Last Box

I suppose that, upon writing the newsletter for Rock Spring Farm's last CSA box, one ought to have some profound thoughts.

This last box brings mixed feelings of regret and relief. I’ve made enough changes in my life to know that few of them come without some sense of loss – even walking off of the processing ship where I spent three months up to my elbows in fish guts, I felt that I was leaving something behind. But it will also feel good to simplify something for a change. For too long I’ve piled on and piled on, and it’s a relief to let something go.

Mostly, I feel a profound sense of gratitude. I don’t think that anybody’s left from Rock Spring Farm’s first class of CSA customers, although our long-time Rochester site-host, Jennifer, bought butternut winter squash at the farmers market to make baby food for her son, Nathan, that year. Over the past month, I’ve heard from a number of CSA members with messages of thanks, congratulations, and well-wishes. Thank you all for your support through all of these years and all of these changes. It has meant more to me than I can find words to express.

Likewise, I want to recognize Ben Kreuter, who has stepped into the position of farm manager over the past several months. For the last three years, Ben has been an integral part of the farm’s operations, overseeing most of the field and packing activities. In fact, he’ll be heading up the final box pack on Thursday while I’m at a speaking engagement in Prairie du Chein. Nothing I can say about his work and contributions is adequate. The same is true of the rest of the farm team here, as well. I’ve been blessed to be surrounded and supported by a wonderful group of people.

I haven’t decided yet what will happen with this Eat Better Newsletter, which has found a readership quite beyond our CSA membership, but which has used CSA deliveries as its essential organizational principle. Stay tuned to see how that goes. In the meantime, I hope to be doing a lot more with the Chris on Farming blog, at www.flyingrutabagaworks.com.

We’ll still have our produce in the stores in the Twin Cities, and are looking for ways to make something work in Rochester, as well.

Thank you again,

Your Farmer,

Chris

Recipes You Can Use

Wilted Spinach Salad

1/2 lb fresh spinach
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and pressed
1/2 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts– or almonds
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt
freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil in a small skillet. Add the nuts and cook over low heat for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic near the end. Pour over the spinach, scraping in as much of the oil as possible. Toss until spinach is coated and the nuts are well distributed. Sprinkle in the vinegar and salt and pepper, toss again, and serve.

Celeriac Salad

2 lbs celeriac, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 tsp stoneground mustard
Blanch celeriac in boiling water for 2 minutes; dunk in cold water to stop cooking, then drain. Place in a bowl and add oil and vinegar. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Refrigerate, covered, for at least two hours. Crush garlic into a paste and combine with the mayonnaise and mustard, and add this mixture to the celeriac and stir well just before serving.

Beet Carrot Salad

1 medium beet
2 medium carrots
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp canola oil
Grate the roots together, and add salt and pepper to taste. Add rice vinegar, sesame oil, and canola. Makes 4 small servings.

Organic Farming Conference

Last week, most of the Rock Spring Farm crew traveled to La Crosse for the MOSES Organic Farming Conference. I traveled over on Tuesday in his role as conference co-director, and started work with the rest of the MOSES team to set up the check-in area to handle the vast majority of the 3,300 attendees in three one-hour rushes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. Wednesday dawned early with attention to the rest of the details required to get the conference up and running after several months of sustained effort preceding the actual event – although with an event this size, most of my work at the conference comes down to directing traffic, rather than driving the car.

When I started farming in 1990, in the kitchen garden for Deep Springs College, the only support system for organic agriculture came from within. The university extension system that provides so much of the educational infrastructure for chemical agriculture ignored organic agriculture, or even displayed outright hostility. In my soil science class at the University of Wisconsin, I waited most of the semester for the promised lecture on “organic fertilizers.” When it finally came around, the professor held up a garden center back of dried cow manure, and said, “Look at the label, it has an NPK ratio of 0.6-0.2-0.5. You can’t grow anything with this stuff?” He put the bag away and that was the end of the organic agriculture for the semester.

So, we – and I say we in that broad sense, because the foundations were laid well before I got involved – developed our own system of education, research, and support. Organic certification inspectors worked as our own organic extension service, organic processors developed their own corps of crop advisors, and organic farmers talked to each other. And talked to each other.

Last weekend’s Organic Farming Conference is one outcome of this culture of mutual support. With over 3300 attendees over the three days packed with presentations, networking, food, music, poetry, and fun, it’s the largest educational event for organic farmers in North America, and possibly the world (although when I tell people from the coasts that the largest organic farming conference is held in La Crosse, Wisconsin, they almost always say, “Where’s Wisconsin?”).

But most importantly, I hear from farmers again and again that this even changes lives. Farmers walk away feeling empowered with new knowledge and inspired to get back out in the field and keep on with the good work of changing the way America’s landscape is farmed.

In This Week's Box

Beet Medley—Beets of several different stripes, including gold, red, and Chioggia. I will definitely be baking these this week, to take the most advantage of the diversity of colors and interior variation.

Rutabagas

Scarlet and Purple Top Turnips—The scarlet turnips are sweet and delicious, and lack some of the iron-y (iron-ic?) flavor of the purple-top turnips. You can distinguish the purple top turnips from rutabagas because they have white bottoms, whereas the rutabagas have purple shoulders and yellow bottoms; rutabagas also tend to be on the larger side of things.

