Winter is coming to the farm.  Farmer’s Market, the CSA and FarmtoWork programs have finished for the year.  Our lives are quieter with much needed time to rest, finish projects set aside during the summer, read and drink good coffee.  However with our so far mild winter, remnants of summer remain.  Our on farm sales shed still has 2 varietes of potatoes, onions, 2 varieties of beets, carrots, wild rice, walnuts and even some kale and arugula.  We have eggs available though occasionally we run out for a day or two.  Due to the high cost of feed we are having to raise the price of eggs to $4.75/dozen.  Due to the drought in the midwest, grain supplies are tighter and even our locally produced grains are higher in price.
Have a peaceful winter
Debbie and Jim

Farming is full of surprises.  Due to our unseasonably warm weather we have a tunnel full of lettuce mix, spinach and arugula.   The chickens also like this warm weather, laying plenty of eggs.  There is carrots, beets, 2 kinds of potatoes, onions, garlic, walnuts and wild rice packed.  The greens will be bagged and in the refrigerator.  Come on by.

Fall is upon us but we still have plenty of delicous items at the farm stand.  On the table are onions, garlic, hot peppers, sweet pepper , tomatillos(mmm green salsa), potatoes, wild rice, walnuts and garlic herb powders.  In the frig are carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard and eggs.  As usual we’ll be open daylight hours 7 days a week.  On these cold nights we are closing the doors early to prevent freezing.  Come on in and make your purchases then close the door as you leave.

Hi Folks,   We’ll be around this weekend keeping the sales shed well stocked.  We  have plenty of eggs, 3 kinds of potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatillos, cherry tomatoes, walnuts in the shell  and wild rice on the table.  In the frig are carrots, 3kinds of beets, Italian romano green beans, 3 kinds of summer squash, 3 kinds of kale, swiss chard, cabbage and basil.  Come on by anytime. 

backyardfarmtour.com

Fields Farm likes visitors any time, but this weekend, Aug. 25th and 26th, you can visit as part of Bend’s Backyard Farm Tour. Bend’s 3rd annual Backyard Farm Tour features local people who, in big and small ways, are producing their own food.  The self guided tour is a benefit for Neighborhood Impact.  $10 gets you a guide book with descriptions and a suggested route.  There is a $5 discount for cyclists.  More info at backyardfarmtour.com.

High Summer is upon us, for me that means Pesto several times a week.  The garlic crop is in and basil has been going on.  Yeah I have been faking it up to now with garlic curl pesto and even arugula pesto, which were great, but there is nothing like those Georgian Crystal cloves.  Being that I am interested in food where haute cuisine meets peasant food meets locally produced food, how do I reconcile some Pesto’s mystifying and costly ingredients?The traditional recipe of Pesto:

• Basil leaves — A Bunch
• Garlic — A humongous Georgian Crystal Clove or 2 (enough to keep vampires at bay)
• Parmesan Cheese — A nice handful
• Pine Nuts — your other handful
• Olive Oil — Enough to liquefy the whole thing, but only that much, because that is plenty
• You can optionally add fresh ground pepper and some parsley too.

ground it all up with mortar and pestle to pasty consistency(sticks well to pasta). Mix well with steaming pasta.  Of course a mortar and pestle would be ridiculous to use when we all have cheap Chinese made gadgets.  I use a stick blender, most commonly used is a food processor.This will be delicious but how does it satisfy the meets peasant food meets locally produced food matrix? For a simpler matrix we will say all the ingredients are haute cuisine leave that out.

Why Peasant Food?

The whole world is going broke, so I figure start living like a peasant, then as the worldwide economy continues its downward spiral and catches up to you(if it hasn’t already), you will already be living like a peasant, so no big deal.  Peasant Food can be quite good and if you have a couple good meals a day, how bad could things be?  If local food is marketing to well off people more than about changing the culture of food I am less sanguine.

