oak-hill-farm.org

Blog

  • At Peace with Gravity…

    When I take my headphones to the garden, my music is mellow. Unless I’m in a very specific mood, I don’t want pounding rhythms or blaring guitars—that’s for walking or running… or maybe chasing hogs. For garden work, think Nora Jones, Eva Cassidy, or maybe Frou Frou.

    This morning, with the wind wafting through the shade and my hoe keeping rhythm, Alison Krauss came across the Pandora station dedicated to my gardening habit. The lyrics to “Gravity” always bring my younger self to mind. The song is about a girl who leaves town to explore the highways. When her loved ones ask her when she’ll come home, her answer is, “quite frankly, when they stop building roads, and all God needs is gravity to hold me down.”

    Growing Wings

    I was always restless. I finished college early, ready for the next big adventure. I hit the road with an Anthropology degree and worked as an archaeological technician for both colleges and businesses. I “shovelbummed” on major excavations and minor surveys that crossed miles and miles of territory in multiple states. I lived out of my car and in hotels paid for by the companies that hired me. I once worked for the Parks Service in Northern California, taking a truck and a really big radio by myself into the wilds of the Modoc Plateau every day, where all you could hear for a hundred miles were the winds in the trees. I loved it.

    I wrote post-adolescent road poetry that compared the roadways to the bloodstream of the country. For me, driving was therapy. Crossing the landscape like that—fast enough to make time, slow enough to see every shack and tree and signpost—let me see the bones of this beautiful country, laid bare.

    I think my best piece of road poetry came out of me when I was still a kid in my own hometown, before I left for college. I loved home—the Carolina mountains have a beauty like no other place on the planet, and I love going back to visit my family and my lake and my mountain (as I privately dub them). But I was ready to see more. The big landscape out there stretching west was all so very heady and new and vast.

    In those early days I wrote the last lines of a poem I called one of my teenage masterpieces:

    I’ll go on the road, America, and look for the one I love among smoke stacks and pine trees,
    I’ll breathe the same winds on separate seductive shores…
    But it’s you I’ll find waiting—always surprised, never satisfied—you I’ll kiss deep and free in the grey paper dawn of a strange new street-angel millennium.

    Fighting Gravity

    It took me nearly a decade, but I found the one I love. I tied myself to Athens, GA for all the wrong reasons, but it was the rightest thing I’ve ever done.

    I went back to school for a Ph.D., believing I still needed someone to teach me how to learn, to show me how to think. I linked into an invisible body of ephemeral, ever-changing ideas and opinions—all castles in the air, no foundations. I was in one place, but I had no roots. I was a hot air balloon tied to the ground, still fighting gravity.

    But I found the man I loved in that dusty old building on Jackson Street, and I’ve never looked back. Ted and I met in a graduate student meeting—then again a year later at the graduate student’s start-of-year picnic. The rest is history. When I married him I married this big, historic farmstead and his big, historic dreams.

    … And I found they suited me.

    Growing Roots

    Now, I was never the girl to change my life for a man. I once said, “A husband can always leave you. A Ph.D. never can.” And yet I still have the husband, and not the Ph.D.

    Life is funny that way. Maybe the education is still in my future—I don’t pretend to see the road ahead. But I’ve stopped feeling like I need someone else to teach me how to be an expert at my own life. I’m spending my time learning by doing, not learning in order to maybe someday do.

    In my garden this morning, it wasn’t just the plants whose roots I was tending. I was watering my own roots, sinking them deeper into the fertile soils of a beloved old landscape. I have been here for nearly four years—that’s longer than I stayed put in college, and a year shy of the time I spent in Athens. We plan on spending many, many more years together under the sheltering roof of this big old house on the hill.

    We’ve planted fruits that are just beginning to mature—apples and quinces, blueberries and raspberries.

    We’ve built a 1-acre garden and claimed a back pasture for corn, hay, and garlic.

    We’ve surrounded the house with flowers and herbs.

    We’ve rebuilt fences, shored up the dottering pole barn, reclaimed the chicken house… and now we’re restoring the sweet old cottage that used to be a part of our 1832 farmhouse.

    We’ve gotten the whole property listed on the National Register of Historic Places—with a little help from our friends. (Thanks Abby!)

    We’re building a life here. For the right reasons, and with the right kinds of work. Our blood, sweat, and tears have begun to sink into the ground on this ancient hill—and there will be more of all three to follow, I’m sure.

    We couldn’t do it without the people who support us, who buy our CSA shares and our hog shares, who donate to the cause of saving this antebellum property for future generations to appreciate. Thanks to all of you who are making this dream possible. This place has given me real, lasting, grown-up roots.

    It’s good to be at peace with gravity.

