November 22nd, 2011: Happy Thanksgiving!

The Final Share: Red Kuri and Delicata Winter Squash Salad Mix Collard Greens Celeriac Carrots Beets Parsnips Acorn Squash Delicata Squash Red Kuri Squash Pie Pumpkins Bintje Potatoes Onions Garlic Herbs
Announcements: Celeriac, also knows as celery root, is closely related to celery, but grown for the bulbous, starchy softball-sized root. Our celeriac experienced a challenging season and the roots did not size up to their potential. The mini roots will still be tasty though, roasted or in a soup, and the rest of the plant – stems and leaves will add a rich flavor to stock – recipe below.
Notes from the Field: It’s a Wrap What a fantastic season! Thank you to our amazing Farm Crew: Bryan, Courtney, Justin, and Mike. They seeded, planted, weeded, harvested, tended chickens, weeded, tended turkeys, and weeded; they got cold and wet, they got hot and tired; they got sore backs, sunburns, cuts and stitches. And all of these things they did with passion, dedication, good humor, and amazing team work. And thank you Members for participating in Zenger Farm’s first ever Farm Share season! We are honored that you chose Portland-grown veggies, and that you chose to take time out of busy schedules to pick up your share each week at the farm, and to swap recipes or wrangle turkeys on the loose! Stay cozy this Winter, and we look forward to seeing you back for Farm Share 2012! And finally, I am pleased to bring you a re-cap of 2011, by Crew Leader, Bryan “Sir Mix-A-Lot” Allan:
In the Kitchen with Devin: Vegetable Stock Celeriac Parsley, Sage, Thyme Carrots Onions Garlic Oil Chop scrubbed vegetables into 1-inch chunks. Remember, the greater the surface area, the more quickly vegetables will yield their flavor. Heat oil in a soup pot. Add onion, celeriac, carrots, garlic, parsley, thyme, and sage leaves. Cook over high heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add salt and water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or longer. Strain. Discard vegetables. Christian’s Parsnip Chips Parsnips Oil Salt & Pepper Preheat oven to 325. Chop parsnips into thin pieces, 4-5mm thick. Toss with oil, salt and pepper, than spread onto a baking sheet. Parsnips are than baked for 10-15 min until brown and crispy. Pumpkin Puree Pie Pumpkin Cut out the stem and scrape out the insides. Cut the pumpkin in half and lay cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake at 350°F until fork tender, about an hour to an hour and a half. Remove from oven, let cool, scoop out the pulp. (Alternatively you can cut the pumpkin into sections and steam in a saucepan with a couple inches of water at the bottom, until soft.) If you want the pulp to be extra smooth, put it through a food mill or chinois.

November 1, 2011: Making a Living as a Farmer

This Week’s Share: Mixed baby lettuce It's a big one! Red Onions “All Red” Potatoes Butternut Squash Mixed Pepper Red & Green Tomatoes Garlic “Winter Bor” Kale Mixed Beets Parsley Leeks

Reminder: Last Pick-up is Tuesday, November 22 (just before thanksgiving)

Field Notes from Bryan Allan, Crew Leader:   Did you know that this is only our second year where Friends of Zenger Farm has been in charge of the farming? Before that, other farmers were using the land and we were just educating neighbors and school children. Why do our own farming? maximize the educational value of the farm (clear labeling, wide variety of crops, organic methods, etc.) create innovative programs that bring local, healthy produce to nearby food-insecure neighborhoods (i.e. Zenger Farm Shares accepts food stamps) demonstrate that urban farming is a viable economic option for farmers educate the next generation of farmers (That’s us, the apprentices!) I’m so excited that the farm crew, in just our second year, doubled our income from produce sales! We went from about $15,000 to $30,000! This includes sales to local restaurants, at Lents and Montavilla markets, and Zenger Farm Shares. Striving for our financial goals I’ve written about the challenges of low-cost food before, but it’s not hard to do the math: $30,000 can not pay a living wage to a farm crew of five. While Zenger has a lot of room to grow, every single established, successful farm we have toured this year and last struggles to pay their crew a bit more than minimum wage while the owners (typically two people, married) are lucky to take home a total of $500 weekly. That means Portland’s “successful,” sustainable, small-scale farmer earns somewhere between $1 and $6/hour. It’s a harsh reality when it pays better to work at any minimum wage job for less than forty hours weekly than it does to operate (working well over forty hours weekly) a farm larger, more established and more reputable than Zenger. When people balk at the market for $3/lb specialty eggplant or $2/lb cucumbers, there is no quick sound bite to explain how no one is getting rich off of the type of farming we do at Zenger. How do you explain to someone that their idea of a reasonable price is just another product manufactured by industrial agriculture? Justin rocks the last market, winning best costume as a carrot! Despite these high hurdles, I have been so encouraged by the passion I’ve seen this year. The passion of the farm crew creates a synergy and keeps us working hard despite everything else that may be going on. The Portland area is blessed with so many passionate farmers. And these farmers are blessed with customers that have a better understanding of a farmer’s challenges than people in other parts of the country do. I’m encouraged to see a new kind of food revolution taking place, with Portland as an epicenter, and to have been part of it.

