Above is a typical share from last week: scallions, herbs, saute mix, lettuce mix, garlic scapes, radishes, turnips, kale, & strawberries. That’s a great collection for mid-May. Here’s what’s expected in the coming week:

PRODUCE

NEW! Head lettuce
Replacing the cut lettuce mix, which is now finished, a variety of head lettuces will be available for the next few weeks. These also make great salads while being easier to use for things like sandwiches.

NEW! Mustard greens
These beautiful plants have a rich, spicy flavor that adds a lot to many dishes. We love it sauteed with garlic (scapes!) and kale, topped with a bit of vinegar. Try it also in soups/stews, Southern beans, and more.

Saute mix
The standard mix of baby greens, available for 1-2 more weeks (we’re starting on the last planting now). We eat near-daily salads of this mixed with lettuce, as well as sauteing it, adding it to egg dishes, pasta, and much more.

Kale
Similar bundles to previous weeks, cooks similar to mustard greens and mixes very well with them.

Scallions
A standard for weeks to come, a tasty addition to almost any raw or cooked dish.

Garlic scapes
Depending on how strong these come on, there could be a lot available this week. Try preserving some as garlic scape pesto, a delight to thaw later in the year and spread on fresh pizza, pasta, and so much more.

Radishes
Available for at most two more weeks, as we’re starting to harvest the last bed. We go through lots of these a week, chopped onto our daily salads and mixed in with most of our sauteed greens dishes. When they’re finally gone, many new things should be ready to take their place (like beets and peas).

Turnips (skipping a week)
These won’t be available in this share, as we planted two small test beds in succession and the next round isn’t ready yet. Probably the following week, bridging the gap between radishes and beets.

Strawberries
Probably the last week for these, as yields are starting to drop again and Eric’s back is rebelling against the schedule of picking for two hours every 36 hours. They’ve done great this year and we hope everyone has enjoyed and appreciated this treat. The quantity this week may depend on our ability to outsmart one or more mammalian pests (probably a possum, but maybe also a coon) that have gotten past our electric fence in the lower set of strawberry beds. The battery in the solar charger that keeps the zap on the fence seems to have failed, and in spite of running out to swap out chargers just after dinner last night at 10 p.m., the critter seems to have made it into the fence, and there don’t appear to be many ripe berries in the patch at the moment. Thankfully, we have two strawberry patches, and the other fence (which runs off of electric from the house) has been effective so far.

HERBS
There are a few new herbs, but all in limited quantities, so each household will receive no more than one bundle of the new offerings. There’s lots of cilantro this week, and I think I need to harvest it heavily this week to catch it before it bolts.

NEW: Dill (leaf): Delicious on salads.
NEW: Anise hyssop: Very limited quantities. I (Joanna) planted this last year, and it overwintered nicely. The leaves have a lovely anise/licorice flavor that I like to nibble on in the herb garden, but regrettably I haven’t yet gotten around to using it in the kitchen. A google recipes search will turn up some ideas. Looks like both leaves and flowers can be used; the plants that I’ll be harvesting are not yet flowering. I’d love to hear how members make use of it, and feedback on whether I should add more plants would be welcome.
NEW: Flat leaf parsley: Just a little available right now, but there should be plenty more coming.
Cilantro: This needs to be harvested heavily while it is still good. Cilantro almond pesto is a great way to enjoy a large quantity; we like the version in the Moosewood Celebrates cookbook, but other versions are available online.
Oregano
Sage: Bundles include some flower stalks as well as leafier stems.
Tarragon
Orange mint
Kentucky colonel mint: Insect damage tends to become more problematic this time of year; it is still tasty, but maybe not quite as pretty.
Garlic chives
Chives
Lemon balm
Back later in the year: Thyme needs some time off. It is flowering really heavily now, and it has been taking more and more effort to find nice leafy parts for bundles. We’ll leave it to the bees and butterflies for now, and start harvesting it again after a break.

EGGS (sold separately)
Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed (usually just a couple of days). There will be 4-5 dozen available on each distribution day.

FRESH GOAT’S MILK (sold separately)
Milk is $6/ half-gallon, no more than 2 days old. Easy uses (beyond cheese & yogurt) include ice cream, egg nog, cream sauces, chowders, caramels, baking, and more.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM

Irrigation has been the theme this week, as we haven’t recorded rain since May 6 and this long stretch of clear weather with low humidity has been rapidly drying out the soil. These are the conditions that make southern California so amenable to vegetable production, except there farmers get heavily subsidized irrigation water drawn from distant mountains and rivers to make it possible to grow plants under otherwise near-desert conditions. Midwestern growers don’t get such handouts, one reason local produce in many areas appears higher-priced than the artificially cheap stuff at the grocery store.

Above left, you see an irrigation header line running from one of our all-weather hydrants. These feed a network of drip lines like those seen above right, watering young beets. The lines emit small but regular amounts of water along their length, allowing the water to soak into the ground instead of evaporating the way a sprinkler system would. It’s a very efficient way to get water to the roots zones of vegetables, which in general need the equivalent of 1″ of rain per week for maximum performance. Although irrigation is somewhat annoying to manage, it also has the benefit of not encouraging mass weed growth the way natural rain does. That being said, we’d be really happy with a good soaking rain this weekend to recharge soil moisture throughout the farm, including our pastures.

Other regular work has included weeding and thinning young plants, such as the beets Eric is working on above left. We continue to transplant swaths of summer items like the young cucumbers set out under the row cover fabric above right. The cattle-panel hoops are our favorite method of trellising cucumber vines.

Pest activity has started to pick up. Adult cabbage white butterflies have been flying around the field, and sure enough their caterpillars are hatching out on the cabbages. We’re willing to live with some holes in the cabbage to avoid spraying (even pretty benign & organic-approved things like Bt), but the population is big enough that we’re going to have to continue to hand pick some of these. Squash bugs and cucumber beetles managed to both get under the row cover of the young summer squash planting, so those are getting hand-picked as well. (The cucumber row cover is brand new with no holes and well secured to hopefully avoid such problems, now that we know the populations are heavy). And, of course, there are the mammalian pests in the strawberries. It’s that time of year…

COMING SOON
Late spring items like peas, beets, carrots, cabbage, and more are growing well. We’re starting to see the first significant populations of insect pests develop, and that will be a major factor in how the next month (and the rest of the season) unfolds after an excellent spring.

CHEESE/MILK EVENT
On Saturday May 12 we’ll be hosting CSA members interested in learning more about home cheese-making and other uses of fresh milk. We’ll be sampling and/or demonstrating various stages of products potentially including ricotta, chevre, mozzarella, feta, aged cheddar/gouda, fresh yogurt, cajeta (Mexican goat’s milk caramel), and so on, all of which we make in our home kitchen and so know that others can, too. We’re not  experts (that would be Goatsbeard Farm), though our aged cheddar did win a blind taste test two years ago and has continued to improve with practice. We’ve just learned enough in four years of home dairy management to make pretty good cheeses and be able to pass along some practical knowledge and experience (including our failures). Should be a fun time; those who can’t make it should consider signing up for one of the CSA member dinners every fourth Sunday, as we’ll likely also feature various cheeses at these. Just a reminder, we can’t legally sell any of these products (just raw milk) without overly expensive infrastructure, so learning to make them yourself is the next best step.

PRODUCE

NEW! Hakurei spring turnips
These delicious morsels grow like radishes and have a really nice flavor. They’re decent raw and quite good cooked. Joanna is generally not a big fan of turnips but approves of these. Try them roasted or sauteed; the greens are good for cooking as well. Above right, a wonderful preparation using lots of CSA produce (on-farm ingredients in italics): turnips sauteed with green onions, garlic scape pesto, saute mix, kale, & turnip greens, with a bit of balsamic vinegar and salt.

NEW! Garlic scapes
Arriving a couple of weeks before expected, these are the latest sign of the early spring. Scapes are the tender young flower stem of a hardneck garlic plant, which shoot up about a month before the heads are ready. They must be removed for maximum head size (read more here), and fortunately are wonderfully tasty and versatile in their own right. Scapes can be chopped and used like fresh garlic in any recipe. Our favorite way to use them, and preserve them, is to make scape pesto, an easy recipe that can be frozen for use throughout the year (Red & Moe restaurant purchased large quantities of scapes from us last year and used scape pesto as their base garlic flavoring on pizza well into the summer). Small quantities available this week, with many more coming in future weeks, likely in preservation quantities.

[updated 5/11] NEW! Scallions
Similar to last week’s green onions from a culinary perspective (though a bit thinner), but a big difference from a growing perspective. Last week’s share included the end of the overwintered green onions, while this week’s scallions were started from seed and transplanted this spring.

Strawberries
We think larger quantities of Sparkle will be available this week as all the beds hit their production stride. We’re now harvesting ~12-18 lb every 36 hours, somewhat dependent on the particular weather leading up to harvest. At the high end, that would translate to up to 2 quarts per full share (1 quart for half share) if there aren’t too many seconds. We harvest the day before distribution for CSA (so the berries have sufficient time to chill before going out for delivery); all other harvests of the week are preserved as the core of our year-round fruit supply (along with local apples & peaches). Oh, and we eat plenty fresh, too, as do our workers.

Lettuce mix/heads
Saute mix
Radishes
Kale

HERBS
This week full shares will get 4 bundles and partial shares 2. One new addition (cilantro), and a few to look forward to sometime in the next few weeks: parsley, dill, lavender, & maybe a little anise hyssop.

NEW! Cilantro: First small quantities available. Cilantro is an odd herb in that most Americans associate it with summer produce like salsa tomatoes, yet it actually doesn’t like heat and grows best in spring and fall. Enjoy it while it’s available; we like it in all sorts of Asian dishes as well as traditional Mexican cooking.
Thyme
Oregano
Sage
Tarragon
Orange mint
Spearmint
Garlic chives
Chives
Lemon balm

EGGS (sold separately)
Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed (usually just a couple of days). There will be 4-5 dozen available on each distribution day.

FRESH GOAT’S MILK (sold separately)
Milk is $6/ half-gallon, no more than 2 days old. Easy uses (beyond cheese & yogurt) include ice cream, egg nog, cream sauces, chowders, caramels, baking, and more.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM

We don’t usually say this, but the weather is being really cooperative and crops are generally looking really good right now. Sure, there are plenty of weeds and a long to-do list, but vegetables are growing beautifully with limited pest pressure so far. It’s been transplant mania this week, as we set out all sorts of summer items, including these rows of young pepper plants. Harvest work is really kicking in as well, trying to keep up with strawberries and everything else. The first zucchini planting is already setting buds, too, though pests have already found their way to some of the plants even under the protective row cover (which can be seen in the background of the above photo). Coming soon, likely for distribution #8, the first peas and mustard greens among other things:

ON-FARM FOOD
More ways we’ve been using CSA produce (on-farm ingredients in italics)

Above left German noodles (from World Harvest), with dried tomatoes & peppers, sauteed mixed greens, chives, home-cured pancetta, fresh goat chevre, garlic scape pesto.

