News from the farm, a brief synopsis, and then on how to make a wonderful Mexican meal out of tomatillos and lots of lettuce.

Farm brief: it continues to be hot and dry, so most veggies and fruits continue to mature between three and four weeks early.  Garlic and onions have been harvested for curing, and the potatoes are almost ready - enjoying their two week in-ground curing prior to harvest the second week of July.  Garlic and onion harvest appear to be great - it can always be deceiving as both can rot during storage for a variety of reasons.  Potato harvest will likely be much less than last year due to very early heat.  Almost everything else is growing very well, and we are enjoying watching the success of many local heirloom varieties of tomatoes, melons, green beans, limas, corn, and cowpeas.  Our only real bust of the season so far seems to be eggplant - our first succession was slammed by flea beetles (the farmer mill calls this the worst season in recent history - it is for us) - and our second succession is now being eaten by the "second" or "Southern" wave of Colorado Potato Beetles, which I think for timing reasons have never seemed to cause our eggplant and potatoes many problems but have been awful the past 7-10 days or so.  We are currently handpicking to control in second and third successions in hopes to keep them at bay.  The second succession already has small fruit on it, which probably would have been ready by the end of this week if not affected by beetles.  Our tomatoes look the best they ever have.  We made a few changes to the timing of some varieties based on past seasons' results as well as adding a couple of new-to-us heirlooms and that seems to have made a significant difference.  We also added in an organic fertilizer to their potting soil this season to improve root development and prevent nitrogen deficiency prior to transplanting.  The peppers also look great.  I think we will have ripe peppers by the end of this week (before we would typically have even green peppers)!  Also coming along are the dry beans (black, cannellini, Tiger Eye, and Jacob's Cattle), pumpkins and winter squash, melons, sweet corn, and dry corn.  We just finished hand pollinating one of our dry corn varieties, Cherokee White Flour (very much endangered) in order to save pure seed for following seasons.  

On to tomatillos and lettuce: Megan's Mole Verde.  So what exactly are tomatillos?  They are a member of the Physalis genus like ground cherries and part of the nightshade family like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant.  They typically are green, although they can also be yellow and purple.  They come from Mexico, supposedly grown by the Aztecs, and are common in Mexican, Tex-Mex, and many Latin American cuisines.  First things first, remove the husk and wash them.  This is the best way to store them and also removes the sticky substance in between the fruit and the husk.  Mole verde: mole verde is a sauce common in Mexico typically used for pork or beef ribs but that also goes really well with chicken, seitan (my favorite), and tempeh.  It is also good with pork chops, cheese enchiladas, and even just as a dip with chips.  Traditionally, it incorporates acuyo leaves or leaves from chayote squash.  Neither of these are readily available here, so I have come up with a CSA friendly version.  

Ingredients:

3 heads of lettuce or 2 heads of lettuce and a bunch of chard (or an combination of the two, or you may substitute spinach, amaranth leaves, lamb's quarters, etc.)

2 small onions, quartered

3-6 cloves of garlic, depending on the garlic and your tastes, whole

4-6 chiles, roasted and peeled (poblanos, jalapenos, and Anaheims are a nice choice)

1/2 c. pumpkin seeds

1 lb. tomatillos, dehusked and washed

2 small, ripe tomatoes

1 bu. cilantro

1/2 t. cumin, optional

1 sprig oregano, optional, or epazote

1 t. organic, raw sugar

salt

Boil tomatillos and tomatoes for 5 minutes, until tomatillos change color.

Add 1/4 c. olive oil to pot.  Warm.  Add onions, garlic, chiles, and pumpkin seeds.  Cook 2-3 minutes, until seeds begin to brown.  

Add tomatillos, tomatoes, and mixture to a blender.  Blend with 1/2 c. broth or water.  Add back to pot.  Blend lettuce and/or greens with herbs.  Add to pot.  Add sugar and salt to taste.  Stir and bring whole mixture to boil.  Cover and reduce - it will splatter.  Cook for 20 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.  Add more broth or water if it is too thick.  Use right away or freeze (freezes really well).

  

Broccoli: Boon or bust?

