Welcome to Week 2 of the CSA, we hope you enjoyed your first share last week! Here on the farm we are enjoying a respite from the hot sunny weather and are gearing up to transplant basil, cucumbers, and fall leeks out into the fields.

As an Organic farm, we have a host of approaches that we use to control weeds, disease, and pests that can damage the crops in the fields- this week we are inoculating our greenhouse starts (particularly the fall cabbages) with beneficial nematodes. These awesome little microscopic worms are parasitic to fungus gnats and flea beetles- very common pests that can wreak havoc if populations get out of control. We are hoping that by inoculating the plant starts, we will then inoculate the farm fields when transplanting time comes around, and keep the undesirable pests down to a manageable level. Thanks nematodes!

Crop Notes

Bok Choi: Last week you got a chance to try baby bok choi, and this week you will meet its full-sized relative, Joi Choi. Although they are both choi, the full-sized version is quite different for it has beautiful, thick juicy stems that are a refreshing treat on a hot summer day. Once again, we have opted not to wash the Joi Choi since the washing process damages the leaves, cracks stems, and results in reduced storage quality. Just give it a quick rinse when you are ready to eat it. If you happen to see small perforations in the leaves of your Joi Choi…thats the work of flea beetles…a pesky little insect that loves hot weather, and tender leaves of crops like choi, arugula, broccoli, kale, etc.

Fennel: For our first plantings of fennel we like a variety called ‘Preludio’, which as the Italian name implies, is an early maturing variety. This variety is best when harvested slightly young, and has a flattened shape with very tender bulbs that really don’t even need to be cored. In addition to the delightful and tender bulbs, we have also included most of the stalks and fronds as well- providing more fennel goodness and a chance to utilize different parts of the plant in different ways. I’m sure Katherine has some stellar fennel recipes to look forward to! Make sure to put the fennel in a plastic bag or wrap it well with paper towels, since it will want to wilt very rapidly in the refrigerator if left unwrapped (even in the vegetable crisper drawers).

Turnips, Japanese (Hakurei): Sometimes these sweet, creamy turnips are referred to as ‘salad turnips’. Unlike fall storage turnips, these spring grown Hakurei can be eaten raw (my favorite) and do not need to be peeled- think of them more like you would a radish, but sweeter. Without the tops, they can store for several weeks in the refrigerator and also make great quick pickles. The greens are especially delicious when lightly cooked- so be sure you don’t miss out on those. These turnips prefer cooler weather found in the spring or fall, so you may see them once more before summer and then its goodbye until the fall…

Meet Your Farmers

Renee Meiffren

Hometown: Oakland, CA

Joined SIO crew: Spring of 2014

Favorite vegetable: Mustard Greens

Favorite part of working on the farm: ”Everything. But the people are my favorite.”

Renee has also personally harvested, washed, and packed a great deal of the salad mix over the past year. If you have a Salad Share, you can thank Renee!

Hello everyone! We would like to welcome you to the kick-off of the 2015 season. We are thrilled to have each and every one of you enjoying our vegetables on your table with friends and family and appreciate your support of our farm.

My name is Jen and I’m the Harvest Manager at SIO; on behalf of the entire SIO crew, I will be writing the blog this season (in addition of course to Katherine’s wonderful recipes!) where each week we will try and capture some of the exciting highlights, lessons, innovations, and inspirations happening on the farm.

We will also provide information about the share that could include storage tips, varietal information, or special notes about unusual crops or conditions as they arise. We plan to feature one or two crops each week- each and every vegetable has a unique and interesting story that can be traced from seed to plate- and oftentimes far, far beyond!

We look forward to introducing our farm crew as well, so look for a short bio each week where you can meet the amazing and talented folks that are your farmers. Even though this is the very first week you will be receiving our produce, we have been hard at work seeding, transplanting, weeding, and more for several months in preparation and anticipation of this very week. Now that it’s finally here, we are ready to harvest the freshest, most delicious food for all of you to enjoy!

