Category: lebanon oregon

Summer CSA Share #1

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Welcome to the 1st share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2023 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Tatsoi Rapini – An Asian green that lands somewhere between spinach and bok choy. This version includes some broccoli-like rapini buds as it’s beginning to go to flower. Toss it in soups and sautes or eat in salads.
  • Adult Spinach – The recent mini-heatwave got our timing on this spinach a little off for this first share. Still tasty, just larger than usual.
  • Salad Mix – A mix of four lettuces.
  • Cilantro
  • Broccoli
  • Overwintered Cauliflower – Planted last August this cauliflower grew all winter and then headed up in May. Enjoy!
  • Snap Peas
  • Mixed Potatoes – We’re using up the last of last season’s potato crop. Eat them up!
  • Carrots
  • Leek Scapes – This time of year leeks produce a tall stalk that eventually becomes a flower. Before they become too woody the stalks are a seasonal leeky treat that can be diced up and used in place of leeks or onions.
  • Onion – These are the last of the 2022 storage onions. Use them up quick as they want to sprout soon.
  • Tomato Plants – We have enough tomato starts for everyone to take home at least two!
Picking snap peas (top) and Jeff stopped by during irrigation chores while I was trellising tomatoes (bottom).

It’s happening! We’re finally kicking off the 2023 P&C Summer CSA season! As we get things underway we’re happy to welcome back previous members (89% of you!) and welcome new members to the group. We’ll see “Even Group” biweekly members next week for your first share of the season.

Hopefully you’ve been reading the member emails over the past couple of weeks and preparing for the season to begin. (Check your spam or promotions folders if you haven’t been seeing our emails and let us know if you don’t find them there.) By now most of your questions should have been answered by the CSA Member Handbook. Don’t forget, you can find lots of logistics reminders over on the CSA Member Resources page and extra helpful tips and info about vegetables on the Secret Member Resources page.

A peak inside the propagation house (top) and transplanting scenes (bottom).

In future newsletters I’ll attempt to keep you updated on farm happenings and give you a behind-the-scenes look at where your vegetables are grown.  I’ll also always include a few recipes for combinations of that week’s share items.  You can find this week’s recipes at the bottom of this post.

Not sure what to do with a vegetable? Looking for more recipe suggestions? 

  • Check out the archive of recipes on our Recipe page that is sorted by vegetable.
  • Join in the conversation in the P&C CSA Member Facebook group to query fellow members or suggest great recipes of your own.
  • Check out the vegetable encyclopedia page for storage tips and a rundown of the various types of vegetables we grow each season.
Jeff cultivating crops (top), a swallow pausing on a shovel on the tool wall in the barn (bottom left), and weed-free garlic (bottom right).

As we begin the Summer CSA season, we hope you’re excited for the adventure ahead.  The greens of spring will inevitably give way to the fruits of summer over time, and hopefully we’ll have a few surprises along the way.  Thank you for choosing to support our farm as you also choose to eat seasonally, locally, and organically!

Let’s get this season started!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here next week!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Springtime Bacon and Egg Fried Rice

  • 4 large eggs, whisked
  • Oil for coating
  • 4 thick slices bacon, diced
  • 1 red onion, sliced into half moons
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons minced ginger
  • 4 garlic scapes, cleaned and chopped (or leek scapes)
  • 4 handfuls shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed, thinly sliced
  • 6 cups cooked leftover rice
  • 4 handfuls komatsuna leaves or spinach, stems removed and roughly chopped (or tatsoi too)
  • 10 ounces fresh or frozen peas
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons Chinese soy sauce, plus more to taste (I prefer dark but light is more traditional)
  • 2 to 3 handfuls snow pea pods or broccoli (Surely you could use snap peas here too.)
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey

Begin by scrambling the whisked eggs in a large nonstick skillet or wok, lightly brushed with oil. Be careful not to overcook them. Remove the eggs and set aside in a bowl when just done.

Place the bacon in the skillet and cook over medium heat, tossing occasionally. When the bacon is browned, remove it with a slotted spoon and place in a separate bowl. Set aside. Discard all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease and return the skillet to the heat.

Turn the heat to high and add the onion. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring until it is wilted and slightly translucent. Add the garlic cloves, ginger, and scapes. Cook, tossing, for another 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for another minute.

Add the rice. If your pan is dry, add a drizzle of oil. Depending on your rice, you may need to vigorously break up the clumps while tossing it (I used a leftover sticky Japanese rice so it was quite clumpy). Toss and break the rice up for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the komatsuna, fresh peas (unless you’re using frozen peas), and soy sauce, then toss for another minute. Add the snow peas and frozen peas (if using) with the sesame oil and toss. Add the bacon and eggs back into the mixture and toss to distribute until everything is heated through. Add the honey, then taste for additional soy sauce.

Serve warm with your favorite Asian condiments.

From Food52.com by The Spiced Life, https://food52.com/recipes/17713-springtime-bacon-and-egg-fried-rice

Spring Egg-Drop Soup

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
  • 6 small spring onions, bulbs only, coarsely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 3 medium spring garlic bulbs, 1-2 garlic scapes, or 2 regular garlic cloves, thinly sliced (or leek scapes)
  • Kosher salt
  • 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/2 pound asparagus, sliced on a diagonal 1/2″ thick
  • 1/4 pound sugar snap peas, sliced on a diagonal 1/4″ thick
  • 2/3 cup shelled fresh peas (from about 2/3 pound pods)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan plus more for serving
  • 1/4 cup torn fresh basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup torn fresh mint leaves
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons (or more) fresh lemon juice

Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add carrots, spring onions, and garlic and season with salt. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft, 15-20 minutes.

Add broth and bring to a boil. Add asparagus, sugar snap peas, and peas and cook until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat eggs in a small bowl with 1 tablespoon Parmesan, a pinch of salt, and 1 tablespoon water.

Reduce heat to low and stir basil and mint into soup. Drizzle in egg mixture in 4 or 5 spots around pot. Let stand for 1 minute so egg can set, then gently stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice. Season soup with salt and more lemon juice, if desired. Serve soup topped with more Parmesan.

From Epicurious.com, via Bon Appetit by April Bloomfield, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spring-Egg-Drop-Soup-51161050

Sesame Spinach and Broccoli

  • 1/2 bunch broccoli (about 1/2 pound)
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
  • 1 bunch spinach (about 1 pound)
  • 2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

Cut broccoli into 1-inch florets and cut stems lengthwise into 2 x 1/4-inch sticks. Mince garlic. In a dry 10-inch heavy skillet toast sesame seeds over moderate heat, stirring, until golden and transfer to a small bowl. In skillet heat vegetable oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and cook broccoli, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring occasionally, until broccoli is crisp-tender, about 7 minutes. Add spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and toss vegetables with sesame oil, seeds, and salt to taste.

From Epicurious.com via Gourmet, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/sesame-spinach-and-broccoli-101099

Summer CSA Countdown

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We’re quickly approaching the start of the 14th P&C Summer CSA season! The past couple of weeks have been sunny and warm, meaning it’s been go-time here on the farm. I’ve been remiss in getting a spring update posted here but the planting takes precedence in May. Better late than never; read on for a synopsis of what’s happening on the farm.

As many of you past farm members know, we take the month of May off from harvesting to focus on planting. Of course there’s also the pre-planting work that goes into prepping ground for planting, growing up the transplants, and then keeping everything watered and weeded after we plant them. We’re thankful for your support as we take the time to focus on getting things in the ground and growing to ensure another successful CSA season.

Here are some photos and thoughts from spring on the farm this season:

A peak inside the propagation house from a couple of weeks back. (top left), A glimpse of the hardening off tables outside the propagation house full of transplants ready to plant. (top right), Two views of the big tractor during transplanting. The water wheel transplanter on the back and a pallet full of transplants on the front forks. (bottom)

Today’s sunny weather feels like summer has arrived, so it may be difficult to remember that the first few months of this year brought us colder than average temperatures and plenty of rain. We finished out the Winter CSA at the end of April already two weeks behind in field planting. Thankfully the sun came out eventually and over the past few weeks we’ve managed to get many plants in the ground and we’re officially sort of caught up. Although it’s been a push, we’re feeling much better than last season about the impending start of the CSA season. Plants are in the ground, things are growing, there will be vegetables!

A honey bee in some apple blossoms last week (top left), moving irrigation pipe for cultivating (top right), and cultivating early green beans with belly-mounted finger weeders and rear cultivators (bottom).

The last few weeks have been a planting blur for us. Beans, corn, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, lettuce, kohlrabi, beets, fennel, spinach, basil, dill, cilantro, more lettuce, zucchini, bok choy, more beets, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, celeriac, leeks, and more were all transplanted into the field. Today we got the melons and tomatillos in the ground. Next up the second round of sweet corn and the third rounds of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. We’ve also direct sown some carrots, radishes, turnips, green beans, and fava beans. That’s all to say that in May, we plant.

As the planting party continues we’ve got work on the irrigating and cultivating fronts too. This past winter Jeff spent some time upgrading the electrical system and added rear cultivators on our 1948 Farmall Cub cultivating tractor. It was time well spent and he’s already been pleased with being able to start the tractor up easily and run through crops at the right timing with various cultivating tools to kill weeds before they get established. The new rear cultivators get the weeds in the path in the same pass, saving time. A win-win.

Potatoes ready for planting (left) and covering potatoes after placing them in the trenches (right).

The Farmall Cub is also especially handy when it comes to our big potato planting, which went down last week. Jeff is able to use discs on the Cub to open trenches ahead of potato planting and then again to close up the trenches after planting. Once again we’ve planted just shy of a mile in row feet of potatoes and we’re already looking forward to the future harvests of tasty taters.

