Paul Holmes, or "Pablote", with son Walker ~

What’s Growing This Week:  Cucumbers (all) Potatoes (All) Onions (all) Summer Squash(All) Cherries  (All)# Carrots (all) Apricots (all) Garlic (all) Cilantro (m,l) “All” means that item is in all 3 types of box, “S” means small, “M” medium, and “L” large.  Quantities will vary depending on box size.  Tuesday drops are moving to Wednesday Starting June 6th:  Same place,  same times,  different day

Three day weekends are one reason that we are changing our schedule.  We harvest most of our CSA crops for Tuesday on Monday, which means that we can never, ever take a Monday off.

This can cause problems.  For example, this morning we were greeted with one truck with a flat tire and another with a bum clutch master cylinder (that’s 2 out of 5 farm trucks out of commission).  The local auto parts store and the tire repair shop (owned by two brothers, by the way) are closed today.  Oh well.  One tractor’s hydraulic pump blew up on Saturday, but the John Deere dealer is closed until Tuesday.

Most people showed up for work, except for two employees who have second jobs as Moms.  Daycare/school is closed today, for the holiday.  It’s a pretty darn good excuse, but it still leaves us two people short on the busiest day of the week.
 Moving CSA harvest from Monday to Tuesday will give us a little more leeway in attempting to mold the rythyms of our farm to the modern human calendar.
 

Three day weekends are not the only conflict we encounter.  We sometimes muse that if vegetable farmers had invented the calendar, there would be 8 days in a week.  See, crops like tomatoes, squash, strawberries, broccoli, etc. grow on their own schedule.  Most of them need to be harvested regularly, either daily or every two days.  Neither of these schemes fits into a 6 day work week with a single day off.   Monday always greets us with an excess of produce — and much of this excess is no longer usable, but must be removed from the plant nonetheless.

So, we can never really hope to take three day weekends (two day weekends?) during our busy season — Memorial Day, July 4th, or Labor Day. But moving the CSA delivery day will at least give us the opportunity to take off all those three day weekends during the off-season.  There’s Columbus Day(?), Martin Luther King Day, and Presidents Day.  And we are all looking forward to making Mondays just a little less hectic, part of our overall plan to make Terra Firma a better place to work.  We thank you for your cooperation.

SOFT-SKINNED SPUDS
Everyone knows how the food scientists of America have screwed up the tomato in the search for ways to grow more food on less land with less labor.  Less well known is how we have taken a vegetable with many hundreds of colors, shapes, and textures, and reduced it to a pasty raw material for the food factories of the world.  Most people in the U.S. know only one type of potato — the Russet, and it is in fact the single most widely consumed vegetable here (mostly in the form of french fries).

 Russet potatoes were designed to produce outrageously, store for years, and cook with a minimum of shrinkage.  They are, in fact, partially dried.  Their low water content makes them perfect for frying and baked potatoes, but little else.
Terra Firma doesn’t grow Russet potatoes, which have become such a commodity that they are sold by the ton instead of by the pound — and are so overproduced that they are currently being fed to cattle.  We grow two varieties of yellow potatoes — Yukon Gold and Yellow Finn — as well as Cherry Reds.  These potatoes are much moister, with softer skins, and a higher sugar-to-starch ratio.  They have a creamy, smooth texture that makes them perfect for oven-roasting, steaming, home fries, potato salads, or soups.  Many people who think they don’t like potatoes have never tried these varieties, and experience an amazing change of heart when they do.

Most of the year, we let our potatoes “harden off” slightly by mowing them about 7 days before harvesting them with a small mechanical digger.  This causes the skins to firm up and resist bruising during harvest.  But it also slightly reduces the moisture content of the spud.

Right now, we are not that far ahead of the curve.  The potatoes are still growing, so we are digging just what we need, by hand — without  hardening them off.   Since washing them tends to cause the skin to peel, we are sending them along in their slightly dirty natural state.  Nonetheless, they are still very delicate and sensitive, so handle with care.  Refrigerate them immediately, since they are still full of water and will shrivel if left at room temperature.   They may be the most tender potatoes you’ve had in a long time.  And of course, in future weeks there will be more as we begin to harvest in earnest.

