We took a break this week from recipes and blogging. We will be back to our regular schedule next week. Hope you enjoy all the veggies & let us know if you have any recipes you would like to share with the CSA community.
New Potatoes: We are always so excited when its time to start diggin’ potatoes! We plant our potatoes in early April, and have been weeding and hilling them with our tractors until now. I think new potatoes are one of the tastiest treats of the summer- they have very little starch and are sweet, crisp, and delicious. You can cook them any which way you like, but I always enjoy a simple preparation of either steamed or boiled and then dressed with a little butter or olive oil, parsley, and salt. Yum! You’ll notice that the spuds aren’t what you would call the most aesthetically pleasing- the skins are so thin and delicate on new potatoes that they peel and shred during the harvest process. Although this is a somewhat unfortunate (and unavoidable) occurrence, its well worth it. We also grew these in our field that has the most silt of any on the farm (its like baby powder its so fine) so that enabled us to give the potatoes a quick and gentle rinse before packing without damaging them further, but you’ll want to wash them further before using.
Japanese Salad Turnips: Think of these cute little turnips as less spicy cousin of radishes. You can eat the roots raw (my favorite) or cooked. They are sweeter than radishes and also have a creamier texture- and a huge bonus…the tops are not only edible, they’re DELICIOUS, so make sure to not miss out. Even if you’re like me and hate the flavor of turnips, these will surely win you over- they’re totally different than their European storage crop counterparts. I would also recommend storing these in a plastic bag to keep both the tops and the roots fresh and vibrant.
In the previous weeks we have discussed our wonderful soils as well as some of the techniques that we employ to help protect the soil and ensure that all of the complex structure and life within it continues to thrive. Another big component of Organic farming that relates to soil health and crop health is cover cropping. Once we are done with a field for the season, we seed it with a selected cover crop or a blend of several cover crops that will grow up and later be incorporated back into the soil. Cover crops we use include buckwheat, vetch, field peas, bell beans, oats, rye, crimson clover, and Sudan grass.
Cover crops do several really amazing things- first off, they out-compete weeds- so rather than having a bare dirt patch that soon turns into an awful weedy mess, we instead have a nice lush stand of cover crop that smothers out any weeds that might have tried to germinate. Secondly, as the cover crops grow their 
roots penetrate deep below the surface and help to break up soil and create little spaces for air and water- thusly improving aeration and drainage. The cover crops also help retain nutrients and hold the soil in place- so the wind doesn’t blow our precious topsoil away and the profuse Pacific Northwest winter rains don’t wash all of the nutrients away- keeping the fertility in the soil and within the plant tissue rather than washed away into waterways and ground water. Speaking of the abundant winter rains, cover crops also shield the soil from the relentless pounding of the rain over the winter months- without the protection of cover crops, all that rain can really beat down the soil and destroy all the fluffy texture we work so hard to achieve. Lastly, cover crops are essentially generating free compost and fertility with just the power of a little water and sunshine. All that biomass the plants create will eventually be mowed and worked back into the soil- boosting the amount of organic matter in the soil. This enhances the soil’s ability to drain well during the winter as well as to retain moisture during the hotter months.
We custom select cover crops for each block depending on previous crop history, disease or pest issues, 
time of season, future crop rotations, and fertility/pH. With our intensive cover cropping over the years, we have been able to cut the amount of imported fertilizer we apply to the fields in HALF with no net loss of fertility. Some cover crops (those in the legume family like field peas and bell beans) are nitrogen-fixers- that means they pull nitrogen out of the the air (our atmosphere is almost 80% nitrogen) and store it in little nodules in it’s root system. Then when we till these plants in, we get all that additional nitrogen added right into the soil. BOOM! Free nitrogen, right out of thin air…how cool is that?!?!
In other places around the farm, our corn is getting taller by the minute it seems, some tasty herbs are flourishing for upcoming CSA shares, the onion field is well-weeded and full of insectary plantings of colorful flowers to attract beneficial insects, multi-colored blocks of chard are loving the heat, more beets are carrots are nearly ready for harvest, and we just pulled in the rest of our red cabbage for the spring!
And as a little teaser, our cucumber field is getting ready to start pumping out the fruit, so get ready for cucumber season!
