JBG Market Crew members Fawn & Rod pose with Santa at the HOPE Market
From the Farmer’s Perspective:
Yesterday, I enlisted the barn crew to help me with an usual task: unloading my Christmas present to my wife, Beth. I can write about it here because the gift is so big, there’s no way I could keep it a secret until Sunday. It’s a mobile chicken coop – try hiding that! It was made by local welder Cory Folger, and he did a great job. Cory has a degree in welding technology and loves working with metal. He didn’t hesitate when I asked him to build a coop for me, even though it was his first. About his metal work, he says, “If the customer can imagine it, I can build it.” If you’d like to talk to him about building a mobile coop for you (or a fence, gate, planter, railing or practically anything else for outside), you can call him at 512-773-1694 or email him at coryfolger@yahoo.com. If you are thinking about your own chicken coop, though, make sure you have some help bringing it home! Getting ours off of the trailer and into place required many hands and muscles, as you’ll see in the photos below:
Sarah, Christian & Maura help me unload the coop. Photo by Carrie Kenny
Jonathan & Blake help me move the coop into place. Photo by Carrie Kenny
Checking it out from the inside! Photo by Carrie Kenny
Even though it took some heavy lifting to get that coop in place, we had a lot of fun. I feel lucky to be working with such a great group of people every day. I really couldn’t ask for a better crew, something I was thinking a lot about last Saturday at our first ever holiday party. We hosted the party together with Dish a Licious at the Pine Street Station, and thanks to Dish a Licious, the food was incredible! I think I had a least three helpings. It was great to have all of our staff together in one place, and I was amazed by how many people where there. JBG has grown to over 40 employees, and every one of them is top-notch. Rarely, though, do we have a chance to all be together since our field crew works at the River Road location and our packing shed crew and office staff works at the one on Hergotz Lane. I can’t wait until we’re able to build our new barn/cold storage facility so we can consolidate to one location. Over the last few months, we have been very busy laying the groundwork for this new facility. It is a big project that requires a lot of time, thought, and careful planning, and I sometimes feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. However, when I look at the talented crew at JBG and consider the wonderfully supportive community at large, I have no doubt that we will make this vision a reality. In the new year, I look forward to sharing my long-term vision for JBG and what we hope to be able to bring to the local Austin community. My sincere thanks to you for making this such a great year for our farm and happy holidays from all of JBG.
JBG Carrots soak up the rain. Photo by Scott David Gordon
1) Farm News
* Donate your box over the holidays
* JBG Holiday Schedule Changes
* Week of December 20th CSA Box Photo & Contents List
2) Updates, Meetings, and Events
* Help JBG Provide Vegetables to the Settlement Home
* JBG Hosts Annual Citrus Sale
3) Recipes by Dish a Licious
* in the DISH kitchen: Kale Massages!
JBG field crew. Photo by Scott David Gordon
1) Farm News
Donate Your Box for the Holidays
Going out of town for the holidays? Donate your box to the Settlement Home! This way, you can keep supporting the farm, while sharing fresh, organic vegetables with others. To donate your box, please send us an email at farm@jbgorganic.com and let us know if you’d like it to go to the Settlement Home.
A bee finds a flower in the fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon
Holiday Schedule Changes
All weekday CSA pickups will remain the same the week of December 19th and the week of December 26th. The only changes are to farmers market pickups on the weekends of Dec. 24-25th and Dec.31-Jan. 1.
Here are the details:
Burnet Road Farmers’ Market: December 24 and December 31 pickups are moved to Barton Creek Farmers’ Market
SFC Farmers Market Downtown : December 24 pickups moved to SFC Farmers Market at Sunset Valley
SFC Farmers Market at Sunset Valley : December 31 pickups moved to the SFC Farmers Market Downtown
HOPE Market: Closed December 25; pickup moved to Saturday, December 24 at the Barton Creek Farmers’ Market (9am-1pm).
