oil/butter, then let them sit long enough to brown on one side, about 3 or 4 minutes, before turning to brown the other side, also about 3 or 4 minutes. The beans should be golden and a bit crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. Salt to taste, then add the onion and garlic and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until the onion softens. Stir in the greens and cook until just beginning to wilt. Remove fromteh heat and season to taste with a generous does of salt and pepper. Drizzle with a bit of top-quality extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan. Serves 6-8 as a side dish.

Sesame Snap Peas  
1/2 pound snap peas, trimmed and strings discarded
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 scallion, sliced thinly on diagonal
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted lightly
Salt as needed/wanted
Slice snap peas into 2 or 3 sections with a sharp knife. Saute in a pan with the oil on med high heat until bright green. (it’s ok if some of the peas come out). When serving, sprinkle with the scallions and sesame seeds. Add Salt if desired.