Broccoli: We’ve been waiting for our second wave of broccoli to ripen, and I think the more closely we watch it the more it decides to stall out. We have also noticed that the plants appear a little unhappy due to weeds and pests (we made the decision to forego one final weeding, with the thought that the broad leaves of the broccoli plants would smother out any potential weed competition that popped up, but some very vigorous weeds are proving us wrong) Nonetheless, we did find some broccoli for this week- you may or may not see it in the share next week depending on how the crowns mature over the rest of this week. Its always an adventure with farming!
Carrots: This week we have continued harvesting our first crop of carrots for the season out of our greenhouse- but now without the greens. When harvested this way, carrots can store for a very long time…not that you’d need to- these are some of the best tasting carrots I think I’ve ever tasted. Store your carrots in a plastic bag or a tupperware in the fridge to help them retain their fresh, juicy crunch.
Joi Choi: This is farewell to Joi Choi for the season. It loves the cooler weather in the spring and beginning of summer but struggles greatly in the heat of summer, so we enjoy it while it lasts at the beginning of the season and then say farewell ’till the Fall. We generally do another round of Joi Choi in September, so look for it again then!
Scallions, Shimonita: As promised, here are the Shimonita scallions. These amazing scallions are well-known in Japan, but less common in America. They can grow to the size of a leek and have a nice, long harvest window (unlike regular scallions, which reach that peak of perfection and then sail past it in the seeming blink of an eye). Its also fascinating that the green tops are inflated tubes…when you squeeze the tops there’s definitely air in there! Read on below for some interesting information about soil life and an amazing product that we have been trialing on the farm- with fantastic results on the Shimonitas!
The last few weeks have been action-packed as is typical for this time of year, but we are now sliding into the little pre-summer lull that’s a little like the eye of the storm. We made it through the hustle and bustle of early June, and now we just have maintenance work to do until the summer crops and summer activities really pick up…harvesting summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and LOTS more along with weeding and larger bulk harvests of crops like beets and carrots. So now is a great moment to back up and start at the beginning of how your food arrives on your table…
Organic farming is largely about feeding the soil rather than feeding the plants- if you have healthy soil, the healthy (and delicious) plants will follow. Well what is ‘healthy’ soil? Its a combination of good soil composition, texture, moisture, fertility, and soil life. You may have heard of good quality soils referred to as ‘loam’; that’s the sweet spot of soil composition where you have roughly 40% sand, 40% silt, and 20% clay. We certainly have some lovely silty loams that we farm, and its very important to us that we protect the wonderful treasure that is our soil. We do that by selecting implements for tiling our fields that don’t excessively compact OR entirely break apart the texture of the soil. As such, we are the proud owners of two Italian-made spading implements that we use to do the vast majority of our ’tilling’ with. Its a piece of machinery that emulates the same action and effect as ‘double-digging’ (which is the gold standard for highly motivated gardeners). The spader is in most cases a much preferable implement for tillage than the rototiller. With its circular digging motion moving at a slower rate, it preserves more structure of the soil and allows for microbial organisms to recover faster. A rototiller spins at such a high rate with blades that literally pulverize the soil. Not only does this method make the recovery time for our little soil buddies (the microbes) much longer, but if done on a breezy day, you will see your precious topsoil blow away. The rototiller does have significant strengths of its own. It is a little faster than spading, and it can break down big clods of clay in your soil. However, the “stabbing” that the spader does as it enters the earth breaks up any sort of hard pan that would prevent deep root growth and water penetration. Whereas a rotating tine of the rototiller will compact the deeper soil and create a hard pan. Here at SIO we use our spader as much as possible to steward the land as best we can, but we keep our tiller around for a secondary tillage in our fields with higher clay content.
Since we don’t rely on sprays and quick-release fertilizers to feed our crops, we are counting on the soil itself to feed the plants as well as protect them from pests and diseases. This is also a large motivation for our specialized tilling equipment- in healthy soils, the microbes and fungi actually help to feed the plants with their extended networks. A plant’s roots only reach so far, so they strike up a symbiotic relationship with the soil microbes and fungi where the plant provides space to live in and around its roots plus sugars to eat in exchange for a little help obtaining water and nutrients that are beyond its reach. Since the little microbes and fungi have an awesome food and housing arrangement with the plant, they are also invested in protecting the plant- so they help to fend off pests and diseases! This wonderful set of relationships is also why we farm Organically- to protect and nurture this process now and into the future. We try and drive our equipment over the soil as little as possible and till as little as possible to preserve the delicate and intricate structure within the soil- its a living thing! We’ll go into other techniques that play a role in this process next week, like cover cropping and crop rotations.