Your Share This Week:

• Bok Choi
• Garlic
• Kale: Red Ursa
• Lettuce: Romaine
• Mizuna
• Radishes

The early weeks of the share provide an opportunity to showcase all of the wonderful greens that thrive in our bioregion. The beginning of the season will be ripe with vibrant spring greens of all shapes, colors, textures, and flavors. They are all a real treat to work with in the kitchen, and provide a welcome nutritional kick to launch us into summer. Enjoy them while they’re here, we hope you find them as nurturing and satisfying as we do!

The tender greens in the early weeks are sensitive to warm weather so as a preventative measure, we will drape a moist paper towel over (and sometimes under) the produce in order to maintain its moisture and provide some ambient cooling. You can compost the paper towels, or wrap certain crops in them before storing in the refrigerator.

Crop Highlights

Fresh Young Garlic: You’ll find young garlic in your share- essentially immature garlic that has not reached full size or maturity. When you prepare it you will notice small bulbs forming as well as all the layers of wrapping that would later on dry, cure, and tighten to form the papery skins that enable mature garlic to store for so long. We opted not to peel (or wash) these beautiful bulbs because we wanted to showcase the beautiful purple skins of this variety dubbed as ‘Bangkok’ that was originally acquired at a market in the Thai capital.  All the parts of the garlic in this week’s share are edible.

Baby Bok Choi: We also opted not to overly process or wash these tender little gems so they would last longer in your fridge (although as good as they are, we don’t think they’ll make it very long before you want to devour them). Give them a quick rinse right before you prepare them to remove any soil that may have stuck onto the stems or the ends.

Kale, Red Ursa: This kale has become a favorite on the farm as far as ‘Red Russian’ types go. We get our seed from local producer Wild Garden seeds out of Philomath. Over the course of the season you’ll hear lots about where we source our seed and all the hard work, stewardship, and love that goes into developing and maintaining high quality genetic diversity that is adapted to our specific bioregion and cultivation methods. This early in the season the Red Ursa kale has very broad, lush, and sweet leaves that cook down very rapidly. As this particular variety gets older, the leaf shape changes quite dramatically and it appears more and more frilly until it finally has a very lacey texture.

Mizuna: This mild and tender mustard is a member of a special group of vegetables known in Japan as ‘Kyōyasai’- comprised of over forty specialty vegetables that are produced in the area surrounding Kyoto. Just as we have a mild climate and rich soils, Kyoto experiences similar conditions that have enabled farmers to turn vegetable production into a high art befitting of Kyoto’s position as the cultural center of Japan. These vegetables are prized for their exceptional nutritional value, taste, color, shape, and seasonality.

Recipes

This year we are again working with Katherine Deumling and her SE Portland based Cook With What You Have cooking school. Each Monday afternoon we will post our blog, which will include photos, crop notes and farm news. This post will be followed on Tuesday morning by a CSA Recipe post from Katherine who will be providing you with weekly recipes, storage tips and other cooking tips related to your share.

Washing Your Weekly Share

Please remember that all produce you receive in your shares is a raw product. Every vegetable should be washed before using.

Your CSA Share Container

Each week your share is delivered in a Reusable Plastic Container (RPC). You are welcome to take the container with you and return it empty the next week, or you can transfer the items into a bags you’ve brought and leave behind the container at  your pick-up site. This season we are again working with IFCO, a company that manufactures and distributes RPCs. Each week we return the used containers to IFCO’s North Portland site, and pick-up clean and sanitized containers for packing CSA shares. Please make sure to collapse (fold down) and stack your container when you leave it at your site, and you can place the white plastic lids in the designated recycling container at your site. Alternately you can collect the white plastic lids at home and bring them to any location that accepts recyclable plastic films. If you bring your container home please be sure to return it to your pick-up site the following week. We are charged a fee for every container we do not bring back to IFCO.

