In This Week’s Beet Box:

• New Veggies: Collard Greens, Carrots, Scallions, Tayberries & Thyme
• U-Pick Tayberries and Peas!
• Strawberry Woes

In your share this week:

·      Broccoli

·      Head Lettuce

·      Collard Greens

·      Strawberries

·      Carrots

·      Scallions

·      Thyme

On Rotation:

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

·      Snap peas

·      Arugula

·      Spinach

·      Tayberries

New Veggies of the Week…

Lots of new things this week, and it’s not all greens! Carrots, heavy heads of broccoli, and scallions herald the real onset of summer!

Collard Greens

Collard greens are beloved in the South. Closely related to kale, cabbage, turnips and the rest of the Brassica family, collards became a staple in the diet of African slaves who were brought to the southern colonies to work on plantations. Slaves were often given the scraps and leftover food from the plantation kitchen, including turnip tops, other greens, ham hocks and pig’s feet. The meals they were forced to create from these meager ingredients ultimately laid the foundation for what we now consider to be traditional southern cooking.

Greens were typically cooked down for a long time with a ham hock, and then served with cornbread to dip into the “pot likker” (the highly concentrated, vitamin-rich broth that results from the long boil of the greens). A “mess o’ greens” was enough to feed a family, so the size of your “mess” depended on the number of mouths you had to feed.

The “mess o’ greens” you can make from this week’s collards is probably enough for 2-4 people. I tend to shy away from boiling collards for a long time. They are plenty tender and delicious after a quick steam or sautee in the pan. I tried this recipe for the first time a few weeks ago, and loved it. You can use a mixture of collards and any other green (kale, chard, spinach), so if you have leftover greens from last week, here’s their chance to shine. You can substitute your scallions for the onion in the recipe:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/collards-potatoes

Storage: Will hold for a week or more in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Carrots

There is not much I need to say about carrots, except this: good luck getting these home. Nothing beats a freshly-harvested, homegrown carrot. Lucky for all of us, these are the earliest carrots we’ve EVER had at the farm, thanks to that warm spell of sunshine in April that enabled me to sneak in a planting 3 weeks earlier than usual. I always breathe a sigh of relief when the carrots come on – it means the beginning of summer food, more color (other than green) in the harvest baskets, and lots of good snacking in the field.

Storage: Will hold for weeks in a plastic bag in the fridge, IF you cut the green tops off. The greens tend to wilt the carrots after awhile, so if you don’t eat all your carrots in the first five minutes, store them in the fridge topless.

Scallions

Also known as green onions, scallions kick off our onion season at Valley Flora. We grow eight kind of onions, 4 varieties of leeks, and two kinds of shallots on the farm. The scallions are the earliest to mature, but our purplette spring onions are close on their heels (look for them in your tote in the next couple of weeks). You can sub scallions anywhere that onions would normally be used, or dice them up for garnish.

We’ve never had such a beautiful onion patch as we do this year – thanks in part to the fact that our onion seedlings had a great start in the greenhouse this winter, and because the spring has been so incredibly lovely and warm. We’re crossing our fingers for a record-breaking harvest of all varieties…

Storage: Will hold a week or so in the fridge in a plastic bag.

Tayberries

If you were one of the folks who received a half pint of mystery berries in your tote last week, and had no idea what they were, here’s your answer: Tayberries. They are a cross between marionberries and raspberries, and we are just barely managing to pick enough to give everyone a taste of them (it’s a slow harvest!). But they are delectable – one of my favorite berries on the farm – and worth every long hour of picking. Eat them by the handful, or whip up some cream to sprinkle them on. Sweet heaven.

After you taste them, you might be inspired to come to the farm and pick your own. We just opened up the tayberries to upick today. The season will last another week or two, but it’s fleeting - so get ‘em while you can!

They won’t store for more than a couple of days in the fridge, so I’d suggest the instant gratification approach on this one…

Thyme

Another of our perennial herbs, and quite possibly my favorite. We use thyme all the time. Summer thyme. Winter thyme. All the thyme. In marinades, in dressings, in eggs, in rice or quinoa. It’s also the easiest herb to dry and use later, so don’t be overwhelmed by the hefty little bunch you’re getting this week. Think delayed gratification on this one.

U-Pick Tayberries & Peas!

As of today, our tayberries are open for u-pick (good timing, just as the raspberries are beginning to wind down).

This Saturday, 7/6, we’ll be opening up the sugar snap pea patch for u-pick. We have 3 long rows of peas that we planted just for u-pick and they are hitting their sweet, crunchy stride. Yum.

Strawberry Woes

We’ve never had such a weird year in the strawberry patch. The u-pick berries are light right now (when they would normally be booming), and the we-pick berries that we harvest for you just aren’t what they should be at the moment. People usually tell us our strawberries are the best berries in the whole world (sorry, Driscolls, I guess we have you beat), but I know that’s not true this week.

I have a few working theories. The plants set fruit extremely early this spring, during all that good April weather. That huge fruit set (which normally would come in June) was destroyed by the Memorial Day storm. Since then, production on the upick side has been light – which I think must be the normal lull in production we typically see in late July. If the season is 3-4 weeks accelerated, it leads me to hope that the berries are about to go bananas, like they usually do in August and September. Fingers crossed for all of you who are still hoping to fill your freezers with berries! Reports from u-pickers are that it’s getting better each week.

On our side of the fence, where we pick your berries each week, there’s something else going on. Thanks to our greenhouse tunnels, we managed to save most of the fruit from the past two whopper rain storms, but at a price. When we close up the tunnels during the rain, there is limited airflow across the plants, which can lead to other problems, like botrytis (grey mold) and spider mites. These things stress the plants, which reduces fruit quality. There is also phytopthora (say that three times fast!), a soil and water-borne root fungus, that is stressing a few of the rows. Two winters of flooding in the field have not helped our phytopthora situation.

Sigh. The perils of organic farming. A conventional strawberry farmer would have all kinds of chemicals at her disposal to combat these problems: insecticides, fungicides, and worst of all, methyl bromide (a soil fumigant that conventional strawberry growers use to nuke the ground before planting; it takes care of the phytopthora, and all the earthworms as well). Instead, we are brewing compost tea, culling any diseased plants, and patiently waiting for the plants to rebound.

We’re hopeful. There’s no rain in the forecast, so we took the tunnels down for the season. The strawberry plants are wild and free again, and if nothing else, Jake (all 6’4” of him) is happy about the fact that he can see the sky while he harvests now….

Thanks for your patience while this signature crop of ours experiences this hiccup in production, and my sincere apologies that your berries are not the best in the whole world this week.

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your share next week…

No promises, but your tote might include some of the following NEXT week:

·      Head lettuce

·      Broccoli

·      Arugula or spinach

·      Basil

·      Strawberries

·      Carrots

·      Fennel

·      Purplette onions?