Lastly, we have been excited to be working with the folks from HB-101- a Japanese company that has created a liquid extract from cedar, pine, cypress, and plantain to help vitalize plants. They have been coming out to the farm each week since the beginning of the season to apply HB-101 to a selected section of Shimonitas and our storage onions. We could see a very pronounced difference in the vigor and health of the transplants that were enjoying weekly applications of the HB-101 over those that were getting none. We are also excited to try more of this product into the future- especially in the greenhouse.
Cabbage: Everyone will receive a red cabbage this week, and full share members will also be getting a unique conical green variety! These cabbages are also well-suited to early season growing and have a sweet, mild flavor. I’m told they make great kraut, and because of their elongated shape, can also make fun wrapper leaves for salads and such. These pointy cabbages aren’t very commonly found in American markets, but are more well-known in Europe. Due to the hot then cold, then hot again weather this spring, the cabbages seemed a little confused about what was going on. They made nice heads, but are on the petite side.
Fennel: Remember those tender little fennel bulbs from Week Two? Well, we harvested the bulbs for that almost as though we were thinning- which is in fact what we were doing. We harvested the most developed bulbs and left the rest behind to size up. Upon further inspection, we realized that the plants have no intention of doing so- they will likely just splay open and become unusable. This variety is really delightful as a young bulb, but at heart is just not a bulky, rounded, meaty fennel bulb. We thought we would capture these before they’re gone and give you all another little fennel bonus. TIP: If you find the flavor of fennel to be overpowering, or isn’t you’re favorite, try cooking it. Sautee it just like you would onions (I often mix fennel in with my onions when I’m starting off cooking down onions for a dish). The flavor becomes very muted and savory. You might even experiment with tossing the whole fennel on the grill with a little olive oil and salt!
Radishes: This is the last time we will see radishes in the share during the main season. Radishes enjoy the cool weather of spring and early summer but do not fare well during the summer heat, so we stick to the early time slot only. Just like the spinach last week, its quite possible you’ve never seen radishes like these! When we looked at these in the fields we were a little sad, thinking that we were too late and that the radishes had sailed past their prime in all the hot hot weather. However, a taste test was pleasantly surprising- they weren’t pithy, tough, or woody- just sweet, juicy radish delight! We scrambled a crew together and pulled the entire radish field- just in time!
Scallions: This is a second showing of the same purple/white combo as last time- we hope you like the color and flavor as much as we do. The purple scallions add a fun splash of color in the early season shares, which have a tendency to be very green. Next week you can look forward to our awesome Shimonita scallions- an amazingly giant and delicious scallion variety that hails from Japan and also a farm favorite!
This week we are so glad to finally be getting the last of our Winter Squash planted! We are also glad to be participating in squash variety trials with OSU and NOVIC (Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative) to learn more about productivity, yield, storage, and flavor profiles of a wide spectrum of varieties. Winter Squash is one of my very favorite crops to grow- the assortment of shapes, colors, textures, flavors, and storage qualities are so exciting to work with. Its like curating a gallery- one thats living, beautiful, AND edible!
In addition to squash, we have fall cabbages getting transplanted, and are seeding our fall and winter chicories in the greenhouse (think radicchio, sugarloaf). It always feels odd to be dealing in fall and winter crops before we have picked a single zucchini, tomato, or pepper…its not even summer and we’re already getting ready for winter!
We also have our tomato trellising installed in the fields, as well as our cucumber trellising. Let me say, growing cucumbers on vertical trellising is the way to go! Gone are the days of bending over for hours, rustling about in the scratchy leaves to find the fruits and having to clean the soil off…and hello to perfectly clean, straight fruit hanging in plain view 
right at face-level. Woohooo! We are also very anxious to get started on some more intensive tomato pruning (yes…PRUNE YOUR TOMATO PLANTS) but have been unable to due to the afternoon rain. Its important to handle tomato plants when they are good and dry to prevent the spread of any potential blight as much as possible.
