2) Farm News
- John E. Ikerd- Eating Local:A Matter of Integrity
- Chicks and Kids
- Food Movies – A Review
- On the Farm
- Help Make us the Best of Austin’s- Best Local Food Company
- Reminders
- Classes at The Natural Gardener
- Austin Public Library Green Living Talks
- Austin Organic Gardeners
- Travis County Master Gardeners Association
4) Quotable Food
- Heap O’Jalapeno Jelly
- Watermelon Jalapeno Caipirinha
- Jalapeno Hummus
- Roasted Eggplant & Feta Dip
- Soba Noodles with Roasted Eggplant
6) Vegetable Storage Tips
7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Information
Please send newsletter feedback, suggestions and contributions to farm@jbgorganic.com
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1) In Your Box this Week:
Caribe Potatoes
Assorted Sweet Pepper
Coming Soon (if we can keep the deer out of the field!): Okra
Patty Pan squash on the vine.
2) Farm News:
- John E. Ikerd- Eating Local:A Matter of Integrity
Brenton sent me an email this week including a recent paper authored by John E. Ikerd entitled Eating Local: A Matter of Integrity. For all my agriculture reading, I had not heard of Ikerd, whom Brenton compared to author Wendall Berry. I did a quick 15 minutes of research and found that Ikerd is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri Columbia, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and has a rich catalogue of books, papers and essays.
Amazon Booksellers critique his book Crisis and Opportunity, saying Ikerd illustrates “the consequences of agricultural industrialization, details the methods that can restore economic viability, ecological soundness, and social responsibility to our agricultural system and thus ensure sustainable agriculture as the foundation of a sustainable food system and a sustainable society.”
Amazon also reviews Ikerd’s book A Return to Common Sense as “an intense and engaging story of personal transformation combined with sweeping analysis and a call for societal change based on shared insights of universal principles of humanity – our common sense.“ Along with these two previous titles, Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense is the third of Ikerd’s books that get a five star rating on Amazon.
Read and enjoy!
- Chicks and Kids
Ringger Family Farms, one of our egg suppliers, is run by Amy and Dale Ringger. However, Dale and Amy are not alone in this family business venture. They have a houseful of kids that, I suspect, are well versed in the egg/chicken business and could run the place if mom and dad ever decided to take a vacation by themselves.
The Ringger kids have written some of their insights and observations of chicken behavior that we thought would be fun to share with you.
When chickens are younger they like to play football!
When a chick comes upon a treat, (like if you throw them a grasshopper) instead of eating it, she grabs it, and she begins chirping as if to say “I have a treat, nobody look!” Of course, all the other chickens come running and one of them steals the football, I mean, grasshopper. Another chick tackles her, grabs the grasshopper and runs off, trying to find a safe place to eat it. The poor bug will change beaks at least a couple times before it gets eaten.
When they get older they don’t play games as much. They eat the grasshopper as soon as they can.
I think they’re happy, don’t you?
Dale and Amy have also included a few notes of their own:
The young chickens are laying lots of eggs right now, so now is the
time to order extra for making veggie omelets for supper or lunch
(less cooking time to heat up the kitchen)!. Also, we are loo king for
other places who would like to have our eggs every week. Ask your
favorite restaurant, bakery, or caterer if they are using
local pastured eggs in their products. If they aren’t, give them our
name and email, ringgerfarm@gmail.com , and encourage them to use localingredients where available.
We have lots of frozen stewing hens 3-4 lbs. for $10 each. We’re retiring some of our hens which make wonderful soup stock
and broth. We cook them on high in the crockpot in water for 9 hours,
then use the meat for chicken salad and casseroles. We save the rich
broth for making casserole sauces and gravy or soup stock.
If you are interested in some of these stewing hens, contact us at
ringgerfarm@gmail.com.
- Food Movies – A Review
By Grit Ramuschkat, JBG resident and newsletter contributor
Like Brent, Bess and the farm crew (see last newsletter) I also went to the theater to watch the documentary Food Inc. A “converted foodie” myself :-), the movie didn’t tell me much new, however, it delivered a thorough summary of the issues surrounding they way we as a culture eat. The main interviewees for the movie were Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, both of them journalists and currently some of the most influential advocates of a more sustainable, fair and healthy food system in this country. Eric Schlosser was also the co-producer of the movie.