Tomatoes! (left) and a quick spinach harvest for dinner using my handy bicycle basket Jeff made me for my birthday (right).

Soon enough we’ll make the first harvest lists of the season, get back into the swing of harvesting, and before we know it we’ll be ready to bring you the first share of the 2023 Summer CSA season!

Until then we hope you’ve been getting our recent member emails. If you’ve signed up to join us for the Summer CSA and haven’t heard from us in your email inbox recently, try checking your spam or promotions folders for emails from us. If you don’t see them there let us know by dropping us a line at farmers@pitchforkandcrow.com.

Finally, here are a couple of things I’d like to pass on again:

  • First is a suggestion to check out the Local Resources page here on our website. – If you’re looking for local meat producers (pork, beef, or chicken) or other local services you might find what you need there.
  • Second is a fish recommendation – We decided several years ago to start supporting salmon fishermen the way you support us. Once again we’ve joined the Iliamna Fish Company CSF (community supported fishery). We’re looking forward to filling our freezer full of salmon again come September.

On that note, let’s wrap up this update. Summer CSA members, keep an eye out for more emails from us as we continue the countdown to the start of the Summer CSA season!

All our thanks!

Your farmers – Carri & Jeff

Winter CSA Share #10

Welcome to the 10th, and final, share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Spinach
  • Red Ursa Kale – Tender from growing in the greenhouse all winter, there’s a little rapini included too.
  • Collard Rapini
  • Purple Sprouting Broccoli
  • Cilantro
  • Parsley
  • Celeriac – A root vegetable with a celery flavor kick. Note: Over the years we’ve heard from two members who have had allergic reactions to celeriac. The internet suggests that 6% of the general population have a celery/celeriac sensitivity. This is just to say that if you’re new to celeriac you might want to ease into it slowly, and skip it if you have a known celery allergen.
  • Hakurei Salad Turnips – Salad turnips are delicious raw and roasted and don’t forget to eat the greens too.
  • Potatoes
  • Bunching Onions
  • Mostly Yellow Onions
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your alliums before they sprout because spring is here.
  • Polenta (aka grits) – We grow a flint corn called Cascade Ruby Gold that grinds partially into flour and partially into polenta when milled. This week we’re sharing polenta. You can use this polenta in recipes calling for uncooked polenta or corn grits. We like to cook it in our rice cooker at a 1 cup polenta to 3 cups water ratio. It’s even better if you stir in some butter and cheese once cooked. We’ve heard from members that the rice setting on an instant pot works too.
  • Dried Apples – Wanting to extend the dried apple train we purchased some apples from Washington through a local produce market. They are certified organic Fujis and dried by us.

We’ve made it to the final share of the 10th P&C Winter CSA season! It’s been a long, cold winter season but somehow we kept the vegetable train rolling and shared some of the largest winter shares ever. Once again we’re excited to be bringing you an abundance of goodness for this final share of the season.

Fall planted bunching onions for the win (left) and finally some purple sprouting broccoli (right).

Many thanks for joining us this season. We hope you enjoyed the past five months of local, seasonal eating. The weeks since we started back in December have flown by and it’s hard to believe we’re already wrapping up another season.

We’ll see most of you the final week of May for the start of the Summer CSA season and we hope to see everyone again next winter. We’ll be sure to reach out to all of you in late summer when we’re ready to sign-up members for next year’s Winter CSA.

First field transplanting of the year!

This time of year we’re constantly looking at the extended weather forecast hoping for a few dry days to get some field work done. Balancing the need to be patient and let things dry out before disturbing the soil and needing to get some plants in the ground so we’ll have something to put in shares come June is a struggle. Thankfully things dried out just enough to prep some beds a few weeks ago and we were able to jump on the dry window last weekend to begin the transplanting game. Kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage all made it into the field, and just two weeks later than planned.

Tomatoes are in the ground!

Also, after harvesting the last winter bunching onions from a greenhouse we were ready to flip the space for tomatoes. Thankfully the end walls keep things warmer and less windy inside the greenhouse. We’ve had some big rains and winds since getting the tomatoes planted but the plants seem happy enough getting settled to life in the dirt.

More transplanting to come: onions (top left), sweet corn (top right), summer squash (bottom left), and peppers (bottom right).

With the last Winter CSA harvest finished we’re now looking ahead to the Summer CSA and the work that needs to happen before it begins. Although we will be taking a break from harvesting for the next five weeks we’ve got plenty of other things to keep us busy. There’s ground to prep, transplants to plant, seeds to sow, grass to mow, peas to trellis, carrots to weed, garlic to cultivate, and the list goes on.

Thanks again for joining us for this past winter of vegetables! We couldn’t do this without you and we’re routinely humbled by your willingness to sign on to this adventure in eating. Thanks for letting us grow your food!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you many of you May 30th & 31st for the start of the Summer CSA!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Berardino’s Crispy Pancotto

  • 1 pound turnip greens, broccoli rabe (aka rapini), or wild greens
  • 1/2 cup best-quality extra virgin olive oil (you know what I mean), and more to drizzle
  • 4 tablespoons coarse sea salt
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 1 dried chili pepper, cut in half
  • 4 cups cubed (1/2” cubes) stale bread (bread should be rustic, water based, not fat-enriched)
  • Coarse and fine sea salt, to taste

Bring a large pot with at least 4 quarts of water to a rolling boil. While waiting for the water to boil clean the greens, eliminating tough stems that will never become tender. Add 4 tablespoons coarse sea salt to the boiling water, add greens, and cook for 5 minutes or until tender—a central leaf rib will be soft when pinched. Remove greens to a colander, cool under running cold water, squeeze out excess water, and coarsely chop. This can be done in advance. Save the cooking water.

Bring the cooking water to a boil. Heat 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet, add garlic and chili pepper and sauté until garlic barely begins to brown. Remove garlic and chili pepper from oil, add the bread cubes add cook until they barely begin to color. Add the chopped greens, mix well, add 1 cup cooking water, and sauté over highest heat until bread absorbs the liquid.

Add more reserved cooking water, 1/2 cup at a time, until cubes begin to break up but isn’t a puree. When all liquid has evaporated, the pancotto will begin to brown and you’ll hear the bread sizzling. Listen. This step makes all the difference. Stir every few minutes to unevenly brown the bread. Or flip if you can. Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

From Food52.com by Faith Willinger, https://food52.com/recipes/76678-berardino-s-crispy-pancotto

Cream of Apple and Celery Root Soup with Tarragon

  • Olive oil
  • 2 small yellow onions, sliced
  • Salt
  • 2 pounds celery root, trimmed and peeled, cut into a medium dice
  • 2 apples
  • 1 clove garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 6 sprigs tarragon, plus 2 tablespoons reserved chopped tarragon leaves for garnish
  • 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
  • 6 cups water

In a large pot or Dutch oven set over medium heat, add just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot. When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until they begin to soften and turn translucent, stirring occasionally. Season with a small pinch of salt.

Add the celery root, season with a pinch of salt, and continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the celery root is cooking, peel and core the apples, and cut them into thin slices.

Peeling, coring, and slicing the apples probably took you about 5 minutes, so add the apples now. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cayenne, white pepper, bay leaves and tarragon sprigs. Give everything a stir. Add the white wine, turn the heat up to high, and cook until the liquid has almost entirely evaporated, stirring occasionally. Add the water, bring the soup to a simmer, then lower the heat so that the soup maintains a slow simmer. Gently cook the soup until the celery root is very soft. To test how soft the celery root is, stab it with a fork from time to time.

When the celery root is ready, turn off the heat and remove the bay leaves and tarragon sprigs from the soup. Working in batches, transfer the soup to a blender, and blend on high speed until the soup is velvety smooth. If the soup is looking too thick, add a little water as necessary until you’ve achieved a better consistency. When all of the soup is blended, taste it. Adjust as necessary with salt, cayenne, and white pepper. To serve, garnish each bowl with some chopped tarragon and a drizzle of your best olive oil.

From Food52.com by Josh Cohen, https://food52.com/recipes/39544-celery-root-and-apple-soup-with-tarragon

Green Rice with Jammy Eggs

  • 1/2 large bunch cilantro or parsley (or a mixture of both, about 3 to 4 ounces), leaves and all stems
  • 4 scallions, white and all green parts, root discarded
  • 1 jalapeño, halved, seeds removed if desired
  • 1 garlic clove, smashed and peeled
  • 3 cups cooked white long-grain rice (from about 1½ cups dry)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 to 8 large eggs, at room temperature (1 to 2 per person)
  • 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 large bunch (about 1 pound) kale, chard, or another leafy green, leaves stripped from stems and roughly torn into large pieces (save those stems in the freezer for soup!)
  • 1 large lime
  • Roasted salted peanuts or cashews, roughly chopped (optional)

Roughly chop the cilantro (and/or parsley) and scallions, then place in the bowl of a food processor along with the jalapeño and garlic. Pulse a few times, until the mixture is very finely chopped but not a paste. (Alternatively, just very finely chop everything by hand.) Scrape all but 2 tablespoons of the mixture into a large bowl. Add the cooked rice and season with a big pinch of salt and lots of black pepper. Toss well to combine and set aside.

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat. Carefully lower the eggs into the pot, reduce the heat to medium-high, and boil for 6 to 8 minutes (the less time, the runnier the yolk). Transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers and you see a few wisps of smoke. Add half of the kale to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and quickly toss to coat. Let char, undisturbed, for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining kale and cook for another 3 minutes or so, until mostly wilted and charred in some places. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and transfer to a plate or bowl.

Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the same skillet over medium-high. Scrape the rice mixture into the pan and press it down firmly with a spatula. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the rice starts to crisp on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Toss and cook for another 4 to 6 minutes, until warmed through and slightly crisped. Return to the large bowl, then toss with the kale.

Using a Microplane or fine grater, zest the lime into the rice mixture. Halve the lime, and juice half over the rice. Toss with the reserved raw herb mixture. Peel and halve the eggs, then season the yolks with salt and pepper. Divide the rice mixture between plates or bowls, and top each with a few egg halves. Cut the rest of the lime into wedges for squeezing over and top with the nuts, if desired.

From Food52.com by Rebecca Firkser, https://food52.com/recipes/87192-green-rice-with-jammy-eggs-recipe

Winter CSA Share #9

Welcome to the 9th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Spinach
  • Arugula Rapini
  • Mixed Brassica Rapini – We’ve finally got some bunchable rapini outside including kohlrabi, cabbage, and kale rapini bunches.
  • Purple Sprouting Broccoli
  • Purple Cape Brociflower – Somewhere between broccoli and cauliflower, definitely a tasty seasonal treat.
  • Kalettes – Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels. Note that some of these stalks have bonus kalette rapini too! Delicious!
  • Cilantro
  • Parsnips
  • Diana Radishes
  • Rutabaga
  • Potatoes
  • Bunching Onions
  • Mostly Yellow Onions
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your alliums before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
  • Dried Ancho Poblano Peppers – Ancho chiles are fully ripe and dehydrated poblano peppers. They can be ground into a chile powder, or blended with roasted onions, garlic, and tomatoes into enchilada sauce, or simply tossed into a soup or stew for chile flavoring.
  • Corn Flour – We grow a flint corn called Cascade Ruby Gold that grinds partially into flour and partially into polenta when milled. This week we’re sharing flour and next time we’ll share the polenta. You can use this flour in any recipe calling for corn flour or cornmeal. We like to use it for perfect cornbread.
  • Dried Apples – Wanting to extend the dried apple train we purchased some apples from Washington through a local produce market. They are certified organic Fujis and dried by us.
  • Tetsukabuto Winter Squash – – A rare cross between butternut and kabocha = the best of both worlds!
Propagation house scene (left) and baby cabbage plants (right).

We’ve made it to the penultimate share of the Winter CSA season, with just one share remaining in two weeks. We never know quite what to expect when we begin any CSA season, but especially winter seasons. The winter weather is always an unknown that can make or break it. As we edge closer to the end of the season we begin to reflect on making it through another season with vegetables to share. It’s been a cold few months, resulting in slower growth in the field, but luckily we haven’t seen crop killing single digit temperatures this season. And we’re thankful for greenhouse space and the January-sown greens that are seeing us through these final shares. It looks like we’re going to make it through another Winter CSA season!

Our attention now turns to ramping up production for the Summer CSA season ahead. The first starts of the season are hardening off just outside the propagation house to be ready to transplant into the field in the next dry weather window. Jeff was able to prep some beds late last week so we’ll be ready to jump to transplanting when the sun shows up again. Fingers crossed we don’t have to wait too long.

Hello radishes!

In between scanning weather reports for predictions about dry weather on the horizon we’ll be keeping busy in the coming week flipping greenhouses from winter to summer crops. Harvested beds of mustards and lettuce will get cleaned up to make way for tomato planting. Soon the beds of spring greens we’re enjoying now will get flipped for May eggplant planting. In the interim there are beds of carrots to weed, peas to start trellising, seeds to start for future transplants, and the list goes on. Thankfully we’ll be eating well this week too!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Kabocha Fried Rice

  • Neutral oil, for cooking
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  • Salt, to taste
  • 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and diced
  • 1 pound (about 3 cups) peeled kabocha squash cubes
  • 1/2 cup vegetable stock
  • 4 cups cooked long-grain rice, cooled
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 handful chopped scallions
  • Chile oil, for serving (optional)

Set a wok or large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot, add the shallot slices and fry until golden brown, stirring occasionally, 5 to 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon or tongs to transfer the shallots to a paper-towel-lined plate. Season with salt.

Using the same skillet with the remaining oil, sauté the shiitake mushrooms over medium heat until fragrant and browned, about 3 minutes, adding more oil along the way if the pan looks dry.

Add the kabocha and toss in the oil (you can add more oil if needed). Arrange the cubes to sit in a single layer. Pan-fry, flipping occasionally, until the kabocha is starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Pour in the vegetable stock and cover the skillet with a lid. Cook until the kabocha is fork-tender and the stock is fully absorbed, about 3 minutes. Transfer about half of the kabocha to a plate.

Add the rice to the pan. Stir in the soy sauce. Toss until the rice is coated, using the back of a spatula to press and break apart any rice clumps. Taste and season with more salt or soy sauce if needed.

Fold in most of the fried shallots and scallions and turn off the heat. Garnish with the reserved kabocha and remaining fried shallots and scallions. Serve with a side of chile oil, if you’d like.

From Food52.com by Woonheng Chia, https://food52.com/recipes/86754-kabocha-fried-rice-recipe

Potato, Chorizo, and Cheddar Breakfast Tacos

  • For the tacos:
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 jalapeño, de-seeded and finely diced
  • 2 potatoes, par-boiled and cubed
  • 10-12 ounces Mexican chorizo
  • 12 small corn tortillas
  • 8 eggs
  • Salt, to taste
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • For topping:
  • Scallions, thinly sliced
  • Avocado, sliced and then cut into chunks
  • Lime wedges
  • Cilantro, torn
  • Salsa roja or pico de gallo
  • Sliced radishes
  • Hot sauce
  • Sour cream or crema

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, jalapeño (if using), and potato. Salt and pepper to taste, then sauté until the potatoes get a little crispy.

Wipe out the pan and add chorizo. Sauté until cooked through, breaking up the chorizo as you stir. Drain and combine with potatoes.

Meanwhile, in another pan on medium heat, toast the corn tortillas one or more at a time, just until they have a little bit of brown on each side. Set aside.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add salt & pepper. Lightly scramble.

Wipe out one of the pans and turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the eggs to pan, and using a fork or spatula, gently toss around pan to form very loose curds. Add shredded cheese when almost done and let melt.

Top tortillas with a scoop of egg and a scoop of the sausage-potato mixture. Add more cheese if you’d like, and top as you please.

From Food52.com, https://food52.com/recipes/76747-potato-chorizo-and-cheddar-breakfast-tacos

Broccoli Rabe, Potato, and Rosemary Pizza

  • 2 uncooked pizza crusts (recipe below)
  • 1 large yukon gold potato, very thinly sliced
  • Salt
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 pound broccoli rabe, washed, ends trimmed (or brassica rapini or purple sprouting broccoli or kalettes)
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced, plus 2 garlic cloves lightly smashed but still intact
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
  • 1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Rosemary sprigs for garnish
  • Pizza Dough Recipe
  • 2 teaspoons dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup lukewarm water
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup semolina flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Broccoli Rabe, Potato and Rosemary Pizza

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Arrange potatoes in one layer on a baking tray. Bake until edges begin to turn golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Increase oven temperature to 475 F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add broccoli rabe and blanch 30 seconds; drain. Plunge broccoli rabe into a bowl of ice water. Cool and drain again. Lay in one layer on a kitchen towel to thoroughly dry. Cut in 2″ pieces.

Heat one tablespoon olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Sauté briefly, 30 seconds. Add broccoli rabe and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sauté one minute. Remove from heat. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

Assemble pizzas: Lightly brush pizza crusts with olive oil. Rub all over with smashed garlic cloves.

Arrange one layer mozzarella cheese over crusts. Top with one layer of potatoes and broccoli rabe. Sprinkle one tablespoon rosemary over each crust. Top with grated Pecorino cheese.

Bake on pizza stone or on tray on lowest rack in oven until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Before serving, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with fresh rosemary leaves and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Stir yeast and lukewarm water together in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and semolina. Mix well. Let sit until bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Combine remaining flour and salt in another bowl. Add to yeast with cold water and olive oil. Mix well to form a dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead with hands until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Or use a mixer with a dough hook, and knead about 5 minutes.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat all sides with oil. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours. Punch dough down, and let rise another 45 minutes.

Divide dough into 2 equal disks (or 4 if you would like small pizzas.) Let rest 30 minutes before shaping. Lightly flour a work surface. Using your fingers or heels of your hands, stretch the disks out to 10″ shapes.

From Food52.com by TasteFood, https://food52.com/recipes/2611-broccoli-rabe-potato-and-rosemary-pizza

Winter CSA Share #8

Welcome to the 8th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Salad Mix – Lettuce and spinach! In March! Hurrah!
  • Tatsoi
  • Mustard Rapini
  • Kale Rapini & Purple Sprouting Broccoli Bits
  • Kalettes – Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels.
  • Mixed Beets
  • Mixed Radishes & Salad Turnips
  • Superschmelz Kohlrabi
  • LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
  • Leeks
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
  • Dried Apples – We’re into apples from the farm now. Not as colorful as the pink apples from earlier in the season, but these are both harvested and dried by us.
Another snow day meant a dusting outside the prop house but inside plants are happily growing, including onions!

It’s been a cold and blustery winter but the passing of the equinox yesterday means we’ve officially made it through to spring. Last week’s sunny weather stretch helped the plants in the field and greenhouses put on some growth and made for some happy farmers too. It dried out enough for Jeff to run the disc through the fields, the first step in ground prep for future planting. With a little luck and some more dry days we’ll be ready to plant out there before you know it.

