Today we started transitioning harvests out of the hoop house and into the earliest field plantings. One of the CSA members last year let us know that they were interested in choi so we're experimenting with Prize Choi and the first of those heads are in today's bags. Choi can be prepared much like cabbage: for slaws or raw salads, or cooked in stir fry. Also like cabbage, the leaves are good but the ribs are even better.

Today's share also contains green garlic, a couple Hakurei turnips, and green oak lettuce. The green garlic is another new treat, for this season. If you haven't had it before it's very much like green onion only with strong garlic flavor.

Last weeks share was a bit bigger than expected as the growth in the hoop house was really peaking. This transition into field harvest sets us back to a more moderate size share which will increase as the weather warms up.

Hi all, how has everyone been this week?  Enjoying the CSA?  It's been a while since we last talked, did you miss me?  I certainly missed you.  Well, now that we got those pleasantries out of the way I can get down to business.  It was a benchmark day out on the farm today, at least in my mind, because we were able to get tomato starts into the ground in the hoop house!  It could be raining, cold, windy, etc, but if there is talk (or sight, or smell) of tomatoes then my mind is firmly focused on summer.  I don't know what it is, but planting, eating, or even just thinking about fresh tomatoes puts me in my warm happy place a little more than anything else.  Let's hope it's a good year for them so we can all share in the bounty.  Also notice that I used the word "we" in the above paragraph, because I had some time today to pretend to be a farmer again!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to help plant the tomatoes or anything, I was too late for that (figures, right?), but I showed up just in time to help Jen, Dawn, and Eugenio weed the carrot beds right next to the tomatoes.  Karen was off working on setting up greenhouse irrigation, so it wasn't so much like old times, but I got to hang out with the noobs (plus Eugenio) and they're pretty awesome so it made for good times spent in the weeds.  And, at least I got to help out with something farm related.

In hammer and nail-ville we've been spending a lot of time in the shop this week, partially because of the crappy weather we've been having, but also because it's time to start preparing the components for the atrium's timber frame so it can all be craned in and assembled in the next 2-3 weeks.  We cleaned up and cut to length all the columns that will be the support structure for the trusses (some are stacked and drying in the front of the above picture).  Once that was done we went through and filled any and all old holes and notches with perfectly cut pieces of wood that we snugly secured in place with adhesive and finish nails, fun stuff.  As for the trusses that I won't shut up about, we spent today bolting them together with custom made plates we had made specifically for them.  It was a fun and simple job for two people to spend a day working on it and I think they turned out super cool.  Going into this project I had a feeling that working on the timber frame was going to be my favorite part, and at this point I'm going to say that I was right (with everything else we've done coming in at a close second), and we haven't even really started framing it yet so I'm excited for what is to come.  Once we start putting it all together I'll have more to say about it besides how cool it all is, but you're going to just have to bear with me a little longer. 

But see, Dylan and Isaac think they're super cool too so...

Enjoy your upcoming weekend, hope for sun!
Til' next time,

Louis

Following the pattern of the past few weeks the shares have a now familiar mix of spring veggies from the hoop house and over wintered brassicas. The raab is waning, we cleared a bed of lettuce which meant a double dose, and we're also making space for tomatoes and carrots by clearing radishes and turnips. Filling out the share this week is Mizspoona, another mild mustard, perfect for salads.

Be prepared for some changes in next week's share. I'm not sure exactly what those will be, but at some point we have to move out if harvesting from the hoop house.

Hey everyone, I'm taking the week off from blogging but I'll be back next week. Here's some pictures of my dog running through an orchard. Enjoy!

Louis

With the sun's recent appearance come those inevitable feelings of hope and eagerness. Summer days seem within reach--meaning the juicy, sweet, tart and crunchy of the summer table is already blossoming.

In the not so distant future, the fruit will ripen, the vegetables will emerge from the ground and the animals will mature. With the foods ready, the table can be set.