Parmesan

It may be local in Italy, but it isn’t here and it costs about $20 per pound!  The subtle flavors of Parmesan get lost among the strong flavors of garlic and basil anyways.  Any inexpensive white cheese like mozzarella or Monterey Jack will satisfyingly impart the flavor, texture and mouthfeel of cheese and add some salt to the pesto to improve the flavor.  We have some local artisan cheese makers.  You can get hard goat cheese, in the Parmesan style at the Bend Farmer’s Market.

Pine Nuts

Made in China. Need I say more.  The most expensive nut in the world. Mediterranean Pine Nuts cost $35 a pound and the Chinese ones are close to $20.  In Italy they commonally use walnuts too in Pesto. Walnuts make a great tasting pesto.  They are no worse than Pine Nuts, just different.  Now that Fields Farm is selling Oregon Tilth certified organic walnuts this a no brainer.  Switching to the more reasonable and equally worthy Walnut, I have not bought pine nuts in a few years, but when I did I was not about to mash such a pricey item up to get lost within the other strong flavors.  I’d sprinkle them on top.

Olive Oil

Olive Oil is anything but local.  A major worldwide commodity, subject to the marketing sleights of hand such as “Packed In Italy ” prominent on the front label while “Contains oils from Spain, Greece and Italy” on the back only visible with a magnifier.  I suspect Olive Oil is somewhere between fantasies of it and Fukishima cooling pool liquid.  A recent investigation of another worldwide food commodity, Honey, revealed that the Honey sold in Big Box stores is not even identifiable as such being that it is missing part or all of its unique fingerprint of pollen.  Trader Joes was the only local Box store to have real Honey.

Conclusion

You can get 3 of the 5 ingredients for pesto from Fields Farm.  That is why it occurred to me to write this.  If you are a local food purist, you have to do this somehow without Olive Oil.  Otherwise to make this an affordable everyday food use mass market cheese.  For more authenticity and quality you can use a local craft hard cheese. Use local walnuts. 

More About Pesto

RadiatoreRadiatore Pasta is great for Pesto.  The Pesto gets stuck in all those little fins.Pesto is also a great pizza topping, add it after cooking and forget the cheese since its already on the Pizza, just plop it on I have been unsuccessful try to apply it gracefully with a squirt bottle.  You would have to thin it with a lot more olive oil and that would change the taste.  I had a pizza the other night with pesto, sliced eggplant and anchovies.Serve Pesto-Pasta with a piece of chicken, pork chop or tuna or salmon steak simply with some kosher salt sprinkled on and a lemon wedge to squeeze on it, a salad and a bottle of crisp white wine.Cilantro Pesto.  I had a glut of cilantro so I experimented.  As with the arugula pesto I tried the difference was more subtle than I expected.  The herb or green in Pesto is only one part of it.  That being said there nothing better than basil for pesto and nothing better than cilantro for salsa(I have tried basil in salsa too!).

July was a busy month for the farm and the farmers.  After a week of furious tiding up we immensely enjoyed  the Farm to Fork dinner on July 21st.  Our guests were delightful, Matt from Farmto Fork Events, TR and Jen from Jen’s Garden in Sisters and the crew created a delicous meal from local foods and ran the event smoothly from start to finish.  The next morning we left for our annual family camping trip with extended family for several days. Whew!  We’re still working on catching up.
Veggies… We harvested the lovely large Georgian Crystal garlic yesterday and this morning.  It is for sale at the Farmer’s market and here at the farm, as well as CSA and small bag customers will see it in the bags.  Other veggies coming on this month include cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, multiple varieties of summer squash, 3 varieties of potatoes,  cucumbers, carrots and beets.  Kale and Swiss Chard continue to be abundant.  Lettuces are growing slowly but should be back later in August.  Beans, onions, peppers and tomotoes will come on in 2 to 4 weeks.  We are packing a couple extra small bags on Thursday.  If you have thought about trying a small bag out for $12 but forget to order, come by the next 2 weeks and we’ll have extra packed in a large white labeled cooler.
Eggs…our egg supply has been low partially because hens have a molt time in the summer and slow down laying but also homegrown eggs are in tremendous demand.  Currently our friend Elena brings eggs from her home flock on Wednesday, so our best supply is Wed. to Sat.  By the end of August our replacement chicks  should start laying and supplies will improve.   Due increasing grain peices we are having to price eggs at $4,50/dz.
Art… After we had the sales shed built Jim had the idea to dislpay art on the walls.  Now the shed is tidied up we have our first artist, Rory Running.  Rory is our neice and is currently doing a year of service as a Americore volunteer in Belgrade, Montana.  She has created several prints from her original art work for very reasonable prices.  if you see something you’re interested in you can remove it from the walls and put your payment in the basket below the display.  Or give a honk of your horn and we’ll come help you.  Rory’s work will be on display for two months.  After that if any of you have art you would like to display at the farm let us know. 

