Greetings again!!  I hope the quick onset of winter-like tendencies we've had doesn't have everybody too down in the dumps. We've been coping with it pretty well out here on the farm though, I think.  As you can see we got our chicories good'n covered to protect them from the first freeze we had Monday night. We also cleared out the beds of peppers just in time because the plants themselves looked like piles of black mush out in the fields this morning.  I'm sure you've noticed the greenness of the peppers you've gotten in your shares, but like Josh said, they're still quite sweet, and a lot better than black mush would've been.  I also noticed this morning that the gophers are really starting to move into our carrot beds in droves, they must be getting hungry.  So, a few extra traps went in there today to hopefully save the rest of our (so far) gorgeous carrot crop from being sucked down into the abyss by our resident undertakers.  We also managed our first foray through the dry beans that we planted alongside the dry corn and winter squash in our experimental field.  Pretty meager yields, a lot of the plants were either eaten, or may have gotten weeded out by accident when they were really small, so what we do get will probably just be used as seed for next year.  But, dry beans are a new crop for me so I really enjoyed cracking open what dry pods we did find and seeing the colorful little jewels hidden inside.  We grew a bunch of different kinds, some brown, some white, some jet black, some as big as your thumb...when we get more of them out of the field maybe I'll do a post about them and give you a little background on the varieties we grew.     

It's crazy how things really start to slow down when the temperature drops and the sun starts to set at 6:30.  Our focus moves pretty quickly from laboring in the fields to basic house keeping and planning for next year.  Today we had a CoOp meeting over lunch with everybody to talk about next year's expansion...what will we grow and for whom?  Who wants to work on what?  Not only are we expanding in terms of the amount of ground we're working and how much we're growing, but also in the markets we're trying to break into, and in the general diversity of activities that will be going on within the CoOp.  We're talking growing nursery crops, cut flowers, more animals (types and numbers), more fruit and nut crops, construction of new buildings and public spaces, providing educational opportunities for the community, etc...the list goes on.  Winter really can be an exciting time!  We're going to have another big group meeting in a couple of weeks after all the possibilities sink in to solidify who wants to dedicate their time to what so we can move on to more specific planning.  The CoOp itself also needs to work out how it's going to operate in the upcoming years, so cooperative governance and education are going to start playing bigger roles in our lives soon too.  As the least board-educated member of the board I'm excited to play a role in that wherever and whenever I can so we can turn this organization into quite the well-oiled metaphor!

Well, it's late, so I'll leave you with this little gem that Forrest came up with in the field today...
What kind of instrument does a winter squash play?
An aGOURDian!!

Never a dull moment at Our Table, thanks for reading!
Louis

A nice harvest today anticipating the likely frost this evening, a frost that would be the first if the season. Fennel, peppers, lettuce, beets and sorrel all made it into the bags. 

The peppers are still green for the most part, and probably won't change color. They are sweet though so fry them up green as they are. Beets are more thinnings so they are on the smaller side but still very tasty. Apparently we didn't thin hard enough the first time so they are sizing slowly. This is a mix of the two varieties we are growing, kestrel and three root grex. 

Sorrel is something we haven't had in the shares for a while. There's just a small handful of leaves and they are lemony, good to add in small amounts to a salad, or in larger quantities to soup or cream sauce. 

It was cold this morning. Cold air blowing down from the north I'm guessing based on the tail wind that accompanied me on my ride out to the farm. That tail wind was a killer head wind on the way into town. Already running late I made things much worse by locking the delivery bike at my first drop and not realizing that I didn't have the key with me. I'm writing this as I wait for my hero to rescue me. I apologize for a few shares in St Johns and at Near East Yoga that will undoubtedly be a little late. 

(update: as of 6:30pm all of the shares are where they should be)

I'm a bit late with the post today, but the shares are all delivered now and so here are some notes on them, and on the fields. 

Today's bags contain a bit of romaine lettuce, turnips two ways, carrots and thyme. The Romaine is a little smaller this week than it has been. This is probably partly because of the cooler, shorter days, but I suspect it also has to do with it being in a less fertile part of the field. This particular planting was very uneven in size, but we're getting enough good heads to give out this week.

The Juane du Doubs carrots are doing well and there are some really large ones. This is a good fresh eating variety, but I think it stands out more as a cooking carrot. On top of the yellow carrots we've also harvested a few Golden Ball turnips and tossed their tops in as well. I think of turnip roots as a perfect thing to chop up and roast, perhaps with some chopped up carrots, and maybe with some thyme, which we've also included in the share this week. The turnip greens are great lightly sautéd with a bit of added white vinegar, or maybe some hot sauce at the end.