Two seemingly unrelated things coincided this past week: rethinking how we do our veggie donations and an early broccoli harvest (our second succession, which came along with the first, is 3 weeks early).  Waste.  There is a significant amount of waste in "our" (the US) food system.  The USDA estimates that 25% of the food grown in the US never makes it to consumers and another 96 billion pounds of food annually is never used once purchased.  We came to farming, originally, from a a food systems perspective: how do we get out of the industrialized food system? how do we stop and reverse the social, environmental, cultural, and economic damage it causes? and how do we make healthy, locally-grown, organic food available to more people?  Harvesting hundreds of heads of early broccoli, I started thinking about these questions again, and much of what we do on our farm and through the CSA felt very much affirmed.  One great advantage of a CSA is that there is less waste.  We don't grow broccoli for a distributor-middle man or a chain grocer or a large "agricultural" company.  If we did, all of our broccoli that we are harvesting right now would be trash - too small to meet their specifications.  Instead, through the CSA, approximately 100 families per week (maybe 400? people) will eat broccoli for at least 4 weeks this spring.  And it is beautiful broccoli.  It is exactly what food really should be: yummy, packed-full of nutrients, fresh, vibrant, and free of insect-damage.  Sure, if it hadn't been so hot and the broccoli had come more on schedule, we would have had more broccoli overall and for a longer period of time, but we have been through enough springs here to know that we should celebrate any broccoli that we are able to harvest and that is exactly what we plan to do!  Enjoy your early-broccoli.  If you are bored with plain boiled or steamed broccoli, try these recipes.

Roasted Broccoli

4 c. broccoli florets

3-4 T. olive oil

salt to taste

Toss florets in olive oil and salt. Place on baking sheet.  Broil on low for 10-12 minutes.

Broccoli with Peanut Butter or Cashew Butter Sauce

4 c. broccoli florets

1/2 c. peanut butter or cashew butter

1/4 t. salt

1 T. curry powder (or to taste)

2 T. olive oil

enough water to make peanut butter into sauce

Mix peanut butter through olive oil.  Add enough water to make it a thick sauce.  Toss broccoli in sauce.  Place on baking sheet.  Broil on low for 12-15 minutes, until browned.  Stir half way through.

Broccoli Pesto (from Heidi Swanson’s super natural every day)

2 c. broccoli florets, cooked for 1 minute in boiling water, dunked in cold water, and 

drained

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2/3 c. pine nuts, toasted (or I like walnuts, too)

1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

2 T. lemon juice

1/4 c. olive oil

1/4 c. creme fraiche (or anything like it)

1/4 t. salt

Put it all in a food processor and blend.  Mix into pasta or make into a pizza sauce or put on sandwiches.

Ideas for broccoli stems: (1) peel, cut into strips, and dip in hummus; (2) peel, cut into strips, and make into refrigerator pickles; (3) blanch and freeze and use in broccoli-cheese soup when it isn’t so warm out; (4) bake like french fries

Fennel

Fennel is probably the most under-appreciated vegetable we grow.  I like to believe it is because most people have only had it raw or baked, both of which make for an unpleasant experience, in my opinion.  Slow-cooked, fennel is one of my favorites. Fennel (like celery and arugula) is at its best when you think of it as an herb: it is sort of strong and unappealing when eaten raw and fresh from the field but develops layers of wonderful flavors when coked and even takes on the “hmm...that is really good, what did you add to that?” role.  Many years ago, I found the following recipe in a cookbook that I have.  I have never actually made it in its entirety and instead have taken bits and pieces of it to make various meals depending on what we had at the time.  I strongly suggest taking a stab at it.  It has been tested many times amongst the “fennel-haters.”  If not, try fennel chopped small like celery in any soup.  I particularly like it in split pea soup (I don’t make it without it anymore) and white bean soup.  It is also good slow-cooked with green cabbage.

Potato Ragout with Fennel and Tofu 

from The Big Book of Vegetarian (Farrell-Kingsley) with my suggestion in italics

1 T. olive oil

1/2 c. onion, chopped  (1 c.)