    As always… Peace, Love, and Veggies,

    Ellie

  • Spring 2013 CSA: Week 5

    Can you believe we’re nearing the end of our spring CSA? One week left! We’ve opened the summer session to current members, and we’ll open unclaimed shares for the general public next Friday.

    We’ll start up the six-week summer session after a hiatus to let our summertime veggies mature. We’ll be in touch about dates as the time approaches, but we’ll continue to have Saturday pick-ups at the Quaker Meeting House on the corner of Prescott and Walnut Grove for the duration of the summer.

    In the meantime, you have a beautiful box this week for your munching pleasure. Check it out:

    Clockwise from top: mixed beets, kohlrabi, garlic, onions, Japanese minowase daikon, Tom Thumb lettuce, mixed kale and broccoli greens.
    Clockwise from top: mixed beets, kohlrabi, garlic, onions, Japanese minowase daikon, Tom Thumb lettuce, mixed kale and broccoli greens.
    •  Beets: This time, it’s a mix of garden-variety red beets and hard-to-grow, sweet and succulent golden beets! We’re proud of ourselves for coaxing them into growing up for us this year. Our test batch has been successful, so you can expect a larger crop next year if all goes smoothly. Roast both varieties together for a roasted beet salad with a bright flavor.
    • Kohlrabi: We’re willing to bet this will be a new one for some of you. The fine, crisp, almost peppery flavor of fresh kohlrabi is one of a kind. Coarsely chop the fleshy, bulb-shaped part (which actually grows above the ground) into a salad, saute the chopped bulb in olive oil and then add the greens, or try this delicious recipe for Kohlrabi Puree. Enjoy!
    • Garlic: This is likely to be our last week for fresh green garlic; we’ll be harvesting mature cloves to hang and cure in the coming week or so. It’s a seasonal delicacy that we both adore and our garlic harvest each year always has a bittersweet tinge to it. Spring garlic will be back next year!
    • Onions: Our spring onions are also getting larger and starting to bulb up nicely. We’ll see how large they grow if we leave them be for a few weeks; with luck, their larger selves will be gracing your boxes starting in July.
    • Daikon: It looks like a white carrot, but tastes like a radish! Japanese daikon is a relative of the common radish. Some varieties can grow to be longer than your arm. By those standards, these are just babies, but they have an excellent taste (and they’re easier to fit in the box!). Try this seasonal spring stew with baby daikon, or use them anywhere you’d use a radish.
    • Tom Thumb Lettuce: After all my excitement over baby lettuce heads, I think these may be as close to a real “head” as we see this year. More a butter leaf than a butter head, these are nevertheless crisp and sweet, with just a hint of richer summer flavor creeping in. Heirloom heads are always looser than the iceberg-style lettuce we see in the grocery store. For this season and this year’s weather, I’m just grateful to have happy, yummy, disease-free lettuce this late into the year.
    • Mixed Greens: Kale and broccoli greens are delicious when cooked together using any favorite family recipe for collards or mustard greens. Remove the stems in the broccoli greens (and the kale if desired). A little vinegar, a little spice, some salt and pepper, and some of the garlic and onions will give them an excellent flavor. Add a little water, cover, and simmer over low to medium heat until they’re cooked to taste–we like them cooked through, but still a little crunchy, anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes according to the batch.
  • Spring CSA Week 4: Goodies, Greens, and Garlic Scapes!

    Spring CSA Week 4: Goodies, Greens, and Garlic Scapes!

    The wet weather continues, though the temperatures are finally starting to rise. We never thought we’d be happy to see 80 and 90-degree afternoons, but the plants are loving it. The beets have really taken off, the spring greens are flagging, and summer goodies like Swiss Chard are starting to come on. In this week’s box you have:

    Roughly clockwise from top: Green onions, kale, garlic scapes, radishes, young Tom Thumb lettuce, beets, romaine and arugula, and mixed herbs (rosemary, sage, and lavender).
    Roughly clockwise from top: Green onions, kale, garlic scapes, radishes, young Tom Thumb lettuce, beets, romaine and arugula, swiss chard, and mixed herbs (rosemary, sage, and lavender).
    • Green Onions: You’ve been able to watch these little guys mature from week to week and, we hope, have by now discovered all sorts of delectable ways to work them into your meals. If you need a little inspiration (or want to use them as a long-lasting pantry staple), Emily over at Organic Authority has some excellent ideas for green onions.
    • Kale: Ready to move beyond kale chips? This versatile green is awesome in everything from frittatas to casserole to mashed potatoes. For some new ideas, check out Local Harvest’s “Kale Recipes–17 Different Ideas!” posted by Maplewood Organics up in Vermont. Some people recommend boiling kale before sauteing to make it extra-tender, or “massaging” it before use in a raw salad. Personally, we think this particular Russian Red variety is delicate and succulent enough just as it is–rinse and go!
    • Garlic Scapes: Wondering what do do with those mysterious green curlicues? Scapes are a secondary method of reproduction for some heirloom garlic varieties. These come from our signature Asian Tempest garlic and are basically a scallion that tastes like a bright, spicy garlic treat. Margo over at Greenling DFW posted one of my favorite-ever posts on using garlic scapes. If you’r a canner, pickle them and use them all year long. Meat lover? Wrap ’em in bacon! Love to eat raw? They’re perfect as-is on a salad. Scapes are one of those things that will work for everyone. And if you just don’t like garlic, put them in water and wait for them to bloom!
    • Radishes: The funky spring weather has these coming in a few at a time–one will be massive, and the one beside it just barely starting to bulb up. Enjoy these little tidbits on a salad or (if you drink alcohol) in that classic radish martini we mentioned back in Week 2. Want to give someone a laugh with their drink? Try this.
    • Tom Thumb Lettuce: This heirloom variety is a miniature butterhead with a creamy taste. I’ve left it on its roots, so it may last an extra day or two if you put it in water. These guys are growing so quickly I’m thinning almost every week. They’re delicious when young, but I can’t wait to see the mature miniature head. We get a kick out of growing new varieties out here. Hmmm… Should I be worried that I geek out over vegetables?
    • Beets: The beets are finally getting big! Roast the bulb in the oven with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil, either in a pan or covered in tinfoil. Then have at it–they’re great tossed into a stir fry; on a salad; mixed with quinoa, their cooked greens, and balsamic vinegar; or alone as a side dish.
    • Mixed Salad Greens: I love arugula–just in small doses. Mix it with the romaine and Tom Thumb (and even the raw kale or chard, if you like…), top it with radishes, green onion tops, scapes, and roasted beets–this week’s box will give you some of the best salad flavors spring has to offer!
    • Swiss Chard: LuxeEpicure calls swiss chard the “peacock of dark, leafy greens.” With red, pink, yellow, orange, and green veining big rich leaves, chard is delicious stir fried, in pastas and casseroles, or as a side dish by itself. Chop the stems and tear or cut the leaves into smaller pieces; cook the stems first since they take a bit longer and then add the greens–or just eat the greens raw in salads. You can even use the whole leaf to wrap tamales!
    • Mixed Herbs: See below… rosemary is deeper green, woodier, and generally sturdier than lavender–and the smells are unique. Sage is the broader-leafed green in the middle. All are excellent for cooking. I like a little sage in my eggs, a little lavender in the water I use to boil fresh green beans, and lots of rosemary with my pork, potatoes, or carrots.
    Left to Right: Rosemary, Sage, and Lavender
    Left to Right: Rosemary, Sage, and Lavender

    Summer Plans

    We’re hoping to have a “Farm Friends” cookout later in the summer for everyone who has participated in the CSA over the last two years. We’d like to do it in July or August–if you’ve been involved in the CSA and there are any dates that particularly suit (or don’t)… let us know!

    We’ll also be opening up sales for the Summer CSA to our current customers at the beginning of next week (June 3) and to the general public the following week (June 10). Summer session should start by mid-July, though the dates may be variable due to the late start and cool, wet temperatures we’ve had so far. Let us know if you want to join the ever-growing circle of friends who pick up our boxes each week. We love what we do, and we’re ready to grow!

    Thanks to Our Volunteers!

    We had another volunteer day today–and despite the adverse weather we had one lone soul brave the elements to help us out. Thanks to Trevor, who helped us organize the tools in the shop while rain tapped a rhythm on the tin roof and our four-year-old “dusted tools” while getting dusty herself.

    The veggie boxes are out to our “Farm Friends,” the animals are secure against the weather, and the shop’s tool room looks better than it has in years. Time for a well-earned rest and–if the weather holds–a cookout with some friends. We’ll raise a radish martini to all of you who keep us going.

    Peace, love, and veggies!

  • Spring 2013 CSA: Week 3

    Lamb’s Quarters – Chenopodium album
    by Susun Weed, c. 2009
     
    I told the new apprentice we were having lamb’s quarters for dinner.
    “I won’t have any. I’m a vegetarian,” she replied.
    With a smile, I corrected myself. “Some people call it fat hen.”
    “I don’t eat chicken either,” she responded with a frown.
    “It’s also called goosefoot,” I countered, suppressing a grin.
    “Not goose, not even the feet, do I eat,” she said with force.
    And I agreed, “Pigweed is a more common name for it.”
    “No matter what kind of animal it is, I am NOT going to eat it,” she stated firmly, her eyes shining with fervor and unshed tears.
    I confessed, now openly laughing. “It’s a weed. A plant. A cooked green!”
    photo (3)
    In this weeks box: Mixed herbs (thyme, mint, rosemary), beets, spring onions, bibb lettuce, lollo rossa lettuce, lamb’s quarters (in the small bag), spinach, broccoli greens, kale, arugula, spring garlic

    CSA Week 3: What is in the box?