After packing the shares and before running deliveries this afternoon the full farm crew (more or less) got out into the new fields to spread two of the biodynamic preparations. These are spread to improve life forces in the fields but beyond that they're also a great excuse for us to all get together and run around in the field like crazy people swinging cedar boughs. It's a real team building exercise!

Happy gorgeous Thursday everyone!  What a week we've been having!  Portland farmers must have gotten really good at whatever the opposite of a rain dance is because this weather has just been amazing.  And, we've been able to get a lot done because of it.  I was lucky enough to be in jury duty all day Monday and Tuesday, but today I was able to get out there and get my hands dirty and help harvest some shares.

In terms of non-harvest work to be done in the fields there has been some general mowing and clean up that I've been meaning to get to recently, but because of the dry weather we've been able to put it off and pay attention to some of the more pressing work that's needed to get done.  Today that meant harvesting our different varieties of popping and grinding corn from our experimental dry farming field.  We haven't watered them a drop since we planted everything in the beginning of summer (though we did do some weeding), but they seemed to have done OK even without the extra help and a few goose nibbles here and there.  Not a huge harvest, but for how much we worked that field it's not bad.  It's beautiful stuff too, the picture above shows some of the awesome variation that you can get in the kernels even within the same variety! 

The three ears on the far left are from a variety of grinding corn called "Roy Calais", though Josh thinks the interesting blue one in the middle is either from cross pollination, or a rogue seed from a variety called "Painted Mountain".  "Roy Calais" is mainly yellow in color with red being the off-type, but Josh and the folks at Skyline Farm (where the seed came from) have been selecting for the red color because of it's increased cold hardiness (editors note: actually Skyline farm was selecting out red and keeping yellow because of the cornmeal color. We ended up with some of their cast off red seeds, which happen to also have better cold soil germination).  The coloring is only skin deep though, and creates a nice red speckled effect when it is ground into flour.  The ears in the middle are our popping corn variety called "Amish Butter"... ...mmmmmm.  It has very small, pointy kernels that are supposed to be slightly corny and very tasty when popped.  This hopefully will be one of the first processed and packaged items to come out of Our Table in the near future so be on the lookout for the tasty little kernels!  And, last but not least is the polenta corn on the far right of the heirloom variety "Otto File" (pronounced Oh-toh Fee-lay), or Italian for "8 row".  This corn produces 8 rows of large, orange kernels per ear and has been prized for it's flavor and nutritional quality since it was grown by Native Americans hundreds of years ago before it was brought to Italy in the 19th century. 

I hope you enjoyed this little lesson on a few types dry corn, I know i sure had fun harvesting them and reading up on their history and characteristics.  Hopefully you'll get to enjoy it to the next level when it's on your stove and in your bellies!  Until next time, keep your ears shucked and your eyes peeled for more Our Table news, stories, and updates.  Thanks!!

The Corny Blogger,
Louis

A nice big(ish) share today, full of fragrant herbs and some of the remains of summer. Fennel, oregano and parsley make up the fragrant parts of the share. Lettuce and peppers are in their last days on the farm this year, hold outs from summer. The kale is a in there as a staple and is sweetening as the weather cools off at night. 

The fennel comes in two forms this week, tops and bulbs. The tops can be used like any other green, eaten fresh in salad or cooked and added to whatever dish you like. I've been liking it in tomato sauce, but it would also go well with the kale as part of a greens pie. The bulb works similarly to the tops, only with more intense flavor. It's commonly sliced thinly and eaten on salad. I like to braise chunks until it is extremely soft at which point it's usually very sweet and has lost most of the anise flavor.

The oregano can be used fresh, or dried by hanging for later use. The parsley is the same, and it's a very flavorful variety called Einfache Schnitt 3. I've mostly been chopping it up and sautéing it in olive oil as the first step to making a sauce for pasta, or whatever.

The peppers are ripening slowly and won't last long once the cold really sets in. They are still very sweet, even green. I'm hoping the sun will help ripen a few more before they go away completely. Lettuce is also in its last days. Once the frosts really set in we'll switch over to chicories, which just get better with cold. The kale also gets better with cold and it's starting to really sweeten up.

We've been busy in the field the last two weeks, dodging the rain and getting a few acres of cover crop seeded. This afternoon we also started planting overwintering onions, garlic and favas in the new fields. It's very exciting to be moving over to the big field which has a beautiful view of Mt. Hood, and a brand new packing shed on the edge. We'll also have two hoop houses to start planting in so look for greens and roots coming out of those in the early spring.