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 3

In your share this week:

·      Broccolini

·      Braising Mix

·      Head Lettuce

·      Rainbow Chard

·      Strawberries

·      Kohlrabi

·      Radishes

·      Oregano

On Rotation:

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

·      Snap peas

New Veggies of the Week…

A quick note, especially to our new members, about the Harvest Baskets right now. June is a month when the baskets are heavier on the greens – spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, etc. This is because these are quick-growing things that mature by early summer and are ready for harvest right now. Carrots, zucchini, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, corn and all the other well-loved veggies that you may be pining for start to show up later in the season, after they’ve had enough warm days to mature.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by all the greens in your share, remember this: if you cook them, they will shrink down to almost nothing! Really. It may look like an insurmountable amount of greenery when you open up your tote, but put them in a pan or a steamer or a blender and you won’t be so intimidated by the volume. Also, consider shifting your habits to incorporate the greens every chance you get. Scrambled eggs for breakfast? Throw some chopped chard in there, too!

And also know that as our mild, early summer weather shifts into mid-summer heat, you’ll start to see less of the greens and more of the other hearty veggies that are growing happily  in our fields right now. Just like raising kids, this phase doesn’t last forever, so try to make the most of it while it’s here!

Rainbow Chard

There's an unspoken rule around the farm, inspired by a saying of my mom's: that "Everything we do has to be at least 51% art." If ever there was a crop that abides by this mantra, it's rainbow chard. With stems aflame in hues of pink, red, orange, yellow, and white, it's as much eye candy as it is good eating. Chard grows year-round here, but it loves early summer the best; it's leaves are big, heavy and succulent right now, and it’s a joy to harvest and bunch.

Chard is a leafy parent to beets and can be used anywhere you would normally use spinach. It’s actually nutritionally superior to spinach because it doesn’t contain oxalic acid – the thing in spinach that sometimes makes your teeth feel coated and funny. Oxalic acid binds minerals and makes them unavailable during digestion, so all the vitamins (A, E, and C) and minerals (iron, calcium) in chard are more readily absorbed by your body.

When we eat chard, we use the whole leave, stem and all. The stems take a little longer to cook, so we strip the leaves from them, chop up the stems, and start them cooking a little before we add the leaves. I also throw whole chard leaves into my berry smoothie in the morning.

Here’s a menagerie of recipes off our website to help get you started if this is your first time out with chard:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/recipe_search/results/chard

Storage: in the fridge in a sealed plastic bag. Will last more than a week.

Oregano

Oregano is one of the perennial herbs we planted a year ago, with the hope of being able to provide fresh herbs to our members in the early part of the season before annual herbs like dill, cilantro, basil and parsley are ready on the farm. The plan seems to be working; our oregano patch is knee high and perhaps too well established at this point (it’s in the mint family and likes to spread….). Herbs are supposedly the most flavorful and pungent just before flowering, so we harvested it this week for you just before the flower spikes have begun to open. The flowers and leaves are both edible.

In the kitchen, it has a spicy taste with a bit of a bite – most commonly used in tomato sauces and Italian cooking. But you can also add it to salad dressing, tuck it under the skin of roasting chickens or into the cavity of baking fish. You can infuse vinegar with it by putting a sprig or two into a bottle of vinegar, or add it to Greek salad.

Or, DRY IT! Because we harvested sizeable bunches for you and it’s pretty potent stuff, you might want to dry some of it for later use. Simply hang it upside down, ideally in a dry, dark place (but somewhere in your kitchen will work fine, too) until it’s crispy-dry.  If you have a food dehydrator you can make of layer of sprigs in it and run it on a low setting until crispy. Then strip off the dry leaves over a plate or bowl, crumble them up between your fingers, and store in a jar. You can do this with many of the herbs you’ll be getting throughout the season (thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, dill, and mint).

To store it for fresh use, you can either keep it in a plastic bag in the fridge or put it in a glass of water (like a bouquet) and keep it on the counter. Will hold for a week or so.

Braising Mix

The bag of greens in your tote this week is braising mix. It’s a semi-spicy mix of baby kale, tatsoi, mizuna and mustard greens – great for eating raw as salad-with-a-kick, or cooked (steamed, stir-fried, etc.). Use it any way that you’d eat kale, spinach, chard or other leafy greens. I like it steamed up next to a pile of beans and cornbread, with hot sauce – for a southern twist.

Stores for at least a week in the fridge.

U-pick and Farmstand are OPEN!

I think I forgot to mention this in previous newsletters:

Our farmstand and u-pick are open every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm. There is produce for purchase at the farmstand, in case you want to round out your Harvest Basket with something extra. AND, the u-pick is ramping up with strawberries, RASPBERRIES, fresh herbs and flowers!

The strawberry u-pick goes all summer, until the fall rains come. The raspberry season is more fleeting and will probably only go through the early part of July.  You might want to come sooner than later, since Pippin and Cleo have figured out how to pilfer the raspberry patch efficiently this year.

After raspberries, we’ll have marionberries (July and August).

Please bring your own containers for u-pick and your own bags for farmstand produce (in the interest of keeping more plastic out of the landfill).

Spring Strawberry Victory!

Every year, we struggle through the months of May and June in the strawberry patch. It seems that just as they are really beginning ripen, we get another rainstorm that mushes up the berries and sets us back a couple of weeks. So, this year we decided to experiment with some low tunnels - like portable mini-greenhouses - of our own design. We set these things up over our new strawberry planting, in hopes of being able to keep them dry during rainy spells, but with the option of raising the plastic during warm, dry spells (to keep it from getting too hot in there, and to let the bees, wind and other pollinators in).

We watched them get blown apart during the Memorial Day storm (we clocked 40+ mph windds at the farm), so we had to make some design changes to help them withstand strong winds. It seems to be working so far. We dropped the plastic down for this week's rain, so the strawberries have stayed warm and dry through every downpour. What a relief.

The other unforeseen consequence of the tunnels is that the berries seem to be super-sized so far this season. They are much bigger than usual, and there's less damage from marauding birds and toddlers.

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your share next week…

No promises, but your tote might include some of the following NEXT week:

·      Head lettuce

·      Broccolini

·      Spinach

·      Fresh herbs

·      Strawberries

·      Carrots?

·      Peas?

·      Collards?

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

Week 1

Welcome to the Beet Box! This is the weekly newsletter from Valley Flora that describes what’s in your Harvest Basket and what’s happening on the farm. We typically send out the Beet Box on Wednesdays, but it’s going out a day early today to help prepare you for your first week of eating from the farm! Any questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch! We’re looking forward to the next 28 weeks of sharing good food with you!

In your share this week:

·      Artichokes

·      Asparagus

·      Broccolini

·      Arugula (in the plastic bag)

·      Pac Choi

·      Mint

·      Radishes

·      Hakurei Turnips (the white round roots)

·      Cherry tomato plants

The Kickoff!

Are you read to eat some vegetables?!?