Harvest day snapshots: kale rapini & purple sprouting broccoli bits (left), tatsoi (topright), and spinach (bottom right).

As I’ve mentioned before, this time of year can be challenging as storage crops are dwindling and freshly harvested crops are somewhat difficult to predict from week to week. The cold winter has resulted in delayed rapini and purple sprouting broccoli production but luckily the January-sown greenhouse greens are starting to be harvestable. We’re including spinach in this week’s salad mix and bunches of tatsoi that we’re both only packets of seeds a few months ago. Crazy. And we’re happy to bring you bagged kale rapini and the small amount of purple sprouting broccoli the plants have produced thus far. Hopefully we’ll have plenty more where that came from in two weeks.

Salamander friend (left) and organic fertilizer delivery (right).

As we’re attempting to plan out the remaining two shares of this Winter CSA season we’re mostly focused on the upcoming Summer season. We begin laying the foundation for a successful growing season now by getting through the winter paperwork, gathering the supplies we’ll need, and doing equipment maintenance. This past week I finished up the winter paperwork season by submitting our organic plan updates to our organic certifier, Oregon Tilth. It’s been a few months of planning spreadsheets, seed orders, bookkeeping tasks, tax prep and filing, annual loan paperwork, and then the organic certification renewal. Whew! Between budgeting spreadsheets and various government forms I’ve also been filling flats and starting seeds. The prop house is looking greener everyday.

Thankfully Jeff has been ticking through the To Do list while I’ve been in paperwork and propagation land. He made the spring trip to St. Paul for irrigation and propagation supplies and picked up row cover for this season’s squash plantings too. He also organized the first delivery of organic fertilizer, 12 tons! And he’s been undertaking the various oil changes for trucks and tractors. Also the garlic planting dried out enough for him to run the new cultivating set-up on our Farmall Cub through to clean up some grassy areas.

The longer days mean more time for projects this time of year and there are still plenty of things on the Winter To Do list. It’s also time to double down on winter free time. It won’t be long before the farming really gets going.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Beans & Greens Soup

  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 red onion or leek, sliced into thin half-moons
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
  • 5 cups rich chicken stock or vegetable stock
  • 2 tablespoons good wine vinegar (sherry or Champagne is great)
  • 1 cup cooked beans, chickpeas, or lentils
  • 2 cups cleaned and roughly chopped cooking greens (kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, napa cabbage, watercress, amaranth, broccoli raab or mix of any)
  • 1 dried chile, optional
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 tablespoons really good extra-virgin olive oil
  • Grilled bread, for serving

In a large heavy-bottomed pan, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions or leeks and garlic clove and gently brown.

When lightly colored, add stock and vinegar. Bring to a light simmer and add cooked legumes. Bring back to a simmer and add greens and chile, if using.

Depending on what greens you use, you will cook the soup a little more or less. Spinach and watercress would cook in a minute or two, while kale and broccoli rabe would take more like 3 to 4 minutes (or as many as 5 to 8). You want to simmer long enough to wilt and cook the greens but not to overcook them.

Taste and adjust salt. Serve by itself or over grilled bread with a drizzle of olive oil on top

From Food52.com by Sara Jenkins, https://food52.com/recipes/66632-beans-and-greens-soup

And the Beet Goes On

  • 3 beets, peeled, halved and sliced to 1/4inch thick
  • 2 leeks, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup Brussels sprouts, quartered (or how about kalettes?)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 5 ounces plain goat cheese
  • 1 tablespoon chopped chives
  • 1 tablespoon chopped chervil
  • 1 garlic clove, finely minced or forced through garlic press
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 10 sheets phyllo dough
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  • salt & pepper
  • olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Place beets, leeks and Brussels sprout on sheet pan and sprinkle with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper then, using hands, toss vegetables to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until vegetables are fork-tender.

While vegetables are roasting, make cheese spread: mix goat cheese, chives, chervil and garlic in a small bowl. Add up to 1 tablespoon of milk – this is to make the mixture spreadable. Season with salt and pepper plus a dash of olive oil. Set aside.

Prepare the phyllo crust: place one sheet of dough on greased sheet (or pizza) pan and brush sheet completely with melted butter. Place next sheet of dough on top, brush with butter and repeat with next 7 sheets of dough (you will have one remaining.)

Place final sheet of dough on top and brush only outer edges with butter (make about a 3-inch border.) Spread the cheese mixture in the middle, being sure the cheese touches the butter border. When vegetables have finished roasting arrange on top of cheese, being sure they are an even layer, then fold edges of dough over filling (to partially enclose the vegetables and cheese.) You can make this fold fancy or keep it in a square shape – your choice. Brush dough with additional butter and bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Serve hot.

From Food52.com by CookingTheGlobe, https://food52.com/recipes/10332-and-the-beet-goes-on

Rapini with Vincotto

  • For the vin cotto
  • 1 cup Balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • For the rapini
  • 1 pound rapini (broccolini), washed
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
  • 2 peperoncino intero (about 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, fresh ones!), halved
  • generous pinch kosher salt

Pour the vinegar and sugar into a small saucepan set over medium heat. Let reduce by a half to a third, 25-30 minutes. Set aside.

Set a 6-quart pot of water to boil. When boiling, add the washed rapini and blanch for about 2 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water, and set aside.

Set a cast iron skillet over high heat. Add the olive oil, garlic and peperoncino and let cook/season the oil for a minute or two. Add the blanched rapini (watch out, the oil might spit) and let it sear. After a minute or two, toss carefully. After 3-4 minutes more, remove from heat. The rapini should be tender yet retain a definite crunch.

Transfer the rapini, garlic and pepper to a serving platter and pour any remaining oil from the skillet over the veggies. Drizzle generously with the vin cotto. Season with more salt and some pepper if needed and/or you like.

Get out some good bread so none of the juices left on your serving platter or plate go to waste!

From Food52.com by EM-I-LIS, https://food52.com/recipes/21748-rapini-with-vin-cotto

Winter CSA Week #7

Welcome to the 7th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Salad Mix – Lettuce! In March! Hurrah!
  • Bok Choy Rapini – We tried to push these baby bok choy longer than ideal. Instead of perfect tiny Asian green heads we present tender bok choy rapini. Still tasty, still enjoyable, just taller.
  • Red Ursa Kale – Harvested from an open ended greenhouse, so more tender than the outdoors kale but hardier than the closed ended greenhouse greens.
  • Kalettes – Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels.
  • Cabbage – Mostly red cabbages, but some savoys too.
  • Mixed Radishes – Tasty raw, pickled, or roasted and we’ll saute bits and throw it in our ramen lunch.
  • Parsnips – Great roasted or mashed with other roots but our favorite winter parsnip treat has got to be parsnip cake.
  • Yukon Gem Potatoes
  • Mixed Small Onions – More mixed red and yellow small onions.
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
  • Winter Sweet Kabocha Squash
  • Dried Apples – We’re into apples from the farm now. Not as colorful as the pink apples from earlier in the season, but these are both harvested and dried by us.
Snow day!

It’s been a cold couple of weeks on the farm since we last met. In fact we were headed into the coldest predicted temps of the season two weeks back and we’re happy to report we seem to have made it through as the temps didn’t dip quite as low as expected. Winter has been hanging on though. We’ve woken up to multiple snow days recently, but it was only an inch or two each time. The repeated cold temps have knocked the purple sprouting broccoli back unfortunately. The plants are still alive and we’re hopeful that we will have PSB to share with you in the coming weeks. The ten day forecast looks like we’ll be out of the freezing zone thankfully though the rain is settling in now.

Future food! Plants are slow growing this time of year but before long we’ll have more fresh greens ready to harvest including spinach!

We’ve made it through the worst of the winter weather (hopefully) only to find ourselves in the hunger gap between the dwindling supplies of storage crops and the slow growth of winter-sown crops. We’ve got our fingers crossed that warmer weather over the next couple of weeks will give the January sown greens and roots a bump. Recent cold snaps mean a delay in rapini and sprouting broccoli from the field but in the greenhouse the spinach and radishes are chugging right along.

Early summer potatoes are in the ground!

Jeff managed to get our early greenhouse potatoes in the ground last week. Our Farmall Cub has become key to getting potatoes into the ground efficiently as we’re able to open the furrows and then close them up again with two passes of the tractor. It’s always nice to get some potatoes in the ground this time of year as it will be a while before we’re able to get into the field outside of greenhouses.

Seed starting has commenced!

Last week also marked the first big propagation push of the season. Leeks, onions, celery, fennel, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and chard have all been started. It’s only the first in a season long number of successions. There will be weekly propagation through the fall! I spent some time on Sunday cleaning up the prop house and now it’s starting to fill up with the babiest of baby plants. Next up, peppers and eggplants!

In the two weeks ahead we’ll be getting a big delivery of organic fertilizer, sowing early summer carrots and peas, continuing on the propagation train, and as always keeping an eye out for a dry stretch to be able to get into the field for ground prep. It looks like we’ll need to be patient for the foreseeable future while we wait for clear skies.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Hearty Kale Salad with Kabocha Squash, Pomegranate, and Toasted Hazelnuts

  • 1 Large bunch curly kale, stems removed and discarded, torn into bite sized pieces, washed, and spun dry
  • 1 Small kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin), halved and seeded and cut into 1.5 inch pieces
  • 4 tablespoons Olive oil, divided into 1 tbsp and 3 tbsp
  • 3/4 cup Pomegranate seeds
  • 1/2 cup Skinned hazelnuts
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons Lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon Sea salt
  • Black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the squash in 1 tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper on a baking sheet. Roast for 30-35 minutes, or until golden, stopping halfway through to stir.

