Big Leaf Farm

Farm Labor. We’ve been thinking about labor a fair bit lately, but actually it’s a different kind of labor that is the topic of this week’s newsletter.

Farm labor is actually a big issue for us, and one that we think about a lot as we consider

One of our farm-labor solutions is drafting visitors into our guest-worker program. Frank was our latest victim, visiting from Ithaca, New York this weekend.

scaling up in the future.  Right now our production is limited by labor; that is, we would need to hire more help if we wanted to take on more CSA members.  Our labor situation is pretty simple: I work full time on the farm growing for the CSA.  Sara helps me when she can in the fields on the weekends and also does some of the bookkeeping.  And of course, any visitors to the farm get conscripted to help out.  Having a baby certainly won’t help matters, as, last time I checked, raising a child can take up a good part of the day — hence our decision to scale back production next year.

We’re not the only farmers that are finding ourselves limited by labor, and lately these limitations have had political implications.  For example, apple farmers inWashingtonfaced a shortage of pickers last fall, and some had to resort to hiring inmate labor (at a higher rate than normal) to get their crops picked.  InAlabama, a new state law that cracked down on illegal immigration resulted in farmers collectively losing about $40 million because they couldn’t find willing pickers.  When the price of harvesting a crop approaches the price farmers can sell it for, farmers often choose to let the crop rot on the ground in order to cut their losses.

The truth of the matter is that many crops that are cultivated or harvested by hand (like tree fruits, berries and most vegetables) end up being harvested by migrant labor.  Even in a down economy, it seems as if there are few Americans willing to take these low-paying jobs, and when immigrant labor is in short supply, then farmers suffer.

Many observers place the blame for these problems on farmers.  If they were willing to pay workers more, then maybe Americans would be willing to take these jobs they say.  Others finger our politicians, saying that a relaxed immigration policy that allowed workers to come into the country for farm work legally could help solve the problem.  And still others have suggested that the problem lies with the consumer.  Americans pay a much smaller proportion of their income for food than just about anywhere else in the world, they argue, and paying more for our food could help solve some of these problems.

As is usually the case when finger pointing starts, the real culprit is probably a combination of factors.  However, I’d argue that when we start to see the connection between those that grow and harvest food and ourselves as we gather at the dinner table, we’ll begin to start thinking a little more clearly about the topic and maybe stop pointing fingers and actually start working on fixing the problem.

I think this is one of many areas that CSA helps nudge us toward some more appropriate solutions.  When you know where your food comes from, who grows and picks it, and under what conditions they work, you can use your food dollars to vote for the labor practices you feel comfortable with. You can do that not only through CSA but also by frequenting a farmers market, choosing foods that are fair trade certified, and giving your business to retail stores that you know follow responsible sourcing practices. In the years that I’ve been farming, I’ve come to see how rewarding the connection between grower and eater can be, and I hope you have, too.

In the meantime, though, we’ll continue to address our own farm labor issues as we have in the past, by applying ourselves diligently to our farm tasks, and encouraging friends to come visit so we can draft them into service.  And I’ve heard that children can make fine farm workers, as long as you get them started early.  That’s certainly our plan with the upcoming baby!

Have a great week, and enjoy your veggies!

• Sunchokes:  You might notice some long roots on a few of the sunchokes this week.  Normally these don’t appear closer to spring, as the tuber wakes up and starts growing  in anticipation of warmer times to come.  I’m not sure why they are starting earlier this year, but they’re tasty nonetheless.  Check out a number of recipes below for ideas.  My favorite preparation is chopped and roasted alongside potatoes, carrots, parsnips and beets.
• Onions:
• Collard Greens:
• Yukina savoy:  This Asian mustard should look pretty familiar to all of you by now.  The leaves and upper stems are great sautéed with a little ginger and garlic.  You might even add in the collards.
• Butternut Squash:  These are great roasted or in soups (check out a nice recipe below), but you can also use them for pie, cookies or muffins.  The flesh freezes fine cooked as well. 
• Sugar Meat Squash (large share only):  This large storage squash has very sweet flesh, so it’s great for baked goods (like pumpkin cookies or pie), but it’s also nice enjoyed as a puree.  Just bake the squash halves in the oven, cut side down, like you would the butternut, and then scoop the flesh out and puree with a little butter and spices.  The remainder of the flesh can be used for baking or freezes beautifully to enjoy later.  This variety was bred by Katy Stokes in Corvallis from an old Oregon heirloom squash called ‘Sweet meat’.
• Rutabegas:
• Garlic:  This is the very last of last year’s garlic crop.
• Turnip: These turnips wanted to get into your shares so much this week that I picked them even though there’s only one per small share.  We’ve got new turnips coming in the greenhouse, but they’re several weeks away at best.

