Market plans, July 2

Very busy week, with family visiting, garlic harvest ongoing (halfway through our 2,000 heads so far), lots of weeds growing after >2" rain, and so on. The upcoming hot weather will be great for all our summer crops, and we're virtually done with cool-season spring crops, so as long as we can slog through it's good news for the farm. Overall this will be a small market for us, as (a) we find that July 4th weekend isn't always a strong market, and (b) we're in a transitional period between spring and summer crops with many items another week or two away. At least the weather appears stable, unlike the last two weeks of stormy conditions.

NEW THIS WEEK

Cippolini onions: Nice, sweet onions excellent for grilling, roasting, salads, and more. A great 4th of July treat on the grill. Likely to appear for the next week or two in limited quantities. We had a nearly complete crop failure on these last year and are extremely excited for them to appear in our own kitchen again.

ALSO AVAILABLE

Fin de Bagnol filet beans: These are a high-end green bean, small, tender, and sweet. They take a lot of careful, regular picking (we keep a 36-hour picking schedule) but are a significant step above the average green bean. These are tasty raw, and delicious gently steamed with a touch of salt.




Summer squash: These are coming on strong, and we pick them every day to ensure proper small size and freshness. Great for holiday grilling.
Beets: Mostly red beets, with some bundles of smaller mixed-color heirlooms.  Very sweet; you can shred them raw into a salad or coleslaw for a lovely flavor and visual effect. Also great for grilling. Last week for these.
Green garlic heads: Fresh all-purpose garlic.
Herbs: Parsley and various other herbs, TBD.

June farm food

Mid-late June is a very busy time for us, but also a great time for cooking with so much new produce showing up to complement what remains of our preserves from last year. Here's a photo tour through some meals we've managed to fit in between dawn-dusk rounds of weeding, harvesting, planting, and marketing. They're all deeply rooted in the farm and quite accessible to any market shopper; we don't have time to cook many complicated meals these days and virtually all the ingredients are easily purchaseable this time of year. Few of these rely on very many spices or other flavor crutches; just let the good fresh produce speak for itself with some light touches around the edges. As always, all on-farm-sourced ingredients listed in italics.

SALADS

 

On left, fresh slaw of grated cabbage, beets, carrots, onion, garlic with light dressing of cider vinegar, olive oil, and salt. On right, basic green salad of lettuce, kohlrabi, carrots, broccoli, with oil & vinegar.

 

PASTA

 

On left, organic penne with garlic scape pesto, zucchini, cured ham. On right, organic penne in cream sauce (milk, butter, flour), herbs, shelled peas, zucchini.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

On left, leftovers of the above plus sliced corned goat, dill pickles, fresh goat feta. On right, cowpeas with sauteed sweet onion, garlic, home-smoked chipotle, beet, zucchini, beet greens, topped with fried eggs, fresh cilantro, fresh goat feta.

 

SANDWICHES

On left, farm reuben on Uprise Bakery rye: sliced corned goat, fermented sauerkraut, scape pesto, fresh goat feta. Sides of more kraut, sauteed beets. On right, wrap of homemade fresh tortilla with scape pesto, dried cherry tomatoes, sauteed zucchini, Yukina Savoy greens, fresh goat feta.

PIZZA & DESSERT

On left, fresh-made dough topped with dried cherry tomatoes, shelled peas, fresh goat feta, scape pesto. Other recent pizzas have included beets, cured ham, zucchini, garlic, sweet onions, herbs, fresh goat ricotta. On right, fresh custard from goat's milk, eggs, sugar, topped with sauce of wild gooseberries & black raspberries.

 

Not pictured is our latest round of aged goat's-milk cheddar, which came out very well this time (they don't always turn out right) and various other ingredients/meals we didn't get around to photographing.

Market plans, June 25

This has been an extremely busy week, with no time for blogging. The weather is glorious and allowing us to get lots done, but we're still slightly behind where we'd like to be. Days have been dawn to dusk for a while now, with a break for a nap after lunch. Productive but tiring.

Market was frustrating last week; I only sold 28 bundles of beets, ~15 heads of green garlic, and 2 bundles of chard. Even the carrots sold slowly.  Our restaurants, however, are buying lots of produce and putting it to good use.

