News from Windy Willow Farm
2008 Week 2

This week’s share includes:

1 bunch asparagus- The sunny, warm weather helped the asparagus take off. I hope you’re enjoying them as much as we do.
1 bag mesclun – A beautiful mix of red and green lettuces, kale, arugula, bok choy and other asian greens. It has a lovely flavor, mild plus some spice. It was picked this morning, and plunged in ice cold water. Be sure to rinse again in cold water, spin or pat dry, and store in a plastic bag. (There are as many lettuce storage techniques as there are lettuce leaves, but this is mine.) Don’t forget to pick out the odd weed or piece of grass.
1 bag arugula – Welcome to arugula from an organic farm! As you can see, this stuff is “pre-eaten” by the flea beetles. They love the stuff and descend upon it as soon as it peeks out from the ground. The only way to avoid the swiss-cheese look is to cover it as soon as you plant it, and make sure there’s no holes in the cover. Our row covers regularly flap in the breeze, letting all sorts of critters underneath. The arugula has a spicy, peppery flavor and is awesome mixed into your lettuce, or sautéed with garlic and olive oil and tossed with pasta. (Cooking tames the spicy bite).
1 bunch lovage – a cousin to celery, it is the orginal “straw” in a bloody Mary (the stems are hollow). A little of this herb goes a long, long way. I love it in potato salad, soups and regular lettuce salads. It adds a little flavor and some salt to your cooking. All parts of the leaves and stems are edible.
1 bunch mint – stuck for ideas for your mint? Steep in hot water for tea, mix with sugar, lime and rum for a mojito, chew leaves straight for a “pick me up/breath freshener”, toss with peas for a refreshing treat, chop and sprinkle over vanilla ice cream, float in cold water for minty water…. The ideas go on and on.
Best guess for next week – Asparagus, greens (spinach and/or lettuce and/or arugula), an herb (maybe oregano), radishes.

As you can see, our CSA starts slowly and picks up speed as the season progresses. This season may be starting a bit slower, due to our greenhouse struggles, so our apologies for this. We have been busy, as usual, in the garden, planting, weeding, irrigating, and covering with row cover. I’m still waiting for the threat of frost to be over…. At the house this morning it said 33 degrees, but there was frost in the grass. Already my tomatoes (under row cover) have suffered from the cold: evidence of frost burns on the leaves are visible. They’ll pick up again after the weather warms up consistently, but I always want them to grow vigorously from the get-go!

You may have noticed field activity in the south-west corner of our property. Our dairy farm neighbor, Tony, is using the field to plant Sudan grass. He prepped the field by plowing and disking, and used a backhoe to pry out the visible ledgerock. Mark took advantage of this to drag huge pieces of rock around the farm. One piece ended up in the front lawn: what better kid toy is there? Several large rocks now live near the pond, as wildlife-viewing posts. The best one by far now is located at the corner of our property: it’s going to be our sign-rock! All it needs is a hole to be tipped into, and a coat of paint to have a farm sign. If there are any artists out there who want to help design the sign, please let me know!

I just looked out the window to the chicken pasture and saw a puff of dirt fly into the air. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on, since I saw no chicken in the area! Our chickens are enthusiastic fluffers. They love to fluff/bathe in the dirt since it keeps them cool while controlling parasites. Apparently they have fluffed in the same spot for so long, it is now a chicken-hole, and is much lower than the surrounding grass. Hence, the puff of dirt. Not only is the chicken pasture a dangerous place to walk due to the holes in the ground, but the pigs are making quick work of their pasture as well. Pigs love to root, and these seven pigs root with the best of them. It generally takes a while for small pigs to root up their pasture; we usually can get a few weeks to a month from the pigs’ first pasture. These guys have been rooting since they arrived at WWF, and have been hard at work ever since. We intentionally put the pig and chicken pastures in the spot reserved for our next garden. This way the animals are helping us fertilize the soil, kill the grass and eat all the roots and bugs they can find. Hard workers, our animals.