What a wonderful winter CSA season we have had. The bounty that Oregon can offer is almost year round. Here at Sauvie Island Organics, we will continue to work to lengthen our season so you can continue to have local, delicious vegetables in your kitchens and on your plates.  See you in May!

Enjoy…

Crop Notes

Fava Bean Greens- These greens are courtesy of a small seeded fava bean type called a ‘Diana’ bell bean. The fava greens are best quickly sautéed. Their taste compliments caramelized shallots or parsnips and strong tasting meat options like hangar steak, salmon, or smoked oysters.  Think of these greens as substitutes for spinach in any of your favorite recipes.

Field Greens-  Our field or braising greens are an incredibly vibrant and beautiful mix of over wintering brassicas. Each bag is uniquely mixed and includes sweet and tender leaves of Red Russian kale, super hardy collards, along with a special blend of mustard greens from our friends at Wild Garden Seeds that includes a wide array of leaves that vary in texture, color, and flavor, from the mellowest mild to the fieriest zing. I love using the greens as a final addition to an Asian inspired stir fry or soup, or quickly blanched and sauteed in olive oil and garlic as a great side dish. The more adventurous of you may try them chopped into a salad with a BITE!

Herbs, Thyme and Sage- Enjoy some culinary herbs in your final share this week. With both herbs, it is possible to cook with the stems on or clean the leaves from the stem for a more delicate approach. If you are not used to cooking with fresh herbs, do know that the flavor is much stronger and more flavorful than their dry counterparts. Both herbs complement French and Italian cooking well, can be used to add depth to eggs, chicken, and meat, and would be outstanding roasted with your parsnips, carrots, and beets. Explore and be creative!

Winter Squash, Crown Pumpkin- We bought these organic heirloom seeds from High Mowing Seeds from Vermont.  This variety of pumpkin was brought to the US originally from New Zealand selected for their great complex not overly sweet taste and lengthy storage. The pumpkins in your share average in at a whopping 8 pounds. This squash can be used in any recipe that calls for pumpkins or butternut Squash.

Fields Notes: We just finished planting 2 acres of potatoes…

After two solid days of planting, all of our 2015 season’s potatoes are in the ground.  We buy certified organic seed potatoes from White Rock Seed in Colorado, and from Irish Eyes in Washington.  From roughly every 40 pounds of seed potatoes planted, we can harvest up to 500 pounds of full sized ready to eat spuds.

We found that we generally grow healthier plants and have less leaf blight by planting our potatoes into our more acidic heavier soil, by dry farming, not irrigating during the growing season, and only applying minimal nitrogen fertilizer.  Some varieties to look forward to in 2015 are red gold, yukon gem, yukon gold, chieftain, carola and defender.

Shares still available for the 2015 season!

Spring feels like it is just around the corner. We have been busy in the greenhouse & in the fields.

Enjoy the bounty!

Crop Notes:

Beets, cylindra- We love the fun and unusual shape of these beets! They are great from a chef’s standpoint with a notably thin skin (no need to peel and stain everything in your kitchen red) and uniform shape when sliced- great for canning or plating as beet coins. They are also great from a farmer’s standpoint since the root shape means we can grow many more pounds per bed foot than we can with a round beet. There was quite a variation in root size, so we tried to pack either large, medium, or small in your share so you can enjoy a consistent size for easier prep. 

Kohlrabi- This week you will find a variety in your share called ‘Gigante’. This Czechoslovakian heirloom can easily grow to the size of a bowling ball without getting woody and tough. We have noticed that the skin is thicker than other varieties we grow, so make sure to trim and peel with a suitably sharp knife.

