Very busy week

This blog will be inactive until Friday's market report. We are taking advantage of the unseasonably cool weather and using all our time to try to get ahead on work before heat returns. Enjoy your hiatus from daily ramblings.

Market plans, 6/27

The weather for Saturday looks truly uncomfortable; sunny and highs near 100 with high humidity. I'm not sure we want to stay at market all morning; things will just start wilting. We'll see how fast sales go.

NEW THIS WEEK
Nothing

ALSO AVAILABLE
Lots of beets in three versions: full bunches, loose beet greens, and loose beet roots. Also scallions, herbs, and sweet onions. These latter ones, which we started selling last week, are intensely sweet and the best we can remember tasting. They're priced high and they're worth every penny. We'll also have more green garlic to tide folks over while the main harvest cures.
Clarification: these are full garlic heads, not green garlic stalks. They're just harvested fresh instead of cured first.

DONE FOR NOW
The heat this week has finished off the peas; we're still getting some harvest, but the plants are failing fast and the pods are starting to get fungus on them. We'll quit while we're ahead.

COMING SOON
Cured head garlic should start being available in a few weeks. Also coming soon are the first plantings of green beans and summer squash.

NOTE
I had a few folks regret missing the garlic last week, as it was sold out by the time they came. If you want to be sure to get it, let us know ahead of time and we'll hold some for you.

Food ideas for late June

I dropped the What We Eat series months ago, after a nice long run, because it just got to be too much to track and write up. We're still feeding ourselves primarily from the farm, though, and want to do a better job of discussing what that looks like throughout the year. This is especially true during market season, when much of what we eat, customers can too. So here's a quick look at some of the better meals we've had lately, mostly based on items you can buy at our stand on Saturdays. You'll notice that many of these use the same core ingredients, which demonstrates the versatility of good seasonal vegetarian cooking, as all had completely different flavors and appeals. Also important, all of these taste pretty good cold as well as hot, which is a big deal to us in a house where the air is conditioned by fans.

LENTIL-VEGETABLE SALAD

Lightly cooked green lentils make a really nice base for a salad of fresh greens, herbs, and vegetables. We cooked the lentils for 20 minutes until just soft, then tossed with about a 1/2 cup of a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped garlic scapes, and ground mustard seed. We let these stand for a while, then mixed in our own home-made feta cheese, shelled peas, chopped snap peas, scallions, sweet Walla Walla onion, dill, and parsley. This tasty mix can be used many ways; as a side dish, spread on bread or in pitas, or as topping for a lettuce salad. It's very easy to make and most of the core ingredients can be gotten fresh from us or other farmers in late spring/early summer. The dill, parsley, and feta really help make this dish. Based loosely on a recipe from Quick, Simple, and Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures.

PINK FRIED RICE


There are countless ways to make fried rice, but this one uses beet greens to add a neat color and flavor. We stir-fried sweet onions, scallions, chopped & shelled peas, and beet greens along with some cashews, then added cooked Missouri rice, some soy sauce, and a few eggs. Simple, tasty, and easy. The flavors can really be expanded with things like ginger, fish sauce, lemon balm, and so on, but even this basic version is quite good. I think the pink color is neat.

BEET PASTA

A quick, simple meal. We sliced a bunch of beets into thin strips, then sauteed in a generous amount of butter until tender, 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, we sauteed minced green garlic, scallions, and sliced beet greens, timing the greens to be tender (but not mushy) when the pasta finished cooking. At the end, we added some chives and home-made feta cheese. We tossed everything together with basic penne pasta (not necessarily the best pasta shape for this topping, but that's what we can acquire in bulk). Tasty and colorful.

CHERRY-GOOSEBERRY-RHUBARB PIE

A clear taste of the season, this used pie cherries from the Market, our own wild gooseberries, and our own rhubarb. Combined into a basic pie filling with sugar and baked in a good lattice crust, this is just fantastic. We keep the sugar lower than most recipes call for, because we like the tartness of the fruit to come through; it's more authentic. Pies don't need to taste like candy bars. This was served with fresh home-made goat's milk ice cream.

Harvesting garlic

One of the more exciting parts of the farming year is here: garlic harvest. Garlic is one of our better crops, and we're very proud of it. After planting in October, we maintain it throughout the winter and spring to make it to this date eight months later. The earliest-maturing varieties are ready to come out, and they're looking good.
We begin harvest when the leaves really start to die back. Everything looks green in the photo, but in reality many of the tips are starting to brown. Also, the soil conditions are near-perfect: still moist from the recent rains but drying out enough to not be a mess. If things are too dry it's difficult to get the bulbs out of the hard soil, while it it's too wet everything's so muddy that cleaning is a pain. We prefer to minimize washing garlic since we're trying to dry it, especially in humid conditions.
The garlic is pulled, then sorted into four grades. Every year we're working to save more heads for planting next year's crop, as the high-quality organic seed garlic we use is very expensive (around $3/head). Plus, we feel strongly about preserving genetic strains that are uniquely adapted to this farm's conditions. So we grade heads into Seed (premium quality to be planted in the fall), A (good-sized heads sold for full price), B (smaller heads sold for a lesser price) and sub-B (under-developed heads that we'll keep for our own use). We track the graded amounts for each variety so we can compare yields year to year.
Each grade is then divided into bundles of 5-6 heads, tied with a length of old baling twine saved from hay and straw bales used elsewhere on the farm, and hung in the rafters of our prep shed to cure for weeks. Garlic needs a spot out of direct sun, but with plenty of air movement, to help it dry and cure properly. If the process works right, it will store for a long time, allowing us to keep selling it for months. Rafters work great to provide this kind of shady, dry location with enough airflow to keep mold away.

