Melogold display
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Community Supported Agriculture Newsletter January 11, 2005 1/11/05 |
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Melogold display |
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Pablito....
RAINY DAYS AND SEED CATALOGUES DON’T
MIX
They should come with warning stickers
on them, the bright and shiny seed catalogues we get just after New Year’s
each year: “Do Not Operate this Catalogue during Rainy or Snowy Weather.
May Result in Severe Economic Damage.”
Each year, we work our way through summer and fall, doing our best to identify the varieties of vegetables that produce the best, taste good, and sell well. Since we produce over 100 varieties, our general goal could be summarized as “Simplify, simplify, simplify”. While we need diversity to keep our offerings interesting and to hedge against problems in a single crop or single variety, overdoing results in several damage to one’s mental health. So it is that every year, we sift through the notes from the prior twelve months, circling the varieties we want to plant again and crossing off the other ones. Next year, we think, things will be much simpler.
Then the seed catalogues come. On a grey, wet day, the images of spring and summer’s fruit are irresistible. They offer a picture of vegetable growing that is every farmer’s dream — only beautiful crops displayed in all their glory. One forgets all the work that goes into producing each one and selling it. And of course, every variety is “highly productive”, “Resistant to disease”, “unique”, “Flavorful” and “vigorous”. One forgets the garbage can just recently filled with seeds for varieties that grew anemically, produced mostly cull fruit, succumbed to mildew, or simply didn’t taste good. Somehow, last year’s seed catalogue had neglected to mention any of the negatives. But these new varieties — Wow! The catalogue says they’re great, so they must be, right?
A quick search of the catalogues lead to another discovery: Those 6,8,10 varieties that we decided were the cream of the crop last year? Half of them are gone from the catalogues. And of the varieties from 2002 that we had liked so much we planted them again last year, another 50% are also gone. But it’s okay. Really. Because there are dozens of shiny new varieties, many of them specifically identified as “Improved substitute for _________ (your old favorite variety)”. Somehow, though, they always seem to cost more than the older varieties… But since we can’t be sure how the new varieties are going to do, guess what we do? That’s right, we select 3,4,5 varieties to fill in the gap, just to ensure that we produce what we need. Because one thing we can count on is that at least one or two are going to be complete duds.
Reading this, you might imagine a farmer angry at having to substitute new, unknown varieties for proven ones. That’s where the sick magic of the shiny, happy catalogues come in. Because these new seeds offer something that old favorites don’t — the possibility of perfection. “This tomato, this pepper, this melon… Maybe it’s THE one.” Maybe this will be the season that all our varieties will produce perfectly. Maybe there’ll be no frost in the spring, no heatwaves in the summer. Maybe we won’t have any bug problems this year. Maybe, maybe, maybe… This is the hopeless optimism that has kept the American people well fed for the past three hundred years.
About now, some of you are wondering “Why doesn’t Terra Firma just save the seed of the varieties it likes.” Seed saving is a highly romantic and worthwhile activity. Unfortunately, it is also an incredibly time consuming type of farming that requires special equipment and farming techniques that rarely mesh those we use to grow crops for fresh market. The same diversity that protects us from crop failures is a serious detriment to producing seed crops. Different varieties of the same crop must be physically isolated using greenhouses or mesh netting. All it takes it one bee crossing between varieties, and everything gets mixed up. Moreover, other than the wonderful heirloom tomatoes we grow, most of our varieties are hybrids — specially bred for disease resistance or for production during a particular time of year. Seeds from hybrid plants revert to their parent or grandparent plants, and thus cannot be saved.
Growing seeds also follows a completely different timeframe than growing produce. Our fastest growing of our crops, spinach, is ready to harvest in just five weeks. Yet to grow spinach seed takes almost six months. And to grow carrot, leek, and onion seed, for example, you can’t harvest the plants for market. That means having two separate fields of the same crops — one for food and one for seeds. So until growing vegetables gets a lot easier, or until someone adds a few extra months to the year, you can find us inside on windy, stormy winter days, reading our seed catalogues.
