Table of Contents:

1) In Your Box this Week

2) Farm News

• Guest Writer
• August on the Farm
• Crop Rotation Planning

3) Events

4) Quotable Food

5) Recipe: Baba Ghanoush

6) Produce Storage Tips

7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Information

1) In Your Box This Week

White, Yellow, and Red Onions
Caribe Potatoes
Assorted Sweet Pepper
Hot Peppers- Jalapeño or Serrano
Basil
Watermelon or Cantaloupe or Honey Dew or Galia
Eggplant
Summer Squash and Zucchini
Garlic and a small amount of Okra

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.

2) Farm News

• Guest Writer:  Office Manager Carrie Kenny

Bess is on vacation this week, so I am temporarily taking over her duties as the newsletter writer. Last week, I, too, was lucky enough to be able to take a vacation, and I enjoyed the relatively cooler (and wetter) weather on the East Coast. It rained three times while I was there, and the grass was indeed greener (literally, at least).

• August on the Farm

Now, I am back in the browner pastures of JBG and facing the heat of August. It is very hard to farm in August in Texas. I can’t really say this from experience as I work in the only air-conditioned space on the farm. However, I can see the toll the 100+ degree heat takes on those working in the field as well as on the crops. It helps to know that we are currently seeding crops in the greenhouse for the fall season. This forward-looking action serves to remind everyone that cooler weather, like the fall vegetables, will eventually be here.

Members who have been with us through a full season will know that vegetable variety goes down in August as we are limited by what we can grow this time of year. We do anticipate a larger okra harvest in the next two to three weeks and hope to harvest baby arugula a few weeks from now. Also, we have been able to supplement member boxes with storage crops such as potatoes, garlic, winter squash and onions. In the coming year, we are planning on doubling the number of storage crops we can offer, adding in vegetables such as carrots, celeriac, turnips, beets, cabbage, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and rutabaga. So, this time next year, members can anticipate receiving a wider variety of vegetables in their boxes.

• Crop Rotation Planning

Increasing the amount and variety of storage crops we can offer requires instituting a highly detailed, long-term crop rotation plan for the farm. Developing a crop rotation plan has been a priority for JBG. Brenton has opted not to take a vacation this year and is instead spending a lot of his time working on such a plan with his brother, Aaron.

Prior to working on the farm, I really had no idea how much work goes into creating and managing a diversified vegetable growing business. Like most city-dwelling Americans,  I had a rather idyllic vision of farm work. When I was growing up, farming was rarely discussed, either at home or at school. When I did think about it, I often romanticized the physical work involved and didn’t really consider the analytical efforts required. Working at JBG has been a strong reality check. The physical needs of this farm truly are unrelenting, and in this heat especially, the work is far from idyllic. It is clear, too, that the analytical and intellectual demands of the farm are just as great as the physical ones.

Nothing highlights the complex thinking needed in diversified vegetable farming more than crop rotation planning. Currently, Brenton and Aaron, are devising a long-term crop rotation plan and computerized mapping system that will allow JBG to offer the greatest variety of vegetables it can in a sustainable way. JBG grows about 100 different types and over 300 varieties of cash, flower, and herb crops year-round (as a point of comparison, most conventional farms only grow about 3–4 types of crops and often don’t farm year-round). While designing a crop rotation plan for JBG, Brenton and Aaron must allocate field space over the course of the year for all of these crops. Soil structure, insect patterns, seasonal temperature, land use efficiency, and long-term sustainability are just some of the factors that have to be taken into account when developing such a plan.  Here is a snapshot of what we’ve developing so far for a planting, harvesting and sorting calendar:

I spoke to Aaron about what it’s been like to work on JBG’s computerized crop rotation plan. He said, “It’s definitely a puzzle. When I started, it was like working on a normal Rubic’s cube.   But Brenton keeps adding other factors to the equation. Now, it’s like working on a 16-sided Rubic’s cube. Brenton keeps adding more colors to the cube.” To say the work is challenging is an understatement.  Here is a snapshot of what we’ve developed to track what we can plant, what we can expect to harvest, and what we can store each month.  The top chart lets us know what we can plant each month, the middle shows what we can expect to harvest, and the bottom displays what can be held in storage.  If you look at the second dip on the middle chart, you can see where we are now.  The good news is that we will have a lot to harvest in the months to come as indicated by the upturn on the chart.

Once it is completed, though, this crop rotation mapping system will be invaluable. Help for developing crop rotation plans has long been available to conventional farmers through the Federal government’s Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Equip program. As part of a new effort to serve organic farmers, JBG recently signed an Organic EQIP contract with NCRS which provides the farm cost share funding to help with conservation crop rotation, nutrient management, cover cropping, and pest management.

Brenton is really excited about the opportunity to create all of these long-term plans. Until recently, JBG has used a more intuitive system for planting. For example, if there was field space, we would look at the planting calendar and pick something that would flourish in that particular season. However, JBG has gotten too large to rely on an intuitive method alone. Having a well-designed computerized crop rotation plan in place will help take JBG to the next level and ensure that members receive a wide variety of high quality organic produce year round – even in the heat of August….

3) Events:

• FRESH Film Feast Benefiting SFC

Tuesday, August 25, 7pm at Boggy Creek Farm

EDIBLE AUSTIN AND ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE present an Alamo Drafthouse Film Feast at Boggy Creek Farm on Tuesday, August 25. The event will feature a screening of the new food movie, FRESH, and will benefit the Sustainable Food Center (SFC). All interested community groups are invited to attend as co-hosts and help us present an evening of conversation, farm-fresh picnic feasting along with viewing this outstanding new film about food in America. Co-hosts include Front Porch Project, Farmhouse Delivery, Zhi Tea, Maine Root, Texas French Bread, Greenling Organic Delivery, Paula’s Texas Spirits, Independence Brewing Co., Better-World Maker’s Co-op, Slow Food Austin, Urban Roots, Green Corn Project, Capital Area Food Bank, Farm and Ranch Freedon Alliance and others. Please contact Marla Camp This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at Edible Austin to get involved.

DETAILS: Cocktails and Conversation: 7:00pm – 8:30pm; locally-sourced picnic dinner by Alamo chefs John Bullington and Trish Eichelberger: 7:30pm; FRESH film screening begins at dark. Tickets: $35 advance only (Includes food and drinks) are available online at Alamo Drafthouse. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets to spread out on the lawn for picnic and film showing. Limited seating.

ABOUT THE FILM: FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

4) Quotable Food

“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread. It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to eat bread again, instead of the blasphemous and tasteless foam rubber that we have substituted for it. And I am not being frivolous now, either. Something very sinister happens to the people of a country when they begin to distrust their own reactions as deeply as they do here, and become as joyless as they have become.”  James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

5) Recipe: Baba Ghanoush

Many thanks to frequent contributor Sarah Sloan for sending us this recipe:

Baba Ghanoush from AllRecipes.com

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 40 Minutes

Ready In: 3 Hours 45 Minutes

Servings: 12
“This classic, pungent Middle Eastern spread is best when refrigerated for three hours prior to serving.”

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Place eggplant on baking sheet, and make holes in the skin with a fork. Roast it for 30 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally, or until soft. Remove from oven, and place into a large bowl of cold water. Remove from water, and peel skin off.
3. Place eggplant, lemon juice, tahini, sesame seeds, and garlic in an electric blender, and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer eggplant mixture to a medium size mixing bowl, and slowly mix in olive oil. Refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2009 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 8/4/2009

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.

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:14 am 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.