I always enjoy listening to them speak since they are such sharp guys. The interview I found most touching was with a Latino couple, husband and wife, both overweight, and their two teenage daughters. The wife shed light into her decision making process on what to spend their limit income on: either buy healthy food, such as fruit and vegetables, or feed her family McDonald’s burgers for breakfast (a $12 expense to feed 4 people) and use the money saved to pay for her husband’s medicine, who has – guess what? diabetes.
What was so striking about this was, the family was knowledgeable of the fact that the husband’s case of diabetes was a result of eating low quality food, the family knew about the health benefits of whole foods, yet still found itself unable to get out of this dilemma resulting in a downward spiral. Currently, they were awaiting the diagnosis for diabetes in their young, overweight teenage daughter.
Grit the Food Thinker
Marla Camp of Edible Austin recently conducted an interesting interview with Robert Kenner, the film maker of Food Inc.
Just a couple of nights before I saw Food Inc., I happened to watch an Austrian documentary called Our Daily Bread (made in 2005; available on netflix) about the industrial food production complex in Europe. The filmmaker got the rights to film inside various animal processing facilities himself, whereas in the US version, access to the interior of industrial chicken barns was denied or as in the case of a US slaughter house had to be filmed by workers illegally. What stood out most in comparison, was that the European facilities appeared cleaner, more sterile and sanitary than the US ones. For example, the necks of the defeathered chickens on the conveyor belt in the European facility appeared all cut of neatly, whereas in the US one, all kinds of juices still dripped out of the chickens and remnants of the neck skin was still dangling off them.
An American, sort of happy, more uplifting, answer to Our Daily Bread is Fresh, another food documentary that presents small scale farmers across America. This documentary will not screen in the theaters but has a different distribution system. Anyone can go to the Fresh website and purchase the screening rights. I haven’t seen this movie yet, but think, it will be another motivating and inspiring movie well worth seeing. There is nothing wrong with a little reinforcement that we are in for the “right” thing, and I am convinced that these movies will do their share in converting more and more people to become active in their local food systems. Marla Camp will interview the filmmakers of this movie on her next show on Heritage Radio, so stay tuned.
And last but not least, I’d like to introduce you to The End of the Line, apparently the worlds first major documentary on the impact of overfishing. So, bottom line, keep on doing what you are doing (buy local and organic), make some good food and kick back to watch a good documentary, or two, or four. Because we care!
Wanna comment? Either comment directly on the blog or email me: email@gritramuschkat.com.
- On the Farm
This week has seen major changes in the barn/packing shed. We’ve been talking, planning, plotting, scheming about improving the barn’s functionality for many months now. On Friday, John Paquin from Walnut Creek Farm got his construction crew busy at our place. They did an amazing job of pouring a new cement floor in the rear spaces of the barn. Of course, the Johnson kids felt the new barn floor should really be used as a bicycle/scooter play area and transformed the space, over the holiday weekend, to fit their vision of proper barn use, ramps and all. Skate boarder’s should be jealous.
The new barn floor.
The Johnson kids were sure they were getting a great sandbox. There was great disappointment as all the sand was used as bedding for the concrete.
Today Tyler, David and Tony set about breaking up some old concrete retaining walls in the main part of the barn. Once the guys have this cleared out we will be pouring more cement in that area to make way for offices, a computer room for the interns and an inside bathroom (yea). We will also be creating a better hand washing station for volunteers and harvesters in this space.
In our ongoing effort to ensure our production of quality food, Brenton has been exploring more of the issues involved with food safety and how they relate to our small farm. Federal regulations that address food safety are called GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) Standards and are only concerned with microbial or chemical contamination of the produce. A food safety plan is a good thing and most of the GAP guidelines are common sense and practical.
