Hi Folks,

We continue to have a bountiful harvest.  I have just finished packing potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and beets.  All are bagged and individually priced. There’s plenty of all varieties of kale.  We have an ample supply off eggs.  Our produce will be available 7 days a week.  Stop on by and help yourself.

Enjoy!

We have an abundant supply of delicious fresh free range eggs.  Chickens that get to scratch in the dirt, eat bugs and greens lay eggs with beautiful deep orange yolks and are much more flavorful that caged chicken eggs.  See also the previous produce list. 

Jeremy in the tomato forestThey started out as tiny, two-leafed sprouts in 1/2 inch soil squares.  They graduated to 2″ and then 4″ soil blocks, until the sun space next to the house was full of nothing but this fragrant plant.  Now they have all but consumed the interior of the new large greenhouse.  Yes, I’m talking about the tomatoes.  They all have names like Bellstar, Sweet 100s, Garden Peach, Prudence.  When we transplanted them into the greenhouse, I staked a wooden marker next to each group so I could see what shapes these fanciful names yielded.  But now I can’t find the markers.  I think the plants ate them.  Within days of thinning back the excess leaf matter, the plants close in again on the walkways.  I cringe when I feel a “crunch” of unripe tomato under my foot as I try to negotiate through the rows.  But where are all the ripe tomatoes?  I see plenty of plant matter, and lots of green tomatoes, but where am I going to find enough red, ripe ones for this week’s CSA members???  I have to turn into a hunter.  On all fours I crawl down the rows lifting the mass of lower plant to get at any red tomatoes underneath (much like lifting a hen to get at the egg).  At ground level all I see is green all around me.  It’s like trying to spy a parrot in a jungle, except these tomatoes don’t squawk.  Slowly I scan the dense foliage for any flash of red.  When found, I ever so carefully reach to pluck one, fearing I’ll knock of three of its unripe brethren.  One by one the Sweet 100s fill up a basket.  Maybe there will be a bigger tomato here and there, but they are mostly still green.  The question is–the same question so many people ask–when will my tomatoes turn red???  I’ve gleaned a couple of explanations from Jim.  One–too much fertilizer will keep a plant growing so well that it won’t feel the stress and need to produce fruit.  Two–we might have to cut back the roots to encourage these tomatoes along.  Three–maybe they’ll just stay green.  The irony in our tomatoes is that we are obsessed with this fruit, yet we don’t live in a very conducive tomato growing environment!!!  But I don’t think the obsession is due to the finicky growing season.  People will spend dollar after dollar to grow a tomato in their backyard, as if just to prove that it can be done, as if growing tomatoes is a right and not a priviledge.  I think the obsession can be cured by one thing only: I think people need to eat more kale.

Hi Folks,

We are at peak harvest time now through September.  We will try to have
some of most items in the grey refrigerator all the time.  This
includes;

Arugula – $4.00/bag

Beans – $3.00/bag

Beets – $2.00/bunch

Brocolli – $2.50/1 lb bag

Basil – $1.50/bag

Carrots – $2.00/bunch

Cucumbers – $1.50each

Garlic – by weight $8.00/lb, these will be in bags with the price on the bag

Greens, kales, swiss chard – $2.00/bunch

Lettuce mix – $4.00/bag

Onions – $2.00/bunch or .50each

Oregano – $1.00/bunch

Parsley – $1.00/bunch

Peppers, sweet – $1.50 each

Potatoes – $3.00/3 lb bag

    Fingerlings – $3.00/ 2 lb bag

Summer squash – .75 each

Tomatoes – $3.00/pint

Wild Rice – $3.50/8oz or $13.00/2lbs

Enjoy!

Debbie

Wild Rice from River Refuge Farm
We have Wild Rice from Debbie’s brother, Mark Running.  He grows wild rice in the Sprague River valley and outside of Brownsville in the Willamette valley.  The wild rice is grown is a grassy marsh ecosystem using a series of ponds which both naturally fertilize the rice as well as providing a rich habitat for migrating waterfowl.
It is available for  $3.50 for 8oz
                            $13.00 for 2lbs

Basic Wild Rice Pilaf
1/2 cup wild rice
1/2 cup brown rice
1 2/3 cup chicken,beef or vegetable broth
dash oil
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer til tender, about 1 hour

FROM THE KITCHEN OF JOEY RUNNING
Basic Cooked Wild and Brown Rice
1 c water
½ c Wild Rice
½ c Brown Rice
2 chicken bouillon cubes (or other desired flavor)
1 tsp. olive oil
1 pinch salt
 
In a medium saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cover for approximately 1 hour.  Makes 2+ cups cooked rice.
 
