«
»

Join Us Sunday at the New Farm!


Those heirloom tomatoes may not be pretty in the traditional sense, but the flavor surpasses any thing else you've had.

Those heirloom tomatoes may not be pretty in the traditional sense, but the flavor surpasses any thing else you've had.

Table of Contents:

1) In Your Box this Week

2) Farm News

  • Open House at the New Farm this Sunday, June 7th
  • Delivery Days-What do you think?
  • Greenhouses and Aphids
  • Our CSA Box Dilemna
  • Log into your JBG CSA Membership Online
3) Events
  • Water Conservation and Rainwater Harvesting
  • Taste of Summer Day
  • Open Plate in the Garden
  • Austin Organic Gardeners
  • Travis County Master Gardeners Association

4) Quotable Food

5) Recipes

  • Calabacita

6) Vegetable Storage Tips

7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Information

Please send newsletter feedback, suggestions and contributions to farm@jbgorganic.com

We’re on Facebook! We’re also on MySpace, be our friend!

1) In Your Box this Week:

Basil
Peppers
Green Beans or Cherry Tomatoes
Eggplant
Cucumber
Summer Squash- five kinds!
Onions
Cabbage
Tomatoes
Sweet Corn on Wednesday
Potatoes on Saturday
Fennel will be available next week and okra will be here soon.
This list is subject to change depending on availability and quality of crops on harvest day. You’ll find the most accurate packing list on the homepage of our website.
Yellow Taxi heirloom tomatoes.

Yellow Taxi heirloom tomatoes.

2) Farm News:

Open House at the New Farm this Sunday, June 7th

Signing of the paperwork for the farm expansion has been completed. In celebration of this joyous event, we are hosting an open house at the new farm site this Sunday from 9:00 to 10:00 am. Refreshments and breakfast tacos will be available for you to enjoy while you check out this new addition to our farm. We’d love for you to see the land before we start the farming it. The whole Johnson family will be present to show you around this prime soil/ perfect layout of a farm that will soon be under organic production with JBG Organic. This land was inspected last week and we are currently awaiting the paperwork to be certified organic.

Our new farm land is 39.35 acres and will be under producton as soon as a few other items fall into place. Those ‘few other’ items include the drilling of wells (which starts next week), installation of the irrigation systems, and a small bit of land clearing. The setup for this new piece of land will be very similar to our current farmland (which will rest for several months before returning to production). Both farms will consist of 30 blocks (or fields) with each block containing 8 beds per block. The big difference is that our current farm has beds of 285 feet. The new farm has the same number of beds but they are 800 feet long.

This leads very nicely into Will’s recent nightmares. As our field manager, he is the person responsible for those 800 foot long beds (240 of them). His dreams/nightmares of late have been about harvesting all those super long beds by himself. A daunting endeavor for any of us, even a well experienced farmer like Will. But I’m sure Will be dragging the rest of us out there just to ensure he’s not the only one harvesting.

Please check out  directions to the new farm here. Aaron has also posted an aerial map of the farm on our website, so you can get an idea of the layout of the farm.

  • Delivery Days-What do you think?
Brenton has been researching organic farms around the local area and across the country to gain as much knowledge as he can about smoothly running the farm while still trying to maintain his sanity and family happiness. There have been two major insights that he has shared with us about changes he’s considering and he’d like your input.
His first insight was how other farms pack their boxes. They seem to have similar packing lines to ours, but usually one person packs an entire box with the ten or eleven items. Our system involves about ten people packing just one item into every box. We plan to experiment with this system to see if we can improve our efficiency. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Brenton’s other insight focuses on delivery/pickup days. All the other farms he’s studied have deliveries up to four days per week (on Tuesday thru Friday schedules), instead of our two delivery days (Wednesday and Saturday).  Brenton is strongly considering this option due to several factors. One, his family would like to see more of him. Two, it has been difficult to retain workers because of the six day work week. Three, our weekday deliveries are much more popular than our Saturday deliveries.
So, there are no planned changes in the delivery schedule at this time, but we would love to hear some feedback on what your preferences/thoughts might be. We would still use the same pickup sites, no changes there. Pickup times would also remain the same. We’d just like to get a handle on how a change in delivery days would work for all of you. Please drop Carrie and email if you have strong feelings either way.
  • Greenhouses and Aphids

Aphids are sneaky and inconspicuous little beasties. They can show up, breed like crazy and completely destroy your flowers, vegetables and even trees before you ever know there’s a problem. There are many species and colors of aphids. They come in shades of green, red, brown, black and yellow and almost all have fat little pear shaped bodies with several little tubes poking up out of the back end called cornicles. They feed by piercing plants and sucking their juices. In doing so they can transmit viruses that cause yellowing, curling and distort growth. Aphids also secrete a sticky substance called honeydew that often results in the colonization of an ugly sooty black fungus.
One “colonizer” can produce up to 80 offspring in as little as a week and is capable of doing so several times.

We’ve had a serious bout with aphids in the greenhouse for about the last month. Although Aphids will attack almost anything our aphids seem to be very interested in only the melons (watermelon, galia, and muskmelon, and honeydew). Other plant starts nearby have no effect from the bug. As an attempt to contain/control the pests, without the conventional farm standard of using chemical warfare, we have begun covering the newly planted seed with row cover while still in the greenhouse. This physical barrier will help us keep the newest plants free from aphids. But this does nothing to stop the ongoing population outbursts of the little critters that have taken up residency in the greenhouse.

Melon starts in the greenhouse, protected from aphids by row cover.