Good thing, cuz the veggies are on! We’re kicking off the CSA season this week with some unforeseen goodies, thanks to the warm early spring we’ve had: a big pile of broccolini and a bag of arugula, in particular. Ironically, a couple of the things we had anticipated putting in the Harvest Baskets are NOT in there, also because of the weather: head lettuce (because our first planting was so early it had already bolted by this week’s harvest) and strawberries (which were set back by last week’s Memorial Day tempest). Hopefully both of those items will be back in the line-up for Week 2.

This week you’ll also see artichokes and asparagus in your Baskets. Savor them because this is the only week they’ll be in there. Asparagus season starts in early April and lasts for 8-10 weeks – which means that by early June it’s winding down. The artichokes would normally go into June, but all the hot weather has accelerated the season and is bringing an abrupt end to our spring harvest. Steaming them is a simple, delicious way to eat them (dipped in butter or mayo, of course!), but asparagus are also wonderful oven-roasted or grilled. We like to make our own aioli to dip them in: a few scoops of mayo, a glug of aged balsamic vinegar, chopped fresh thyme or rosemary, some fresh-grated parmesan or pecorino, and black pepper – all mixed up together into a dipping sauce.

What else is in there? Pac choi, a lovely heading Asian green that is wonderful raw, steamed, or stir-fried. Broccolini- a variety called Happy Rich that is the sweetest, most tender thing we grow in the broccoli family. Just steam it – lightly – and enjoy the flavor. Or dip it in some of that aioli you just learned how to make. It’s also great with a simple drizzle of olive oil and salt and a little balsamic vinegar. You’ll be surprised that the stems are tender from tip to tail, not like typical big-headed broccoli. Arugula (in the plastic bag) is great as a stand-alone salad green, or under a piece of fish.

Those white, round roots are hakurei turnips – a Japanese variety that’s smooth, sweeth and buttery. Eat them like apples. And don’t overlook the tops – they can be cooked up like mustard greens. The red and pink radishes have a little kick, but all of it is in the skin. So if you like a milder flavor, peel them and just eat the white hearts.

For more ideas on how to eat these things, visit our recipe collection where you can search by ingredient (http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher), or any of the recipe storehouses listed below at the bottom of this newsletter.

Cherry Tomato Plants!

And finally, two cherry tomato plants! We grew a heap of starts this spring and are sharing the bounty with all of you – so take two home with you this week and plant them (two per harvest basket, so if you split a harvest basket with someone you can each take one home). These are tried-and-true Valley Flora varieties that we grow outdoors on the farm. We usually plant ours around now and see the first fruit sometime in August.

Here are some planting tips:

·      Plant your tomato as deeply as possible (don’t worry about burying the bottom leaves). 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, and will produce fewer and smaller fruits.

·      Provide support to your tomato in the form of a string trellis, a bamboo stake, or a wire cage.

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your share next week…

No promises, but your tote might include some of the following NEXT week:

·      Head lettuce

·      Broccolini

·      Kale

·      Spinach

·      Fresh herbs

·      Rhubarb

·      Strawberries

·      Kohlrabi

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

We have sold out of Harvest Baskets for 2013, but here's the good news:

We still have Egg Shares, Salad Shares, Bread Shares, Tamale Shares and Winter Garden Kits available.

Anyone is welcome to sign up for these items, until May 20th.

If you are on our waiting list and you sign up for any of these items this year, you will be included in our priority sign-up process in 2014 and guaranteed a Harvest Basket next year, should you want one. It's a great way to get your foot in the door, and enjoy local food this season!

Please follow the instructions below to sign up. Our CSA season begins the first week of June and runs through the middle of December.


VALLEY FLORA SIGN-UP INSTRUCTIONS:

WHO Can Sign Up?
Anyone, whether you are on our waiting list or not. Whether you have already signed up for something or not. Anyone is welcome.

WHAT Can I Sign Up For?

• Abby's Greens Salad Shares (20 weeks: $95 - 1/2 pound; $180 - full pound)
• Pastured, local eggs from Candace Carnahan on Floras Creek (28 weeks: $70 - half dozen; $140 - full dozen)
• Artisan sourdough bread from Seth's Brick Oven Bakery in Bandon (28 weeks: $168)
• Homemade tamales from Juana Ferrer in Coquille
• A Winter Garden Kit - a flat of tried and true Valley Flora starts so you can plant your own winter garden to feed you through NEXT winter! ($25)

WHEN Do I Sign Up?
By May 20th. The season will begin the first week of June.

HOW Do I Sign Up?
Follow this link and go directly to our online "store": http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/products

1. Choose which items you want and add them to your cart, in any combination.
2. Complete the checkout process, review your order, and click "submit order".
3. You will receive an itemized order confirmation by email once you submit your order on our website. If you don't receive one, it means you did not submit your order and are NOT in our system yet.

HOW and WHEN Do I Pay for My Food?
We accept check, cash, and SNAP benefits (Oregon Trail Cards). We must receive FULL payment for all items by May 20th. If paying with SNAP, please contact us directly to make arrangements.

Please make checks out to Valley Flora and mail by May 20th to:

Valley Flora
PO Box 91
Langlois, OR 97450

Don't hesitate to be in touch if you have questions. Email is best. We are usually out of the office during the day, so it may take a day or two to return your phone call or email.

Thanks for your interest in eating locally, and for all your patience!
Zoë

This is a reminder that our priority sign-up period ends this Thursday, February 28th!

If you were a CSA member with us last season, now is the time to sign up for 2013!

If you have already signed up, THANK YOU for sticking with us another season!

(And kindly disregard this mass email)......:)


WHO Can Sign Up?
We are currently re-enrolling last year's farm members ONLY. If you were a CSA member last season (as in, purchased any of the following: a Harvest Basket, salad share, egg share, bread share, or tamale share) now is your chance to reserve your share for 2013! This priority sign-up period will last until February 28th. We will begin sign-ups for people on the waiting list starting in March.

WHAT Can I Sign Up For This Year?

• Harvest Baskets
• Abby's Greens Salad Shares
• Pastured, local eggs from Candace Carnahan on Floras Creek
• Artisan sourdough bread from Seth's Brick Oven Bakery in Bandon
• Homemade tamales from Juana Ferrer in Coquille
• A Winter Garden Kit - a flat of starts so you can plant your own winter garden to feed you through NEXT winter!

HOW Do I Sign Up?

1. Follow this link and go directly to our online "store": http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/products
2. Choose which items you want and add them to your cart, in any combination.
3. If you are getting a Harvest Basket, you will need to enter this password when prompted: eatlocal2013  
4. Please do not share this password so that we can keep the signup process fair to everyone on our waiting list. FYI: this password is separate from and different than the personal password you would use when you are logging in to our site using your username. You DO NOT need to login to our website to sign up/purchase products from our online store. BUT, if you want to login and cannot remember your personal login password, you can reset your password at: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/user/password
5. Complete the checkout process and submit your order.
6. You will receive an itemized order confirmation by email once you submit your order on our website. If you don't receive one, it means you did not complete your order and are NOT in our system.

