This Week's Vegetable Harvest:
- Cilantro
- Green Onions
- Assorted Head Lettuces
- Asparagus
- Spinach
- Curly Endive (Frisée)
- White Button Mushrooms*
- Fresh Thyme
*from River Valley Ranch in Burlington, WI
Farm Journal Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Sweat trickles down the back of my neck as I stop to take a long drink of water from the hose. I've just spent 45 minutes carrying flats of lettuce, eggplant and pepper plants out of the greenhouse in preparation for planting this week. I've been working pretty steady all afternoon, taking care of random projects that I couldn't find time for during the week--mowing, hoophouse irrigation, and fertilizing tomato plants. I finish with the last of the pepper flats, take a seat on the back of an empty hay wagon, and crack open a cold beer. Sunday evening--it's one of my favorite times of the week, and I'm enjoying every moment of the peace and quiet that has settled over the farm.
The thrum of activity that occupies and preoccupies us throughout the week brings a certain kind of wonderful, positive energy I've never experienced anywhere else. Fellow CSA farmer John Peterson over at Angelic Organics maintains that CSA farming has a lot in common with one of his long-standing passions--the theater. A former theater geek myself, I can relate to this idea; life on our farm is vibrant and dynamic, full of beauty and art and sometimes, yes, drama. Sitting here on the empty wagon, I survey the farm and I feel the energy from the past week pulsing in the air. It's like walking back onto the stage after the audience has left, looking out into the empty house, and feeling the lingering energy of the crowd.One of the things that contributes to this intense energy is the fact that we share our farm with so many different people. The farm is comprised of roughly 100 acres of land, a couple of farmhouses and a complex of outbuildings. Matt and I own one of the farmhouses and lease just under half of the farmland. The rest of the land and buildings are divided up among various other groups--a Montessori school with a farm campus for middle school students; Liberty Prairie Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving open space and natural areas in Lake County; the non-profit Prairie Crossing Learning Farm which offers hands-on educational activities; and a farm business development center that provides support and resources to young beginning farmers. All of this activity means that every day is filled with interesting conversations as well as opportunities to observe and learn from the various projects taking place here--everything from beekeeping to canning to pig farming.
Sunday evening is the one of the few times during the week when much of the human activity ceases and it's possible to sit quietly and observe what is going on in the natural world. From my perch atop the hay wagon I sit and watch fat black carpenter bees defend their nests from other flying creatures. I laugh when I realize that one of them is busy trying to chase away bits of cottonwood fluff floating in the breeze.
It's nearly 8:30 now and Matt and the kids will be back soon. They've gone up to Wisconsin to pick up the newest additions to our growing menagerie-- a pair of ram lambs. This is something brand new for us, but I'm not worried. What's one more project in the grand scheme of things?!
Our new lambs are a cross between two breeds-- the Dorset and the Suffolk.
Jeff and Jen Miller are two of the farmers participating in the Farm Business Development Center. In this photo, their young Tamworth and Hereford pigs stay cool in the shade.
The Prairie Crossing Learning Farm staff members and volunteers recently completed construction of their new mobile chicken house.
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
Curly endive, also known as friseé, is a relative of Italian dandelion. Its white inside leaves are milder in flavor than the outside green leaves. All parts of the endive plant may be used in salads and other dishes. It's slightly bitter taste pairs well fruits and nuts as well as with the bold flavors of strong cheese, cured meats, vinegars, and mustards. It's heavenly with a good, warm vinaigrette.
We've known Eric Rose, the grower of the white button mushrooms, ever since we started farming in East Troy in 2000. His farm, River Valley Ranch, is a short drive from our old farm. For over twenty years he has been growing mushrooms without the aid of aerosols, fungicides, or chemical fertilizers, practices that are common among conventional mushroom growers.
This Week's Recipes
Spinach Roti (Indian Flatbread)
Asparagus Guacamole
Super Spinach Salad
Linguine with Lemon, Garlic & Thyme Mushrooms
Next Week's Vegetable Harvest (our best guess)... radishes, white Japanese turnips, baby carrots, lettuce, fennel, asparagus and more!
