Hello from the wet, soggy farm!  Despite the continued dreariness we have been getting a lot done, flipping our hoop houses, spring cleaning and getting ready for the season!  We've seeded lots of root crops and are crossing our fingers because we see five days of dryness–hurray!!

A couple notes about the farm:

+ CSA is on sale and we are about to start promoting it so if you don't want to lose your spot sign-up sooner than later!

+ We are now open until 8pm on Fridays and it is supposed to be sunny for this upcoming one!  We'll have a beautiful spring menu going all night and Happy Hour from 4-6pm.  Join us!

+ Our cheesemaking class with Kerri is filling up.  More info and sign-up here!

CILANTRO:  A big, beautiful bunch of fresh cilantro.  If this doesn't remind you of what is coming I don't know what will!  I love making cilantro pesto and using it with meat, in soups, on bread and so much more.  You can also use as a garnish for fish tacos (think cilantro-lime coleslaw), in a spring salsa or my favorite – adding in at the end of a stir-fry.  I'm not a huge fan of cilantro gone-bad (well I guess, who is?) but in order to keep it fresh I like to store it like you would flowers – in a cup with water in the fridge – if you want to get super serious you can even put a bag over the greens.

PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI and KALE RAAB:  Again this week!  The season is short and sweet so we will take all we can get?  Have you fallen in love yet?

BRAISING MIX:  A nice mustardy braising mix for that can be stir-fried, sautéed, steamed, or added to soups or quiches and so much more!  I made some yummy Lonesome Whistle polenta (available for delivery) with the braising mix  sautéed and it was fantastic!

CHICORY (Large Only):  A beautiful leaf chicory of the Castelfranco variety – usually castelfranco head up after being planted in summer but we planted these in December and harvest them young!  Roast, make a salad, add to soup, you can even add this to your braising mix.  Remember you can always soak in ice water to take an edge of the bitterness!

RADISH MICROGREENS (Large Only):  These are SO tasty!  The most delicate little greens than can be added to so much.  These ones are so dang good I just put them on toast for breakfast.  I also love them on a sandwich or on the side of a nice pork chop!

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The sun is out and it isn't raining so I'm going to keep it short and sweet here!  We were able to plant in the fields on Monday and work up some ground that we've had tarped so we are feeling good!  Our seasonal crew is starting to come on and we are doing a big packshed remodel to improve our systems and efficiency this year so things are happening!  Now we just need to plant a whole lot more so that our greenhouse can make room for everything else...but one thing at a time!

Also, thank you so much Mini Share folks for your feedback!  I have added a bi-weekly farm share to replace our mini share.  The share size is still the larger $25/week with 8-10 items same except it’ll be delivered every other week so that it isn’t an inundation of produce for a total of 17 weeks (as opposed to 33). Hurray!

Jen

KALE RAAB:  A gorgeous bunch of kale raab (also known as rabe or inflorescence)! Raab is the flowering form of the kale plant in year two of its life).  Delicious, nutritious and a sure sign of spring!  Raab comes in all different forms (you may have tried the arugula raab) and it is great sautéed just like you would broccolini.  You can also roast it, steam it or like I often do, eat it raw – it is just that good!!  Raab on pizza is also a fantastic choice, just sayin'.

RUBY STREAKS MUSTARD:  A lovely, deep red mustard bunch.  Ruby streaks is one of our all-stars and sometimes I just want to stare at it.  It is great raw (if you like the spice) or braised. 

AMAROSA POTATOES:  Pink skin, pink flesh.  I promise we won't give you potatoes forever but here they are. 

PARSLEY (Mini Only):  Mini gets parsley this week!  We planted these little guys way back before the snow even started.  We have patiently watched them grow in one of our hoop houses and we finally have a full stand. Parsley is fantastic in so many ways – use it with meat, as a garnish, in a salad or even make a pesto. I love parsley with soups, pasta and eggs. 

PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI (Large Only):  YEAYYYYY!!!  IT IS HERE!  PSB is a sure sign of spring here in the PNW.  PSB is much like broccoli except it is purple and amazing and only pops-up after being overwintered.  It is our treat for waiting out the yucky winter.  Roast it, steam it, saute it, you name it.  Or, like I often do, you'll eat it raw before you get to cooking it. 

FRISEE (Large Only):  Great for so many different types of salads!  If the greens are too bitter for your palatte remember that you can always soak them in ice water for 30 mins to an hour and it will take the edge off!  I love to make frisee and potato salad topped with a poached egg.

PINK BEAUTY RADISHES (Large Only):  Such a beautiful pop of color!  Radishes are great in salads, with hummus (ps. our chef Kerri makes bangin' hummus that is available in our online store), just alone or my favorite: toast, butter, radishes and salt.  You can also use the greens (which is especially nice in these bleak, produce-starved times) for pesto, roasted like a braising green or even in soup.  Here are some ideas for the greens!