In the picture, Jerry is getting ready to go do some tillage. He is incorporating a fava bean cover crop into the soil that was mowed several weeks back. In a few weeks from now, we will till again and then the beds will be sown with late-season salad mix as well as storage radishes, turnips, and rutabagas over the course of several weeks. Along with
our Field and Equipment Manager Brian, Jerry does all of the tractor work- spading, tilling, mowing, weeding, weeding some more, installing plastic-mulched beds, spreading fertilizer, making beds, and marking beds for transplant. Thanks Jerry!Next week we will give you more of a glimpse into our field management practices, the field preparation process, and how our equipment and management practices protect the soil quality and help us grow fantastic crops.
Beets: This spring we did a trial planting of root crops in our greenhouses in order to get you some heartier veggies sooner in the season. We direct seeded our beets in the greenhouse back in mid-March. We also conducted a transplanted beet trial- with great success! Some specialty beets germinate very poorly in cooler soil temperatures, so we gave them a heated boost by seeding them into flats in our heated greenhouse. Last year we began growing a white beet variety that tastes great and has very nice greens- which also loved the heated greenhouse. This week your beet bunches feature a mixture of red and white beets with big beautiful greens.
Broccoli: This is a tricky crop to get the timing right on…broccoli seems to have a life all its own. We space our seeding dates apart in hopes of providing a continual supply of broccoli in the spring, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t! The great news is that our second planting of broccoli caught up with the first one, so you get to enjoy a bountiful amount of broccoli this week. We top ice the crowns immediately after harvest, so they keep quite well in the fridge. The variety we grow has a fairly meaty stem, which is my favorite part- you can use most (often all) of the stem along with the florets. Just peel the outer layer if it seems tough at all and cook a tad longer than the florets.
Green Garlic: This week we have our second and last fresh garlic distribution- its a little larger and more developed than Week 1, but you can still use a good deal of the green stalks so long as you peel it sufficiently.
Spinach: Most folks are familiar with the little baby spinach leaves found in the grocery store- but if you let the spinach keep growing, some AMAZING things happen. The leaves get really big, and the spinach develops a sweet and delectable flavor that can’t be found in baby spinach. Our processing equipment tends to crack and break the leaves and stems on spinach, so we pack it out as-is and unwashed to keep it nicer. Rinse in cool water before using to remove any soil or grit.
In 2005 Sauvie Island Organics’ owner Shari Raider co-founded the Sauvie Island Center. The Center serves elementary school youth of Portland by providing hands-on educational field trips. These field trips take place on our farm and the adjacent 120 acre Howell Territorial Park. The curriculum includes Soil Investigations, Plant Parts Investigations, Wildlife & the Food Chain exploration & digging in the Grow Lunch Garden. Through these programs, the Center seeks to increase the food, farm and environmental literacy of the next generation.
National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26 and the Sauvie Island Center invites you on June 18th from 10am to 1pm for a Pollination Celebration. During this family-friendly event you will search the native hedgerow for pollinators, taste honey and find out how bees use their bodies to gather pollen. Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy the beautiful grounds of Howell Territorial Park. Registration is requested, but not required.
There are also few spaces left for Farm Camp at Sauvie Island Center (various weeks). Kids will spend a week exploring our farm and adjacent grounds of Metro’s Howell Territorial Park. For information or to register visit Farm Camp.
Or join the fun at the Center’s 8th annual Barn Dance & Barbecue, on July 30th from 4:30pm to 8pm. Tickets can be bought on-line. You will certainly see a number of your farmers kicking up their heels!
This year we are really happy with the progression of crops in the early season- we feel like we are able to offer a really exciting range of vegetables to kick the season off. We love the festive red and white scallions, deep ruby and rainbow chards, snowy white baby fennel bulbs, hefty Napa cabbages, and lush purple kohlrabi…yum!!! Its really nice to see a range of textures and colors in the shares since most of what thrives this time of year is green and leafy.
As always this early in the season, all of the crops in the share will be the happiest if stored in your refrigerator inside of a plastic bag. The Napa cabbage is quite bulky, but will also last for weeks in a bag. Just cut off a portion and re-wrap the rest for later.