Brenton is working on formalizng a food safety plan that covers all aspects of harvesting and handling of the crops grown on the farm. We currently use those common sense practices of consistently washing hands, spraying out all harvest containers after each use, and washing down the interior of the barn twice each week. The plan will help us in training new interns, staff and volunteers on the standards we practice with all your food. It will also provide a place for proper documentation of our practices.
If you are interested in reading further on this subject, check out the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations explanation of Gap Standards.
Deer problems continue to have an impact on us. Last season we lost much of our lettuce and all of the dandelion greens to a local herd. This season they are dining on okra. These events prompted a discussion of fencing in the back fields. It will be a long discussion though, weighing the expense of the fencing against what has been a proven crop protection intervention.
And just a final note about our media coverage. Tomorrow morning , July 8th, we will be live on Fox News in the Morning, local channel 7. The segment will be shown around 7:10 am with a possible follow up to the interview around 8:10 am. Join us for this eventful morning either at the farm or on your telly.
- Help Make us the Best of Austin’s- Best Local Food Company
Last year, the Austin Chronicle’s ‘Best of’ Awards’ critics picked Johnson’s Backyard Garden as the Best Farm to Table Local Food Initiative. Well, it’s that time of year again……….the 2009 ‘Best of Austin’ Award is published in this week’s Austin Chronicle. We are shamelessly soliciting all interested persons to VOTE FOR US as the ‘Best Local Food Company’. Here’s how it works. You can pickup a copy of the Chronicle, fill out your ballot and send it in. Or you can follow the link above to place your electronic ballot. We’d like and appreciate your support and remember to get those ballots in by July 21. Thanks!
- Reminders
At JBG, we rely heavily on a system of trust for the distribution of our weekly shares. We appreciate the fact that the vast majority of our members respect our policies and allow this system to work. Recently, we have received a few complaints about problems at some of the pickup sites and just wanted to restate our policies as a reminder.
TRADE BOXES: Please use the trade box concept as it was originally conceived. This means you should feel free to take some produce when you’d like a little extra but also please leave anything from your own CSA box that you may not be too fond of. Please do not empty the trade box for use in your own kitchen. Instead please share in the bounty and trade with your fellow CSA members.
CSA BOXES: Always bring a box or food bags to transfer your produce into for the trip home. Do not take the wax boxes home! Remember to help your host take care of your drop off site by breaking down the wax CSA boxes and stacking them neatly. It helps keep the host’s property organized, the boxes clean, and the delivery person happy.
All the CSA boxes are packed with similar offerings. Please do not peruse each of the CSA boxes in search of your preferred produce. This causes problems on many levels. Other CSA members are left without their full share, and the replacement cost of each of those boxes is huge for us. This kind of activity forces us to harvest and process more veggies than we have planned for, essentially limiting our planned harvest numbers. It also increases our delivery costs, as replacement boxes then need to be brought back to the drop off site. Please consider your fellow CSA member’s investment and help build community.
MANAGE YOUR CSA ACCOUNT: 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 us at farm@jbgorganic.com.
- Becoming A Garden Detective: Diagnosing Plant Problems
July 11, 10am – noon. Join us to learn the causes of plant problems, the process for diagnosing plant problems, and preventive garden management techniques. This class is free and open to the public. A plant clinic will run during the seminar to help you diagnose current problems so please bring samples of problem plants. This free seminar is presented by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association, a volunteer arm of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Travis County . For more details, see http://www.tcmastergardeners.org or call the Travis County Master Gardener’s help desk at (512) 854-9600.
- Classes at The Natural Gardener
Saturdays through mid-September. 9 a.m. The Natural Gardener, 8648 Old Bee Cave Road. Free. 288-6113.
- Austin Public Library Green Living Talks
Varying times through Aug. Check Web site for schedule and locations. www.cityofaustin.org/library
- 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:
This is every cook’s opinion -
no savory dish without an onion,
but lest your kissing should be spoiled
your onions must be fully boiled.