NEW THIS WEEK

Fin de Bagnol filet beans:  These are a high-end green bean, small, tender, and sweet. They take a lot of careful, regular picking (we keep a 36-hour picking schedule) but are a significant step above the average green  bean. These are tasty raw, and delicious gently steamed with a touch of salt.

ALSO AVAILABLE

Summer squash: These are coming on strong, and we pick them every day to ensure proper small size and freshness. Everything at market will be from Wednesday or later.

Green garlic heads: The beginning of true garlic season! Mixed/unknown varieties excellent for all-around cooking.
Beets: Mostly red beets, with some bundles of smaller mixed-color heirlooms. Restaurants are hitting these hard and they sold poorly at market, so I'm not going to bring very many this week. Very sweet; you can shred them raw into a salad or coleslaw for a lovely flavor and visual effect.

 
Peas: Snap peas and snow peas ready for salads, stir fries, and so much more. Definitely the last week for these.
 
Herbs: Parsley, sage, cilanto, probably a little tarragon, maybe some mint, and anything else that looks good in the herb garden during the Friday harvest.
FINISHED
 
Carrots: Restaurants are buying these in droves, so we're going to hold back the rest to fulfill these orders. 
 
Swiss chard: Same story, selling better to restaurants than at market, so holding it in the field for the former.
 
Scallions: Same as above.

COMING UP

Cippolini onions: Nice, sweet onions excellent for grilling, roasting, salads, and more. Likely to appear for the next week or two in limited quantities. We had a nearly complete crop failure on these last year and are extremely excited for them to appear in our own kitchen again.


Edamame: The first planting is flowering now, so it'll be a few more weeks.
 
Basil: Our Genovese basil is behind schedule, in part because our first planting was damaged by mid-May frosts (in spite of giving it all the protection we could). But the second planting is growing, so it should be harvestable in the coming weeks. We also have a limited quantity of lime basil that may be ready to harvest sooner.

Tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers: We have marble-golf ball sized tomatoes forming, plus tomatillos with husks, and some very small peppers. We'll probably have them at market in 3-6 weeks.

Market plans, June 18

NEW THIS WEEK

Summer squash: These are coming on strong, and we pick them every day to ensure proper small size and freshness. Everything at market will be from Wednesday or later. Photo above is from 2010 but 2011 varieties are similar.

Green garlic heads: The beginning of true garlic season! We'll start pulling the first green heads for market, though these will be an unknown mix of varieties we intentionally planted for green garlic harvest.

ALSO AVAILABLE

Beets:  Many bundles of mixed heirloom beets, a nice color blend for roasting, sauteeing, and/or topping salads. Mostly 2"-3" in diameter, there may be some bundles of smaller pickling beets as we thin a few rows.

Kohlrabi: Delicious "alien" vegetable, with a sweet taste like a cross between carrots and broccoli. We like them just sliced thin on a salad or chopped into sticks for your favorate dip.

Peas: Snap peas and snow peas (pictured) ready for salads, stir fries, and so much more.

Carrots: Lots of small-medium roots, crunchy and sweet. Shred with some cabbage and light vinegar dressing for an excellent early summer slaw.

Swiss chard: Good cooking green, lots of uses.

Herbs:

     - Parsley
     - Mint
     - Oregano
     - Sage
     - Cilantro
     - Tarragon




DONE FOR NOW
Lettuce: Our remaining heads bolted in the heat, and are now in the compost or the pig's stomach.

Kale: Same as lettuce.

Scallions: These haven't been selling well at market, but our restaurants are taking lots, so we're not going to bother with them at market this week. They're much less work to pack in bulk for chefs than in small bundles for customers.

COMING SOON
Fin de Bagnol filet beans: There might be a few pints this week from the earliest-maturing plants, but these will definitely be at market next week.

