Eat Better News

Life's Better Here

2010-03-04T08:48:00.004-06:00

The organic farming community has a long history of working together—if not in absolute harmony, then at least with the idea in mind that success in organic farming is not just about my farm, but about every farm. At Rock Spring Farm, we’re proud to play an important role in the growth of the organic movement.

I suppose to a certain degree the generosity of spirit just goes with the territory. Organic farmers, by definition, are concerned about what goes on a neighbor’s farm, and by extension, how what they do on their own farm affects their neighbors. A neighbor spraying toxic pesticides may contaminate products and soils; uncontrolled weeds may create problems readily controlled with herbicides, but not with cultivation; and genetically-modified crops may cross-pollinate organic varieties. And if we care about what our neighbors do, we’d best start caring about our neighbors, since that’s the best way to get them to care about us.

Likewise, organic farmers have always taken an active interest in what their organic cohorts are up to, and in helping them along. Organic farmers have been writing and publishing books since before the term “organic” meant much if anything, and very few organic farmers will turn down a request for even the most proprietary information about their key products. And the organic community, perhaps because of an historical lack of support from the universities, USDA, and extension services, has developed its own outreach and teaching resources.

Last weekend, I helped to put on the MOSES Organic Farming Conference. Held in La Crosse every February, the conference attracted over 2700 attendees this year – most of them farmers – for three days of intensive education in everything from organic dairy to food safety to the finer points of organic activism. As the co-director of the show, I organized 67 workshops and over 100 presenters as part of North America’s largest (and, we’re told, best) organic farming conference. For the experienced grower, it is an important piece of a continuing education; for beginning farmers or conventional growers thinking about going organic, it is often the first touchstone in preparing to make a dramatic change.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the conferences we help organize and teach is the rampant enthusiasm and downright good time that the participants are having; at the Organic Farming Conference, in addition to the workshops, we serve thousands of excellent meals based on local and organic foods, put on ten full-day seminars, screen dozens of food films, host a benefit dinner and silent auction for the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, and put on a dance on Friday night that always goes well past midnight. My organic hog farming friend Tom Frantzen says that the first time he attended what was then the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, when he was just beginning to think about going organic, he knew he could never go back: “Organic farmers have more fun, the food’s fantastic—life’s just better here!”

Farm Happenings

2010-03-04T08:48:00.003-06:00

Weather: We’ve had a string of beautiful, sunny days, with brisk mornings and warm, muddy afternoons. The snow is melting slowly, which helps avoid issues with runoff and streams running down our driveway.

What We Did: The whole crew took time off to attend the MOSES Organic Farming Conference last weekend (Chris went to work, Ben and Sarah went to learn). On Monday, we officially opened up the transplant house, so greenhouse seeding now becomes a priority and constant task to add to everything else.

In this Week's Box

2010-03-04T08:48:00.001-06:00

When you get this week’s box home, put the cabbage straight into your crisper drawer; I don’t bag my cabbage until I cut it, as it likes a slightly less-humid environment than the other roots and greens. The salad greens go right in the refrigerator (they’re already in a bag), and the rutabagas, turnips, winter radishes, celeriac, carrots, beets, and rosemary should all go in bags and into the crisper drawer. There’s no need to keep them separate. The potatoes will prefer a dark, cool space with relatively low humidity; I keep my household spuds in a bowl on a shelf in the pantry, covered with a towel. Keep the onions in a dry location.

Baby Lettuce – From our greenhouses, we thought this crop had completely winterkilled, but it has come back quite nicely!

Red Cabbage – This is the last of the cabbage, and it looks a little tough, but it’s still delicious.

Rutabagas

Cipollini Onions

Yukon Gold Potatoes – This week’s spuds come from our neighbor Glen Elsbernd at G It’s Fresh. He’s a certified organic grower near Calmar. Growing potatoes on any kind of scale used equipment that isn’t readily adapted to other crops, and we are glad to have another hand at this.

Carrots

Purple Top Turnips

Black Spanish Winter Radishes

Gold Beets – A lot like red beets, but without the anthocyanin pigments that make them red; maybe a touch sweeter, and slightly less earthy in flavor. For years, gold beets all suffered from low germination and low seedling vigor, but breeding efforts in both the public and private sectors over the last ten years have finally resulted in some good, vigorous varieties. Hurray for good, old-fashioned Mendellian plant breeding!

Rosemary Bunches

Celeriac - Celeriac is the same species as celery, but bred for the swollen root rather than the fleshy stems. A more primitive version of the species, celeriac has contributed almost all of the modern pest resistance to modern celery varieties, another example of the success of old-fashioned plant breeding. It has the same flavor compounds, but they come through more strongly; the flesh is soggy-firm, and works best in cooked dishes, although this week’s celeriac salad recipe only briefly cooks the root and serves it chilled.

Recipes

2010-03-04T08:47:00.000-06:00

Roasted Turnips and Carrots

1/2 lb carrots
1 lb turnips
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400. Prepare the carrots and turnips so that they are about the same size and shape, by cutting the turnips lengthwise into halves or quarters. Toss with olive oil and thyme, and season generously with salt and pepper. Spread evenly in a baking pan in a single layer, and roast, uncovered, for 20 to 45 minutes, stirring and tossing periodically until the vegetables are cooked through.

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.

Light and Lively Slaw

The Dressing
2 Tablespoons rice wine Vinegar
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons minced fresh mint
salt to taste

The Slaw
3 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh onion
1 small beet, grated (raw beet)
1 large carrot, grated
1Tablespoon sesame seeds

In a bowl combine all the dressing ingredients. Set aside.