Carrots

Spinach—From the greenhouses again. If you notice a little bit of tip burn, don’t worry; we’ve tried to find a difference in storability when the tip-burn is present, but haven’t.

Black Spanish—The black roots are supposed to be that color. I especially enjoy these storage radishes sliced thinly and served with a sharp cheese.

Garlic

Shallots—While you can use these just like onions, they lack the full kick of a yellow onion. I like them in salads, vinaigrettes, and long-stewed cooking situations.

Recipes You Can Use

Crisped Shallots

A staple of Southeast Asian cuisine, crisped shallots have been gaining popularity as a topping for almost everything lately.

Several shallots, thinly sliced and separated into rings
3/4 cup vegetable oil (we use canola)

Heat the oil in a wide, heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then fry the shallots in small batches, stirring frequently until golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer quickly to paper towels to drain, where the shallots will crisp as they cool.

Basic Winter Radish Salad

You can vary this recipe widely by changing the types of oil and vinegar (sesame oil and rice vinegar, for example; or olive oil and balsamic vinegar), or by choosing to grate or julienne the radishes and skip the soaking step.

1 lb winter radishes, any variety, peeled and sliced as thinly as possible
1/4 cup coarse salt
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

The night before you plan to serve this, place the radish slices in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Use a heavy plate (or a salad plate with a jar of water on top) to weight the radishes, and refrigerate overnight. Drain off the liquid and rinse in cold water. Prepare the dressing by whisking together the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and pour over the radishes. Refrigerate until ready to serve - several hours is ideal.

Stove Top Turnips with Garlic

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
4 Tbsp butter
1 lb (or bunch) turnips, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick.

In a skillet large enough to hold the turnip rounds in a nearly single layer, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook the turnips, turning often, for about 12 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned. Add the garlic, season with salt and pepper, and shake the pan gently over the flame for about 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

Putting Down a Rutabaga

Back in 1993, on a cold near-winter’s day at Harmony Valley Farm’s market stand in Madison, Wisconsin, I started juggling rutabagas as a way to pass the time and attract some attention on a day with few customers. It was a lark, but as time went on, juggling rutabagas proved an apt metaphor for the life of farming that I was just beginning that fall. Since that time, I’ve continued to add more and more rutabagas to my juggling act; I’m writing today to announce that I am putting down one of the many rutabagas that I currently have in the air.

Once we finish delivering our winter vegetable and fruit shares on March 16, Rock Spring Farm will discontinue the operation of its CSA program. But make no mistake – Rock Spring Farm will continue to provide great herbs and vegetables to stores in the Twin Cities, Rochester, and Decorah. In fact, with this opportunity for increased focus, we hope to do an even better job of producing a more-focused selection of crops.

When I started down my farming path in the summer of 1990, I looked at growing good food as a way to change the world. Over the past several years, I’ve become more and more involved with education about growing food as a way to change the world. And that has changed my world.

As most readers of the Eat Better Newsletter know, I co-direct the MOSES Organic Farming Conference, coming up in a little over a week. What started as volunteer committee work in 1999 has grown to a major part of my life and attention as that conference has grown into the largest, and many say the best, conference for organic farmers in America.

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate aspects of farming operations for projects on post-harvest handling and transplant production; co-author a book, Fearless Farm Finances; consult on a variety of issues for farms large and small; speak around the country about food safety, systems development, and more; and even manage the development of a multi-function database for the Midwest and Organic Sustainable Education Service.

And this work, all of it informed by my work farming at Rock Spring Farm, is making a difference: I regularly hear testimonials about how the Organic Farming Conference changes lives, and how the educational work that I’m doing beyond that conference provides information vital to keeping farmers in farming in ways that sustain their work, their families, and their communities.

As part of this process, I’ve formalized the educational side of my operation into Flying Rutabaga Works. A new website, flyingrutabagaworks.com, provides information and resources for farmers and people interested in farming, including a new online newsletter, Chris on Farming.

My increased focus on the education, outreach, and public service side of my life’s work has resulted in a lot of juggling. And, while keeping a lot of rutabagas up in the air can be a lot of fun, I can see clearly that if I don’t make some changes, some of the rutabagas are going to start dropping.

CSA is the most management-intensive way of farming that I can imagine. Fifty some-odd crops, over a hundred varieties, and multiple plantings create over a thousand planting events every year – and marketing and customer service add another layer of complexity. Because of the success of the rest of the farm, and of the education wing of my business, I no longer have the management time to devote to the CSA. And without that devotion, it’s not fair to my members, my employees, my family, or myself to continue to operate the CSA in 2012.

To our members past and present, and to the people and businesses who have supported us through hosting pick-up sites, I can’t say thank you enough. The CSA provided an economic backbone and venue for experimentation for many years of this farm’s operation, and resulted in many relationships that I will continue to treasure as I move forward.

Organically yours,

Chris Blanchard, Farmer

P.S., I am in the process of updating the Rock Spring Farm website to reflect these changes. If you’re looking for a new CSA in 2012, please have a look at Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables; the Land Stewardship Project’s directory and LocalHarvest.org also provide a variety of options.