Week 21!

Heavy & Dense

As a Valley Flora eater, you may have noticed something over the course of this season: namely, the increasing heft of your harvest basket each week. The season always starts out light and fluffy: greens, greens and more greens. But as the months progress, the food gets heavier and denser. Eight pound totes give way to eighteen pound totes (we like to put a packed harvest basket on the scale each week, just to see how many pounds of food we’re sending out). And on the heaviest autumn weeks, when there are potatoes and winter squash and celeriac and Brussels sprouts and parsnips and romanesco cauliflower all stuffed into one tote, we give our hand truck a run for its money on packout days. We’ve had Rubbermaids buckle under the weight of our usual seven-high stack in our walk-in cooler!

The thing I love about this seasonal observation is that all these dense foods, all these vegetable calories, are the sum total of so many months of sunshine and long days and photosynthesis. Of water and weeding and patience. You can’t get heavy food in a few weeks. You can seed mustard greens and arugula and kale and have a baby salad in three to four weeks (and that’s why you see a lot of that stuff in the first 4-6 weeks of the season). But if you want the heavy stuff – like carrots and winter squash and onions and tomatoes – you have to be willing to wait for it. Seventy days. 100 days. Sometimes more.

Growing vegetables is one giant exercise in delayed gratification, and I admire all of you for your willingness as eaters to stick with us for the entire progression of the season. I know that all of those spring greens can be tiresome and overwhelming for some of you. And I know that some of the fall foods still to come (celery root, parsnips, Brussels Sprouts, etc.) can seem bizarre or challenge your long-held vegetable biases. But hats off to you for sticking with it, and hopefully even enjoying it along the way. There are seven more weeks to go, and many more veggies still to meet.

This Week’s Squash: Acorn Squash & Pie Pumpkins

Acorn: Acorns have dark green to black skin, with deep ribs. They often have a bright orange spot on one side, where they were in contact with the ground. This is one tough-skinned squash, so be extra-careful when you cut into it. Acorns are among the more ubiquitous squash varieties in the supermarket, and as such, are maybe a little less intimidating to some folks. There are a couple of recipes on our website that I really like if you want to do it up fancy-ish, or turn them into a main dish:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/recipe_search/results/acorn%20squash

But if you’re in a hurry or more inclined towards the simple, I suggest simply halving your acorns, scooping out the seeds, and placing them face down on a baking tray with a little water in the tray. Bake in the oven at 400 until you can pierce the skin with a fork and the flesh is soft, about 30 minutes or so. We eat them with a pat of butter melting inside, and I have been known to put a splash of maple syrup or a sprinkle of brown sugar on them.

They also make great lunch food if you bake them the night before and then pack them for the next day. The hollow cavity begs to be stuffed with something – feta, rice, nuts, salad, sautéed onions, or all of the above.

Like all the winter squash you’re getting, Acorns will store for a couple months at room temperature, so no need to stress about eating them right away if you have a perishable produce pile-up right now.

Pie Pumpkins: These cute little pumpkins can double as Halloween/Thanksgiving décor and/or the key ingredient in a homemade pumpkin pie. They will store for a couple months on the counter – like all the squash varieties – so if you want to save it for Thanksgiving you can. (We also have all the winter squash varieties for sale at our farmstand on Saturdays if you want to stock up in a big way for winter eating!)

My sister is the queen of homemade pumpkin pie. She makes it at least two or three times throughout the fall, and once you’ve had the real thing, with a dollop of whipped cream on top, there’s no going back. So be forewarned if you have a stash of canned pumpkin pie filling in your pantry: if you embark on making your own pie from scratch, you’d better be ready to put your canned pie filling up for adoption. Here are a few variations on the theme:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/recipe_search/results/pie%20pumpkin

Remember: No More Abby’s Greens Salad Shares!

Salad shares are over for the season, in case you go looking for that red salad cooler at your pickup site this week!

You can continue to get Abby's Greens at various locations, including:

• Valley Flora Farmstand (Saturdays only from 10-2 in Langlois, through Nov. 17^th)
• Langlois Market (Langlois)
• Coos Head Food Store (North Bend)
• Mother's Natural Grocery (Bandon)
• Price n Pride (Bandon)
• Seaweed Natural Grocery (Port Orford)

Thanks for all your salad-eating this season!

New Fall Farmstand Hours: Saturdays ONLY from 10 am to 2pm

Our farmstand is now open every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, through November 17^th! We are no longer open on Wednesdays. The autumn abundance is awesome right now, as summer crops collide with fall food: peppers, tomatoes, chard, kale, onions, potatoes, leeks, spinach, salad mix, melons, apples, beets, carrots, zucchini, herbs, and much more.

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce: Put some spice in you life!

This year’s Serrano hot pepper crop is coming on strong, which means Bets is at it again in the farm kitchen, brewing up batches of her infamous Cranky Baby Hot Sauce. Handcrafted at the farm with homegrown hot peppers that are vine-ripened to a sassy red in her greenhouses, this Tabasco-like hot sauce strikes the perfect balance between hot, sweet and tangy. Makes a great gift, or a standby condiment in your own kitchen (we go through it by the gallon!).

Available by the bottle, half case, or case:

• $5/bottle (5 oz)
• $27/half case (6 bottles)
• $48/case (12 bottles)

To order, please email us your: name, pickup location, and the quantity of bottles you would like. We will deliver to your pickup site.

In your share this week:

• Leeks
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Head Lettuce
• Peppers
• Winter Squash – Acorn & Pie Pumpkins
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers
• Radishes
• Celery
• Fennel

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

Nothing this week…

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your Share Next week

Remember, no promises!

• Yellow Onions
• Broccoli?
• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• Beets?
• Romanesco Cauliflower?
• Butternut squash
• Kale
• Yellow Finn Potatoes
• Fresh Sage

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes, where you can contribute and share your favorites

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 20!

Squash Season Kickoff!

This week marks the official start of winter squash season! In the nine remaining weeks of the Harvest Basket season (our last delivery of Harvest Baskets will be the week of December 10th), you are going to meet an array of different winter squash. All of them are cured and ready to eat, but will also store for another few months, either on your countertop or in a cool, dry, dark place. There is no need to refrigerate winter squash; in fact their preferred storage temperature is around 50 degrees. Even though they look tough, handle them gently. Bruised winter squash won't store as long.

Many people are new to winter squash and often relate to them more as seasonal décor than food. We’re here to encourage you to EAT them, because they are fantastically sweet, delicious and versatile. We’ve grown a selection of our all-time favorite varieties and each week I’ll give you tips, suggestions and recipes that will help you enjoy them. Don’t be intimidated by their tough skins, large size, or funky shapes. Winter squash is one of the highlights of seasonal eating in our climate, and lucky for all of us it was a good year for squash on the farm!

A word about kitchen safety and winter squash: Their skin is often tough as nails, so be very careful cutting into them. If you’re cutting a squash in half or into slices, you’ll want to use a large, heavy-bladed knife, sharp-tipped knife (not a thin-bladed, paring, or delicate ceramic knife). We once broke the blade of our best knife while trying to hack open a winter squash, so now we only use a heavy-duty stainless steel chef knife for the job. It’s best to insert the tip of the knife into the squash first and then work the blade down and through the flesh of the squash. Be careful that the squash doesn’t spin out of your grip, or that the knife slips. Always be strategic about where your hands are and where the knife is headed. If you have a microwave, some people suggest nuking the squash for a couple minutes to pre-soften it before attempting to cut into it.