Combine the cabbage, onion, carrot, beet, and sesame seeds in a medium bowl. Toss the dressing with the slaw ingredients. Wait 10 minutes for flavors to blend and serve.

Skier: Olympian, Medalist, and Organic Farmer

2010-02-18T11:00:00.002-06:00

Having spent some time as a ski bum in Aspen as part of my long and windy road to a vegetable farm in Northeast Iowa, I always find these sorts of things interesting… Chris

Barth Anderson
Fair Food Fight
www.fairfoodfight.com

Having

Two time silver medalist in past Olympic Games and a bronze medalist this year in Vancouver, Olympic skier Bode Miller of New Hampshire is also an organic farmer. After winning his second overall World Cup ski title, Bode purchased a plot of land and started an organic vegetable farm.

"I grew up in a house with no running water or electricity and we grew our own produce and it was all organic so I was born with that," he said in a Stonyfield Farm video. "We have a farm stand here and they can buy any vegetable they could buy in a store, and it's all organic."

Miller's 630-acre stretch, called Turtle Ridge Farm, seems sized for production, but Miller plans to keep it simple. The e Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests holds a conservation easement on part of the farm land, protects it from development and limits its use to farming and forestry. That's fine with Miller and his family.

“It’s going to stay the same. We’re just going to promote organic farming," said Kyla Miller-White, the skier’s sister and a member of Turtle Ridge’s board.

In 2005, Miller became the first American to win the overall World Cup title in over 20 years. He has 31 World Cup victories, more than any other American.

Farm Happenings

2010-02-18T11:00:00.001-06:00

Weather: The weather has actually been quite pleasant these last two weeks, with the snowstorms happening at the right times to not interfere with our packing and delivery schedule. The sunshine and lengthening days have been quite appreciated.

What We Did: Ben worked with two carpenter friends of ours to build new benches in the greenhouse. As we continue our transition to a simpler, more user-friendly transplant production system, moving our flats up onto benches puts them into a more heater-friendly position, and will make them easier to work with, as well. Sarah kept the packing shed running, and Chris worked hard to put the final touches on preparations for the MOSES Organic Farming Conference, which happens next week.

Comings and Goings: Not much these last two weeks, just a lot of knuckling under and working on projects around the farm. Bryan Markhart, our intern for the month of January, left last Friday to head back to Bennington College in Vermont; we appreciated the boost his presence provided, and the many little jobs he was able to help us get done.

In the Kitchen

2010-02-18T10:59:00.000-06:00

Spinach – The spinach has recovered nicely from December’s brutal treatment, and has started to grow vigorously with the lengthening days. We are pleased to be able to put a full pound in this week’s boxes.

Rutabagas - The smooth-skinned, purple-topped rutabaga was developed from crossbreeding a cabbage and a turnip; its original improvement and promotion was the work of Swiss botanist Caspar Bauhin in the early 1600’s—hence the rutabaga’s frequent appellation as a “Swede” or “Swedish turnip.” Delicious mashed with potatoes, but the recipe below is one of our household favorites.

Purple Top Turnips

Black Spanish Winter Radishes – Sliced thinly, these taste great with a good sharp cheese and a nice cold beer. Also nice cooked as you would a turnip.

Carrots

Cipollini Onions - These flat Italian heirlooms have a wonderfully rich flavor. I prefer to use them where the onion is featured, but they work just fine as a “regular” onion as well.

Red Beets

Dried Hot Peppers – Use these to infuse a puttanesca sauce, or grind them up in a coffee grinder for a cayenne-type seasoning.

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Rutabaga Gratin

1-1/2 lbs rutabaga, sliced very thin
2 tbsp flour
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup grated parmesan
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
2 cloves minced garlic

Preheat oven to 375. Steam rutabaga slices for about three minutes, until crisp tender. Butter a 5 x 9 baking dish. Arrange 1/3 of the rutabaga slices evenly over the bottom and sprinkle with 1/2 of the rosemary, 1/2 of the flour, 1/3 of the parmesan, and black pepper. Add a second layer, and sprinkle with the remaining rosemary and flour, another 1/3 of the parmesan, and black pepper. Add a third layer, and sprinkle with parmesan and black pepper. Combine the cream, stock, and garlic and bring the mixture just to a boil. Pour over the rutabagas. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes or so, until browned.

Turnip Cippolini Onion Saute

3 -4 medium turnips cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3 medium cippolini onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup butter
dash nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Boil turnips until fork tender about 7 minutes. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat until foamy. Add onions, and cook until soft adn starting to brown. Drain turnips and add to onions. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper; cook until golden brown.

Quick Beets

1 1/2 lbs Beets, julienned
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme

Heat a medium pan and add olive oil and beets. Cover for 5 minutes to lightly steam in own moisture. Uncover and saute (you may need to add a tich more oil) until lightly browned. Toss the beets with lemon juice, salt and pepper, and thyme. Serve.

Farm Happenings

2010-02-04T08:18:00.001-06:00

Weather: Mostly mild over the last two weeks. Although I love winter, it has been a bit of a relief to have it get a little easier. Snow on Monday night provided a welcome cover up to a landscape that had become a little bit dingy.

What We Did: Planning moved ahead. Chris finished up a project about post harvest handling for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, including visits to the packing sheds at Featherstone Farm and Driftless Organics. Ben put together plans for new benches and an automatic watering system in our transplant production greenhouse. Sarah made way for shifting the rosemary pots out of the transplant greenhouse and into one of the other greenhouses, where we just installed a heater. Decorah Electric came out and repaired the peak vent on the transplant greenhouse and an electrical fault in one of the mobile greenhouses. Bryan cleaned cabbage and packed herbs.

Comings and Goings: Chris traveled to the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference to present workshops on food safety and business planning last weekend. Ben took a well-deserved vacation.