WHAT if I Want to Share a Harvest Basket with Someone?
If you plan to share your Harvest Basket with someone, please pick one person to be the primary share holder. Sign up for the Harvest Basket under that name and submit payment under that name. Your share partner is welcome to sign up for any additional products (salad, eggs, bread, tamales) independently, under his/her own name. Please encourage your share partner to sign up for our Beet Box newsletter so that they can stay in the loop and receive notices from us throughout the season. Share partners can subscribe to our newsletter at: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/newsletter-sign-up    

HOW and WHEN Do I Pay for My Food?
We accept check, cash, and SNAP benefits (Oregon Trail Cards). To reserve your spot, we must receive FULL payment for all items by May 1st. If you choose the Monthly Pay Plan Harvest Basket option, you will pay your deposit by May 1st and then make subsequent $100 monthly payments June through November.

Please make checks out to Valley Flora and mail before May 1st to:

Valley Flora
PO Box 91
Langlois, OR 97450

I hope you'll be joining us this season. Thanks in advance for your support, and don't hesitate to be in touch if you have questions. Email is always the best way to get me, or call 348-2180.

Please note that I will be in Japan on a speaking tour from February 28th through March 8th and will not be able to return calls during that time. If I can't answer your questions via email, I'll be in touch as soon as I return.

Cheers,

Zoë

Week 28

The Last Week!

This is it: your last installment from Valley Flora for the season. This week’s basket is a true testament to the possibility for local, wintertime eating. We’re halfway through December, but there’s no lack of food in your totes. We filled them with almost twenty pounds of veggies – most of it fresh-harvested from the field (all but the squash and potatoes, which have been in storage).

And although it’s the last trusty-dusty Rubbermaid we will pack for you this year, the farm will continue to feed its farmers through the winter with greens, leftover storage crops, leeks, and even broccoli. We continue to glean for our own table, enjoying the sweetest of kale, Brussels sprouts, and roots. I can’t encourage you enough: if you have the slightest inclination to grow some of your own food, we live in the perfect place to have a winter garden. For those of you who dread the Valley Flora off-season, you could fill at least some of the January-thru-May produce gap with your own homegrown veggies. It’s too late to plant a winter garden for this year, but you might think about carving out a corner for at least a few kale plants next July when it’s time to plant for winter.

In the meantime, hopefully we’ve loaded you up with enough squash, spuds and roots – all of which have a great storage life – to see you into the New Year.

From all of us at the farm, a heartfelt THANK YOU for your support this year!

Happy Holidays and feast well with those you love!

(P.S. I have to include this recipe for parsnips and winter squash as a final enticement to enjoy the white gnarly parsnips in your share this week. I made it for Thanksgiving and it was a showstopper. Granted, it’s hard to go wrong with a little butter and maple syrup...:)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Winter-Squash-and-P...

Tell All! Please Fill Out the End-of-Season Survey!!!

Every year we ask our Harvest Basket members to fill out a short 2-minute survey so we can get some structured feedback about the season. It’s short and quick, so please, if you’d be so kind, we’d love to know your thoughts: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/2012-valley-flora-survey

The Year in Review!

In order to help jog your memory about what we grew for you this year, here’s a crop-by-crop recap that summarizes what we projected we would put in your Harvest Basket and what we actually put in your Harvest Basket. Green highlighting indicates crops that we gave significantly more of than planned. Yellow highlighting indicates crops that we came up significantly short on. 

The thing I love about this chart is that every discrepancy in the projected versus actual produce tells a story. For instance: we had planned to give you 3 pounds of peas but you got none (remember the tale of pea woe this spring….torrential rain, marauding mice, stealthy birds, voracious slugs, etc. etc. etc….?). Or how about the 8 bonus ears of corn: I felt so bad about the peas, I turned around and planted two extra beds of corn in their place. We came up 5 pounds short on potatoes in your share this year. Why? Our wet, grey July brought on late blight that took out a third of our potato crop and knocked our yields down (and made the spuds ugly). It wasn’t in the plan, but you got a few apples this year – because we had a nice spell of weather right when the orchard bloomed in the spring, and consequently we got a better crop of apples than in the past two years.  We had a great carrot year because we outsmarted the Rust Fly this season with a football-field-sized piece of floating row cover. And there were no artichokes because we renovated the entire artichoke field in the early spring in order to set the stage for a bumper crop in 2013 (the artichoke forecast for next season is looking good!). Whether it’s pests or weather or any number of other factors, your CSA share is largely defined by the forces of Mother Nature – and our varying ability to work with and around her. It's a constant dance.

Based on our farmstand pricing, the total value of all the food we put in your Harvest Basket this season was equal to $801.55. You paid $760 for that food, for a bonus of $41.05 in extra produce this year, equal to a 5.4% discount.

One More Winter Farmstand!

Next Wednesday, December 19^th, is the final farmstand for the year. Rain or shine, 9-5, in the shed. Come load up on the last of the Valley Flora produce for 2012!

Signing Up for Next Year!

As the season winds down, many of you are asking how to sign up for next year’s Harvest Basket, and when! Here’s the scoop:

·      If you currently get a Harvest Basket (or any other items like eggs, bread, tamales, or salad shares) you automatically get priority sign-up for next year. There’s no need to put yourself on the waiting list.

·      We usually start the priority sign-up process in February. We’ll send you an email at that time with instructions and a link to our online sign-up page.

·      There will be a two to three week window for priority sign-ups.

·      If your email changes between now and then, PLEASE let us know so that we can update your contact info in our system!

Once the priority sign-up period is over, we’ll start inviting folks on our waiting list to sign up.

Stocking Stuffers from Valley Flora!

Need some locally-grown gift ideas for the holidays?

Valley Flora Gift Certificates! For use at our farmstand and u-pick, available in any denomination.

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce!Available by the bottle, half case, or case:

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

To order Cranky Baby or gift certificates, please email us your:

·      Name

·      Pickup location

·      Address

·      The amount you would like

We’ll deliver the hot sauce to your pickup site, or drop the gift certificates in the mail to you.

In your share this week:

·      Leeks

·      Carrots

·      Brussels sprouts

·      Kale and/or Chard

·      Parsnips

·      Potatoes

·      Delicata Squash

·      Fresh Thyme (it’s kinda dirty since the field flooded over Thanksgiving…give it a rinse and pat it dry before you use it!)

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your share next YEAR…

See the “Year in Review” above and start imagining a fruitful, abundant 2013!

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 26

Back to our Normal Schedule…

This week we return to our normal Harvest Basket delivery schedule. Hope you had a delicious Thanksgiving holiday!

Valley Flora: Wednesdays, 9 am to 5 pm

Coos Bay:  Wednesdays, 12 pm to 3 pm

Bandon: Saturdays, starting at 10 am (no end time)

PortOrford: Friday, 5-7 pm

Egg shares resume this week!

Two More Weeks to Go!

