News from the Farm

This last week was brought to you by the letter C.

C for the Community in Community Supported Agriculture and how wonderful it is to be seeing each of you again, weekly as you pick up your CSAs and we get to visit a little.

photos by: Nat Leder

 

C for the community of beneficial bugs and such that come when the fields get planted and the soil gets amended. While it is still kind of gloomy outside, the lady bugs and bees are returning! The gardens and fields are starting to feel abuzz (hehehe) with activity and life.

C for the Constant growth that just jumps out at you when you walk around the farm in the spring. Our tomatoes are starting to show and we are trying hard to keep thoughts of BLTs and fresh salsa at bay when we spot the wee little beginnings.
photo by: Zoë Griffith
And C is for the Crawl that we do in the big field as we weed the rows of vegetables. During this week and a bit last week, our farmers walked with hula hoes or crawled on their hands and knees down all the rows of our first starts. We use a tractor to help us weed in the beginning, but at a certain point, the plants get too big and then it is hands and knees and fingers or hand tools to get the job done.

If we haven’t said it yet, Organic farming is a labor of love. Weeding is one of those things that brings you closer to the labor side of things and yet, as we probably all learn again and again, love takes work too. While weeding is difficult, time consuming, and exhausting, the connection between plant, soil, farmer, and ultimately your CSA share grows tighter and stronger after the crawl days!

Veggie ID: Chard

Basic Info: Chard has expansive, pocketed leaves with stems in a spectrum of colors: red, white, green, yellow. It is actually in the beet family but doesn’t develop a bulb. Its leaves are more tender and delicate than other greens. Eat small leaves raw in salads and blanch or steam larger leaves. You will most often receive chard from us as bunches of larger stalks, but occasionally you might see a bag of baby chard leaves flit through the farm stand. 

To store: Keep dry, unwashed greens in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.

To prep: Wash leaves in basin of lukewarm water to remove grit. Remove the thicker stems by folding the leaves down the center and cutting out the stem. Stack several leaves on top of each other and slice into 1-inch wide ribbons.

To use: Add uncooked greens to a mixed green salad. Steam stem pieces 8-10 minutes, and leaves 4-6 minutes. Or sauté greens until tender in a large sauté pan with olive oil, a pinch of salt, and garlic or onion. Watch for color to brighten as this signals they are done. Serve cooked chard alone as a side dish or use them in soup or with pasta, beans, rice, or potatoes. Chard also goes great in stir-fries or in any recipe calling for spinach.

Vegetable CSA Harvest List

We think our foundation vegetables this week will be:  Lettuce, chard, and Asian greens. We will let you know on Wednesday how many other items you will get to select.

We have been keeping an eye on the hoops and 2-acre garden and have a pretty good idea of what is out there and ready to be harvested, but this is a Sunday estimation of what we will be harvesting on Tuesday. Also, because we have a market style CSA, this isn’t a guarantee of 1 of all these things for everyone. Instead, this will be the variety of what will hopefully (fingers crossed) have for you to choose from this week.) 

Other Vegetable Options will probably include:

peas
carrots
kale
rhubarb
salad turnips
green onions
lettuce heads
arugula

Napa cabbage
chives
oregano
spinach
Chard
salad mix
zucchini
radish

Eggs in the vegetable CSA last week… What?
It is egg season on the farm and we thought we would celebrate the season by sharing our egg bounty with you! Last week we brought eggs to the Bend Farmers Market pick up for our Vegetable CSA members to receive as part of their share. This week, if you are picking up at the Farm Store, then you will get your eggs as part of your share. We really hope you enjoy(ed) them 🙂 If you want more, you can purchase them by the dozen via our Food4All portal, $9/doz!

Meat CSA

This week our Meat CSA features beef and a ham steak!

Large CSA (10lbs)
1 whole roasting chicken
1 pack beef steaks (New York or Rib Steak)
1-3 Ground Beef (depending on weight of rest of the share)

Small CSA
1 whole roasting chicken
0-2 ground beef (depending on weight of the chicken)

Did you get short ribs last month instead of the soup bones you were expecting?
That was a miscalculation on my part! I thought I had enough soup bones for everyone, and I miscounted. Rats! The good news is that short ribs are delicious! If you still have your short ribs and are unsure what to do with them, check out the short ribs recipe below for at least one idea.
Keep an eye on our Instagram stories for a tour of what the options are on Wednesday around 11 am.

Recipe Corner

Every week I try to send along a few recipes that utilize the meats and vegetables in your CSA share. This week, I thought I would focus on chard and chicken!

Sautéed Chard with Garlic & Chili Flakes
Adapted from Abra Barens’ Ruffage
(This is a great recipe for any greens you might have or want to use. While I made it for chard, you could substitute collards, kale, spinach, cabbage, Asian Greens, whatever you have. Also, it will go great as a side for a whole roasted chicken, see recipe below. I adapted this recipe for 1 bunch of greens, but you can raise the amounts if you are cooking more. Just scale up the recipe and go by taste and feel from there.)