Health insurance on the farm

We are self-employed, which means we have to supply our own health insurance.  We'd be far better off financially if I took a teaching job (I have a Master's in science education and could be certified for grades 6-12), which would provide a base salary and health coverage along with a reliable income, but then we wouldn't be able to run this farm as the business we want it to be, and wouldn't be able to spend the time together that we value so much. We and those like us take a real risk in our personal health and financial viability in attempting to make a living independently. Many farm-based folks keep some form of off-farm job partly to acquire or afford insurance, even if that caps their ability to build their farm business (I know of good farmers who had to stop farming because they had children and couldn't afford the insurance and health costs without a "real" job). Many full-time farmers, especially young and start-up farmers, go without insurance entirely because it's too expensive (like many I know around here).

We aren't willing to take that risk. A significant health incident (car accident, major disease, mild but disabling injury) would wipe out our ability to run this farm, and we at least want some protection from the financial impacts of such an event. Keep in mind that it's far easier for a health situation to ruin our business than an average salaried job; even a broken finger that kept me from doing weeding, harvest, and washing/packing  for a month would be a disaster for us even if it was financially negligible from the health expense point of view.

However, health insurance costs are awful for us. We have a 5-figure deductible in an attempt to keep costs down, meaning in effect we pay all our medical expenses out of pocket, even responsible preventative care like annual checkups. Dental and eye care is entirely on our dime, no coverage of any kind. The insurance is only for ruinous, life-changing incidents like major injuries or diseases, because that's all we can remotely afford, even with the massive deductible, and even with our extremely healthy and low-risk lifestyle (like only driving twice a week instead of most commuters' 5-6 days a week, and rarely during dangerous commuting hours). We even joined a smaller Missouri-based insurer that has reduced coverage for expenses incurred out-of-state, in an effort to keep costs down since we rarely travel. Unlike most couples, we've chosen not to have children (partly for financial reasons), which again keeps our costs and risks down but isn't a viable choice for many people who truly want children, as our culture strongly encourages. And yet costs are inexorably rising for no change in benefits.

At the start of 2010, we paid $204/month to cover both of us (Joanna is far more expensive than I am solely because she's female). In August 2010 that went up to $254. We just received a letter stating that in August 2011 it will rise to $300/month. Nothing in our coverage has changed or improved, and we really have no choice in the matter. We had already gone with the cheapest option we could find, and have no indication the rates won't keep rising like this.

This is one of the biggest single expenses in our lives, for which we receive no benefits except the potential to not be bankrupted by a disaster, which we effectively would be anyway because a health incident that cost over our 5-figure deductible would wipe out the farm for all practical purposes and force the non-injured person (if that wasn't both of us) to get some form of job just to support us. In that situation, our business and our lives as we know them would be over.

We loosely supported health care reform because we wanted something to change, to reach a system in which self-reliant entrepreneurs had a fair chance at getting started on their own, without feeling the need to be trapped in a "regular" job just to manage personal risk. Although we have philosophical concerns about the individual mandate, it also seemed the only way for entrepreneurs like us to have a fair chance in the modern world. However, the trend happening in our lives is not what we expected or desired; food prices and farm income will not keep up with this rate of health care inflation.

Keep in mind that to pay $3,600/year in health insurance costs, we have to earn a lot more than $3,600 in produce sales. Our farm business has to earn enough to pay all of the operating expenses of the farm, plus enough to pay for health & auto insurance, and only then can we even think about paying ourselves so that we can pay the expenses that we incur in our personal lives, and only then can we "keep" any of the remaining income. Because we run our farm and household on a low and tight budget, the percent expenditure in our budget for health insurance is especially high. So think of it this way: for every dollar a customer spends at our farm stand (and most spend under $10/week), a significant percentage is going straight to the coffers of the health insurance company which doesn't give a hoot about our personal healthy and low-risk lifestyle.

It also doesn't matter that the core activity of our business (selling fresh, healthy produce) has a direct benefit on our personal health and that of all our customers. Our existence, and our choices, make the country a healthier (and thus cheaper for the insurer) place. Yet none of that factors at all into the cost of our, or anyone else's, health insurance. We could run a tobacco factory and eat fast food three times a day and still be treated the same by the health care industry.

