Everything has been growing fast on the farm with all this SUNSHINE! We rolled the sides on on the high tunnels to keep things from overheating inside. Outside we have been seeding, weeding and watering as fast as we can!!

You can download Recipe Packet for this week’s share HERE. These are written by my friend Katherine Deumling at Cook With What You Have. I’m definitely going to try one of the leek recipes from the packet when I make lunch for the farm crew this week!

We still have a few SUMMER SHARES for sale!! You can learn more HERE and shoot me an email to get started.

This week your share may include…

• Cauliflower: These are our “winter” cauliflower but they are still producing a few heads even with the “summer” weather we’ve been having! I’m making cauliflower curry pizza for the crew tomorrow. Sounds a bit unusual, but it is always a big hit!  I saute red onion (or leeks) then add cauliflower and curry powder. Next, lay out the pizza dough, brush it with olive oil, add the cauliflower topping, put some mozzarella on top and bake. Simple and tasty!
• Chard: The chard is more tender than many greens and doesn’t always make it through the winter, but this year happily it did! Try it in the Daddy Patties from your recipe packet or make my grandmothers Chard Bisque.
• Leeks: These King Richard leeks are wonderful – just saute the tender stems with some greens – for a simple side dish.
• Parsley: This time of year parsley, a biennial, starts to flower so you may see some of the buds in your bunches. Use the leaves in some of Katherine’s recipes and the stems buds to add a nice flavor to soup stock.
• Dried Sweet Peppers: These look like a hot pepper, but the are in fact quite sweet. Use them as you would
• Popcorn: We love this Early Pink variety! If you have a microwave you can put the whole cob in a brown paper bag and microwave it 1 min at a time for up to 3min. Most of the kernals will be popped off at that point so pour it in a bowl with some butter and salt & yum! BE CAREFUL – more than 4 consecutive minutes in the microwave  can cause the cobs to catch on fire!! Otherwise, take the kernals off the cob and make perfect popcorn the old fashioned way. 1 cob makes about 2 cups when it is popped.
• Spinach: These giant leaves are incredibly tender & sweet!
• Turnips: Not your grandmothers turnip – these are pure white, crunchy, mild japanese salad turnips. The variety is Hakuri and the greens are tasty too!

Coming soon… cherry tomato plants & beautiful little lettuce heads!

• We love all the colorful vegetables, beets, broccoli, all the greens, carrots, squash, and this year really loved the popcorn (my son and his friends LOVE it) and also the bags of dried beans.
• My favorite thing about the farm was knowing the individuals that grow our food, picking up CSA at the farm and going for a walk, enjoying great food and the recipe packets
• The CSA is quite enjoyable and really gets me to eat my veggies. I was looking forward to a large bag of vegetables every other week
• We really liked picking up the veggies – I thought I would find it burdensome but it was a great experience. I loved watching my daughter weigh out everything – it’s a very cool experience for kids to have, and so different from buying veggies at the store.

This week is the last share of the winter season and what a season it has been! Despite snow, record rains & floods we had bountiful baskets of veggies all winter. We’ll miss the sweet carrots and great greens, but we’re looking forward to SUNSHINE and the summer share : )

You can download your Recipe Packet HERE.  These are written by my friend Katherine Deumling at Cook With What You Have. I’m definitely going to try one of the leek recipes from the packet when I make lunch for the farm crew this week!

This week your share may include…

• Beets: A few weeks ago I was in Mt Vernon, WA to present at a workshop on winter farming. I made sure to tell everyone about these Winterkeeper beets!! They are easy to grow and maintain their quality through the winter better than any other variety we’ve ever grown.
• Cauliflower: These are some of best cauliflower ever! We plant special varieties mid-summer, watch them grow slowly through the fall & winter, then marvel as they explode with perfect beautiful heads this time of year. This is one of my favorite Cauliflower pasta recipes from our friends at Gino’s Restaurant in Sellwood.
• Chard: The chard is more tender than many greens and doesn’t always make it through the winter, but this year happily it did! With the longer days and a bit of sunshine it has started to regrow. The leaves are small, but come in a rainbow of beautiful colors. Try it in the Farçous from your recipe packet or make my grandmothers Chard Bisque.
• Collards: The leaves are smaller this time of year as they start to grow again in the spring sunshine but they’re still sweet, tender and tasty.
• Leeks: These King Richard leeks make a wonderful potato leek soup or just saute the tender stems with some greens – winter comfort food!
• Parsley: Cute little bunches! Try this yummy Roasted Cauliflower with Lemons, Capers & Parsley Recipe from an article about the farm a few years ago in Mix Magazine.
• Parsnips: If you’re a parsnip fan like I am you’ll enjoy this Love Song to a Parsnip. She recognizes that beyond the pallid & frumpy appearance is a lovely root vegetable with a complicated, intense and sophisticated flavor.  I found this recipe last week and really like it – it calls for green garlic, but the leeks would work perfectly! There are also some great parsnip recipes in your packet.
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli: This has been coming on strong!!  In addition to the little head of broccoli all the leaves and stems on the plant are sweet and tasty so enjoy those too. Kelly Myers – shareholder & chef – sent this recipe for Quelite Blanco en huevo. Quelites are wild or foraged greens but the sprouting broccoli, collards or chard all work wonderfully with the eggs, spice and cilantro! 
• Popcorn: We love this Early Pink variety and I heard very enthusiastic reviews from some shareholders when I saw them this weekend! If you have a microwave you can put the whole cob in a brown paper bag and microwave it 1 min at a time for up to 3min. Most of the kernals will be popped off at that point so pour it in a bowl with some butter and salt & yum! BE CAREFUL – more than 4 consecutive minutes in the microwave  can cause the cobs to catch on fire!! Otherwise, take the kernals off the cob and make perfect popcorn the old fashioned way. 1 cob makes about 2 cups when it is popped.

Coming soon… The Summer Share!

The Yamhill Co Historical Society & Oregon Draft Horse Breeders Assn are hosting a day of farming demos and fun! The program runs from 10am-4pm, with the featured event being a plowing competition with 16-20 teams of draft horses and mules, and I understand it will be the largest gathering of draft horses and mules in Oregon this year.

They’ll also have:

• Opening ceremonies at 10am with flag raising by the VFW
• Pioneer kids’ area with hands-on activities and animals
• Demonstrations of wheel setting, stump pulling and horseshoeing
• Demonstrations at the working sawmill and blacksmith shop
• Horse-drawn equipment display
• Heritage Center museum tours and other historical and educational displays
• A quilt show featuring 50+ antique quilts from the Yamhill County Historical Society collection
• Art show depicting farm scenes and farm animals by Terry Peasley, Chris Cummings, John Stromme, Clare Carver and Marilyn Affolter
• Food, old-time music, and more!

Parking is close by and we have “people movers” that can transport folks from the parking lot across the road to the facility.  Part of the activities are outdoors naturally, but the exhibits, art and quilt shows, food and music are inside, and we are totally expecting nice, dry weather!

Cost is $3 per person, FREE for kids 12 & under. Bring your friends – it’ll be fun for all ages!

Download the Farm Fest 2012 POSTER