Above right Salad: The Meal: large plate of head lettuce, lettuce mix, saute mix, radishes, chives, garlic chives, fresh goat cheese, home-cured ham, dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, herbs, garlic.

Not photographed:  Polenta (fresh-ground dried corn), cream sauce of goat’s milk, goat cheese, dried peppers & tomatoes, herbs.

Our radishes are going crazy, maturing quickly and in some cases splitting because they’re growing too fast. We can sell some in bulk to restaurants like Sycamore, but they’re still overwhelming us. Radishes are a great example of love-em/hate-em reactions to produce; no standard CSA share can accommodate the wide range of consumer opinions on radishes. So we used our weekly survey not only to ask whether people wanted standard, extra, or no radishes, but also offered some amount of roots-only seconds that were split, misshapen, or otherwise just plain abundant. These are perfectly fresh and edible, but not always of the visual quality that we’d use for a standard share.

Above are two full shares from Distribution #6 in early May (herbs & strawberries not shown). They both have roughly equal amounts of lettuce mix, saute mix, kale, and green onions. What’s wildly different is the radishes.

The left-hand share asked not only for extras within the standard share, and so got two bundles instead of one, but chose the all-you-can-give-us option for extra seconds radishes, so got another 2 lb bag of radish roots. These folks love radishes (maybe they’re preserving some), and now are hopefully much happier to have this abundance than just the standard share’s one bundle. If they don’t quite use them all, we’re no worse off.

The right-hand share didn’t want any radishes, but does love radish greens. So they asked if we could, instead, include a couple pounds of radish greens in lieu of roots. Easy for us, as most radish greens just get sent to the chickens otherwise and it didn’t create extra work or unfair preference to bag up that “waste” product. So that share has two bulging bags of radish greens they wanted instead of a bundle of radishes they didn’t.

In effect these two shares balance each other out nicely, and that’s core to the idea. We’re not giving away extras for free and diluting the value of the share; we’re using the system to balance varying demand and preferences among customers, such that one person’s dislike is another’s gain. If anyone doesn’t want lettuce one week, those greens go into the bag of someone else who wants extra. Those who are willing to take extras get the best value for their money by saving us the work of marketing them elsewhere, while those who opt out of something reduce food waste and increase their enjoyment of the produce they do get, accepting that they’re trading a bit of product value for satisfaction value. Some weeks we don’t give extras even if requested, because they aren’t available.

Note that we generally don’t allow full substitutions; you can’t just ask for more lettuce instead of saute mix unless we have extra anyway for some reason. Full customization is too much work and undercuts one of the base concepts of CSA, members taking what the farm has to offer at any given time. This is why we call it limited customization; members are still generally expected to take what’s on hand and shouldn’t assume they can replace something they don’t like with something they do. But we really like how the current system offers better customer service and more efficient produce use while not adding much to our workload (and saving the significant time & cost of marketing extras elsewhere). This also makes us more flexible with members’ travel/vacation plans: any given week they just fill out a negative survey and their product goes to someone else’s extras; hopefully it’ll work in return a different week.

Finally, taking extras when available buffers against any crop failures later on. Although we’ve had an overall great start to the growing season, the reality of farming is something’s going to go wrong sooner or later due to pests, weather, you name it. And when that happens, the members who have been able/willing to take advantage of abundance will be best buffered against the inevitability of shortages. Another core concept of CSA is that members are investing in the farm for better or worse, but we like how this system gives them a better chance at getting their money’s worth.

So far we’ve heard positive comments and a few useful suggestions for tweaking the system. Other than a few quirks early on with iPhones, the system seems to be convenient and practical for members. We hope this unusual but so-far-effective approach to CSA continues to serve everyone well.

NOTE: LimeSurvey (the open-source software that makes this possible) is currently running their 2012 fundraiser. If CSA members or other readers like the service we’re able to provide through LimeSurvey, please consider making a donation to support the good work they do and thus allow us to do.

Direct Seeding
–Filet beans,1st planting: done 5/3
–Cilantro & dill (Greensleeves dill, for leaf), succession plantings
–Dill planting for heads (Bouquet dill, separate from leaf dill to avoid cross-pollination so can save seeds from both)
–Sweet corn (when soil temperature is near 70ºF): a VERY space-inefficient crop for our style of growing but we are hoping to have just a little bit for CSA members if all goes well
–Okra (when soil temperature is at least 70ºF); okay to wait until late May
–Misc. crops for chickens: use up old seed & plant crops that chickens can self-harvest come fall: sorghum, sunflowers, etc.

Starting Transplants
–Cucumbers (usually direct seed, but want the plants to get more of a head start before being exposed to insects)
–Amaranth (trial)
–Mercuri winter-keeper tomato (the last tomatoes to be seeded for the year so they’ll bear near frost)
–Misc. minor herbs & flowers

Transplant
–Tomatoes, 1st planting: done, put out on 5/1 & 5/2, hopefully to no regret given the threat of severe weather this weekend
–Peppers
–Lettuce, last for the spring: done
–Scallions, succession plantings
–Herbs
–Sweet potato slips: These like heat, so I usually aim for late May transplanting at the earliest, but some are ready ahead of schedule. So I may put a few in early.
–Sorrel: needs to move out of the beds where it overwintered & into a more permanent, newly established sorrel bed; this is pre-requisite to corn planting
–Put excess tomato & other transplants in chicken area; if they bear then they can become chicken/pig food. At worst, potting mix adds organic matter to soil that needs it.

Compost
–Turn the winter goat barn pile; so far turned on 4/29, 5/1, & 5/3; turns planned for 5/6 & 5/9.

Maintenance
–Weed. Sometimes I wonder why I even write this on the to-do list because weeding is an ever-present task from now through at least November. The challenge is prioritizing and making sure effort is put where it is most needed: intercepting weeds before they go to seed, getting to small ones while they’re still easily hoe-able (which is much faster than hand-weeding), preventing weeds from getting big enough to meaningfully compete with plants, targeting specific species that have been problem-weeds regardless of where they are, and so forth. The list is ever changing; as every moment passes that we’re weeding in one location, the weeds are growing everywhere else.
–Weed-whack aisles
–Infrastructure: Set up tomato trellises (done), cucumber trellis, & t-posts to support pepper plants
–Mulch lettuce & other cool-weather crops as needed, esp. if weather hot/dry
–Monitor cabbage plants for cabbage worms & squish as needed
–String peas
–Tip blackberry canes
–Sharpen tools

Watering
Each time we get a good rain, it resets the clock on the watering tasks. But hot, windy, dry conditions can mean having to pay attention again relatively quickly. We have drip irrigation set up in all of the vegetable areas, but the orchard irrigation system still needs work. And young seedlings/transplants sometimes still need hose watering because their small root systems aren’t reached effectively by drip line.
–Daily (sometimes 2x daily): Monitor & water as needed any plants under grow lights & in greenhouse.
–Starting a couple days after rain: Monitor soil moisture for direct-seeded crops that are in the germination phase & water as needed (usually with hose). (Parsnips need extended attention & watering because they take so darn long to germinate.)
–Starting about a week after meaningful rain: Monitor soil moisture for most other crops, both annuals and fruit; water established crops with drip irrigation. Use a hose or soaker hose anywhere else.
–One to two weeks after meaningful rain: Monitor log moisture content of shiitake logs; irrigate if needed.

Harvest
Scheduling harvest into the workload becomes a daily concern at this time of year, with the arrival of strawberry picking.
–Harvest as needed: Greens, radishes, alliums, herbs
–Harvest every 24-36 hours: Strawberries

PRODUCE

NEW! Strawberries
Local organic strawberries are a real treat around here; we’re very proud of these. A few important notes: this variety, Sparkle, is very different from standard commercial strawberries. It has exceptional flavor, but as the tradeoff, poor storage qualities. Refrigeration should keep them in good condition for a day or two, but why find out how long they take to go bad? We think these should be eaten fresh, immediately, and not stored for later. There’s no need to do fancy things with these; just savor them one by one. To paraphrase Monty Python, these are berries for lying down and enjoying.

For the same reasons, we will not have washed/rinsed these in any way; they’ll be picked ripe directly into the delivery container and never touched again. This minimizes their handling and the chances for damage/bruising, but means they’ll have dirt on them. Wash them before eating, but only JUST before eating, as washing will also shorten their shelf life if they’re then stored. Also, there may be a few nibbles from various creatures; we’ll do our best to inspect as we pick, but if you find a few, that’s part of farming.

Full shares will probably get a pint this week (maybe closer to a quart if the yield is excellent), partial shares ~1/2 of what the full shares are getting. This is the earliest we’ve ever had strawberries (by at least 2 weeks), and the plants have plenty more.

NEW! Kale
While not as exciting as strawberries, kale will continue to diversify your options for cooking greens. Saute it with garlic, use it in soups, bake it as chips…there are tons of ways to enjoy kale.

Green onions
The last harvest of the overwintered ones, though our beds of spring-planted scallions are growing fast. Use in any cooking or salads.

Lettuce mix/heads
You’ll likely be getting lettuce mix for another week, though if the earliest lettuce heads mature quickly, Thursday may get some. We never get tired of salad.

Saute mix
Great mix of flavorful greens; try them in soups, salads, or cooked. We find a half-and-half mix with lettuce works especially well.

Radishes
Standard mix of colors and flavors, with all sorts of uses. Given how well they’re producing, we may offer the potential for a large quantity (multiple pounds) to anyone interested in pickling, preserving, or otherwise taking advantage of the bounty. Try this interesting recipe for roasted radishes our employee Kim tried and loved.

HERBS
A member sent us a good question about how we determine what herbs actually show up in your bags, and how that relates to the survey requests you make, so a quick clarification. No herb is guaranteed, because juggling all members’ preferences among ~10 herbs is a complicated process and we won’t always have enough to fill all orders. The survey text includes something like “this week full shares will get 5 bundles and partials 3″. The amount listed in a given week is the baseline of what we think we (or rather the herb plants) can handle. You’re welcome to request more than that, in fact we encourage it to help us be more flexible. Your rankings of desire will help us prioritize what to give you. So far we’ve been able to fill all top-ranked requests.

This week’s possibilities looks pretty familiar (though cilantro is probably only a week or two away from adding some diversity):

Thyme
Oregano
Sage
Tarragon
Kentucky Colonel mint
Orange mint
Garlic chives
Chives
Lemon balm

EGGS (sold separately)
Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed (usually just a couple of days). There will be 4-5 dozen available on each distribution day.

