–
“The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty”
–
Hello Friends & Farm-ily,
–
Boy, it’s been an extra early Spring and looks like an early summer is here in Oregon. As much as the veggies have been loving the sun, we’re starting the week off with some clouds and even a few chances for rain! My, how we’ve missed it. We’ve been working really hard this season to have more variety earlier in the season and all the hard work is paying off as we have had lots of variety so far in the box! With broccoli, carrots, beets etc in the first few shares we’re giving ourselves a pretty good pat on the back.
–
We hope you all have been enjoying the extra fresh goodness that have been harvested the first two weeks of the CSA. There are many fun things in store as we near the summer solstice…. this coming weekend looks like a hot one but we have plans for planting our melons, winter squash, pumpkins, another succession of cucumbers, squash, beans etc!
–
The WHF CSA member’s page has been active and buzzing with many delicious recipes, helpful hints and encouragement. Thank you all your participation! One of our 3rd year member’s posted recently. We posed a question to her and asked what advice she would give herself as a 1st year member. Here is what she had to say…
–
–
This is exactly one pound of veggies. According to Michael Pollan if you eat 1 pound of fresh veggies every day you will reduce your chance of developing cancer by 50%.
–
“1) Buy a copy of Tamar Adler’s book “An Everlasting Meal” and read it early and often! It’s more about cooking theory than a set of recipes and it’s very inspiring and confidence building.
–
2) Inventory the fridge the night before pickup. Make Leftover Stew/Frittata or something that uses up odds and ends, tidy up the veggie drawers and put down a fresh sheet of wax paper in the bottoms.
–
3) Day of pickup: Sauté up a pot of thinly sliced onions and potatoes before leaving for the farm (or do it the night before if that works better)–this will be the base of a “tops” soup.
–
4) Wash all the veggies as soon as you get home. Use a 5-gallon bucket to soak big greens first. If you find a bug, yay! Bonus! This is the organic seal of approval 😉
–
Taking a moment, to stop, look and be. A practice that we are working on (for our sanity) during the very busy part of our season!
—
While the greens are soaking:
–
5) Wash and chop all the tops from radishes, turnips, etc. and toss them in the pot with the onion potato mix you’ve got ready to go (pat yourself on the back for being so efficient!) along with some water or stock and set to simmer while you process the other veggies. When you’re done, this soup will be ready to blend up and enjoy with some buttered pan-toasted bread crumbs, sautéed radishes, a squeeze of lemon, a dollop of yogurt, whatever suggests itself…
–
6) Wash the assorted other veggies then store them loose in the veggie drawer. Bagging them up makes them hard to see and easy to forget.
–
7) Drain the big greens, separate the stems, and then dry the leaves. Don’t throw out the stems–they’re not garbage, they’re dinner!!! Bag some of the greens, but don’t worry too much about the tough ones; put them toward the back of the drawer and use up the tender ones first. If they aren’t in bags, you see them easier and will use them more readily–tucking them away makes them too easy to ignore until they’re sad and limp.
–
–
The onions are sizing up. Walla walla sweets will be here in no time..
–
8) Eat veggies with every meal, especially breakfast…sautéed greens reduce to nothing in size and they’re delicious and easy to get into the habit of eating. Start now!
–
9) Cook once, eat at least twice–cook up a big whopping batch of whatever you’re making. Eat some now, put the rest in mason jars and freeze it. Spring/summer/fall ready-to-eat food is fabulous to pull out, warm up, and enjoy all winter long or any time you don’t feel like cooking. The ultimate in convenience food!
–
10) Make friends with your knife, cutting board, sink, dish towel, salad spinner, stove, and oven. They aren’t instruments of drudgery, they are keys to liberation. The time you spend prepping and cooking food is time to think and be present in the moment–“mindfulness” is a free benefit of CSA membership, so take advantage and enjoy it!”
–
We love what she had to say especially the part about how “mindfulness” is a free benefit of being a CSA member. Beyond the produce our CSA aims to improve our members quality of life so that they can live long, healthy lives and be productive members of society. Keep up the great work in the kitchen and feel free to share your recipe successes! We love hearing how everyone is utilizing all the fresh produce.
–
–
Getting back into the harvest swing has been such a natural process this season. So far, over the course of 2 weeks we’ve harvested over 4,000lbs of produce!
–
A big thanks to you all for your interest in our 100% grass fed, organic beef and pasture raised pork!
–
Beef Shares. Interest was much higher than we anticipated and we quickly sold out of our Spring Beef Shares in the first few hours (wow!). Our next shares will be available in September and we will keep you in the loop!
–
Pork Shares. For those CSA members who are interested, we are almost sold out of pork shares and have only 1 share available this Spring. We will have more pork shares available in August.
–
June Egg Shares. We are sold out of egg shares for the month of June. We will let you all know if we have any extras over the next few weeks!
–
We look forward to seeing you all this week!
–
With regards,
–
your farmers
–
Jess & Brian
–
dirty hands, clean hearts
working hands farm 