We invite you to share in this very special time of year in Oregon during the Our Table in the Field dinner series. This summer will be the first dinner of its kind under the Our Table in the Field series.

Chef Joshua McFadden of Ava Gene's restaurant in Portland will be crafting a multiple course meal based on the seasonal ingredients that our farm has to offer.


Reserve one of the two following dates to dine with us:

Saturday, August 9th, 4:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Sunday, August 10th, 4:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Week two of the spring CSA season and we're definitely benefiting from our new hoop houses. Raab is still coming from the over wintered brassicas in the field but the rest of the share is coming from some early plantings in the tunnels. Raab is a favorite little side dish for me, just sautéed with a bit of olive oil and salt.

Besides raab we again have small lettuce heads lettuce and radishes this week. The radishes are mild and sweet this time of year. The greens are also edible and I think they are best chopped small and cooked.

In addition to the radishes we have the first thinnings from the Hakurei turnips. These little turnips are excellent raw or cooked. The are particularly sweet and crunchy with very little brassica bite. Like the radishes the greens are also good cooked.

Rounding out the share is a small handful of Golden Frill mustard. This is typically used as a mild salad green but it can also be cooked. Like the turnips it has little to no hint of the usual bite that mustard greens are known for.

One little piece if extra excitement with today's harvest: a few of you will be getting your shares in a bag with a new graphic. We've lost quite a few bags over the course of the past four seasons so we had a new batch printed up with a slightly different graphic. At some point you'll all see it as we work them into the rotation.

Other than harvesting we're busy planting and seeding. I'll try to give a field update on Thursdays from here out and leave the Monday post to just talk about harvests. All of this sunny weather has been fantastic but we're not quite ready to start irrigating so I'm hoping for a little more rain later this week.



Josh Volk, vegetable bagger and blogger

Hey there Thursdayers, did all of you CSA'ers out there enjoy your first share of spring?  I've been getting to enjoy some of that raab they've been pulling off of the kale and broccoli, and boy is it good.  Whether it's sauteed with butter and a little lemon (one of my favorites), just crunchy and raw, or prepared in any other myriad of ways, it certainly is a true treat of spring.  I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.  And, I don't know if you know this, but the CSA crew has recently gained two new members since I was leased to the framing crew and Forrest unfortunately had to leave.  Their names are Jen and Dawn, and their fresh muscles and attitudes have quickly made them essential to the CSA operation.  So, think of them the next time you're enjoying a sweet and crunchy raab and arugula salad.  Thanks Dawn and Jen for picking up our slack!

It was too beautiful today not to take a photo of the farm from up on the roof, and so I decided to make it a self portrait this time.  Hello from the retail roof!  So far this week Dylan and I have gotten all of the plywood up on the retail side of the roof and yesterday we started to do some of the finer finish work like attaching purlins and rafter tails (seen in the photo), and we even got a start on attaching the fascia.  I've been spending a lot of time staining a lot of those elements that will still be visible once the building is done, and as they've been going up, it's like a transformation is taking place more so than anything we've done so far.  It's really cool.  Maybe it has to do with the beautiful walnut stain, but needless to say It's looking really great.  Anyways, I'll let you get back out to enjoying the amazing weather, have a great weekend!

Til' next time,
Louis

A quick note as I rush off for deliveries. Today's share contains radishes, lettuce, arugula and raab. More notes later tonight on the details so stay tuned.

OK, I've now made it to the end of my delivery route and all shares should be available for pick up at this point. What an amazing beautiful day for our first spring harvest. I'm feeling pretty grateful for our high tunnels today. The plan was to harvest todays shares out of the field, as I've done in years past, but we had a wet winter, it was hard to get into the fields, and crops are growing a little more slowly there. The warm, dry tunnels are starting to crank out the mustards, arugula and radishes, and soon we should have some turnips and maybe even carrots.