Most of this work has been done in late evening so far, as the temperature and the sun drop. We've gone right through into dark the last two nights, finishing tonight by carrying the latest harvest into the house for light. They'll be hung tomorrow morning.


We'll be selling green (fresh) garlic for another week or two while the harvest is on-going, then there may be a short gap while the curing process finishes. Then we'll have a consistent presence of our many varieties at market for the rest of the summer. Judging from the many eager questions I've gotten from customers who remember our garlic from last year, it'll be none too soon.

Time management vs. disruptions

Recently when I wrote about our weekly schedule, one thing I didn't really get into was the overall time management we use to keep up with everything. Keeping this place running takes some choreography, especially because many of our crop management techniques rely heavily on keeping ahead of problems like weeds and insect outbreaks. For example, it's much more effective to keep things weeded and maintained on a regular basis as compared to the task of cleaning up an overgrown bed or field row. We really try to keep ahead of these things; it's just so much more efficient to do things right in the first place.

The past week has thrown a serious wrench into our management plan, as all this rain and heat means the weeds are exploding, while we haven't been able to do much about it since last weekend. As it turns out, running the farm tour last weekend was very poor timing given what came next, because the 2+ days we spent preparing for that could have been spent getting ahead on all the planting, weeding, and maintenance that are now a week or more behind. But, of course, we couldn't have known weeks ago when we scheduled it that those two lost days would be followed by 10" of rain, damaging hail, illness, and more.

I mention all this simply to illustrate the nature of running this kind of farm; you just don't take days off very often. We do get mini-breaks a lot, an hour here or there, but it just isn't practical or possible to ever stop working during the growing season because the task list is so susceptible to disruptions and distractions.

Brutal week

This past week was quite disruptive to the farm; until now we've had things running pretty smoothly and the weather had been quite good throughout the spring. That will never last forever, and this week marked the switch.

Monday through Tuesday we got 5" of rain, which saturated the soil and forced us out of many outdoor tasks. Wednesday was a fine interlude, until the severe storms blew up that afternoon and pounded us with another 3" of rain and damaging hail. Thursday morning I woke up feeling rather ill and wasn't much use; Joanna had already planned on attending a quail habitat management seminar that afternoon, so she dropped me off at the doctor to check for tick disease. Tests were negative, but whatever it was didn't really release me until the end of Friday. I struggled through helping with market harvest, but wasn't of much other help. Besides, 8" of rain meant that we definitely couldn't do much else.

We had a decent market Saturday, but as we drove home that afternoon, the sky looked awfully dark, and the roads near home looked awfully wet. We got to the bottom of our hill to find that we had indeed gotten another strong storm, about 2" in what the neighbors reported to be 30 minutes, which on top of the fully saturated soil produced one heck of a flood, including depositing a rather large log on our road:

These latest rounds of intense rainfall have caused damage in addition to the hail, and mean that everything is so wet it will be days before we get started on weeding and cleanup again (it's not effective or good to pull weeds or work soil when it's saturated). And, of course, we have a week coming up forecast for mid-90s and very humid.

It's Missouri, and none of these events are at all unusual. But packed together like that, they made for a week to move on from. Interestingly, it was right about this time last year that I was writing about heavy rains and the problems they were causing...

Market plans, 6/20

It's going to be a small market this week for us, due to seasonal changes and hail damage. I'm also not feeling very well, and Joanna may be selling for us on Saturday.

NEW THIS WEEK

Fresh garlic heads, first of the season. We'll be bringing just a few to whet folks' appetites, but the harvest will grow bigger and bigger over the next few weeks. Once the full harvest has been hung and cured, it will be a regular at the stand for the rest of the summer.

ALSO AVAILABLE

We should have beets again, though some leaves are shredded and we'll be checking for damage to the roots. Some scallions and herbs will also be available.

Not sure if we'll have any peas, we won't know until we harvest tomorrow whether we have enough undamaged and mature ones to be worth bringing.

DONE FOR NOW

Lettuce and our popular saute mix are done until fall.

Oh, hail

We've had a rough few days here, weather-wise. Several rounds of storms brought around 5" of rain early in the week, followed by a brutally muggy Wednesday that was crying out for strong storms to break out. And they did.