    • Kale: This is a spring favorite, but it will come to an end eventually as hot weather hits. Enjoy while you can. If you want a fresh adventure, try this chilled kale and apple soup. We haven’t tried it, but I bet this would be great with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of fresh mint…
    • Spinach: Say farewell to our little friend. This looks like the end of the spinach. Luckly, her wild cousin has made an appearance–see lamb’s quarters below!
    • Lamb’s Quarters: Goosefoot, fat hen, whatever you call it–this is a delicious spinach cousin; use it where you would use any other green. Like spinach, be sure you rinse it well, since it tends to accumulate garden dust. If you dig around the Interwebs, you can find lots of ideas–but here is a starting point. In Mexico, Lamb’s Quarters is known as quelites (as are some other greens). Let us know what you think–we have a TON of this, but harvesting the small leaves is time consuming.
    • Beets: Beet greens are delicious this time of year, when they’re large but still succulent. Wilt them with other greens in a stir fry or saute. Beets are one of our favorite vegetables. You can roast them and put them a salad–but sometimes I like to wash them and eat them raw.
    • Arugula: Wham! That’s flavor. Arugula picks up spice as it gets closer to bolting, and ours definitely has a zing. It is a shame that tomatoes don’t really come in until summer, because arugula and tomato mix well. (Hint: try a BLT, but with lots of arugula instead of lettuce and with added avocado. Bacon, Arugula, Tomato, Mayo, Avocado, and a pinch of sea salt (NaCN). The BATMAN sandwich is born!)
    • Green Onions: Do you notice a trend? Our baby onions are growing up. Yes, we still remember when these were just little sprouts. Before long, they will be all grown up.
    • Spring Garlic: What else can we say about Garlic? This is one of our specialties, a favorite of the Farm. We put it in almost everything; use it like a green onion, or use it like garlic. One of our heroes, Alice Waters, has this recipe for green garlic spaghetti. Wow. Just… wow.
    • Broccoli and Cauliflower Greens: We served these up last week, and they are back; the chard needs a break for a week, and the strange spring weather is not helping our broccoli to form heads. We had broccoli greens in a crustless quiche this morning, along with baby garlic and three cheeses, and it was amazing. This one is an original, not a link:

    Crustless Quiche with ???

    1/3 cup cooked quinoa
    4 eggs, beaten
    1/3 cup milk
    1/3 cup feta cheese
    1/3 cup parmesan
    1/3 cup cheddar
    Salt and Pepper to taste

    We added:
    Chopped broccoli greens
    3 chopped mushrooms
    1 chopped baby garlic
    Chopped spinach

    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a glass pie pan. Mix all ingredients, pour into pan, bake for 45 minutes. We actually baked it for 30 minutes, then turned off the oven and came back to the house an hour later, and it was fine. This is a forgiving recipe–play with it!

    • Lollo Rosa and Bibb Lettuce: “Looks like we’re having salad again…” WAIT! Not so fast! Sure, you can use these lettuces for a salad, but why not make something like these Vietnamese spicy shrimp wraps (you can do this with tofu, too)? Make the filling, put the lettuce on a plate, and let your family and/or guests fill each leaf on their own. Be sure not to forget the lime dipping sauce (see link above).

    In other news…

    So, a few months back we mentioned on the FaceBook that we might try to start selling coffee through the farm. Turns out, almost all of the coffee we can get is sold through one of the big coffee brokerages, and we really wanted to develop a relationship with a particular farmer, someone who had stories we could share about specific people and specific coffee. We don’t have a deal yet, but we may have a lead! We met someone who sells coffee from a farm in Honduras. As of now this is just a teaser, but we will let you know how things go!

  • Spring 2013 CSA: Week 2

    Ellie here, with your CSA share list for Week 2. Things went a bit more smoothly this week than last!

    Thinning

    This week, most of our beds needed to be thinned. When we plant, we plant more seed than we think we’ll need, in case some doesn’t germinate. Then, as our veggies mature, we pull some to make room for the others to grow big and strong. It’s a customary practice among farmers and gardeners to insure a good harvest.

    A Taste of Spring…

    The thing is, the plants we pull are just as delicious as the ones we allow to grow to maturity. Waste not, want not! So this week, I’m giving all our CSA shareholders a little taste of spring. We’ve included a wide variety of salad greens and cooking greens, as well as a few treats that won’t be mature for a couple more weeks–like the beets (which are good for their greens now, though the beets themselves are still teeny).