In the Kitchen with Devin: Beet Bundt Cake with chocolate chips! From the Vegan Table cookbook. ½ cup canola oil 1 & ½ cup dark brown sugar 2 cups cooked Beets (Roasted or Steamed) ½ cup chocolate chips 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt Preheat oven to 375. Roast or steam beets. Mix oil and sugar together, than add pureed beets, chocolate chips and vanilla (egg optional). In another bowl mix flour, salt, and baking soda, than mix in with the wet ingredients. Oil your bundt or baking pan, and bake for 45 min or until an inserted fork pulls no batter. Let cool and enjoy!

October 25th, 2011

This Week’s Share: Up next week: Red Kuri Winter Squash Jalapenos Jimmy Nardello Peppers Stupice Tomatoes Bintje Potatoes Acorn Squash Brussel Sprout Greens Beets Carrots King Eggplant Onions Garlic Rosemary Bob’s Oat Groats
Announcements: Dirty Spuds: The Bintje potatoes in your share this week are a Dutch heirloom beauty – versatile, with creamy flesh and exceptional flavor. You may have also noticed that they are quite dirty! Potatoes are one of those hardy storage crops that can last well into winter in the right conditions. They will keep best if they are not washed right away. At home, keep them in a cool, dark place – think cellar. A paper bag in the fridge will work too. Wash just before using. Two more weeks to go! Last Regular Season Pick-up: November 1st Thanksgiving Pick-up: November 22nd
Field Notes from Farmer Justin, Apprentice: I might have mentioned it before but one of my favorite things about farming is spending the major portion of my day outside. Being able to really experience and be apart of the changing of the seasons is enlightening. You participate in it with all your senses. You can see the fields become more and more empty as we harvest from them and the wetlands and sunflowers turn brown as the weather cools. You can feel the cool brisk air and the soaked soil sticking to your boots. You get to hear the sounds of the migrating birds and patter of rain on the roof of the barn. And you get to taste the amazing winter squash when it is first ready to eat. Butternut Squash curing in the greenhouse Another one of my farming favorites is winter squash harvest. Here is how it goes. Courtney, Mike, Bryan and I all pack into the truck and head over to Furey fields. We start out by hunting down the winter squash left in the fields, free them from their vines and consolidate the fruit to a few lines in the field. Now with hundreds of squash lined up in a few paths Courtney and Mike were skeptical about how we were going to get them to the greenhouse to store. “We should have brought a wheel barrel.” “This wasn’t very well thought out.” I’ve done this before farming on Sauvie Island so I tried to reassure them. ...and Delicata So then the fun starts. We have the truck parked at the edge of the field and Mike and Bryan standing in the truck bed. Courtney and I pick a row and start tossing the squash to the truck. I’m getting further and further from the truck and am throwing from about 30 feet away. For the squashes sake Bryan suggests a fireman’s line. Bryan hops out of the truck and Courtney, Bryan and I get a few feet apart and start tossing. It gets really fun as we get further into the field and we are over 15 feet apart tossing a four pound redi kuri squash to the truck. In this way, nearly 1000 pounds of winter squash are loaded into the truck and delivered to the greenhouse to be cured. After a week or so, after the cut on their stems and any nicks have healed, they can be boxed up and stored for the winter.
In the Kitchen with Devin: Recipes provided by Zenger Farm volunteer Alex Yost Shredded Carrot and Beet Salad Peel raw beets, parsnips, or carrots then grate them into a bowl using the large side of a cheese grater. Optional: chop parsley and add it to the salad. Optional: chop nuts and add to salad. Dress with Honey Vinaigrette, below. Honey Vinaigrette: In a small bowl, start with about 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar (depending on the size of the salad). Season the vinegar with salt, pepper and honey until it is no longer too tangy. Quickly whisk in olive oil (about 3/4 cup) a little bit at a time, tasting as you go. Add more vinegar or seasonings until the flavor is balanced. Pour vinaigrette over salad, mix together and enjoy!

