Field’s Farm does a lot of stuff well.  There’s the interesting potato varieties and all the different brassicas (broccolis + cauliflowers), which number somewhere around 12.  But maybe the best thing at Field’s Farm is their garlic.  Field’s Farm grows Georgian Crystal Garlic.Of course I am going out a limb saying its the best in the world because just doing a brief Google search I found there were more varieties of garlic than I ever imagined, but it is the best garlic I ever had.  I do not even have to taste garlic to know it is great.  I only need to see that it has purple stripes, if it does it will taste great.  (Some bulbs won’t get the stripes, but still taste great.)  The thing that really sets this garlic apart is its massive size.  It is as big as elephant garlic but is as pungent and flavorful as your good traditionally sized garlic.  Elephant garlics appeal, like the Georgian Crystal is that the large cloves are not so annoying to peel and prepare.  Elephant garlic has about as much flavor as a potato though, never caught on and has disappeared from the market.  Field’s Farm is popularizing the Georgian Crystal and other Oregon organic farms are picking up on it, but Field’s is the only grower at the Bend Farmer’s Market that has it.  Central Oregon is a great place to grow garlic, it keeps a long time, maybe even to spring, so do yourself a favor and stock up on it.  I couldn’t imagine my lacto-fermented vegetables without a roughly chopped clove or 2  added.

CSA/Volunteer Potluck
We want you all to know even with our moist weather we are still planning our CSA and volunteer potluck tomorrow at 3:00.  Let’s eat some good food together.

Real Food and Resistance is the 9th and 10th.

Central Oregon Food Summit is the 10th.
Which makes before the weekend.  Sorry for the confusion.

2 food conferences are taking place in Bend this weekend.  The Central Oregon Food Summit at COCC will be building community and security for our local food supply.  Real Food and Resistance, organized by Field’s Farm field hand, Casey, has a great group of interesting speakers, including author Lierre Kieth.  It will be taking place at downtown coffee shop Lone Pine Coffee.

I have always had multiple problems with Cabbage.  Sure its crispness is great in tacos, its blandness is compensated for with all the other flavors going on, particularly an acidic salsa.  In Mexico you are more likely to find shredded cabbage with tacos, shredded lettuce in tacos is largely an invention of Taco Bell.    Cabbage is a mainstay in other complex dishes such as Pad Thai, its only when Cabbage tries to play a leading role in dish when it fails.  Corn beef and cabbage is bland and boring typical of the British isles, which has the least distinctive cuisine in Europe and maybe the world.  Is it any wonder that it is mostly eaten on a holiday where your taste sense is drunkened numb.  I have never been satisfied with making Cole Slaw.  The huge amounts of mayo and other ingredients to make it taste like anything is too much for me and its precise formulation too unfathomable.  Once in awhile I would have some great coleslaw, but I realize now that it partially underwent the process I will describe later.So I have found a limited use for Cabbage, in tacos, Pad Thai or some other spicy stir fry, but one cabeza of cabbage is enough for 183 tacos, you put the leftover head in the fridge and it gets gray mold growing on it in about 2 days.  So at the end of last summer I took on the age-old preservation technique of making Sauerkraut.  I chopped up 2 heads and put them in 5 gallon food safe container layer by layer with a sprinkling of kosher salt between each layer.  I pounded it with a wine bottle to break it down and put a plate over the top weighed down by a water jug.  In a few days the the salt broke down the cabbage and liquid rose above the top.  The natural bacteria in the environment would slowly ferment the cabbage and transform it into Sauerkraut.  The process was laborious and messy.  Every day you had to pull the plate off and clean the slimy mold that grew.  Though supposedly it would keep and improve, I got tired of this routine and eventually put it in the refrigerator.  It did make Sauerkraut.  It tasted pretty good in Sandwiches, but I don’t eat that many sandwiches, it was too salty to otherwise be very palatable and a lot of it ended up going bad in the fridge.  For me Sauerkraut was an experiment that failed, I don’t think its worth doing.

