photo credit: Melissa Harmon

January, a tale of two winters

Wow, January started out so pleasant, really too pleasant, as we saw you all early in the month for your CSA pick up. There was no snow on the ground. We were all starting to get a little worried about our ski seasons, the lack of snowpack, and the upcoming water year. And then, kablamo, winter arrived. It snowed. It froze. It froze even harder. There was wind. There was rain. The sun came out. The sun disappeared again. The rain came back.

I don’t know about you, but here on the farm, we just rolled with it. Find the snow shovels. Find the ice melt. Find your yak tracks. Find all your warm layers. Then find your rain coat and your sunglasses. That was the last month, reacting to what the weather sent our way.

We are quite pleased with how we faired and acknowledge the luck in that. We kept power the whole time. The sun melted the snow off the hoops and tomato houses before it could crush the structures. We managed to get the place plowed before the snow turned too heavy. Our animals and plants all managed to pull through. We did a lot of tending to make sure that happened, but the planning and tending worked and for that we are grateful!

One thing that did happen as a result of all that cold and dark weather: the kale growth slowed way down. Considering the kale was frozen solid at one point, slowing down is okay. They survived and are starting to pick up again now that the temps are in the high 40s (to low 50s in the forecast, crazy!) and the amount of daylight increases every day.

Their growth slow down means that this month we are giving the kale a break from harvest and will get to enjoy baby gem purple Napa Cabbage instead. These beauties are tender and delicious and are best raw. Slice them into a slaw or enjoy them as a baby cabbage wrap. You can cook them up too, but eating them raw would allow their glorious crunch and beautiful color to shine through more.

We are in the midst of the great thaw right now with all that glorious snow turning into ankle deep mud in places, but it is nice to have some moisture in the air again. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday in Bend or Sisters (current forecast is for rain, go figure) or Friday and Saturday at the Farm Store.

~ Alison and the Crew

Veggie CSA

Adirondack Blue Potatoes
carrots
carnival, jester, or delicata winter squash

chiogga beets
baby gem purple Napa cabbage
garlic
onion

Meat CSA

Get ready for a tour de beef!

Large Meat CSA

Small Meat CSA

1 quart beef stock
+/- 4 ground beef
1 cube steak
1 pack stew meat
1 steak

1 quart beef broth
1 cube steak
+/- 1 ground beef

Veggie IDs

Adirondack Blue potatoes

Dark purple skin with purple flesh that stays bold and beautiful all the way through the cooking process. The creamy, waxy texture of this antioxidant-rich variety lends itself beautifully to roasting, boiling, and mashing. These blue/purple potatoes are high in anthocyanins, the purple, blue, and red pigments that are high in anti-oxidants. That means that eating these potatoes (and any purple, red, or blue vegetable) helps destroy unstable molecules in your body that damage your cells. This means that these potatoes can help: lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of heart disease, prevent neurological disease, and can slow cancer growth. All good things!

Chiogga beets are a pre-1840s Italian heirloom variety of beets. They are light red on the outside and the have red and white alternating circles on the inside. These beets are often milder and sweeter than their red and gold counterparts. These beets can be cooked as you would any beet, but shine best raw in salads where their red and white stripes stay bright and vibrant. Cooked, they loose some of their visual pizzaz but remain delicious and beety.

Chiogga Beets

Jester/Carnival Winter Squash

While these speckled and striped beauties might look like delicatas, they have yellower and sweeter flesh and you don’t want to eat the skin. Slice the Jesters (more oblong) or Carnivals (more circular) in half, scoop out the seeds, cook until the flesh is soft, and stuff with beans and greens, or grains and greens and sausage, or whatever you want. The combo of the sweet flesh with the savory stuffing is delicious!