The final frustration here relates to my earlier point that many other farmers either don't have insurance or get it through an off-farm job. It's not my place to fault either decision, but it does affect the economics of prices and marketing. Someone who isn't trying to pay health insurance, or who has it provided through an off-farm job, isn't trying to earn that through their farm business, which means they can (and do) charge lower prices and/or make more personal profit (that extra $300/month would be wonderful for us). The former is in effect gaming the system, since if they do get injured the system will still handle them (the classic uninsured problem), while the latter is more responsible but really isn't improving the sustainable economics of small farms and local foods. We're being responsible citizens by insisting on having health insurance even at ruinous cost, but we earn far less personal income and get no benefit in the marketplace for that decision, just sniffs that our prices are too high. I can't exactly put up a sign saying "buy from us because we're responsible citizens".

Related to this issue is auto insurance. Consider two periods in our lives. First, the several years when Joanna was working at a 30-mile roundtrip commute year-round, and I was on the farm and driving 25 miles roundtrip to market on Saturdays during growing season. So one of us was on the road six out of seven days for most of the year. Second, the period when Joanna came home and we went full-time, so that now we drive to town twice a week during the growing season (Tuesday restaurant deliveries and Saturday market) and once or twice a month during the winter, mostly during off-traffic hours. One guess as to which period has higher rates. When we went full-time and listed both of our vehicles as business use, as that was now their primary function, our auto insurance rates doubled, even though we're driving far less and during less dangerous times. And we're both very cautious, careful drivers with perfect life records. I'm the guy Missouri drivers pile up behind on VV or E because I'm actually driving the speed limit, and the guy who gets cut off on US-63 because I actually leave safe following distance in front of me.  But we're now paying double our old rates for the sole privilege of being self-employed, in a system that couldn't care less about our actual driving skill or patterns.

I have a lot of sympathy for the unemployed and underemployed, especially in this recession, but when we look at this budget the cynic in us wonders if we'd be better off not working long days 7 days a week to pay off mostly useless health & auto insurance, and just collecting unemployment or working normal part-time odd jobs while growing only our own food and being uninsured. It would probably be smarter financially than running a responsible, sustainable, honest business whose income is capped by people's expectations of what subsidized, migrant-picked produce is supposed to cost.

In effect, the current system penalizes good, responsible civic behavior. What are we supposed to do?

Mid-June on the farm

It's been hot and dry lately, for which we're very thankful. These conditions have helped most of our summer produce get off to an excellent start. Some spring items have suffered, like peas, but overall the past few weeks have been great (we suspect earlier hail damage played a factor in pea struggles as well). We're very busy, handling the full cycle of continued planting/transplanting, maintenance/weeding, and harvest/marketing, but the farm is in good shape and we're pretty happy with the year so far.

Probably the biggest challenges so far have been adapting to this sudden blast of (welcome) heat, and handling marketing. We've rarely sold as much as we'd like to at a market this year, which concerns us as the bulk summer produce starts to come on. Insect populations are very high and are starting to do some damage in a few places; this will take time to assess and manage.

Here's a photo essay of recent farm conditions:

The main vegetable field is going strong. This dry weather has meant I could finally disc & plant our north fields, which we manage with tractor equipment (unlike the produce areas) and are planting in bulk animal/human feed crops like alfalfa, pearl millet, feed beets, sunflowers, and cowpeas.

The first green bean plants are flowering; these are the excellent Fin de Bagnol filet beans that can be eaten raw, they're so good. On the right are some parsnip plants, which we're looking forward to selling at fall markets or potentially overwintering for early spring sales/CSA shares.

Almost-ready crops include garlic (at left) and beets (at right), both of which are looking very good.

 Coming-soon crops include zucchini and tomatoes, which are absolutely loving this dry heat. Zukes are already fruiting, and a few tomato plants have fruit forming. Peppers, cucumbers, okra, tomatillos, corn, potatoes, and more are all growing.

On the animal front, the goats are on permanent pasture for the summer, rotating to new ground regularly. This year's kids have become very friendly and handleable, key for our plans to keep the two does as long-term milkers. Intending to build up the laying flock by next year, we purchased an incubator after doing the math to prove that it would pay itself off very quickly compared to mail-ordering chicks. This also lets us preserve and select genetics on the farm for breeds and behaviors we want. The first 10 chicks are hard to photograph, but are starting to go outside in an old chicken tractor. The blurred ones nicely capture their energy level. 