The Harvest Baskets (plus Egg Shares and Bread Shares) go for two more weeks, through the week of December 10^th. Mark your calendars for your final pickup date:

Valley Flora: Wednesday, 12/12

Coos Bay:  Wednesday, 12/12

Bandon: Saturday, 12/15

PortOrford: Friday, 12/14

Winter Farmstand!

We are trying something new in hopes of forestalling anyone's produce deprivation…

A WINTER FARMSTAND!

Wednesdays from 9-5

Rain or Shine, in the Shed!

• The farmstand starts TODAY, 11/28, and will continue each Wednesday through 12/19 (no farmstand on 12/26).
• January dates still TBD, depending on our stocks of produce, the weather, etc.
• The farmstand is SELF-SERVE and HONOR SYSTEM! Please honor the honor system for it to work! There is a payment box on the wall in the shed.
• We can accept cash and checks. Bring small bills because we won't be there to make change for you. Please make checks payable to "Valley Flora."
• There is a surprisingingly wide array of produce still in the field, from roots to greens to Brussels sprouts and much more!

Valley Flora Farmstand Gift Certificates!

Give the gift of eating locally! We have gift certificates available, for any amount. Great for family and friends who like to frequent our farmstand and u-pick throughout the season. If you would like to purchase a gift certificate, email us:

• Your name
• Your pickup location
• The amount you'd like the gift certificate for

And we'll be in touch!

Monster Kohlrabi!

You remember kohlrabi from last spring? Well, this is the same beast, but a whole lot bigger. We grow a storage variety for the Fall/Winter, aptly named “Kossack.” We actually harvested these big boys from the field in late October and have been holding them in our cooler since then. They keep for months and months and the flavor is supposed to improve in storage.

You probably have your preferred preparation figured out by now, but remember that they are equally good raw or cooked (sautéed or steamed). You’ll want to peel the tough skin off with a knife and then savor the tender heart within.

This is a favorite recipe of mine:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/kohlrabi-and-apple-salad-mustard-vinaigrette

Cranky Baby: The Perfect Stocking Stuffer!

Bets’ homegrown, handcrafted hot sauce is the bomb-diggity! 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’ll deliver to your pickup site.

In your share this week:

• Leeks
• Carrots
• Pac Choi
• Kohlrabi
• Hakurei Turnips
• Rainbow Chard
• Acorn Squash
• Delicata Squash

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!

• Gold shallots
• Mixed beets
• Carrots
• Celeriac
• Pac Choi
• Hakurei Turnips
• Green Cabbage
• Confection Winter Squash

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 24!

What’s that Furry Thing in my Tote?!!

Never fear, it won’t bite. Those two scruffy balls with the green flattops are celeriac (also known as celery root). Like most of the more unusual veggies we grow, this one is highly popular in Europe, and especially in Germany and France where our more commonly-used stalk celery (a close cousin to celeriac) is rarely used. 

Your great-great-grandparents might have known how to cook with celeriac, though. It was a common staple in American kitchens back in the 1800s, before modern-day refrigeration. The winning trait, above all (because we know this veggie isn’t going to win the pageant on looks alone), was the fact that celeriac is a great storage crop and will keep either in the ground or in a root cellar all winter long.

The fact that we all have refrigerators now shouldn’t preclude celeriac from our kitchens. Beneath that rough exterior is a surprisingly tender, creamy-crisp, delicious vegetable with a sweet-nutty-celery-like flavor. You may want to hang on to your celeriac until next week and use it in your stuffing, or boil and mash it with your potatoes on Turkey/Tofurkey/Turducken Day.

Here are a few cooking and storage tips:

• Peel your celeriac with a sharp knife (note that peeled celeriac will darken when exposed to air after awhile, but you can prevent this by tossing with lemon juice or keeping it in water until cooking).
• Boil, steam, roast, bake or eat raw as celeriac sticks dipped in your favorite creamy dressing.
• Store in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to a month, and probably longer (we’ve had celeriac in our fridge all winter with no problem).
• Check out these recipes on our website (and there are many more on www.epicurious.com): http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/recipe_search/results/celeriac

EVERYONE PLEASE READ THIS!

For Thanksgiving, next week…..

All Harvest Baskets will be delivered on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21^st!

These are the specific times for pickup at each location on Wednesday, November 21st:

Valley Flora: unchanged – 9 am to 5 pm

Coos Bay:  unchanged – 12 pm to 3 pm

Bandon: Wednesday, 11/21, starting at 12 noon (no end time)

PortOrford: Wednesday, 11/21, starting at 10 am (all day)

If you will be out of town for the holiday and need to make special arrangements with us, we must hear from you by this Friday, November 16^th.

We are happy to hold your tote in our walk-in cooler and you can pick it up upon your return. Please email us:

• Your name
• Your pickup location
• The date you plan to pick up your Harvest Basket at the farm.

NO EGGS the Week of Thanksgiving: Egg Share members, please remember that there is no delivery of eggs the week of Thanksgiving. Candace will have them for sale at the Langlois Market and her other usual outlets. Or you can special order eggs from her for that week if you contact her directly: www.imachickenrancher.com

Last Farmstand This Saturday, 10-2!

This is it! The last farmstand of the year! Come and stock up on all kinds of Fall storage crops (squash, carrots, Brussels sprouts, celeriac, potatoes, radishes, turnips.....), plus the last of the tomatoes, sweet peppers, Abby's Greens and more!

Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm. See you there!

Do You Think Stuffing is Bland? Boring? Dull? Spice it up with some Cranky Baby!

If you secretly think Grandma's stuffing could use a little kick, then Cranky Baby Hot Sauce is just what the doctor ordered! Homegrown and handcrafted at the farm, just slip a bottle in your pocket or purse for Thanksgiving dinner and discretely dispense to taste. 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’ll deliver to your pickup site.

This Week’s Squash: Acorn or Butternut Squash & Pie Pumpkins

A few reasons why these squash, this week:

1. The pie pumpkins are intended to inspire you to make your own homemade pumpkin pie for next week’s feast. Don’t forget the whipped cream!
2. The butternut squash aren’t going to keep for too many weeks longer, so we’re hoping you will put them to immediate use.
3. If you’re not getting butternut, you’re getting acorn – because we ran out of butternut. :)

In your share this week:

• Red onions
• Red cabbage
• Carrots
• Pac Choi
• Celeriac
• Radishes
• Head lettuce
• Pie Pumpkins

On Rotation:

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

• Acorn & Butternut squash

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

Remember, no promises!

• Shallots
• Brussels sprouts
• Carrots
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Parsnips
• Potatoes
• Hakurei turnips
• Sunshine squash
• Fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, 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 22!

Heads Up: Our Thanksgiving Schedule - PLEASE READ!

It’s still three weeks away, but Thanksgiving plans are already in the works for most households. For this reason, I’m sending out the first reminder about our delivery schedule the week of Thanksgiving.

Mark your calendars!

For the week of Thanksgiving

WE WILL DELIVER ALL HARVEST BASKETS ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21^st

We do this for two reasons:

1. To ensure that everyone gets their food in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
2. To give ourselves a brief holiday from harvest and delivery during Thanksgiving celebrations.