Wild Rice Bread
1 ¼ c water
1 c basic cooked Wild/Brown Rice, well drained and cooled
2 tablespoons butter
2 2/3 c bread flour
1 1/3 c whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
 
If using a bread machine, select 2-pound loaf size.  Add ingredients to the machine according to the mfg.  directions.  If available, select the whole grain cycle.
 
Black Bean and Wild Rice Salsa
1 c basic cooked wild/brown rice
1 envelope Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing Mix
1 can (16 oz) black beans, drained
1 pkg. (10 oz) frozen corn, thawed
1 cup chopped ripe mango or canned pineapple
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
Mix all ingredients well…serve with grilled chicken or tortilla chips!
 
Cheesy Wild Rice
1 Batch Basic cooked Wild/Brown rice (2+ cups)
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
½ can condensed cream of chicken soup*
¼ c chopped onion
4 tablespoons melted butter, divided
½  teaspoon pepper
½  teaspoon salt
½  cup sour cream
1 cup cornbread stuffing
 
In a large bowl, mix the wild/brown rice, cheese, soup, onion, 2 tablespoons melted butter, salt, pepper, and sour cream.  Transfer rice mixture to 8×8 baking dish.  In a small bowl, mix the dry stuffing and remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter.  Spread stuffing over potatoes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  This recipe can be easily doubled.

Stuffed Butternut Squash
1 small handful of dried porcini mushrooms
1 butternut squash, halved and seeds removed
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
5 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup basic cooked wild/brown rice
¼ cup pine nuts
 
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Soak porcini for 5 minutes in ½ cup boiling water.  Score and scoop out some of the extra flesh from the length of the squash (this creates a well for the rice mixture).  Finely chop squash and add to frying pan with olive oil, onion, garlic, coriander, rosemary, and sun-dried tomatoes.  Cook until softened approximately 5 minutes.  Add the porcini and half their soaking water.  Cook for another 2 minutes.  Add salt and pepper.  Stir in cooked rice and pine nuts.  Pack the mixture tightly into the 2 halves of the squash and press together (put the squash back together).  Rub the skin of the squash with some olive oil, wrap in foil, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes…a fork should easily push through squash.
 
Wild Rice Salad (Connie’s recipe)
½ c wild rice
2 cups beef bullion
1 cup fresh peas or frozen peas, thawed
½ cup celery, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons slivered onions
 
Bring wild rice and bullion to boil.  Cover and reduce heat to low for 1 hour.
In a large bowl, mix the rice and the remaining ingredients.  Pour dressing (below) and mix.  Serve warm or chilled.
 
Dressing
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup canola oil
Toasted sesame seeds, if desired

Many folks visit our booth at the Farmer’s Market and remark, “Oh, I drive by your farm all the time!”  It makes me wonder…what do these people think when they see us out in the fields doing our various tasks that all add up to farming?  One of the weirdest sights must be when we swim for potatoes.