IN YOUR BOXES
January, and February after it, is full
on citrus season at Terra Firma. That means not just one, but two
varieties of citrus in your box every week this month. If your backyard
is full of citrus trees, you have two options: Start drinking lots
of fresh-squeezed juice, or put your CSA subscription on hold for 8 weeks
or so. We know the rest of you are pleased as punch to get a box
full of winter’s glowing fruits.
Melogold are the large yellow fruits in your boxes today. These are not anything like grapefruit you find in the store. They are a cross between pomelos and grapefruit, the result a juicy, low acid citrus that lacks most of grapefruit’s bitterness. To reduce the bitterness factor to zero, eat the fruit without touching the pith: Peel the sections individually, cut in half and scoop out with a grapefruit spoon, or cut into sections.
January is also the month when our winter cauliflower crop begins in earnest. Cauliflower thrives in cold, wet weather — although it’s not much fun to harvest in the rain and mud — and it’s flavor is sweet and mild. It is an incredibly versatile vegetable for creative cooks. It soaks up all different types of flavors, can be used in a range of textures from uncooked to creamed, and is at home in cuisines from Eastern European to Southeast Asian.
The timing of late fall weather allowed us to plant and cultivate two sowings of spinach in December. This will give us a nice supply of what is rapidly becoming the most common vegetable on winter restaurant menus, possibly into February.
Tokyo turnips are two vegetables in one
— a mild and tasty root that can be eaten raw in a salad or cooked in a
stir fry, without peeling. And a slightly spicy green that can be
cooked together with spinach or added at the end of a stir fry.
Thanks Pablito
Recipes..............
..............
Thai Massaman Curry — This
recipe is usually made with steak, and you’re welcome to try it that way.
It’s a little different than most of the curries offered in Thai restaurants
here.
Heat 2 T. vegetable oil in a wok or frying
pan. Clean and slice 1 leek and 4 cloves of garlic. Saute the
leek over low heat with 1 t. coriander powder, 1/4 t. cinnamon powder,
1/2 t. ginger powder and 1 t. cumin powder. Add crushed red pepper
as you like. When the leeks begin to brown, add the garlic and cook
until tender. Place in a food processor and puree.
Heat 2 cans coconut milk in the wok or
a pot and add the spice paste, along with 2 T. sugar and 1/4 C. Thai fish
sauce or soy sauce.
Add 2 C. peeled, cubed butternut squash
and 2 cubed carrots. Cook for 40 minutes or so, until the squash
and carrots are tender. Cut 1/2 lb. firm tofu in cubes and then fry
in oil with 1/3 C. raw peanuts, until the tofu is crisp. Add to the
curry with 1 C. shredded cabbage or spinach leaves.
Cook for 5 minutes more, then serve with
steamed jasmine rice
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| Monthly | Quarterly | Yearly | |
| Small box | 52 | 150 | 580 |
| Medium Box | 78 | 222 | 870 |
| Large Box | 104 | 295 | 1160 |
**being offered only to existing everyother week subscribers, as the small box has better variety and is more tuned to the smaller household appetite. The weekly schedule is also much easier to remember, and saves us all a lot of problems at the pick up sites. |
43 | 124 | 480 |
| Vacation Credits: | Small | Medium | Large |
| Vacation credits are lower to discourage overuse, and to reflect actual cost to the farm | $8 | $12 | $16 |
Vacations & Billing Inquiries
We need seven days notice before a vacation hold
or other change of service.
Contact Valerie through voicemail at (530) 756-2800,
or e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com
Account Balance Inquiries The account sheet is hiding under the sign off sheet each week with your account balance on it. Mid month I've been e-mailing statments, so if you're not getting it send me an e-mail requesting to be added to the list. To be able to read the statements you need to be logged in as an administrator on a PC, and virus programs may corrupt the file. Some Mac operating systems do allow the file to be viewed.
MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farms, Inc
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com
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