I'm back everybody, and on my favorite night of the week: Pizza Wednesday!  I must've really WOW'd 'em for them to want me to keep me around on a weekly basis huh?  That's right, Thursdays (and sometimes Wednesday night, I guess) are my days now!  You'll still get the regular informative Monday posts from Josh about the weekly share, but now you also get a little dose of farming life and the work I do with Our Table later in the week.  I'll be writing about farming, cooperative events, my work with the board, and a little bit of my home life as we cook up our veggies and become more and more apart of the cooperative. 

I wanted my first post to be a good one, so I decided to first bait you readers with a picture of delicious food and then talk about something a little more serious (and then I'll get to the pizza later).  The cooperative has offered me so many opportunities to learn about what it really means to be a steward of the land, and to truly be close to the food I choose to eat.  That being said, as a meat eater, I have never felt even remotely close to the meat I've chosen to buy and consume in the past, and I believe that this is the case with a majority of meat eaters in this country and is one of the major problems with our current food system (but, that's a rant suited for another time and doesn't need to come from me at all).  Since I became an employee of the cooperative, I've known that there would be livestock of all kinds on the farm and that I would have the opportunity to be apart of the harvest if I would choose to do so.  I have never been apart of a slaughter before, or even gone hunting, but in order to practice what I preach I knew that I would have to take advantage of any opportunity to assist in one, and yesterday Our Table gave me that opportunity.  The friendly geese that have done such a great job of eating up the weeds (and some of our popcorn), fertilizing the soil, and making sure the farm never got too quiet were finally ready to be harvested.  I won't get into details, but it was one of the most intense and rewarding things I have ever done in my life.  Knowing that the geese were able to live their little goosey lives to the fullest while they were with us, and experiencing the support that the crew gave to each other and to the animals while we were harvesting made it almost a spiritual experience.  So, I wanted to dedicate this post to them, and to thank them for making the ultimate sacrifice for the CoOp and for helping me continue to mature as a farmer and a human being.  Here's to you! HONK HONK!

Now a quick little tidbit about the pizza that I just guzzled down.  Both are made with whole wheat crust (its our favorite recipe, if anybody wants it just ask me).  The one on the bottom is a pretty typical veggie pizza with tomato sauce, pesto with Our Table basil, Our Table sweet peppers, kalamata olives, spinach, jalapenos from Sauvie Island, mozzarella, and cheddar.  The one on the top is a little something we've been experimenting with that has the Our Table pesto, roasted Our Table beets and sweet peppers, spinach and goat cheese.  It's turning into our new house favorite. Well, that's it for this week, I look forward to sharing my adventures with you and hope you tune in!

Our Table Apprentice Blogger,
Louis

The collards are loving this cool damp weather, and so are the carrots. We're starting the collard a few weeks earlier than planned and they're big and beautiful. If you haven't had collards before they're somewhat similar to kale, but heartier, and in my opinion they benefit from more cooking. I like to slice them up into ribbons and then boil them with a bit of tamari for flavor. I usually just eat them as a side, frequently they go with cornbread and beans on my plate. 

The carrots are doing nicely right now and the voles are just starting to find them. The carrots in today's share are Napoli, a very sweet nantes type, excellent for fresh eating. The share also has a bit of dill, perfect in a yogurt sauce, or baked into savory biscuits. You could add some of the shallot that's in the share to those biscuits, or even the yogurt sauce, and it would be even better if you caramelized them first. The final item in the share is a head of romaine.

With the little dry spell last week I was able to get into the new fields and to seed a 1.3 acre block of rye and vetch for cover crop. There are two more similar blocks that I was able to work up, but that I didn't have time to seed so I'm hoping it'll be dry later this week. I also prepared a bit of ground for garlic, overwintered onions and favas. We'll try to get those planted later this week or next. I'm very excited about the new fields which have an amazing view of Mt. Hood, at least when it's clear out. They also haven't had blueberries on them so I'm hopeful that they'll come into production even more smoothly than the fields we've been working this season. 

Interested to take a look around the farm? Saturday, November 16th at 10:00 am will be the next chance! We'll tour the entire property so come prepared with good walking shoes and a raincoat if needed. Also, we ask that you consider a $5 donation to the farm for the visit.

13390 SW Morgan Road, Sherwood, OR 97140
We'll meet at the brown building which serves as our packing shed.