FRESH GOAT’S MILK (sold separately)
Milk is $6/ half-gallon, no more than 2 days old. We had a question or two about how long the milk would store. We suggest using it within a week of the milking date (listed on the jar label). We’ve had people tell us that it has lasted longer than a week, but we don’t let it go beyond a week ourselves just to be on the safe side. Depending on what it’s used for, the resulting product can sometimes last quite a bit longer from the time it is made, just depends on what it is. We usually use ricotta within a week of making it (though freezing it is works well for longer storage), yogurt can last a week or two (though its flavor may get stronger/more sour if it sits too long), feta can age nicely for quite a while especially if brined, cheddar needs to age for a couple months at least, and so forth.

ON-FARM COOKING
We used to take & post more photos of our own farm-sourced meals, but have been neglecting that lately. Oddly, we preserved so much food last year that we’ve been working hard to draw down our winter stocks, and have had to make a conscious effort at times to eat enough fresh produce to offer suggestions and quality assessments for CSA members. But here’s a quick photo essay of some meals we’ve made based on spring CSA produce, and recipes submitted by members. Farm-sourced ingredients listed in italics.

Above left, egg-drop soup: chicken broth, spinach, eggs, chives, radishes (which add a nice water-chestnut-like texture). Above right, deluxe salad: lettuce mix, saute mix, radishes, fresh goat feta, boiled egg, garlic chives.

Above left, pasta: homemade egg pasta, with cream (milk) sauce & herbs. Above right, pasta: organic penne, asparagus, goat feta, herbs, sausage (fresh-ground pork, sage, garlic, ginger), goat’s milk.Above left, goat koftas over rice with lemon balm pesto, following recipes submitted by members. Koftas: fresh-ground goat, garlic, cilantro, fresh-ground paprika pepper, spices. Pesto: lemon balm, spinach, garlic, Missouri pecans, olive oil, served over organic rice. Above right, rice with greens & sausage: Organic rice sauteed with saute mix, radishes, herbs, sausage (fresh-ground pork, sage, garlic, ginger). This could easily be made vegetarian with mushrooms and/or other vegetables.

Above left, homemade flatbread with saute mix, pepper chicken (shredded chicken simmered in sauce of mixed dried peppers, onions, garlic, local honey), topped with fresh goat cheese. Above right, souffle: eggs, milk, fresh ricotta & feta, dried tomatoes.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM
Summer transplants are finally going out in numbers, such as these very healthy 5-week-old tomato plants. We’re testing various trellising methods this year, including cattle panels (above left) and homemade cages (above right).

Compost has been a major job lately; once we move the goats permanently onto pasture, it’s time to clean out the barn’s winter stockpile of nutritional goodness. If all goes well, this massive pile will be turned five times in fifteen days, keeping the temperature above 131ºF; we just finished turn #3 on Thursday afternoon. We’ll be writing more on this topic soon.

Bonus points to anyone who can identify those yellow flowers (hint: they’re agricultural).

BIRD LIST
We’re changing the format of our bird listings this month; it’s too hard to generate & maintain the separate columns for new and recurring species. So this time we’re integrating the two, using red text to indicated a new species for the month. This is easier for us, and we hope still helps show the pattern of bird arrivals. Feedback welcome.

Late April was a fantastic birding time with lots of new species arriving. On 4/21 we recorded 37 total species. On 4/28, from 8-10am alone, we recorded 37 species, with a total of 46 for the day (including the fledgling owl shown above). Unfortunately no CSA members were able to join us for this last-minute birding walk, which had perfect conditions and lots of activity. We’ll hold another walk this coming Saturday, 8-10am, for interested members.

RECORDED IN APRIL (63 species, 28 new)
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Turkey Vulture
Red-Shouldered Hawk
Red-Tailed Hawk
Broad-Winged Hawk (one pair returning to the same patch of woods nested in last year)
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Barred Owl
Whip-poor-will
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great-Crested Flycatcher
White-Eyed Vireo
Red-Eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Black-Capped Chickadee
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Wood Thrush
Swainson’s Thrush
Grey Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Parula
Blue-Winged Warbler
Chestnut-Sided Warbler (unconfirmed, heard only)
Golden-Winged Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Prairie Warbler (unconfirmed)
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Yellow-Throated Warbler (unconfirmed, heard only)
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Brown Cowbird
American Goldfinch
Red-winged Blackbird

MISSING/UNOBSERVED SINCE MARCH (5 species)
Wild Turkey (traces observed, but bird not seen/heard)
Hairy Woodpecker (rare on the farm)
Snow Goose (gone for good to the north)
American Woodcock (almost certainly around, just not recorded)
Dark-Eyed Junco (gone for good to the north)

We’ve used this $40 yogurt-maker (above right) for years with great success. It’s basically a 2-quart plastic container that fits in a styrofoam thermos; only slight downsides are that the container is plastic with unknown BPA content, and the styrofoam itself is nearly impossible to clean if it gets dirty. We still find it very effective, though. We’ve had farm workers who made smaller batches of yogurt in a coffee thermos. Some food dehydrators such as the Excalibur can also be used for yogurt making; all you really need is a clean, sealed way to hold the cultured milk at around 110ºF for 6-8 hours. The preparation takes a bit of time, maybe 30-45 minutes, though not much actual work (mostly monitoring and stirring occasionally). I find I can easily integrate it into other household work like washing dishes, cooking, folding laundry, etc, setting a timer to go off every 5-10 minutes to remind me to check it if I’ll be distractingly busy.

You’ll need a starter culture of some kind; several area groceries sell one-time-use yogurt cultures in little packets. You can also order reusable cultures that effectively act like sourdough starters; once you’ve made one batch, you can use 1/4 cup of the yogurt to culture the next round if you don’t wait too long. This is what we do most of the time; we order several packets at once and store the rest in the freezer for when (not if) we wait too long between batches. You may or may not have success trying to reculture fresh yogurt from store-bought versions with live cultures. We’ve read that the cultures from store-bought yogurt tend to be too weak to get a good batch going at home, but we’ve seen references to success with that method as well. We haven’t tried.

Materials needed (for 1/2 gallon batch)

• 2 quarts whole milk
• yogurt culture (either purchased packet or 1/4 cup previous batch)
• double-boiler (a large mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water works very well for us; we find that it helps if the bowl doesn’t have a rim so the thermometer can clip to it easily)
• spoon
• reliable, calibrated thermometer
• yogurt-maker/thermos of some kind

Directions (also usually available on starter packet)
1) Heat the milk to 180ºF in the double-boiler (above left). (Put an inch or two of water in the bottom of the pan & bring it to a boil; the bowl should be above, not in, the boiling water.) This also happens to pasteurize it if you’re using raw milk. The double boiler keeps the milk from scorching.
2) Chill the milk down to 110-116ºF by placing the bowl in a tray of cold water (above center; a filled sink works too).
3) While the milk is chilling, thoroughly clean the yogurt maker, setting aside the quarter cup needed to add to the  new batch. The boiling water from the bottom of the double boiler can be put to good in the cleaning step.
4) Add the starter to the milk and mix quickly but thoroughly (so as not to lose too much heat). Pour the results into the yogurt maker & close the lid.
5) Place the container in the warm incubation environment (thermos, food dehydrator). Allow to sit undisturbed for 6-8 hours, then taste for texture and flavor. If it’s still really runny, put the lid back on and lit it sit a bit longer. When you decide it’s done, put it in the refrigerator. Often we’ll make this at the end of the evening, while washing up after dinner, then let it sit overnight 10 hours or so to no harm, though the flavor will get stronger the longer it sits.

Troubleshooting: Occasionally something will go wrong and a batch will turn out runnier than desired. One question to ask is whether the starter culture was strong enough in the first place. The starting temperature for incubation is also important. Adding the culture when the milk is too hot may weaken the culture. Too cool a temperature may not be conducive to the growth of the culture, either. Adding the saved starter yogurt from the refrigerator or the freeze-dried culture directly out of the freezer may reduce the temperature of the milk that it has been added to. Various sources give different temperatures in their instructions, and I think some assume a certain amount of temperature drop when the starter is added. Sometimes, for example, it is tempting to throw a leftover half cup of starter yogurt in rather than just a quarter cup; if it is straight out of the refrigerator, that may cause the milk temperature to drop more than desired. The ideal incubation temperature seems to be in the 108-112ºF range. If the temperature drops too low, it can be gently reheated to the desired range before beginning incubation, but be sure not to overshoot.

The texture of home-made yogurt tends to be runnier than store-bought, particularly if made with goat’s milk. We’ve read that you can buy milk powders to add if you really want it thicker; we’ve never tried it because we’re quite happy with the thinner kind. Seasonality makes a difference, too, at least with our milk: spring milk tends to make thicker yogurt than fall milk. It will still set up, but may not hold its shape in a spoon like store yogurt. The taste is often stronger, too, and make take an adjustment in taste buds if you’re used to the blander commercial varieties.

Using homemade yogurt
We like to eat fresh yogurt with our own preserved fruits and/or jams, sometimes with honey added. This makes a sweet fruit yogurt like the store kind, but with no additives and more locally sourced. It’s the standard base for much of our leavened baking, such as coffee cakes, scones, and cornbread. Having lots of yogurt around means not having to buy buttermilk, something that always used to annoy me because I didn’t like buttermilk other than for baking. Now we can bake whenever we want.

Yogurt “cheese”
If you prefer thicker yogurt, one option is to make yogurt “cheese” simply by draining some whey. Hang the yogurt in fine cheesecloth or butter muslin over a bowl to catch the whey. Let hang at room temperature for a number of hours…exactly how long depends on whose recipe you look at and how thick you want your yogurt, but a full day isn’t too long. The resulting thick yogurt is especially delicious. We also use whey from this process to jump start vegetable fermentation (such as for kraut making); this pasteurized whey from a cultured product seems to work quite well in that context.

This recipe takes roughly an hour start-to-finish for a gallon of milk, but much of that time requires very little attention (just an occasional stir as the milk heats). Halving or quartering the recipe will speed things up a bit, because less milk will come up to temperature faster. This recipe is based on the one in Ricki Carroll’s Home Cheese Making book (which is available at the local library).

Ingredients
1 gallon goat milk
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Optional: 3 Tbl butter (melted)
Optional: herbs/garlic

Materials needed
1-gallon pot
Spoon
Reliable, calibrated thermometer
Colander & a large bowl or pan
Cheesecloth

1) Heat milk to 195ºF in a pan on direct heat (below left), stirring now and then; use medium-low to medium heat (on our GE stove, I use a setting of 4 on a scale of 10). I like to set a timer to remind me to stir on occasion. At first, I’ll stir about once every 8-10 minutes, but reduce the intervals between checking/stirring as the milk approaches 195ºF

.2) When the milk is nearing 195ºF, there are a few other things to prepare:

• Find a piece of cheesecloth that will fit the colander. Sterilize the cheesecloth by putting it in a saucepan, covering with water, bringing to a full boil, and letting it sit for a few minutes. (If rinsed after use, sent through the laundry, and sterilized in this way before use, a piece of cheesecloth can be used multiple times.)
• Put the colander over a large bowl or a pan (to collect the whey) and line the colander with the cheesecloth.
• If you want to use the optional butter &/or herbs, prepare these ingredients. The Ricki Carroll recipe calls for butter, which isn’t really necessary if making plain ricotta, but it does act as an excellent vehicle for herbs. Minced garlic & sage are my favorite additions. I usually start melting the butter about the time the milk reaches 195º. When the butter has melted, add the garlic &/or herbs, let simmer for a few moments, then remove from the heat until needed.