In the Kitchen

2010-02-04T08:17:00.000-06:00

When you get this box home, the squash, and onions should be left in a cool, dry place. Bag up the roots and the cabbage, and put them in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.

The Rock Spring Farm Blog, www.eatbetternews.com, has several years’ worth of recipes and vegetable descriptions. You can visit there any time to search for recipes and tips on how to use your CSA share produce.

Carrots

Cipollini Onions – These flat Italian heirlooms have a wonderfully rich flavor. I prefer to use them where the onion is featured, but they work just fine as a “regular” onion as well. The red variety we grow is only produced in one valley in Italy, and seeds have become scarce in recent years due to repeated poor seasons.

Celeriac

Yukon Gold Potatoes – We have stored these in our cooler, which causes the starch to turn to sugar; stored at room temperature for a couple of days, the sugars will cycle back to starch. Sugars in potatoes can make them taste funny to some people, and can cause undesirable blackening in cooking as they caramelize, especially if you cook them at high temperatures. In the world of potato breeding (a fascinating world, since cultivated potatoes have four sets of chromosomes instead of two), a major emphasis is how quickly those sugars can cycle back to starch out of cold storage, since about 12% of the total crop is used for chipping; when you get a chip that has dark brown coloration, that potato had too much sugar.

Chioggia Beets – With a true-red skin, these beets have a bull’s eye pattern on the inside if you slice them horizontally. Sliced vertically, they sometimes have a nice heart pattern that can make a sweet valentine’s display. The pattern will bleed out if boiled or steamed, but stays in if baked.

Rutabagas

Red Cabbage

Spinach – This spinach is delicious, but it’s been hard to harvest because so many leaves were damaged in the deep freeze over the holidays. As the weather warms, it is slowly revitalizing.

Winter Squash – Heart of Gold or Acorn this week, as we deplete our supply

Black Spanish Winter Radish

Fresh Bay Leaves – Fresh Bay Leaves have a more intense and complex flavor than dried bay. You can use them just as you would the standard dry leaves, but expect much more out of the fresh leaves. These leaves are harvested from our own trees grown in our greenhouse.

Beans and Tomatoes with Fresh Bay

1 Red Onion, chopped
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 14 oz. can Chopped Tomatoes
4 fresh bay leaves
1 14 oz can white beans

Saute the red onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the tomatoes, fresh bay, and beans and simmer for 10 or 15 minutes.

Caramelized Cippolini Onions

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds Cippolini onions, peeled
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 bay leaf
4 tablespoons stock
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large, ovenproof saucepan over a medium flame. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the onions to the butter and cook for about 20 minutes, until they are nicely browned. Add the sugar, wine, vinegars, bay leaf, and stock, and bring to a simmer. Place the pan in the oven and cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the onions are soft. Remove the onions from the pan with a slotted spoon. Reduce the sauce over low heat until it achieves a slightly viscous consistency, about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper, and reheat the onions in the sauce.

Basic Baked Beets

Some beets
Some olive oil
Some water

Simply rub trimmed (not peeled) beets with olive or vegetable oil and place them in a casserole dish with 1/2 inch of water. Cover and bake in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. The beets are ready when they can easily be penetrated with a paring knife. Cool slightly and slip the peel off. We slip the peel off under running water; it saves on burning the fingers. Eat and enjoy.

Gene analysis shows male farmers spread across Europe

2010-01-20T21:19:00.002-06:00

From Barth Anderson at Fair Food Fight, used with permission.

In a PloS Biology study released Tuesday and led by geneticist Patricia Balaresque of England's University of Leicester, researchers examined modern European men's genes to see how the continent was settled.

In particular, researchers were searching for clues as to how farming spread across Europe. When you look at the spread of agriculture out of the Fertile Crescent in the New Stone Age, the relative swiftness of it (just a few thousand years) makes you wonder if it was that new-fangled farming craz taking Neolithic Europe by storm, or if it was people with the technology that were migrating steadily and quickly out of Syria and Iraq. According to the genetic record, it's the latter.

"The incoming farming populations expand," Jobling [the study's senio author] says. Rather than gene differences clustering around some areas and not appearing in others — to be expected if early farmers had traded technology instead of migrating — the pattern of gene differences depicts a smooth march of male farmers' genes across Europe.

The genetic record apparently also shows that European mothers were probably not women from the same source locale of the population explosion (the "Near East"). Via Scientific American blog:

"More than 80 percent of European Y chromosomes descend from incoming farmers," geneticist Patricia Balaresque, also of the University of Leicester and lead study author, said in a prepared statement. "In contrast, most maternal genetic lineages seem to descend from hunter-gatherers."

How could these early European ancestors come from such different groups? "To us, this suggests a reproductive advantage for farming males over indigenous hunter-gatherer males during the switch from hunting and gathering to farming," Balaresque said. "Maybe, back then, it was just sexier to be a farmer."

Look. Here's your conquering hero now!

Farm Happenings

2010-01-20T21:18:00.000-06:00

Weather: The weather suddenly turned mild. I think it takes all of the excitement out of winter to go through weeks without snow and subzero weather. If I wanted weather like that, I wouldn’t live in the Midwest. We need another blizzard!

What We Did: Lots and lots of planning. Continuing to wash roots.

Comings and Goings: Chris presented two workshops at the Minnesota Organic Conference in St. Cloud last week. Bryan Markhart joined us for a winter stint on break from Bennington College in Vermont; he’s living at the farm and helping out with household and childcare responsibilities, as well as cleaning roots and weeding rosemary.