The Cabbage Solution is a Solution

In the alchemy of food, The Solution transforms the lowly cabbage from lead to gold, water to wine.  The Solution improves upon every use of cabbage mentioned above and any other.  Aside from simply chopping it up, it is easier to make, its bio-availability is much greater and the only ingredients are water and a couple teaspoons something you probably have in your fridge!  I expect that it preserves for at least a few weeks, but this is probably moot as it tastes so good, it won’t last that long.
The Solution is Lacto-fermentation.  The most common lacto-fermented food is Yogurt, which is lacto-fermented Milk.  I make my own Yogurt and recommend it.  It works the same way with Cabbage.  You just add a couple teaspoons of Yogurt and the beneficial microorganisms multiply and ferment either the milk or the cabbage.  Yogurt is more complicated, you have to heat the milk to 180 degs. and let cool to around 120 before you add the culture(the yogurt).  You must also maintain the temperature of 110 to 120 for about 6 hours.  With cabbage it is simpler.  You chop it up, put in a big container, cover it with water, mix in a couple of teaspoons of yogurt and leave it on the counter for about 3 to 4 days.  If it is cold out, it will need more time.  You will know it is done by tasting it.  If it tastes like wet cabbage you are not there yet.  It is exploding in your mouth with something like a citrusy flavor, the texture has changed and the liquid is bubbling a bit, you can put it in the refrigerator…or eat it.  Grated carrot, salt, pepper can be added at the start.  There are limitless possibilities.  Now that its garlic season, I added some and it was fantastic.  Ginger, caraway seeds…  I originally tried this with Kohlrabi, which works just as well.  As I am almost making this page a Kohlrabi cookbook you can expect a post on that.   Use it in place of any use of Cabbage, in tacos, on sandwiches, as Cole Slaw.  Of course use it in Stir Fry or Pad Thai, but add after everything else is cooked because this is already “cooked”.  This is a Probiotic food where nutrients have not been destroyed by cooking with heat.   Lacto-fermentation breaks down Phytic Acid better than heat cooking does too.  Phytic Acid binds to many essential minerals in food, making them impossible to absorb.  There will probably be some juice leftover when get to the end.  Drink it, it’s delicious.

We’ve got lots of good stuff like crispy sweet carrots, sunny yellow summer squash, multi-colored radishes, bunches of gourmet shallots, nutrition packed greens of many varieties and as always fresh brown eggs.  We also have our beautiful Georgian Crystal garlic which we sell by the pound.  If you want garlic call or email how much and we will have it packed for you.  Or honk if you need help and we”ll come running.
Happy Eating! 

Though our chilly spring delayed our carrots, the first field planting of Mokum carrots is on.  They are a thin sweet crispy carrot.  We have several bunches in the refrigerator now and more will be harvested next week.   Our beautiful big garlic is also ready to be harvested.  They will be in sold in weighed bags so check the bags for prices.  Swiss Chard and Kale as well as mixed greens are also available.

We’ve just finished having the COCC Culinary Institute Farm to Table class at the farm for the past two weeks and it was great fun and we got a lot done.  Look for photos on the website soon.  In a continuing spirit of community we like to invite our friends, family and customers to join us for viewing the fireworks Sunday evening.  We have a great view and plenty of room.  Bring your chairs.

Yes we have a bounty of colorful lettuce and yummy eggs.  The frig will be well stocked all weekend.

fresh from the ovenNot only is Kohlrabi alien in appearance but it is alien to just about all of our food histories–We have no reference of what to do with it and its not something that fits into a category so we can just plug it in, in place of other foods.  It is unique, yet paradoxically a very versatile ingredient.Fields Farm has got them and I bagged a couple at the Farmer’s Market.  When I got home I had some Pizza dough that had risen.  Pizza could very well be the most popular food ever invented.  A few years ago I mastered the art of making my own Pizza –its not that difficult– I then asked myself what had I been doing with my life up until that point.Pizza dough is simply 3 cups of flour, a teaspoon of yeast, a tablespoon of salt and a cup of warm water.  This will make 2, 10-12 inchers.  Knead it well to break down the gluten.  Let it rise at least a hour and a half and stretch it out onto a cornmeal covered peel.  You will also need to get a Pizza stone to cook it on.  Stretching it out does not take too much practice, you do not need to be one of those showman Pizza tossers, you can just stretch it over a large bowl.  You cook it at your ovens highest temperature and it takes only 6 to 8 minutes.
A couple slices with some of the
greens and a hearty redAfter the layers of tomato sauce and Mozzarella Cheese, I grated a medium small Kohlrabi and added to it 1/3 of a chopped onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, 2 good tbls. of olive oil and some fresh thyme.  I spread this over the pizza.The Kohlrabi added a subtle, slightly spicy, vegetative crunch that balanced well with the crust, sauce and cheese.  I used 2/3 whole wheat flour for the crust and this complemented it well too.  Though this was the first time ever on Earth that a Pizza like this was made, it seemed like a normal, natural Pizza.  It wasn’t as dramatic as say a Jalapeno, anchovy and pineapple Pizza, but it was wholesome and satisfying.  This was an experiment that worked and I will do it again.  If any Pizza place puts this on their menu, they must name it after me!
sliced