This Week’s Squash: Spaghetti Squash

I'll admit it feels a little risky to give out spaghetti squash as the debut in the winter squash line-up, for fear of scaring everyone off. Spaghetti squash has a bad reputation among some - as the quintessential hippie squash; the squash with an identity crisis (am I a vegetable or am I a noodle?); the squash that gets scoffed at; the squash that nobody eats, nobody buys, and everyone makes fun of.

I was one of those naysayers for many years, until I gave spaghettis a chance. And I discovered that they are worth eating – not just because they’re good for you, but because they really, truly are good. They are also one of the first squash to ripen and cure, and they don’t need any time to “age” (some varieties like butternuts and kabochas allegedly improve in flavor and texture after a few weeks in storage, but spaghettis are good right out of the field).

So here they are this week. Hopefully with a little nudge you can be convinced to give them a try as well. A few eating tips:

• Many recipes I’ve come across say to cook your spaghetti squash in the microwave. Pierce squash (about an inch deep) all over with a small sharp knife to prevent bursting. Cook in an 800-watt microwave oven on high power (100 percent) for 6 to 7 minutes. Turn squash over and microwave until squash feels slightly soft when pressed, 8 to 10 minutes more. Cool squash for 5 minutes.
• You can also bake it in your oven. Preheat to 350. Pierce it with a knife as above, put the whole squash in the oven on a tray, and bake for about an hour, or until soft to the touch. You can also halve it, brush the cut sides with butter, and then bake face-down on a cookie sheet until fork-tender, 35 minutes to an hour.
• Once your squash is cooked fork-tender, cool it for a few minutes and then rake out the stranded “noodly” flesh with a fork into a bowl.
• Dress it up with anything: marinara sauce, butter and herbs, pesto, cream sauce with chantarelles, or anything else you can invent.

Here are a couple recipes to give you a start:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spaghetti-Squash-with-Parsl...

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spaghetti-Squash-with-Moroc...

Good luck, and don't be intimidated!

LAST WEEK of Abby’s Greens Salad Shares!

This is the 20th and final week of Abby's Greens Salad Shares. If you are a salad share member, be sure to pick up your share from the marked cooler on your pickup day, and enjoy your last week of pre-paid greens!

You can continue to get Abby's Greens at various locations, including:

• Valley Flora Farmstand (Saturdays only from 10-2 in Langlois, through Nov. 17^th)
• Langlois Market (Langlois)
• Coos Head Food Store (North Bend)
• Mother's Natural Grocery (Bandon)
• Price n Pride (Bandon)
• Seaweed Natural Grocery (Port Orford)

Thanks for all your salad-eating this season!

Winterbor Kale

This kale is the opposite of “no frills.” The curliest kale known to man, it’s hard to fit these puffy bunches into the tote! It’s an aptly named variety, growing straight through the winter and yielding enough leafy green-ness for all our CSA members, plus some to sell, and providing an endless supply of kale for our favorite winter salad: kaleslaw. You can eat this variety just like the others. It’s also easy to de-rib this one: just hold onto the bottom of the stem and tear off the leaves in one quick swipe up the rib.

Stores in the fridge for at least a week in a plastic bag.

New Fall Farmstand Hours: Saturdays ONLY from 10 am to 2pm

Our farmstand is now open every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, through November 17^th! We are no longer open on Wednesdays. The autumn abundance is awesome right now, as summer crops collide with fall food: peppers, tomatoes, chard, kale, onions, potatoes, leeks, spinach, salad mix, melons, apples, beets, carrots, zucchini, herbs, and much more.

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce: Put some spice in you life!

This year’s Serrano hot pepper crop is coming on strong, which means Bets is at it again in the farm kitchen, brewing up batches of her infamous Cranky Baby Hot Sauce. Handcrafted at the farm with homegrown hot peppers that are vine-ripened to a sassy red in her greenhouses, this Tabasco-like hot sauce strikes the perfect balance between hot, sweet and tangy. Makes a great gift, or a standby condiment in your own kitchen (we go through it by the gallon!).

Available by the bottle, half case, or case:

• $5/bottle (5 oz)
• $27/half case (6 bottles)
• $48/case (12 bottles)

To order, please email us your: name, pickup location, and the quantity of bottles you would like. We will deliver to your pickup site.

In your share this week:

• Red Long of Tropea torpedo onions
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Head Lettuce
• Peppers
• Winter Squash - Spaghetti
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers
• Apples
• Radishes

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Corn
• Parsley

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your Share Next week

Remember, no promises!

• Leeks
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• Celery
• Fennel
• Radishes
• Acorn squash
• Pie Pumpkin
• Romanesco cauliflower?

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes, where you can contribute and share your favorites

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 18!

Bidding Farewell to the Strawberries

Most likely this is the last week you’ll be seeing that sweet little pint of strawberries in your tote. We had an INCREDIBLE September – sunny and hot – which has kept the berries going longer and stronger than we ever hope to hope! All told, you’ve received 24 pints of strawberries this season, equal to two flats per Harvest Basket!

Usually by now a rainstorm or two has wiped the berries out and we move on – somewhat gratefully - to other autumn crops. Those first rains are also usually our cue to begin focusing on cover-cropping on the farm: planting “green manure” crops like oats, rye, vetch, field peas, and clover that will sprout this fall, grow through the winter, and get incorporated into the fields next spring. Cover crops provide a host of benefits to our little farm ecosystem, including protection from soil erosion in the winter, an annual boost of natural nitrogen and organic matter, and fodder and habitat for pollinators and farm critters of all stripes.

Cover crops are as critical to the ecological health of the farm as cash crops are to its economic health, and they are tops on my list of things I love to grow. Sowing wide swaths of oats and peas on a crisp Fall day has a nostalgic feel to it, especially with Maude, my draft horse, plodding away in front as we disc and roll in the seed. Practically all of the cash crops we grow require labor-intensive transplanting or precise direct seeding. Cover cropping, on the other hand, is a chance to throw bushels of seed to the wind, roll it in with the horse, and then watch as our “second spring” arrives: the greening of the fields as thousands of cover crop seeds germinate.

This year, in the absence of any rain thus far, we’re having to bite the bullet and pull the plug on certain crops – like the strawberries – that might yield for another few weeks of good weather, but at the peril of missing our primo cover cropping window (which is the next three weeks). After late October, the chances of getting a good stand of cover crop are practically nil: the days are too short and the temperatures are too chilly to encourage good growth.

So enjoy this last pint of berries, knowing that a healthy stand of peas, oats, vetch and clover will soon be growing in their stead, bringing long-term benefits to the farm.

P.S. There might still be some berries for sale at the farmstand on Saturdays while the weather holds, picked from the few beds we are not tilling under this Fall!

New Fall Farmstand Hours: Saturdays ONLY from 10 am to 2pm

The end of the strawberries – including the u-pick strawberries – means we are switching to our once a week Fall farmstand hours as of this Saturday, October 6^th. We will be open every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, through November 17^th! The autumn abundance is awesome right now, as summer crops collide with fall food: peppers, tomatoes, chard, kale, onions, potatoes, leeks, spinach, salad mix, melons, apples, beets, carrots, zucchini, herbs, and much more. We might even be harvesting our first mini crop of table grapes in the next few weeks!

Lacinato Kale & Leeks This Week

The dark blue-green kale in your tote is Lacinato, also called “Dinosaur” kale, Tuscan kale, or Cavalo Nero. Beloved in Italy, this is also one of our favorite autumn varieties. It gets nothing but sweeter and tastier as cold weather sets in, so you should see it again in a month or so. The easiest way to strip the dark leaves from the tough mid-rib is to grab either side of the rib at the base with one hand and use your other hand to pull the leaves off in the other direction with one quick swipe.