 

INGREDIENTS
Neutral oil (or lard, butter, olive oil, whatever your flavor preference or what you have in the pantry)
1 bunch greens, midribs removed and cut into ribbons
1/4 cup white wine
pinch of salt
pinch of chili flakes
2 garlic cloves, cut into thin slices

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Heat a large pan with a glug (about 2 Tbs) of oil over high heat until hot! Add the greens and cook until lightly browned. Stir the greens and add the wine, salt, chili flakes, and garlic. Reduce the wine until almost dry and serve immediately.
Zucchini, Chard, and Rainshadow Beans (or Chickpeas) Soup
Adapted from Andrea Bemis’ Local Dirt
(Here is a great vegetarian dinner option! If you want, you could also add left over chicken into the soup. Either way this is a great, refreshing spring soup.)

 

INGREDIENTS
1 bunch chard with stems (or kale, collards, Asian greens, turnip/radish greens)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (or green onions, leeks, shallots)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or chopped oregano or other fresh herb)
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry white wine (or what you have leftover in the bottle)
2 medium (6 baby/4 small) zucchini sliced into half-moons, about 1/2 inch thick
4 cups stock (use what you have on hand!)
salt and pepper
2 cups cooked beans (or chickpeas)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Separate the stems from the greens leaves. Finely chop the stems and set aside. Slice the leaves thinly and set aside. In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Add the stems, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf and cook for about 1 minute. Pour in the wine and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the zucchini, stock, and a hefty pinch of salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil again, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until the zucchini is tender, about 8 minutes.
  2. Add the beans and greens leaves. continue to cook until the leaves wilt down a bit. Season with the lemon juice, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste.
(DON’T THROW THE BONES AWAY UNTIL YOU HAVE PICKED THEM CLEAN. The meat is oh so good and worth saving.)

 

INGREDIENTS
1 pack bone in short ribs
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
â…“ cup BBQ sauce (For oven recipe)
3/4 cup bbq sauce (for slow cooker recipe)
1/2 cup broth

INSTRUCTIONS
Oven Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 275F. Salt and pepper the beef. Lay the beef bone side down in a baking dish, snuggle the ribs close together and cover tightly with aluminum foil.
  2. Cook for 3 ½ – 4 hours or until bone starts to separate from the meat and meat is tender.
  3. Uncover, drain off any liquid or excess fat and baste on bbq sauce. (Make your own or get your favorite at the store, depends on your interest and time).
  4. Broil on low for 2-4 minutes (watching carefully so it doesn’t burn) or until caramelized.

Slow Cooker instructions

  1. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper on all sides. Heat up a pan with a glug of oil and brown short ribs on all sides.
  2. Mix broth and 1/2 cup bbq sauce in small bowl.
  3. Put ribs bone side down in your slow cooker and top with bbq sauce/broth mix. Cook on low for 8 to 9 hours. Remove from cooker, top with remaining BBQ sauce warmed through)

Let’s talk chicken!

This week the meat CSA, you will be getting a whole roasting chicken. Did you know that we only raise chickens for our CSA members? That makes you very special and in for a treat! 

Our birds are fed organic feed, pastured, and roam freely about the farm hunting and foraging for bugs and seeds. When we clear beds or do some serious weeding, the harvested plants go to ether them or the pigs. We love our birds and are so excited to share them with you!
 
A whole roasting bird might sound daunting but it is much easier to prepare one than you think! Below are a few recipes for inspiration.

Also, if you would rather use your bird in a recipe calling for thighs, or breasts, or something like that, here is how to cut your whole bird into its parts. Don’t forget, any recipe that calls for thighs, you can use all the parts of the bird. Just adjust the cooking time a bit to compensate for the fact that white meat cooks faster then dark meat.

How to Cut Up a Whole Bird

If you want to use your chicken as parts (say in a sheet pan dish, or friend chicken, or grilling it), here is one of the best videos I have found for how to do this. It has the added bonus of how to make stock! (One thing I would recommend about her broth recipe: don’t worry if you don’t have the ingredients! Use what you have to hand and add all your bones in after you have eaten your chicken recipe for even more flavor and goodness!)

Here is a great New York Times video on how to part up a chicken. I especially like her advice to “follow the fat lines” when cutting up the bird and to always save the back for stock.

Basic Roast Chicken Recipe/The best way to eat a Rainshadow Bird!
I have been cooking this for so long, I can’t really say who I learned it from!
(Lard is the ¡best! for this recipe. Check out the Food4All portal and order a quart today!)

 

INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken, defrosted
1/2-3/4 cup lard
minced fresh herbs (whatever you found at market this week: oregano, thyme, chives…)
fresh ground pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 500F. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry.
  2. Mix lard, minced fresh herbs, and ground pepper in a bowl. Separate the skin from the breasts and drumsticks, scoop up some of the lard mixture), and slide your hand between the flesh and the skin of one breast, repeat with the second breast, and both drumsticks and thighs until all the lard mix is gone.
  3. Place chicken in a roasting pan or pyrex and roast for 25 minutes. Decrease the oven temp to 375F and roast until the skin is golden brown and crisp and a thermometer reads 160F in the thigh. This could take 20-45 minutes more depending on the size of the bird.
  4. Remove bird from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before carving.

How to carve a whole chicken

Not sure how to carve a whole chicken? Here is a great video that makes it look probably a little easier then it will actually feel!

Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen shows us how to carve a whole bird!

photo by: Katya Hardman

Can’t wait to see you on Wednesday! Don’t forget it is a meat week!

The Farm Crew