COTS ARE HERE
Anyone who’s visited Terra Firma knows that apricots are a hallmark of our farm — literally the center of our operation.  Over the past seven years, they have been a capricious and unprofitable crop, but this year they have put on quite a show.  Branches are bending and breaking under the weight of millions of beautiful fruit, mercifully spared from the late spring rains that have blemished them so regularly in the past.  Subscribers can count on another two weeks of ‘cots after this one, and maybe more, since the loaded trees are ripening the fruit unevenly.

Apricots are wonderful fruit, but they are not peaches.  They are dense and rich, not juicy and melt-in-your-mouth soft.  For this reason, they make much better baked products then peaches do.  I think their flavor is intensified by cooking.  So, if you bite into one of our apricots and aren’t thrilled, try a recipe for apricot cobbler or apricot bars (see right).
Ripe apricots give easily to the touch.  We have sent you along a variety of ripeness’.  Any that are not soft should be left at room temperature to ripen.  Ripe ones should be eaten — or stored in the fridge in a bag.

SWEET RED ONIONS
TFF’s bulb onions are the same varieties that you have been eating all spring, but now they are curing in the barn and developing sweetness.  The red onions, especially can be eaten in salads or on sandwiches with just a little bit of vinegar to take the edge off.  They are also wonderful sauteed or grilled until caramelized, when they become so sweet that you may want to spice them up with a dash of chili powder or other spices.

BULK APRICOTS
Order now for next week — 20 lbs. For $25.  Order by Friday noon for Weds. Delivery and by Sunday  noon for Thurs/Friday delivery.

Thanks,            Pablito
...........................

Recipes

Slice 1 red onion in half, then into thin slices.  Marinate in a mixture of 1 T. tamari, 1/2 t. sesame oil, and 2 T. rice vinegar.
Boil water, then cook 12 oz. Linguine or other thin noodles until done.
Make a dressing with 2 T. peanut butter, 1 T. tamari, 1 T. each minced garlic and fresh ginger, the juice of 1 lemon, and 2-3 T. water to make it thin but not watery.  Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Add 4-6 grated carrots to the onions, mix well, then toss with the dressing and the noodles.  Serve cold.

Apricot Crumble — you can substitute cherries for part of the apricots, if you don’t eat them all first.
Pit 2 lbs. Of apricots, then cut into small slices.  Toss with 1-2 T. brown sugar and 1 T. flour.  Place in a pie pan.
Combine 1 C. whole wheat pastry flour in a bowl with 1/2 C. sugar and a pinch of salt.  Cut 1 stick of cold butter into small pieces and blend into the mixture with your fingers or a pastry cutter.  Cover the fruit with the topping and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is browned and the juice is bubbly around edges.

Casserole of Potatoes, Squash, Onions and Cheese — from the Vegetarian Bistro by Marlena Spieler
Preheat the oven to 400.  Cut 1 lb. Potatoes and 1 lb. Squash into rounds.  Steam the potatoes until just tender, then add the squash and steam until they are tender as well.
Meanwhile, in a heavy pan, saute 2 thinly sliced onions in 3 T. olive oil or butter, until they are very soft and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes.
Toss the potato/squash mixture with the onions, then season with salt and pepper.  Pour into a casserole or baking dish and top with 8 oz. Creamy cheese like Camembert or fresh white goat cheese.  Bake until lightly browned, about 35 minutes.

Produce 101: preparation & storage  CHERRIES in today’s boxes are Bings, and them come from our neighbors (and subscribers) Gene and Anne Breznock.  They are CCOF certified. GARLIC, like the onions, is freshly harvested and only partially dry.  Make sure to store in a warm, well-ventilated place to avoid mold.

Prepay by 5th of month  please, for the month, or get the quarterly rate for prepaying for any three month period.
Up/downgrades are $5 per week per increment ~ ie up one size +5, up from small to large +10.

Vacations & Billing Inquiries
We need seven days notice before a vacation hold or other change of service.
Contact Valerie through e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com, or  voicemail at (530) 756-2800
To donate your box to Foodrunners, please call 415-929-1866 or go to  www.foodrunners.org

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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