Fennel: This is one of the crops that grows really well for us at SIO. We love growing fennel, and I for one LOVE eating fennel- cooked, raw, or just like an apple. We like to feature a young, tender bulb of ‘Preludio’ at the beginning of the season- which is an Italian variety intended for the earlier parts of the season. We are loading you up with 4 bulbs for full shares and 2 for half shares since they are still petite at this point in time…but why wait??? These bulbs are tender and perfect now…with plenty of stem and frond to enjoy cooking with as well.
Kohlrabi: The skin on this variety has the most eye-catching hue of purple! Kohlrabi is related to cabbage, broccoli, kale, radishes, and turnips- and has a flavor that resembles broccoli stem…which is essentially what a Kohlrabi is. Over time, the plant has been selected to feature a swollen stem, which is the round bulb that we eat. We left the leaves attached since they taste pretty good too! Slaws are probably my favorite way to enjoy kohlrabi- I really like the crisp, refreshing texture, and sometimes slice it up into chips and have it with hummus.
Scallions: I am super excited to have picked up a purple scallion variety this season. We have combined the deep purple scallions with our favorite variety of white scallion to make some fun multi-color bunches.
All of this heat provides excellent conditions for weeding- so we have been busy hoeing the fields in the hot afternoons in order to keep the weeds at bay. It is also hard to believe that just as summer feels around the corner, the winter squash fields are well under way, and we are about to transplant our fall/winter celeriac and leeks into the fields! Such is the life of June on the farm- we are kicking off the harvest season with plenty of tender leafy greens that require cool morning temperatures for harvest, seeding fall crops in the greenhouse, transplanting in full force, weeding during any spare moment, watching the plants gain momentum, irrigating all day long, tilling, mowing, and tractor-weeding around the clock, shuffling row cover on and off of crops, and of course…washing, packing, and getting all of our CSA and restaurant deliveries out the door on time and in style! June is the most action-packed month of the farming season simply because you have all of those activities happening at the same time…but our crew is amazing and we are blazing through the to-do lists every day as a team that is strengthening constantly…and we’re just getting warmed up! We have lots of folks who have returned for several seasons, a core of seasoned veterans, and are excited to be adding fantastic new members to our lineup this season.
During the daytime the farm is bustling with trucks, tractors, deliveries, pack-out, walkie-talkies, radios, emails, good conversation, etc., but at sundown a whole new soundscape comes to life as the birds all chirp and sing- in the hedgerows, around the ponds, and in all the little nooks and crannies throughout the farm. The golden hour is stunning on the farm- the gentle rolling hills catch the light just so through the native Oaks and Maples and you can enjoy the order and linear geometry of the farm mixed with the wildness of the hedgerows, insectary beds, and wildlife refuge nestled alongside the farm. We regularly get to see Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles, Red-tailed hawks, Killdeers, and playful little Barn Swallows nesting in the barn rafters. Its a great reminder how deeply embedded we are within the local ecology and what wonderful flora and fauna also call this place home.
Hello everyone! We would like to welcome you to the kick-off of the 2016 season. We are so happy to have all of you enjoying our vegetables on your table with friends, family, and neighbors…we appreciate your support of our beautiful farm!
My name is Jen and I’m the Farm Manager at SIO; on behalf of the entire SIO crew, I will be writing the blog this season (in addition of course to Katherine’s wonderful recipes!) where each week we will try and capture some of the exciting highlights, lessons, innovations, and inspirations happening on the farm.
We will also provide information about the share that could include storage tips, varietal 
information, or special notes about unusual crops or conditions as they arise. We plan to feature one or two crops each week- each and every vegetable has a unique and interesting story that can be traced from seed to plate- and oftentimes far, far beyond!
We look forward to introducing our farm crew as well, so each week you will hear from one of the amazing and talented crew members about their experiences on the farm that day or week- that way you can see what a day in the life of a farmer looks like!
Even though this is the very first week you will be receiving vegetables, we have been hard at work seeding, transplanting, weeding, and more for 
several months in preparation and anticipation of this very week. Now that it’s finally here, we are ready to harvest the freshest, most delicious food for all of you to enjoy!
The early weeks of the share provide an opportunity to showcase all of the wonderful greens that thrive in our bioregion. The beginning of the season will be ripe with vibrant spring greens of all shapes, colors, textures, and flavors. They are all a treat to work with in the kitchen, and provide a welcome nutritional kick to launch us out of the winter doldrums and into summer. Enjoy them while they’re here, we hope you find them as nurturing and satisfying as we do!