The lone pig is doing great, now out on grass in a yard next to the dairy barn. He's getting lots of fresh whey, on-farm vegetable scraps like rejected lettuce leaves and pea vines, some cooked meat/fat scraps from fall on-farm goat butchering, along with organic whole grains; in general the highly diverse and healthy diet we want to feed pigs. Too bad we can't do more this way.

Speaking of food for ourselves, as always we grow/raise some items just for household use. This broccoli turned out very nicely, though we have no interest in growing it for sale because the yield/unit space is way too low to make economic sense. Our second-year blueberry plants are also fruiting heavily, with the first ripe berries starting to appear. Strawberries are still producing more than we have the energy to pick daily, but these blueberries are a true treat.

 

Market plans, June 11

It's been a very busy week. The dry, hot weather is fantastic for most of our crops, though it's been tiring us out as we're not quite adjusted to summer temperatures yet. Look for another post soon with lots of photos of happy summer plants, written by sweaty worn-out farmers. Meanwhile, Saturday's market will look something like this:

NEW THIS WEEK
Beets: I don't have a good photo, but this year's beet crop is looking nice and we started delivering them to restaurants over the past week. We're harvesting them at a moderate size, 2-3" across, which gives a good crop of greens but not an overwhelming root. I sauteed some in butter and tossed them over our butterhead lettuce for a great salad; these are the sweetest beets we've ever grown.

Carrots: Our carrots look nice but are still on the small side. We'll harvest some bundles of smaller carrots to thin out the plantings some and test the market.

Swiss chard (maybe): Some leaves are big enough now to harvest a few first bundles if we get to it.

ALSO AVAILABLE
Garlic scapes: Good, fresh garlic flavor available only this time of year. Last or next-to-last week for these. Green garlic heads coming soon.

Lettuce heads: Last week's experiment with keeping lettuce and most greens in a cooler, to maintain freshness and prevent wilting while sitting out on a table in heat, was a mixed success. I sold more than I thought I would under those conditions, but was far from selling out. Almost everyone I convinced to look in the cooler was thrilled with their appearance, and the freshness of buying still-cold lettuce at market, but it was a difficult struggle to be noticed with a stand that appeared halfway-empty due to much product being out of sight. Didn't seem like many folks were reading the sign advertising cooler lettuce.  Frustrating, as I really don't like "piling it high" in the heat just so things can look pretty. I think I'll stick with the cooler method again and see if we get return customers. This will be the last week for lettuce.

Scallions: Good, tender, flavorful scallions are a great addition to eggs, salads, light soups, and so much more. These we'll have for several more weeks.

Kale: This also didn't sell well, but I'm bringing more anyway. This is likely the last week for it.

Peas: I'll have a nice pulse of snap and snow peas, though I'm not sure how much longer these will be available. Peas will have to be considered our first crop failure of the year. They've had rough conditions, first enduring weeks of wet weather when young (which breeds disease), then transitioning almost instantly to hot sun, not the preferred temperature for this cool-weather crop. Disease is a real problem on these and plants are dropping fast. Get them while you can.

Herbs:

- Mint
- Lemon balm
- Mixed herb bundles, great for eggs or pasta (probably garlic chives, oregano, & sage this week)
- Tarragon
- Oregano
- Thyme
& maybe some dill &/or cilantro

DONE FOR NOW
Spinach, radishes, mustard greens, green onions, beet greens

COMING SOON
Green filet beans: flowering now
Zucchini: we're already harvesting small first yields for ourselves
Green garlic: fresh heads within a few weeks

Cicadas: the latest food safety paranoia

So a neat local story predictably went sour in the latest example of food safety bureaucracy. An excellent local ice cream shop decided to have some fun with the recent cicada emergence and whipped up a batch of cicada ice cream:

To make the ice cream, Sparky's employees collected cicadas from their backyards and brought them in to work on Wednesday. The cicadas are fully cooked through boiling, then covered in brown sugar and milk chocolate. The base ice cream is a brown sugar and butter flavor.