Leeks are the other newbie in the tote this week. Long and lean and lovely, leeks are a quintessential fall food. They can be used exactly like onions in any application (they’re not just for potato leek soup!). Here’s a trick for prepping leeks in the kitchen, because they can sometimes hang on to field dirt: Cut the root end and top off your leek (you can use these for making your own veggie stock if you’re so inclined). Cut the leek in half lengthwise. Then cut the leek into slices cross-wise. Put into a colander and run under cold water to rinse any dirt from the inner “rings” of the leek. Shake dry and proceed with your cooking….

Store in the fridge in a plastic bag; should hold for a couple weeks at least.

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce: Put some spice in you life!

This year’s Serrano hot pepper crop is coming on strong, which means Bets is at it again in the farm kitchen, brewing up batches of her infamous Cranky Baby Hot Sauce. Handcrafted at the farm with homegrown hot peppers that are vine-ripened to a sassy red in her greenhouses, this Tabasco-like hot sauce strikes the perfect balance between hot, sweet and tangy. Makes a great gift, or a standby condiment in your own kitchen (we go through it by the gallon!).

Available by the bottle, half case, or case:

• $5/bottle (5 oz)
• $27/half case (6 bottles)
• $48/case (12 bottles)

To order, please email us your: name, pickup location, and the quantity of bottles you would like. We will deliver to your pickup site.

In your share this week:

• Leeks
• Carrots
• Corn
• Head Lettuce
• Lacinato Kale
• Sweet Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers
• Cilantro
• Red Beets

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Cherry Tomatoes
• Zucchini

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your Share Next week

Remember, no promises!

• Onions
• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• Sweet Peppers
• Tomatoes
• An herb of some kind
• Napa Cabbage
• Red Potatoes

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes, where you can contribute and share your favorites

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 16!

Say, Is That a Worm in my Corn?

Possibly, yes. Our second planting of corn is going out this week – another lovely, sweet, bicolor named Polka – and during harvest I inspected some of the ears for corn earworm. Sure thing, a few of them had fat earworms at the tip. We’ve noticed over the years that corn earworms show up in our later plantings of corn, almost without fail. The worms are a bit gross at first glance, but if you encounter one, all you have to do is cut the tip of your corn off, worm and all.

Our no-spray organic philosophy means that Valley Flora is a “live and let live” kind of place – even the corn earworms deserve a little taste of some super sweet corn on the cob now and then…

Che-Cherry Oh, Cherry Oh Baby, Don't You Know I'm in Love With You?

That’s right, cherry tomatoes, I’m in love with you. But you, apparently, are not in love with me this year. Usually by this point in September, you are loaded with trusses of bright orange and red and yellow fruit, ripe for the picking. But no, not this year. This year you’re not feeling well, and you’re not showin’ me much love.

I know, I know, Late Blight is really the pits. I probably wouldn’t want to produce bucketloads of bright, tangy fruits if I had Late Blight either. Your stems are all brown, your leaves are falling off, and your baby green tomatoes are dropping off the vine like suicidal bridge-jumpers. It’s a bad scene.

I feel your pain, but I’m hurt. Remember how we tended you so lovingly in the greenhouse, starting way back in March? And then carefully planted you in the field, and nursed you through flea beetle attacks and cold spring weather? And then, in our grandest display of devotion, watered, pruned, and tied you up every single week of the busy summer, since June?

And this is what we get in return? OK, OK, I know it’s not all about me all the time. I know I should blame the weather, not you, and I should show a little more compassion; you’re suffering and all. But do you think maybe you could just put out enough cherry tomatoes this season to give our wonderful Harvest Basket members at least ONE pint of cherries? I mean, if it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t even have been born.

Please? Show ‘em just a little bit of love? A pint of love? Maybe two? Because you know they’re in love with you.

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce: Put some spice in you life!

This year’s Serrano hot pepper crop is coming on strong, which means Bets is at it again in the farm kitchen, brewing up batches of her infamous Cranky Baby Hot Sauce. Handcrafted at the farm with homegrown hot peppers that are vine-ripened to a sassy red in her greenhouses, this Tabasco-like hot sauce strikes the perfect balance between hot, sweet and tangy. Makes a great gift, or a standby condiment in your own kitchen (we go through it by the gallon!).

Available by the bottle, half case, or case:

• $5/bottle (5 oz)
• $27/half case (6 bottles)
• $48/case (12 bottles)

To order, please email us your: name, pickup location, and the quantity of bottles you would like. We will deliver to your pickup site.

Sweet Peppers by the Bag!

Bulk Peppers are available to our CSA members: Available in 5 pound bags, $20 per bag.

Choose either:

• Red Roasters (tapered, Italian sweet peppers in reds, yellows, and oranges), or
• Mixed Bag (a combo of bells and roasters in reds, yellows, and oranges)

We will fill orders in the order we receive them on a rolling basis in the coming weeks. Please email us your: name, pickup location, phone number, and the quantity and type of peppers you want. We’ll deliver to your pickup site.

In your share this week:

• Cabernet Red Storage Onions
• Carrots
• Sweet Corn
• Head Lettuce
• Cilantro
• Sweet Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers & Heirlooms
• Yellow Finn potatoes

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Green Beans
• Cherry Tomatoes

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your Share Next week

Remember, no promises!

• Onions
• Carrots
• Celery
• Head Lettuce
• Kale
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers & Heirlooms
• A fresh herb of some kind…thyme, oregano, mint….?

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes, where you can contribute and share your favorites

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 14!

CORNucopia!

As we were harvesting and washing all of the produce on Tuesday, there was one gnawing concern: would this week’s CSA share actually fit in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid tote? 8 ears of corn, 2 red onions, a pound of carrots, 3 pounds of beets, 2 zukes, 4 serranos, 3 big sweet peppers, a pint of strawberries, a big pile of tomatoes, a head of lettuce, a bunch of herbs, and for some, a tangled pound of green beans! All told, an average Harvest Basket weighed in at about 17 pounds this week.

Historically, September is the biggest month of food at Valley Flora – the most diversity, the most heft, and the most color. It is the pinnacle of the harvest, a time when we find ourselves short on tables to sort it all, tubs to wash it all, and cooler space to keep it chilled. It’s also the easiest time of year to subsist on raw veggies. We’ve been eating a lot of variations on the Greek salad theme of late: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, fresh herbs, sweet onions, carrots, and beans all chopped up and amended with a splash of olive oil, balsamic, salt, pepper, and feta cheese. Next to a hunk of Seth’s Sourdough bread, it’s a meal unto itself.

The corn in your share this week is an early (by our coastal standards) bi-color called Trinity. It’s the first of four corn plantings on the farm, so hopefully you’ll be seeing “elotes” (Spanish for ears of sweet corn, pronounced ae-loh-tays) in your share every other week (or so) through September and into October. Corn is the sweetest right off the stalk (the sugars begin converting to starch as soon as it’s picked), so eat it sooner than later to ensure you get the best corn experience. We like to steam in ours in a shallow pan of water with a lid on it (saves all the time and energy of boiling a big pot of water, and it cooks in a few short minutes). Drag it through some butter when you’re done and eat it off the cob.

Or, if you’re inspired to create something with your corn, a friend has been raving about this recipe for Corn Fritters with Tomato and Feta Salad: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/corn-fritters-tomato-feta-salad

Sweet Peppers Are On! Available in 5 Pound Bags!

So begins the pepper season, with a bang! You’ll be seeing a variety of peppers in the coming weeks, ranging from stocky bells to long, tapered Italian roasters (great for fresh-eating and roasting alike), all in screaming sunset colors. They are sweet. We eat them like popsicles, often for breakfast. My mom, who grows all the peppers, is very popular at this time of year.