    In your box, you’ll find:

    Clockwise from top: Kale (tied with white string), spinach, Chinese pac choi (bok choy), mixed baby lettuces (in plastic bag), baby beets, red romaine lettuce and green arugula bundled together, radishes, green onions, spring garlic, mixed broccoli and cauliflower greens, and swiss chard. Lollo rosa red-tipped lettuce in the center.
    Clockwise from top: Kale (tied with white string), spinach, Chinese pac choi (bok choy), mixed baby lettuces (in plastic bag), baby beets, red romaine lettuce and green arugula bundled together, radishes, green onions, spring garlic, mixed broccoli and cauliflower greens, and swiss chard. Lollo rosa red-tipped lettuce in the center.

    For a closer look:

    • Kale: Last week, a couple of our shareholders reported a new love of kale chips! Check out last week’s blog for the recipe. They’re also excellent in salads or as a cooked green.
    • Spinach: These little guys are starting to bolt, so we won’t have them around for much longer. As the life cycle of most green leafy vegetables plays out, they go from growing leafy greens outward to sprouting an upward central stalk that flowers and eventually bears seed. Once that stalk appears the plant has “bolted” and the leaves usually taste bitter. Bolting usually occurs for early spring greens not long after temperatures climb into the hot, humid summertime range.  Enjoy them while you can–we may have one or two more weeks before true spinach is out for the summer. Keep an eye out for “Malabar spinach” later in the summer for another treat.
    • Pac Choi: The pac choi is also starting to bolt, though it’s not as large as we would have hoped. The wet, cool conditions transitioning suddenly into sunny heat have our pac choi feeling a little confused. Still, it’s particularly succulent when small. Try this Food Network recipe for stir-fried bok choy with our green garlic and ginger to bring out the delicate springtime flavors.
    • Mixed Baby Lettuces: Pinch off the roots, float the leaves in water to rinse, and toss into your favorite salad. These green lettuces have a punch of flavor when mature but are still sweet and fairly delicate this young. One is a “Big Boston” loose-leaf lettuce and the other an heirloom heading variety called “Tom Thumb” that produces tiny heads. We can’t wait to see the mature version!
    • Baby Beets: Beet greens are delicious this time of year, when they’re large but still succulent. Wilt them with other greens in a stir fry or saute. Or chop/cube the baby beets into a stir fry with other veggies and then toss in the greens a few minutes before the stir fry is done.
    • Romaine and Arugula: These classic spring salad greens pack a rich, almost spicy flavor that takes your lunchtime salad to a new level. We think they’re excellent as a bed under grilled chicken, but you’ll find your own favorite signature salad.
    • Green Onions: Usually, we try to leave the protective outer coating on our onions (along with the roots) to help them stay fresher longer. There’s been so much wet weather lately that the usually papery outer shells were actually waterlogged, so I’ve stripped them back to reveal the healthy green onion beneath. Enjoy!
    • Spring Garlic: We’ve added a little bunch of spring garlic to this week’s bounty, but we don’t want to overload you after the big batch last week. Expect at least a little garlic almost every week–it’s an Oak Hill specialty and a staple of a healthy diet. Almost anything tastes better when it’s cooked with garlic and onions!
    • Radishes: Of course you can use these in a salad, but why not change it up? Radish greens fit right in in a potato soup and give a delicate, bright flavor. The wet conditions we’ve had have caused some of them to split–but eat them while they’re fresh, and there’s no effect on flavor or consistency. If you drink alcohol, try this springtime radish martini!
    • Broccoli and Cauliflower Greens: Did you know that broccoli (and cauliflower) greens are edible, delicious, and even more nutritious than the parts we usually see in stores? Probably not… we don’t get the greens in stores often–another benefit of your CSA membership! They can be hard to tell apart, but the broccoli leaves are a little smaller and lighter green, while the cauliflower are a deep green on a broad, rounded leaf. Delicious raw or cooked like collards, they’re a nutritive powerhouse that tastes like broccoli–without the little green bits to stick between your teeth!
    • Swiss Chard: This beautiful green is a heat-tolerant work horse that seems to love West TN conditions. It’s delicious and delicate in this small springtime state, but it’ll grow massive and robust as the weeks pass. Organic growers love it for its weed tolerance and longevity. We’ll keep it coming! While it’s young and fresh, let those simple flavors shine with this easy recipe for chard with balsamic vinegar and garlic.
    • Lollo Rosa Lettuce: This lettuce is a nutritional powerhouse, packed with 100 times the antioxidant power of common green lettuces and rich in folate, iron, and vitamins A and C. It’s slow to bolt, has a rich nutty flavor, and boasts a beautiful color combination that’s excellent for garnishing as well. We think it’s gorgeous in a salad with our red romaine against a background of rich green spinach and light, fresh baby greens.

    In other news…

    We have baby pigs!

    PiggiePileMay2013

    There’s your cute baby picture update of the week from your friendly neighborhood farmers :).