Lightning started crackling around us by late afternoon, and we soon had a very energetic thunderstorm building right over us. While I've seen worse storms in Texas and elsewhere around the West, this was the strongest we've had on this farm, with constant nearby lightning strikes, high winds, and heavy rain. The power kept flickering on and off, then finally died. Worse, pea-sized hail began to fall and kept up a pretty steady pelting for 10-15 minutes. Interspersed in this were larger chunks up to quarter-sized, bouncing impressively. Listening to our crank-radio, we heard reports of a funnel cloud being spotted along Highway 63 just southeast of us, and a tornado warning ended up being issued for parts of Callaway County, further along the storm's track.

This storm dumped another 2.5" of rain in less than an hour, on already saturated ground, producing another impressive flood on the stream and really causing problems for our produce, as this much water can drown roots and/or cause plants to topple over. But the real damage was from the hail, which shredded leaves and knocked down plants, while also punching plenty of holes in the row-cover fabric we use to keep insects off more susceptible items like squash. Here's a photo tour of the damage:

Many scallions were knocked over, broken, or otherwise damaged. This one shows multiple hits that broke the upper two stalks, while the lower stalk looks like it took a direct hit that split it open like a bursting gun barrel. Not sellable.

Sturdier items like beets have some holes and broken leaves, but should be ok, especially as they're nearing harvest. As we pull them, though, I suspect we'll find some bruised roots that took direct hits on their shoulders. Given that we sell our beets with greens on, for extra food value, this will diminish the value of many.

Beans, too, are relatively resiliant to small hail, though like any other plant the holes and shredded leaves weaken the plant and make insects and disease more likely. This is a particular problem for organic growers who rely strongly on healthy plants to fend off problems on their own.

Hardest hit was zucchini, because these plants rely on upright, delicate stalks and large, tender leaves. These guys really got hammered, with the stalked broken and flattened and the leaves shredded. They'll probably recover, but zucchini are so susceptible to insects and disease already that this will really increase their risk down the road.

Out in the field, we lost some young sorghum and corn to direct hits, while all the beans and potatoes are showing some shredded leaves. Still, it could have been worse, as I expect most things to recover. Very little was truly destroyed as it easily could have been if the hail had been any worse.

So we've now had around 8' of rain this week, with another round of strong to severe storms expected Friday. For context, I looked into our blog posts from last year, and found a long article from June 26, 2008 lamenting the heavy rains and storms that were causing problems for us. It's an interesting read for comparison; back then the whole state was getting pounded and rivers were rising fast, whereas this latest storm just impacted a narrow swatch of mid-Missouri.

It's nice to not worry about irrigation so far, but this is far too much. I'm staying indoors today, with an expected heat index well over 100F; I'm not adjusted to this yet and nearly gave myself heat stroke yesterday working to finish a new goat hoop in our upper pasture.

UPDATE
And here is what hail-damaged peas look like:

Our market stand may be pretty small this Saturday.

Food safety and local TV

Local TV station KOMU called yesterday, planning to do a story on the food safety bills now before Congress (for background, see my post on HR 875). A very nice reporter drove out to the farm around 5:30 pm to interview and take footage for the 10pm newscast. We had a good time; she was intelligent and asked good questions, listening to the answers and asking followups. There is so much to say about how screwy these top-down, one-size-fits-all attempts to "fix" food safety that I was having a hard time condensing my thoughts into sound bites that would work for TV, but did my best.

This is why I don't like TV as a medium, though. All reporters have to filter the large amount of information they gather, but TV makes it especially hard to present context and reasoned argument. After all, she spent over 30 minutes here, but had less than a minute to cover the entire topic. This format works for house fires and lost dogs, but not for serious public policy issues. It would be nice if (a) stations gave their reporters more time to do real stories, and (b) the audience demand supported such things.

In any case, watch the piece here and judge for yourself. I think it's well done given the constraints, but no one sound bite can possibly convey the deeper discussion we had during her visit. I do wish they had used another quote from me, as that one out of context just makes me sound like any other business person instinctively bemoaning regulation, with none of the background arguments for why this particular regulation really is impractical. I felt particularly strongly about the point that on a farm like ours, customers can come out and inspect the production process for themselves; the FDA can't possibly match that kind of relationship. To give credit, she did mention that during the voiceover, but with a couple more minutes she could really have delved into the issue in a way that would inform the viewer. Not her fault, though; it's the nature of the (badly misused) medium.

June animal photos

I've had multiple requests to post more animal photos. I guess vegetables just aren't as charismatic, though they're less risky and more lucrative.

First, the newest arrivals. Joanna is holding one of four young ducks that we acquired this week as our first foray into duck-raising. We have them housed in a temporary mobile pen made from used chain-link fence panels, which we can drag around to keep giving them fresh browse. At least two of these will be meat when they get a bit bigger, but we may keep a pair to breed, as ducks are pretty prolific and could be a good side source of income. That's if the coons don't get them first, which is always a possibility with poultry.

Then we have a gosling, which like all baby animals is ridiculously cute.

And a kid meeting a hen. Just after the shutter clicked, she snapped her head around and pecked his inquisitive nose away. I would have loved to capture that.