October 18th, 2011

This Week’s Share: Delicata Winter Squash Green Peppers Red Peppers Jimmy Nardello Peppers Delicata Winter Squash Kathadin Potatoes Chard Red Ursa Kale Carrots Green Tomatoes Red Onions Garlic Thyme Bob’s Red Mill: Cornmeal
Announcements: Three more weeks of Farm Share to go! Regular Season: October 25th & November 1st Thanksgiving Pick-up: November 22nd
Field Notes from Farmer Courtney, Apprentice: Farming during the peak of the season demands your presence, your focus and your ability to bend when the unexpected arises—the unexpected always arises. In August and September we were juggling 12 things at once and when one of the balls dropped we quickly had to find a way to replace it, or fix it, and get it back in the air. Now that the air is cooler, the days are shorter and the rain had returned we have fewer balls to juggle and more room to think about what lies ahead. Saving seed, step one. Each of the apprentices has spent the last few weeks thinking and working on special projects that we didn’t have time for during the height of the season. I’ve been spending one afternoon a week collecting seeds that we can sow into next year’s crop. To save pure seed involves a lot of forethought: creating room for crops that you will save seed from and not consume; identifying which plants are the hardiest and tastiest throughout the season so you can save their seed; designing a plan where cross-pollinating plants are far enough away from each other to produce pure seed. Except for garlic, we haven’t deliberately saved seed at Zenger Farm before, so many cross-pollinating crops are planted too close together this year to produce a pure seed—although, we could have some awesome hybrids on our hands—and we didn’t plan for an excess, so most of the fruit was harvested before we could save the seed. My hope is that Zenger will incorporate a seed saving plan in the future, so that we can be more self-sufficient; we will be producing more adaptive plants that have been selected for hardiness, taste and climate tolerance, and we won’t be as reliant on large seed companies. Preparing tomato seeds for saving In addition to our projects, we have been winterizing the farm. We bundled up all the irrigation and have started tidying up the barn. These are reminiscent of our first tasks when we arrived at Zenger in April, and it feels very much like we are closing a circle, which is satisfying in its sense of completion, but also feels sad that our time at the farm is nearing an end. Once winter arrives, there will be a lot of space to reflect and in turn plan for the coming season. The nature of an apprenticeship is that you take what you learn and move forward. This winter I will be passing my time thinking and planning how I can build and contribute to our urban food-system and readying myself to begin accomplishing those goals in the spring.
In the Kitchen with Devin: Fried Green Tomatoes: Slice tomatoes about 1 cm thick Soak tomatoes in 2 cups milk In another bowl, mix 1 cup corn flour, 1 cup polenta, ½ cup flour Heat Canola Oil in a pan till it reacts with splashes of batter Take a tomato slice and coat with batter mix Fill pan with battered tomatoes, salt lightly when bottom half browns, flip When ready, remove from pan onto paper to soak leftover oils Season with salt and enjoy! Green Tomato Rice from: http://southernfood.about.com/od/greentomatoe1/r/bl61217d.htm Ingredients: 1 bunch green onions, sliced, with most of green 4 medium green tomatoes, peeled and chopped 1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, minced 1 clove garlic, minced 2 cups chicken broth 1 cup long-grain rice dash dried leaf thyme salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste dash Tabasco sauce, optional 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese, optional 4 slices bacon, diced, optional Directions: In a medium saucepan, saute the bacon over medium heat until crisp; remove to paper towels to drain. In 1 tablespoon of the bacon drippings, saute green onions for 1 minute. Add green tomatoes and saute for 1 minute longer. Add garlic and jalapeno pepper; saute for another 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth, rice, thyme, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Bring to a boil. Stir, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Stir in Parmesan cheese just before serving, if desired. Sprinkle with the cooked bacon. Serves 4.