    Time to get to bed… busy day tomorrow. We’re looking forward to a volunteer shift tomorrow morning–thanks to our CSA “Farm Friends” on the workshare program who are coming out to help us battle weeds. I’ll be in town delivering boxes; Ted will be be out here working hard with the volunteers. Sometimes we have to split our forces, but we always get it done in the end!

    As always,

    Peace, Love, and Veggies!

    Ellie Maclin, Oak Hill Farm

  • Spring 2013 CSA: Week 1

    We had a rocky start to the day, but boxes are in are shareholders’ hands and everyone seemed happy with their shares! Every box smelled divine — green garlic and onions mingling with kale, fresh lettuces, and herbs. If you took home a box for your very own, here’s what you got:

    Clockwise from top: Bibb lettuce, spinach, arugula, Lollo Rosa lettuce, garlic, onions, kale
    Clockwise from top: Bibb lettuce, spinach, arugula, Lollo Rosa lettuce, garlic, onions, kale
    • Kale: This variety, Russian Red, has loved our wet weather and is taking off, so expect more in the coming weeks. Saute it in a pan or make one of our all-time favorites — Kale chips! Guilt-free snack food at its finest, and so easy to make!
    • Bibb Lettuce: This loose head lettuce has a buttery consistency and makes a lovely salad.
    • Lollo Rosa Lettuce: This leaf lettuce has a sharper flavor and adds texture — great for holding on to salad dressings.
    • Green Garlic: Young garlic has a delicious mild flavor when you use it in a saute. Use the whole stem in a soup or broth, or use the stiff neck like you would a leek. Green garlic doesn’t last like cured, mature garlic will; try to use it in the next week or so. If it starts to go brown, make your own garlic powder!
    • Spring Onions: Use like a regular onion. Chop them up in sautes and casseroles, or use them in salads. You can also use the stem like a scallion — chop it up and use for garnish or in soups. The bunch in your box contains a mix of red, white, and yellow green onions.
    • Mixed Herbs: Rosemary, oregano, mountain mint, and sage. Use together or separately… Boil green beans in water with sage and mountain mint, use rosemary with potatoes or pork and oregano in any Italian food or salad dressing. If you’re feeling adventurous, put your sprig into moist soil and see if it roots — before you know it, you’ll be growing your own herbs on your window sill!
    • Arugula: This lovely spring green has a bracing bite. Use a little in your salad for a big kick.
    • Spinach: Rich, green spinach has been happier in the wet cool weather than it usually is in the Memphis heat — enjoy! Cook it in a saute pan and serve as a wilted green or use it fresh in a salad… we love it under salmon or tuna with a corn salsa over the top.
    Left to right: oregano, mountain mint, rosemary, and sage.

    Left to right: oregano, mountain mint, rosemary, and sage.

    Once Upon a Time…

    …Not so long ago and very, very close to home, we had a workshare volunteer (Bobbie Ann) help us harvest and wash a ton of fresh greens. We tucked them snugly into bed in the new CSA-only refrigerator for the night, thinking that we had a leg up on the Saturday delivery. Imagine our alarm when, the next day (Saturday) all those greens were stiff and frozen. Lesson learned! Our fairy tale first pickup may have turned out to be a parable, but it still had a happy ending. Our loss is your gain–we bring you vegetables that are fresher than even we expected! Luckily we overplanted by enough that reharvesting shouldn’t cut into future harvests. If you are a geek about such things and wonder just how we schedule planting and harvesting, you might look at these spreadsheets from North Carolina State University that we adapted to develop our own schedule.

    Wash those veggies!

    Remember, even though we don’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, these veggies are fresh from the ground–they may come with some rich soil still attached. We give everything a rinse in clear, cool water before it goes into your boxes, but we recommend that you wash again before you cook or eat. Especially in the wet weather we’ve had, dirt tends to cling. For your eating pleasure, wash them in cool water to avoid grit.

    Don’t be a hater…

    Is there a bug on your greens? Cool. That’s how plants naturally grow in a healthy environment that encourages a total living ecosystem: with some bugs here and there. Any hitchhikers should come off in the wash.

    Let us know how it goes!

    If you have a great recipe to share with the CSA community, you can post it here or on our page on The Facebook.

  • Spring 2013 CSA

    Starting on February 1, we’ll be accepting 20 shareholders for our spring CSA. Once a week for six weeks, you’ll receive a 1/2 bushel box full of fresh produce from the farm. In at least three of those boxes, you’ll also get a surprise free gift from us —  farm-fresh eggs, a hand-crocheted vegetable bag, or a jar of jelly, for example.

    Price and Workshares

    This is our second year, and we are still offering a low rate: $144 for six weeks. That’s $24 per week — less than most other CSAs in the area.