Lakeway Commons Farmers’ Market: December 25 and January 1 pickups moved to Cedar Park Farms to Market on Saturday, December 24 and Saturday, December 31.
If you have any questions or are unable to make the new pickup, please call our office at 512-386-5273 or email us at farm@jbgorganic.com, and we can help you make other arrangements. Thank you for supporting the farm, and we at JBG wish you all safe and happy holidays!
Red giant mustard leaf. Photo by Scott David Gordon
Week of December 20th CSA Box Contents
Cabbage
Broccoli
Carrots
Scallions
Spinach
Parsley
Fennel
Baby Bok Choy
Salad Turnips
Kohlrabi
Salad Mix or Lettuce Heads
Week of December 20th CSA box contents
2) Updates, Meetings, and Events
CSA boxes on the packing line. Photo by Scott David Gordon
Help JBG Provide Fresh Vegetables to the Settlement Home
This week JBG made its first vegetable donation to The Settlement Home for Children, a wonderful local non-profit and residential program that cares for and promotes the healing of abused and neglected children. With the fresh vegetables they receive from JBG, the Settlement Home will be able to provide nutritious meals to these children as well as teach them healthy cooking skills that will last a lifetime. We are asking for your help in making this valuable partnership a long-term success. We’ve created a special webpage where you can purchase vegetables that JBG will deliver each week to the Settlement Home.
To make a donation, just go to http://www.jbgorganic.com/settlementhome. No amount is too small – we would greatly appreciate your participation at any level.
JBG is committed to bringing its produce to those in need in our community, but we cannot do this alone. Please consider contributing to our partnership with the Settlement Home as the more people who give, the more produce we can provide.
G&S Grove orange close-up. Photo by Scott David Gordon
JBG Hosts Annual Citrus Sale
JBG is now hosting its annual bulk citrus sale. Organic oranges and grapefruit are available for purchase at a cost of $10 per 10 lb bag. These delicious oranges and grapefruit are grown in the Rio Grande Valley by G & S Groves, a certified organic grower in McAllen, Texas. To order, please click here or go to our website at jbgorganic.com.
3) Recipes by Dish a Licious
Kale Massage
by Louis Singh | photos by Matt Wright | dishalicious.com
We’re giving kale massages!
A quick and sexy little technique you can apply to any kind of kale, but it really excels with tender leaves of young curly or dino kale.
Start by cutting or tearing the leaves off of the stalks, and give it a good rinse. Pat it dry as much as possible.
Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and place them into a bowl. Sprinkle with good salt, preferably from the sea. Kosher will be fine, but I’d advise against the iodized table stuff, because it just tastes funny.
A squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and you’re ready to massage.
Gently work the kale with your hands and the leaves will begin to soften as cell walls break down from the acid & salt. Once they’re nice and relaxed, set them aside to rest while we make the dressing.
For the dressing, we use one large avocado, one large stalk of celery, about ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil and a couple grinds of sea salt.
Into the blender, and blend! The olive oil and water from the celery should provide enough liquid to get it blending into a nice vortex. If not, add a little more oil or water, or both. Taste to make sure there’s enough salt. If the flavors don’t pop, add a pinch more salt.
Pour the dressing over the kale and add any accouterments you’d like. We go with cherry tomatoes and black olives. Mix well, and you’re done.
No doubt, massaged kale was a very foreign technique to us, and we almost wrote it off as raw hippie food. Good thing we didn’t, because it is damn delicious! Give it a shot, you’ll be impressed.
Now take the technique and run with it. Add different flavors. Add some crunch with nuts, seeds, diced radishes, julienned carrots, or crushed kale chips. Put it in a sandwich. Put it on pizza!
It kind of cancels out the whole raw food thing, but it sure is delicious. Hey we love raw food, but baby steps here, baby steps…
Any cooking quandaries you’d like us to tackle? Let us know at info@dishalicious.com !
Happy holidays from all the Johnson's. Photo by Scott David Gordon