In the Kitchen

2010-01-20T20:20:00.000-06:00

When you get this box home, the squash, and onions should be left in a cool, dry place. Bag up the roots and the cabbage, and put them in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.

Carrots

Cipollini Onions – Use these flat Italian Heirlooms where you want to feature the onion flavor. They’ve got a much broader flavor note than regular onions. You can also use them where you would use a regular onion.

Rutabaga – Purple top, yellow bottoms

Turnips – Purple top, white bottoms

Celeriac

Black Spanish Winter Radish – Spicy, and very nice paired with cheddar cheese and dark beer.

Heart of Gold Squash

Red Cabbage

Gold Beets – Like regular beets, but with a sweeter flavor and less earthiness.

Spinach – From the greenhouses. We had some freezing damage in here after the extreme cold of December and January, so we worked hard to get the best leaves.

Rosemary – from the heated greenhouse, where we overwinter this crop.

Roasted Turnips and Carrots

1/2 lb carrots
1 lb turnips
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper

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

Wilted Cabbage Salad

2 lb savoy cabbage, washed and shredded
4 - 5 strips bacon, cooked crisp
salt and pepper
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil

Put cabbage in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Place cabbage in a dry bowl and season with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Mix in the olive oil (or substitute bacon fat). Crumble bacon over warm salad.

What Now?

2010-01-05T20:12:00.001-06:00

My favorite question from non-farmers comes as winter approaches: What do you do in the winter? Honestly, I didn’t really know the answer to this question until I began managing a farm in Maine. The answer? We plan. And plan some more.

Summer on the diversified vegetable farm is more than a little complicated. Each year, we manage over 1,000 planting events, each requiring different seeds, seeder or transplanter settings, and dates, starting in February and ending in September. Each of our 75 fields has a different pattern of drying and moisture that dictates different timing for preparing the soil and managing the weeds. For most of the summer, we harvest, wash and pack about 30 different crops each week, each with its own requirements. We deliver these crops to each of 10 different locations every week.

We also manage the burdock and thistles in the pasture, planting trees, building greenhouses, maintaining tractors, ordering supplies, writing paychecks, paying loans, hiring employees, and pretty much whatever else needs doing or thinking about. On the farm, the CEO and the chief widget mover are often one and the same.

Of course, all of these events are subject to the vagaries of drought, flood, frost, and excessive heat. Even the normal variations in weather—the necessary rains, the all-important week of good weather in the first week of May—can create major bumps in the farming road. You can’t plant when it’s wet, and most crops hate to be harvested in the heat.

So throughout January and February do whatever we can to find a clear path from one end of the season to the next. First, we outline our financial plan for the year, answering questions like, how many CSA members do we want next year, how much money do we need to make at farmers market, and how many new toys can we buy? Next comes the planting plan. We begin by trying to figure out how much of each crop we want available to harvest when, and work backwards to when we need to plant it and how much seed we need to buy. I’ve developed a pretty nifty database solution such that when we plug in the date we want to harvest and how much, it fills in the rest of the information (provided we’ve got some good data to work with!) When that is done, we return to our work on the financial plan, revising and polishing and doing the harder work of figuring out just how we are going to make everything work.

Several years ago, we read about and developed a tool for our farm that we call “Life Planning”. We plot all of the major events of the year, from harvesting asparagus to planting tomatoes in the greenhouse to each of the kids’ birthdays, on a grid so that we can look at the amount of work in a given week and decide ahead of time whether we need to adjust our plan. It also serves as a reminder each week of things we shouldn’t forget to do, and relieves a lot of stress because we know things won’t slip by us.

All of this work keeps us busy right up until February 15th, when we start planting onions in the greenhouse. I will try to slip in a few late mornings and maybe a little time off the farm, but for the most part, what we do in the winter is look forward to summer again.

Farm Happenings

2010-01-05T20:11:00.001-06:00

Weather: In this sort of cold, I feel grateful to have no livestock on the farm. Livestock in this weather means frozen waterers and difficult feeding; some folks I have talked to recently are actually calving in this January freeze. The only things I have to keep warm are rosemary and stored roots, which just isn’t that bad. Unfortunately, crops in our unheated greenhouses have been hurt by this early deep freeze; it remains unclear how well they will recover. Last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, we had spinach to harvest in the first week of January, but no market for it. I’m hoping that this weather will break, and the spinach will come back.

What We Did: The snow around Christmas kept Ben and Sarah home several days, so mostly we focused on staying caught up on packing roots and other urgent tasks. We did find time to take stock of our winter projects, and took a complete inventory of our seeds.

Comings and Goings: Chris stayed at home with Oliver and Isabel for the holidays, and had quite a nice time. Not much coming or going really, which was a nice change.

In the Kitchen

2010-01-05T20:10:00.000-06:00

When you get this box home, the dried peppers, squash, and shallots should be left in a cool, dry place. Bag up the roots and the cabbage, and put them in the crisper drawer of your cooler.

Heart of Gold Squash

Dried Peppers – In the paper bag. We harvested these in September and dried them in our onion curing racks. These aren’t super hot, and will make a nice addition to soups and sauces, especially if you remove them at the end of cooking.

Red Savoy Cabbage – use this like green savoy cabbage, very light and crunchy.

Purple Top Turnips – these are the roots with purple tops and white roots

Beauty Heart Radishes – green tops and white bottoms, with a beautiful, pink interior with great sweetness and crunch.

Gold Beets – use like red beets, but without all of the staining; they have a slightly less-earthy flavor.

Shallots

Daikon Radish – long and white, delicious raw or cooked

Rutabagas – Purple tops, yellow bottoms. Use a good sharp knife on these.