~Jonathan Swift
5) Recipes:
- Heap O’Jalapeno Jelly, modified recipe from jalapenomadness.com
5 Jalapeno Peppers
3 cups sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
3 ounces pectin
Remove seeds from Jalapenos and chop finely. Boil chopped Jalapenos, sugar, and vinegar in a large pan for 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes. Stir in pectin.Strain mixture and pour into sterilized jars (very important to be sterilized). Cover tightly and store for up to 6 months. It is always best to store in a cool, dry place. Serves 2
- Watermelon Jalapeno Caipirinha, also from jalapenomadness.com
Here’s a spicy drink you’re sure to love. Caipirinha is the national drink of Brazil. Get a taste of South America with this wonderful jalapeno drink.
2 small jalapeno peppers, sliced into spears
2 ounces Cachaca
1 ounce lime juice
Dash of simple syrup
1 cup chopped watermelon
1 stem of cilantro
Mix 1 jalapeno pepper, cilantro, watermelon and simple syrup.Shake hard with Leblon and remaining ingredients.
Strain over ice into a highball glass.Garnish with a stem of cilantro, jalapeno spears, and two watermelon balls.
A baby eggplant just beginning to develope.
- Jalapeno Hummus, from allrecipes.com
1 cup garbanzo beans
1/3 cup canned jalapeno pepper slices, juice reserved
3 tablespoons tahini
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
crushed red pepper to taste
In a blender or food processor, mix the garbanzo beans, jalapeno peppers and reserved juice, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice. Season with cumin, curry powder, and crushed red pepper. Blend until smooth.
- Roasted Eggplant & Feta Dip, from eatingwell.com
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese, preferably Greek
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small chile pepper, such as jalapeño, seeded and minced (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of sugar (optional)
Position oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source; preheat broiler. Line a baking pan with foil. Place eggplant in the pan and poke a few holes all over it to vent steam. Broil the eggplant, turning with tongs every 5 minutes, until the skin is charred and a knife inserted into the dense flesh near the stem goes in easily, 14 to 18 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board until cool enough to handle.
Put lemon juice in a medium bowl. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and scrape the flesh into the bowl, tossing with the lemon juice to help prevent discoloring. Add oil and stir with a fork until the oil is absorbed. (It should be a little chunky.) Stir in feta, onion, bell pepper, chile pepper (if using), basil, parsley, cayenne and salt. Taste and add sugar if needed.
- Soba Noodles with Roasted Eggplant, from eatingwell.com
1 medium eggplant (1 pound)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
8 ounces soba noodles
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon peanut oil or canola oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons chile-garlic sauce
3 cups grated carrots (about 5 carrots)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup diced cucumber
Preheat broiler. Cut eggplant in half lengthwise. Place the halves cut-side down on a baking sheet. Broil about 4 inches from the heat until the skin is blackened and the flesh is very soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil for cooking pasta. Stir sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium-low heat until toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small dish to cool.
Cook noodles until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water until cool. Press to remove excess water, transfer to a large bowl and toss with 1 teaspoon oil to keep them from sticking. With a chef’s knife, mash garlic and salt into a paste. Transfer to a small bowl and add vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, brown sugar, chile-garlic sauce and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Whisk until blended.
Peel the cooled eggplant and discard the skin. Chop the eggplant flesh to a coarse puree. Add it to the noodles, along with carrots, cilantro and the sesame seeds. Add the dressing and toss until well combined. Just before serving, garnish with diced cucumber.
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:
Tomatoes should be kept uncovered at room temp, but can be refrigerated if very ripe. All other fresh vegetables belong in the refrigerator.
Peppers and Cucumbers should be stored in the crisper, and washed before use.
Basil can be stored upright in a jar of water at room temperature, or in an open bag on the counter. These three all do well frozen also (they will loose texture but not taste).
Eggplants, Potatoes, Onions are best kept moderately cool, no lower than 50 degrees. A cool, dry dark place is best- on the counter, in a cupboard or basket. 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.
Summer Squash will last 4-7 days in plastic bags in the crisper.
Melons should be ripened before refrigeration, stored in plastic bags when ripe. Melons should be used as soon as possible after ripening.
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.
Winter squash where last season's potatoes grew.
7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Information
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