CSA Newsletter, Week 11

This Weeks Veggies

Beans or Summer Squash– A mix of yellow and green bush beans or a mix of sunny, summer squash.

Rainbow Chard

Cauliflower or Cabbage – Ready for the grill.  See below.

Cipollini Onions – My favorite onion.  See below.

Lettuce – Beautiful big heads of Bronze Mignonette

Bartlett Pears

Farm Life

This week has marked the beginning of planning for next year. Our order of seed garlic will arrive any day now. I’d like to plant it shortly after it arrives, which means preparing the beds now. Since the garlic will be in the ground until June, 2009, my choice about where to plant it  affects my crop rotations for next season. So, I spent some time Monday walking the fields, observing the weed patterns and thinking about plant families. (Garlic is notoriously difficult to weed so I don’t want to plant it where there is a known thistle problem.) I then got on the tractor and began tilling beds.

Speaking of tractors, my new tractor arrived Wednesday. It is an Allis Chalmers G (ACG) cultivator built in the mid 1940’s. These old ACG’s are great little tractors. The engine is mounted on the back, which means I can sit in the seat and look straight down at my planting beds. I can see the veggies before I cultivate over them, instead of after, as in most tractors. This arrangement makes it possible to use the tractor for weeding the planting beds, even when there are crops in them. Though it is already too late in the season for this tractor to help much this year, it will be a huge time saver next.

Featured Veggie of the Week

This week’s featured veggie is the Cippollini onion. Typically, this onion has been my favorite because of its sweet, mild flavor. But, this will be my first time experiencing its flavor grown on this soil.

Onions are like wine grapes in that their flavor is very specific to the soil they are grown in. This is why Walla Walla onions are so sweet.  The soil in the Walla Walla area produces a particularly fine flavor in onions. In fact, in the next few weeks, you will receive the same variety of onion often grown in Walla Walla. But it won’t taste the same because it is grown in Hillsboro Hillsboro.

A note about Cauliflower.  In this country, cauliflower is usually cooked by steaming or boiling it.  This is truly unfortunate because these cooking methods do the least to enhance cauliflower’s flavor.  You’ll find it much more enjoyable if you roast it, or even cook it on the grill.

To roast it, preheat your oven to 425.  Remove the leaves and wash.  Slice into pieces about 1/2 inch thick.  Coat the cauliflower in a good quality oil.  Walnut oil works exceptionally well but any good oil will do.  Sprinkle with a little salt and some nutmeg.  Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Cook until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. You will be astounded at how much better it is cooked this way.

Newsletter, Week 10

This Weeks Veggies

Beans – A mix of yellow and green bush beans.

Beets or Chard

Lettuce – A mixture of Simpson Black Seeded and Cosmo Savoy

Blackberries

Bartlett Pears

Farm Life

Black berry picking this past Sunday was a successful event. Though the turn out was small, the weather cooperated so we all had a good time.

Bery picking season will be over soon. If you would like to schedule a time to pick quantities of berries, let me know. Please be aware though that the berries in the most kid friendly places have already been harvested. The remaining ones will require trudging through a field of chest high, prickly weeds. If you are up to the challenge, please call or e-mail to arrange a convenient time.

A big thank you to my spouse, Sandy, and my Grand daughter, Amber, for all their help with the Berry Pick. With three two year olds in attendance, it was great to have the extra hands. Thank you also to Amber for picking the blackberries, pears and most of the beans in today’s share.

The next farm event will be on Sunday, September 14 in the afternoon. We will be building a compost windrow. Mark your calendar now so you don’t forget.

If you’d like to begin contributing to the compost pile I’d be delighted to accept your kitchen scraps. Just contact me and let me know. I will provide you with a three gallon bucket and lid. Bring your full bucket to your pick up site each week and we will exchange it for an empty one.

In the last few days, we’ve lost several more summer squash plants to the critters. Now the voles and field mice have joined the fray. Seven plants to the critters, 83 to go.

The first of the tomatoes are beginning to color up. Though it will be a while yet before there are enough to include in your share, it is great to see the first ones on the vine. There are over 500 plants in the field so you can be assured of a bounty of tomatoes.

