CSA Newsletter, Week 22

This Weeks Veggies

Chard or Kale – Sweet Chard or Red Russian Kale

Beets, Turnips or Rutabaga – These mixed bunches of beets would be great micro-waved and added to your salad.  Learn about Rutabagas in the “Featured Veggie of the Week” section below.

Fennel

Spinach

Broccoli Raab

Leeks

Winter Squash

Green Onions

Farm Life

Winter is here.  The rain season has started.  The change in the season is apparent in my activities.  I am spending more time indoors catching up on all the paper work that has stacked up in my “in” box during the season.  The first thing to work on is the bookkeeping.

Though the harvest is ending, there are still a lot of things happening on the farm. In fact, we are going to have a busy winter.  The first item of business is to work with our landlords and the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District to develop a 10 year Conservation Plan for the entire property.  This plan will include everything from acquiring a herd of goats to help control blackberries, to planting native trees and shrubs along the creek.  If you would like to be involved in this project, please let us know.

Other projects for the winter include building a packing house and installing a walk-in cooler, building portable “egg mobiles” to house several new flocks of chickens, installing a green house, and fencing pastures for sheep.  This in addition to the usual winter activities of developing detailed cropping plans, ordering seeds and supplies, routine maintenance of our tools and equipment and attending farm workshops and training programs.

And, sometime during the winter, I will take a vacation.  You can bet I will go somewhere with a hot spring.  I hope you will also find some time do something restful and relaxing during the winter season.

Featured Veggie of the Week

As a Child, when  I asked my Mother what was for dinner, she always answered “Rutabaga Pie”.  Since there were no cans labeled “rutabagas” in the pantry (we never ate fresh vegetables) and we certainly weren’t having pie, I concluded that “rutabaga” was a word my mother made up to get rid of annoying little girls.  I was an adult before I realized that a rutabaga was truly a vegetable and a mother myself before I ever saw one.

Rutabagas, known as “Swedes” in Europe, require a cool growing climate.  The following web site gives a good history of this root vegetable.

http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch4.html

You’ll notice that this web site recommends purchasing Rutabagas in the early Autumn.  In our climate however, we do not plant them until late summer so that they do not mature when it is still warm.  This means that they are in season in early winter here.  In fact, if it is a mild winter, we can grow them all winter long.

Ratabagas are great oven roasted.   Or, try this recipe for Rutabaga Puree with Cardamon and Thyme from Epicurious.com

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rutabaga-Puree-with-Cardamom-and-Thyme-236250

CSA Newsletter, Week 21

Our new grandson, Neilan Gregory, born on Halloween

The biggest news of the week is the birth of our new grandson, Neilan Gregory  born on Halloween to proud parents Margaret and Trevor of Bellingham, WA. He was 8lbs, 6oz and 21 inches long. Sandy is with them now and assures me all is well. I will go up and see for myself after the season wraps up next week.

This Weeks Veggies

Fresh Onions

Spinach

Turnips or Beets – We are just about at the end of the beets and turnips. But don’t worry. There will be other root vegetables next week.

Lettuce – A lovely blushed Romaine. For reasons unknown to me, the Romaine lettuces seem to be less attractive to the slugs than the butter lettuces. That doesn’t mean these don’t have slug damage, just less of it than the other varieties.

Winter Squash – Choose between Delicata or Dumpling Squash. Both of these squashes are excellent for stuffing.

Leeks – More mild and delicious leeks. Do you see Potato Leek Soup in your future? I had hoped to provide you with potatoes but the gophers and voles devoured them. I planted enough to yield several hundred pounds but actually got eight. That’s right, eight pound of potatoes out of 600 bed feet and many hours of work!

Braising Greens – I have been mixing my braising greens in with my salad greens for a more flavorful fall salad. However, these are also great sautéed until just wilted then dressed with sesame oil and rice vinegar.

Broccoli Raab – As I was staffing the Good Sam pick up site one day, I looked up to the sound of screeching brakes. A woman hoped out of her BMW and exclaimed, “You’ve got broccoli raab!” “How ever much it costs, I’ll buy all you’ve got.” She went on to explain that she had just moved to Portland from New Jersey. Her husband had convinced her to move here by telling her the food was “sooooo gooood” in Portland. But when she arrived she was disappointed to find no broccoli raab. She was ready to move back to New Jersey because she had been to three farmers markets and no one had her favorite vegetable. One of the farmers she spoke with didn’t even know what she was talking about.

Her favorite recipe is a Broccoli Raab sandwich on Foccacia Bread. She sautés the Broccoli Raab with onion and a little garlic. Then she slices the Foccacia Bread , spreads it with her favorite condiments (horseradish!), adds the broccoli raab, puts the top on, and digs in. She was adamant that “Portlanders know nothing about food if they don’t eat broccoli raab sandwiches”. “Every one in New Jersey eats Broccoli Raab sandwiches”.

Surely, we are not going to be outdone by New Jersey?! So, have a Broccoli Raab sandwich, please.

The tale does have a happy ending. While she was extolling the virtues of broccoli raab, I got a call from a shareholder saying they weren’t going to make it to pick up their shares. So, I gave her their bunch of broccoli raab. She drove away smiling and clutching her broccoli raab. Portland had been redeemed.

Farm Life

This week has seen more “seat time”. As I’ve mentioned in a previous newsletter, my rental includes a 2.5 acre field that I did not use this year. Because it is adjacent to the forest and unfenced, it is prime deer grazing ground. Previous farmers have used it to grow veggies that deer don’t care for like onions, potatoes and pumpkins. In fact pumpkins have been grown on it so often it has become known as “The Pumpkin Patch” even though it has only grown weeds for the last three years.

Since I would like to use it as some point in the future, I need to begin tackling the Canadian Thistle now. That means ripping the soil to break up the roots, then disking them in to small pieces. To do that takes many hours on the tractor over very uneven terrain. I did a small section of it two weeks ago and finished the remainder of it this week.

Are you old enough to remember the bucking bronco machines that were so popular in bars about 20 years ago? Imagine trying to drive one of those across a field. Then imagine having to look over your shoulder the entire time to be sure your shanks aren’t clogged with debris. If it makes your back hurt just thinking about it, you can imagine what it felt like spending 8 hours doing it.

Fortunately, I finished it just before the rains started. And, the rains gave me an excuse to take some time off to rest my back. In fact, I took the whole weekend off. That is the first time I have taken off two days in a row since mid-May. I must admit I spent most of it sleeping.