The tender greens in the early weeks are sensitive to warm weather so as a preventative measure, we will drape a moist paper towel over (and sometimes under) the produce in order to maintain its moisture and provide some ambient cooling. You can compost the paper towels, or wrap certain crops in them before storing in the refrigerator.
Speaking of sensitive early-season greens…they like very high humidity in order to stay happy. Refrigerators dry out the greens, and overnight a juicy, lush head of bok choi will become weepy and sad. We recommend storing all of your greens in plastic bags (I know, pretty much an antique in Portland these days) in order to keep them perky and fresh.
Bok Choi: The crisp, meaty ribs of bok choi are one of my favorites in the spring. We keep our choi covered underneath ‘floating row cover’ (more about that later) which keeps the greens protected from weather and pests. It also results in more delicate leaves- so in the interest of not bruising, cracking, or crushing, we opted not to wash your choi. Just give it a quick rinse under cool water before you want to use it incase it has any soil stuck to the stems or bottom.
Fresh Garlic: You’ll find young garlic in your share- essentially immature garlic that has not reached full size or maturity. When you prepare it you will notice small bulbs forming as well as all the layers of wrapping that would later on dry, cure, and tighten to form the papery skins that enable mature garlic to store for so long. Due to the incredibly wet winter conditions, we opted to delay planting our garlic until January…which is about 2-3 months later than usual! As such, they are less filled out than one might expect this time of year, but tender and delicious for sure!
Mizuna: This mild and tender mustard is a member of a special group of vegetables known in Japan as ‘Kyōyasai’- comprised of over forty specialty vegetables that are produced in the area surrounding Kyoto. Just as we have a mild climate and rich soils, Kyoto experiences similar conditions that have enabled farmers to turn vegetable production into a high art befitting of Kyoto’s position as the cultural center of Japan. These vegetables are prized for their exceptional nutritional value, taste, color, shape, and seasonality.
Its nearly the first official day of Spring, just as we say goodbye to the last of the CSA Winter Shares for the season! We hope you have enjoyed participating in our Winter Share…it was a bountiful winter of greens and storage crops, even though we hit a few bumps in the road with potatoes and carrots. We appreciate your support throughout the winter and hope that you were able to create lots of delicious meals to share with friends and family during the cold, rainy months. Although the winter has a smaller palette of local crops that are available than during the summer months, it still boasts a really wonderful and nutritious set of offerings and we’re glad you decided to continue to support your local farmers!
The farm is looking very verdant and cheery as the longer days and warmer temperatures coax everything out of their winter slumber. Bees can be found foraging in the flowering mustards, the Oregon Maples are beginning to blossom, and the fields smell sweet with the scent of mustard and fava blossoms. We are racing to get as much accomplished as we can during this window of good weather so we can create space in the fields for our very first rounds of transplants to go outside- head lettuce, kales, fennel, onions, broccoli, napa cabbages and beneficial flowers. Transplanting season always comes as a bit of a surprise, since it feels like we just wrapped up the last of the field work not so long ago. Our muscles also have to re-learn the many hours of bending over and walking that come along with this time of year as well, but we look forward to it for sure!
Cabbage: The cabbage is quite pale this time around- because its more like the heart of the cabbage than the whole thing. These cabbages braved the winter elements out in the fields and still have nice, tasty leaves underneath their haggard exterior. Those tough outer leaves sure did their jobs though- because once you peel away enough of the outside, you are left with a nice little head of cabbage.
Chard: This chard has been the gift that keeps on giving. This is the very same chard that we planted back in July last year and harvested throughout the late summer and fall. Once the rain and cold temperatures showed up, the chard went to sleep for the winter. Normally thats the end of it…but this season it awoke from its slumber rather than disintegrate in the cold. I think the stems are probably the best tasting chard stems I have ever had!
Kohlrabi: This is another storage superstar for sure…we grow two large varieties that have been bred specifically for storage. As such, they have tough (and lets be totally honest…kind of weird looking skins) that are oftentimes mottled with some black or grey. For the best continued quality, stash your kohlrabi in a plastic bag and cut off however much you want to use at a time and peel right before use. We just got a great tip from a new staff member to try out kohlrabi pancakes!!! Just grate the kohlrabi and mix in some egg, bread crumbs, and seasoning of choice, then fry little pancakes until golden brown on both sides. She tops hers with a parsley-yogurt-avocado sauce. Wow!
