Our New Intern, James, with Temo and Neysa
1) In Your Box this Week
2) Farm News:
- From the Farmer’s Perspective … A Call for Support: Community Supported Agriculture at its Finest!
- From the Farmer’s Perspective … When Will This Rain End?
- News from the Food & Politics Book Club, by Grit Ramuschkat, JBG Resident
3) Updates, Meetings, and Important Events
- Sustainable Food Center Volunteer Orientation
- Free Cooking Class Series
- Citizen Gardener’s 2010 Winter/Spring Gardening Courses
- JBG March Plant Sale Coming Up!
4)Quotable Food
5) Recipes
- Sauteed Kale and Kohlrabi
- Poached Salmon Fillets with Dill Creme Fraische
6) Produce Storage Tips
7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Info
Purple Top Turnips!
1) In Your Box this Week
Carrots – Big Bunches!
Hakurei Turnips or Kohlrabi
Collards or Kale
Mixed Lettuce or Spinach
Brussels Sprouts or Cabbage
Bok Choy or Mustard Greens
Beets
Green Garlic
Dill or Parsley
Oranges and Grapefruit from G & S Groves
2) Farm News:
- From the Farmer’s Perspective…A Call for Support: Community Supported Agriculture at its Finest!
You’ve heard us talking about it a lot lately: Johnson’s Backyard Garden is expanding. We are purchasing 40 acres and renting an additional 10 acres on River Road (about ten minutes away) to help meet Austin’s demand for organic, local veggies direct from our farm.
To meet the financial demands of this expansion, JBG is turning to its CSA members. JBG found its first successes through the hard work of just a few dedicated people. We are proud to be a truly Community Supported Farm, which is why we are extending an invitation to our members to be an active part in JBG’s expansion.
We have already received a tremendous show of support from CSA members (we are already almost halfway there!) interested in making slow money loans toward our goal of $79,500. For our slow money loans, we are asking for a minimum of $5,000. If you are interested in a slow money loan to JBG, email Carrie at farm@jbgorganic.com. We know that this is more than some can manage at this time, which is why we are opening up to donations from all of our members who want to participate in our expansion.
While we are not a non-profit and therefore cannot offer you a tax deduction, we rely heavily on the support of our members, and we hope you will make a donation today.
Here are some ideas of amounts to give:
$25 – $50 will provide rain gear or rain boots for one employee.
$200 will provide us with soil amendments, like organic fertilizer, for one week.
$300 will purchase two rolls of drip tape to irrigate our new fields.
$500 will purchase 100 harvesting bins to aid us in harvesting.
$1,000 will put us well on our way to purchasing used vegetable washing equipment.
Over $1,000 will go directly toward the purchase of a gently used tractor to break our new soil, till it, and make planting beds!
If you would like to make a donation to JBG’s New Farm Equipment Fund, please click the button below.
Thank you so much for your support these past years. At JBG we know that our members are the foundation of our farm. We hope we can continue to bring all of your fresh, organic produce, directly from our fields every week!
The boxing line, we know it and love it
- From the Farmer’s Perspective…When Will This Rain End?
Long periods of rainy days are inconvenient for everyone. You get wet, cold, and instead of going to work, you just want to curl up under a blanket with a book and mug of tea. But here at the farm, extended periods of rain makes life a little extra difficult, because no matter how much we want to stay on schedule, some farm work just can’t be done when the soil is wet…namely seeding and transplanting in the fields. This period of rain is especially troublesome because we are right in the middle of the primary planting time for many cool weather crops, and as the days slip by, the one or two sunny days we are getting a week become that much more important for us to keep on a good schedule. Sometimes, we are trying to get a week’s worth of work done in just one day! Farmer John from Angelic Organics often gives farmers the advice to take your normal equipment needs and multiply them by two, because there will be days when several tasks have to be done at once due to the weather. We are certainly hearing that advice these days.
From the Farmer’s Perspective is written by Neysa King. To read more by Neysa about her experience at JBG, click here.
Saturated fields
- News from the Food & Politics Book Club, by Grit Ramuschkat, JBG Resident
3) Updates, Meetings, and Important Events
- Sustainable Food Center Volunteer Orientation
Join us for the next SFC Volunteer Orientation on Tuesday 2/9. Learn about the different SFC programs, projects, and all the various volunteer opportunities.
Please be prepared to fill out a criminal background check and pay the $10 administrative fee.
When/Where
SFC: 1106 Clayton Lane Ste 480W
When: Tuesday 2/9
5:30-6:30pm
RSVP to rebecca@sustainablefoodcenter.org
- Free Cooking Class Series
The Happy Kitchen presents:
Learn to prepare delicious, healthy and inexpensive meals. Be informed of good nutrition for you and your family. Learn how to get the most food for your money.
Classes meet once a week for 1.5 hours for a period of 6 weeks. After each class, you will receive a free bag of groceries to prepare the recipe taught in class at home.