Carrots

Celeriac – the knobbly root that smells like celery

Brussels Sprouts – a small amount, from our remaining inventory. These suffered some freezing damage out in the field, but a quick peel leaves an outstandingly-sweet little cabbage-y treat.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lb Brussels sprouts
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven 400 degrees. Mix Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for about 40 minutes, shaking occasionally, until crisp on the outside but still tender inside. Sprinkle with even more salt, and serve.

Rutabaga Rosemary Fries

2 Rutabagas
olive oil
minced fresh rosemary
salt

Peel the rutabaga and cut into a ½-inch “fries.” Steam in a steamer basket over boiling water until just tender. Drain and toss with a generous amount of olive oil and the rosemary. Lay the fries in a single layer on a cookie sheet, with none of the fries touching each other, and bake in a 400-degree oven for about 25 minutes, turning them once in the middle. Place under the broiler for about two minutes to brown them, salt to taste, and serve.

Puttanesca Sauce

Sauté some garlic, onions, and anchovies in olive oil. Add dried chilies (either chop them up and leave them in, or use them whole and take them out at the end of cooking), black olives, capers, and chopped tomatoes (canned or fresh). Maybe add a splash of red wine. Simmer for ten or twenty minutes to reduce the sauce, depending on how much liquid you’ve got.

Winter's Groundwork

2009-12-16T19:56:00.001-06:00

The first big snow of the winter felt last week, complete with blizzard warnings and high winds. With a long driveway, very rural roads, employees who come to work every day, and regular deliveries both coming and going, I pay close attention to the weather forecast to plan out how to keep the driveway clear. With a big snow, waiting too long can make the driveway almost impossible to clear; but starting too early wastes time and fuel, so I try not to do that, either. During a long snowfall event, I will plow each morning and night.

Our snow plow setup isn’t fancy. We have two large-ish tractors on the farm (well, they seem big to me, but not to my neighbors) – neither with a cab, and both with front-wheel assist. During the winter, I keep a simple grading blade hooked to the back of one, and a large snow bucket on the other. It doesn’t hurt to start both tractors periodically, and a good snowfall gives me a good excuse to start them both. Because it can take a long time to warm up the transmission and hydraulic fluid they use to lower and raise the tools, when the weather hovers down below zero, I will often head out to start the tractor I plan to use, and then come back in for another cup of coffee.

The first plowing of the year lays the groundwork for the rest of the winter and on into the spring. A poorly-positioned pile of snow can melt right into the greenhouse, or cause large drifts every time the wind blows, or take up space I will need for the next big snowfall.

I always plow to the south and the east whenever possible, to avoid drifting, even though it means extra trips up the driveway. I also learned early on to plow driving backwards (the blade goes on the back of the tractor) to avoid driving off the driveway in flat light and deep snow; driving backwards and to the south means I first drive up to the top of the driveway, then back down it, about a quarter mile. Then up to the top again, and back down again. The site of the snow rolling away from the blade easily turns hypnotic, and makes me want to spend all day just moving snow – a dangerous temptation at ten below.

With the driveway clear, I start plowing out the farmyard where trucks turn around to get to the packing shed or the greenhouse, moving all of the snow to the southeast corner, lifting the blade at the end up each run to push the snow up and over the pile. Then, I head back up to the wide top of the driveway, where I build up piles at either side of the entrance so that speedy drivers trying to turn into the driveway have something to bounce off of instead of going straight into the ditch. The farm’s on a stretch of road that bends to the left but banks the other way, and it’s pretty easy to misjudge things; besides, a stuck car means getting out the tractor all over again.

Farm Happenings

2009-12-16T19:55:00.002-06:00

Weather: We had the first big snow of the winter last week, with fifteen inches of snow on Wednesday and drifts up to my waist in places. Not the greatest snowshoeing weather, but daughter Isabel and I went out anyways, and found a peaceful spot in the woods to listen to the world around us.

What We Did: We washed and packed and washed and packed. Wholesale sales of roots have been strong this December, which we’ve really appreciated.

Comings and Goings: Chris’ friend Jana came twice to help out with the extra work on our plates, which was just great. Chris spent too much time on the road doing the organic activist-organizer-teacher thing, with several farm visits in Wisconsin and Iowa, and classes on financial planning for Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings program (in River Falls, Wisconsin, and St. Joseph, Minnesota), a conference staff meeting in Spring Valley, Wisconsin, a meeting in La Crosse about a book project he’s working on, classes in Ames at the Iowa Organic Conference on season extension and post-harvest handling, and another class near Whitewater State Park about all of the non-technical stuff farmers should consider when they think about building a greenhouse.

In the Kitchen

2009-12-16T19:54:00.000-06:00

Like beets, Brussels Sprouts often garner looks of disdain, with memories of childhood dinners ruined by the funny little cabbages. But wait! Brussels sprouts harvested after a hard frost are an entirely different vegetable than the specimens from the coast of California. Try them! To prepare for cooking, pare off the tough bottom part of the sprout stem. Steaming works well, and is more forgiving than boiling, but don’t overcook them! Sprouts are best when tender but not mushy. This year’s sprouts got harvested a little bit late, and suffered a little bit for it in appearance; but what they lack in beauty, they more than make up for in sweet deliciousness. Our favorite, albeit unconventional, preparation follows.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lb Brussels sprouts
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Heart of Gold squash has been a Rock Spring Farm favorite for years and years, loved for its pleasant texture (not too dry, not too moist) and sweet, rich flavor.

Flattened Cipollini Onions (“cipollini” means “little onion” in Italian, so this ends up being “little onion onions,” but, oh well) have a more well-rounded flavor than the standard red or yellow globe-shaped onions, and we like to use them in places where we want to feature the onion, rather than using it as a seasoning, as you might in cooking them alongside a roast, or as a stand-alone vegetable.