Tofu and winter squash stew

This is standard winter fare for us, and I think I’ve given out the recipe in years past.  I’ve heard folks tell me that you can substitute chicken for tofu.  Just cook the meat before you add it to the soup when the squash is almost done.  This is good served over rice

2-3 leeks or 1-2 onions, chopped

2 T peanut oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 serrano chiles, diced (substitute 1-2 jalapeños)

1 T finely chopped ginger

1 T curry powder

1 t light brown sugar

3 T soy sauce

½ – 1 can unsweetened coconut milk

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into ½”  chunks

1 10-oz package of firm tofu, pressed and cut into ½ inch cubes.

Juice of one lime

1/3 cups raw peanuts

¼ cup chopped cilantro

salt to taste

Dice the leeks or onion and sauté them in the oil in a soup pot.  Cook them until softened (about 3 minutes), then add the garlic, chiles and ginger and cook another minute.  Then add the curry, brown sugar and soy sauce and allow everything to carmelize for a couple more minutes.  Then scrape the pan and add 3 cups of water plus the coconut milk, the squash and a tsp of salt.  Bring to a boil and simmer the soup until the squash is getting soft.  Then add the tofu and simmer another 10-15 minutes, until the squash is soft and just starting to fall apart.  Meanwhile, brown the chopped peanuts in a dry skillet.  Add a small handful of the peanuts and some chopped cilantro to each bowl before serving.

Adapted from “Vegetarian cooking for everyone” by Deborah Madison.

Roasted sunchoke salad with ginger vinaigrette

We were served this salad, made with our sunchokes recently, and it was a hit.  Unfortunately, our salad mix isn’t ready yet.  You can either find some at the store or market, or hold your sunchokes in the crisper drawer for a week or two (they’ll store fine), until we give out winter salad mix.

For the dressing…

2  T rice wine vinegar

1 T grated fresh ginger

1 T honey

¼ t minced garlic

½ cup canola oil

For the salad…

1 lb sunchokes scrubbed and cut into bite-sized pieces

1-2 T cup canola oil

¼ cup dried blueberries or currents

½ cup toasted sunflower seeds

chopped or baby salad greens

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Combine the dressing ingredients and whisk.  Then scrub the sunchokes and cut them into bite sized pieces.  Toss them with the oil and salt and pepper in a bowl, then spread them on a sheet and place them in the oven for 10 minutes.  They’ll start to cook a little and get brown edges, but they’ll still be a little crunchy inside.

From ‘The Splendid Table” website

Roasted Sunchokes

1 to 1 ½ lb sunchokes

2 T olive or vegetable oil

¼ t salt

black pepper to taste

few sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary (substitute 1 t dried)

2 bay leaves.

Preheat the oven to 425.  Wash, trim and cut the sunchokes into 1 ½ cubes.  Then toss them with the oil, salt and black pepper, and the herbs.  Then roast them until tender in a 9X13” pan, about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Don’t crowd them in the pan, and they’ll get nice brown edges.