***Registration priority for Sprouting Healthy Communities families***
***Childcare available***
***Must register for entire class series***
Contact Valeria Morrow: 512.236.0074 x 103 or valeria@sustainablefoodcenter.org
When/Where
Turner-Roberts Recreation Center
7201 Colony Loop Drive, Austin, TX 78724
Mondays 6.30 – 8.00 pm: 2/22, 3/1, 3/8, 3/22, 3/29, 4/5
- Citizen Gardener’s 2010 Winter/Spring Gardening Courses
Citizen Gardener began in August of 2008. It is designed to engage more Austin area residents in growing food locally.
How it works: The interested student signs up for ten hours of gardening course work. Upon completion of the hours, the student is not only awarded the distinction of being a “Citizen Gardener”, but has the skills to create their own garden.
The Reward: This process returns a cycle of gifting to the planet and others… a reciprocating, blooming and fruitful gift.
Two Saturday mornings and a Wednesday evening offers 10 hours of instruction. It’s a hands-on learning experience. Topics include site-design, raised beds, square-foot gardening and much more. Yup, only in Austin does the planting season start in mid-January and run until mid March—the same time block as these Citizen Gardener Classes.
For more information visit: http://www.edibleaustin.com/content/resources/events/view/63320/50?69b07cc833e0fcb9f5e80e74070ef07f=5d4a8a74120c795c65afbf69e0a4aa7a
- JBG March Plant Sale Coming Up!
JBG will be working with Slow Food USA to put on a Slow Food farm tour and transplant sale, right here at the farm! Come discuss the importance of Community Supported Agriculture, a farm’s scale, sustainable practices, and farming near a metropolitan area. Walk around the fields and see right where your food is grown, and then browse through our heirloom and Ark of Taste transplants for sale. Take some home to grow in your own backyard garden!
JBG’s March Farm Tour and Plant Sale will take place during the first three weeks of March. More details to come!
Heirloom tomato transplant
4) Quotable Food
“How do we keep the calories down but keep the flavors up? That’s one of the things that we’re talking a lot about. When you grow something yourself and it’s close and it’s local, oftentimes it tastes really good.” –Michelle Obama
5) Recipes
Many of our members keep asking us, “what the heck is kohlrabi?” Well, that’s understandable–it does kind of look like an alien spaceship. But even when we tell you what it is, that doesn’t mean you know what to do with it. So, here’s a simple recipe to help alleviate all your kohlrabi anxiety!
- Sauteed Kale and Kohlrabi
1 1/4 pound kohlrabi, bulbs peeled
1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 pounds kale (2 bunches), stems and center ribs discarded
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/3 cup salted roasted pistachios, chopped
Very thinly slice kohlrabi with slicer.
Whisk together lime zest and juice, 2 tablespoons oil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss kohlrabi with dressing.
Finely chop kale. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sauté garlic until pale golden, about 30 seconds. Add kale by the handful, turning and stirring with tongs and adding more kale as volume in skillet reduces. When all of kale is wilted, sauté with 1/2 teaspoon salt until just tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cool to room temperature. 3Toss kale with kohlrabi and pistachios.
Bright Dill Bunches
- Poached Salmon Fillets with Dill Creme Fraische
I don’t know about you, but I always have a hard time going through an entire fresh herb bunch in a week. No matter how many times I tell myself “remember the dill!” I always end up throwing some floppy, yellowing bit of it away, taking a moment of silence for dill-based forgiveness. Well, here’s a recipe that calls for A LOT of dill,to help you go through the whole thing. Make this recipe once, then throw the rest into a sauteed bunch of kale or collards, and I think you’ll get most of the way through. If anyone has any other herb-heavy recipes, I’m sure we’d all love to hear them. Enjoy!
Sauce
6 tablespoons chopped cornichons
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
`
Salmon
3 8-ounce bottles clam juice
3 cups dry white wine
10 whole peppercorns
8 fresh dill sprigs
6 lemon slices
8 6- to 8-ounce salmon fillets
Butter lettuce, lemon slices and fresh dill sprigs
For Sauce:
Place cornichons, dill and juice in small bowl and stir to blend. Add crème fraîche and stir gently just until combined; do not overmix or sauce will thin out. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; chill.)
For Salmon:
Combine first 5 ingredients in large, deep skillet; bring to simmer over medium heat. Simmer 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add half of salmon, cover and simmer until just cooked through, about 7 minutes. Transfer to platter. Repeat with remaining salmon. Cover salmon; chill until cold. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.)
Line platter with lettuce. Top with salmon. Garnish with lemon slices and dill sprigs. Serve with sauce.
6) Produce Storage Tips
To store kohlrabi for several weeks, remove the leaf stems and place, unwashed, in sealed plastic bags in the refrigerator. Save the greens to eat!
Freshly picked dill leaves have the best flavor. However, they keep for several days in the refrigerator, their stems in a jar of water and covered with a plastic bag.
James potting up tomatoes for our transplant sale
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-Th 8am to 5pm, Friday 8am to 12pm
The farm office is closed 12 pm to 1 pm for lunch.
e-mail: farm@jbgorganic.com