3) When the milk reaches 195ºF, turn the heat off, drizzle the vinegar into the milk, and stir gently & briefly until just mixed, then let sit. (I prefer to keep stirring to a minimum from this point on, because stirring will break up the curds, and I like nice, large clumps.) Curds should begin to separate out within a couple of minutes (above right). You want the whey to be fairly clear; it will be a bit yellow in color, but if it is really cloudy/milky, that means the curdling isn’t done. We find that spring milk typically curdles more completely & easily than fall milk, but a bit of extra heat and/or a bit of extra vinegar are often necessary to nudge the curdling to completion. Try not to overdo either, though, as too much vinegar can flavor the cheese, and too much heat can give it a cooked flavor. If the whey is still fairly cloudy/milky in appearance, heat to 200-205ºF. If needed, add a splash of extra vinegar. Be patient as well, it can take a few minutes for the curdling to finish.

4) Spoon and/or pour the curds into the colander. Gather up the cheesecloth and hang/let drip for about a minute. (This time can be adjusted depending on your preference for moister or drier cheese.) Transfer to a bowl (or storage container) and mix in the baking soda and salt to taste, as well as the butter/herb mixture, if using.

Using ricotta
Ricotta can be used with just about anything. We use ricotta in calzones, on pizza, with any kind of pasta sauce, in egg dishes (scrambled, frittata, quiche, souffle), in enchiladas, on sandwiches, with rice dishes, on soups, and more. It’s also good as a simple desert with a bit of honey drizzled on it along with some raisins and/or toasted nuts. Ricotta cheesecake is also delightful, though a bit more effort.

Freezing ricotta
If you make more than you can eat, we’ve found that this ricotta freezes very well. Simply pack it into small containers, label a date, and enjoy months later (this is true of chevre as well). By fall we start freezing more and more fresh cheese before we stop milking, to help get us through the winter. It’s a good trick for CSA members to try as well, if you’re unsure about using a whole batch at once.

BIRDING WALK SATURDAY 4/28
Given how active the migrating warblers and other birds have been, we’re intending to take a couple hours off and go birding on the farm Saturday morning. Our mix of forest edge and pasture (above left) offers a wide variety of habitats for warblers and more, and we’ve been observing nesting behaviors in species like Blue Jays and Bluebirds (above right). CSA members are welcome to join us from 8-10am, a great way to see the place and learn more about our natural ecosystems. We can almost guarantee a lesson in Broad-winged Hawk behavior, as last year’s nesting pair seems to have returned and have been quite visible lately. Please let us know by 7am Saturday morning if you want to come (email or phone), so we know how many to expect, and please arrive around 8 as we’ll be away from the roads after that and won’t be able to greet and guide latecomers.

PRODUCE

Garlic scallions
One more appearance for these; we expect to start seeing garlic scapes around mid-May.

Radishes
These are going strong with great flavor. Try roasting, braising, or pickling them, though we can eat many salads with radishes sliced on top.

Lettuce mix
Similar to last week’s mix. Quick reminder to always wash salad greens: a stink bug made it through our kitching rinsing and onto Joanna’s salad plate, and more distressingly, into her mouth. We sincerely hope that hasn’t happened to any of you. The amount this week will be slightly smaller, balanced by the next item:

Saute mix
One of our most popular items at market over the last few years, a mix of flavorful baby greens such as tat soi, arugula, mustard, beet greens, and more. These can be used raw, mixed with lettuce or alone as a rich-flavored salad, especially for those who like salads on the spicy side. They can also be cooked, especially sauteed with garlic and other flavors as a topping for pasta, a side dish, and so much more.

HERBS
Thyme
Oregano
Sage
Tarragon
Kentucky Colonel mint
Orange mint
Garlic chives
Chives
Catnip – this has a few aphids on it, but we’re assuming cats don’t care. Tell us if you’re taking it for tea.
Lemon balm

EGGS (SOLD SEPARATELY)
From pastured hens fed certified organic feed mix, fresh weed trimmings from fields, cooked on-farm meat & fat scraps, kitchen wastes, and other on-farm supplements. Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed (usually just a couple of days). Yolks are bright yellow-orange; these birds are great foragers. There will be 4-5 dozen available on each distribution day.

FRESH GOAT’S MILK (SOLD SEPARATELY)
Milked every morning from goats now living day & night on pasture (until late fall), and fed light supplements of hay and organic grain. Milk is $6/ half-gallon, no more than 2 days old, great for all sorts of home cooking. Those interested will need to sign our raw milk agreement (which we can email to you) and then have it returned in your cooler in exchange for a milk delivery. There will be 3-4 half-gallon jars available on each distribution day.

COMING SOON
By next week and beyond, we expect a lot more diversity to start appearing in the shares. We ate the first ripe strawberry on Thursday, and expect those to be yielding well enough by distribution a week from now to get some to members (these will be a real treat). Leaf lettuce heads, spring turnips, spinach, kale, and more are also expected soon.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM
April has been a glorious month. Seasonal weather, the right amount of rain, no strong storms…it feels great. The fact that everything is far ahead due to March has created a variety of extra work such as covering things like strawberries from quite a few nighttime frosts and freezes, but overall we’re really happy with this month. It’s been extra-tiring, but as we enter May, we feel like we’re in good shape. The next few weeks will likely be a frenzy of transplanting as we begin/continue setting out tomatoes, squash, peppers, and so much more on the expectation/calculated gamble that we’re finally past serious frost danger. We’re also doing extra work to protect the strawberries from their next danger, raccoons and possums. Electrified fences similar to the one shown above center have worked well for us in the past.

We hope many members join us for the mid-May farm tour & cheese-making demonstration. There’s so much to see here and earlier attendees have seemed to enjoy the visits. The late May dinner is full but all others have slots remaining.

Milk as an ingredient
As Anne Mendelson points out in her excellent book Milk, (read a long and useful excerpt/summary here) for most of the world through most of history, fresh/raw milk was not something widely consumed for the simple reason that it spoiled too quickly in the absence of effective refrigeration/transportation. Most cultures soured, fermented, cultured, or otherwise altered the fresh product to make it tastier, more palatable, and/or more stable. This is a similar concept to cooking or curing raw meats, with the same benefits and results. In both cases, a skill that used to be widespread became co-opted by larger food producers with long transportation chains and resulting food safety concerns, such that curing meats, pasteurizing milk, or making cheese became widely seen as something only big inspected food companies can do safely. Note how no health agencies from the FDA down to local authorities issue any guidelines on safe handling/pasteurization/cooking  with raw milk, despite the fact that most recipes using milk end up pasteurizing it in the process or can be altered to do so, and most home kitchens can easily accomplish this step.

As part of the backlash against industrialized food, there is now rising interest in re-learning these lost skills, as evidenced by the sales and footprint of books like Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie or Ricki Carroll’s Home Cheese Making, both of which became staples of our kitchen while literally changing the course of our lives. We hope to pass along some of the interest, excitement, and skills we’ve developed in learning how to use farm-fresh ingredients such as fresh milk, which is a very different product than the highly processed milk sold under most store brands.

The “rawness” in and of itself isn’t the primary factor; it’s how the milk has been handled and processed (or not) that affects its flavor, texture, and ability to be used for cheese making and other recipes. The kind of high-temperature flash-pasteurization used by large commercial dairies alters the chemical structure of the milk, rendering it less useful for many home projects. Thus many people do focus on raw milk because that’s a guarantee it hasn’t been overly processed, but gently pasteurized and minimally processed certified whole milk from a good source will also generally work. Raw also matters because in many cases it’s the only way a small farm like ours can sell the milk legally, but that’s a reflection on food policy, not an inherent difference in quality.

How we use milk in our kitchen
We can easily go through 2 gallons a week of milk in our kitchen without drinking a drop straight, not counting the making of large batches of aged cheeses for later consumption. Here are the main ways we use it fresh, most of which we’ll write up soon in more detail with photos (and add retroactive links here):

Home pasteurization
We almost never pasteurize our milk solely for drinking, though it’s quite easy (we just don’t care for milk as a drink compared to all its other possibilities). If you can boil an egg, you can pasteurize milk. It’s simply a matter of gently heating the milk to 145ºF for 1/2 hour or to 161ºF for 15 seconds (FDA standard; see page 8 of this publication). Use a reliable, calibrated thermometer. A double boiler is gentlest on the milk, though a saucepan works fine if you heat slowly and stir regularly to avoid imparting a cooked flavor to the milk. Then cool it back down and you have milk to drink, or use in recipes which won’t otherwise heat it enough again (like certain fresh cheeses). Most other possible home uses end up heating it past the safety point anyway, something health authorities tend to neglect in their safety advisories.

Most tasters have found that our milk isn’t particularly “goaty” if used fresh, though flavors do change with the seasons and what they’ve been browsing lately. I’ve found store-bought goats’ milk, generally older, to be much stronger in flavor and quite unpalatable compared to our truly fresh stuff, which many people can’t easily tell from fresh cow’s milk. It’ll taste stronger than most store milk, but that’s a reflection of the weak, over-processed nature of most commercial milk.

Yogurt
Making yogurt is easy: The process involves heating the milk (to 180ºF, well above the pasteurization temperature), partially cooling the milk, adding a live culture, and keeping the result warm for ~6 hours (an insulated thermos can achieve this). Before we began relying on our own dairy products year-round, we found that buying a 1/2 gallon of organic milk (which we could obtain from a local source) and making it into 2 quarts of yogurt saved us about half the cost of buying the equivalent 2 quarts of organic yogurt (which we could not obtain from a local source). We have no problem eating this amount weekly on granola, mixed with fruit, and in baking. Look for more details on methods & equipment in an upcoming post.

Cheese making
Many basic cheeses can be made at home by anyone with remotely reasonable kitchen skills and some basic equipment. The easiest is whole-milk ricotta, which has an excellent flavor and is highly versatile, suitable for everything from pizza and calzones to desserts (try topping it with drizzled  honey and roasted nuts). Several of our farm workers, who have been taking milk from us for years, have gone crazy over the easy success of making ricotta in a busy life; it’s one of the single most rewarding uses of milk you can do relevant to the work input.