And, for good measure, here's a pretty fun video of the kids playing on our goose shed. I was hoping to capture one of the flying leaps they use to get on and off the shed, but you still get the idea. They just fling themselves into midair with no concept of where they're going or what's below them.

They're insanely energetic, and we've been a bit worried that they would run over a gosling as they charge around and leap on and off the shed. As it turns out, that worry was justified, as I found a flattened gosling last night that had clearly been killed by one of the kids as it jumped off the shed and onto the unsuspecting gosling. So we're down to one.

Farm tour recap

GETTING READY

We put a lot of effort into preparing for this first farm tour of 2009. We worked through a two page checklist to make sure the tour would be as safe as possible, especially for children. This included walking the tour route, making sure it was clean and safe (no tripping hazards, tools left out, etc.), and in some cases working to improve the route. We collected all tools and other hazards and placed them out of sight; this was especially important given that we expected several families with kids. We planned out what we wanted to say where, to keep it moving while hitting all the important topics. We cleaned up the house and the prep shed, and even did some mowing. Overall, we spent the bulk of our time Saturday through Sunday afternoon getting ready.

THE TOUR

We started in the market garden, explaining our core approach to integrated intensive organic growing. Then we moved up to the fruit plantings and discussed our active logging efforts and how that work fit into the rest of our farming. From there, we cut through some woods, over a ridge, and down into the main vegetable field, to talk about our expansion into larger-scale production. We finished by visiting with the farm animals as a nice, fun close. Afterwards, we served samplers of farm-fresh flatbreads with our fresh-made goat cheese and produce while answering any remaining questions.

I felt we had a great time, as those who came seemed to really enjoy the walkthrough and the discussion. It was a good first experience for us in giving an organized tour (as opposed to just hosting individuals by request). We'll probably shoot for late July or early August for our next tour. By then, we'll be in the peak of our summer growth, though the weather may not be as comfortable as the glorious day we had this time.

Recipe: roasted beet salad

Fresh spring beets are a delicacy. We grow multiple heirloom varieties with different colors, which offer many possibilities for good, simple meals. American cooking tends to reduce beets to an overcooked purple pulp, which is a real shame. I think beets are best lightly cooked, or even better roasted, which brings out their sweetness and flavor. Here's an easy way to use a bundle of fresh heirloom beets from the market; remember to save the greens for cooking or making broth.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Peel the beets and slice cross-ways into thin circles, maybe 1/4' thick. You want them solid, but not chunky. Evenness will help them roast correctly together. Toss the beets in a bowl with some olive oil, black pepper, salt, and a bit of apple cider vinegar. When the oven is ready, spread the beets on a baking sheet and drizzle the rest of the oil over them. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until they are partially tender but still solid (NOT mushy).

Prepare a simple salad base of fresh lettuce, maybe some nuts and raisins, and top with the roasted beets. A bit of feta cheese goes very nicely on this as well. A simple oil and vinegar dressing works well, so you don't overwhelm the natural flavors of the beets.

Simple, but delicious for a light spring meal or side.

Market plans, 6/13

We've been waiting for our beets to develop for a while now, and finally the first batch will be ready for market. It seems like it's taken forever, but checking last year's records we didn't start selling them until about this time, so I guess it fits.

We grow a variety of heirloom beets, which don't get as large as commercial hybrid beets, but make up for it with really nice flavor and sweetness. Plus, with heirlooms, we can provide a range of colors and shapes that make for interesting dishes.

Above, you see three varieties pseudo-artistically arranged on our cutting board. The bullseye variety (Chioggia) is extremely pretty, though the pattern fades as they cook. You can preserve it partially by not overcooking. The others are two different varieties of red beets; Cylindra forms a long, tubular beet which slices nicely into lots of equal discs, while Bull's Blood is just your nice deep red round beet. Not pictured are Golden and Red Ace. UPDATE: Joanna reminds me that Red Ace is a hybrid we planted as a test comparison to the heirlooms. I ought to know better.

Our beets are best shredded raw for salads, or gently roasted with olive oil as a side or salad topping. Don't forget to use the greens, which are very tasty sauteed or added to soups. Our price certainly assumes that the fresh, tasty greens are half the value of the product.

ALSO AVAILABLE
Bundles of scallions, both red and white
Herbs, including tarragon, dill, mint, lemon balm, and more
Snap and snow peas by the pint
Garlic scapes (there are some still forming that hadn't appeared last week)
Saute mix (this mix of beet greens, kale, tat soi, mustard, and pea shoots just keeps going)\

DONE FOR NOW
Head lettuce is probably finished. Our last bed has started going to seed; it got off to a rough start and the consistent warm weather is too much for it. At least the geese and goats like it.

COMING SOON

Kohlrabi will likely be the next interesting item coming up

Attending a listening session on NAIS

On Tuesday, we travelled to Jefferson City, MO to attend a USDA public hearing on the proposed National Animal Identification System. To put it as briefly as possible, NAIS would establish a Federal registry of farms and farm animals, implemented through electronic tags attached to each animal (whether poultry, swine, hooved, etc.), and requiring farmers to report all births, deaths, and movements of such animals. There are few exceptions.