Like last year, we will be offering BULK PEPPERS to those of you who want to either put them up for winter, or indulge in a full-bore-fresh-pepper-eating-spree. Peppers are among the easiest of things to preserve. You can simply chop them up and freeze them in Ziplocs (no blanching required). They add a beautiful confetti splash to your winter meals, straight out of the freezer. OR, you can fire-roast them over an open flame, peel off the charred skin, and freeze or pressure can them for an amazing roasted pepper accent in any dish later on.

Here are the pepper-buying details:

• Available in 5 pound bags, $20 per bag
• Choose either: Red Roasters (tapered, Italian sweet peppers), or the Mixed Bag (a combo of bells and roasters in red, yellow and red colors)

We will fill orders in the order we receive them on a rolling basis in the coming weeks. To order, please email us your:

• Name
• Phone number
• Quantity and type of peppers you want

We’ll deliver to your pickup site.

Strawberries Still Available by the Flat!

The strawberries are booming again (sweeter than ever with all this heat) and we have plenty to fill special orders. If you would like to order a flat (or two), email us your name, pickup location, phone number, and the number of flats you would like. We will deliver to your pickup site. Flats are $35 each, 12 heaping pints to a flat.

In your share this week:

• Cabernet Red Storage Onions
• Carrots
• Corn
• Head Lettuce
• Hot Peppers (Serranos)
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers & Heirlooms
• Red Beets

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Green Beans
• Dill
• Parsley

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your Share Next week

Remember, no promises!

• Red Onions
• Carrots
• Lettuce
• A fresh herb of some kind
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes
• Kale
• Green Beans, on rotation

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes that you can contribute to

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 12!

Pico de Gallo Week!

What happens when the tomatoes, cilantro, sweet onions, and Serrano peppers are all ready at the same time at Valley Flora? Fresh salsa is what happens! With the exception of fresh limes – which we WISH we could grow – all the ingredients for homemade pico are in your Harvest Basket this week.

In Mexican cuisine, pico de gallo (Spanish pronunciation: peeko day guy-yo, literally translated “beak of the rooster”) is also called salsa fresca (fresh sauce), salsa picada (minced or chopped sauce), salsa Mexicana (Mexican sauce), or salsa bandera (flag sauce, because of the colors – red tomatoes, white onions, and green chilis). But no matter what you call it, it’s a fresh, uncooked condiment made from chopped tomato, onion, and chilis (typically jalapeños or serranos). You can add other ingredients, like lime juice or apple cider vinegar, fresh cilantro, cucumber, radish, or fruits such as mango or watermelon.

Where does the term “pico de gallo” come from? According to some sources, it’s so named because it was originally eaten with the thumb and forefinger, resembling the actions of a pecking rooster.

Which reminds me of a curious factoid: the spice in your hot peppers this week is due to a compound called capsaicin, which is found in all hot peppers (some more than others; for instance, habañeros and Sichuan peppers have a higher concentration of capsaicin than a poblano or a jalapeño; sweet bell peppers actually have none due to a recessive gene). Most of the capsaicin is concentrated in what is called the “placental tissue”: the white “Styrofoam” pith inside the pepper, and not so much in the flesh. This is a useful tidbit to know in the kitchen because if you want to minimize the kick in your fresh salsa, clean the pith out of your Serrano peppers before you dice them up. On the other hand, if you like it hot, chop it all up and toss it in!

But here’s where it gets very cool on evolutionary terms: As it turns out, mammals are the only animal family that is affected by capsaicin (and thus experience the mouth-burn of hot peppers). Birds, on the other hand, are not affected by it (so roosters truly can peck at your pico de gallo without catching their weird little tongues on fire). Why? Because evolutionarily, pepper seeds were dispersed by birds. The bright colors of pepper fruits (reds, oranges, purples, yellows!) attract birds, who can painlessly peck into them, eat their seeds, fly away, and poop them out somewhere else. Mammals on the other hand might only get an unpleasant bite or two of a hot pepper before they turn tail and run for a glass of milk (or bread, or rice) to cool their mouths down.

I was relieved to learn this after many years of worrying about the seagulls at the South Jetty in Bandon.  When I was a kid, an uncle used to take me down there and play pranks on the seagulls: primarily, dousing Wonder Bread with Tabasco hot sauce and tossing it up in the air to the gulls. He thought it was the funniest thing on earth; I felt sorry for them.

Little did we both know that the joke was on us.

Here’s a Pico de Gallo recipe. Adjust the heat to suit your mammalian tastebuds.

• 1 1/2 cups seeded, diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup diced onion – red or sweet onion
• 1 tablespoon diced serranos
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, plus extra for garnish
• Salt and pepper

In a bowl combine all ingredients. Enjoy on tacos, with chips, over rice and beans, etc.

Strawberries Still Available by the Flat!

The strawberries are booming again (sweeter than ever with all this heat) and we have plenty to fill special orders. If you would like to order a flat (or two), email us your name, pickup location, phone number, and the number of flats you would like. We will deliver to your pickup site. Flats are $35 each, 12 heaping pints to a flat.

In your share this week:

• Walla Walla Sweet Onions
• Head Lettuce
• Strawberries
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Cilantro
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers & Heirlooms
• Hot Peppers

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Cucumbers

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your Share Next week

Remember, no promises!

• Walla Walla Sweet Onions
• Carrots
• Basil
• Lettuce
• Fennel
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes that you can contribute to

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Introduction to Food Energetics
 A thought-provoking philosophy into food and cooking
 

Join us at

Valley Flora Farm

to start your journey in creating healing meals

Saturday, August 25th, 2012
10am to 11:30am
 

$15 prepaid
 $20 day of event


presented by

Polly Maliongas, LAc, Qigong Master Teacher
Moongate Chinese Medicine
Oregon City, OR 97045


As we become more aware of our food choices, where our food comes from, and eating seasonally, we now add energetics into our understanding.  Each food we consume carries a certain energetic quality that effects our energetic vibration.  This vibration is also guided to a specific organ to promote optimal functioning.  The energetics of food are found within the healing modalities of Chinese Medicine.  Using the principles of Yin and Yang theory along with the concepts of energetic thermal nature, flavors and cooking methods we learn to create a meal that truly nourishes the body.  

 

This class will:

• Provide an introduction into the energetic views of food and our body
• Provide you handouts, some recipes and suggested reading list  

To pre-register, please contact: Juanell Lemon, LMT #OR13439
at 541.290.1948

Please confirm your attendance so we can provide enough handouts.
 

Logistics:

• You MUST park on the south side of the bridge (Valley Flora side of the bridge)
• The class will be held by the south end of the shed away from the farmstand
• We will be in the shade of a big myrtle tree but be prepared with sunscreen and a hat
• Please bring a lawn chair or blanket for seating
• Please no pets, no smoking, there's no potable water
• Port potty is available

Week 9!

The Summer Crunch

Cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots – kerrrrrrrunch! That’s the sound of summer. Hefty foods that require molars to enjoy - once you see them in your tote, you know we’ve arrived into the heart of summer. Festive salads are a breeze to invent at this time of year when the produce line-up is so colorful and substantial.

And hearty salads are exactly what we farmers survive on at this point in the year, because we are experiencing our own kind of summer crunch: a peak-season workload that keeps us moving all hours, most days. More and more of our time is dedicated to harvest each week, but we are still also trying to keep pace with weeds, irrigation, direct seeding and transplanting (we plant outdoors in the field until mid-September).