Thanks for your support!
Gwen, Mark, Sarah and Jason Hyde

© 2008 Gwen Hyde

Lentils With Lovage (from http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/lovage.html)
Ingredients:

1/2 small chopped sweet onion
chopped butter
12 ounces whole green lentils
1/2 cup chopped lovage
1 sprig of fresh thyme
orange zest/peel
chicken stock or water

Sauté the chopped onions in the butter to soften but do not brown. Stir in the lentils. Add the chopped lovage, thyme, one strip on orange peel or a small amount of zest and stock. Cover and simmer until tender. Remove the lentil mixture with a slotted spoon and reduce the liquid in the pan, while adding a little more butter and salt and pepper to taste. Serve over the lentil mixture. Serves 4.

Asparagus with roasted-garlic aioli
Gourmet February 2007

Roasting the heads of garlic results in a less-pungent aioli — a nice quality in an appetizer, since too much raw garlic can hijack the palate for the rest of the evening.

Makes 8 (hors d'oeuvre) servings.

2 medium heads garlic, left whole
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
2 teaspoons apple-cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 lb medium asparagus, trimmed

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.

Cut off and discard tops of garlic heads to expose cloves, then brush each head with 1/2 tablespoon oil. Wrap heads together in foil and bake until tender, about 45 minutes. Cool to warm.

Squeeze garlic from skins into a food processor and purée with mayonnaise, vinegar, pepper, and salt. Transfer aioli to a bowl and stir in chives.

Arugula Pesto Recipe #102668 (from http://www.recipezaar.com/102668)
A variation over one of the best italian sauces.
by ekives
10 min 10 min prep SERVES 4
2 cups arugula leaves
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic

Put all the ingredients on a mixer and chop until it forms a paste.
Serve over pasta.

2008 CSA Week 1

News from Windy Willow Farm
2008 Week 1

This week’s share includes:

1 bunch asparagus- A small bunch to whet your appetite. Could someone order up some warm, sunny days please? I would love for our plants to start growing vigorously. After last fall’s success of roasting Brussels sprouts, I tried roasting our asparagus this spring. It was a Slam Dunk!! Roasting caramelized the sugars in the asparagus, and it melts in your mouth. See below for my recipe. To preserve, just wash, cut into pieces, blanch for 2 minutes and freeze.
1 bunch rhubarb- We’ve removed the leaves, as only the stalks are edible. They can be used in breads, pies, jellies, tarts and added to many fruit-based recipes (adding a bit more sugar), even lemonade! Or just cut in 1-inch pieces and freeze raw and mix with mid-summer fruits.
1 bunch mint- My favorite addition to Lemon Zinger iced tea, or any hot teas. It also repels ants, I’ve been told.
1 bunch rosemary
1 bunch lilacs – a surprise addition to this week’s share. I know my CSA members “get” that the season starts slow, but I wanted to have a bigger share this week. I hope your house smells as wonderful as mine tonight! Best guess for next week – Asparagus, greens (spinach and/or lettuce and/or arugula), an herb (maybe oregano), lovage, mint.

Welcome to the 2008 Windy Willow Farm CSA! We’re so exited to begin our season and to get to know our members. We’ve been working diligently to prepare our farm and crops for a bountiful season.

We’ve moved and renovated our CSA/farm stand space. We’re now located on the right side of the garage, with dedicated/professional market tables, making setup and cleanup easier. I won’t miss setting up our market tables every week! The only setback is that we’ll be set up inside the entire season, which will protect our tender veggies, but who wants to chat in a gloomy garage? I’ll have plenty of chairs set up outside so we can chat and catch up.

The garden(s) have been planted with our first and second succession plantings. We have to continuously plant certain crops to make sure we have a steady supply of good stuff to share with you. These include spinach, arugula, cilantro, peas and lettuce mix. Some crops are planted once and we’re able to harvest from these all season, such as beets, Swiss chard and carrots.

