Weekly Abundance, Vol. 8-09

July 29 2009 Harvest

Weekly Harvest

Basil

Parsley

Summer Squash

Broccoli

Scallions

Garlic

Beats

Chard

Farm Life

It is hot!  We are expecting it to be over 100 at the farm every day this week.  We are compensating by beginning our work day earlier in the morning, drinking lots of fluids, and wearing wide brimmed hats.  Still, it is HOT!

This week, we said goodbye to my grand daughter, Amber.    She has gone back to Idaho to have some time to hang out with friends before school starts.  It has been wonderful to have her with me the past six weeks.  I miss her already.

The farm is clearly making the transition from cool season crops to warm ones.  This week, we harvested the last of the broccoli.  There will be no more until the fall.  On the same day, we harvested the first of our Dry Farmed tomatoes.  There were not enough of them to market so you will not see them at the stand or in your CSA shares.  However, it is a harbinger of things to come.

What are Dry Farmed tomatoes?  These are tomatoes that have been grown with out any irrigation beyond what they received the day they were transplanted.  Only a few varieties of tomatoes can be grown using this method, and then only under certain growing conditions.

There are two main benefits of dry farming.  The first is that it produces a much more flavorful tomato.  The second is that one uses much less water to do it.  The principle draw backs to dry farming are that it takes more space because the plants have to be further apart, and it significantly reduces yield.

Artisan Organics decided to trial dry farming tomatoes this year because of our concern about the amount of water we draw from Gordon Creek.   If this year’s trial goes well, we will expand our experiment next year to include additional tomato varieties and a variety or two of potatoes.

Red Chesnok Garlic

Veggie of the Week

Over the last few weeks, we have harvested all of our garlic.  Garlic is planted in the fall, traditionally on Halloween, and harvested the next summer.  (See the Calendar of Events for details about our Garlic Planting Event on Nov. 1)

There are three main types of garlic: elephant, hard neck, and soft neck.  Artisan Organics grew the latter two.  We used the soft neck garlic, California Early, to make our garlic braids earlier this month.  (See the blog entry for July 19 for photos.)

Hard neck and soft neck garlic’s differ in the amount of time they can be stored.  Hard necks are considered short keepers, soft necks are long ones.  Consequently, Artisan Organics will have our hard neck garlic available first.  When it is gone, wewill switch to our soft necks.

This week we are featuring Red Chesnok Garlic.  A fairly well adapted variety from the former USSR, this flavorful garlic is nice and full, but with a mellow aftertaste. While it does not store as well as some others (maximum holding time is about 6 months), the intense flavor that remains even when cooked more than makes up for it.

Weekly Abundance, Vol 6-09

Weekly Harvest

Beets – Chioggia, Golden or Kestral

Broccoli

Cabbage

Fennel

Summer Squash – Yellow Crook Neck, Green and Golden Zucchini

Red Torpedo Bottle Onions

Scallions

Lettuce – Butterking and Red Buttterhead

Parsley

New Potatoes – mixed varieties

Farm Life

You will find that your parsley keeps best if you treat it like cut flowers and put it in a vase of water out of direct sunlight.  If you are unable to use all your parsley, you may dry it for later use.

We are trialing several types of onions this year.  As mentioned in last weeks post, onions get much of their flavor from the soil where they are grown.  Consequently we are growing multiplevarieties so that we can identify those that produce the best flavor in our soil.  Last week, you sampled a sweet onion… the same variety used to grow the famous Walla Walla Sweets.  You will get a chance to sample this onion again in the coming weeks.

We are tasting Red Torpedo Bottle onions this week.  Red Torpedoes are considered a Pungent Sweet onion.  They do not dry well so are not used as a long term storage onion.   An easy way to cook them is to baste them in olive oil then cook them on the grill.  The green leaves make a convenient “handle” for turning them.  Unfortunately, we had significant germination problems with this onion so you will not get a second chance to try them.  Be sure to let me know what you think.  Should we grow this onion again next year?

Several people have asked about eggs.  We are asking the chickens the same question, “Where are the eggs?”  So far, the chickens haven’t answered.  So…. we wait and watch.  We will certainly let you know when there are eggs available.

However, there is still chicken available for sale for only $3.75/lb. This price is a bargain.  The last time I visited the Beaverton Farmer’s Market, chickens raised using methods similar to ours were selling for $5.00/lb.  Our pre-cut birds are particularly convenient for grilling and broiling.

Fennel

Featured Veggie of the Week

Fennel is crunchy and slightly sweet, adding a refreshing contribution to the ever popular Mediterranean cuisine. Fennel is composed of a white or pale green bulb from which closely superimposed stalks are arranged. The stalks are topped with feathery green leaves near which flowers grow and produce fennel seeds. The bulb, stalk, leaves and seeds are all edible. Fennel belongs to the Umbellifereae family and is therefore closely related to parsley, carrots, dill and coriander.