Salad is our fast food. Heaped high, maybe decorated with some hard-boiled eggs or local canned tuna, a quick chop of whatever other veggies are lying around, and some homemade salad dressing.

It keeps the farmers ticking, so you can keep on licking (your plates).

In your share this week:

• Purplette Onions
• Head Lettuce
• Strawberries
• Cucumbers
• Red Ursa Kale
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Beets

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Spinach
• Cauliflower

Purplette Onions

These early onions tend to be a favorite among CSA members, beloved for their pretty purple color and sweet-spicy flavor. They are a fresh onion (not cured), so keep them in your fridge. You can use your purplette any way you would use a regular onion, but many people seem to especially enjoy them raw in salads. They aren’t as pungent than storage onions, with less of that oniony bite. You can also use the green tops like green onions.

You’ll be getting them in your tote for the next couple of weeks, which will hopefully give you just enough time to have a true love affair with this member of the onion family. Purplettes always kick off our Allium season, with many other varieties to follow in their wake: walla walla sweets, red long torpedoes, red and yellow storage, red and gold shallots, and leeks.

Storage: In a plastic bag in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Cilantro

Most folks don’t need tips on how to use cilantro, but here’s a recipe that I LOVE, thanks to Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/zucchini-fresh-herb-fritters

Storage: Either in the fridge in a bag (will last for up to a week), or in a cup/vase of water in the fridge, covered with a plastic bag (will last even longer….)

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes that you can contribute to

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 7!

The Big Broccoli Bang

When it rains it pours, at least in the broccoli patch this year. For the past month we’ve been eeking out enough broccoli and broccolini to put some in your totes each week – but not a lot. To blame was the wet spring, which flooded a couple of our early broccoli plantings and killed them. We replanted, but that event set our big harvests back a couple weeks.

Until last Friday, when I made my usual foray through the broccoli field. Instead of hauling out a few backpacks-worth of florets and heads, I lugged out load after load of heavy broccoli heads, totaling over 250 pounds (and stuffed all of it into my husband’s station wagon; he had the pickup truck that day…).

(We harvest broccoli into a specialty produce backpack that we can wear on our backs. We cut the heads with a sharp knife and then toss them over a shoulder into the backpack. When the backpack is full, we heft it to the end of the row and dump it into a harvest bin in the shade. A full backpack weighs about 30 pounds).

This Tuesday, I cut another 200 pounds, with no end in sight. There are four more plantings of broccoli still to mature, so you’ll probably be getting it in your share well into August this year. This is great news for the broccoli-lovers among you, ‘cuz you’re getting a full 2 pounds of it this week! Our fresh-cut broccoli tends to last for up to two weeks in the fridge, if not longer, but you might be well-advised to eat it along the way so you don’t get a mass pile-up in your fridge. Here’s another farm website that has a great recipe search engine, and some yummy broccoli-inspired dishes: http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

New Potatoes, New Veggies!

Baby spuds, zucchini, baby carrots, cauliflower! Some of you will see all of these things in your totes this week, as we round the corner into full-fledged summer food. Yeehaw!

The new potatoes are a special treat - and kind of a sacrificial harvest. Once a potato plant begins to flower, that’s our cue that the tubers are setting and starting to size up. At this stage, the potatoes are incredibly tender. The tradeoff is that one bed of potatoes dug now, when they are “new,” yields only 150 lbs of spuds. Compare that to a bed of fully mature potatoes dug in August, which will yield over 600 pounds. As a result, it’s a relatively small share of potatoes in your harvest basket, but something worth savoring. Be careful not to overcook them, and consider using that bunch of dill to spice them up! Here’s a recipe link to inspire:

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

In your share this week:

• Broccoli
• Head Lettuce
• Strawberries
• Rainbow Chard
• Dill
• New Potatoes
• Baby Carrots

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Spinach
• Zucchini
• Cauliflower

Cauliflower

Some of you will see cauliflower in your totes this week, as our first planting slowly begins to come on. We grow three varieties: a white, an orange, and a purple. The colored heads are a shocking neon when eaten raw, and make quite a splash on a platter of crudités.

Storage: in the fridge in a plastic bag; will hold for a couple of weeks.

Carrots

For me, carrots signify the true arrival of summertime eating. You would think it would be tomatoes, or peppers, or corn – but for us here on the coast, all of those crops come on at the end of summer, at the melancholy cusp of autumn. Carrots show up at the happy zenith of summer, marking a true end to the June root fare of turnips and radishes. They are long-awaited, because once you have eaten a sweet garden-grown carrot it’s hard to ever return to store-bought carrots again.

I look forward to them with an anticipation so keen it sends me out to that part of the field on regular basis, hoping that the green top I tug on will reveal more than a white thread of root. Something orange. Something perhaps at least the size of my pinky. And this week we were in luck: lots of carrots the size of my pinky, and some even as large as a forefinger!

It’s a small bunch of carrots in your share this week, but a promise of great carrot abundance to come. We are taking special pains with our carrot production this year, after losing much of our crop to carrot rust fly last season. The rust fly is attracted to the carrots and lays its eggs among them. The eggs then hatch into larva, which feed on the carrots, leaving ugly tunnels in the roots. The damage gets worse as the season goes on (the rust fly can have 3 generations in one summer), so by fall it can be impossible to find a clean carrot in the field.

Last year our CSA members were extremely tolerant of our ugly carrots in the fall, but we were determined not to have it happen again. So this winter I invested in a piece of floating row cover as big as a football field, which we are covering our carrot block with. That’s all it takes to keep the rust fly at bay. It’s more work, because we have to take the row cover off every time we cultivate, weed, and harvest, but hopefully it will prove to be well worth it come October when we still have beautiful carrots.

Storage: your carrots will keep the longest if you cut the tops off and store the roots in a plastic bag in the fridge. The tops are edible – and not just by bunnies and hampsters and horses. Carrot top soup, anyone?

Zucchini

The onset of summer squash! Zucchini will be a reliable companion throughout the next couple of months. It stores in the fridge OK, but can get slimy in a plastic bag after a week. So eat up!

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes that you can contribute to

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

http://helsingfarmcsa.com/recipes.php

A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes

Week 5!

Pesto and Jam!

As of this week, we’ve started to turn the corner on the farm (at last!): the strawberries are coming on strong, and the basil crop has bushed out. That means it’s time for making pesto, freezing strawberries, and making jam!

Bulk basil and flats of strawberries will be available by special order

• Basil is $14 per pound, sold in one-pound increments. We pick only the primo tops (no stem), so it’s a lot of basil bang for your buck!
• Strawberriesare $35 per flat (12 heaping pint baskets per flat).

We can deliver to your pickup site, or you can pick up at the farmstand. We will fill requests in the order we receive them, on a rolling basis. To order, email us your name, phone number, pickup location preference, and the quantity you want.

Bulk basil will likely be available through July and into August. Flats of strawberries will be available in July during our peak harvest window (the next few weeks).

Let the food preservation begin!

Happy Food Independence Day!

Eating locally is one of the most patriotic acts there is, whether you’re buying from a food producer in your area or growing some of your own food. Why? Because eating locally helps strengthen the “foodshed” that you belong to –it supports local farmers and food producers, it puts money into the local economy, and it keeps food miles (the distance food travels from farm to plate) at a minimum (which means less burning of fossil fuels to transport food long distances). The cherry on top is the fact that local food is as fresh as it gets, and the taste can’t be beat.

Enjoy this Independence Day with local food produced by Candace, Juana, Seth, and your Valley Flora farmers. Eggs! Bread! Tamales! Salad Greens! Veggies! Berries! And then pat yourself on the back for being instrumental in helping build a stronger local food system here on the southcoast of Oregon! We thank you!