Would you like to be an official tomato tester? The best way to know if tomatoes are ripe is to eat a couple. I am allergic to them so I can’t do that. If you are available to make a trip out to the farm and sample tomatoes, let me know. I will thank you and so will your fellow share holders. If you would like to help out this way, give me a call or e-mail me and we will schedule testing days.

CSA Newsletter, Week 9

This Weeks Veggies

Cabbage – Savoy Cabbage

Cauliflower – This cauliflower was sown in flats many months ago.  Due to the wet spring weather, I was not able to transplant it until six weeks later than it prefers.  Consequently, it is coming in to maturity when it is much too hot.  Though it is still quite edible, it isn’t very pretty.

Chard

Summer Squash or Yellow Wax Beans – They are finally here! Choose from a mix of tender summer squashes or yellow wax beans.

Beets – A mix of Golden, Chiaggio, and Kestral. The Chiaggo’s are candy stripped on the inside. The Kestrals are a deep red.

Cooking Apples – The flavor of these apples is fine but the texture is not.  See “Veggie of the Week” below for ideas for using them.  Meanwhile, you can look forward to the “Gravenstein” apples which will ripen next.

Pears – I said in a previous newsletter that I didn’t think the pears were Bartletts but it looks as though they are.  I usually have one as an afternoon snack but they’d also be wonderful baked as a dessert.

Farm Life

The gopher count continues. More summer squash plants lost to the gophers. That makes it Gopher’s three, squash 87!

This week, I finally finished putting together the irrigation system from the pond. This was a major undertaking but it will save me a considerable amount of time in the future. The new system will irrigate all but the tomatoes in four hours. With the previous system, it took sixteen hours and lots of moving of pipes and hoses to water the same areas. And now I don’t have to worry about running out of water. Now that the irrigation project is finished, I can move on to other tasks, like sowing more seeds for fall crops.  It’s time to plant the fall peas!

Don’t forget the berry picking this Sunday, August 17. You may sign up for one of the three sessions at the pick up site or by reply e-mail. The sessions are at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30.

Each session will begin with a thirty minute farm tour, ending at the briar patch. You will have one hour to pick your fill of berries before the folks from the next session begin their turn.

Veggie of the Week

Now that you are getting more fruit and veggies in your share, are you having trouble coming up with menu ideas?   Below, you’ll find what I plan to do with them this week.  If you come up with other good ideas, post them as a comment to the blog so that other shareholders can try them too.

I enjoy miso soup on hot days because it restores the minerals and fluids I lose working out in the field.  I think I’ll use a basic miso soup recipe and add veggies.  First I’ll saute some onion until it is translucent, then add some cubed tofu and continue cooking it until it is brown.  I’ll remove that from the heat while I saute the caulifower.  I’ll cook the florets first, then add the leaves.  Maybe I’ll add some shitake mushrooms too.  I’ll put the onions/tofu and the cauliflower/mushrooms in a soup pot with either vegetable or chicken broth and heat it gently.  Just before serving I’ll add some miso.

I think the cabbage and apples will go together really well.  First, I’ll saute a little onion in some butter, then add the cabbage.  When it is almost done, I’ll add  cubed apples and some slivered almonds.  I’ll serve it over egg noodles.  Perhaps I’ll put bacon, or maybe goat cheese, on top.

Today’s chard would make a good wilted salad with roasted beets and goat cheese on top.  In the past, I’ve used it as an entree by serving it over quinoa.  If you’re not quite that adventurous, you could also serve it over couscous.

Enjoy!

CSA Newsletter, Week VII, Good Samaritan Pick Up

This Weeks Veggies

Savory Cabbage We had three days of temperature over 90 degrees this week. Since the cabbages can’t wear sun screen they got a little sun burned, hence the yellowing around the edges of the leaves.

Cosmo Savoy Lettuce

Pears

Apples

Farm Life

On Tuesday we found that the gophers had eaten the roots off of an entire squash plant! Today, the gopher has pulled the remains of the plant halfway down in to its tunnel. From the gophers perspective that means one plant down and 89 more to go. Since they are beginning to set fruit now, I hope we get to eat some before the gophers get through them all.

Earlier this week we harvested the first of the Cippollini onions. They will be cured in the shade of the apple tree until the tops fall off, after which they will be included in your shares. Interestingly, the Siskiyou Sweets were supposed to be ready first. Since they will not need to be cured, you may end up with both Cippolini and Siskiyou Sweets in your share at the same time.