The warm weather we had in April tricked us into thinking that spring had sprung and that the cold weather was behind us. We were able to get early crops into the ground (after spreading compost, plowing and tilling the soil), but am still waiting for the warmer weather to arrive! It seems we have a frost almost every morning. Because of this, most of our crops are covered by row cover. Row covers allow sunlight and rain through to the plants, but provide a greenhouse effect, warming the plants, protecting them from bugs and wind. They give us about four degrees of frost protection. We need some warmer weather to see aggressive plant growth.

We’re looking forward to meeting all of our new members this week! During pickups, please park either in the parking area near the garage, or along the road and walk in. Feel free to stay awhile and chat, or have your kids play supervised on our playset.

Thanks for your enthusiastic support!
Gwen, Mark, Sarah and Jason Hyde

© Gwen Hyde 2008



Gwen’s Roasted Asparagus
1 bunch asparagus
Olive Oil
Coarse sea salt

Snap the tough ends off of the asparagus and toss with olive oil. Arrange on a flat baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes, or until tender (stick a fork in the fattest ones to test). I’ve roasted them without rearranging partway through baking and seen no difference from when I’ve just left them alone, so turn if you feel the need. Enjoy!

Rhubarb Crumb Bars (from www.rhubarbinfo.com)
Ingredients: Top and bottom "crust"

1 cup flour3/4 cup oatmeal (uncooked)

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/2 cup butter, (melted)

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 Tbls flour

1/4 teas nutmeg

1 Tbls butter (softened)

1 egg (beaten)

2 cups rhubarb (cut into 1/2" pieces)

Procedure:
Mix flour, oatmeal, brown sugar and butter until crumbly. Press 1/2 into greased 9" square pan. Add rhubarb. Beat egg. Blend sugar, flour, nutmeg and butter. Add beaten egg, beat until smooth. Pour over rhubarb. Top with other half crumb mixture, press mixture down lightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Walking the Talk

A recent theme at the farm these days is, "How come no one can do what they say they're going to do?"

For example, 25 families are currently relying on me to supply them with a season's worth of vegetables, with a bonus sprinkling of fruit. I said that I would supply said items; my member families have entrusted me with their hard-earned money (or promise to work, for my worker shares). This is a covenant which I take very seriously. If I don't do what I say I'm going to do, 25 families go hungry.

Our frustration begins with my current greenhouse. This winter, I supplied them with a list of what I need grown and when, and included the seeds for each. They agreed. This agreement is vitally important, as I count on their "doing what they say they will do" for my 25 families!

For example, I need(ed) to put several hundred heads of lettuce in the ground on May 1st. So, on April 30th, I called and said, "as agreed, I'll be there tomorrow to pick up all of my May 1st plants. I assume (maybe that was my first problem!) that they are in the hardening-off area by now and are ready for me to plant." The response, ".... uhh.... maybe you shouldn't come until the end of the week." WHAT??? Apparently, my lettuce (and broccoli, cabbage, collards, kale and others) had died several weeks earlier, from lack of watering. They had just been replanted. Did they give me a call and say, "we've had a problem and need to push back our agreed-upon dates"? Nope. You could see the steam coming from my ears.

As farmers that sell produce grown all-naturally, without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides (a.k.a. organic), we plan all year for our farming business. We spread compost and cover crops on the gardens, we plant garlic in October, we water and weed our crops. We purchase seed and plant it. We do what we say we are going to do.

Is the word for this integrity? I'm not sure, but it's close.

I was recently discussing this with a long-time customer of mine and his comment was, "These days, if someone only does what they say what they are going to do, they will be wildly successful." This hit me hard. How did our expectations of eachother fall so short? In this day and age of technology and overbooking, is it so hard to say what you will do and do it? Makes me crazy.

Luck being kind, I had already planted most of my upper garden in spinach, arugula, mesclun and peas. These will be the mainstay of my early shares, as well as asparagus, rhubarb, mint, chives and lovage. My families will not go hungry.

Long and painful story short, I am currently at the mercy of my greenhouse growers. This is unacceptable to me and my business. Because of this, we have committed to purchase and install our own greenhouse to start all of our own transplants. Look for this development in the coming months.