In your share this week:

• Broccoli or Broccolini
• Spinach
• Head Lettuce
• Strawberries (2 pints, hooray!)
• Hakurei Turnips
• Red Beets

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Kohlrabi
• Radishes

Red Beets

A haiku from yours truly, inspired by four years of putting beets into the CSA share:

Red earthy beauty,           

so steeped in controversy.

What is not to love?

Controversy? I jump for joy at the first beet harvest each year, but there are those who will bemoan the sight of beets in their tote this week. They will open the lid, groan, and quickly try to find someone who wants to trade two pounds of beets for a pint of strawberries, or anything. Anything other than beets.

I have tried everything to convince the resolute beet protestors: recipes for chocolate beet cake, roasted beets, beet salad, beet soup, cold beet borscht, steamed beets, grated beets, beet stamps and beet lipstick.

I may have won over a few converts over the years, thanks to the natural sweetness and deep flavor of fresh beets not 24 hours out of the ground. I like to think I have, at least.

And then there are those of you who are swooning at the mention of the season’s first beets. Because you know that not only are the red roots so good, so many ways, but because the greens are just as delicious (and good for you, too). A big brother to chard, beet greens steam, stir-fry, sautee, soup, and salad themselves up beautifully.

I am at peace with the fact that there will be controversy (if nothing else, then to inspire more haiku). I am hopeful that our beets will find their way into many hearts and bellies. I accept that not everyone has to like everything. We are all different.

And there might just be someone at a pickup site who would gladly hand over a pint of strawberries for a handful of beets.

The universe works in mysterious ways.

Beet storage: if you top your beets, the roots will hold up for months in the fridge in a plastic bag. The greens will hold for a week or more.

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes that you can contribute to

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

Week 3!

The Secret Life of Asparagus

Asparagus is in your share again this week, for one last time. This week marks the end of our 2012 harvest , which began this year on April 20^th.

Asparagus is one of those mysterious vegetables that spends most of its life either underground, or in its “fern” form, which is unrecognizable to most people. The spears that you buy in the store and are receiving in your tote this week represent a small fraction of the asparagus life cycle. So, in honor of our last 2012 asparagus harvest this week, and in the spirit of heightened vegetable literacy, here is a host of fascinating asparagus factoids:

• Asparagus is a long-lived perennial. An asparagus crown, or root, can live for 25 years or longer. Our asparagus crowns are 5 years old.
• There are male and female asparagus plants. Commercial growers like us choose all-male hybrid varieties (ours is called Jersey Knight). Why? The male plants produce more spears, while the female plants produce fewer spears and little, green-turning-to-red fruits (they look like tiny cherry tomatoes) full of asparagus seed.
• You can start asparagus from seed, but most people buy “crowns,” or roots to plant.
• Fat spears are the most tender, contrary to popular belief. All the fiber and toughness is in the outer skin of the spear. Fatter spears have a higher flesh to skin ratio, compared to skinny spears, which are more skin and less tender flesh. (By the way, skinny asparagus is not “baby” – it’s just skinny). Spears that grow more quickly (in warmer weather) will be more tender.
• Asparagus can grow 6 to 12 inches in one day, when conditions are right! They grow the most quickly at temperatures around 70 degrees.
• Growing asparagus is an exercise in delayed gratification. You shouldn’t harvest any spears until the second year if you plant crowns, and the third year if you plant from seed. And even then, you can only harvest for a couple weeks. Not until the third year that your crowns are in the ground can you enjoy a full 8-10 week harvest window.
• Why is asparagus – especially organic asparagus – so expensive? Because it costs a lot to produce it. We value our asparagus at $5/pound, and that barely covers our cost of production.
  1. First off, asparagus takes up space all year, but you only get to harvest it for 8 weeks. That means that you can’t grown anything else on that land, so the asparagus has to earn enough money to justify taking up the space.
  2. Second, weeds! In organic asparagus production systems like ours, we have to do all of our weeding by hand (we can’t and wouldn’t want to use herbicides to kill weeds). For eight months of the year, the ground is practically bare in an asparagus field, which creates all kinds of opportunities for weeds to encroach. It’s a lot of labor and time to keep the weeds at bay. That adds to the pricetag of a pound of asparagus.
  3. Third, you have to harvest asparagus daily to cut them at the optimum stage, but you only get a little bit at each harvest – which means lots of trips up and down the rows for not a lot of poundage, every day. More labor time.
  4. Finally, you have to wait three years before you can really harvest your crop, which is a huge investment in land, labor, and crowns before you see any cash return.
• This week we will stop harvesting our asparagus spears, but the plants will keep growing. The crowns will continue to send up spears, which will reach a height of five to six feet and leaf out into a lacey, green, fern-like canopy within a couple of weeks. This canopy will do the hard work of photosynthesis all summer long, storing food in the crown for next spring’s growth. In November, once the ferns have all died back and turned yellow, we will mow them down. In February, we’ll cover the whole asparagus patch with black plastic to help kill winter weeds. When the plastic starts to “tent” up in late March, we’ll pull it off to reveal our once-a-year harvest of white asparagus (blanched by the plastic). So begins our asparagus season all over again, powered by all the sun’s stored energy from the summer before...

Enjoy your last bite of brave, unique, tender, delicious, Valley Flora asparagus. Until 2013!

U-Pick Strawberries Galore!

Our new “we-pick” planting of strawberries has been slow to come on this season, but the u-pick side of the field is pumping! There’s heaps of new red fruit every day. The first flush of berries was badly damaged by our last rain, and we have been trying to clean out the spoiled fruit every chance we get – but nevertheless, more and more big, beautiful, red berries keep ripening. It’s a great time to fill your freezer or pick for jam!

If you are planning to come pick, we encourage you to bring your own containers. We often have small containers and boxes available, but not always.

U-Pick & Farmstand Hours:Every Wednesday & Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm!

U-Pick Raspberries Coming Soon!

The summer raspberries are just beginning to blush, which means there will probably be ripe fruit within the next couple of weeks. We’ve learned over the years that we don’t have enough hands or time in the week to pick raspberries for the Harvest Baskets, so instead we offer all of our Harvest Basket members a certain u-pick poundage at no charge.

This season, all Harvest Basket members are entitled to 2 pounds of u-pick raspberries at no charge. (Please note this is for Harvest Basket members ONLY).

Your “share” of the harvest is unfortunately smaller this year because the winter flood seems to have wiped out our fall-bearing raspberry crop (we have two varieties: the “summer” variety ripens in late June/early July; the “fall” variety ripens in September). Raspberry canes don’t like to be inundated for more than a few hours. Our fall variety was under water for 24 hours during the January flood, and as a result the plants are sickly and the fruiting canes are few and far between.

That means that if you want to cash in on your raspberry u-pick credit, you’ll want to come pick once the summer crop ripens in the next few weeks. I’ll keep you posted as to when the raspberry u-pick is officially open. Stay tuned.

In your share this week:

• Asparagus
• Butterhead lettuce
• Braising Mix
• Hakurei Turnips
• Strawberries
• Purple Kohlrabi

(No rhubarb this week; still waiting on the strawberries to kick into high gear…)

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Basil
• Broccolini

Braising Mix

This is a colorful, spicy mix of mustard greens, mizuna, tatsoi, and mixed kale. It’s great chopped up into a salad to add a little kick, or cooked down if you want to tame both the spice and the volume of greens in your life right now. Steamed or sautéed, braising mix is the perfect side to complement a good ol’ southern meal of cornbread and beans. Don’t forget the hot sauce!

Storage: keep in the fridge, in a plastic bag; stores up to a week.