I don't want to go any deeper into NAIS policy in this post beyond stating that I think it's an incredibly foolish, ineffective, offensive, and economically dangerous policy. If you're interested in more than that, Google will lead you to a massive amount of pro and con writing about this very controversial issue. It's worth noting that there is lots of misinformation out there, so anyone interested should peruse the USDA's official NAIS site as a balance. There's enough there to frighten any local foods advocate even without reading from the opposition. I just want to describe our experience in attempting to take part in this "listening session", one of several USDA has scheduled around the country to collect public comment.

We had heard about this session through various grapevines and online reports, and determined that it was worth our while to go. It was quite hard to find specific information about the program on the USDA's NAIS website, which has all sorts of pro-NAIS information but doesn't exactly welcome opponents. The best we could find was a statement that the session would run from 9am to 4pm, during which the public could show up and make statements for the record. So we figured we'd get some other things done, then head down midday to allow plenty of time to stand in line.

We arrived at the conference center around 11:30, and immediately ran into folks we knew. "Are you here to comment?" we were asked. Yep. "Well, better hurry inside, the comment period only runs until noon." So we hustled in to find out that public comments were scheduled for 9-12, with an hour and a half lunch break followed by a few hours of "breakout sessions" designed to facilitate discussions on appropriate implementation of NAIS. Then we were told that due to the overwhelming response and crowd, they were extending the comment period to 1pm. So I asked for a lottery ticket (they were drawing speakers from the crowd by lottery number) and headed inside.

The setup was a large ballroom, packed to the gills with people, most in overall, ballcaps, dresses, and otherwise clearly rural attire. There was a podium at the front, with a line of stony-faced USDA officials sitting facing it (in front of the crowd). The mood was restive and angry, with anti-NAIS shirts and signs common. You could almost feel the crackling energy. Speaker after speaker strode to the microphone to angrily, wistfully, and/or thoroughly denounce the USDA, and the Federal government. They argued the potential for NAIS to ruin small family farms in favor of industrial agriculture, that it was a huge overreach of Federal power into citizen's rights, that it wouldn't work as a disease prevention program, and that the technology wouldn't even work effectively. I certainly don't see how a government that can't even track illegal immigrants or manage defense contracting expects to effectively track every farm animal in the country. Even in the 90 minutes I was there, I heard speakers from around Missouri and several neighboring states, and the AP reported that at least five states were represented.

I eagerly waited for my number to be called; most speakers were middle-aged and older, with lifetimes in agriculture, and I wanted a chance to speak as a young entreprenurial farmer who chose this life and this business. When 1:00 came, my number was one of many tickets left to be drawn, but the comment period was shut down (I went up and looked to see how many were left, and whether my matching number was even there; it was). I told the moderator how displeased we were to not have had proper information about the format of the event; we would have shown up sooner if we'd known how it was set up. She gave me a glazed-look "I'm so sorry you didn't get to speak" and walked away. Several other attendees overheard and told me that the USDA folks had done a terrible job of moderating the morning, allowing multiple people to ramble on well past their alloted 3 minutes each, despite multiple protests from the crowd.

And in fairness, there was a lot of rambling, and a lot of off-topic ranting. Something like this draws opponents from a wide political spectrum, and there were some pretty fringe comments going around. I don't think these off-topic comments helped the rational case against NAIS any, and I hope the USDA can filter the relevent anger from the latent vitriol. But the core message I took away from this was that a huge crowd of grassroots farmers, of all types and from multiple states, had taken the time from their farms and driven to central Missouri to express their fear and disgust about what the USDA is trying to do. It was a powerful experience, and I hope similar patterns will emerge at every one of these hearings (I suspect they will).

We didn't stay for the afternoon sessions, as they were described as focusing on how to implement NAIS, and I have no input on that. I do not think it can be implemented practically or ethically, and will not cooperate in attempting to sugarcoat it. We'll submit our comments online to USDA, and will post them here.

Thought that story might be of interest to some folks.

Recipe: garlic scape pesto

There are lots of ways to use this fresh market product, usually available around early-mid June, but this is one of our favorites. It's easy, unique, and a real seasonal treat. The result is a thick garlic-flavored paste that can be spread on crackers and bread, or used on pasta. There are lots of recipes out there, which I've perused and distilled into this common version that can be used in any amount.

Combine chopped garlic scapes, olive oil, and grated hard cheese in a 2:1:1 ratio. For reference, one of our standard bundles of six good-sized scapes will chop into 1/2-3/4 cup. This is enough for one meal, as the result is reasonably strong and you don't need a lot. If you make more, it freezes well. In any case, throw all these items into a blender until you get a nice paste. Add some lemon juice, salt, and/or nuts as desired, and you're done.

This can be used as-is, or combined with other items to make a nicer sauce. In the example below, I added fresh chopped snap peas and some rehydrated dried red peppers from last summer, plus some extra grated Walloon cheese from Goatsbeard Farm. Quick, easy meal.