1 fennel bulb, cored and chopped (I like it sliced and diced)

1 leek, chopped (leeks and fennel don’t always coincide here, so I eliminate)

1/4 c. parsley, chopped

2 T. rosemary, chopped

2 t. fennel seed 

2 T. balsamic vinegar

2 1/2 c. chopped tomatoes (I often make without tomatoes, in which case, also eliminate fennel seed)

2 pounds tofu, drained and cubed (use, eliminate, or substitute with meat - sausage is good choice since fennel is often used in sausage)

2 c. cooked white beans

a pinch of saffron (not necessary, only use it if you have it on hand, don’t go buy it for this)

2 c. broth or water

2 c. new potatoes, quartered

salt and pepper

Heat oil in dutch oven.  Add onion, fennel, leek, parsley, rosemary, and fennel seed (if using). Salt.  Cook 10 minutes on medium.  Add vinegar, cook 2 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes (if using).  Cook 6-8 minutes.  Add beans and tofu.  Dissolve saffron into broth, if using, and add to mixture.  Add potatoes.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce to a simmer.  Cook approx. 45 minutes, until potatoes are cooked and ragout is thickened.  Season with salt and pepper.

What do I do with those fennel fronds (the frizzy part on top)? a few options: you can use a little bit as garnish or in a yogurt-garlic sauce; they work great as filler in flower arrangements; and I recently learned that a wash of fennel fronds (boil water, add fennel, boil a couple of minutes, cool, and strain) is very good for the skin, particularly your face!

Oh Crazy Weather

This is not a long, thoughtful post, just an update.  We did have a freeze (30 degrees) here at the farm last night, but it seems almost everything has survived just fine.  Only losses were herbs and grains that we had planted early because of warmer weather (basil, rice, and amaranth) and annual flowers, which I neglect terribly.  We have extra trays of basil, rice, and amaranth in the greenhouse, so it will be easy to re-plant.  I didn't really think we would get through April without at least a frost!  The really good news is that the strawberries (some of which have begun to blush) survived under frost cover! This sudden, and short-lived, burst of cold will also sweeten up greens and lettuces that become slightly bitter in hot weather.

What's growing this season

Welcome to the 2012 CSA Season!  The spring season for us has been consistently inconsistent.  Our best spring was 2010, cool to mild and fairly wet.  This is by far the warmest late winter and early spring that we have had so far, and despite the storms, the first spring that we have had to irrigate.  Due to dry spells and warm temperatures, we have irrigated off and on since our first plants went in the ground in early February.  We even lost some of our earliest (coldest weather) crops to the heat.  

However, this spring has allowed earlier plantings of many crops and our earliest CSA yet.  The chard, beets, lettuces, and spinach all look vibrant, and the strawberries are covered in thousands upon thousands of early blooms and developing fruit.  Because of the heat, we are also trying a few new herbs, vegetables, and varieties (new to us).  We have expanded our herb selection to include cutting celery, cumin seed, chamomile, epazote, purslane, holy basil, thai basil, chives, and garlic chives in addition to our most popular herbs (basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and oregano).  We switched green pea varieties to Green Arrow peas, which are supposed to be more heat tolerant, and are trying fava beans (in case they aren't!).  We are also trialing several new to us lettuce varieties - all of which seem to be doing really well.  We have already taste-tested two varieties (buttery Tennis Ball and crispy Red Sails), and we really liked both of them.  Also, because our arugula was struggling so much (first knocked out by a heavy storm and then toasted in the 85 degree heat), we have added a brassica mix to our spring selection as well as Yukina Savoy - a spoon mustard that is used a little bit like spinach.  We wish there were more varieties and vegetables that we could experiment with in the spring.  Our spring temperatures tend to be too warm for many traditional spring vegetables, and yet we have just enough cold nights to keep us from planting frost-sensitive crops.  After our really warm winter, it is tempting to think about planting some crops in the fall for spring harvest as is done in more temperate climates.  We definitely still have much to learn about growing early spring crops here in east TN!

The summer offers a lot more flexibility, especially in terms of the diversity of varieties available for each crop.  In addition to our standard varieties, we are trialing a lot of new summer varieties (mostly heirlooms), as well as more grain crops.  We are growing four heirloom dent corn varieties this season, including TN Red Cob (our standard), Cherokee White Flour, Bloody Butcher, and Black Aztec.  We are also growing several green bean and dry bean varieties, in search of varieties that produce well in hot, dry summers.  Similarly, we are planting a variety of heirloom tomato varieties throughout the season, looking for varieties that do well in our hot, dry summers and ones that continue to produce once it cools off in the fall.  Oh and melons...we were really frustrated last summer watching most of the Little Baby Flower watermelons we planted be eaten by skunks.  Although they are much loved and the perfect size for CSA bins, their rinds are just too thin.  Instead, we have planned to plant several new cantaloupe and watermelon varieties, as well as the other varieties that we planted last season.  After you all received last season’s pumpkins and rare winter squash varieties with such enthusiasm, we have also expanded our pumpkin and winter squash planting to include 8 heirloom varieties. 