Kohlrabi

This is one of the three most alien-looking vegetables we grow (the other two are romanesco cauliflower and celeriac, both of which appear in the fall). You’re getting a purple variety this week (you’ll see a white variety in the near future). Both have a peacock plume of edible leaves, similar in texture and flavor to a hearty, toothsome kale leaf.

The flavor and texture of the kohlrabi bulb (really a modified swollen stem) is best likened to broccoli stems. Broccoli stems!? you’re thinking….that’s the part we toss out! But if you’ve ever peeled a broccoli stem and tried it, you know it’s a tender, juicy, crunchy surprise. Same with kohlrabi. Peel it and you’ll see.

We usually eat our kohlrabi raw: grated into a salad, or cut into crudités and dipped into something yummy like yogurt dill dip, or doused with lime and chili powder for a south-of-the-border snack. It also cooks up beautifully, steamed, sautéed, or souped.

Storage: Cut the leaves off and store separately from the bulb. The leaves will keep a week or so in a plastic bag in the fridge; the bulb will store up to a month in a plastic bag.

Here’s a zingy recipe for a great summer salad:

Couscous with Kohlrabi and Chermoula Dressing

Borrowed from From Asparagus to Zucchini: A guide to cooking farm-fresh seasonal produce.

1-2 tsp minced garlic

2 Tbs. minced cilantro

2 Tbs. minced fresh parsley

1 tsp. paprika

½ tsp. cumin

salt

3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

3 Tbs. olive oil

2-3 cooked couscous, cooled to warm temperature

2 cups peeled, diced kohlrabi

½ cup diced radishes and/or spring turnips

16 kalamata or oil-cured black olives

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

Mix garlic, cilantro, parsley, paprika, cumin and salt to taste. Stir in lemon juice and olive oil. Toss this mixture with couscous. Bring to room temperature. Gently toss with kohlrabi, radishes/turnips, and olives. Sprinkle with feta. Serves 6.

Recipes Galore

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

For recipes and ideas, check out these links:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/forum/4

Our own collection of recipes that you can contribute to

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher

Our website’s recipe “search engine,” where you can hunt down recipes by ingredient

www.epicurious.com

A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients

http://info2.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php?cmd=RE

A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient

 The First Week!

Note: Our first Beet Box is always a little longer than usual, in an effort to get you well-oriented to the farm food you’re getting from us.

In your share this week:

• Asparagus
• Pac Choi (the dark green, vase-shaped heads)
• Head Lettuce
• Radishes (the red roots)
• Hakurei Turnips (the white roots)
• One little pint of rain-battered strawberries L
• Cherry tomato plant

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

• Arugula
• Mizuna
• Broccolini

Spring is the time for greens! You’ll be getting a wide array of leafy vegetables from us in these first few weeks, such as: kale, chard, spinach, pac choi, and more. If you’re unaccustomed to eating lots of greens, it might feel overwhelming at first. Here are a couple of tips to help you relish your greens, rather than feel burdened by them:

• Cook them down! Greens cook down to almost nothing, so if there’s a pile-up happening in your fridge, turn up the heat and toss them in a pan with some butter and garlic!
• Take the “Half Your Plate” Challenge: fill up half your plate with veggies and green things. You’ll burn through that head lettuce in no time, and feel good.
• Make awesome salads. Chop up whatever is in the fridge and toss it together with some good dressing. Add nuts, dried cranberries, some cheese. Presto lunch!
• Add them to everything. Put some greens in your scrambled eggs in the morning. Add them to pasta sauce. They disappear into anything.

Kitchen Tips

Each week I’ll give you a quick orientation to any new vegetables in your Harvest Basket, including tips for prepping, storing, and eating your produce. I do my best to throw in a few recipes (usually from epicurious.com), and there are many more to be found on our website: visit the Recipe Wizard to find ingredient-specific recipes, or go to the Recipe Exchange if you have a recipe you’d like to post and share with everyone!

Please note: all of our produce is field-rinsed, not washed. We recommend you wash all of your produce before eating it.

Ugly Strawberries

This week’s strawberries are not up to snuff in our book, but we figured you’d rather have some ugly berries than no berries at all. They were looking lovely all last week, ripening up just as we’d hoped, until Sunday/Monday when we got 2 inches of rain in 24 hours. Hard rain makes a mess of the strawberry patch, so our first few weeks of June harvest are always a crapshoot (I find myself wishing that we could put a huge temporary umbrella over the strawberries in May & June when the weather is so capricious).

Eat ‘em quick before they rot! As the weather improves, so will the strawberries. FYI, they are a fruit that will continue to ripen and sweeten after being picked (not so much in your fridge, but definitely on the countertop). I wouldn’t suggest further “ripening” this week’s berries on your counter – unless you want to grow some mold – but in the future you may want to leave them out if you want to ripen them more. They won’t last as long as they do in the fridge, but the flavor is fantastic. There should be strawberries in your tote from now through September. They are a Valley Flora Harvest Basket staple!

Mizuna & Arugula

You’ll either be getting 8 oz. of arugula or mizuna in your share this week, in a plastic Ziploc bag. Both are ingredients in Abby’s salad mix. The arugula is a tender, mildly spicy green that can be eaten straight as a salad (great with candied nuts, goat cheese or feta, and a dried fruit such as cranberries). You can also make pesto with it, or lightly sautee it. The mizuna has a serrated leaf with a mild, nutty flavor. It makes a wonderful salad (for a delicious example of a mizuna salad, go out for a special dinner at The Loft of Bandon – they know how to do it up!).

Here’s an easy recipe that uses both your mizuna (or arugula) and your pac choi: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Bok-Choy-and-Mizuna-with-Tofu-362936

And if you’re getting a Bread Share from Seth, this might be a great use of your arugula and bread: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Wild-Arugula-Salad-with-Gar...

Pac Choi

Also spelled Bok Choy and Bok Choi, this is a heavy heading green with succulent ribs and dark leaves. Use the entire plant by cutting off the bottom, stripping and washing the heavy leaves (dirt and slugs often collect at the base of each leaf stem), and then cutting them up. Pac Choi is most commonly used in stir fries, but is a great addition to salads, steamed veggies, soups, eggs or quiche, or pasta.

Store in the fridge in a plastic bag. Will keep for a week or more.

Radishes

There are two bunches of round roots in your tote. The red ones are the radishes! It’s a variety called Crunchy Royale, which has been a favorite of our CSA members for years now. They are super crunchy and tender, and not too spicy. They kick off our radish line-up for the season; in the coming weeks you’ll see two other varieties, one pink and one purple.

Radish roots will keep longer if you cut the tops off. Store in the fridge in a plastic bag. Without tops they’ll keep for weeks (if not months).

Hakurei Turnips

The other white bunch of round roots in your tote are a special variety of spring turnips called Hakureis. They’re a variety from Japan. If you’ve never tried a Hakurei, you’re in for a treat: tender, juicy, buttery and sweet! Not the sort of adjectives you might expect to see in front of the word “turnip,” but taste 'em for yourself. I like to eat Hakureis raw – like apples – but they also cook up nicely in a stir-fry, or steamed.

The turnip greens can be eaten just like mustard greens, so don’t be too quick to toss them! Here’s a simple recipe that uses both the greens and the roots:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Glazed-Hakurei-Turnips-368274

Like radishes, turnips will keep longer in the fridge if you top them. They’ll last for weeks.