Selling & tasting lettuce

Testing the quality of produce we sell is always an interesting challenge. In some cases, like peas or cherry tomatoes, it's easy. But we've always found lettuce a tougher item to judge. Often, our taste buds consider what we harvest to be a bit strong or bitter, but find that chilling sweetens the flavor. Also, taste buds are so subjective that what's strong to us may be excellent to others.

Another difficult factor with lettuce is the wide variety of ways in which people use it. Someone who puts our lettuce in a salad covered with strongly flavored vegetables and ranch dressing is going to have a different experience than someone who eats it straight with a light drizzle of oil and vinegar (as we do). So do we aim our product solely at the oil & vinegar folks, discarding stronger-tasting product that would be fine in a heavy salad or sandwich, or do we not worry too much about it and risk selling something that's too strong for pickier customers?

The final problem here is waste. We've had a significant amount of lettuce that we just didn't think passed our taste threshold, and that was fed to the chickens. But it probably could have been sold to folks who were going to thoroughly combine it with other items; it was fresh and crispy and otherwise perfectly good. If I could know who it was going to, I'd be more likely to sell it. But I'd hate to sell a stronger head to someone who would take it home, eat it straight, and hate it.

So far, I've had many customers return week after week to buy the same lettuces, praising their quality and taste, so we must be doing something right. But like any business person, we often wonder who might have bought something once and never came back because they didn't like it. And we'd love to sell more lettuce to those who would enjoy it.

So my question to our readership is, (1) what do you look for in fresh market lettuce, whether from us or others, and (2) how do you handle a market product that isn't what you wanted?

Weekly farm life

Now that market sales are ongoing (we've been at market about two months), our lives have settled into a form of weekly routine. I thought it might be interesting for customers and readers to consider what that routine looks like. Our week really centers around the Saturday farmers market, so that you could consider a new week to begin on Sunday, but often that day still ties back into the day before, so I'll start here with Monday.

DAILY SCHEDULE

Every day I get up between 6 and 6:30, this time of year relying on just the sun. I tend to wake up naturally earlier than Joanna, who is always up by 7. One of us gets dressed and goes down to deal with morning animal chores, which include opening the goose & chicken sheds, refilling water and hay, and most mornings doing the milking. We'll also usually open the gates to the nearest grazing paddock. Whoever isn't handling the animals tends to make breakfast, usually a rotation between homemade granola, yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, scones, cornbread, and so on. I make a point of finding time to read multiple sources of online news and check email; staying educated and aware is something I take very seriously (we also get over ten magazines that we read at meals, bed, snatches of time).

We usually eat lunch around noon, and are working toward shifting to a summer meal schedule in which lunch is the main meal followed by a rest, to avoid the hottest part of the day. This allows us to have a quick meal of leftovers for dinner, so that we can maximize use of the cooler evening hours. During any given day we'll be coming back to the house every few hours for water, snacks, tools, or whatever, and take a lot of mini-breaks to balance the long workday.

Evening chores including feeding grain, checking hay and water, and locking animals away for the night. Chickens go into their shed, mother geese and goslings go into theirs, and we usually lock the kids away in a separate compartment for the night to allow Garlic to accumulate milk for morning. Milking once a day eases the burden on us, and provides fresh milk while allowing the kids to nurse during the day. We try to shower and be in bed by 9:30 with sleep by 10. Both of us do far better with a full night of sleep.

MONDAY

Since late winter, I've been working one day a week at Goatsbeard Farm, the excellent dairy & cheesemaker about 11 miles west of us. We've had a good relationship with them for a while now; our goats came from there and we've bred with their buck. I wanted to gain more experience with commercial-scale dairying, goat management, and cheese making, and it's helpful for them to have reliable workers. Any steady paycheck is nice these days as well. So every Monday morning I head over there by 8, and come home in the afternoon whenever they're done with me. Meanwhile Joanna tends to use Mondays to really focus on produce tasks and organization, since she's the primary architect of our plantings. Having me gone means she can devote all her attention to her primary interests, tasks, and planning.

TUESDAY-THURSDAY

These days are generally open for whatever needs to be done, including planting, weeding, infrastructure projects, moving the goats, and so on. This time of year, harvest is becoming a daily task for fast-ripening items like peas, and later for green beans, cherry tomatoes, and okra. Weather plays a large role in determining the daily work, as the temperature, wind, rain, and soil conditions really dictate what we can and should do. We'll often end up planning a few days in advance based on the weather forecast, trying to maximize our efficiency with comfort. For example, we'll try to reserve physical tasks for mornings or cloudy days, while targeting easier tasks for afternoons or hot days. There are always indoor tasks, like updating our records, office/business needs, cooking & preserving, and so on that we try to reserve for rainy or hot days.

FRIDAY

This is our main harvest day for market, as we prefer our products to be as fresh as possible. We'll usually start first thing in the morning, with a steady progression of harvesting product, washing, sorting, bundling, & packing it, then storing it in refrigerators. So far we've generally been finishing this around midday or early afternoon, after which I'll pack the truck with all the non-produce market items (tents, tables, scale, etc) and try to have everything ready for Saturday morning. Most weeks we wash the truck out on Thursday, one of the many, many practices we keep records for as part of maintaining our organic certification. Whatever time is left on Friday when everything's ready for market goes into the general labor pool of tasks.