As a rule of thumb, you’ll get ~1 lb of cheese from 1 gallon of milk. So for a $6 half-gallon of our goat’s milk, you’ll end up with 1/2 pound of fresh ricotta at a pretty competitive price for a little time invested. (A recent 1 gallon batch yielded ~3.5 cups of ricotta.) We’ll be posting illustrated recipes soon.

Baking/cooking
We use milk in all sorts of other recipes. Our favorite unleavened scone recipe uses milk instead of water, giving the end product some more nutritional heft and flavor, and any form of baking naturally raises the end product’s temperature above pasteurization temperature. Any kind of cream sauce for pasta, or creamy soup/chowder, benefits from the addition of fresh milk, again in a context which naturally pasteurizes it. And of course yogurt balances leaveners in things like coffee cakes and cornbread.

Desserts
Fresh milk can be used in all sorts of custards, puddings, flans, and more (often along with good fresh eggs), pretty much all of which will naturally pasteurize the milk in the process of baking/cooking. Eric especially enjoys making fresh eggnog (milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, rum), while Joanna loves fresh chocolate milk made with high-end cocoa powder, both of which easily involve heating the milk enough to pasteurize it. Cooked bases for home-made ice cream are also an excellent idea.

Whey
Cheese making will naturally result in a lot of leftover liquid, the whey. We generally feed this to our chickens and swine, but it can also be used in the home kitchen. Whey can be used instead of water for yeasted breads. Vegetable fermentation recipes often call for whey; for such use, we use whey from pasteurized, cultured cheeses or whey drained from yogurt, as the live cultures help to start the fermentation process. (Whey from raw milk hard cheese must be pasteurized before use to be in compliance with our sales agreement.) At worst, whey makes a good plant food; don’t send it down the drain. We can’t take back whey on the farm, it’s just too hard to track whether it was properly handled or mixed with anything before feeding back to our animals, and we don’t want to risk introducing any off-farm pathogens to our animals.

Anything else?
If that doesn’t give enough ideas, readers are welcome to submit their own in the comments. Milk is a fantastically diverse ingredient that’s a lot of fun to play with in the kitchen; all we ask is that you treat it, yourself, and us with respect by gently pasteurizing and/or cooking it by the time it’s consumed, and you’ll have a great time adding this fresh, local, delicious product to your diet.

Above are three varieties of mint we grow. From left to right, orange mint, Kentucky Colonel mint, spearmint.

Simplest mint “tea”

• not-quite-boiling water
• several mint sprigs per person; I prefer orange mint

Put the mint in a mug and pour the near-boiling water over the mint. Steep to taste, several minutes. Drink. (One note: I really like this beverage EXCEPT when I’m eating yogurt. For reasons I can’t explain it tastes entirely different and not very good in combination with the sour yogurt flavor.)

Green tea with mint (hot or iced)
1 quart water
1 to 2 tea bags or 1 to 2 teaspoons loose-leaf green tea
4 to 6 sprigs fresh mint; we prefer orange mint

Prepare a tea pot or other container to steep tea. Fill a pot with fresh, cool tap water and heat until it just begins to boil. Pour over tea. Steep tea ~2 minutes. Add mint, and continue to steep tea & mint for another 1-2 minutes. Remove the tea immediately, and remove the mint when flavor is satisfactory. For hot tea, serve immediately. For iced tea, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until serving.

Above left, infusing mint into a syrup. Above right, the setup for mint tea.

Beverages based on a mint-infused sugar syrup

We make the following concentrated base syrup in sufficient quantities for multiple beverages, then store it in the refrigerator until use. This method adds much more mint flavor than trying to muddle a few mint sprigs in a glass at serving time.

• 1 cup white sugar (sometimes we’ll use honey, but the honey flavor sometimes overwhelms the mint flavor)
• 1 cup water
• ~10 mint sprigs; we prefer Kentucky Colonel mint

Boil sugar & water. Cool for several minutes. Add mint and allow to steep at room temperature until cool enough to refrigerate. Taste and remove mint when flavor is satisfactory. Transfer to a jar & refrigerate.

This simple syrup can serve as the base for a variety of alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages. Try adding citrus juice & water to taste for a mint limeade or lemonade. Or here’s our favorite mojito recipe:

Mojito
For each glass:

• 1/4 cup mint-infused syrup
• 2 Tbl to 1/4 cup rum (or more or less to taste; optional)
• juice from 1/2 a lime (or 1/2 packet of frozen calamansi juice, which we buy at Meechu’s Filipino Market at 1301 Vandiver Dr.)
• a few mint sprigs, preferably Kentucky Colonel
• ice
• water to taste, usually just top off the glass

Stir. Enjoy. Yum.

Chocolate milk with mint

• 1 quart whole milk
• ~1/4-1/3 cup sweetener of choice (white sugar, honey, etc.)
• ~1/4-1/3 cup high quality cocoa powder (such as Valrhona)
• several springs mint; we prefer spearmint

Put the milk in a saucepan and start to heat it gently. Add the cocoa powder & sugar, starting with the low-end amounts. Continue heating (& occasionally stirring) until cocoa powder has dissolved. If milk started out raw, continue to heat to pasteurization temperature (145ºF for 30 minutes or 161ºF for 15 seconds), still stirring occasionally to avoid scorching. [We slightly prefer the results from the gentler pasteurization which we think produces a creamier, more delicate result, but the higher temperature still produces a plenty delicious product.] Add the mint a few minutes before pasteurization is complete.

Taste, & if desired add more sweetener &/or cocoa powder, and/or let mint steep longer. Remove mint (optional). Drink now as hot chocolate, or chill for chocolate milk. Submerge the pan in cool water to help the milk chill quickly, then transfer to a container with a tight-fitting lid & refrigerate. Cocoa powder will settle during storage, so shake well or stir before serving. Our favorite way of serving is to freeze it in an ice cream maker (such as this device that goes with our Kitchen Aid mixer). Note: This has more pure sugar in it than most things we consume, and I’ve learned the hard way to not drink this right before bedtime if I want to sleep well.

We probably should have dialed back the earlier delivery quantities of alliums to stretch these longer, but the record-warm March threw us for a loop and this is part of learning the very different planning & harvesting patterns of CSA instead of market. So we’re going to have to back off more for a few weeks to balance out the produce supply until more spring-planted items kick in, and thus the next few weeks’ shares will be a bit smaller though new items will be popping up.

PRODUCE
This week’s share will continue the transition from overwintered crops to spring-planted crops. We have one harvest left of leeks, garlic scallions, and green onions, so will be doing one each of those for the next three weeks, and the spinach is done (though new spinach is growing fast). But radishes will be abundant and we’ll have the first salad mix. Most alliums should last well in the fridge, though we did receive a report from one member of green onions going limp really fast (& one bundle in our fridge looked sad sooner than we would have expected). Did anyone else experience this? Along these lines, root crops like radishes will store best if the greens are removed from the roots (both are edible, but do better separated).

NEW salad mix
As shown above, this will be a mix of lettuce varieties (above center), along with a mild mustard (above right) and possibly beet greens. A flavorful mix great for pairing with radishes, herbs, and your favorite dressing. A small amount this week with more coming on.

Spring radishes
The share may overall be small this week, but we should be able to offer a relatively generous quantity of these; don’t be shy about asking for extra. Though we usually get stuck in the rut of simply eating radishes raw on salads, they can be prepared in many ways: pickled, roasted, and braised, for example. A common theme in the recipes we’ve found is to pair them with butter (either plain butter or flavored with herbs). Here’s a sampling of radish recipe ideas.

Roasted (note that this uses the tops, too)
Radish butter (we tried this and loved it as a spread; even Eric who normally really doesn’t like butter straight)
Crostini
Pickled (fridge, not canned); anyone have a favorite recipe?

Perennial leeks
Last week for these, which make excellent soups and stir-fries. Next week garlic scallions, then green onions, then maybe a lean week on alliums (we’ll try to save up extra chives/garlic chives), then hopefully garlic scapes should begin to appear.

HERBS

Thyme: Setting flowers, but still nice flavor.
Oregano
Kentucky colonel mint: Excellent infused into a sugar syrup as a base for drinks, as well as for Middle Eastern & Mediterranean dishes.
Orange mint: Excellent for tea, desserts, etc.
Spearmint: We haven’t been offering this because I’m usually less excited about its flavor, but we made some really tasty chocolate milk infused with this variety. So in case you’re feeling limited by only two mint varieties…
Lemon balm
Chives: These are blooming now. The blossoms make lovely garnishes and are edible, though the blossom stems are tough. Leaves can be used as usual.
Garlic chives: Likely to be a slightly different variety than the past weeks; thicker leaves.
Sage: The flower buds are forming, and I often equate flowering in plants with development of strong/bitter flavors…BUT, apparently sage blossoms are edible, and so far the leaves have tasted plenty good to me. So, we’ll keep offering it.
On vacation this week: Tarragon has been harvested pretty intensively the past couple weeks and needs to rest; suspect it will be back next week.

EGGS (SOLD SEPARATELY)
From pastured hens fed certified organic feed mix, fresh weed trimmings from fields, cooked on-farm meat & fat scraps, kitchen wastes, and other on-farm supplements. Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed. Yolks are bright yellow-orange; these birds are great foragers.

MILK (COMING SOON)
We expect raw goat’s milk to be available by next week’s deliveries, offered no more than 2 days old at $6/half-gallon jar. This is not a product for raw consumption, but for use as an ingredient in home cheesemaking, baking, cooking, or any other use in which the milk is appropriately pasteurized. If you wish to drink it, gentle home pasteurization can easily be done with a saucepan and a thermometer. We’ll be publishing more details on milk handling (both on farm and at home) in the coming week. As recent events have demonstrated, the liability risk to our farm (both pathogenic and political) of allowing raw milk consumption simply isn’t worth it, so we require all purchasers of raw milk to (a) visit the farm first and inspect our methods for themselves, and (b) to sign an agreement stipulating the proper handling of the milk.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM
It’s been a very busy and tiring week on the farm. Beyond losing time getting involved in local news (here and here), we handled the rest of goat kidding, the hatching of 25 more chicks, lots of field planting & maintenance, multiple frosts, our annual organic inspection, several sets of visitors, and so much more. April’s weather has been nearly perfect, and though the weed-load and overall workload remain really heavy, we’re happy with how most crops are developing and are looking forward to the many coming attractions, including:
From left to right, spinach, head lettuce, beets, strawberries. Yum.

PRODUCE
We hope you enjoyed last week’s share, as this one will be almost identical. A few members left comments here on ways they’re using the produce; feel free to share your own experiences or ideas on this post’s comment thread. We’d hoped to try some of the shared recipes by the time of writing, but have been too busy (we’ll get to them soon, though). Here’s an updated discussion of the coming share’s contents:

Pictured above: Packing last week’s share. Kim Watkins, on the left, is working for us this year to help out with harvest and share packing. She will also be delivering the Thursday share. Photos by Joanna.