Raab, lacinato kale- Raab is also referred to as rapini, rapa, rabe, and probably more…but it refers to the new growth as the plants prepare to reproduce. Raab can be harvested from just about any plant in the Brassica family, which includes crops like broccoli, kale, mustards, collards, cabbage, and more. Believe it or not, these young, tender shoots are from very old kale plants that we transplanted into our fields last summer and fall. They braved the winter (which seemed notably mild this year) and as the weather warmed up the plants set about preparing to flower and produce seeds. At this moment, as the shoots elongate but before the buds open, the leaves are fresh and delicious and the stems are unbelievably tender and sweet. Try snacking on a stem raw just to see!  Raab is a great ‘bonus crop’ that we can harvest in the time of year when fresh greens are such a treat to have. You can chop and cook the kale, or leave it whole and treat it more like asparagus spears. Fun fact: when you are out and about this time of year and you see sprays of vibrant yellow flowers on little green plants (not shrubs) oftentimes in fields and along roadways… its very likely a Brassica and is a wild cousin of your dinner! Very soon in Oregon you can enjoy seeing entire fields of electric yellow- farmers growing Brassica seed crops or canola.

We Love Nourishing You!

Crop Notes

Carrots, mix: The dark red carrots in your share are wonderful cooked. When slow cooked whole and unpeeled in stews the interiors become a deep orange reminiscent of sweet potato. The others are delicious to eat raw or grated into salads.

Celeriac: Don’t be intimidated by its odd appearance…also known as celery root, you can eat it either raw or cooked. Start by trimming of the top and the knobby roots so you have a flat top and bottom. Next trim the sides, removing the rough outer skin to reveal the white flesh beneath- and dont discard those peels! They add great depth and flavor to stock. Its wonderful savory flavor is great in stocks, stews, soups, casseroles and just about any other hearty winter creation. Celeriac pairs very well with potatoes- so you can include it alongside them in gratins, mashes, hash, etc…celeriac does take a little longer than potatoes to cook, so start the celeriac first or cut it into smaller pieces to compensate. We enjoyed this Thanksgiving slaw made by one of our crew member’s mom: mayo or yogurt, grainy mustard, white vinegar, salt and pepper to taste over a combination of cabbage, carrot, and grated celeriac.

Chicory, Pan di Zucchero: The name means ‘sugarloaf’ in Italian and its in the chicory family along with radicchio. This upright, green chicory is far more mild and sweet than its sibling radicchio. It will store for incredibly long periods of time in a plastic bag in the fridge, so you can cut a wedge off and put the rest back for later. You can eat Pan di Zucchero raw- shredded and dressed with a light vinaigrette, or cooked for a sweeter and more savory flavor. We recommend a quick, hot fry to quickly sear and caramelize the edges rather than a slower sauté, which will just wilt it without the browning.

Mustard Greens: These colorful bunches came out of our greenhouse, which feels a lot like the tropics these days. We seeded a mixture of Green Wave and Red Giant mustards, which are two of our favorite broad-leaf mustards. They are somewhat spicy raw- and are great on sandwiches. When cooked, mustard greens lose their kick and become very mild. Mustards are far more delicate than kales or chard, so a very light steam or sautee right at the end of preparing a meal works best. They take less than a minute to wilt down.

Parsnips: Related to carrot and parsley, this root vegetable has been cultivated since ancient times, it was even used as a sweetener in Europe before the arrival of cane sugar, and came to the United States in the 1800′s. Parsnips have a great combination of earthiness and sweetness, so you can either prepare them in a sweet or savory recipe, or both! Think roasted parsnips with cayenne and bacon, or glazed with butter and brown sugar.

Potatoes, Purple Majesty: This is the darkest purple potato available, inside and out. It will hold its lovely, fun color through cooking and makes one of the best-looking pots of mashed potatoes you’ll ever find. Not only do these spuds look great, they pack about twice as much Anthocyanidins (most widely know for their antioxidant properties) as any other produce, putting these right at the top of the list for ‘superfoods’. The skins on this variety oftentimes exhibit ‘russeting’, giving them a golden/tan sheen that is perfectly normal and edible.