These are the specific times for pickup at each location on Wednesday, November 21st:

Valley Flora: unchanged – 9 am to 5 pm

Coos Bay:  unchanged – 12 pm to 3 pm

Bandon: Wednesday, 11/21, starting at 12 noon (no end time)

PortOrford: Wednesday, 11/21, starting at 10 am (all day)

If you are leaving town early and will not be able to pick up your Harvest Basket, we are happy to hold your tote for you in our walk-in cooler. You can pick it up at the farm upon your return. To make arrangements, please email us the following information by Friday, November 15th:

·      Your name

·      Your pickup location

·      The date you plan to pick up your Harvest Basket at the farm.

We will email you further instructions when we hear from you.

Also, EGG SHARE MEMBERS: Please remember that there is no delivery of eggs the week of Thanksgiving. We knew when we were planning the egg shares last spring that Candace’s hens wouldn’t be able to squeeze out enough eggs for everyone by Wednesday, so we intentionally planned for no eggs the week of Thanksgiving. No doubt she will have them for sale at the Langlois Market and her other usual outlets. Or you can special order eggs from her for that week if you contact her directly: www.imachickenrancher.com

Please mark your calendars with these schedule changes to avoid any confusion the week of Thanksgiving!

This Week’s Squash: Butternut 

The quintessential soup squash! Butternuts are different from all the other winter squash in that they are practically all meat. The seed cavity is small and the skin is smooth, leaving you with any easy-to-peel, ample-fleshed, smooth, sweet, creamy, orange squash that is the foundation of my favorite Fall soup. Pair this with the fresh sage leaves in your tote this week, with the help of this simple recipe from Deborah Madison:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/butternut-squash-soup-fried-sage-leaves

Or try this exotic Persian-inspired spin on winter squash from Deborah Madison (if only we could grow dates, almonds, pistachios, olives, and Meyer lemons at Valley Flora!):

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/winter-squash-rounds-dates-and-pi...

Butternuts are also wonderful roasted simply with salt and olive oil, at 400 until soft and slightly browned.

This Week’s New Produce:

Beet Medley: Red beets, gold beets, and chioggia beets are tumbled together in your tote this week. If you have never cut into a chioggia before, you’re in for a surprise! All of them store for months in the fridge, and cook up the same – roasted, steamed, or any other way you like.

Escarole: It looks like a huge head of lettuce, but this is actually a member of the chicory family (think radicchio, endive, etc.). It’s a little more toothsome than lettuce, and can either be eaten raw or cooked. Here are a few jumping off points to help you dig in:

http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/recipe_search/results/escarole

Romanesco Cauliflower, aka the vegetable that makes you think you’re on psychedelics even when you’re not! Or, The vegetable that makes mathematicians swoon (fractals!). Or, the vegetable that many members forget to eat because they are too busy taking pictures of it on their countertop.

But please, EAT THIS VEGETABLE! It’s the nuttiest, yummiest cousin to cauliflower and broccoli in the world. So popular that I grew twice as much of this year, to keep up with the clamorous demand. Steamed, or better yet, ROASTED! Toss it with a little salt, some olive oil, and put it in the oven at 400 for awhile until it’s tender and crispy.

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, apples, beets, carrots, zucchini, herbs, and much more.

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce: Spice it Up!

Handcrafted at the farm with homegrown hot peppers that are vine-ripened to a sassy red in the 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:

• Yellow omions
• Beet Medley – Red, Gold & Chioggia
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Escarole
• Butternut Squash
• Red Ursa Kale
• Yellow Finn Potatoes
• Fresh Sage

On Rotation:

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

• Romanesco Cauliflower

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

Remember, no promises!

• Yellow Onions
• Broccoli?
• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• Brussels sprouts
• Romanesco Cauliflower?
• Delicata squash
• Pac Choi
• Hakurei Turnips

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

We ran out of daylight and couldn't get the apples harvested in time for packout today. There will not be apples in this week's share, as was indicated in the Beet Box. Our apologies!

Zoë

Week 19!

Squirreling Season

Early October is when we, as farmers, most resemble squirrels. We are hustling around the farm with a heightened sense of urgency at this point in the year, working together to cache our oh-so-important winter storage crops before the weather turns. We’re digging the last of the potatoes, cleaning our cured onions, and most notably, harvesting our winter squash. These are the foods whose calories and flavors will see us deep into wintertime.

Winter squash encompasses a big family of hard-skinned squashes that come in all stripes, sizes and colors. Many folks are familiar with just a few types from the grocery store: maybe the dark green-skinned acorn squash, or perhaps a green or scarlet Kabocha squash. What most people don’t realize is that winter squash are for eating (unlike the ornamental gourds they are often confused with), and good eating they are! Their name, “winter” squash, confuses a lot of people: they don’t grow in the wintertime (we actually plant them in the field in early June and harvest in early October). Rather, the name refers to their ability to store for many months; this year’s winter squash crop will feed us well into the new year.

On the farm we grow seven different varieties of winter squash, plus a pie pumpkin. Starting next week you’ll begin to see them in your share, where they will become a staple all the way through until the last week of Harvest Baskets in December. (That’s right: there are still 9 more weeks to go in the Harvest Basket season; you will get your last tote of the season the week of December 10^th). We’ll introduce you to each variety as it comes and provide cooking, eating and storage tips.

In the meantime, we are working this week to get all of those different squash into the barn. We started clipping them from the vine 2 weeks ago, putting them in windrows, and letting them “cure” in the field. This hot sunny spell has been miraculous (we couldn’t hope for more perfect weather) because in order to cure properly, winter squash need at least a week of warm, 70-ish degree, dry weather while they lie in the field. This helps their skins harden and their stems dry (which are the two keys to sealing out any entry points for molds, fungi, bacteria and other pathogens that could cause them to prematurely rot in storage).

It’s always a dicey time of year to pull it off (last year the forecast was full of rain and we had to transport all of our squash to a barn in town where we force-cured them with a heater, with mixed success), but so far so good this season. I like to think it’s the gift we get in exchange for a long, grey, wet spring and early summer….

So look for winter squash in your share NEXT week, the week of October 15th. First up: spaghetti squash!

Broccoli is Back, Plus Apples and Napa & Yellow Storage Onions!

More fall food this week, right on time:

Broccoli is back and it’s BIG. We harvested some 3-pound heads this week!

Apples! We have a better crop than we’ve had in a spate of successive bad apple years, so you’re seeing one of the many different varieties we grow on the farm. This one is lovingly named “lower driveway tree.” It’s a tree that has always grown along my mom’s driveway, and is the apple that my sister and I always associate with school lunch: as kids, as we walked down to the meet the school bus each morning in the fall, we would each grab an apple from this tree for our lunch. My sister has since grafted this variety and is growing a couple new trees of it in our young orchard. It’s sweet, crisp, disease-resistant, and a great little lunchbox size. Best stored in the fridge.