SATURDAY

I get up at 5 on Saturdays, which gives me enough time to load all the produce into the truck and eat a quick breakfast while skimming news. I leave by 6 in order to get to market by 6:30, and setting up the stand usually takes me until at least 7:30. Sales start at 8, and I'll start packing up around noon. Right after market I go to bank to deposit the day's take, and then do whatever errands we need around Columbia, including small grocery runs for things like butter and juice. I get home any time between 1 and 4, depending on errands, usually fully exhausted. The rest of the day and evening I tend to lie around; for some reason selling at market thoroughly drains me of energy.

Saturdays for Joanna follow a similar pattern to Mondays; a day in which she can focus on her primary interests and projects. Whenever I get home, we tend to take the rest of the afternoon/evening off, relaxing with magazines, watching a movie, taking a walk, or whatever.

SUNDAY

Sunday tends to follow the same pattern as mid-week, a general work day that can be dedicated to whatever needs doing. I tend to still be moving slowly in the morning, so we often make a nicer breakfast and get off to a late start. Otherwise it functions as a kind of transition between weeks, as we unload and clean the truck and market containers (if we didn't do it Saturday) while getting started on the next round of work.

OUTSIDE RESPONSIBILITIES

Serving on two boards (CFM and SF&C) means that I generally have multiple evening meetings per month, as well as a fair amount of email and/or computer work to take care of, as I maintain both organization's websites. I really don't like being gone in the evenings, as I get home late and take a long time to settle down, but that's the nature of the commitment. I fit the office work in wherever I can, often in snippets of time while I'm resting between outside chores.

COOKING

Probably the largest chunk of non-farm time we spend relates to cooking. We don't cut corners in our cooking; food is just too important to us. So I estimate we spend several hours a day preparing daily meals from scratch, plus the time we put in preserving food nearly year-round, making basics like bread, yogurt, and cheese, butchering meat for fresh consumption or storage, and so on. It sounds like a lot, but is still less time than the average American family spends watching TV, and is far more rewarding while saving us a lot of money.

TIME OFF

Rarely do we take full days off; about once a month we'll pick a day to stop everything and go do something fun, usually exploring some part of mid-Missouri by back road, foot, and/or canoe. We try to take shorter breaks here and there, like a few hours to fish in an evening or a half-day trip somewhere combined with farm needs like an auction or purchasing trip. We have far more flexibility in our daily schedule than most careers, such that we can take an hour or an afternoon here and there as needed to rest or recuperate, and that makes up for the otherwise 24/7 nature of the work.

BLOG WRITING

And, of course, there's writing this blog. I've developed a system that works pretty well for me, in which I sit down over the weekend (usually Sunday evening) and write up a series of posts that are pre-cued for the following week, a process which usually doesn't take more than an hour. I don't view this blog as a instant news source, just a steady diet of information, ideas, and updates that can be written ahead of time in most cases. I'll often pre-stage ideas as saved outlines, then fill them out days to weeks later when I have a chance. Then on Thursday evening I'll find a few minutes to write up the Market Plans post for Friday morning, which I'd like customers to start using for pre-market information. I'm consider shifting this to Thursday morning to give folks more heads-up on product, but I like being able to make last-minute decisions about what's ready to harvest.

MAKE IT THIS FAR?

So that's our weekly life in (somewhat) brief. It's a busy and tiring schedule, as are all small businesses, but with all the benefits of independence and variety that make self-employment.

First farm tour announcement

Our first farm tour of 2009 will take place on Sunday, June 14. This event is intended primarily for customers, as we feel strongly about folks having the opportunity to see where and how their food is grown. Toward that end, we've been collecting emails and contact information at our market stand since April, and last week sent out the first notice to the 40 or so folks who have expressed interest so far. We're limiting the size of the tour, but slots are still available, so ask at the market tomorrow if you're interested.

Initial announcement below:

Dear customers and neighbors of Chert Hollow Farm,
We will be holding our first farm tour of 2009 on Sunday, June 14 at 3pm. We will explore the farm while discussing our growing and management practices as an integrated organic farm, including our fields, fruit plantings, forests, and animals. We expect to finish by 5pm. There is no cost, and children of all ages are welcome. Please be aware that the tour will involved walking through a variety of terrains and conditions, including field, pasture, forest, and more. Those with mobility concerns may contact us directly about options.

LOGISTICS
The farm is about 12 miles north of Columbia, roughly 15-20 minutes drive. Due to limited parking space and desired tour size, as well as respect for our neighbors, we can only receive ten vehicles for a tour. These slots will be filled on a first-response basis. Please keep in mind that our entry road is steep, somewhat rough gravel. SUVS or higher-wheelbase vehicles are better, though our 1993 Honda Accord makes it through just fine with some attention. I will grade the road as well as I can for whatever conditions exist, but very nice cars with low wheelbases are your own risk.