Fennel is very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Niacin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.  If you would like to increase the Vitamin C content even more, try this salad which uses both your fennel bulbs and your Red Torpedo Onions.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/fennel-and-red-onion-salad-with-parmesan

Or, follow this link for a  simple recipe for baked fennel.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Fennel-with-Parmesan/Detail.aspx

Weekly Abundance, Vol. 5 -09

Share Contents

Weekly Harvest

Baby Summer Squash

Chard

Lettuce

Radishes

Beets

Walla Walla Sweet type spring onions

Parsley

Farm Life

The first of the garlic harvest is in.  The California Early soft neck garlic bulbs are cleaned and laid out in the Propagation House to dry.   This is the garlic we will braid at our upcoming party on the 19^th.  Next we will harvest the hard neck garlic, followed shortly by onions.  The last of the alium family to be harvested will be the winter storage onions.  These will be dried and put away so that you can receive them in your shares in November and December.

Speaking of garlic,  don’t forget the party coming up on July 19th.  We will begin with a Pot Luck picnic at noon then learn to braid garlic beginning at 2:00. For more details, please see the Schedule of Events page.  Please RSVP so that I know how much Ice Tea and Lemonde to make.  And don’t forget that you are coming to the farm where there is no kitchen.  This means there will be no microwave, stove or even plates and cups, so bring everything you need to sit down to eat, including  chairs. (The first garlic braid is free for CSA shareholders.  All others will be $1.50/head of garlic used in the braid).

And, speaking of aliums.  The onions we harvested this week are the same variety used to grow the famous Walla Walla onions.  But… they won’t taste just like a Walla Walla.  This is because the flavor of onions is dependent on the characteristics of the soil they are grown in.  So… our onions will taste like “Hillsboro Hillsboro”, or to be more specific “Aloha Silt Loam, Aloha Silt Loam” as that is our soil type.

Artisan Organics has a new intern, Ian Hensel.  Ian will spend the next month with us learning about farming in general and CSA’s in particular.  As part of his learning experience, Ian will visit each of the pick up sites and the Farm Stand so you will get a chance to welcome him to our community.

Golden Beets

Featured Veggie of the Week

Beets originated in the Mediterranean region, where the Romans ate their greens. By the end of the Middle Ages, strains of Beta vulgaris bred for swollen, edible taproots had spread through Europe and entered the cuisine. Over the next few centuries, farmers developed a type with huge roots of 20 pounds or more — known in German as mangel-wurzel, or “scarcity root” — which was fed to livestock, as well as the sugar beet that is now a major crop in many countries.  Another variation went the other way: Swiss chard is a kind of Beta vulgaris grown for its colorfully veined, tasty leaves.

Beets come in many colors; white, red, yellow, and even stripped.  At Artisan Organics, we don’t grow white beets but we do all of the others.

If you only know beets as canned additions to a salad bar, fresh ones roasted in the oven can be a revelation.  And don’t forget that the greens are edible too.  The link below will lead you to a tasty recipe that uses both the roots and the greens to create two side dishes.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Beets-and-Sauteed-Beet-Greens/Detail.aspx

Weekly Abundance – Vol. 4-09

This Week’s Harvest

Cabbage

Broccoli

Beets

Radishes

Scallions

Rainbow Chard

Romaine, Buttercrunch and Simpson Black Seeded Lettuces

Farm Life

Nathan with Lucy Marie

The most exciting thing on the farm this week was the birth of my co-worker Nathan’s baby girl.  She was born in their home at the farm on Tuesday, June 23 after only 4.5 hours of labor.  Mom and baby Lucy Marie Miller are happy, healthy and doing well.

While Nathan has been off for the week enjoying his new daughter, we have been hard at work getting the summer crops planted.  We are rushing to complete this for two reasons.

First, the plants are ready to go in to the ground…. and in a few cases, past ready.

Second, we must have the Propagation House emptied  by Monday when we begin harvesting the soft neck garlic.

Immediately after harvest, the garlic is laid out in a cool dry environment to dry.  We will pull the shade cloth over the Propagation House in order to cool it off, then lay the garlic out in nice neat rows.   There is even a specific pattern we will use to lay it out to dry so that we  maximize the space and the air flow and minimize the light exposure.

Once the garlic is dry, it will either be braided on July 19th (please see the Schedule of Events page in the right column for invitation information) or gathered in bunches to be stored for the winter.

The above deadlines are an example of the complex systems on the farm.  Often we find that one thing must be completed by a certain time in order for the next thing to occur.  Sometimes the “time” is dictated by the calendar.  Sometimes it is dictated by the weather, and other times by the particular growth pattern of a particular crop.

Featured Veggie of the Week

This week we will actually feature two veggies… cabbage and beets… since both are appearing in your share for the first time.

Farao F-1 Cabbage

The cabbage in your share this week is called Farao F-1.  (The F-1 indicates it is an hybrid).  It was developed to produce small compact heads in about two months.

Have you ever looked at the cabbage in the grocery store and wondered what to do with it?  Now is the time to learn.  They are a wonderfully flexible member of the brassica family.  You can eat them raw  in Cole Slaw or cook them in multiple ways with minimal preparation. Cabbage  is very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Vitamin A, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Iron and Magnesium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.  The following link is a recipe for Colcannon, and Irish potato and cabbage dish.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/colcannon.html

Beet roots are one of the few items you will find in your share that are truly not edible raw.  While they are not poisonous, the root will leave your throat feeling as though you’ve just swallowed sand paper.  The tops do not have that effect, but are much tastier if they are cooked.

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

I particularly enjoy Beet Salad.  The recipe below is particularly nice.  Just substitute the leaf lettuce included in your share for the baby lettuce called for in the recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Beet-Salad-with-Goat-Cheese/Detail.aspx