It sold out within an hour, so they planned to make more for the weekend. There was a huge buzz, so to speak, and a lot of interest from intrigued consumers. We definitely thought about going in to try it. What came next, I absolutely knew was going to happen, and it did right on schedule:

Those looking to taste the seasonal flavor of cicada ice cream at Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream will no longer have an opportunity to do so.

Sparky's approached the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services and asked about the use of cicadas in the ice cream, Gerry Worley, environmental health manager for the department, said. "The food code doesn't directly address cicadas," Worley said. "We advised against it."

Really. Despite the fact that it's labelled "Cicada ice cream" and no one could possibly mistake what they're ordering (Sparky's even made sure to place cicada wings on top of the display bin), despite the fact that customer demand was far outstripping supply, despite the fact that it was prepared in a normally inspected commercial kitchen, our local health department feels that the cicadas are a threat to public health that educated adults are incapable of avoiding on their own if they want to.

Yet it gets better. It's not just that they're somehow dangerous. It's that the rulebook doesn't have specific instructions for how to cook cicadas:

Food code does not address how cicadas should be cooked. "The food code tells us how high the temperature should be," Worley said of normally cooked foods such as fish, chicken and beef. The department does not have that information for cicadas.

Is there any possible scientific reasoning under which cicadas boiled at 212ºF (by definition) are uniquely capable of carrying pathogens which can survive such conditions, when every other currently known meat-borne food pathogen is killed by 180ºF at the highest (going by the rulebook)? Are they somehow carrying superbugs from deep-sea thermal vents?

It's a great example of our current health system which is laser-focused on short-term pathogenic health issues and generally oblivious to long-term nutritional health issues, even though the latter affect, hurt, and kill vastly more people.  Not to mention the theoretical right of consumers to make their own choices, like they legally can with such other healthy options like handguns and tobacco.

Bird list & other natural events, May 2011

Below is a complete list of birds observed and/or heard within our farm's ecosystem for May 2011. Birds in italics were observed or heard only in flight over the farm, but not otherwise interacting with it. 15 new species arrived or passed by the farm in May, for a total of 72 species. This should be the peak of migration, with the numbers dropping off significantly in June. Species only flying over and not otherwise interacting in italics.

NEW THIS MONTH (15 species)
Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
Eastern Wood-Peewee
Swainson's Thrush
Yellow-Breasted Chat
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Chestnut-Sided Warbler
Eastern Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
American Redstart
Magnolia Warbler
Common Nighthawk
Golden-winged Warbler
Barn Swallow
Least Flycatcher

ALSO PRESENT (57 species)
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Turkey Vulture
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-Tailed Hawk
Wild Turkey
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Barred Owl
Whip-poor-will
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
White-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Black-cappeed Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Wood Thrush
Grey Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Northern Parula
Tennessee Warbler
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Black-Throated Green Warbler
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-winged Blackbird
Black-and-white Warbler

MISSING FROM LAST MONTH
Osprey
American Kestrel
Bald Eagle
Hermit Thrush
Yellow-throated Warbler
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Purple Finch
Cooper's Hawk
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Flicker

OTHER NATURAL EVENTS

Toward the end of May, the insect population seemed to explode. "Good" insects like ladybugs and dragonflies are as abundant as we've ever seen, along with problematic insects like deerflies, cucumber beetles, and many more. With "neutrals" like the 13-year cicada emergence, it's been a memorable time recently. We have two hypotheses on this; that the heavy snowpack over last winter helped many insects survive in higher numbers, and that the cicada emergence has introduced a significant new food source into the ecosystem that is drawing predators off other insects that are smaller and harder to catch. Can't prove either one, but we'll put it out there for interest.

Lots of wildlife activity, which at some point will be a nice photo essay, but here are a few features:

TREE FROG AND AMERICAN TOAD

HATCHED TURKEY EGGS AND BLACK RAT SNAKE

 
We knew about this turkey nest, and were glad to see she had brooded successfully. Snakes like this one are some of our best allies in rodent control throughout the farm, and this ~4' long rat snake is a beauty.

