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Hot Weather Crops

Marissa is about to start on a row of broccoli

Marissa is about to start on a row of broccoli

1) In Your Box this Week

2) Farm News:

  • From the Farmer’s Perspective ….
  • How Brent Became a Farmer (and what has happened since…)

3)  Updates, Meetings, and  Events

  • Save the Date!  JBG’s Annual Spring Potluck will be Saturday, April 10
  • Fundraiser for Texas Organic Farmers!  Barr Mansion’s Spring Fling Organicfest, Sunday, March 28th
  • Interested in Becoming a CSA Site Host?
  • Intern Donations Requested
  • New Workshare Policy

4) Quotable Food

5) Recipes

  • Turnips and Onions
  • Greens with Cannellini Beans and Pancetta

6) Produce Storage Tips

7) Johnson’s Backyard Garden Contact Info

Washing turnips after harvesting in last week's rain

Washing turnips after harvesting in last week's rain

1) In Your Box this Week

Carrots
Kale or Collards
Lettuce
Green Onions
Dill
Bok Choy
Kohlrabi
Turnips or Beets
Dandelion Greens or Endive
Oranges
Grapefruit

2) Farm News:

  • From the Farmer’s Perspective …. Summertime Classics

This week we are planting some summertime classics: tomatoes and basil.  The timing has to be just right when we plant these crops, because they are extremely sensitive to frost.  We took the tomatoes out of the greenhouse last week because we wanted to harden them off–that is, get them used to the open air instead of the protection of the greenhouse.  But we had to hustle them all back in late last week because of the cold snap we experienced this weekend.  Good thing, too, because when I walked around the field early this morning, frost had coated the tips of the lettuce and kale.  We’re hoping to begin getting tomatoes in the ground on Wednesday, and that the basil we already planted will pull through.  Today was spent planting another spring favorite: green beans.

Warm days and cold nights, that’s how it goes in spring.  It means we stay on our toes before summer moves into full swing.  Then all we have to worry about is how to harvest it all!

The vacuum seeder heads over to the new farm

The vacuum seeder heads over to the River Road Farm

  • How Brent Became a Farmer (and what has happened since…) by Grit Ramuschkat, JBG Resident

I have written about how Brent became a farmer before, but when I attended the first Slow Food farm tour a couple of weekends ago (where Brent gave a review of his story), I realized that many things have happened since. So many new customers have joined the CSA, I decided it’s time to tell Brent’s story again. After all, it’s a pretty good story!

The Past:
Brent grew up in South East Alabama in a farming community where his dad worked for the USDA Farm Service Agency making loans to farmers and his sandbox-companions were farm kids. He didn’t choose a farming career for himself at first, instead he chose to study mechanical engineering. Brent was just a couple semesters away from graduation, when he experienced a change of heart during a class in thermodynamics. He started to wonder whether there was a better way to make a difference in real world problems than working as a mechanical engineer. After some thought, he decided to switch to agricultural engineering and reunited with the farm kids he grew up with. “They were smarter than I thought”, Brent said with a smile.
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Brent gained farming experience during college by working on the college organic gardens and taking some vegetable production and other horticultural classes as special study. He also experimented with closet gardens and hydroponics. Upon graduation, his grandma urged him not to become a farmer, but to find a “real” job instead. Since Brent feels very close to his grandmother, he followed her advice and accepted a job working for a Federal Agency like his father, but instead doing water conservation work. Following a job trip to Austin, he fell in love with the city, and a few month later when the opportunity came up to transfer to Austin, he jumped on it.
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Even though Brent worked full-time, his heart was still in farming. So, he farmed… all weekend long… and every other free minute he could find, converting his backyard at Holly Street in East Austin into a big vegetable garden and fruit orchard. Soon he grew more veggies than his family could possibly eat. So he started selling his surplus produce at the Austin Farmer’s Market. Brent remembers that he grossed 80 dollars that first week at the market. Pretty soon the front yard was converted too and veggies started spilling over the property fence. There was no place for Brent’s kids to play anymore and the need to expand became apparent.
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At that time, the river front property adjacent to Brent’s Hergotz Hill farm was on the market for 2.2 million dollars. Even though this property was way beyond Brent’s means, he drove out to Hergotz Lane to check on the land and soil. He ended up talking to an elderly neighbor lady next door to the farm and told her he was looking for a place to start a farm. She proposed to sell him her 20 acre piece of land for $275,000. Brent was thrilled and went home to tell the good news to his family. The next hurdle was financing. Brent remembered that his dad made loans to farmers and worked for the USDA Farm Service Agency. In order to be eligible for a farm loan, he had to prove that he had three years actual farming experience and (somehow) the Farm Service Agency in Texas believed in him enough that his backyard gardening venture counted and he got the loan to buy the farm.
Brent started with a  30′x50′ garden plot behind his house and was now the proud new owner of what we know today as Johnson’s Backyard Garden. He went from a start-up CSA in 2006 to now over 1000 members.
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The Present:
The next opportunity came when one of Brent’s CSA members financed the purchase of an additional 40 acres of land. Last year irrigation wells were drilled and Brenton and the farm crew installed over a mile of under ground piping to ready the River Road Farm for crops this year.  The new land is a short way outside of Austin on fertile, riverbed soil.  The farm crew was a little freighted when they saw that the new rows had grown from 300 feet at the Hergotz farm to over 850 feet at the River Rd. Farm.  Potatoes were the first crop to go in the ground this spring and beans were just planted today 3-22-10!
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The Future:
Brent’s goals for his farm are to operate sustainably with as little outside input as possible and to feed as many people in Austin as he can, given his time and resources. His vision is to fill 1200 CSA boxes per week and to sell surplus at the farmer’s markets and to restaurants. He doesn’t want to get rich but instead to provide a decent living for his family. After having lived in a trailer home now for several years, they are ready to build a house. Brent is full of good and ambitious ideas for the future. He is currently working on acquiring 150 acres of prime farmland adjacent to River Road Farm. With it, he would have enough land to do crop rotation, to always have 40 acres under production and another 40 under cover crops. He is also currently founding the establishment of a non-profit charity, farming research and education center on that land too.
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In the end, things worked out for everyone. Brent is finally doing what he loves and his now four kids have a dedicated space for a swing and the tomatoes don’t fall into their sand box anymore.
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First Slow Food Austin Farm Tour
Photos by Steven Mattern (stevenmattern.com)
Brenton leads a discussion at the Slow Food Farm Tour last weekend