Caramelized Cippolini Onions

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds Cipollini onions, peeled
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 bay leaf
4 tablespoons stock
salt and pepper to taste

Beauty Heart Radishes – green on top, with white tails and a little pink blush at the tip – have a delicious sweet flavor and crunchy texture. Just slice them thinly and enjoy.

The Rutabagas are the ones with purple shoulders and pale yellow tails. The Rutabaga’s reputation is a mystery to me. With a texture as smooth as a new potato and a delightfully earthy flavor and golden color, why are rutabagas so unloved? I find them to be a wonderful symbol of the strength and grounded-ness, with a little but of sweetness added in, that can bear us through winter. Delicious mashed with potatoes, but this recipe won the family favorite award at our house.

Rutabaga Gratin

1-1/2 lbs rutabaga, sliced very thin
2 tbsp flour
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup grated parmesan
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
2 cloves minced garlic

This week’s Red Savoy Cabbage has a delightful, light flavor and beautiful color well suited to light cooking.

Spicy Cabbage

1/3 cup onion, chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups shredded cabbage
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
dash or two of ginger juice or some thinly slice ginger

Cook the onions lightly in the olive oil, and add the cabbage, sesame seeds, and hot pepper. Cook until the cabbage is tender about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the ginger, toss and serve.

The bright red roots in this week’s box are Chioggia Beets. That’s kee-oh-gee-uh, with a lot of Italian thrown in away. Sliced latitudinal-ly, they have a delightful bull’s-eye pattern that will bleed away if you boil or steam them, but stays intact when baked or roasted. They have a slightly sweet flavor than your average beet, and less earthiness.

Basic Baked Beets

Some beets
Some olive oil
Some water

Seed Catalogs

2009-12-01T19:54:00.002-06:00

Winter has yet to arrive at the farm in any significant fashion, except back in October, when it seemed that the weather might just have turned for good. The ground freezes up on frosty mornings, but always lets go by midday, and we’ve been blessed with a succession of sunny days. And yet, before this year’s slate has even been wiped clean, we know for certain that spring is just around the corner, because the seed catalogs have begun to arrive.

Seed catalogs represent all that is right and good about growing vegetables. There are no bugs in seed catalogs. The weather is neither too hot nor too cold. The timing is always when we can first work the soil, or just after the last spring frost has passed. The vegetables look perfect: beautiful domes of broccoli, golden orange pumpkins, and big, tight heads of romaine lettuce. The weeds simply don’t exist.

Like a photo album, a good seed catalog can be a walk down memory lane. I visit all of my old friends, remembering their pleasant surprises and solid goodness. The sturdy hardiness of Winterbor kale, the wild sweetness of Sungold cherry tomatoes, and the orange crunchiness of Bolero carrots. Occasionally, I stumble across a photograph of a bitter memory—the yellow tastelessness of Azafran tomatoes, or the ugly waxiness of Sugar Sprint peas. Occasionally, an important picture is missing, and we curse under our breaths, “Where the @#$% am I going to find Sugarloaf squash this year?”

The fantasies we develop while reading seed catalogs tell about the depths of our vegetable souls. In the darkest days of the year, I can’t resist a tomato variety, and look forward to becoming the largest Belgian endive grower in the Upper Midwest. I dream about luscious, large, improbably-colored eggplants, and order small packets of every red, frilly lettuce in the catalog. Oliver spends days poring over pictures of sweet corn and melons.

In December, the fields always look ragged and tired, and, frankly, I feel the same way. Like the fields, I want nothing more than to draw into myself, letting the winter wash over me. But before I’ve fully rested from the intensity of the growing season, the seed catalogs begin flowing through my like the first trickle of water melting off the snow banks on the ridge. Hope springs eternal, and I am reenergized with a vision of the future. This will be the year the Belgian endive really works. I will find the perfect lettuce in just the right shade of red. And the sweetness and fragrance of the ripe melons will lift our souls beyond these earthly bonds.

Farm Happenings

2009-12-01T19:54:00.001-06:00

Weather: Unbelievably warm and pleasant.

What We Did: Mostly, we focused on the Thanksgiving holiday, a huge crunch time on the farm between roots and herbs. We washed a whole lot carrots and put a whole lot of herbs in clamshells.

Bird Watching: I’ve been paying more attention to the birds on the farm these last couple of months, which has provided an unending supply of appreciation as I’ve learned to identify several by ear and sight that I didn’t know before. Chickadees, especially, have become a favorite of mine, as bouncing flocks of them move through the oaks and the dried prairie flower seed heads as I walk back from putting the kids on the bus in the morning. On Sunday, pheasants burst out of the asparagus field, and a pileated woodpecker dogged me from the oak savanna to the spruce tree line behind the house. Just this morning, I heard and saw a nuthatch and a cardinal as I walked up to the road. A red tailed hawk guarded the field edges, and an immature bald eagle hovered over Sarah at the packing shed.

In the Kitchen

2009-12-01T19:53:00.000-06:00

Long, white Daikon radishes are popular in Japan, where they account for 15% of that country’s vegetable production. We frequently enjoy them sliced, raw, as a foil to salty meats or just for snacking. We also enjoy the following recipe on a regular basis throughout the winter:

Beet, Carrot, and Daikon Salad

1 medium beet
6-inch piece of daikon
1 medium carrot
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp vegetable oil

Grate all of the roots together, and add salt and pepper to taste. Add rice vinegar, sesame oil, and canola. Makes 4 small servings.

