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Community Supported Agriculture Newsletter March 12, 2001 3/12/01 |
Terra Firma duck pond, 3-9-01
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Pablito....
ON YOUR MARK...
It continues to amaze me how often winter in California ends abruptly
with one big storm and then, boom, it’s spring. This year appears
no different — although it’s hard to believe that Mom Nature won’t through
us at least one more good dousing before May.
We are certainly ready for spring at Terra Firma. The greenhouse is full of tomatoes and summer squash that need a plantin’, the barn is full of sprouting seed potatoes, and there’s precious little in the ground around here in the way of fast growing spring crops. Thank goodness for the asparagus, which was kind enough to wait out the rains this year. We picked the whole field to get the smallish 1/2 lb. Portion in today’s boxes, but that will change as the soil warms and the asparagus crowns go into high gear.
So the race begins, to turn under all the fields that we harvested through the winter, as well as the acres of legume cover crops. This is a peculiarly stressful time of year — spring is usually accompanied by gusty winds that dry out the soil surface and cause it to crust over. There is a relatively short window of time for each field, depending on soil type and drainage, between when it is too wet to work and too dry. We try to do as much soil preparation as possible with natural moisture rather than irrigation, so it means an intensive two weeks or so to try to get as much as possible done. In addition to planting tomatoes, potatoes, squash and other summer plants, we also need to plant salad mix, spinach, arugula, and other fast growing spring crops. After this initial burst of activity, even more plantings come up — sweet corn, beans, melons, cucumbers, seeds for onions and leeks, as well as more of everything else. It seems like we start most years at least two weeks “behind”, and sometimes we don’t really “catch up” until June.
Asparagus isn’t the only dormant crop that responds to the spring weather. The strawberry plants are beginning to flower, which could mean strawberries in as little as a month — bearing any unforeseen April soakings like we had last year. Spring onions have begun growing at last, and could be ready in 2-3 weeks. In the meantime, we will be finishing off the last of our leeks. And the artichoke plants have doubled in size in the last 10 days. Some already have tiny ‘chokes hidden down in the center of their crowns.
DROP-OFF HOSTS RULE!
I had the pleasure of personally delivering your CSA boxes last Tuesday
(so blame me if your box got screwed up), and it reminded me how absolutely
crucial our drop-off hosts are to the success of our farm. Some have
been with us close to forever, and I can’t thank them enough for allowing
the use of their porches, backyards, and alleyways. They are just
one more link in the long chain of great people that connects our farm
to your homes, and makes sure that the food gets there every week.
DOING OUR WASHING FOR US
As promised a few weeks ago, there are several unruly bunches of individual
greens in your boxes today in lieu of the regular salad mix. Much
of the year we plant salad greens every two weeks, ensuring a steady supply
of mini-leaves for the mix. This planting schedule ends in November
most years — for three very good reasons.
1) The seeds don’t germinate well when the soil is cold and the
days are very short.
If they do germinate, they usually respond to the increasing day length
in February and March by “bolting” to seed, which makes them inedible.
And,
2). It usually rains for most of December, which makes 1 and 2
irrelevant, since we couldn’t plant even if we wanted to.
The small heads of lettuce and bunches of large spinach leaves in your
boxes today are from fields planted in mid-November, harvested for salad
mix through January and February, and are too big for that use. The
next planting of baby greens consists entirely of spinach, which will be
ready in two week or so. And the planting after that, which includes
arugula and lettuce as well, still has yet to happen. I’m shooting
for Thursday, which will put the next full-fledged salad mix in your boxes
in about 5 weeks.
3). For the next two weeks, then, you will be forced to wash your own salad greens. I always recommend soaking in a large bowl or sink, several times. One subscriber wrote that she always performs this rather burdensome task immediately upon receiving her box, so that the greens will then be ready any time she wants to eat them.
ASPARAGUS ETIQUETTE
I hesitate to launch into the hows and whys of asparagus, since today’s
portions are so tiny, but there are a few points that bear making.
Asparagus grows out of the soil, directly. That means that the fine silty clay soil of our ‘grass patch gets stuck in the many sheaths and flaps of the stalks. We recommend soaking before cooking.
Some folks may get asparagus that is a deep purple hue. We do
have a purple variety of asparagus in our field, but since it is just beginning
to produce, those stalks got mixed together with the green today.
No, it is not grape-flavored.
Tough tips. We cut off the very tough, inedible white ends of
the asparagus — the original inspiration for “snapping” the bases off —
before packing. If you choose to “snap” today’s asparagus anyway,
as some cookbooks recommend, you are going to lose 10% of the relatively
small weight you are getting. I recommend trimming off the dried
ends and peeling the skin off another half inch of stalk. More on
this in future newsletters.
BULK TANGELOS
Get 10 lbs. Of Minneola Tangelos for $8. Minneolas are tangy,
but they make roughly 2x the juice, pound for pound, that navel oranges
do. We need 7 days notice prior to delivery date.
SMALL BOX ALERT!
Small box users should ignore the instructions on medium and large
boxes to unfold their boxes. The tomato boxes your produce arrives
in DO NOT FOLD DOWN, they simply TEAR into numerous pieces. Please
do fold the medium boxes and stack them neatly. Thanks for your cooperation!
Thanks,
Pablito
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Recipes
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Tangelo Squares — Mix 1 C. flour and
1/4 C. powdered sugar with 1 stick melted butter. Press into a 7”
square baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.
Mix 1 C. sugar with 2 lightly beaten eggs, 1/2
t. baking powder, and the juice and zest of 1 tangelo. Pour over
the baked batter, and bake for another 25 minutes. Dust lightly with
powdered sugar.
Asparagus and Goat Cheese Pastry — The little
bit of asparagus you’re getting this week goes a long way in this filling
dish.
Place a layer of 10 oz. Puff pastry in a 12-inch
square baking dish. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, clean and mince 2 leeks. Saute
in 2 T. butter over low heat until soft, then add 1 1 1/2 C. Diced
asparagus and 1/4 C. water. Saute until the asparagus turns bright
green, 3-5 minutes. Spread the asparagus-leek mixture over the pastry.
Top with dollops of goat cheese.
Mix 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 sour cream, a dash of dried
or fresh thyme, and 1/8 t. salt, then pour over the asparagus. Cover
with a second layer of pastry about the same size as the first, press to
seal in the filling and return to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes,
or until crust is golden.
| Produce 101: preparation & storage
ASPARAGUS should be kept in a plastic bag, in the
fridge. Keeping the bases in water will help prevent drying.
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| Monthly | Quarterly | Yearly | Vacation | |
| Small box * | 52 | 150 | 580 | 12 |
| Medium Box | 78 | 222 | 870 | 18 |
| Large Box * | 104 | 295 | 1160 | 24 |
| 43 | 124 | 480 | 18 |
Up/downgrades are $5 per week per increment.
7 days notice required on upgrades & vacations
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
MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farm
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com
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