While squash is roasting, place the hazelnuts in a shallow baking dish (or a pie pan) and toast in the oven for 4-6 minutes, or until they are golden. Check them frequently and remove them the moment they start to get brown. Once they’ve cooled a little, chop them roughly and set aside.

Whisk together the remaining olive oil, mustard, lemon, maple syrup, sea salt, and pepper. Pour 3 tbsp over the kale to begin with, and “massage” the kale well with your hands, till it’s coated in the dressing and taking on a soft, almost wilted texture. Add the remaining dressing as needed and according to tastes. Add pomegranate seeds and hazelnuts.

Once the squash has finished cooking and has cooled for 10-15 minutes, add it to the salad and serve.

From Food52.com by Gena Hamshaw, https://food52.com/recipes/20161-hearty-kale-salad-with-kabocha-squash-pomegranate-seeds-and-toasted-hazelnuts

Winter Vegetable Cobbler with Turmeric-Chile Biscuits

  • Vegetable Filling
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 4 cups diced winter squash (such as delicata, honeynut, butternut, or acorn)
  • 3 cups diced parsnips
  • 2 large sweet onions, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon jerk seasoning
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 cup dry white wine, chicken or vegetable broth, or water
  • 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley laves
  • Turmeric-Chile Biscuits
  • 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons (27 grams) light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon (4 grams) ground turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) Aleppo chile pepper or red chile flakes
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons (6 grams) baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) fine sea salt
  • 6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch/1-centimeter cubes
  • 1/2 cup (115 g) buttermilk or full-fat yogurt
  • 1 large (56 grams) egg, at room temperature

Make the cobbler filling: In a 10 to 12 inch skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the squash and parsnips and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are starting to soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, 4 to 5 minutes more.

Add the garlic and jerk seasoning, stir well to combine, and cook until the mixture is fragrant, 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the wine and bring to a simmer. Cook until the liquid reduces slightly—it should look stew-like. Turn off the heat and stir in the parsley.

Remove the skillet from the heat to cool slightly while you prepare the biscuit topping. Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C with the oven rack in the center.

Make the biscuits: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, turmeric, and aleppo pepper to combine. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk to combine. Add the cold butter cubes, and toss with your hands so each cube is coated in flour.

Cut the butter into the flour using your hands or a pastry cutter until it is almost completely incorporated—the mixture should look a little like cornmeal.

In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk (or yogurt) and egg to combine. Add this to the flour mixture and mix with a silicone spatula until the mixture is uniformly combined.

Use your hands or two spoons to dollop pieces of the dough all over the surface of the cooled cobbler. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the biscuits are lightly browned, and the cobbler filling is bubbly, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving warm.

From Food52.com by Erin Jean McDowell, https://food52.com/recipes/87230-best-savory-cobbler-recipe-with-winter-squash-turmeric-biscuits

Raw Kale Salad with Lentils and Sweet Apricot Vinaigrette

  • 2 bunches Curly kale, center ribs and stems removed, washed, dried, and chopped finely
  • 1/4 cup Olive oil
  • 1/4 cup Apricot preserves
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Apple cider vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sea salt
  • 1 pinch Black pepper
  • 1 cup Puy or beluga lentils, (substitute brown lentils if they’re what you have), rinsed and picked over
  • 1 cup Red cabbage, shredded

Whisk together olive oil, apricot preserves, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper.

Turn kale into a large mixing bowl, and massage 6 T of the dressing into the salad. You’ll need enough dressing for the salad to be well coated and start taking on a “wilted” texture. Set aside.

Place lentils in a small saucepan with enough water to cover them by 3-4 inches (approximately 2 1/2 cups). Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat, add a pinch of salt, and let the lentils simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until the lentils are tender but not mushy.

Allow lentils to cool slightly and add them, along with the cabbage, to the kale, and add another 2 T vinaigrette. Use hands to combine. Add extra dressing as needed, and season to taste.

From Food52.com by Gena Hamshaw, https://food52.com/recipes/17866-raw-kale-salad-with-lentils-and-sweet-apricot-vinaigrette

Winter CSA Share #6

Welcome to the 6th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Salad Mix – Lettuce! In February! Hurrah!
  • Mustard Greens Rapini
  • Arugula Rapini – Lots of leaves but some flowering shoots too, the rapini may be best cooked a little. And don’t forget you can pesto it up too.
  • Bok Choy Rapini – We tried to push these baby bok choy two weeks longer than ideal. Instead of perfect tiny Asian green heads we present tender bok choy rapini. Still tasty, still enjoyable, just taller.
  • Kalettes – Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels.
  • Savoy Cabbage – Winter cabbage is so sweet and tasty we hope you’re eating it up. Don’t forget you can roast it for easy prep.
  • Daikon Radishes – Tasty raw, pickled, or roasted and we’ll saute bits and throw it in our ramen lunch.
  • Carrots
  • Celeriac – A root vegetable with a celery flavor kick. Note: Over the years we’ve heard from two members who have had allergic reactions to celeriac, the second person noted it a couple of weeks back. The internet suggests that 6% of the general population have a celery/celeriac sensitivity. This is just to say that if you’re new to celeriac you might want to ease into it slowly, and skip it if you have a known celery allergen.
  • Pinto Fingerling Potatoes
  • Leeks
  • Yellow Onion
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
  • Mixed Winter Squash – A mix of pumpkins, delicata, acorns, and some butternut and small kabochas too.
  • Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.
Recent snowfall (top left) and Leo helping cover crops ahead of cold temps this week.

March is just around the corner but February has some more surprises in stall for us. In the past I’ve mentioned that 20 degree F low temp we always have an eye out for during the winter months. It seems to be the threshold for vegetables in the field to survive to see another day. Unfortunately we’ve got a current low of 17, meaning potentially 14 here on the farm, in the weather forecast for Thursday and Friday night. The coldest nights of the season and the potential for some snow too meant evaluating what could be covered to help keep plants a few degrees warmer. After harvesting yesterday we spent some time moving row cover and sand bags ahead of today’s rain to try to help the purple sprouting broccoli, cabbage rapini, and collards make it through the upcoming cold snap. Now we wait and see just how low it goes.

February lettuce! (left) and tiny tomatoes (right).

Despite the fact that we’re deep into February and there’s the impending cold weather we’re happy to report that things aren’t totally bleak out here just yet. A bonus round of lettuce planted last October into a greenhouse was ready to harvest this week. Lettuce mix in the middle of winter is a special treat. Hopefully we’ll have a little more to share in two weeks. Also I started the first seeds for the summer season a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to the heated germination chamber and heat tables in our propagation house, the tomatoes have germinated well and we’re off to a good start. The seasonal seed starting cycle continues once again. Plants are magic!

Winter on the farm, including snow in the east hills (left) and a woven willow cage around one of our young fig trees (right).

Over the past week we’ve been soaking up the winter sunshine while also trying to continue to make progress on winter farm projects. We harvested carrots from the field, pruned more willow and dogwood hedgerow sections, re-built wash station tables, changed the oil in the diesel tractor, filed our business and personal taxes, finished our annual budgeting paperwork associated with our Farm Service Agency farm loans, prepped greenhouse beds for potato planting, and I’m sure there was more I’m not recalling at the moment. Fortunately we also made time to get off the farm a little and indulge in some hobby time too. Jeff’s willow weaving project this week involved constructing cages around our young fig trees to keep the deer from continuing to prune them.

Things are about to get busier as we get the propagation train rolling with the first big plantings on deck. That means mixing prop mix, filling flats, and sowing seeds and also propagation house management. Keeping things cozy, but not too hot, and watered, but not too much. We’re hoping that as this upcoming storm passes we’ll see some more dry stretches so we can get a jump on beginning the field prep. We’re in a dance with the weather here, and though the pace changes through the season, there’s no changing partners.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Roasted Carrots with Mustard Greens Gremolata

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly crushed with back of knife
  • 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds, lightly crushed with back of knife
  • 1 pound slender carrots, trimmed and peeled
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped mustard greens (to prep for chopping, wash several times in cold water and remove stems and center ribs)
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, from 1 large or 2 small lemons

Heat oven to 400° F.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, coriander seeds, and caraway seeds.

Place carrots and garlic cloves in an even layer in a casserole or other baking dish. Season generously with kosher salt and pepper. Add the olive oil-honey-spice mixture, and toss well to evenly coat.

Roast for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until the carrots and garlic cloves are tender and golden brown. A few times during cooking, toss the carrots and garlic around in the pan to ensure even browning. Once done, remove from oven. Finely chop the roasted garlic.

In a small bowl, combine the roasted garlic with the mustard greens, parsley, and lemon zest. Use the back of a fork to evenly incorporate the roasted garlic into the greens.

Sprinkle the carrots generously with the mustard greens gremolata. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From Food52.com by EmilyC, https://food52.com/recipes/26233-roasted-carrots-with-mustard-greens-gremolata

Colonel Mustard’s Bubble and Squeak

  • 2 medium russet potatoes
  • 5 large mustard green leaves (I used the flat kind)
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion
  • 3 large cloves garlic
  • 4 strips bacon
  • 1/4 cup whole grain mustard
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Olive oil

Scrub the potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Boil them in heavily salted water until they are very soft. Drain and allow them to steam and cool.