Kale is a wonderful winter green, frequently harvestable until the snow flies and even beyond. The colder the weather, the sweeter the flavor grows. It goes well with salty or cured meats, pungent aromatics, acid flavors, and cream. Alongside baked squash and prosciutto ham, the following dish really shines. Like all greens, it stores best in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.

Braised Kale with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Garlic

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1 bunch curly kale
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 oz crumbled goat, feta, sharp cheddar cheese

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or 4 qt soup pot. Add garlic and sauté, stirring, until it starts to brown. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and stir to combine. Add the kale, tossing to coat well with the oil. Season with salt and pepper, add the water and wine, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until the kale has softened. Uncover, turn the heat up, and cook away the liquid, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, season with vinegar, and top with cheese.

Purple-topped turnips are delicious in the fall, grounding the flavors of other root vegetables. Larger turnips should be peeled, while the smaller ones can be prepared whole. Seven-year old Isabel enjoys preparing the following recipe quite often throughout the winter.

Roasted Turnips and Carrots

1/2 lb carrots
1 lb turnips
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper

Roasted Fall Vegetables with Balsamic Vinegar

4 lbs assorted root vegetables: turnips, rutabaga, celeriac, winter radish, carrots, beets; quartered onions and chunks of winter squash work well too.
3 tablespoons olive oil
a smattering of fresh or dried herbs (we like rosemary)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub vegetables and cut off roots and tops. Cut into 2 inch pieces and toss with olive oil. Spread on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes or until fork tender. Add minced garlic and dried herbs. Stir and cook for 7 minutes more. Remove from oven. Add balsamic, salt and pepper. Mix well and serve.

The Black Spanish Radishes really shine when sliced paper thin (I keep a mandolin handy for this sort of thing, as well as for making matchsticks from root vegetables), drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. Also wonderful with sharp cheddar cheese and a dark beer.

Moving Greenhouses

2009-11-11T17:12:00.000-06:00

On Monday, we moved our greenhouses. This event, which we do every fall, is at the center of our winter crop production. The spinach we will harvest for the next CSA box was planted during the heat of mid-September, when tomatoes were still growing in the greenhouses. As the length of the days decreases, crop growth slows to a crawl. The tomatoes still produce using energy stored in the plant, but tender greens can only grow with the light of the sun. To counteract the slowing growth, we have to plant early and follow a precise schedule to insure a good supply of greens throughout the winter.

We don’t heat our winter greenhouses (except for one, that we keep at 32 degrees, to keep our rosemary alive). Instead, we rely on the sun’s warmth during the winter days and a selection of hardy crops to survive the winter’s cold. By early December, the temperature falls below freezing every night in the greenhouses, but we have selected crops that can handle the harsher weather with a little bit of protection.

By having the crops out of doors throughout the fall, they have a chance to harden off to the cold days to come. Inside of the greenhouse, sunny days turn quite warm, and would produce lush, tender growth. The first cold snap of early fall would turn them to mush inside the greenhouse. By hardening the crops out of doors, we prepare them for the harsh reality of winter.

So every fall, we pull the greenhouses over the growing crops. Don, from Don’s Towing in Decorah, drives out with his very shiny dual winch tow truck (I want one!) and parks at the far end of the salad beds from the greenhouse. We undo the anchors that hold the greenhouse in place, hook up the winch cables, and slowly and carefully reel it in. Two people with heavy pry bars steer the greenhouse, which is mounted on skis. It takes about a twenty minutes to move 100 feet—but you have to be careful with a 3,000 square foot building!

Tucking in the winter salad begins the process of putting the farm to bed for the winter. Due to the sketchy October weather, we moved the greenhouses late this year. Over the next few weeks we will mulch the garlic and herbs, clean up the tools and tractor implements, and batten down the hatches for the long night of winter.

Farm Happenings

2009-11-11T17:11:00.002-06:00

Weather: By the end of this year’s gray and rainy October, I had just about given up on the idea that we would get all of our roots out of the ground down at our rental property. We could run the root digger in the mud, and we could certainly pick by hand in the mud (not fun, but I’ve done it before), but we couldn’t get our wagons up the grass-and-mud road that ran through the forest and up the hill from that spot. And then, it dried out! Almost two full weeks without any significant rainfall have let us get caught up on our harvesting, and by the end of this week we should be fully caught up on our fall field work. What a blessing.

What We Did: Everything focused round roots harvest for the last two weeks. We lent the root digger to our friends at Featherstone Farm in exchange for them sending a large crew of workers our way to get the roots out that we couldn’t harvest with the machine. We moved greenhouses on Monday of this week to cover the outdoor greens.

Comings and Goings: My dad, Bob, came to stay for the month of October. He just graduated from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula, so we’ve got an official staff photographer for the month! His fellow student, Sarah, joined us over the weekend for photo shoots and some graphic design work.

In the Kitchen

2009-11-11T17:11:00.001-06:00

When you get your box home this week almost everything goes in the crisper drawer in a plastic bag. The acorn squash and the yellow onions will prefer a cool and dry location, with low humidity being the most important factor. I find that the cabbage stores well for up to two weeks in the crisper drawer without a bag; if you cut it to use part and store the rest, you’ll want to wrap the cut end tightly.

The rutabaga’s reputation is a mystery to us. With a texture as smooth as a new potato and a delightfully earthy flavor and golden color, why are rutabagas so unloved? The smooth-skinned, purple-topped rutabaga was developed from crossbreeding a cabbage and a turnip; its original improvement and promotion was the work of Swiss botanist Caspar Bauhin in the early 1600’s—hence the rutabaga’s frequent appellation as a “Swede” or “Swedish turnip.” Delicious mashed with potatoes, but this recipe won the family favorite award at our house.