CARPOOLING
Given our vehicle constraints, we encourage those signing up to consider carpooling with others who wish to attend. If you are one of the first ten, and would be willing to offer a ride to others, please provide your rough location and contact info and we will try to match you with others in your area. When the visitor list is settled, we will send those folks directions.

FUTURE EVENTS
If you can't make this event, we expect to do more throughout the year, so don't despair. If you haven't done so, please visit our website for a preview of the farm: www.cherthollowfarm.com

Market plans, 6/6/09

Saturday's market will be the last chance at our garlic scapes this year. They flew off the table last week. We'll also have the same varieties of fresh lettuce in various sizes.



New this week will be snap and snow peas, though not a large amount.

Done for the season are radishes and our saute mix. This latter was very popular as a test product and we'll do a lot more this fall.

Coming soon will be mixed heirloom beets, kohlrabi, scallions, and more.

Seasonal Asian dishes

Spring is a good time for Asian cooking, with so many fresh greens, herbs, and more available. The meal below was thrown together experimentally, drawing upon my Filipino background, general Asian cooking experience, and loose consultation of a few cookbooks. It came out very nicely and was a great way to finish a long, hard day working in the field. While there are many non-farm ingredients used in any Asian meals we make, the menu is still rooted in the fresh produce of the season and could easily be replicated from our farm stand. What follows isn't exactly a recipe, since I was making it up as I went along and don't have exact amounts, but it's a good guideline for anyone to follow in creating their own version. There are almost infinite ways you could vary the basic concepts here.

SOUP:

This was based on two quarts of beet green broth, though any broth made by simmering fresh greens would work. Once simmering, I added a large handful of mint and lemon balm leaves, along with chopped chives & cilantro, ground dried hot peppers, a dab of fish sauce, and a cup of leftover adobo sauce from another meal (this last is a staple of Filipino cooking, made in our household by combining garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, peppercorns, and bay leaves). I let this simmer for a long time to blend the flavors, then strained out the leaves. A few minutes before serving, I added a half-can of coconut milk and a few cups of chopped bok choi, and let it cook just long enough to soften the vegetables. The result was a light but rich soup with a nice blend of flavors.

BEANS:
These were a bit riskier, but came out good enough. I'd started dried black bean simmering hours before, and around dinnertime I moved on to the rest. I chopped and sauteed some garlic scapes in sesame oil, along with minced hot peppers and grated ginger. When these were lightly cooked, I added a half-can coconut milk, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a cup of adobo sauce (see Soup, above) and let things simmer on low a bit longer. Then I added the drained black beans and some chopped rapini and mustard greens, mixed everything together, and let it all simmer on low to blend. The coconut milk ended up being a bit strong; I should have used half the amount, but otherwise it produced a nicely flavored dish with a good balance of heat and flavor.

FRESH PEAS:
I served these with a big bowl of freshly-picked snap peas, which complemented the main dishes really well. Each of the other dishes were rich and spicy, so after every few bites we would grab a few peas, whose fresh, sweet flavor really balanced the rest of the meal. It was a perfect touch

DRINK:
I had baked a strawberry-rhubarb pie as well, and reserved about 1.5 cups of juice from the sugared fruit. I mixed this with about 3 cups of orange juice and 1 cup of yogurt before chilling, to make a nice sweet fruity lassi kind of thing. This also balanced the rich, spicy main dishes perfectly.

Not very photogenic overall, but quite enjoyable.

New goslings

Our two geese have been sitting on nests for a while now, and we were starting to wonder if the eggs were fertile. Then we went down Saturday afternoon and found two newly hatched goslings stumbling about. There are still more eggs left, and we're not sure how many will hatch, but two is a good start. As with all babies, they're adorable.

Market conditions & recap

Last Saturday's market was an excellent demonstration of the weather vagarities that make a permanent pavilion so desirable for everyone involved. When I got up at 5, the wind was gusting as lightning flared on the horizon. I packed the truck and drove to Columbia in the rain. It dried off while I was setting up between 6:30-8, but it was rather cold. Once market opened, the rain returned, varying from mist to drizzle to steady for a while, as the wind slowly picked up. Eventually the rain moved off, and for the middle part of market we had broken clouds with sun peeking through, and a wonderful temperature. Then around 10/10:30 the clouds broke and vanished, the sun began beating down with a vengeance, and the wind following the cold front really began to take hold. It got plenty hot by the end, but that wind was also shaking tents, blowing things off stands, wilting produce, and otherwise making life difficult. While the planned pavilion can't stop all wind, it should keep sun and rain off while removing the dangers that wind presents. Days like this make the project all the more important.

Given all that, we still had a very good day. The fresh head lettuces were again popular, with many customers returning with good reviews from last week and desires for more. Just like last year, the scapes flew off the table with no trouble. Look for more next week. This was the last hurrah for radishes, and the last batch sold nicely. I'll be selling on Wednesday this week as well as Saturday, so if you're around between 4-6 that day come swing by for fresh scapes, lettuce, and peas.