We spent the last week weeding, rebuilding the hoop house, building a new irrigation system, fertilizing, amending the soil , and mulching.

The hoop house blew down the beginning of July. I didn’t worry about it too much because it was staying fairly warm at night so I didn’t really need it. But in the last week, the night time temperatures dropped. This meant that the soil temperatures didn’t stay consistently warm enough for seeds to germinate. So, I spent a day buying materials and repairing the hoop house. The result has been flats and flats of nicely germinated lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc. that will be included in your share in the coming months.

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that the well will run out of water before the growing season ends, requiring that I install a system for pumping water from the irrigation pond at the back of the property to the growing area at the front. Since the last newsletter, I have installed about 900 feet of pipe. All that is remaining is the final connections to the existing system, which shouldn’t take more than half a day. I am using combination of used plastic pipe and used aluminum pipe. I’ll have to keep an eye on the aluminum pipe as it is often stolen and sold for scrap metal.

Featured Veggie of the Week

Your featured veggie this week is actually fruit. You have both pears and apples included in your shares this week.

The fruit trees on this property are about 70 years old. Several of the trees are more than 30 feet tall. There are no records which indicate which tree is what variety. Consequently, we will be learning together the characteristics of the individual trees.

One of the apple trees is quite interesting. At some point in its history the trunk split, perhaps from a lightening strike? It is producing a thin skinned, delicate apple that ripens to a soft yellow. This apple seems to have a very weak stem to branch connection. The apples are falling off the tree before they ripen. Since they are thin skinned, all of the fallen apples are too damaged for eating. Consequently, I decided to begin picking them before we loose them all. If you put them in a closed paper bag on your kitchen counter, they should finish ripening up quite nicely.

You also have pears in you share. Like the apples, there is no record of the variety of pears growing here. I would guess that these are not Bartletts because they are staying green when they ripen. Perhaps they are Anjous?

Pears do not ripen well on the tree so they are always picked at a mature but unripe stage. If you put them in the paper bag with your apples, it will hasten the ripening process. Check for ripeness by gentling pressing on the neck of the pear near the stem. If it is soft, the pear is ripe. Pears ripen from the inside out. If you wait for the thicker part of the pear to get soft, you will likely find that the pear is over ripe.

August 5, 2008 Emanuel Pick up site

This Weeks Veggies

Savory Cabbage – More of the beautiful Savoy cabbage.

Cosmo Savoy Lettuce – This is a Cos type lettuce, otherwise known as Romaine. I harvested myself a head last night for my dinner salad. It was tender and luscious.

You’ll notice that the word “Savoy” appears in both the name of the cabbage and of the lettuce. Do you notice any similarity between the two? Look closely and you’ll realize that both have leaves that are more crinkly than is typical for that vegetable. “Savoy” means “crinkled leaved”.

Farm Life

Good news. The squash and beans are beginning to produce. There isn’t enough volume yet to include in your shares but there should be soon, assuming that the gophers don’t get to them first. Today we found that the gophers had eaten the roots off of an entire squash plant! From the gophers perspective, that’s one down and 89 more to go.

The onion harvest is starting! Today, we begin the chippolinis. They will be cured in the shade of the apple tree until the tops fall off, after which they will be included in your shares. Interestingly, the Siskiyou Sweets were supposed to be ready first. Since they will not need to be cured, you may end up with both chippolinis and Siskiyou Sweets in your share at the same time.

We spent the last week weeding, rebuilding the hoop house, working on irrigation, fertilizing, amending soil ,and mulching.

The hoop house blew down the beginning of July. I didn’t worry about it too much because it was staying fairly warm at night so I didn’t really need it. But in the last week, the night time temperatures dropped. This meant that the soil temperatures didn’t stay consistently warm enough for seeds to germinate. So, I spent a day buying materials and repairing the hoop house. The result has been flats and flats of nicely germinated lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc. that will be included in your share in the coming months.

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that the well will run out of water before the growing season ends, requiring that I install a system for pumping water from the irrigation pond at the back of the property to the growing area at the front. With the kind help of my neighbor, we have installed about six hundred feet of pipe, with that much more left to go. I am using combination of used plastic pipe and used aluminum pipe. I’ll have to keep an eye on the aluminum pipe as it is often stolen and sold for scrap metal.