ANNNND we are back!  Your farmers couldn't be more excited!  I think with all the warm weather paired with intense rain we've been losing our minds a bit so it sure did feel good to harvest for our fantastic CSA customers!  Thanks so much for taking the break with us and working through these hard times alongside of us.

Our greenhouse is currently FULL to the brim with things we need to get planted ASAP!  We need about 5 days of no rain in order to get into the field with our tractors so here's to hoping...   Our hoop house tomatoes have come up, our kale is ready to go, our beet transplants are just waiting...this is such a hard moment in farming, we are all just itching to get out there!!

2017 CSA on sale!  I wanted to write a whole bit for you guysnabout our new CSA last week but well in farming things don't always go as planned. So a week late but no less–we've decided to change up our CSA a bit so below are a couple notes!  We hope you join us for this awesome, and hopefully the best-yet season at Our Table!

+  WE ARE MOVING TO FABRIC BAGS!!! Yes, that means no more of those sterile, white, cut your hands-up crop boxes.  Maybe it is just us that don't like them but we are super happy to move to organic cotton bags–they'll keep your produce nice and cool and you can just grab the bag and go! 

+ WE'LL HAVE MORE FRUIT THAN EVER!!  This year we will have more strawberries and add-in cherries, apples and more!

+ WE ARE DOING ONE FULL SEASON!!!  Instead of doing our four mini seasons we have decided to make it easier on the administrative/sales end as well as customer end so that once you are signed up you are good to go for the whole season. We still have the option to break up the payments (you can even do monthly) but this just simplifies it.  After this winter we've decided to take a break from CSA during Jan-Mar so that we don't have to do any share canceling!  We will still farm year-round and you can get our delicious produce from many fantastic groceries, restaurants and our very own farm store during those bleak winter months.

+ WE STILL HAVE MOST OF OUR DROP SITES!!!  In Portland: NE, SE, SW and NW!  We also have drops on the farm, in Wilsonville, Newberg and Tigard/Tualatin.

+  WE ARE ELIMINATING THE MINI SHARE!!  We know that a lot of ya'll like the mini share but we've come to the conclusion that it is just not sustainable for us.  We hope you will understand and we want to emphasize that our share is still on the small side at $25/week.  This will allow us to keep the crop diversity up and deliver beautiful shares weekly. If the share size is too big for you maybe there is a friend or neighbor who would be willing to share?  I'm also entertaining the idea of bi-weekly shares which would cut the cost and amount of food in half–if anyone is interested in that please email me!  j e n @ o u r t a b l e . u s

+ WE STILL HAVE OUR ADD-ON STORE!  Available for customization weekly!  The kitchen will be adding more value-added and prepared foods as the season matures!

ESCAROLE:  A tender and delicious chicory.Light, bittersweet and crunchy these greens are great in salad or braised.  They are bitter so a good 30-60 min soak in ice water will help take the edge off.

YUKON GOLD POTATOES:  Tried and true.  We are almost through our potatoes stores, but it is so nice to have a steady potato supply from your local farm!

DRIED MARIA NAGY CAYENNE PEPPERS:  These are from last summer's abundant harvest!  We are slowly trying to get better at saving and preserving when there is too much to be able to provide when there isn't much!  There is definitely ab bit of kick from this pepper variety (as cayenne would suggest) but they are great ground up for a chili flake or I like to crunch them up and add them to any sauté, soup or chili.

SUNFLOWER MICROGREENS:  The first of the microgreens and we couldn't be more excited! These extremely tender, young greens are full of nutrients and flavor!  Sunflower micros in particular are deliciously nutty with the flavor of raw sunflower seeds but with the texture of spinach.  They are super versatile also – use them in sandwiches and wraps, to garnish and add a pop of flavor to a meal, in a salad, just out of the box and so much more.

LEEKS (Large Only):  The last of the leeks! We had a beautiful run with these guys and are sad to see them go.  Our most resilient allium!

ARUGULA RAAB (Large Only):  One of my favorite crops!  This arugula was cut back late fall, chilled out (literally) through the winter under row cover and now is giving us a beautiful stand of raab!  Raab is the flowering bud of the plan but it is packed with arugula-like flavor and is quite a looker on that.  I really like to saute raab in butter and eat it alone or topped on something like...PIZZA!  (My menu tonight will be pizza with some yummy cow cheese, raab and leeks).  The arugula raab does pack a punch so if you don't like spice definitely cook it in some way!

PARSLEY (Large Only):  Big beautiful parsley!  We planted these little guys way back before the snow even started.  We have patiently watched them grow in one of our hoop houses and we finally have a full stand. Parsley is fantastic in so many ways – use it with meat, as a garnish, in a salad or even make a pesto. I love parsley with soups, pasta and eggs.