To harvest a small batch of potatoes, all you need is a pitchfork to loosen up a plant or two.  But when we harvest for the CSA or market, we pull up dozens of plants at a time.  And a pitchfork is too slow.  To dig up part of a row, a lifting blade is attached to the back of the tractor.  We drag the blade through the row and it undercuts and lifts the plant and potatoes up near the surface of the soil.  Now, in a perfect world, the potatoes would fall neatly into a little pile and we’d collect them in no time at all.  But this is farming, and “perfection” comes around once and a while, but with potatoes we’ve still got to do some work.  So we go swimming. 
Here’s where the folks driving by might do a double-take.  To swim for potatoes we get down on our knees in the lifted row, and using our arms like fins we do a modified butterfly stroke, scooping soil, plant, and potatoes towards our body.  At this point it’s basically an Easter egg hunt.  The potatoes usually sift above the soil, plant top is tossed over the shoulder (after, of course, removing any hanger-on potatoes that might become next year’s weeds), and the gathered potatoes go into a bucket.  Then we move forward a scootch and repeat the stroke.  It’s a great workout!  The damp, warm soil moves smooth against the skin.  Black beetles (beneficial insects) are unearthed and moved into the next row over.  Now and then you find blue potatoes in the yellow section, a result of the helpful five year-olds that assisted in planting this row.  Before you know it, you’ve reached the tractor, and you’ve got four buckets full of spuds.  We’ve been pulling out German butterball and All-blue varieties, but keep your eyes out for new varities soon!  (It’s funny; we labeled the rows with stakes when we planted, but those stakes have either disappeared or been sun-bleached.  Thankfully Jim is able to identify any potato in the world.) 

Wild Rice from River Refuge Farm

Hi Folks,

It’s broccoli Week!  Our 8 varieties of broccoli came on all at once after our hot spell, so we have loads of big beautiful heads.  Garlic harvest has began with those extra large heads of Georgian Crystal Garlic.

Other vegetables available include:
Lettuce Mix – $4.00/bag
Kales, curly, flat, lacinato – $2.00Onions, both scallions and medium white – $2.00/bunch or 3 whites
Carrots – $2.00
Potatoes – $3.00/3 lbs  All Blues, Island Sunshine
Broccoli – $2.00/head
Parsley/ Oregano – $1.50/bunch
Summer Squash – .75 each
Raspberries – $3.00/halfpint
Garlic – 8oz. bags – $4.00

Enjoy

Michael Pollan, the preeminent writer on food, champion of the small organic farm and a favorite writer of Jim and Debbie (because he so ably expresses the ideas why they do what they do) has a lengthy article that just appeared at www.newyorktimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html

Hello, farm visitors!  Jeremy Fox is my name, apprentice farming is my game this summer, as I work alongside Jim and Debbie at Fields Farm.  My background is in education and outdoor recreation, and before working here I had only some basic knowledge of farming and gardening and the like.  But each day I learn something new at the farm, and I have discovered that farming is–yes–another form of outdoor recreation.  Things are in full swing right now–lots of irrigating, harvesting, and weeding to be done!  I’m going to try and post my insights at least weekly for your entertainment here on the website, so I hope you enjoy!
Insight #1 Kale: the workhorse of the farm
If you’re part of our CSA, you know that you’ve been getting kale in your bag every week since the beginning.  I hope you’ve been enjoying it (and not getting tired of it!) because kale harvesting is one of my jobs.  In May the leaves were small, maybe six inches long max, but now these plants are leafing out at 12-14 inches!  And it is the same plants that have been producing the whole time!  Maybe this is just exciting and amazing to me, the apprentice who until recently has never been intimate with kale plants week after week, but their constancy and resilience are impressive.  Each week I tear off the lowest and largest leaves; each week those scars scab over and the plant grows taller and larger leaves as if to prove that my harvesting has no effect on the plant.  Head lettuce, spinach, arugula and the other greens come and go, but the kale just won’t quit.  The three inch transplants we put in the ground in April are now pushing two feet tall, enough to tower above the outmost, rapidly spreading squash plant leaves.  We’ve got four varieties: red boar, green boar, purple, and strap leaf kale.  My favorite to harvest is the green boar–it’s leaves break off easily with a satisfying “snap!” and gather into full, blossomy bunches.  As far as I can tell, the kale is here for a while, so I hope you’ve found ways to keep it interesting in your diet!  My favorite is the simple saute in olive oil with some garlic (coming in a couple weeks) and onions (available now!), but kale can also be cooked down to serve as a green layer in casseroles (think spinach!), eaten raw on sandwiches in lieu of lettuce, or brushed lightly with olive oil and a little salt, and baked at 300 degrees for a few minutes to make kale chips.  Either way, it’s a healthy leaf–vitamins K, A, C, manganese, copper, calcium and many others essentials.  If you come out to the farm, you must see the kale forests in our greenhouse tunnels.  It’s also available in our gray fridge out front, the farmer’s market, and often at Nature’s grocery store.  All hail kale!