Rabbit fines, or why we're following the stupid pig law

So after writing about the Missouri Department of Ag's determination that fresh vegetables are dangerous, illegal feed for saleable pigs, I've had a number of people ask why we even asked, or why we just don't do it anyway, under the table. This is why (from the Springfield News-Leader):

A federal agency that wanted a Nixa man to pay a $90,643 penalty based on accusations that he sold rabbits and guinea pigs without a license said it is trying to work something out after U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill intervened.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which issues the licenses, had told John Dollarhite to pay the penalty by May 23 or face possible litigation. Civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation could exceed the penalty he already faced...

The proposed settlement said Dollarhite sold 619 animals in 2008-09, despite being told several times that he needed a license. Dollarhite's business, now closed, was called Dollarvalue Rabbitry.
 
Dollarhite said he didn't know he needed to be licensed and that the penalty is not appropriate. He said the business made about $200 in profit from April 2008 to December 2009 from selling rabbits for $10 or $12 apiece.

So maybe this guy is a doofus, or was trying to skirt the rules. He may not be blameless. But McCaskill is exactly right that "They have much better things to do with their time than go after families that have sold some rabbits for pets". Or to go after farms feeding vegetables to pigs. We're not doing the for-sale pigs because I don't want the state or Federal bureaucracy slapping us with this kind of ridiculous fine and life-long ban for an obscure rules violation. It's not worth it. And that's the kind of rural small-business entrepreneurship that stupid regulation stifles.

Late May meals on the farm

The late spring boom in new farm ingredients also coincides with hotter weather and harder work, such that we eat more and more to keep up. Here are some of the ways we've been using fresh and preserved farm products in the last few weeks. Hopefully vegetarians and vegans will find these especially interesting, as this is the season we run low on meat and go back to that style of cooking. The next few months of food blogging will help balance all the meat blogging we do in the winter. Ah, seasonal eating. As always, on-farm ingredients listed in italics.

FRIED RICE FOR BREAKFAST

Our usual breakfast rotation includes homemade granola with farm-made yogurt, various baked goods from coffee cake to cornbread to scones, fried/scrambled/boiled eggs, and so on. One recent morning we felt burned out on all of that, so I summoned my Filipino side and made fried rice for breakast, using eggs, green onions, fresh shiitakes, garlic scape pesto, beet greens, and leftover brown rice. With a side of Uprise bread and blackberry jam from Eric's stepfather, this was filling and enjoyable.

LENTIL SALAD AND STIR FRY

On the left is a nice lentil salad I more or less invented, taking loose inspiration from a couple vegetarian cookbooks. I cooked some organic lentils and buckwheat (also using some cooked cowpeas  in another version), then mixed them with radishes, green onions, dill, garlic scallions, mint, farm aged cheddar,  balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt. I made two different batches, winging the amounts both times, and it came out wonderfully as a filling but cool-temperature meal for hot days. This is a great example of excellent ingredients making cooking easier; I really didn't need to add other flavors than the vegetables and herbs. Served with a side of dill pickles.

On the right is a basic stir fry, something every fresh-foods cook should be able to do. This one is stored sweet potatoes, roasted farm peanuts, radishes, green onions & garlic, with a bit of soy sauce & calamansi juice, over organic brown rice. Simple but lovely.

COCONUT CURRIED VEGETABLES AND FRESH SALAD

 This was lunch on Friday, when we came in hot, tired, and hungry from a long morning of harvesting for market with no leftovers and no plan for food. This didn't take long to throw together and was excellent. For the curry, I chopped and briefly sauteed green onions, radishes, baby beets, beet greens, fresh shiitake mushrooms, organic bok choi from a recent visit to our friends at Happy Hollow Farm (we traded strawberries), then added organic coconut milk and a dash of organic soy sauce and simmered. Meanwhile, I crushed some dried anaheim peppers and dried tomatoes and mixed with fresh-ground coriander, turmeric, cardamom, and black pepper to make a spice mix, and added that to the pan. Meanwhile I boiled some simple Asian noodles. Just before serving, I chopped some fresh mint and cilantro into the curry as well, and mixed in the noodles. Filling, with a rich, complex flavor, and took less than 30 minutes.