NEW baby radishes: Likely but not guaranteed, these are growing and getting close to ready. A small amount this week with many more in the pipeline. Sweet, crunchy radishes great for salads, stir fries, pickling, or just eating right off the stem. First ones will be red & pink, with more color mix and some spicier ones in following weeks.

Perennial leeks: We harvested the biggest ones first, so the size may start to get smaller. Think of them as leek scallions.

Garlic scallions

Green onions (for all shares this week)

Spinach: Smaller leaves and smaller quantities, but not yet bolted and still tasty. Won’t look ideal, with some ripped or yellow leaves, but just fine from a culinary standpoint. Great for salads or cooking; if you’re still trying to work through last week’s share, try blanching and freezing some for later use. It’s impressive, and sometimes depressing, how much spinach compresses when you cook it. But frozen spinach makes a great later addition to soups, lasagnas, and so much more.

Sorrel: Many plants are putting on flower stalks, but it still tastes great to us. A nice addition to salads.

HERBS

We’ll be offering a good number of herb bundles to each household again. We don’t have quite enough for everyone to get everything and maintain a steady harvest, so we’re going to work on providing options through the survey. The survey question may be formatted a bit differently this time because some folks had technical difficulties if answering the last survey question pertaining to herbs on a phone.

Thyme: Starting to flower a bit, but we still think the flavor is good.
Oregano
Mint: Mint is abundant at this time of year, so we’ll offer an option for extra quantities of mint this time. If you have a dehydrator, it dries very nicely for an addition to winter tea. 
Lemon balm
Chives and/or garlic chives
Tarragon
Sage: Also starting to flower, and we also think the flavor is good.

EGGS (SOLD SEPARATELY)
From pastured hens fed certified organic feed mix, fresh weed trimmings from fields, cooked on-farm meat & fat scraps, kitchen wastes, and other on-farm supplements. Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed. Yolks are bright yellow-orange; these birds are great foragers.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM

The past week has been a whirlwind of work including weeding, planting, transplant/greenhouse management, frost protection nearly every night, goat kidding, chicks hatching, and more. This Saturday’s member even will be a great chance to see the results of all this work, and enjoy tastes of some good farm food.

Above, double layers of freeze protection on strawberries, young chard, and potatoes. These got us through several nights in which temperatures dropped below 30, and the chickens’ water froze even at the top of our orchard ridge.

Above from left to right, starting sweet potato slips from our own stock, baby scallions in the greenhouse, lush tomato plants itching to get outside once we’re past frost danger.

Enjoy the food, and we hope to see many of you soon.

From Tuesday’s Tribune story:

Alexander said health officials have determined that consumption of raw dairy products was the only common link for possible exposure among the three Boone County victims. She did not disclose the gender of the victims. “Each person was identified as a raw dairy consumer,” Alexander said, “but we can’t say they all got it from the same place.”

If you chose three Boone County families at random, what are the odds that NOTHING in their kitchens over the past week would be the same other than raw dairy products? Are we expected to believe that no basic products like beef, eggs, canned tomatoes, peanut butter, fast food, or anything else were shared by these households? They don’t even have to be the same brand of those products, as the Boone County Health Department (BCHD) clearly states that the suspect raw dairy products may not be from the same place either. I’d like to see the investigative report that documents BCHD officials’ careful efforts to pick through and identify the entire contents of a week of these families’ garbage, and dining-out receipts, to confirm that no other”common” links as loosely defined as raw dairy products (not from the same source!) existed. Keep in mind, for example, that the E. coli outbreak last fall in St. Louis was ultimately traced to a grocery store salad bar, if I recall correctly, something that wouldn’t show up in a short audit of a household kitchen.

Second, note that they’re not even claiming “raw milk”, just “raw dairy products”. Did one of these families have, say, aged raw cheese from Ireland in their fridge? Why use the euphemism “dairy products” if locally-produced raw milk was found in all three households (you’d think that would be obvious)? And if that wasn’t the case, why the immediate focus on the tenuous relationship between various sources and types of raw dairy products? Maybe there are better answers out there, but they’re not in the BCHD’s statements and they’re not in the Tribune’s reporting, which is quickly being picked up and copied beyond the local area. Someone’s not doing a good job here.

Now, from Wednesday’s Tribune story:

Raw dairy products are cited as a “possible risk factor” in two more cases of a strain of E. coli that has now sickened seven people in Central Missouri…State health officials reported yesterday that the same strain of E. coli bacteria has been confirmed in infections in Boone, Howard, Cooper and Camden counties.

In one day, it’s been downgraded from “only common risk factor” to “possible risk factor”. In fact,

State and county health officials haven’t positively identified the source of the E. coli outbreak….Terlizzi did not say whether other possible sources of contamination were being investigated.

 

This is exactly the concern we’ve written about before. Public health officials and regulators are so paranoid about raw milk, they’ll jump to conclusions every time before doing a proper study of the situation. Already, this story is spreading beyond the area (such as here and here)” when the actual meaning of the Health Department’s statements is that they have no clue yet what caused these sicknesses. The presence of raw milk does not, ipso facto, mean any E. coli present came from the milk in question. And notice that the more careful wording appears once state officials, rather than local, get involved.

That being said, the culprit in this case may very well have been raw milk. It’s a risky product to produce and consume and does generate a disproportionate percentage of milk-related illnesses. But due diligence in such an investigation says you do your homework first before spreading unfounded rumors. Imagine if the same treatment had been given to a more corporate product like, say, ground beef or peanut butter. If officials had come out right away and said “beef is the only common link between these households” with no proof, and then backed off a day later, the Beef Industry would be, well, having a cow. Yet many health regulators are so focused on raw milk as the only/primary threat in the food system that they’ll smear it every chance they get, and will assume its guilt if present while dropping investigation into all other possibilities until it’s too late (again, I’d like to see the results of the BCHD garbage-picking efforts, if they even happened). And unlike most food products, raw milk is primarily sourced from small, independent family farms that have no equivalent lobby group or collective ability to counteract the bully pulpit of powerful agencies with agendas of their own (the word bully in this case carrying a very different meaning than Teddy Roosevelt intended).

The last part of Wednesday’s Tribune article also contains a very significant error. It states that:

Christine Tew, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, said in jurisdictions where the sale of raw milk or cream is allowed, producers must first apply to the State Milk Board for a permit. The permit requires compliance with bottling, capping and labeling regulations. Tew said the only permitted facility in Missouri is located in Galena.

There is a big word missing here: RETAIL. The above paragraph only applies to RETAIL sales of raw milk, i.e. at a farmers market or grocery. None of the above is true of direct-to-consumer raw milk sales in Missouri; read the actual wording of the law here. As written, this paragraph is very misleading because it implies that all other sellers of raw milk are supposed to comply with the above rules, which is not true, and thus implies that anyone not doing so is somehow shady or black-market, also not true.

Finally, a story to demonstrate how virulently anti-raw-milk the BCHD is, and why this colors the way they handle an investigation like this. A few years ago, when I was still on a farmers market board, a raw-milk dairy applied to sell at the market. This dairy was certified by the Missouri State Milk Board (no friend to raw milk, either) as a Grade-A retail dairy for raw milk, meaning the state had determined that they passed all tests and standards necessary for the sale of bottled raw milk (as far as I know, this is still true). Thus they were allowed to sell at farmers markets or any other retail outlet by state law, and so applied here as the biggest market in the region. The board took that into consideration and voted to approve the application, reasoning that the state was endorsing the safety of the product and the certification of the State Milk Board was sufficient proof of that. When the BCHD found out about that, they immediately contacted the market and threatened legal action if the market allowed this dairy to sell, stating something like “no raw milk will be sold in Columbia under our watch” (my paraphrase of a memory). The market, not interested in a legal battle with the unlimited resources of a government agency, backed down and rescinded permission to the dairy; for the same reasons the story never made the broader light of day, though many market vendors beyond the board knew about it and I’m not relating anything confidential. My personal stance as a board member was to fight back publicly, but the consensus (probably rightly) was that the market couldn’t afford to pick an expensive fight with an agency that held so much power over it, and so the experience was buried. Now that years have passed, this is a good time to tell the story given its ramifications for understanding the current situation.

Thus a local bureaucrat with little actual dairy experience thwarted the will of both State Regulators and local consumers (lots of raw milk sales and deliveries happen in Columbia, regardless or perhaps because of the BCHD’s claims to know nothing about it). I’ve been told by multiple long-time residents and farmers that a similar fight happened many years ago about fresh egg sales at market, which the BCHD ultimately lost, but which colored memories some of the market’s membership who wished to avoid a repeat of that ugly fight. But it clarifies the stance and tactics of an agency with a very clear agenda.

Now, we would not be surprised to learn that raw milk is, in fact, responsible for this particular outbreak (or to learn that it’s not). What’s important is the lack of context; we rarely see such a hatchet job done on any other food product suspected of illness, and we rarely see such intense coverage of any other individual source of illness or death. If the same breathless coverage and intensive government effort was applied to, say, individual diabetes deaths and the ultimate nutritional source of that scourge, we might see a very different food system. “Five local youths condemned to life on insulin, illness linked to (insert soda brand here)”. But good luck getting the “Health” department to combat junk food with the same energy as raw milk, despite the relative long-term public health results of each.

Strawberries, for example, have blossoms that are frost-sensitive yet have gotten off to a very early start; ours are many weeks ahead of last year and are loaded with flowers and developing green berries. Thus we need to cover our beds every night there’s a risk of frost, which is getting old quickly. Above left, strawberry blossoms on the edge of one bed, which I left uncovered as a test, with ice on them Friday morning. The sheets & row cover we use for protection has been frozen so solid several nights so far that it holds its shape when picked up. However, lettuce like the young head above center can survive frosts just fine, and will likely develop a sweeter flavor under these conditions. These conditions may indeed benefit the flavor &/or texture of many of the cool-season crops in the ground right now. On the other hand, some trees that have gotten a head start on spring can be damaged: above right is a young pecan tree we established last year, with its first emergent leaves heavily burned back by Thursday’s frost. The stronger freezes expected this week have us worried about our blueberries, and whether simply covering the strawberries will be enough.

We’ve been juggling some difficult decisions on whether to push forward much of our planting plan or remain conservative to avoid risk. Overall we’ve taken the conservative approach, feeling that the risk of losing crops or overloading ourselves with work is worse than the risk of making CSA members wait a few more weeks to get produce at a “normal” time. The burgeoning weed-load is another reason not to rush beyond our plan; every grower (and gardener) we’ve talked to has bemoaned the crush of weeds getting a head start on the season. The weed-load isn’t just an issue of crop competition; especially vibrant ones like chickweed are rapidly setting massive amounts of seed, faster than it can be managed, setting us up for years of future work. We’ve hauled multiple truckloads out of the field, feeding some to the chickens (who love the stuff) and are spreading more on eroded or thinly vegetated areas of hillside pastures.