Rutabaga Rosemary Fries

2 Rutabagas
olive oil
minced fresh rosemary
salt

With this week’s mild weather, we have had the good fortune to be able to continue to harvest spinach from outdoors. Our fall crop of Italian Parsley put on some regrowth, as well, although it’s pretty short. I’ve heard that the sign of a good chef is Italian parsley in the crisper drawer, so this week, everybody’s a good cook.

Kale continues to improve week by week with every frost, and we are still seeing fantastic quality coming out of the field. I most often prepare this by sautéing stemmed and chopped kale in a covered skillet for a few minutes, then sprinkling on tamari soy sauce and covering again to let it stem for a few minutes longer. But the kids love it when I take a few extra minutes to make the following delicious kale treat.

Crispy Kale

1 bunch kale
salt

Preheat the oven to 375. Stem and chop a bunch of kale. Put the kale on an oiled cookie tray, spreading it out evenly. Sprinkle with salt. Bake for 10 minutes, tossing once or twice during that time. If you wish, top with parmesan, then bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, tossing occasionally, until it is crisp. The kale will shrink and soften then it will begin to turn crisp. Remove from oven and let cool on the tray.

I admit that I used to sneer at Acorn Squash as the Iceberg lettuce of the squash world, but I have come to favor it somewhat over the years as a solid fall squash, storing well and tasting pretty darned good.

Gold Beets have a slightly sweeter flavor than red beets, and less of the deep earthy flavor. They also don’t stain. I especially enjoy them baked and served with a pat of butter.

Basic Baked Beets

Some beets
Some olive oil
Some water

Light and Lively Slaw

The Dressing

2 Tablespoons rice wine Vinegar
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
salt to taste

The Slaw

3 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh onion
1 small beet, grated (raw beet)
1 large carrot, grated
1Tablespoon sesame seeds

In a bowl combine all the dressing ingredients. Set aside.

Combine the cabbage, onion, carrot, beet, and sesame seeds in a medium bowl. Toss the dressing with the slaw ingredients. Wait 10 minutes for flavors to blend and serve.

Beauty Heart Radishes, with green shoulders and white bottoms, have been a favorite this fall on the farm, with slices appearing at almost every meal. Almost all of the heat occurs in the peel, so removing it can make these beautiful garnishes even more appealing to young kids.

Stingy Jack

2009-10-29T05:51:00.003-05:00

The traditional carving of the jack-o-lantern has its roots in a very old tale about a rather unpleasant man who dared to tangle with the devil, and ended up with naught but a glowing ember and a hollowed-out rutabaga to show for his trouble.

Stingy Jack was a miserable old drunk who wandered from town to town in a rather shiftless manner, lifting what he wanted from smokehouses and gardens that happened to lie unattended on his path. His ways of providing for himself didn’t leave him very welcome in any one place for very long, and he wandered through most of the countryside drinking in the taverns along the way, and working as little as possible. When he did have a turn of good fortune, he was loath to share it with anyone.

One day, as Jack was sitting in a tavern having one-too-many draughts of potato liquor, a figure sat down beside him. “Jack,” the figure said, “it’s time to go.”
“No,” Jack replied, “I’ve only just got started here.”

“Jack, I don’t think you understand,” said the new arrival. “You’re time’s up, and it’s time to go.”

Jack realized that the Devil had come to collect his malevolent soul. Never one to let go, he made one last request: he asked that the Devil have a drink with him before they departed. The Devil could find no reason to deny the request, and he and Jack, as kindred spirits, actually had quiet a good time before the Devil said it was time to go.

“But we have to pay up before we can leave!” Jack protested.

“Come on, now, Jack, surely you have a coin to pay your way.”

Jack was determined not to go easily. “Now, look here,” he said. “Why don’t you just change into a silver coin, and I’ll pay the bartender, and while he sleeps tonight, you can turn back into yourself and we’ll have gotten the better of the man.”

“I like the way you think,” said the Devil, and promptly changed into a coin, whereupon Jack grabbed it and shoved it quickly into his pocket, where he happened to have a silver cross that he had lifted from a shop a few villages back. The Devil, bound by the cross, could not change back from the coin, and began to howl, whereupon Jack slipped out of the tavern and ran down the road.

It didn’t take Jack long to weary of the howling, and he struck a bargain with the Devil that he lay no claim to Jack’s soul, and that Jack never be taken into Hell. Freed from Jack’s pocket, the Devil departed without looking back.

Although the Devil laid no claim to Jack’s soul, his drinking and evil ways eventually took their toll, and some seven years later, Jack dropped dead in the middle of a rutabaga patch that, of course, was not his own. Still holding onto the rutabaga - only Jack was so stingy that he could onto something after his own death – Jack found himself moving as a ghost through the netherworld. As he made his way down to hell, Jack scooped the heart out of his rutabaga and ate it.

When he got to hell, nobody greeted him at the gates. Jack rattled them until the Devil came, but the Devil said, “Jack, we made a deal, and since I can’t have your soul, and since I’m not the forgiving type, I’m not about to let you in. You’ll have to try the other place.”

“The path from here to there is awfully dark,” Jack said. “Could I borrow a light?”

The Devil reached behind him and picked up a glowing coal, and tossed it to Jack. “Go ahead and keep it. You would, in any case.” Then the Devil disappeared back into the flames. Jack raked the coal into the hollowed-out rutabaga, and poked a couple of holes in it to let the light out, and walked on down the road. But when he made it to the pearly gates of Heaven, he was turned back at the entrance.

With no place available to go, Jack returned to this world, where he wandered without a body from place to place, just him and his glowing coal.

People who know about Jack carve out a rutabaga, or some other vegetable, and put a light inside to let him know that his thieving ghost isn’t welcome at that place.