This week, the squash had fish for dinner! On a cool evening last week, I sprayed them with a dilute solution of fish emulsion. This is called foliar feeding. Most plants have tiny holes or pores on their leaves that can absorb nutrients. These holes are called stomata. By spraying the fish emulsion directly on the leaves the plants are able to quickly absorb the nutrients thru the stomata, giving them the push they needed to begin producing fruit.

We have also amended the soil in many of the beds with compost. So far, we have applied ten cubic yards, one full dump truck load, with another 10 yards to go. After shoveling on the compost, we are covering it with newspaper or cardboard then putting mulch on top of that. (If you have lots of corrugated, brown cardboard you’d like to get rid of, I’ll happily take it. Just give me a call.)

The purpose of this is two fold, first to enrich the soil and second to help with weed control. Initially the paper/mulch combination will help control weeds by blocking access to sunlight. Most weed seeds need sunlight to germinate and all plants need light to grow. Blocking that sunlight will discourage the weed growth, allowing us to spend less effort weeding.

Over the course of the season the newspaper/cardboard/mulch will break down. Sometime in the late fall, I will till it all in to the soil where it will provide benefit in the form of organic matter. Eventually, it will turn in to the rich brown humus so necessary for plant growth.

August 1, 2008 Good Sam Pick Up Site

This Weeks Veggies

Cabbage – More of the beautiful Savoy cabbage.

Savoy Cosmos or Formidana Lettuce – Formidana is a heading lettuce that is supposed to be slow to bolt. Unfortunately, I’m finding that it actually bolts quit readily. Out of the sixty we planted, only six survived the most recent heat. Savoy Cosmos is a Cos type lettuce, otherwise known as Romaine.

You’ll notice that the word “Savoy” appears in both the name of the cabbage and of the lettuce. Do you notice any similarity between the two? Look closely and you’ll realize that both have leaves that are more crinkly than is typical for that vegetable. “Savoy” means “crinkly leaved”.

Farm Life

We have spent much of the week weeding, transplanting and sowing seeds. I’ve also re-built the hoop house, top dressed most of the beds with compost, ordered garlic for fall planting, and begun laying irrigation pipe for the new system.

One of the difficult things about farming is that I must keep in mind both short term and long term planning at the same time. What is the highest priority to attend to today in order to have a crop to harvest next week? And, what do I need to do today in order to fill your shares four months from now?

In the last few days I have sown chard, brussels sprouts and three kinds of broccoli. They will remain in the hoop house for five to six weeks before they are ready to transplant. They will then take another two to two and a half months to mature in the ground. You’ll likely find them in your November shares.

By this time next week, I will also have sown several kinds of kale, cauliflower and more cabbage also for November shares. Plus I’ll sow lettuce, spinach, salad mix, kohlrabi and mustards for harvest the end of September through October.

In the last several days we have also transplanted the lettuce and fennel that will appear in your shares in six to eight weeks. One batch of each was sown on June 15, the second on July 7^th. Both are ready for transplant now.

Why is that seeds sown three weeks apart are ready for transplant at the same time? Part of it is that I changed growing mediums. But, the biggest difference is the weather. On June 15 I moved the seed sowing operation into the hoop house because it was a warmer place to work. During the initial germination period the high temperature was 74 degrees. The low was 51. Obviously, with air temperatures like that, the soil temperature wasn’t very high either, even in the hoop house, slowing the germination process.

When we sowed seeds on July 7^th, we looked for a cool place to work. During the germination period the high temperature was 93 and the low was 72. This made for warmer soil and therefore faster germination. That combined with the higher quality sowing medium meant that the second batch of seeds caught up with the first.

What does this imply for all the seeds I sowed this week? If the current weather forecast holds true, I’m betting they will take a little longer than average to germinate.

Featured Veggie of the Week

Last week, I suggested that you steam your cabbage. This week, I’m including a link to a recipe for a simple sauté.

http://www.cookingwithpatty.com/recipes/vegetables/Verza.php

If you choose to make this recipe, omit the first step of removing the outer leaves of the cabbage. When I harvest your cabbage, I remove the tough outer leaves and leave them in the field. Doing so saves you the trouble, and cycles the nutrients in the leaves directly back to the soil. This is one of the many small things we do in order to support sustainability on the farm.