Napa Cabbage! Also known as Chinese cabbage, this is the traditional cabbage used for kimchi. It is hugely versatile, raw or stir-fried or fermented or steamed. I’d suggest pairing it with your apples for a fall twist in this recipe, adapted from epicurious.com: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/apple-and-napa-cabbage-salad-spic...

Yellow Storage Onions: The onions you’re getting this week are called Copra, a long-storing yellow variety that is another of our fall/winter staples. As mentioned, at this point all of our onions have “cured,” meaning you can keep them on your countertop. It’s fine to put them in the fridge as well, but they should keep for at least a month in good storage conditions (cool, dry, dark).

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!

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:

• Yellow onions
• Carrots
• Napa Cabbage
• Head Lettuce
• Sweet Peppers
• Red potatoes
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers
• Apples
• Broccoli

On Rotation:

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

• Cherry Tomatoes

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

Remember, no promises!

• Red Torpedo Onions
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Fennel?
• Sweet and/or hot Peppers
• Spaghetti squash

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 17!

A New Cast of Characters This Week…

This first week of Fall brings with it some new veggies: celery, shallots, savoy cabbage, and mint. Your summer standbys are still in there – tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and zucchini – but the transition to Autumn eating has begun. You can look forward to more corn, tomatoes and peppers in the coming weeks, but they’ll start to be accompanied by heavy harvest-time foods like winter squash, Fall broccoli, and Romanesco cauliflower (a favorite among our members, and one of the most stunning-to-behold vegetables we grow).

Here’s a quick run-down of this week’s new produce:

Celery: Our celery is a little different than what you might be used to from the supermarket. It tends to be thinner, darker green, and more intensely flavorful. You can certainly use it for a good old snack of ants on a log (remember raisins and peanut butter on celery sticks, from preschool?), but a lot of people prefer to use it more as a seasoning – in soups, stock, stuffing, and casseroles, for instance. Rather than log the whole plant, we selectively harvest stalks and give you a handful at a time, multiple times throughout the fall. The leaves are packed with flavor, so consider using them as well.

Shallots: We grow two types of shallots, a red and a gold. You’re getting a red shallot this week. They mature alongside our onions, and according to everyone who’s ever laid eyes on them they are the biggest shallots on earth. I don’t know why they get so big for us - we don’t give them special treatment of any kind – but I guess as shallots go, these are colossal. Shallots are actually more closely related to garlic than they are to onions, and they are a staple in French cuisine. You can use them just as you would an onion. They’ll keep fine on your counter (these have been curing for a month, so they don’t have to go in the fridge).

Savoy Cabbage: A beauty of a cabbage, curly-crinkle-leaved savoy is usually grown for fall harvest. You can use it any way you’d use a regular red or green cabbage: souped or slawed or sauerkrauted or stir-fried. These two recipes – one from Down Under, and the other from the BBC, caught my eye. They both combine cabbage and shallots. It appears that the Brits and their former colonies have an affinity for fatty meat, but I’m sure you can substitute butter or oil if you don’t have any goose fat on hand:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/meat/recipe/savoy-cabbage-with-smoky-bacon-20111019-1m4w6.html

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2435/rosemaryspiked-cabbage-

Mint: Last week I took a very broad poll of one Harvest Basket member  – my dad, Bill – to find out whether he would prefer to get a) cilantro again this week, or b) mint. He hemmed and hawed and finally said this: “Well, the only thing you can do with mint is make Mint Juleps, right? So if it’s hot next week, yes, mint! If it’s not hot, no mint!” Because, obviously, Mint Juleps can only be enjoyed on your porch on a sultry evening. Upon further questioning, my dad admitted that he actually had no idea what went into a Mint Julep….except maybe, mint?

So, in spite of the fact that our last cilantro planting is in its prime this week, we have harvested mint for you – because the weather forecast is about as hot as it ever gets (low 70’s, whoo!). Whether you have a porch or not, and even though I’m sure the temperature is nowhere close to “sultry” on that porch, here is a recipe for Mint Juleps. (By the way, Dad, it’s bourbon and sugar. That’s what’s in Mint Juleps…and of course, some mint): http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mint-juleps/

Also by the way, Dad: it turns out you can use mint for LOTS of other things other than Derby-time boozing. Check it out, from Moroccan fare to chocolatey desserts:

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=mint&x=0&y=0

(112 pages of mint recipes from epicurious.com)

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:

• Red Shallots
• Carrots
• Celery
• Head Lettuce
• Fresh Mint
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers
• Savoy Cabbage

On Rotation:

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

• Cherry Tomatoes

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

Remember, no promises!

• Leeks or Onions
• Carrots
• Corn
• Head Lettuce
• Kale
• Sweet Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Beets

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 15!

The Second Half of the Season…

We’ve officially crossed the halfway mark in the Harvest Basket season, with 14 weeks down and 14 more to go. If there’s one word to sum up the second half of the season, it’s usually “heavy.” The past many months of long daylight and relative warmth on the farm means that our fields are laden with dense food as we head towards the autumn apex of harvest: festive winter squashes squat amidst their senescing vines while rows of big-eared corn stand sentinel over a field of fall broccoli, psychedelic romanesco cauliflower, Dr. Seuss-like Brussels sprouts, and stolid cabbage. Every week we dig more potatoes and haul them into our cooler for storage, and our propagation greenhouse has been transformed into an onion curing house (hot & dry, which is perfect for finishing off the drying process on the truckloads of storage onions and shallots that we’ve been pulling out of the field over the past few weeks). The beets and carrots are swelling in size, alongside the warty celeriac (one of the more unusual vegetables we grow that you’ll see in November).

It’s a time of unique & fleeting abundance, when just about everything we grow over the course of a season is available at the same time – from strawberries to tomatoes to winter squash (coming in early October). For us, it’s a time of inspired eating (when we have time to branch out beyond the usual quesadilla and salad fare), and also a time of squirreling away produce for winter. Our canning season happens in earnest in the fall: applesauce, tomato sauce, salsa, corn, dilly beans, you name it….we can it.

You “can,” too! Remember that many of the veggies you’re getting in your share can be put by for later: dice up your sweet and hot peppers and freeze them; blanch your ears of corn, cut them off the cob and freeze for later; blanch and freeze your green beans; grate your zucchinis into pre-measured bags and freeze them for a wintertime treat of zucchini bread. We have heard from Harvest Basket members who say they eat from the farm year-round because of their preservation efforts. It’s a great way to relish the food now and later.

Spice Up Your Life with Cranky Baby Hot Sauce!

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 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 or by the case:

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

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

Cranky Baby Hot Sauce is approved for farm-direct sale by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

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), or 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. Please email us your:

• name
• pickup location
• phone number
• 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
• Rainbow Chard
• Head Lettuce
• Parsley
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers & Heirlooms

On Rotation:

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

• Green Beans

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

Remember, no promises!

• Red Onions
• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• Cilantro or another fresh herb
• Sweet Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Strawberries
• Corn
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes
• 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 13!