Melon starts in the greenhouse, protected from aphids by row cover.

We have also decided on an organic spray approach to the aphid issue that is new to us. We will be trying Neem oil in the greenhouse to retard the growing pest problem. Neem oil can be used as a prevenative treatment for ahpids and also as an immediate killer of the pest. Neem oil is OMRI Listed for use in organic production. It is also safe for preditory insects, which means Neem oil will not harm ladybugs or lacewings who like to feed on Aphids.
Neem products are derived from the neem tree, Azadiracta indica. The neem tree is native to southern Asia and can grow in most arid sub-tropical and tropical areas of the world. Called Sarva Roga Nirvani, a “cure of all ailments” in Sanskrit, neem has been used for centuries for medical, cosmetic and pesticidal purposes. Neem products are usually made by crushing neem tree seeds, then using water or a solvent such as alcohol to extract the pesticidal constituents.
  • Our CSA Box Delimma
We’ve had several factory delays of the new CSA boxes, the current delay will push us back to the end of June before we see the rest of the shipment. Some of you may have already used the small sample of new boxes that we have. We ‘ve had great feedback from you on the new boxes and hope to bring you the rest of the CSA boxes as quickly as possible. In the mean time, we will be using new wax covered boxes that you are all familiar with. Please be patient with us on this one as it is completely out of our control.
This weeks goregous CSA box.

This weeks goregous CSA box.

  • Log into your JBG CSA Membership Online
You can manage your Johnson’s Backyard Garden CSA membership online. At CSA accounts,you can make payments, check schedule pick up times and dates, and renew or change your order. It’s the best way to stay up to date with your individual account. If you experience any difficulties managing you account, please contact Carrie at the farm Monday- Friday before 12:30 pm at 512.386.5273 or email her at farm@jbgorganic.com.

Eight pallets full of newly harvested onions are being stored in the barn.

Eight pallets full of newly harvested onions are being stored in the barn.

3) Events:

  • Water Conservation and Rainwater Harvesting
    Interested in gardening, but concerned about the cost of water usage? Come join us to learn about simple ways you can collect rainwater and use it in your garden, as well as techniques for efficient watering. Registration required. Please call Jess Guffey at 236-0074 x105 or email jess@sustainablefoodcenter.
    Wednesday, June 3
    6:30-8:30pm
    Alamo Community Garden
    2101 Alamo St. (78722)
  • Taste of Summer Day
    Fruit and Veggie Fest kicks off at Austin Farmers’ Market with samples of Central Texas’ best local produce and a chefs’ challenge: to make dishes combining almost every single crop that is in season in one or two dishes.
    Saturday, June 13
    9 am – 1 pm
    Austin Farmers’ Market Downtown at Republic Square Park, 4th and Guadalupe
    Free Parking

  • Austin Organic Gardeners

The Austin Organic Gardeners meet the second Monday of every month at Zilker Botanical Garden. www.austinorganicgardeners.org Meetings start at 7 p.m.

  • Travis County Master Gardeners Association

The Travis County Master Gardeners Association holds it’s monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of each month. www.tcmastergardeners.org Meetings starts at 7 p.m.

4) Quotable Food:

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.  Julia Child (1912 – 2004)

5) Recipes:

  • Calabacita, Sent in by Jane Stavinoha, cheif extrodinaire. She found this recipe at Central Market recently and says it’s great.
5 small zucchini diced small
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup white onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
2 cups corn
1/2 cup diced roasted red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup queso fresco or any Mexican cheese
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
In a saute pan heat olive oil, add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the garlic, zucchini and corn, stir and add roasted red pepper and chopped oregano. Saute until corn is fully cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with cheese and garnish with fresh oregano.
6) Produce Storage Tips:

We aim to grow and package our vegetables to maintain the highest taste and nutritional quality possible. However, once they’ve left the farm it’s up to you to keep them fresh and nutritious. There’s no refrigeration at the CSA drop points so it’s best to pick up your box as early as possible. Here are some additional tips on how to store this week’s share:

Spinach, Kale, Chard, Lettuce, Salad Greens, Pak Choi, Braising Mix and Cooking Greens will stay fresh in the crisper for 4-7 days and should be kept in plastic bags. Any bunch greens can be freshened by cutting an inch of the bottom stalks and soaking the entire bunch in cold water for 10 minutes. Place in a plastic bag in the fridge for a few hours to revive. Also, when you receive lettuces and other delicate greens like arugula, you will notice that we bag them wet. This helps keep them fresh until members can pickup and refrigerate them. The lettuce heads, lettuce mixes, and arugula should not be refrigerated wet, though. Once you bring these vegetables home, you should wash and dry them before bagging and refrigerating. If you follow these steps, you lettuce should stay fresh.

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Scallions, and Summer Squash will last 4-7 days in plastic bags in the crisper.

It is best to store the Onions at 40 to 45 degrees F. Don’t whole store onions in the refrigerator because the moisture is bad for them. Don’t store potatoes near onions. The onions will absorb moisture from the potatoes.

Checkout our storage tips on our website for a more complete guide, and of course, feel free to contact us with any questions. The National Center for Home Food Preservation is your guide for how to can, freeze, dry, pickle or ferment just about anything.

Cucumbers awaiting field planting.

Cucumbers awaiting field planting.

7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Info:

Johnson’s Backyard Garden
9515 Hergotz Lane, Box E
Austin, TX 78742

Office Phone: 512.386.5273
Office Hours: M-F 8am to 12:30pm

e-mail: farm@jbgorganic.com

Filed: Newsletters | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

blog comments powered by Disqus