We feel farming is enough of a gamble without betting more on the roulette wheel of unusual weather, particularly on a full-time diversified farm with a carefully balanced year-round workload. Our planting plans integrate multiple different crops throughout the year in closely spaced rotations, such that we can’t move many warm-weather things forward without displacing the spring crops already planted. Getting ahead of ourselves would also create more work when conditions change; if we’d already set out tomatoes and peppers, for example, we’d now be scrambling to protect them every night, too, making far more work for ourselves for no additional return. As it is, we have a large quantity of nice-looking transplants indoors that we’ll have to hold back until we’re more comfortable with upcoming temperatures.

This conservative, diversified approach is far more efficient overall for us, especially in a CSA setting where the focus is one delivering products throughout the year and not squeezing profit out of every market sale, and we’re overall comfortable sticking to our plans. It’s something for CSA members to remember if they wonder why some of our crops arrive later than other sources who might not be managing diversified farms or carefully planned crop rotations. We value stability and careful planning very highly, and feel that focus serves us well in the long-term gamble of a full-time farm.

In Marquette, MI, Wednesday’s record-crushing high was 81 compared to the old record of 49, which even the morning low of 52 topped. The same day Grand Rapids, MI scored its all-time record temperature departure (for highs) soaring to 87, 40 degrees above normal.

I guess it’s comforting that we were only 30 degrees or so above normal? Of course, then we had a pretty good frost Thursday night with multiple more to come next week, judging by the forecast. We’ll be covering the strawberries just about every night this week.

Lots of flowers, birds, and animals have become active over the last month. Both crop pests and beneficial predators have been showing up in force. We feel we’ve had far less time to actually enjoy March this year, due to the early warmup and the associated farm workload, and thus have been missing some of the natural signs and events we like to track. But here’s a look at some things we have documented.

Above, Virginia Bluebells and Swallowtail Butterfly. Two very pretty visitors in this early spring.

Above left, a Western Painted Turtle, our second record of one on the farm. This one was extremely active and not at all shy. Above right, a leopard frog, whose distinctive cackling-laughter call is common this time of year.

Above left, a Western Earth Snake, a new species for the farm according to our records/memory. One of those interesting, obscure species that are part of our ecosystem but are rarely noticed unless you spend as much time outdoors as we do. (Though, ironically, we rescued this one from our indoor cat, who found it first.) Above right, I’m removing a nice-sized Yellow-Bellied Racer from our bedroom. I love snakes and am thrilled to have them around eating rodents, but the bedroom is pushing their boundaries. This one was released in the vegetable field to dine on the vole extravaganza there. Technically this happened at the beginning of April, but March was really April this year anyway, so it’s close enough.

Snakes this year have been very active; we’ve already seen more than we did in summer of 2011, including Rat Snakes, Racers, Garters, and more. This is excellent news for rodent control in the fields, and for our general biodiversity. We were worried last year when we weren’t seeing them.

BIRD LIST
Lots of new arrivals and behaviors, as one might expect. A comparison with last year’s March list is interesting. Not surprisingly, there were many more new arrivals this March given the accelerated spring.

NEW IN MARCH (13 species)
Great Blue Heron
Wood Duck
Wild Turkey (heard gobbling several times)
Hairy Woodpecker (a rare visitor to our immature woods)
Eastern Phoebe
Louisiana Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
Fish Crow (an occasional visitor)
Brown Thrasher
Yellow-throated Warbler (maybe)
Chipping Sparrow

PRESENT IN MARCH (27 species)
Canada Goose
Snow Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-Shouldered Hawk
Red-Tailed Hawk
American Woodcock
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Barred Owl
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Black-Capped Chickadee
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Dark-Eyed Junco
American Goldfinch
Red-winged Blackbird

MISSING/UNOBSERVED SINCE FEBRUARY (3 species)
Fox Sparrow (only seen once anyway)
Great Horned Owl
Northern Flicker

Even in the first few days of April, a number of new birds continue to appear, including Whip-poor-wills and Parula Warblers. Unfortunately, as we enter true warbler migration season, the early spring means trees are far more leafed-out than usual and thus warblers will be much harder to see.

Bag handling: We’re using our new delivery bags, made in the US of Texas organic cotton and printed locally by Diggit Graphics.  Each week you’ll get your share in a bag, while returning the previous week’s bag. There are three bags per household, labelled with your name; the third one is for overflowing shares and/or a backup in case you don’t return one. You’re welcome to use the bags for other shopping, as (a) we’ll be washing them on the farm before re-use, and (b) they’ll only be used for your household so you have control over what you do or don’t put in them. You don’t need to wash them (unless you make a mess) as we won’t be able to keep track of who has or hasn’t done so; easier just to do each batch ourselves for clarity and efficiency. We have a high-efficiency washing machine and solar hot water, so it’s not a major bother for us.

Coolers: Some of you have fairly small coolers. We doubt that shares, even partial ones, will fit in lunch-sized coolers, and don’t want to leave fresh produce out in the summer heat. Even this fairly basic early spring share was too big for a couple locations. In addition, milk or egg deliveries won’t be made if there is no cooler to place them in; we’re just not comfortable doing so. If acquiring a bigger cooler is a concern for you, contact us and we can work something out.

Storing produce: Everything in this share will be happiest if stored at refrigeration temperatures. Generally speaking, crops that grow best in cool weather are also best off if stored at cool temperatures. (Some of the warm-season, heat-loving crops are the ones that can be damaged by overly cool storage temperatures: basil, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes, for example. But we won’t have to worry about those for a while yet.)

Washing your produce: We always suggest that you wash produce. We almost always harvest greens (such as spinach) into cool water to take out the field heat; this greatly increases the storage life of the crop. However, we don’t necessarily do a full wash, and occasional weeds and/or insects may sneak into the tub, as well. Thus, it’s always a good idea to give another rinse & sorting before eating. Also, we always run greens through a salad spinner before we bag them up for you; greens won’t store well if they’re overly wet. If you wash more than you’re going to use at once, giving them a spin before putting them back in the refrigerator is a good idea. We generally don’t wash herbs at all, as we don’t want to do anything to lessen the aroma & flavor before they get to you. (If it is raining at harvest time, as it was this morning, the herbs will be be damp from the rain). Just give herbs a quick rinse before use.

Using green alliums (onion-family plants): I remember my first time as a CSA member (long ago) when I had a bundle of spring green onions & a recipe that called for an onion and wondered, “Will this work?” I figured out pretty quickly that, in most cases, the answer was “yes”, except for something that really relied on bulb onions (say French onion soup), which is effectively now out of season. The whites of most spring alliums tend to be the strongest part, and they hold up best to cooking, so sautéing the white parts is generally a good bet. Chives, garlic chives, and the tops of green onions are excellent snipped raw on top of dishes.

The alliums will need a bit of clean up in the kitchen, mainly rinsing & trimming roots. Treat perennial leeks as you would standard leeks: slice lengthwise & rinse well with running water to remove any grit from between the layers.

Notes on mint: The mint bundles in this distribution include two kinds of mint, and at times we’ll give you a choice of which kind of mint you want, so here’s a quick description of our dominant mint varieties:

• “Orange Mint”: The flavor isn’t especially citrus-y, nor is it especially orange in color (quite purple, actually, especially under the leaves), but that’s what the plant was labeled when I bought it years ago, so I’ve stuck with the name. The flavor is distinct, with a nice cooling effect. This is my preferred mint for hot or iced tea, and it works well in many desserts.
• “Kentucky Colonel Mint”: The leaves of this mint are solid green. This is described as a spearmint; we think it has the most generic (in a good way) mint flavor of the mints we grow. This mint is excellent when infused in a sugary syrup for a base of mixed drinks (such as mojitos or mint juleps). We also like it in Middle Eastern & Mediterranean dishes.

We have a few other mint varieties, but those two are the most prolific & best flavored. (Mint does not come true-to-type from seed; every plant started from seed will be a little different from any other. Mint is easy to propagate by cuttings, so when someone finds a really yummy variety, clones of that single variety will be passed/sold among many people.)

Composting scraps: It is not practical for us to take produce scraps back to compost at the farm, but we hope that you will compost trimmings & food scraps rather than sending them to a landfill. If you don’t or can’t have your own backyard compost pile, then one option is to bring your food scraps to our friends at the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. They’re at 1209 E. Smith Street, just a few blocks from downtown Columbia. The location is staffed Thursday afternoons after 4 p.m., and someone can show you what to do with your scraps then. After that you should be able to drop scraps off at your convenience. Or go to their website & drop them an email for details.

I’ve experimented with using all white flour versus half white and half fresh-ground soft-wheat flour; the two should be obvious in the photo above right. The white flour version is creamier, smoother, easier to handle, and more neutrally-flavored. The partially soft-wheat version has a rougher texture and more complex flavor, but tears and sticks more easily. This is one of the rare cases where I prefer to use all white flour in cooking, though I’ve found one use where the soft-wheat version is preferable (see below).

Crepe-making equipment can, but doesn’t need to be, specific. I use a dedicated cast-iron crepe pan with special wooden spreader (above left) for the best results; its very low sides allow for easy spreading and flipping of the crepe. Our cast-iron omelet pan with just a regular spatula works too, but with its higher sides and no spreader you’ll handle the batter differently. Both should be well-seasoned, as any sticking will shred the crepe.

In the images below, I present a photo essay of crepe-making using both these pans; apologies for any blurriness, as I was holding the camera with my left hand while quickly pouring, spreading, and flipping with my right. The images are effective if not pretty. Crepe pan on the left, regular pan on the right throughout.

I heat the pans on stove setting 3-4 (roughly medium low) and let them get truly warm; you want the same heat over the entire pan surface or the crepe won’t cook evenly. Start the heating before you do anything else; it takes as long as the rest of the process combined. When I think it’s ready, I take a scrap of paper towel or cloth and wipe a little canola oil around pan’s inside, repeating every few crepes (we use our own rendered lard for most cooking, but don’t always want a pork-flavored crepe). Then I scoop the batter using a 1/3 cup measure and quickly pour it into the pan. It helps to have a plate right next to the stove that you can drop this messy, drippy scoop onto immediately because you have to work fast now.

If you have a proper crepe pan and spreader, immediately start twirling the spreader around the surface of the batter, such that the inner end practically stays still and the outer sweeps around like a really fast clock-hand (above, it’s rotating counter-clockwise). This takes a bit of practice to get the unusual wrist motion right, but once you grasp the concept it works beautifully. Practice on a cold pan with some sugar or other small, granular material that mimics fluid dynamics. You should be able to get a very thin, quite evenly spread crepe in just a few seconds. If using regular kitchen equipment, immediately lift the pan and swirl it around at steep angles to force the batter to spread itself thin and wide; I’ve not had success trying to use spatulas or other tools to reproduce the spreading motion of the crepe tool; others stick to the batter and/or make holes. It helps to make the batter a little thinner/waterier if you’re going to do without a tool so it spreads itself more easily; thicker batter works great with the crepe tool. Soft-wheat batter sticks to the spreader, too, and actually works best in the normal pan.