Heirloom Tomatoes

Last week the heirlooms began showing up in your tote; you may have gotten a big pink Brandywine, or a great green Aunt Ruby’s (yes, that green tomato is RIPE!), or a persimmon orange Persimmon, or a sunset-hued Striped German. Bets grows a half dozen or more varieties in her greenhouses, and they are just hitting their peak right now. It’s a heartbreakingly short season (she’ll get a month of real production, and then they peter out), especially compared to some of the hybridized red slicing varieties that ripen sooner, produce longer, and yield more. But year after year, my mom plants her heirlooms, for the love of true tomato flavor and beauty – in spite of the fact that she might make more money by simply growing hybrids.

(A botany sidenote here: a hybrid plant is one that has been specifically bred for certain characteristics by crossing two genetically distinct parents. The hybrid that results often has certain desired traits, like better heat or cold tolerance, or crack resistance, or disease resistance, etc. You cannot, however, save seeds from that hybrid because they won’t come “true” – meaning the genetics are not stable and the next generation will likely express myriad traits (maybe some desirable and some not). As a result, you have to buy hybrid seed, as opposed to saving your own. An “heirloom,” or open-pollinated (OP) plant, on the other hand, is a genetically stable plant that usually self-pollinates. You can save the seeds of an heirloom tomato and usually get the same-looking tomato the next year. This distinction between hybrids and OP varieties is important, for both agricultural and political reasons – many advocates of open-pollinated varieties argue that it’s important to grow them in order to maintain genetic diversity in our plant/food world, and to keep public control of seeds and genetic information in the hands of farmers and gardeners, not Monsanto and other huge, private corporations. At Valley Flora, we grow both hybrids and open-pollinated, heirloom varieties. There are some crops, like broccoli, for which there simply is no viable open-pollinated variety available.)

But back to tomatoes: Heirlooms come in a rainbow of colors and folksy names (Omar’s Lebanese, Box Car Willie, Cherokee Purple, Golden Ponderosa, Hillbilly, Mortgage Lifter, Amish Paste, Arkansas Traveler, etc.). There are various definitions of “heirloom:” commercial heirlooms are varieties that were introduced before 1940, or that have been in circulation for over 50 years; family heirlooms are seeds that have been passed down within a family for several generations.

A general rule of thumb: good tomatoes, just like good strawberries, are usually the ones that have traveled the fewest miles to your mouth. Picking them from your own garden is tops, but if you’re buying them, you’re wise to source them from a farmer nearby. Why? Because the tomatoes that are produced for local, nearby markets are soft, ripe, and grown for flavor – as opposed to fruits that are grown to ship (think of the hard, pink tomatoes you see in the supermarket in the winter, most of which are grown in Florida, picked green by farmworkers, and then gassed with ethylene to turn red).

There couldn't be more contrast. While you savor your soft, local, family-grown-and-harvested tomatoes this week, I encourage you to learn more about the sobering reality of Florida’s tomato fields: http://www.ciw-online.org/

The pictures speak a thousand words. On the eve of Labor Day, 2012, it’s hard to believe that this reality still exists:

 Like textile workers at the turn of the last century, Florida tomato harvesters are still paid by the piece. The average piece rate today is 50 cents for every 32-lbs of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980. As a result of that stagnation, a worker today must pick more than 2.25 tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage in a typical 10-hour workday -- nearly twice the amount a worker had to pick to earn minimum wage thirty years ago, when the rate was 40 cents per bucket. Most farmworkers today earn less than $12,000 a year.

In the most extreme conditions, farmworkers are held against their will and forced to work for little or no pay, facing conditions that meet the stringent legal standards for prosecution under modern-day slavery statutes. Federal Civil Rights officials have successfully prosecuted seven slavery operations involving over 1,000 workers in Florida’s fields since 1997, prompting one federal prosecutor to call Florida "ground zero for modern-day slavery." In 2010, federal prosecutors indicted two more forced labor rings operating in Florida.

This is the week for Finocchio!

You’ve got it all in your tote, so don’t miss the opportunity to do up one of my all-time favorite recipes: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/finocchio

There are a pile of other fennel recipes on our website as well: http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/recipe_search/results/fennel

…the latest of which was shared with us by a friend in Washington who is a member of a CSA up there. She said this was the best thing she has ever eaten (she is 3 years old): http://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/caramelized-fennel-honey-lemon-ze...

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
• Basil
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes – Red Slicers & Heirlooms
• Sweet Peppers
• Fennel
• Potatoes

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!

• Red Onions
• Carrots
• Corn
• Lettuce
• Parsley
• Sweet Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes

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 11!

BREAKING NEWS: TOMATOES!!!!

Need I say more?

Except that this is the sooner-than-anticipated kickoff of tomato season. For the next month+ you’ll be getting an assortment of tomatoes, including red slicers, heirlooms, and red, yellow and orange cherry tomatoes. All of them are vine-ripened in my mom’s greenhouses, with the exception of the cherry tomatoes, which we grow outdoors.

Tomatoes tie with onions for crops that we nurture the longest. We seeded them in our propagation greenhouse way back in the cold, wet days of March. The young plants spent a couple months in the greenhouse growing tall and bushy, then were transplanted into the field and the greenhouses in May and June. Since then, we’ve been watering, weeding, pruning, and tying them up every week (we use a system of sisal twine and metal stakes to support their unruly growth).

Now the heavy work of harvest begins for my mom, Bets, who manages the greenhouses. She’ll be picking hundreds of pounds of tomatoes each week to fill Harvest Baskets, restaurant and store orders, and to stock the farmstand. By the time tomato harvest is over in the Fall - once our pantries are lined with jars of sauce and our freezers are full of sun-dried tomatoes – we will breathe a familial sigh of relief to see the harvest end. Backs sore and hands cracked from the acidic harvest, there comes a natural turning point on the farm when we don’t care to see another tomato for awhile.

But for now, as we slice into the first ripe tomatoes of the season, we are relishing every bite of red, round, juicy heft. We hope you do, too.

A tip: when you get your tomatoes this week, DON’T PUT THEM IN THE FRIDGE! That’s one of the keys to maintaining that unbeatable flavor and texture of homegrown tomatoes. Store them on your counter at room temperature.

In your share this week:

• Purplette Onions
• Head Lettuce
• Strawberries
• Green Cabbage
• Carrots
• Yellow & Green Zucchini
• Dill
• Broccoli
• Rainbow Chard
• Tomatoes

On Rotation:

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

• Spinach

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

A number of Harvest Basket members have implored me to start posting a list of what vegetables MIGHT be in your share next week so that they could shop and menu-plan accordingly. I emphasize the “MIGHT” because we never know for sure what will be going in the totes until the beginning of each week, and I hate to set expectations and then have plans change. Nevertheless, this list of possible produce will give you a general idea of what might be coming your way the week of August 20^th. Remember, no promises!

• Walla Walla Sweet Onions
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Basil
• Lettuce
• Fennel?
• Hot Peppers
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes

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