Leeks: They just keep getting bigger and bigger…will they ever stop?!?!? One of my favorite decadent treats (which I have made for St. Paddys Day in the past and goes great with soda bread and taters) is to bake them in heavy cream with a dash of nutmeg and salt. Cut the white portion in half, put in a dish cut side up so they are touching but not crammed, and fill the pan until they are very nearly submerged. Cover with foil and bake at 375, remove the foil after about 30 min and then continue to bake until the cream looks thickened to your liking. Sometimes I put it under the broiler just a bit at the end.
Purple Sprouting Broccoli: This was a nice little treat from an experimental planting we did in one of our greenhouses. We planted the broccoli a little late, but then put some of the plants in the greenhouse to see if we couldn’t hurry things along a bit. We’re glad we did, because it was ready just in time for the last share! Rather than a singular large crown like regular broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli is a massive plant that sends out tons of long, slender side shoots with little mini florets on the tips and sometimes along the length of the stem as well. The stem is really sweet and tender so you can eat the whole thing along with any leaves that are attached. Cook it gently and quickly like you would asparagus- if you let it languish in the pan or overcook the shoots, it will rapidly turn mushy and flavorless. Saute it quickly and plate it right away…dress it with some salt and olive oil, lemon and garlic, or tamari, rice vinegar, and sesame seeds.
Radish, Daikon: The crisp texture of a radish is always a treat this time of year since many of the other crops available are more of a starchy root. You can cut them into rings and lacto-ferment them, grate them for salad, or use for slaw. Cooking daikon is a common practice, although I can never quite bring myself to cook a radish. The ends and tips suffered some insect damage, so those have been trimmed away. Some we had to trim quite a bit, so it may look more like a daikon log than the whole root. Tastes great though! Also make sure to store these in a plastic bag so they do not loose that crisp texture and turn rubbery.
Winter Squash, Crown Pumpkin: This squash has got to be one of the absolute best storing we have ever seen! Long after all of the other squash have faded, or begin to turn into something resembling a science-experiment, Crown Pumpkin is still going strong! The ash-blue and peach colored exterior is very tough, so be prepared to use some muscle power to cut these open. The flesh is a nice deep orange and tastes great!
Enjoy & we hope to continue to grow for you this summer!
Sign up is now open for our May-November CSA season.
During that spurt of sunny weather we had last week we were plenty busy on the tractors, turning old sections of cover crop or dead plant debris into the soil for our early season crops like radishes, chard, fennel, lettuce, and the like. Our garlic is looking happy as it pokes up from its bed of alfalfa mulch, and little fava and pea sprouts are emerging from fields that were broadcast seeded earlier in February.
The greenhouse is also filling up with starts at an exciting rate. Our heated portion of the greenhouse features onions, kales, salad mix ingredients, flowers for attracting beneficial insects, herbs, head lettuce, spinach, a golden beet trial, and more!
New parts have arrived that will get an old, abandoned direct seeder up and running for the 2016 season, which we hope to begin trials with soon. It mounts to the back of a tractor, allowing one person to seed multiple lines down the entire length of a bed in just one pass. It also ensures that all the lines are evenly spaced and straight, which will allow for easier and better weeding with our cultivation tractors later on. These little improvements are the types of exciting innovations that allow us to gain efficiency and thusly focus more time and energy on other important aspects of the farm.
The hedgerows are also bustling with life this time of year! Sauvie Island is well known for its diversity of avian life (you can find about 250 species on the island)- and its a real treat to hear the bird songs all day while we are working. Hummingbirds are also appearing more frequently as the Red Flowering Currants are beginning to bloom- a favorite food source.
Cabbage: These green cabbages have been awaiting harvest all winter long in the furthest outer reaches of our farm fields…and now they are ready for you! This is a pretty variety called Daedon that has purple-tinged outer leaves. Alas, those outer wrapper leaves take all the beatings from the elements and must be peeled away to reveal the well-protected interior.