Wash the mustard greens, chop off the tough ends of the stems, and chop them (I keep most of the stem in there). Dice the onion and chop the garlic.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a medium-sized non-stick skillet. Add the bacon and cook it until crisp, then remove it to a paper towel to drain. Toss the onions into the bacon fat and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and cook until they are soft. Remove them to a bowl. Now cook down the greens until the are soft — you will need to work in batches. When the pan runs out of bacon fat, add another splash of olive oil. Put the cooked greens in with the onions and garlic. Now add the potatoes, mustard, and pepper (about 6 to 7 turns) to the greens and stir and mash everything together. Crumble up the bacon and mash that in too. Try to get the potatoes mostly mashed up, with a few chunks left. Taste for salt and pepper, and add more if you’d like.

Now add yet another dash of olive oil to the pan and put it over medium heat again. Add in the potato-ey, green-y mixture and press it into the pan to flatten it into a cake. Allow it to cook until it is nicely browned — you can use a spatula to peek under there and see how it’s coming along. When it’s brown, turn off the heat. Cover the pan with a plate (with the serving side facing the potatoes) and carefully flip the whole thing so your browned side is facing up. Admire. Eat.

From Food52.com by Aargersi, https://food52.com/recipes/27067-colonel-mustard-s-bubble-and-squeak

Cheesy Cabbage and White Bean Soup

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, or 2 leeks, white parts only, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 medium head green or Savoy cabbage, shredded (about 5 cups)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more as needed
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, including the liquid, or 4 cups cooked white beans with a few ladlesful of their broth
  • 5 cups vegetable broth, or 1 tablespoon bouillon base dissolved in 5 cups water
  • 1 cup shredded Gruyère or Parmesan cheese, or 1 1⁄2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Fried breadcrumbs or croutons, for serving (optional)

Warm the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat, then stir in the onions and garlic, followed by the cabbage and salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, until just starting to soften, then add the beans and broth.

Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the broth is flavorful.

Remove from the heat and add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring until it melts into the broth.

Taste and season with additional salt, as needed (depending on the saltiness of your vegetable stock or bouillon, it may need quite a bit of salt, as the beans really soak it up), and a few grinds of pepper.

Serve hot, topped with breadcrumbs or croutons, if desired.

From Food52.com by Lukas Volger, https://food52.com/recipes/82951-cheesy-cabbage-and-white-bean-soup-recipe

Winter CSA Share #5

Welcome to the 5th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Mixed Radicchio Heads – Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Like radicchio’s bitter friends chocolate and coffee, think about pairing it with sweet and/or fat to balance your taste for the bitter. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it with oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner at least once a week. Seriously, we at it last night. Soaking cut leaves in ice water for 30 minutes or more can help reduce the bitterness if needed.
  • Arugula Rapini – Lots of leaves but some flowering shoots too, the rapini may be best cooked a little. And don’t forget you can pesto it up too.
  • Cooking Greens Mix – A vibrant mix of kales, collards, and chard. Colorful and tasty!
  • Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes.
  • Purple & White Daikon Radishes – Tasty raw, pickled, or roasted and we’ll have saute bits and throw it in our ramen lunch.
  • Carrots
  • Rutabaga
  • LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
  • Bunching Onions
  • Yellow Onions
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
  • Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Acorn Squash
  • Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.

The Summer CSA is full! Thanks to everyone’s enthusiasm for local, organic vegetables the Summer CSA filled up in record time. If you missed out on snagging a spot you can add yourself to the waitlist over on the Summer CSA page. – (Many thanks to those who have signed-on for the upcoming season. We appreciate your support!)

Spring spinach just after germinating (left) and quail (can you see them?) on their morning pass through our front yard (right).

We’ve made it to February and the 5th winter CSA share! This share marks the halfway point in our winter vegetable journey. It’s hard to believe we’re already so deep into this winter season. The days are getting longer and we’ve just passed the return of 10 hours of daylight. Soon we won’t even need lights at the CSA pick-ups. Plants in the field are putting on new growth, the garlic has jumped up, and we’re seeing good germination on the greens we sowed in a greenhouse a few of weeks back. Though our fall spinach was a bust, the spring spinach is thriving! Things are looking up.

Harvesting and washing cooing greens.

Although we welcome the slower pace of the Winter season, the winter weather has a knack for making us nervous. The wind, the rain, and the freezing temperatures all bring challenges for both field and storage crops. We’re a little haunted by the winter of 2013 when we found ourselves experiencing single digit temperatures in December, just as the Winter CSA was beginning.

We’ve had some cold weather over the past month or so and two weeks ago we had a low temp of 16 here on the farm. It’s been a few years since we’ve been below 20, which is the magic number we’re always on the lookout for. We try to choose the hardiest winter vegetable varieties but some plants can’t survive the colder temperatures. Anything below 20 degrees is a roll of the dice as to whether plants will make it through. Thankfully we ramped up to the recent cold temperatures and the plants had acclimated to the winter weather. Things in the fields looked a little sad just after that 16 degree night but we didn’t seem to lose any plants this time around. Hopefully that was our lowest temp for a while.

We took a day off and drove to the woods. Whoa.

Our winter schedule has been mostly filled with work projects here on the farm over the past couple of months. Cleaning up after the last season, organizing and creating better work spaces, harvesting winter root crops for storage. The past couple of weeks we did take some time for personal goals amidst the work of the farm. Jeff has been upping his basket making game and learning new techniques with willow processing. I’m always amazed at what he can do with willow he’s harvested from our hedgerow. I was inspired by CSA member Greta B.and I broke out my sewing machine for a couple of small quilting/blanket projects. It had been a while since I’ve used this tool, but it turns out sewing is a little like riding a bike and it comes back to you pretty quickly. And, as evidenced by the photos above, we took a trip to the forest. Though we didn’t quite make it to the snow, we did enjoy exploring a beautiful area that is not the farm.

The coming weeks will hopefully see a mix of on and off farm adventures again. It’s nearly time to start sowing seeds for the first summer crops and we’ll be getting more early greenhouse crops in the ground soon. The 2023 growing season is headed our way quickly!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Pasta with Gorgonzola, Radicchio, Walnuts, and Orange

  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • kosher salt to taste
  • 1/2 to 3/4 pounds pasta, such as penne or gemelli, see notes
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 to 2 heads radicchio, preferably Treviso (if you can find it), cut into 1-inch-wide ribbons, see notes
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 ounces crumbled gorgonzola or other mild blue cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
  • zest of 1 orange, plus the juice (optional)
  • grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano, for serving, optional

Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the walnuts and toast them over medium-low heat for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently so they do not burn. Remove and set aside. Wipe out skillet.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt and return to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente according to the package directions.

While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce: Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the radicchio and season with salt and pepper. Cook the radicchio until it begins to wilt and brown, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the gorgonzola and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the pasta water directly from the pot and simmer for 3 minutes more. The water should emulsify the cheese and create a velvety texture.

Scoop the cooked pasta directly into the skillet (alternatively, drain, reserving plenty of the pasta cooking liquid) and toss to combine the pasta with the sauce. Add the walnuts and parsley and toss again until glossy, adding 1/4 cup of pasta water or more (up to 1 cup), as needed to loosen up the sauce. Add the zest and toss to combine. Taste. Adjust as needed with more salt and pepper. I’ve been juicing the orange directly into the pot—I like the acidity/flavor/sweetness—but this is optional.

Plate in bowls and pass the grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiana Reggiano.

From Food52.com by Alexandra Stafford, https://food52.com/recipes/74469-pasta-with-gorgonzola-radicchio-walnuts-and-orange

Triple Radish Yum

  • Roasted Radishes
  • 3 large watermelon radishes (about 2 1/2- to 3-inch diameter)
  • 1 daikon radish (about 1 & 1/4 lbs)
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • Chèvre Horseradish Dressing
  • fresh horseradish
  • zest from 1/2 of a lemon
  • 1 & 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup chèvre
  • salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400º F, with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray with a light coat of cooking spray. Set aside.

Remove ends and peel radishes. Cut in half lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch thick slices. Cut each half-moon slice into halves or thirds as needed to maintain fairly evenly sized pieces. The narrower end of the daikon may be left in half moons.

Toss radish pieces with olive oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl to coat evenly. Distribute the radish pieces in an even layer on the baking sheet. (Set bowl aside.) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Radishes should have some browning, and retain some firmness when they are done.

While radishes are roasting, grate about 2 to 3 packed tablespoons worth of fresh horseradish using a microplane. Thoroughly combine 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of the grated horseradish with the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, chèvre, and 1/8th teaspoon salt in the reserved bowl. Taste, and if the horseradish flavor is not strong enough add more.

Once radishes have finished roasting, transfer them to the bowl with the dressing. Toss to coat. Taste and add salt if needed. Transfer to serving bowl and grind some fresh black pepper over the top. Serve hot or at room temperature.

From Food52.com by HardLikeArmour, https://food52.com/recipes/10774-triple-radish-yum

Squash Panzanella with Bagna Cauda

  • Squash Panzanella
  • 3 pounds root vegetables (such as carrots, beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and rutabaga)
  • 2 pounds squash (such as delicata, acorn, butternut, kuri, and kabocha)
  • 1 loaf crusty bread or 2 baguettes, torn into bite-sized pieces
  • Olive oil and salt, for roasting
  • Bagna Cauda
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 1/4 teaspoon chile flakes
  • 5 anchovy fillets
  • 4 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
  • 3 ounces arugula (or 1 handful per person)

Heat the oven to 400°F.

Cut all of the root vegetables and squash into 1-inch chunks. Transfer to a bowl and coat with a hefty glug of olive oil and a couple big pinches of salt.

Transfer to a parchment- or foil-lined sheet pan and roast until tender on the inside and caramelized on the outside, about 40 minutes.

When the veg are just about done, toss the bread with another glug of olive oil and pinch of salt, and add to the vegetable roasting tray. Return to the oven to crisp and lightly brown the croutons while you make the bagna cauda.