From “The Joy of Cooking” by Rombauer, Becker and Becker

Here’s a reminder that we have a baby coming soon, and as announced earlier

Low tunnel for winter protection. I'm still working on keeping the plastic on in high winds...

in the winter we may need to cancel a distribution if the birth conflicts with CSA delivery (sorry, the baby gets priority!)  We’re planning on sending a note out if a distribution will be cancelled, so please check your email before you come to pickup in the following weeks.  I’ll also post a note on the blog, so you can check there too.  The official due date is Feb. 9, but we’re expecting baby to come any time in the next 3-4 weeks or so.  Please send me any email addresses you’d like added to my list for the notification.

Winter veggie diversity. Have any of you noticed that it’s been a mild winter?  Based on averages, I’m not sure how this year stacks up against normal, but I can tell that we have a greater diversity of things standing in the field than any of the last 4 winters we’ve been growing here.

This is because we haven’t had any serious cold snaps (with weather dipping down into the lower teens or single digits) this year.  Things like arugula, chard, beets, carrots and overwintering broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage have been dead or seriously damaged by this time of the winter in year’s past.  This year all these crops still look good in the field and I’m hoping this will impact the shares later this winter and early spring in a positive way.  Here’s also hoping that I’m not tempting fate by counting this blessing…

In my limited experience, I’d say that winter weather is more unpredictable and affects the shares to a greater degree than summer weather does for us.  All it takes is one or two nights of weather below 10 degrees or so, and we lose most of the above-mentioned crops. For this reason, we’ve been experimenting with storing sensitive crops in our cooler this year.  For example, beets and carrots that you received last week came from storage, as did potatoes and celeriac this week.  Storing these crops inside instead of in the field makes these crops more expensive to produce than during the summer because of the increased labor, and electricity, but because there is the potential to increase the diversity of our shares by doing this, we figure this is worth it at our scale.

This year we’re also experimenting with low plastic-covered tunnels in the field to protect specific crops, and although it hasn’t been cold enough this year to tell if these are worthwhile, we plan on trying more of this in the future.

Other crops like grains and pulses can be grown during the summer and then stored for winter shares.  The black coco beans you received last week are a good example of this, and we have 4 or 5 other types of beans that we’re planning to grow in years to come, in addition to corn for polenta and corn meal.

Vegetable variety makes a big difference when it comes to winter hardiness in our climate, so we’re continuously searching for new varieties to try to improve our winter offerings.  This week’s kale is one example of an outstanding winter leafy green, and we’re even conducting a few breeding projects to develop new varieties that will stand up to our winter weather even better.

We hope that all these efforts show in what we’re able to offer this winter, and we’re exited to expand winter options more in the years to come.  After all, winter is a season that is largely unexplored by many farms.  Another benefit for us in pursing growing for winter is that winter CSA members are the hardcore of the especially passionate, and we enjoy taking this journey of seasonal eating with all of you!

Have a great week, and enjoy your winter veggies!

• Parsnips:  Super tasty in soups, roasted with other root vegetables or squash, or mashed in with potatoes, parsnips can also be front and center in a recipe, such as in the parsnip patty recipe below.  Give it a try!
• Kale:  This week’s kale is a Russian type, in contrast to the European kale you received a number of times earlier in the winter.  This one is called “Hunger Gap”, and is a new variety for us.  We’re interested to see how it performs in the months to come.
• Celeriac:  This veggie doesn’t stand in the field well for us- it normally succumbs to the freeze-thaw cycle.  So this year we put a hundred or so in storage, and that’s where this week’s celeriac came from.  That meant I didn’t have to pick them in the pouring  rain this morning!
• Leeks:
• Potatoes:  Russet potatoes are on tap this week.  These are larger, and perfect for baking.
• Brussels:  These sprouts have stood up to the vagaries of the weather for almost three months now, and as a result they’re a little worse-for-wear as a result.  Fortunately they clean up nicely with a little trimming.  These are the last of the spouts we’ve got; I picked every last stalk in the sunshine on Monday!
• Squash:  These small squash, called “Gold Nugget” are nice for stuffing or baking.  They’re a little harder to cut up and roast as chunks because the skin is so hard, so if you go this route, be careful and don’t cut yourself.  The easiest way to cut these in half is to use a heavy knife and a wooden or rubber mallet!  Sink the knife in with your hands, then tap on the top of the knife to sink it through the squash.  We’ve got a couple of killer squash recipes for you to check out in the recipe section.