The arugula in this share is the first we've harvested from the farm I think. We had several plantings last year, all of which failed, probably due to the acid soil. We limed a little more heavily this year to help with that, and we've also moved into a less acid part of the farm. The arugula is super tasty right now, perfect for a salad or sandwich. 

The lettuce is emerald oak, which is a nice tender green lettuce. It's very quick and makes small heads, which are good this time of year. We'll have slightly larger heads as the season progresses. The radishes are also small, thinnings from our first two seedings. The roots are very sweet right now, I had some of the rejects on my sandwich at lunch. The leaves are also good chopped up and sautéed.

We harvested raab from all of the over wintered brassicas but there wasn't enough of every type for everyone so there's a bit of a mix and some folks got mostly Kale raab, which is darker, even purple, some folks got mostly turnip raab, which is light green and has a slight bite. There's also a bit of collard and brussels sprout raab mixed in, both are green with slightly thicker stems. The stems are the real treat, very sweet and crunch, but the leaves and flower buds are also excellent. I had raab chopped up and sautéed on top of eggs for breakfast this weekend. I also use them in pasta, or just on their own. They're a fantastic green and are only around for a few weeks in the spring.

Josh Volk, Annuals Crops Manager as well as delivery bike pilot

We had a great turn out today at the farm open house and I heard afterwards that some folks asked for the recipe for the blueberry rhubarb coffee cake I baked for the event. The recipe is from the fantastic book from Grand Central Bakery that my friends Piper and Ellen put together a few years back. I've baked a lot of goodies from that book for open houses, and for myself. I'll make you go buy a copy, or check it out from the library, but I will mention a few modifications I made. For both kinds of sugar I substituted organic dehydrated cane juice (which is kinds of part way between white and brown sugar). Also, for the flour I substituted about 1/4 of the white flour with rye flour. For the fruit I used about 1/2 sliced up rhubarb and 1/2 frozen blue berries.  Other than that it's the straight recipe for coffee cake.

It's been a great blueberry baking month with lots of blueberries still in our freezer (you can order them in 5 pound bags for yourself or pick them up at People's Coop in Portland). I made a pie for Forrest's going away party (from the Grand Central Book). Then came the blueberry upside down cake (with some random recipe off of the internet, duly modified to suit what I had in my cupboards). And now the coffee cake. I'm going to have to remember to make some pancakes with blueberries next, or maybe some muffins.


Josh Volk
Annual Crops Manager and sometimes baker

Hello farm followers, the garlic sure does have a good view of the farm stand doesn't it?  I spend most of my time these days looking down at the garlic instead of up at the farm stand so I thought I'd swap views and check out things from their perspective this time.  It's also a lot easier to see the progress we've been making from a little ways away than when you're right up on it all the time so I was soaking it in.  For this week I think "progress" was definitely the theme because we have been having some very productive days.  Most of the plywood sheeting is up and most of the doors and windows are cut out leaving nice views into the now vacant but soon to be bustling spaces that we've been meticulously shaping.

And with the roof going on, as the rooms become more and more enclosed, you really get a sense of the size of the space and how the building is going to flow - full of light, people, and FOOD.  I think Dylan put it best today when he said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the combinations of both the old and the new that are going into this building will be perfect for furthering the basic ideals of what Our Table is about.  We're not building onto a concrete foundation, we're building upon a giant taproot that digs deep into the past so we can remember what came before us as we move forward into the future, thoughtfully and with purpose.  I hope you come out this Sunday to see it and feel the awesome power of intention that saturates the grounds on and around the farm.  It's really a thing to behold.

April Bonus:
As the youngest and "greenest" member of the framing crew, I was lucky enough this week to get to put Isaac's hatchet throwing skills to the test.  I stood very still, and here's the result...

Perfect shot!  We're thinking about making a show out of it and taking it to the circus so.....NOT
April Fools!  Sorry, Mom, didn't mean to make you worry.
(We did this on Tuesday so it still counts)

Til' next time
Louis