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil over low to medium heat. Add the rosemary sprig and chili flakes to fry lightly, about 30 seconds. Add the anchovies and garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until the garlic is soft, lowering the heat as needed so it doesn’t brown. Remove and discard the rosemary sprig, then add the lemon zest and butter, and stir to combine.

When the vegetables and bread are finished roasting (after about 10 minutes), remove from the oven and transfer to a large, heat-proof mixing bowl. Pour the bagna cauda on top, then add the vinegar and arugula. Toss to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Eat warm or at room temperature.

From Food52.com by Abraberens, https://food52.com/recipes/84407-squash-panzanella-with-bagna-cauda-recipe

Winter CSA Share #4

Welcome to the 4th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Chioggia Radicchio – Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Like radicchio’s bitter friends chocolate and coffee, think about pairing it with sweet and/or fat to balance your taste for the bitter. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it with oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner. Soaking cut leaves in ice water for 30 minutes or more can help reduce the bitterness if needed.
  • Arugula Rapini – Lots of leaves but some flowering shoots too, the rapini may be best cooked a little.
  • Tatsoi or Baby Bok Choy
  • January King Cabbage
  • Mustards – A spicy green that can add some pep to any dish. Wilt it in hot soup or saute and eat as a side dish. Also, check out the frittata recipe down below.
  • Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes.
  • Purple Top Turnips – Mild with a hint of mustard, these are great roasted with other roots.
  • Celeriac – A root that tastes like celery? Yes please. Great in soups, stews, mashes, roasted root medleys etc.
  • German Butterball Potatoes
  • Parsnips – Great roasted or mashed with other roots but our favorite winter parsnip treat has got to be parsnip cake.
  • Mixed Beets
  • Yellow Onions
  • Garlic – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long garlic wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
  • Long Pie or Kabocha Winter Squash
  • Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.

Summer CSA sign-up time has arrived! We’ve opened up memberships to the 2023 Summer CSA and we hope you’ll join us for a summer and fall of local, seasonal, and organic vegetables. Find all the details and a sign-up form over on the Summer CSA page. – (Many thanks to those who have already signed-on for the upcoming season. We appreciate your enthusiasm and support!)

First of the 2023 seeds to arrive (left) and January King cabbage leaf (right).

Welcome to share #4 of this Winter CSA! We’ve got lots of roots and lots of greens headed your way. Seasonal eating is looking pretty good this week. Somehow we’re breezing through January, trying to use these winter days wisely before we jump back into the full swing of the growing season. Seeds have been arriving in our mailbox, summer CSA sign-ups are happening, and we’ve been marking things off the To Do list. Slowly but surely we’ll be ready to tackle the months of growing ahead of us.

First seeding of 2023: arugula, tatsoi, spinach, radishes, and salad turnips! Plus Jeff re-installing an end wall after prepping beds (top right).

Last week Jeff flipped a few beds in one of our greenhouses and we sowed the first seeds of 2023. If all goes to plan we’ll be sharing greens and spring roots in a couple of months. It’s always such a hopeful act to put seeds in the ground and expect food to grow from them. Especially during the dark days of winter. Thankfully the enclosed greenhouses warm the soil and and protect the young plants from harsh weather and foraging deer. It’s pretty crazy what plants can do if given a little help.

Successful 12 volt conversion on the 1947 Farmall Cub. Check out those strong headlights!

The past couple of weeks have been typical January on the farm including paperwork, sowing those first seeds, harvesting winter vegetables, and misc. projects. Since we last met we launched the Summer CSA, which means I delve into budgeting, an accounting review, website updates, and invoicing. I also completed the USDA agriculture census, which happens every five years and asks all sorts of crop and income questions about the farm. The number of crops we grow makes for a rather lengthy survey. These things feel very small farm business-y.

Jeff finished up his conversion of our cultivating tractor from 6 volt to 12 volt, and it worked! The Cub is now starting stronger than ever and the lights and gauges work again. Hurrah for cultivating! He also finished up a couple of irrigation upgrades, flipped those greenhouse beds so we could get them seeded, and did plenty of straightening up and willow hedgerow maintenance/harvest. I’m sure there was more, but this is what is coming to mind at the moment.

In the next couple of weeks we’ll be getting ready for the start of propagation season. It’s time to clear out the propagation house, inventory seed starting supplies, and make sure we’re ready to start sowing seeds for growing transplants. We’ve also got some bulk root harvesting, winter implement maintenance, field clean-up, and a little greenhouse weeding to get to.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Arugula Pesto

  • 5 small cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup hazelnuts
  • Pecorino cheese
  • 2 cups arugula
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • black pepper
  • 1/4 cup good quality olive oil

Roast the garlic cloves. (I rub the cloves in a little bit of olive oil, wrap them in aluminum foil, and toss them into a 350F oven for about 20 minutes. However, if you are cooking something else in the oven the day of or night before, use the heat of that oven to roast the cloves.) Peel the cloves, and let them cool.

Toast the hazelnuts. (You can do this as you roast the garlic, if you like. I keep the hazelnuts in a 350F oven for 10-12 minutes, shaking them around in the pan once or twice during cooking. Remove them from the oven when they are light brown in spots and smell fragrant.) Wait for them to cool.

I use a microplane grater to shred the Pecorino. Grate enough to fill 1/2 cup, not at all packed. If you use a larger-holed cheese grater, stop somewhere between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup.

Move the cooled hazelnuts to a food processor. Pulse for about 1 minute, or until the hazelnuts are reduced to the texture of sand.

Add the arugula, the garlic, the Pecorino, the lemon juice, the salt, and a healthy crack of black pepper to the food processor. Blend for about a minute, slowly adding the olive oil as it whirs. Stop when you achieve a creamy texture.

Use the pesto as you like. It lasts a good few days, covered, in the refrigerator.

From Food52.com by Cristina Sciarra, https://food52.com/recipes/19003-arugula-pesto

Frittata with Braised Mustard Greens

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 very large yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 pinch red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 pound mustard greens, washed, stemmed and cut/torn into bite sized pieces
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 10 large eggs

Heat the oil in a large (about 12-inch) skillet over medium high heat. When the oil is shimmering, stir in the onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, and the chopped greens (as best you can. It’s hard to stir such a large pile of greens, but it will shrink as it cooks). Add a Tbs. of water if there isn’t much clinging to the greens. Cover the pan tightly and turn the heat to medium-low. Keep covered and cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens are soft and yielding, 20-30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Turn on a broiler to high. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Uncover the greens, and pour the eggs gently over them. (If you followed my advice and made double the amount of greens and are using leftovers, just gently warm the greens over medium heat before adding the eggs.) Cook, uncovered until the edges of the frittata are set, about 5 minutes. Then, transfer the pan to the oven and broil until the top is lightly browned and set, another 3 or so minutes.

Take out of the oven (remember the handle is hot!). You can serve the frittata from the pan or turn it out onto a plate first. Serve warm, at room temp, or cold. Add a salad or bread if you wish.

From Food52.com by FiveAndSpice, https://food52.com/recipes/25688-frittata-with-braised-mustard-greens

Clever Parsnip Oven Soup

  • 1 small head of garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil or ghee
  • 2 pounds (1kg) parsnips
  • 3 medium yellow onions
  • 6 cups (1.5L) vegetable broth or water
  • 1 1/2 cups (250g) (about one 15.5-oz. can) white beans, such as cannellini, great northern, or navy, drained and rinsed
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons fine sea salt (use 1 teaspoon if using broth; 2 teaspoons if using water)
  • 1 tablespoon cold-pressed olive oil, plus more for serving
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Freshly ground black pepper, for serving
  • Parsley leaves, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C). Slice off the stem of the garlic bulb and the portion just below the stem, revealing the open cloves. Spread the coconut oil on top, wrap the bulb tightly in aluminum foil, and set it on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes.

While the garlic is roasting, peel and roughly cut the parsnips into similarly sized chunks to ensure even roasting. Chop the onions. After the garlic has roasted for 15 minutes, add the parsnips and onions to the baking sheet. Roast until tender, about 30 minutes.

Add the roasted parsnips and onions to a blender. Remove the foil from the garlic and squeeze the bulb from the bottom to extract the cloves into the blender. Add the broth, beans, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice, and blend on the highest setting until the soup is smooth and creamy. Transfer the soup to a stockpot and heat until steaming, if necessary.

Serve hot with a drizzle of olive oil and some black pepper and parsley, if using.

From Food52.com, https://food52.com/recipes/76146-clever-parsnip-oven-soup

Joshua McFadden’s Bitter Greens Salad with Melted Cheese

  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 large head radicchio (3/4 pound), cored and coarsely shredded
  • 5 ounces arugula
  • 1/4 pound Crucolo, provolone, Taleggio, or Fontina cheese, grated
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped lightly toasted hazelnuts
  • Saba or balsamic vinegar, for drizzling

Heat the broiler to high.

Whisk the red wine vinegar with 1/4 cup olive oil in a large bowl and season generously with salt and pepper. Add the radicchio and arugula and toss to coat them nicely. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Pile the salad on ovenproof plates or an ovenproof platter and top with the cheese. Broil the salad just until the cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Sprinkle the toasted hazelnuts on top and finish with a drizzle of saba. Serve right away.

