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!

Wow, there’s a lot happening on the farm.  I didn’t look too closely in the big greenhouse for a couple days and suddenly there are lush rows of lettuce mix, spinach, arugula and kale.  We are beginning to stock the refigerator in the sales shed with bags of lettuce mix, spinach and arugula and bunches of Red Russian kale along with plenty of eggs.  If you want to make sure we have a particular item in the frig when you come, drop us an email or leave a message on the phone, 541-382-8059, with what you would like.
We’re starting to harvest small bags this week.  For more information look on our website and click on the FarmtoWork tab on the menu bar.  The CSA starts this week also.  We have two shares available if you want vegetables and lots of them.
Our friend and master beekeeper, Sue Schwan is starting to carry beekeeping supplies.  You can find her at the Indoor Swap Meet Thursday through Saturday, at Wilson and Hwy 97.
This has been field trip week.  Kids from Lava Ridge and High lakes elementary have made seed balls, worked with tools, tasted greens and enter the life of a chicken.  They are a great bunch of kids and a good time was had by all.  You’ll also see a new large green house going up to house our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.  Stop by anytime.

A big Thank You for all you potato planters!  Once again a stunning amount of potatoes were planted in an hour and we had a great time visiting with all of you over our first spring greens of the year.  We have an awesome community.  For the next two weeks on Mondays and Fridays little guys will be here discovering worms, making seed balls, tasting greens and pretending they are chickens.  Should be entertaining.  With this week of warm weather lettuce mix and arugula should be available at the farm stand soon.  We’ll let you know.  

Our seed potatoes have arrived and it’s time for the annual potato planting party!  We’ll be ready to plant this Saturday May 12th.  We’ll start at 10:30 and should be done planting by noon when we will have the ceremonial cutting of the first greens.  It’s about time, I haven’t had a decent salad in months!  We’ll provide the greens, salad dressing and good bread from Baked.  Bring one item  to share of whatever you like to top your salad and we’ll have a delicous lunch.  At 1:00 Gwen will be doing a volunteer training for those who are helping with the school field trips which are starting next week.  All field trip volunteers are welcome to come to lunch also.  Hope to see you on Saturday. 

FARM KIDS NEEDS YOU! This spring, Fields Farm and Juniper Jungle Farm will be hosting 10 school field trips for kindergarten through third grade students.  Farm Kids Field Trips include five hands-on learning stations where the students will get their hands dirty and learn about farming in Central Oregon. In order to make this program a success, we need lots volunteers to lead these fun and educational learning stations . Volunteer training will be held at Juniper Jungle Farm on Thursday, May 10 from 5:30-7:30pm (with dinner to follow) and at Fields Farm on Saturday, May 12 from 1:00-3:00pm. Please contact Gwen at gwen.lafond@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out with these field trips and to RSVP for a volunteer training. Thanks!