We want to wish everyone a happy 4th as we celebrate the independence of our country and the interdependence of our farm and community.  We would like to invite any of you to join us viewing the fireworks from Pilot Butte on Wednesday evening.  We have a fine view and plenty of space, so bring a chair and come on by about dusk.
The refrigerator has a reliable supply of lettuce mix, several varieties of kale, garlic curls, spicey greens mix and eggs, with more variety to come in the next two weeks.  Enjoy!

from the press release:Farm to Fork Event Company, known best for its traveling Farm Dinner series, gears up to celebrate Oregon farmers and winemakers this summer, and will feature its very first event in the Bend area on Saturday, July 21st at Fields Farm. Farm to Fork Event Co.’s unique series of farm-centric events aims at engaging the public in the Local Food Movement, and reconnecting guests to family farmers and craft winemakers throughout Oregon.“Our mission is fairly simple,” says Matthew Domingo, Founder and Director of Farm to Fork Event Company. “We want to engage communities in the local food movement. We want people to get out on the backroads, celebrate their local farms and farmers, and have unforgettable culinary experiences that remind them how important it is to preserve farmland and support local agriculture.”“We are excited to host the first Farm to Fork event in Bend, and we’re excited connect our farm to the larger community who may not have heard of us before,” says Jim Fields of Fields Farm, a 10-acre Certified Organic Produce Farm on the outskirts of Bend, Oregon. A stalwart of the Central Oregon farming community, Fields has been growing produce on his property for over 20 years. “Farm to Fork Event Company has a great reputation of putting on exceptional events, and the farm dinner will give us an opportunity to explain how and why we do what we do, to 160 guests!” says FieldsFields Farm products will be joined by those of Maragas Winery, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Dancing Cow Farm, Tumalo Farms, and other local food producers. In addition to the products, winemaker Doug Maragas (Maragas Winery), brewer Jimmy Seifrit (10 Barrel), and farmers Jerre Kosta and Sean Dodson (Dancing Cow) will attend the event, sharing their stories with guests throughout the 5-Course farm dinner. The meal itself will be prepared by Chef T.R. McCrystal of Jen’s Garden, one of Central Oregon’s most respected fine-dining establishments. Farm to Fork Event Co. will also highlight the work of the non-profit Central Oregon Food Policy Council, and donate gratuities from the event to the organization.The event will be covered by Conde Nast Traveler MagazineEvent tickets are available by reservation only. Guests can make reservations online at www.farmtoforkevents.com/purchase. Ticket prices for Farm Dinners are $75 and include the 5-course meal, 3 glasses of wine, a tour of the host farm, and producer discussions.

The refrigerator is packed with lettuce mix, spinach, arugula, curly kale and eggs.  Walnuts and Wild rice are on the table.  A second high tunnel is going up for the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.  We’re getting ready for the first Farmer’s Market of the season Wednesday June 6th in the Brooks Alley next to the Mirror Pond Plaza.  We hope to see you all soon!