Hot Tip of the Week: How to Plant your Cherry Tomato

This week you get to take home your very own cherry tomato plant! We’ll still be providing you with baskets of cherry tomatoes come September, but if you have a warm spot – be it in the ground, or in a pot on a deck – we encourage you to try your hand at growing your own cherry tomatoes this year. They are easy to grow and the surest-ripening of all the tomatoes in our coastal climate. There are three varieties to choose from: Sungold (orange and tropical-sweet), Suncherry (red and prolific), and Yellow Mini (yellow and lemony-sweet).

Please limit to one per Harvest Basket.

Planting Tips:

• Plant your tomato as deeply as possible. It will grow roots out of its stem if buried (a unique trait called adventitious rooting) and create a bigger root zone.
• Feed your tomato a balanced organic compost or fertilizer. Too much nitrogen will make a huge leafy plant with no fruit, so don't overdo it!
• Water according to need. If your tomato is in a pot, it will need water more frequently. Try not to get the leaves wet when watering.
• Make sure you put your tomato in a sunny, warm spot. If growing in a container, the bigger the pot the better. A small pot will require more frequent watering and fertilizing.
• Provide support to your tomato in the form of a string trellis, a bamboo stake, or a wire cage.

If all goes well you should see some fruit by August or September!

Enjoy your first week of food!

Zoë

First off, a quick note about this newsletter! This is the primary way we communicate with all of our farm members throughout the season. Anyone who has been a farm member - past or current - is subscribed. If you are NOT a member this year and prefer NOT to receive the Beet Box, you can unsubscribe yourself with one click at the bottom of this page. We will not be offended! We understand that you get far too many emails already!

If you ARE a member this season, we strongly suggest that you stay subscribed! Why? Because the Beet Box is how you will find out about all the important things we have to tell you throughout the year, for instance:

1. When & where you will get your first delivery of produce (see below!)
2. What in the world to do with kohlrabi (forthcoming in a future newsletter!)
3. How to plant & care for the cherry tomato you'll be receiving from us in June
4. When there's bulk basil/strawberries/tomatoes/etc. for sale in case you want to put up pesto/jam/sauce/etc.
5. And more...

We try to limit our Beet Box dispatches to once per week from June through December. Occasionally you'll receive more than one if there's something really worth telling.

For now, the following are the things we've deemed REALLY WORTH TELLING:

1.  Your First Produce Delivery:

Many of you have been inquiring about when you'll receive your first delivery of produce from us.

The plan is to begin deliveries the week of June 4th, weather dependent.

If cold and wet define the month of May, then we might have to postpone until the week of June 11th. We will keep you posted! In the meantime, you can familiarize yourself with the when-and-where details of your pickup location on our website: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/valley-flora-pick-locations-protocol

2.  Feed the Body, Feed the Mind!

You'll be getting food to fill your belly pretty soon from us, but in the meantime we are excited to mention two ways you can feed your mind on the topic of sustainable family farming:

First:

Read Greenhorns ! For the past two years, I've been working on a book project in the quieter months of winter. As of April it is hot off the press! Greenhorns is a collection of 50 essays by beginning farmers around the country who write about the agony and the ecstasy inherent in starting up a farm. They are stories from the field, capturing a wide range of perspectives. Funny and sad, serious and light-hearted, these essays touch on everything from financing and machinery to family, community building, and social change. You can order a copy online at: http://storey.com/book_detail.php?isbn=9781603427722&cat=Animals

Hopefully copies will also be available at WinterRiver Books in Bandon in the near future. I will be doing a public reading from the book at the Langlois Library on June 8th at 7 pm, and copies will be available there.

Second:

Sign up for the Community Supported Agriculture Workshop, offered through Southwestern Oregon Community College. I taught this workshop two years ago and it's back this year. The workshop delves into the principles and practices of community supported agriculture, and includes a field trip to the farm. Lecture on Friday, May 18th from 6 pm to 8:30 pm in Port Orford. Field trip to Valley Flora on Saturday, May 19th, from 9:30 am to 1 pm. Course code WKPL*9033. CALL 541-332-3023 for more info and to sign up.

3.  Our Gratitude

Every spring as Harvest Basket payments come in, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all of you, the community of local eaters and family farm enthusiasts who make our livelihood possible. Your financial investment in the farm at this time of the year is especially appreciated because spring is a lean time for us farmers. A lot of money is going out to buy seeds, pay for fertilizer and insurance premiums, and to afford Roberto's invaluable labor. Your checks keep us afloat through this period, before the first crops are ready for harvest. Thank you for your support, both moral and financial. Our little farm is here because of you, and we are deeply grateful for that. We look forward to feeding you soon!

More to come soon, and enjoy the sun that's headed our way!

Zoë

A friendly reminder that our May 1st payment deadline is drawing near.

If you have already paid, THANK YOU! If not, please read on!

To reserve your farm membership for the season, we must receive FULL payment for the following items by May 1st:

• Paid in Full Harvest Baskets ($760)
• Abby's Greens Salad Shares ($95 half lb; $180 full lb)
• Candace's Pastured Egg Shares ($110)
• Seth's Bread Shares ($ varies by flavor)
• Juana's Tamale Shares ($125)

If you have opted for a Monthly Pay Plan Harvest Basket ($785), the $185 deposit is due by May 1st. All subsequent $100 monthly payments are due by the first of each month, June through November (no payment due in December). Don't worry, we'll send out monthly reminders to help you out!

We accept check, cash, and Oregon Trail cards only (we're not plumbed for regular credit cards). If you would like to use your Oregon Trail card to pay, please be in touch with us.

Please make checks payable to Valley Flora and mail by May 1st to:

Valley Flora
PO Box 91
Langlois, OR 97450

If you are not sure what you owe, you can check your order details by logging into our website. Or contact us and we'll help you sort it out.

Thanks so much for your support this season! Your food is growing, in spite of all the rain - so hopefully you'll be eating well from the farm by early June! We'll keep you posted.

Stay tuned for more updates from us, including details about your first June delivery of produce.

Cheers, Zoë

An exciting new development in our local food scene! Read on, and if you are interested in signing up for a seafood share, contact Stephanie Webb at stephanie@oceanresourceteam.org, or call 541.332.0627.

FRESH, LOCAL, SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD FROM PORT ORFORD FISHING BOATS to YOUR TABLE!

Port Orford Sustainable Seafood (POSS) is starting a Community Supported Fishery (CSF) for the residents of Oregon’s south coast. Similar to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs in which customers purchase shares of fresh, local, seasonal produce, a CSF provides communities with fresh, local, sustainably-harvested seafood. 

You make a commitment to the fishing season by pre-paying upfront, and then reap the rewards every other Wednesday! We offer CSA-style bi-monthly shares of fresh, local, sustainable seafood to our members. Our seafood is straight from our boats to your table, leaving no question about where your fish is from and more importantly, how it was caught. We are currently accepting new members! To sign up for the CSF please email stephanie@oceanresourceteam.org or call 541.332.0627 to get your first share on March 7^th, 2012!

• POSS believes that HEALTHY SEAFOOD comes from healthy oceans and healthy communities.
• We recognize that investment in both conservation and the LOCAL FISHING ECONOMY supports sustainable fisheries.

BENEFITS to joining include:

• knowing your fishermen and supporting the LOCAL ECONOMY
• FRESHER SEAFOOD, the closest thing to catching the fish yourself
• local RECIPES AND TIPS on preparation

OUR SEAFOOD includes Pacific Halibut, Lingcod, Blackcod, Cabazon, Chinook Salmon, Pacific Albacore Tuna & 20 varieties of rockfish

HOW are we SUSTAINABLE?

• Our seafood is harvested using sustain­able methods, hook and line gear.
• We provide you with traceability of fish products from point of capture to your plate.
• Our producers are family-owned fishing vessels less than 40 feet in length.