Leeks: Another great late-season crop that holds forever and ever in the fields. We still have a decent sized block to harvest from and are excited that they just keep growing without showing signs of bolting. We are about to come full-circle on the farm as we will still be harvesting leeks until nearly the time when we start our new babies in the greenhouse.
Mustard Raab: The farm is starting to show the signs of spring- lots of little yellow flowers abound as our overwintering brassicas like kales, mustards, mizuna, and asian greens bolt and flower. This provides great bee forage this time of year when there isn’t much else available but we sometimes have warm sunny days that motivate the bees to leave the hive. If you harvest the flowering stems just before or as the buds open into full flower, its a tasty treat that is somewhat reminiscent of asparagus. I usually prepare it just like asparagus- a quick sautee in a a very hot pan with garlic and finished with olive oil, salt, and a sprinkle of lemon juice. The raab bunches are a rainbow of mustard varieties from Wild Garden Seed’s mustard blends we grow for salad.
Radish, Daikon: You may find entire roots in your share, or portions that have had tops and tips cut off due to pest damage. We have also found that during their time in storage, the soil really glued itself on there pretty well- so the roots have been sprayed and washed but we were not able to get them as sparking white as you might recall them being earlier in the winter. You could give the skins a quick scrub prior to using to get the last little bit.
Sage: We have seen just enough new growth on our sage plants to harvest for the share. Sage goes well with just about anything containing potatoes, as well as celeriac. Try making a brown butter sage sauce, or putting half the bunch in a chicken before roasting. The sage will dry easily just like the thyme- so use what you need now and leave the rest on the counter, or hang upside down with a rubber band tightly secured around the base to dry it out more completely.
We are feeling the full excitement of Spring here on the farm- with all this warm and occasionally sunny weather, we have made progress on several fronts to get ready for the 2016 season. We have completed our crop and rotation plans and are ordering seeds, we have tilled in some of our overwintering cover crops in our lighter, sandy soils, we sowed fava beans in the field, we refurbished our propagation greenhouse, have developed a new potting soil recipe, and have begun seeding onions, shallots, parsley, fennel, chard, and lettuces in the greenhouse!
Most of the items in the share this week are ones that you are familiar with already. Its a very red and white share…which feels very appropriate for this time of year as we see the Snowbell and Indian Plum with their elegant white blossoms and the pinks/reds of the Red-Twig Dogwood, Wild Ginger blossoms, and Flowering Red Currant on their way…a sure harbinger of Spring!
We have posted sign-up options on our website for the main-season CSA, so make sure to go have a look! We have a new payment plan, are accepting SNAP, and have made some exciting changes to our delivery schedule!
Cabbage, red: This variety is a little less densely packed than the other red cabbage that has been in the share before. It has great flavor, but we noticed that the color has faded over time in storage…so its more like a lavender colored cabbage than a deep royal purple. I’ve made kraut with this variety and watched it turn a very electric fuchsia color.
Greens, bunched: For fresh greens this week we selected Mizuna from the outside fields and a radish green from the greenhouse with lovely pink stems. Some of the Mizuna bunches have ruby mustards mixed in as well, which is a fairly mild and lacy mustard green. The bunched radish greens are an Asian variety that has been bred and selected for its tops and stems rather than the root. They are grown for micro-greens, baby leaves for salad mix, and mature greens like the ones in your share. Some of the undersides of the leaves are ever-so-slightly hairy in texture- so I would consider these a cooking green. But be gentle with them- their thin, delicate texture will wilt very quickly so add them at the very last second as you take the pan off the heat.
Kohlrabi: This is a large German storage variety that was bred to be harvested and kept in a root cellar for use throughout the winter. You can do the same in your refrigerator- just keep it in a plastic bag and cut off however much you need at a time and put the rest back into the bag for later. These certainly have a tougher skin that should be trimmed off.
Salsify: This is the last installment of this funky looking root with the best flavor around! We were really happy with the size, quality, and ease of harvest for these roots that were planted in our most silty field. As you can imagine, pulling these hairy roots out of a wet clay soil is no fun…but harvesting them from a field of powdery loam was a breeze. It also meant that we had very few instances of forked or deformed roots, which happens when the taproot encounters an obstacle such as a rock, clod of clay, or bits of cover crop that have not yet decomposed in the soil. CookWithWhatYouHave has some great salsify tips and recipes or just cook them with lots of butter and prepare to be amazed.