From Food52.com by Genius Recipes, https://food52.com/recipes/70899-joshua-mcfadden-s-bitter-greens-salad-with-melted-cheese

Winter CSA Share #3

Welcome to the 3rd share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022/2023 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

  • Chioggia Radicchio – Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Like radicchio’s bitter friends chocolate and coffee, think about pairing it with sweet and/or fat to balance your taste for the bitter. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it with oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner. Soaking cut leaves in ice water for 30 minutes or more can help reduce the bitterness if needed.
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Bok Choy
  • Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes.
  • Winter Kohlrabi – Don’t be afraid of the giant winter kohlrabi.  It’s delicious and wants to be eaten up raw, or fermented, or roasted, or in a savory pudding (recipe below). 
  • French Fingerling Potatoes – Red skins and red streaked yellow flesh, great boiled or roasted.
  • Sweet Potatoes – The very last of the sweet potatoes, small but tasty!
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Leeks
  • Yellow & Red Onions
  • Garlic
  • Butternut Winter Squash
  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Dried Apples – After a less than stellar apple growing year we decided to buy in some apples from another local farm. These are Airlie Red apples, a red-fleshed variety discovered locally in Kings Valley, that we purchased from RainShine Family Farm located west of Corvallis. We did the drying and bagging.
Rainbow on the farm this past week, framing some of our greenhouses and our red osier dogwood patch.

Happy new year farm friends! What better way to kick off the new year than with a fridge full of seasonal vegetables? With more time to spend in the kitchen this time of year we’ve been enjoying some of those meals that take a little longer to prep like butternut squash and kale strata and roasted Brussels sprouts with winter squash mac n’ cheese. Of course our oven baked salmon/rice/radicchio/creamy dressing combo continues to be a quick go-to as well. Winter vegetables are some of our favorites, and they’re made even better by the less hectic schedule we run during the winter season.

The windblown greenhouse (left) and the empty spot , from a distance, where it was once but is no longer (right).

The past couple of weeks have found us cleaning up from the big wind storm that blew through a couple of weeks back. Jeff spent many of his daylight hours last week cleaning up the greenhouse we lost in the wind. That meant lots of cutting metal and wood into manageable pieces, wrangling windblown plastic sheeting, pulling out concrete footings, and clearing the cheap ground cloth we’d installed ten years ago. After salvaging what he could and then a trip to the landfill/metal recycling bins, the space where the greenhouse had stood is looking rather empty. Which, considering it was prone to flooding in late winter, probably isn’t the worst scenario. Evidently there’s an insurance check headed our way, so a replacement in a new location may be in the works later this season.

During the rainier days and evenings Jeff found time to do some 1947 Farmall Cub cultivating tractor maintenance. He’s finally undertaking his dream of upgrading the battery from 6 volt to 12 volt, which requires re-wiring the whole tractor and adding an alternator, I think. Between the re-wiring and hunting down an oil leak he seems to be making progress and we both look forward to a solid season of cultivating crops in the coming months.

While Jeff ping ponged between greenhouse cleanup and tractor repair (plus a number of willow basketry projects at night), I hunkered down with the seed catalogs and crop planning spreadsheets. We’d done a crop planning overview together previously where we’d discussed planting dates, crop quantities, and general varieties. I then had to do the deep dive of figuring out variety specifics, seed sources, amount of seed needed, and keep the spreadsheets updated with those details along the way. Then came the seed orders, including orders from 8 separate seed companies totaling just over $3600, which is in addition to the $2500 we’d pre-paid last month toward seed and seed potatoes. Whoa! The 2023 growing season just got real!

Lacinato kale harvest!

Now that we’ve made it through this week’s harvest we’ll be focusing again on the list of winter projects that’s been looming for the past month. First, Jeff received the final tractor part in the mail yesterday and is ready to see if his cultivating tractor fixes/conversion has worked. I’ve got farm budgeting and 2023 Summer CSA details to finalize. And it’s time to get some greenhouse space prepped for the first direct sowing of the year. The list goes on with plenty of weed whacking, orchard pruning, year-end paperwork, greenhouse weeding, apple drying, root harvesting, and general spring cleaning to get to as well. Also, Jeff bought us snowshoes for my birthday and we’re looking forward to an off-farm winter adventure soon.

Watch your email for Summer CSA sign-ups to begin in the next week or two.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here again in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Squash Mac n’ Cheese

  • 3 cups dried noodle (elbows, shells, spirals, or similar)
  • 2.5 cups roasted and pureed squash (like ‘Sweet Mama,’ ‘Winter Sweet,’ or ‘N. Georgia Candy Roaster’)
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 cup milk or milk alternative
  • 4 Tbsp. butter
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • Optional: a pinch of nutmeg, a sprinkle of garlic powder, ground mustard, or celery seed

Cook noodles according to the package instructions.

Cut squash in half, remove the seeds, and roast in the oven until soft. Scoop the squash from the skin into a blender or food processor and puree. Alternatively, mash with potato masher, fork, or other kitchen tool. In a medium sauce pan on medium-low heat, melt the butter and add the flour, stirring until just starting to brown. Add milk and stir until the roux starts to thicken. Add salt, pepper and any other spices. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar cheese and squash puree. Pour over the noodles and stir until well combined.

My favorite additions: peas, corn and veggie sausage.

From EatWinterVegetables.com by Laura Brown, https://www.eatwintervegetables.com/squash-mac-n-cheese

Brussels Sprouts with Chorizo Beer Hash

  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts (outside leaves removed)
  • 3 Chorizo links, outer casing removed and crumbled (can also use dried)
  • 1 cup beer (I used Great Lakes Dortmunder)
  • 4 Large eggs
  • 4 Medium blue or red potatoes, halved
  • 1 Shallot, diced
  • 3 Cloves garlic, minced
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Bring 2 medium pots of salted water to a boil. Toss your whole Brussels sprouts into one for 5 minutes. Toss your potatoes into the other for 10. Drain both.

In a large sauté pan with high sides, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add chorizo and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and shallots and cook for 3 minutes. Add a bit of salt and pepper.

Trim the bottom of the Brussels sprouts and cut in half. Add your Brussels sprouts to the pan with the chorizo and cook for about 7 minutes, until they have started to brown. Note that the bottom of your pan will start to build a bit of a crust. Worry not: you will de-glaze it with the beer shortly.

Peel the skin off the potatoes, and cut into 1 inch cubes. Toss into the pan after the brussels sprouts have browned. Add a little more salt and pepper to the dish. De-glaze the bottom of the pan with the beer. Let the potatoes cook for about 5 minutes, until they start to brown a little bit. Add more beer if necessary to make sure you get all the flavors off the bottom of the pan.

Cook your eggs in butter with a dash of salt in a separate pan, for about 2-3 minutes, just until the egg white is no longer runny, but the yolk still is.

Serve the egg over the hash while both are still piping hot! Enjoy.

From Food52.com by Brussels Sprouts for Breakfast, https://food52.com/recipes/15140-brussels-sprout-and-chorizo-beer-hash

This recipe was shared with us years ago (2014 maybe?) by a winter CSA member. Was that you Kim M.? It’s a delicious, if dairy indulgent, way to transform a lot of kohlrabi into a tasty savory pudding.

Kohlrabi Pudding

  • Cooking spray
  • 2 to 3 small kohlrabi, stem, root and ends trimmed, peeled and quartered
  • 2 large eggs
  • 4 ounces neufchâtel reduced-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • ½ cup low-fat milk, buttermilk, yogurt, light sour cream, oat or rice milk, or, if feeling devil-may-care and you have it on hand, half and half or heavy cream
  • ¼ cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon Pickapeppa sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 or 4 gratings of nutmeg
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • ¾ cup (6 ounces) finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Spray a 9-inch square baking dish or six individual 6-ounce ramekins with cooking spray. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the kohlrabi and cook until slightly softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Place in a food processor and puree. Measure out 3 cups of the puree, saving leftovers for another use (such as a chilled soup). Set the puree aside.

Place the eggs with the neufchâtel, milk, cornstarch, Pickapeppa, salt, nutmeg, and pepper in the food processor. Buzz until very smooth. Add the 3 cups puree and half of the Parmesan and buzz to incorporate. Taste and, if necessary season with more pepper.

Pour the pudding mixture into the prepared baking dish or into the individual ramekins. Place the dish or ramekins in a larger pan with hot water to come ½ inch up the sides of the dish or ramekins. Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top. Return to the oven and continue baking until the cheese is melted and golden and the pudding is firm, browned, and does not stick to your finger when you touch its surface, another 20 to 30 minutes. Serve, hot or warm, cut into squares or inverted out of the ramekins.

From Cookstr.com by Dairy Hollow House, https://www.cookstr.com/recipes/dairy-hollow-house-kohlrabi-pudding

Northern Spy’s Kale Salad

  • 1/2 cup cubed kabocha, butternut, or other winter squash
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 bunch kale (preferably lacinato or dinosaur kale), ribs removed and finely sliced, about 2 1/2 cups
  • 1/4 cup almonds, cut roughly in half
  • 1/4 cup crumbled or finely chopped Cabot clothbound cheddar (or any good, aged cheddar — if you can’t find aged cheddar, use Parmesan)
  • Fresh lemon juice
  • Pecorino or other hard cheese, for shaving (optional)

Heat oven to 425° F. Toss squash cubes in just enough olive oil to coat, and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet (lined with parchment for easier cleanup), leaving space between the cubes. Roast in the oven until tender and caramelized, about 40 minutes, tossing with a spatula every 10-15 minutes. Toast the almonds on a baking sheet in the same oven until they start to smell nutty, tossing once, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the kale with the almonds, cheddar and squash. Season to taste with lemon juice and olive oil (approximately 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2 tablespoons olive oil). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide salad between two plates or shallow bowls. Garnish with shaved pecorino cheese, if desired, and serve.

From Food52.com by Genius Recipes, https://food52.com/recipes/15584-northern-spy-s-kale-salad