Meet Your Farmers & the Supporting Cast at Valley Flora!
This is the core crew at the farm: Zoë, Abby, Bets, and Roberto, with lots of “help” from Pippin (Abby’s 2 year old son) and Cleo (Zoë’s 1 year old daughter).
A number of other very important people round out the cast at Valley Flora. We couldn’t pull it off without these folks:
John, Betsy’s husband, who delivers to Port Orford for us on Fridays and serenades us with tunes from time to time.
Tom, our Farm Angel, who does everything from pinch-hit babysitting, to irrigation repair, to mowing with his trusty old blue Ford tractor.
Monica, our smiling delivery driver who takes all of our produce to northern locales (Bandon and Coos Bay). We don’t have a picture of her yet, cuz she just started last week!
Aro, who tends the farmstand and welcomes u-pickers on Wednesdays & Saturdays.
Teal & Meara, who tend the kiddos during our big Tuesday & Friday harvests – at Wilderland School in Langlois, and at the farm.
It takes a village to feed a village…
Farmstand & U-Pick Open this Week!
Today, Wednesday, June 13th, is opening day at the Valley Flora farmstand and u-pick!
NEW HOURS:Every Wednesday & Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm!
The farmstand is stocked with tons of garden plants this year, in addition to the produce. We also have a few special items for sale: Valley Flora baseball hats, the Greenhornsbook, and Cranky Baby Hot Sauce.
Also available on a regular basis: Seth’s Bread, Candace’s Eggs, and Lee’s Bees Honey!
In your share this week:
- Red Ursa Kale
- Red & Green Romaine Lettuce (it’s Caesar time!)
- Radishes
- Hakurei Turnips
- Strawberries
On Rotation:
This means that some pickup locations will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.
- Spinach
- Mizuna
- Arugula
- Broccolini
Kitchen Tips
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
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
Red Ursa Kale
I had hoped that the weather would cooperate enough to bring on a big flush of strawberries this week – enough to merit harvesting our rhubarb to go with them. Alas, the rain returned and we were only able to get a single pint for each of you again. I’m hopeful with all of the sunshine in the forecast that NEXT week you’ll be getting 2 pints of berries and enjoying strawberry-rhubarb-something!
In the meantime, how ‘bout some kale! Red Ursa is the peacock-feather-looking variety in your tote this week. It’s an heirloom variety that hands-down wins the workhorse prize on the farm. We plant it in early April and we’ll still be eating from it NEXT April.
The ways we like to eat kale:
- Steamed until tender and then doused with good olive oil, sea salt, and a vinegar of your choice (balsamic, apple cider, ume plum…)
- Stir-fried, with a simple sauce of sesame oil, rice vinegar, tamari (soy sauce), sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, a little sugar
- Steamed, then added to eggs & omelettes
- Sauteed, then added to lasagna in place of spinach
- In risotto
- As a raw salad (we call it kaleslaw)
- Kale chips (really, really good - eaten like chips or crumbled on popcorn...)
It will store for at least a week in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Romaine Lettuce
You’re get a red and a green head of romaine this week, with Caesar salad in mind! Here’s our favorite Caesar dressing recipe. Make some homemade croutons with Seth’s Bread, and chop up some hakurei turnips for an unusual twist on a standby salad!
Radish Greens
A veteran Harvest Basket member emailed me on the heels of last week’s newsletter to offer up this great tip:
“Zoë, you might want to tell folks that radish greens are good eating, too, in soups, etc. They also make a mean and beautiful pesto that is delicious on whole wheat crackers or some of Seth's bread.”
Please, if you have tips like this, share them with us and/or post them to the Recipe Exchange! Thanks Betty!
Have a great week everyone!