    If that seems too high in these tough economic times, we have another option: you can volunteer for two, 4-hour shifts on the farm (weeding, planting, helping with farm projects, weeding, etc.) and reduce your share price to $105. That’s a $39 discount, and you get to spend time in the fresh air and REALLY see where your food comes from.

    For a bigger commitment, we also have two full workshares (free veggies all season!) available.

    Click through for more information on workshares.

    We are excited about the coming growing season–and hope you are, too!

  • Summer CSA Week 2

    This week’s CSA share doesn’t come with a photo… but head over to Mid South Moma’s blog to see her photos. She’s one of our new shareholders this summer!

    We’re still struggling to get back on track after our weeks without rain, so our boxes aren’t quite as full as we’d like. If the trend continues, we’ll add a seventh week to the summer series to make sure that our customers get their money’s worth.

    Here’s what our shareholders received this week:

    • Tomatoes: We have three tomato varieties this year: Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, and Mortgage Lifters. The ones in your box this week are a mix of Mortgage Lifters and Brandywines. Some of the Mortgage Lifters are ours, some were supplemented by our friends at Oleo Acres. 
    • Hot Peppers: These are a mix of jalapenos (the red ones this week are the mature version of the green jalapenos you saw last week–with more kick, too!) and cayenne peppers. Both can be dried in a food dehydrator, the oven, or the sun and saved for crushed red pepper, or added fresh to a variety of dishes. 
    • Garlic: Our cured garlic should last into the winter months if you hang it in a cool, dry place. Use a clove at a time, or amp things up and create a dish that lets the flavor of our garlic sing for the GARMACY Festival Garlic Cookoff on August 25!
    • Basil: Hands down, our favorite thing to do with a bunch of basil is making pesto. To preserve whole fresh basil leaves without drying, try this recipe for freezing herbs in oil, and enjoy fresh basil all winter long.
    • Figs: Our fig trees seemed to love the spell of dry heat and are producing so. many. figs. They’re wonderful fresh, as a complement to pork, roasted with honey and served over ice cream, or even canned (whole, as preserves, or jellied).
    • Okra: This reliable summer favorite is coming along so prodigiously we literally have to harvest every day. You can almost watch them grow. Roast them, fry them, stick them in a stew… or freeze them. Cut them cross-wise or in long, green bean style strips, lay them out on a cookie sheet, and pop it in the freezer. Once the individual pieces are frozen, they can be consolidated into a freezer bag without resulting in a slimy mess.
    • Eggs: Even the chickens are on strike in the heat… egg production has gone down. We’ve given each of our CSA members six eggs in addition to the vegetable share to supplement our offerings this week.
    • Canned Goods: Your free gift this week is twofold–a jar of fig jelly and a half-size jelly jar of our famous fig preserves. Let us know what you think! We’ll have more for sale as long as the figs hold out!

    Thanks to our shareholders for sticking with us during an unpredictable summer. We have more variety ripening on the vine within the next few weeks if the weather is with us. We’ll get by with a little help from our friends!

  • Spring CSA Week 3: Community in Action

    From top left: kale, garlic, beets, carrots, lettuce (two
    varieties — Black Seeded Simpson and Butter Crunch),
    turnip greens, and pac choi. Enjoy!

    Week 3 has arrived!

    It’s that time again! Scroll down for a list of all the veggies in your box this week and some suggestions on how to use them.

    Hog-sized thanks are in order.

    Thanks to all our shareholders for your flexibility this week in picking up your vegetables on a Tuesday instead of at your normal times. We’re excited about traveling to our friends’ wedding this weekend… but we’re sorry it interfered with the normal veggie pick-up.

    Thanks, too, to our friends Rodney and Terese. They came out to camp on Monday night (complete with campfire and guitar circle) — and then stayed to help us harvest, wash, and pack the veggie boxes on Tuesday. I’m not sure we could have packed all 11 boxes in a single morning without the extra hands! Many hands made for light work, and many laughs made for light-hearted work.

    The Balance of Farm Life

    We even had time for a farm-fresh breakfast on the front porch — eggs from our chickens; bacon from our beloved kneecap-biting former buddy Kevin Bacon; homemade biscuits (with Kevin Bacon’s lard), home-made fig jelly, milk gravy, and a glorious champagne cheese provided by Terese. We know how to balance hard work with reaping the rewards :).