The salad was typical of something we eat almost every day this time of year: lettuce, radishes, farm cheese, green onions/scallions, green garlic/scapes, herbs, beet or other greens, topped with light dashes of good balsamic vinegar and olive oil. We never get tired of that.

CILANTRO-BEAN WRAP WITH SWEET POTATO FRIES, EGG-DROP SOUP

Cilantro-almond pesto is one of our favorite condiments, made by blending cilantro, garlic, almonds, olive oil, and so on (lots of recipes online). It tastes amazing, can be used lots of ways, and can be frozen. Here, we made fresh flatbreads and filled them with the pesto, cooked cowpeas, lettuce, and farm cheese for a really simple but tasty meal. Sweet potato fries are quite easy, just cut stored sweet potatoes, toss in olive oil and salt, and roast at 450 for maybe 20-25 minutes until you get the texture you want.

Egg-drop soup is also quite easy, and this one features a great example of using and reusing farm ingredients (in this case, mushrooms). Good egg drop soup relies on good broth, and we've been making a lot of mushroom broth lately by boiling the stems of our fresh shiitakes with the green tops of overgrown green onions and salt to make a richly flavored broth that stores and freezes well, thus using parts we otherwise might not eat or use. To make the soup, just simmer the broth, beat a few eggs and gently drizzle them into the soup through a fork, and top with scallions or green onions. Serve immediately.

None of these meals are particularly complex or difficult, and rely heavily on spring-seasonal ingredients available at our stand and the rest of the farmers market, and can easily be adapted to whatever is on hand. This is how we cook and eat, and how anyone can cook and eat from a good CSA or market stand along with a few basic kitchen staples.

Market plans, June 4

This week's market will look a lot like last week's, with a few minor changes. It's been hot & mostly dry lately, which is speeding the end of cool-season items like radishes but benefitting the growth of zucchini and much more. Given the forecast for market day (sunny and low-mid 90s) I may try keeping many of the greens in coolers rather than out on the stand, with good signage. It's a gamble, as folks may not buy what they can't see, but I hate putting good fresh greens (especially delicate lettuce) out in the heat to immediately begin losing quality. I'd rather take home good lettuce than sell wilted lettuce. I just hope customers recognize the difference and the reasoning behind it.

NEW THIS WEEK

Garlic scapes! These flavorful seed stalks of the garlic plant are an excellent opening to true garlic season. Great for sauteing or making pesto, which freezes very well for a great winter meal. We won't have a large amount, as Red & Moe is buying most of our production for their kitchen, but we want at least some customers to have access to this worthwhile treat.

ALSO AVAILABLE

Spinach:  Likely the last harvest from this planting given the heat; tender regrowth from the plants that had been damaged by last week's hail.

Head lettuce: Tender and flavorful, we've been thrilled with the many heads we've been eating all week in regular large salads topped by radishes, scallions, farm cheese, and more.

Green onions: One last harvest of these, which didn't sell very well last week but have been really good.

Mustard greens, kale, & beet greens: Mid-sized leaves, excellent for sauteing, soups, and lots of other possibilities.

Radishes: The last week for these, which are rapidly starting to bolt (go to seed) and get woody in this heat. The plantings were almost done anyway, we might have lasted one more week with cooler weather, but oh well. A small amount of whatever we find that's still in good shape.

Herbs:

   - Plenty of:

      - Mint
      - Lemon balm
  - Some:
      - Mixed herb bundles, great for eggs or pasta (probably garlic chives, oregano, & sage this week)
  - Very limited quantities of:
      - Tarragon
      - Cilantro
      - Dill
      - Oregano

Snap peas: Sugar Ann variety, extra sweet when really fat, but not until then. Don't be fooled into thinking these are overgrown based on their plumpness; these are different from most snap pea varieties. Also a chance for some early snow peas.

COMING SOON

Zucchini are flowering and fruiting, so the first baby squash could appear as early as next week. Carrots and beets continue to grow, but we want them to be nicely developed before sale. A few kohlrabi may be ready for next week. We'll harvest the first heads of green garlic in a couple of weeks, just after scapes finish.