Winter Squash, Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash: It looks like an albino acorn, and was one of our taste-test winners! A great size for dinner, with a creamy, silky texture and excellent flavor. According the the Seed Savers Exchange website, this variety is a Family heirloom from Thelma Sanders in Adair County, Missouri. The seed was passed from neighbor Everett Pettit to Sue and Tom Knoche, Ohio squash collectors and two of SSE’s earliest members.

Thelma Sanders Winter Squash

Crop Notes

Arugula- Hooray for fresh greens in the wintertime! Arugula is packed with folic acid vitamin A, and vitamin C  to keep you going during the grey Oregon winter. We harvested these bunches from our greenhouse and can’t wait to eat them on sandwiches, as pesto, with pasta, and as the start to an amazing salad! Believe it or not, its just warm enough (along with some potential sun and wind) that the Arugula may want to wilt slightly. Winter leafy greens from greenhouses are VERY sensitive to external conditions once they’re cut and can desiccate incredibly quickly- sometimes even faster than in the summer months. We hope this will not be the case but if you do find that your Arugula is in need of some extra perk, rinse it with cool water, shake off the excess, and wrap in a plastic bag before refrigerating. By the next day they’ll be perky and delicious!

Crop Notes:

Cabbage, Savoy- The thin, light texture, sweet taste, and crinkled leaves make Famosa one of our very favorite Savoy Cabbages. You can turn it into kraut, excellent slaw, or cook it down. Savoy cooks faster than a regular cabbage, so take care not to overcook it. Make an Asian slaw by shredding the cabbage and dressing it with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, chili, garlic, and fresh grated ginger.

Chicory, Pan di Zucchero- The name means ‘sugarloaf’ in Italian and its in the chicory family along with radicchio. This upright, green chicory is far more mild and sweet than its sibling radicchio. It will store for incredibly long periods of time in a plastic bag in the fridge, so you can cut a wedge off and put the rest back for later. You can eat Pan di Zucchero raw- shredded and dressed with a light vinaigrette, or cooked for a sweeter and more savory flavor. We recommend a quick, hot fry to quickly sear and caramelize the edges rather than a slower saute, which will just wilt it without the browning.

Leeks- Related to garlic, shallots, and onions. Leeks are a tremendous treat in the late winter when many other crops in the field have long since withered or frozen. Leeks hold strong through frigid winters and provide a tremendous amount of fresh food inch-per-inch out of a garden or farm and a more delicate flavor than onions in the kitchen. The tall, upright shape of leeks means that you can pack a lot of food and nutrition into a small amount of space- a single foot of bed space can yield 4-5 mature leeks! Leeks are a great choice for local food systems and resilient gardeners alike.

Radish, Daikon- These giant cylindrical radishes hail from Southeast Asia. They are used extensively in Japanese cuisine fresh, pickled, dried, or simmered. Many American farmers use daikon as a cover crop/pasture forage; the large, aggressive roots break up hard soils, and the tops serve as animal fodder. The hot summer caused some unusual dark banding and hollowness in our daikon roots, mostly near the tops and bottoms…hence the cut-down log shape of your daikon.

Parsnips– boil, steam, bake, fry, roast…parsnips do it all.  There is a friendly debate going on on the farm: which is more delicious oven baked with olive oil & salt or baked with heavy cream and topped with a fresh grate of nutmeg. Let us know what you think!

Winter Squash, Blue Kuri- This squash has a truly international pedigree! Its a Japanese Kabocha type that our friends from Adaptive Seeds near Eugene originally sourced from ”Wim Brus, a seed grower for Bingeheimer Saatgut in Germany. He spent many years selecting for quality on his farm in the mountains outside Bologna, Italy.” We hope you enjoy it on your table- Kabocha are known for their sweet, dry flesh with a nutty flavor. A classic Japanese preparation (and a sublime treat) is to cut the squash into somewhat thin wedges and roast at high temp until the outer edges are starting to brown and crisp…the interior will be delightfully fluffy and sweet. Yum!

That’s your Pan di Zucchero, chicory on the right and your Blue Kuri, winter squash on the left.

Enjoy!