Parsnip Patties

4 cup raw parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks.  If you

don’t have enough parsnips that’s OK, or add some carrots and/or potatoes to make up the difference.

1 leek or onion, minced

1 T oil

1 t dried tarragon

2 eggs, beaten briefly

1 t salt

½ cup finely chopped walnuts

1-2 cups bread crumbs

Steam the parsnips (or cook in the microwave, covered with a little water) until tender, then mash or puree.  Then mix them with the onion, egg, salt and walnuts.  Form them into patties and dust each side with bread crumbs.  If they are too loose to do this, you can mix in  a little bread crumb (1/2 cup or so) to stiffen up the batter.  Oil a baking sheet with the oil, place the patties on the sheet, and bake for 20-30 minutes or so, turning the patties half-way through.  Makes 8-12 patties.

From ‘The New Laurel’s Kitchen” by Robertson, Flinders and Ruppenthal

Winter squash stuffed with two-rice pilaf

1 t vegetable oil

2/3 cup brown rice, rinsed

1/3 cup thai black rice, rinsed.  If you can’t find this, you might substitute barley, wild rice, or just more brown rice.

1 ¾ cup water

1 garlic clove, minced

1 t salt

2-3 gold nugget squash

1 T olive oil, plus some for brushing

1 cup diced onion

¾ cup sliced celery or cubed (1/2 inch) celeriac

1 t dried thyme

pinch of black pepper

1/3 cup chopped parsley

grated sharp cheddar (optional)

Warm the vegetable oil in a pan with a tight-fitting lid, add the rice and stir well.  Then add the water and garlic, bring to a boil and simmer until done, 45 minutes or so.  Then cut the squash in half through the stem and remove the seeds.  Brush the cut sides with oil and bake cut side down until tender, 20-30 minutes.  Remove them from the oven and flip them over (carefully) to let out the heat.  While the squash and rice are cooking sauté the onions, celery or celeriac, thyme and black pepper until the onions are tender. Then combine the veggies with the rice to make the filling, stuff the baked squash halves, and sprinkle with grated cheese, if using.  If you want to brown the cheese, just place the stuffed squash under the broiler for a minute or two.

Polenta casserole with winter squash and greens

For the polenta layer:

2 1/3 cups water

2/3 cups whole grain coarse cornmeal or polenta (not the quick-cooking kind)

2 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

¼ t salt

¼ t dried thyme

½ cup

For the greens layer

2 T olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

8-10 packed cups stemmed and chopped kale or collards

¼ cup water

¼ t salt

For the squash layer

1 ½ cup mashed winter squash

1 large egg, beaten

¼ t salt

black pepper

2/3 cup grated sharp cheddar

Cut the squash in half, remove seeds, and bake in the oven, cut side down until the squash are soft.  When the squash have cooled, scoop out the flesh and mix with the egg, salt and pepper and half of the cheese.  For the polenta layer, boil the water then add the cornmeal, tomatoes, salt and thyme and simmer, stirring often, until the polenta thickens up.  Then stir in the cheese and pour the polenta into an 8-inch square baking pan that has been lightly oiled, and smooth it out with a spoon to form a uniform base.  For the greens, first pick over the kale, then wash, remove the thickest stems, and chop everything coarsely.  Small share folks might not have quite enough greens.  That’s OK, or find some additional greens to augment what you’ve got.  Then heat the oil in a soup pot, cook the garlic in it and add the greens, salt and water and simmer until the greens are tender but not too soft (about 10 minutes).  Then drain the greens, adding more salt if necessary, and add the greens to the baking dish on top of the polenta.  Finally cover the greens with the squash mixture, adding the reserved cheese to the very top.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or so covered.  Finally, remove the cover and brown the top for 10-15 additional minutes.  Allow the casserole to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

Last two recipes from “Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health” by the Moosewood Collective.