The batter will immediately cook from the outer edges in; you want to flip the crepe when it’s mostly but not entirely cooked. As soon as I’m done spreading or swirling, I grab a spatula and start working around the already-cooked edges, loosening them a bit from the pan. By the time you’ve gone around the edges, just a few seconds, it’s time to slip the spatula under and hopefully lift the whole thing up in one piece and flip it over; the center should still be a bit moist. I usually grab the lifted edge with my other hand to help stabilize the flip. It only needs to rest on the flipped side a couple more seconds and it’s done. You don’t want it cooked hard and dry.

I can get thinner crepes from the dedicated pan than from regular pans; the spreader makes a big difference. Thus the cooking time is slightly longer for the latter, and the edges are sometimes more ragged because it takes a bit more work to get the thick, heavier center up. In either case, swoop up the finished crepe with spatula/fingers and spread it on a plate to be stacked with the rest; place a towel over them if you want them warm. It took me longer to write this text than the actual operation.

UPDATE: I timed myself this morning making a batch, and it took a total of 15 minutes from turning the pan on. That’s longer than it needed to be, as I got distracted cutting up herbs for the scrambled eggs, and let the pan heat longer than needed. Actual total time around 10-12 minutes, actual cooking time just a couple minutes.

A crepe wrapped around almost anything makes it better. Fresh or preserved fruit, yogurt, and/or jam make easy desserts. Above are two more creatives uses; on-farm ingredients in italics.

Above left
Farm-based take on Ethiopian cuisine, using a thick soft-wheat crepe as substitute for njera, the Ethiopian flatbread that is eaten with the hands, using ripped-off pieces to scoop up the variety of other dishes spread on top. In this case, the thicker texture and richer flavor of the soft-wheat recipe feels more authentic, and it doesn’t matter if it has some rips or holes because you’re not wrapping anything in it, just ripping off chunks from the plate. Here, the toppings are: 

sauteed collards/kale/sorrel with red onion, garlic scallions, dried hot peppers;

cowpeas with sauteed spring leeks, garlic scallions, dried hot peppers, spices, ginger;

tomato-apricot chutney preserved from fall;

side of Senegalese peanut stew (onion, garlic scallions, tomato juice, mushroom broth, sweet potatoes, okra, scallions, dried hot peppers, organic peanut butter, ginger).

Above right
Easy pseudo-Mexican crepe, using white flour recipe for full wrappability: shredded aged goat cheddar, preserved roasted tomato/pepper sauce, fresh scrambled eggs, cured & aged ham, fresh cilantro. In this case the crepe is faster to make than a regular tortilla or flatbread, and holds together well for a form of burrito that works great if not entirely authentic.

I’ve found that crepes will keep reasonably well overnight in the refrigerator covered with a towel or in a bag; make them the night before for a fast and/or special breakfast with little work. Spring rolls work great, too, as you can make multiple batches ahead of time then prepare the fillings, allowing yourself and guests to assemble their own at table. And almost anything else can be wrapped in a thin, creamy crepe to add another dimension to the meal. Give it a try…

PRODUCE

Perennial leeks: A nice overwintered leek, not as sweet as mid-winter varieties but a good allium flavor. Mix of sizes from near-scallion to quite thick. Use stems sauteed in almost anything; make broth with tops

Garlic scallions: Young garlic plants (planted from heads that were runts); chop/mince the stems into anything for good fresh garlic flavor. Make broth with tops.

Green onions (for full shares): Small, tasty green onions great for lightly cooking or mincing onto salads, eggs, stir fries, and more. These tend to have a stronger flavor than scallions. Entire plant can be used. These will be for full shares only this time, but they should grow enough to provide for everyone by the next distribution.

Spinach: Almost certainly the last harvest of the overwintered spinach. Very large leaves with nice texture and good flavor, though not as sweet as in mid-winter. Great for salads or cooking. A few holes from small hail received last week. We hope to delay harvest until just before the distribution for maximum freshness, but are monitoring closely for signs of bolting in the warm weather (mid-high 80s for Sunday, argh!) and will harvest immediately if we have to, in order to preserve quality. Our greens last two weeks at least after harvest, so this shouldn’t be a problem in any case.

HERBS

All members will receive a bundle of the first five herbs listed, and a choice from among the last three. All of these herbs will keep nicely in the refrigerator for two weeks at a minimum, likely longer.

Thyme: A versatile herb, good in salad dressing, with eggs, simmered in pasta sauce, and in numerous other preparations.

Oregano: A slightly spicy herb that pairs nicely with thyme and can be used in similar ways.

Mint (not shown): Mint can be used for various culinary purposes, though we most frequently use it to add flavor to beverages. We add mint to chilled water in the refrigerator, infuse it into tea, and make a mint-infused sweet syrup with sugar or honey (as a base for lemonade or mojitos, for example). We have several varieties of mint, and each has a slightly different flavor. Bundles may be mixed this time.

Lemon balm: Mildly lemony herb, can be added to teas, salads, or sauces for flavor.

Chives and/or garlic chives: Green leaf stems which can be treated like small scallions; chop them into or over all kinds of dishes (salads, soups, eggs, or almost anything) for a nice touch of flavor and color.

Choice from the following:

Tarragon: Nice licorice flavor, especially good with fish.

Sage: One of Joanna’s favorite herbs. Especially tasty when sauteed in butter or oil.

Sorrel: Leafy green with a strong lemon flavor. Excellent mixed with other salad greens, wilted below meats, or used to infuse flavor into sauces.

EGGS (SOLD SEPARATELY)
From pastured hens fed certified organic feed mix, fresh weed trimmings from fields, cooked on-farm meat & fat scraps, kitchen wastes, and other on-farm supplements. Eggs are $6/dozen and will be no more than a week old when distributed.

MENU IDEAS
Quiche/souffle/frittata: Eggs, green alliums, herbs, and cheese make a wonderful spring combination.
Spinach salad: Make a quick dressing with oil, vinegar, minced green allium of choice, and herbs. Toss with spinach and hard-boiled eggs.
Kebabs: Marinate meat and/or veggies with Mediterranean dressing of thyme, oregano, garlic, mint, and more. Grill and serve over sorrel leaves.
Allium pasta: Saute sliced leeks and garlic scallions in butter, and add some herbs for good measure (thyme, oregano, sage, for example); toss with pasta.
Egg-drop soup: Heat meat/mushroom/vegetable broth of choice (possibly made with trimmed allium greens), simmering with lemon balm or sorrel for flavor. Drizzle beaten egg in through fork. Top with minced scallions or chives.
Member ideas: Feel free to share your own plans, ideas, suggestions, or results with these products in the comments below.

(Note: We’ve gotten behind on setting up the recipe feature of the blog due to the lack of snowy periods over the winter combined with the early and unrelenting arrival of spring warmth and work. It’s still on our to-do list, and we’ll get to it as soon as practical.)

COMING SOON
There will likely be a week’s gap before the next share, but it all depends on weather. Spinach will be done, green alliums and herbs should continue strong, and the first spring-planted crops should be ready (radishes and hopefully lettuce/salad mix). Other items planted and growing include beets, carrots, mixed greens, peas, fennel, and more.

RECENTLY ON THE FARM

Highlights of the past few weeks included planting new fruit trees and blueberry bushes, lots of weed management throughout the growing areas, and hosting a paid tour for the MU Grow Your Farm program. We’ve also been doing a great deal of seeding and transplanting while preparing for goat kidding and starting eggs in our incubator. Both the animal and plant population of the farm are rocketing upward.

Speaking of which, these two surprised us Friday mid-morning as the first kids of the year, a few days earlier than expected. They’re the second generation born on the farm, as their mother, Quartz, is a yearling doe from one of our founding does, Garlic. Thankfully for a yearling, she kidded with no problems, and given how large she was we’re glad there are only twins and not triplets. With our background as geologists, we’re establishing a naming scheme for all farm-bred goats loosely based on mineral classes, such that Quartz’s two kids this year will be Zircon and Opal (both are silicate minerals, as is quartz). We’re now just a week away from fresh milk again, and are quite ready for all the fresh yogurt and cheese that brings.

As mentioned above, both April CSA member events will be a great time to see these and other kids along with everything else that’s going on.

Once this process takes hold, the flavor of the leaves tends to become much stronger and generally less edible, and some roots become woody and less appetizing. As a rule of thumb bolting ruins the plant as an edible crop, though we’ve found that sorrel is pretty resistant to negative effects (the leaves from the plant above still taste good), and spinach can be salvaged if harvested promptly at first sign of bolting. Radishes become nastily strong and tough once bolting takes hold, lettuce becomes very bitter, and cilantro loses its appeal. A bolting cilantro plant, if left to flower and set seed, has another culinary life in front of it as coriander (we save our own coriander seed; very tasty). Farmers need  to be aware of bolting and the conditions that lead to it, if nothing else to try to salvage a crop before it’s ruined whether or not it’s quite ready.

Crops tend to bolt in response to temperature, though other stresses can lead to bolting as well (root disturbance, for example). Lettuce, radishes, and cilantro will bolt in the season that they’re planted. Other crops, such as beets and carrots, won’t bolt until they’ve been through a significant cold spell (winter); these biennials rarely bolt prematurely and bolting isn’t a problem if they’re harvested in the year they were planted (though their flavor can still be adversely affected by heat). Leafy crops that we overwinter, such as spinach, sorrel, collards, and kale, will often put on a nice flush of spring leafy growth with the increasing sunlight of spring if the temperatures don’t heat up too fast, though the fact that they’ve been though the winter means that they’re biologically ready to set seed when it does warm up. So in a very early, warm spring like that of 2012, bolting is a very real danger even in early March for crops which might normally make it well into April here in Missouri. Bolting can also be triggered by strong warm/cold/warm cycles which trick plants into thinking they’ve gone through a full year of seasons.

The photos above are all of crops we’d overwintered from 2011 with hopes of including in spring CSA distributions, but the rapid warmup has led them all to bolt so quickly that we had little to no meaningful harvest from them. There is little to be done; we’ve spread shade cloth over some of our spinach to possibly forestall this process. So far the spinach is behaving. However, it’s difficult to fight the onslaught of temperatures up to 30 degrees over average this early in the season. In an average spring, we’d probably have gotten at least one good harvest from the crops in the photos.

Bolting is a fact of life in farming, but it’s a good reminder that there are always balances to any given weather conditions. This early spring is helping get many crops off to an early start, but it’s also ruining some existing ones, and may yet cause problems for just-planted crops like radishes which will be extra spicy and potentially bolt more quickly if the heat continues.