The fall in TN, unlike our springs, tends to be bountiful and accommodates an enormous variety of vegetables and a significant number of varieties within those vegetables.  We are particularly excited about Romanesco cauliflower/broccoli, two heirloom varieties of cabbage, and several storage crops (an heirloom storage beet, as well as rutabagas, turnips, and parsnips).  Hopefully this season will be as abundant as the last!      

Welcome to the CSA!

Okay, so this isn't really a welcome message, but it is what has been on my mind lately.  I think I will be able to get to the welcome message once I share these thoughts with all of you.  Somehow it seems more honest.
It is easy to get down as a farmer.  Something is always struggling, and at times, it seems the whole frame blurs and all that I can focus on are the seedlings that got washed out by the rain or the cauliflower that is wilting in the unseasonable heat and fail to see the many other vegetables, fruits, and herbs that are flourishing.  The other night, feeling my lens focus in on a few of our spring frustrations, I turned to The Tall Woman, a point of reference which helps to ground me and readjust my lens.  In our world full of distractions that seem to so often take us from what is important as opposed to give us more time for them, I am grateful for Wilma Dykeman's straightforward telling of Lydia McQueen's life in Appalachia in the late 1800s.
There is a point in the story when Lydia McQueen, having just past a difficult winter alone with her children at her mountain farm, reflects on spring - on the rhythmic coming of life that those of us who experience seasons witness every year.  Many find a sense of renewal in spring, a fresh start; however, I find comfort and inspiration in Dykeman's slightly different take on the coming of spring.  At this point in the story, McQueen concludes of spring and herself, "Her spirit was the same.  Come what would, she would remember that spring, too, always came again."
When I walked amongst the fields this morning, I had to admit to myself that this will not be our best spring crop.  The heavy rains have made it difficult for early direct seeded crops (especially arugula, radishes, and spinach).  The peas and cole crops have struggled in our extremely warm winter and spring.  I would like things to be doing better - more like the beets and chard who seem to have found their paradise.  But in my walks and reading of The Tall Woman, I am reminded that this is life.  Some springs bring bountiful crops, and some bring struggle.  Some springs are for arugula, and some are for beets.  The hope of the farmer (and for man) is that next spring may be better - or maybe even this May.
However, what if Wilma Dykeman and Lydia McQueen and all those farmers who have come before us are wrong.  Farmers and therefore all of us depend on nature's cycles and rhythms.  I tend to be a person of action.  I may worry about a lot of things, but I try not to get lost in thought.  If I am going to ponder something, I'd at least like to get the broccoli hoed or the lettuce transplanted while I am at it.  Although we plan the farm out over the winter week by week, vegetable by vegetable, I think we would both say that at this point it has become more second nature.  Something in me just knows that when the beets are yay high we should be planting corn and when I no longer need a long-sleeve shirt in the morning it is time to plant summer vegetables.  However, this spring, I have found myself registering one of those mental messages as they were triggered by some observation and then realized things were off.  The rhythm around which we have operated over the last nine seasons no longer applied.  OR maybe it did.  Maybe we should have been planting tomatoes two weeks ago when some sign triggered my mind to think it was tomato planting time, but at the time, our tomatoes were mere seedlings - many weeks from field planting.  As farmers, we will adjust.  The past four seasons here (all very different) have required constant tweaking, but I do worry about the implications of these shifts for all of us.  I worry enough to find myself standing in a field on a warm, sunny day in late March pondering all of this when in years past we would have been scrambling on a day like today to plant our last spring crops.  This season, however, our spring crops have been planted for weeks, and we are ready to harvest.
These rhythms that Lydia McQueen and all of those who have lived in these hills and valleys have depended upon seem to be shifting, and I'm not sure that any of us are really ready.  As spring came, Lydia McQueen found strength to turn back to her life's work - to take care and at the same time make productive her little plot of land, her growing flock, and her family.  Although these changes have thrown us slightly off kilter, they have also called us to focus on our work, or perhaps better said they have confirmed that very work.