    This Week’s Bounty

    This week we have for your munching pleasure:

    • Kale: These greens are wonderful in a simple saute — start with a clove of our chopped fresh garlic and a little chopped onion sauteing in a splash of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add the kale (cut out any large stems), stir, and allow to cook down. As it starts to wilt, add in a little water (or vegetable stock for more flavor), cover, and turn down to medium heat. Cook to taste; some people like it with a little crunch left, some cook ’til its thoroughly wilted.
    • Garlic: This will probably be our last week of fresh garlic — you may have one more after we harvest, as we allow the heads to hang and cure. You’ll notice that the heads aren’t as clean as in previous weeks. As the garlic gets close to maturity, it’s important to leave all the outer layers attached to help it last as long as possible. In past weeks I’ve stripped that outer skin to create a “prettier” garlic, but at this age it’s time to start leaving the papery shell on the outside.
    • Beets: We hope you all enjoy beets as much as we do; we have a bumper crop this year! We like them best roasted in the oven (without peeling the skins) to bring out the natural sweetness. These aren’t your mama’s vinegary pickled beets :).
    • Carrots: You’ll notice that some of our carrots aren’t as “perfect” as the grocery store variety — but these are normal for a home-grown crop. The wonderfully spiced flavor of fresh carrots was one of the most eye-opening experiences of growing my own food in the first year… it’s still one of my favorite flavors. You can also use the tops as part of a salad (use sparingly as they can be bitter), as an alternative to parsley (they’re in the same family), or to make carrot top tea. The tea is a diuretic and carminative that’s good for gout, kidney and liver support, gas, and bloating.
    • Lettuce: This is the last week of the lettuce season. With the onset of hot weather, lettuce grows tall and leggy (bolts) and turns bitter. You’ll notice that the flavor is stronger this week than it’s been in the past — by next week they’ll be inedible. You have two varieties this week: butter crunch, which just matured, and the black seeded simpson you’ll recognize from previous weeks.
    • Turnip greens: We planted these between two rows of cabbage as an experimental crop. It’s rare to see turnips planted this time of year, but they help hold water in the surrounding soil and may turn out to be a nice companion plant for us. This variety is bred to emphasize greens over actual turnips, so you’ll find plenty of greens but only tiny ‘roots’ instead of big turnips. The experiment was a rousing success for the early season (almost no weeds in that section, and nice wet soil without watering), but they’ve begun to crowd the surrounding cabbage so we’ve now pulled them for your munching pleasure.
    • Pac Choi: Your friendly neighborhood pac choi is back. This is the first year we’ve grown it, and I think it’s my new favorite vegetable. We should have pac choi for at least one more week if all goes well; it’s reported to be heat tolerant and it’s looking big and healthy.

    The CSA so far has been an amazing experience. We thank you for the warm welcome we’ve had in the community — we’re making new friends and learning new things with every box. We thank you, too, for generously sharing your hard-earned money and supporting us in our start-up days. This old farm needs a lot of love, and you’re helping us save a valuable resource for future Maclin generations — and our larger community.

  • CSA Week 1: In the box!

    Clockwise from top left: onions, arugula, garlic, radishes, beets,
    lettuce, pac choi.

    So you’ve waited all spring for the first mystery box of vegetables to arrive–and now it is time! In the box for this week:

     

    • Spring onions: Bigger than green onions but not grown-ups yet. Use like green onions (tops) or like any onion. These are yellow and mild.
    • Baby garlic: This one is a treat! Don’t try to store it for the long term (that garlic is coming later). Intense flavor is great in guacamole, soups, salad dressings, or anywhere you like garlic.
    • Red globe radishes: OK, radishes are a standard spring crop–but other than slicing them in a salad what can you do with them? Try radish top soup or braised radishes for a start.
    • Arugula! We love spring arugula for its peppery taste; of course you can mix it with lettuce for a salad, but it is also great with…
    • Beets: There are more beets to come, and the first of the season are smaller than what will come later. Use the tops like swiss chard. Our favorite way to eat beets is roasted (wrap them in foil, 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, peel after roasting) with goat cheese and arugula (goat cheese not included!)
    • Lettuce: This is black seeded Simpson, a loose leaf lettuce that makes a killer salad. 
    • Pak choi: This mini-choi (also spelled bok choi) is great raw in salads, in stir-fries, or ust lightly sauteed (tablespoon of your favorite oil, teaspoon chopped garlic, add pak choi and sautee just until wilted, add a pinch of salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar.)
    Don’t forget to share your favorite recipes with us and your fellow members on our page on the Facebook. 
    In future weeks, look for more lettuce, beets, and arugula, storage garlic, kale, cucumbers, kohlrabi, and more! We’ll post each week’s box contents here along with some suggestions for cooking and serving.
     
    Two last things: 
    1) Wash! Our produce is grown without herbicides or pesticides and we wash it all before it gets to you, but there is likely residual dirt. Now, some people like a little dirt, but if you don’t want that extra gritty flavor we advise washing everything before eating.
    2) Bugs! One reason to wash again is to eliminate any lingering critters. You may notice holes in the leaves (of the pak choi and beets in particular). See above: no pesticides. That means that the little bugs get to nibble some, too. 
     
    Enjoy the veggies–more to come next week!