Brenton leads a discussion at the Slow Food Farm Tour last weekend

farmtour2

The farm visitors received a tray of "Arc of Taste" heirloom vegetable plants for their ticket price.

The farm visitors received a tray of "Arc of Taste" heirloom vegetable plants for their ticket price.

3)  Updates, Meetings, and  Events

  • Save the Date!  JBG’s Annual Spring Potluck will be Saturday, April 10

Saturday, April 10th, Johnson’s Backyard Garden will host its Annual Spring Potluck from 4 p.m. ’til dark. Join us for live music, great food, tractor rides around the farm, and lots of fun activities for the kids. Our CSA members are some of the best cooks in Austin, so come hungry to this locavore heaven, with tons of locally-raised and prepared dishes. We’re ready for this year’s potluck to be the best one yet!

  • Fundraiser for Texas Organic Farmers! Barr Mansion’s Spring Fling Organicfest, Sunday, March 28th
A certified organic brunch prepared by the Barr Mansion.  Proceeds will benefit Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (TOFGA)!  $50 per ticket.  Get them now!
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  • Interested in Becoming a CSA Site Host?

JBG is always looking for new delivery locations that are convenient for our members. If you’re interested in becoming a CSA host, there are a few things you should consider: What you need:

  • A shady, covered carport or porch, preferably that’s air-conditioned.
  • Space for at least 10 CSA boxes.
  • Convenient parking for other members to drop by and pick up their boxes.
  • A pickup site that’s accessible every week from mid-afternoon (around 3 p.m.) until 7 p.m.

What you do:

  • Hosts store empty boxes until our delivery driver picks them up the following week. JBG asks that you put away the boxes that day or the next.
  • After the delivery period ends, you distribute unclaimed veggies to charity or a needy family.
  • You do not have to be present during pickup hours. Pickups are self-serve and on the honor system.

Perks:

  • Hosts receive a complimentary CSA box every quarter.

JBG will work with you to determine which weekday fits best with the delivery route and schedule. If you’re interested in becoming a CSA host, please email farm@jbgorganic.com.

  • Intern Donations Requested

The interns are always on the lookout for kitchen and bedroom supplies for their humble trailers.   If you have any gently used home goods you’d like to donate for our intern housing, please call us at 386-5273 or email Carrie at farm@jbgorganic.com.

  • New Workshare Policy

We always appreciate when workshares come out to help us on boxing days.  Recently, we’ve been getting such a great turnout that we don’t always know what to do with everyone!  So it’s probably time we got organized.  If you’d like to come workshare, please email us on Mondays.  We will send you a confirmation if we have space for you to come, and we’ll have a list for you to sign off on when you get here.  Please don’t come until you get a confirmation, and thanks so much for all your hard work!

4) Quotable Food

“I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world”

- George Washington

Look forward to Kohlrabi this week!

Look forward to kohlrabi this week!

5) Recipes

  • Turnips and Onions

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium turnips, peeled and grated
1 large onion, sliced into rings
1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter with olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, and cook until caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the onion to a bowl, and mix with the grated turnip. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle. Serve on small toast or crackers.
  • Greens with Cannellini Beans and Pancetta

Ingredients

  • 2 slices pancetta or bacon, chopped
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small red onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 bunch kale, roughly chopped
  • 1 bunch beet greens, roughly chopped
  • salt to taste
  • 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained
Microwave the chopped pancetta or bacon on high for 3 minutes. Drain the drippings, and set the crispy pancetta aside.
In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Cook onion in oil until soft. Add the crushed garlic cloves, and cook a minute more. Stir in chopped greens, and season with salt to taste (be conservative at this point – you can always add more!). Partially cover the pan, and cook until the greens begin to wilt. Stir in crispy pancetta and cannellini beans. Cook partially covered for 5 more minutes, until the flavors have combined and the greens are tender.

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.

Krystin harvesting green onions

Krystin harvests green onions

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

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 3:26 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.

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