From the Farmer’s Perspective

Well, we got a little rain earlier this week….  I was awakened by the thunder Tuesday night, and the strength and duration of the storm started to make me nervous.  I couldn’t sleep, so as soon as the sun began to rise, I headed over to River Road to check out the fields.  I was amazed by all of the flooding I saw!  Check out these photos I took:

Getting that much rain in such a short amount of time did cause some damage – namely it caused fertilizer and top soil to be washed away.  Some plants, too, were simply overwhelmed by the flash flooding and won’t recover.  The good news is that this water will be absorbed into the ground, and it will help replenish our aquifer.  We started harvesting just before noon on Wednesday, and the strangest thing was happening all around.  Bubbles were coming up all over the submerged fields.  At first, I didn’t know what it was, so I dug around in the soil, and the bubbles wouldn’t stop.  Then, I realized that the water was just soaking into the parched sub-soils below.   So, despite the damage, I am thankful for this significant rainfall because it will help replenish our groundwater supply and provide needed soil moisture for our Spring plantings.  It’s crazy that we got so much rain given the historical drought we have been experiencing – but that’s farming in Austin, TX for you!

While our fields are busy soaking up the rain, our greenhouses are filling up with more and more seeded flats.  Greenhouse #2 already has over 80,000 transplants growing in it right now!  Given all of this early seeding, we will be well prepared for Spring planting and our annual organic transplant sale the first weekend in March.  Thank you to JBG staff for putting in all the work needed to get these seeded flats ready.

1) Farm News

* Calling All Fundraisers! JBG Needs Your Help
* Week of January 23rd CSA Box Photo & Contents List
* Attention Home Delivery Customers: Schedule Changes
* The Nitty-Gritty: Sauerkraut

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

* Help JBG Provide Vegetables to Children in Need
* Annual Citrus Sale Continues

3) Recipes, by Dish a Licious

* in the DISH kitchen: We’re hot.  For hot pot!

1) Farm News

Calling All Fundraisers! JBG Needs Your Help

barn raising: n., A social event in which members of a community assist in the building of a new barn.

As many of you know, we have been working for now months on designing a new barn and cold storage facility next to our fields over at River Road.  Such a facility is greatly needed as we are bursting at the seams over here on Hergotz; however, we do not have the capital we need to build this barn alone.  Like an old-fashioned barn raising, we want to make the building of this barn a community effort.  If you have experience running a capital campaign or with fundraising and would like to give JBG a hand with this, please email me at farm@jbgorganic.com.  Thanks so much for your consideration.  -Brenton

Attention Home Delivery Customers

Many thanks to all of our home delivery customers for making this service such a success!  We’ve had so many sign-ups for this convenient way to get your vegetables that we need to expand from two to four delivery days.  This expansion will enable us to fit in more homes without having to deliver well into the night!  Delivery days will continue to be determined by zip code.  If your day has been changed, we will call or email you directly within the next few days.  As always, if you have any questions about your schedule, please call the farm at 512-386-5273 or email us at farm@jbgorganic.com.  We thank you so much for helping make home delivery a success!

Week of January 23rd CSA Box Photo & Contents List

Week of January 23rd Box Contents

Salad Mix
Carrots
Spinach
Chard
Broccoli
Scallions
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Bok Choy
Beets

Sauerkraut

Last week I talked about mustard being one of the many things that are easy to make yourself. This week, I like to remind you of yet another one – sauerkraut.

Making sauerkraut requires as little as three ingredients: cabbage, salt and water. On top of that, you’ll need a few tools: a food grade container (a five gallon bucket works well), a weight (a full one gallon water jug will do) and a cheese cloth or plate to create a barrier between cabbage and weight.

The process that turns cabbage into kraut is called lactic acid fermentation. As the shredded cabbage leaves break down, the carbohydrates and proteins in the vegetable disintegrate. Lactic acid emerges. While lactic acid acts as a preservative, it seeps out too slow to prevent the vegetable from putrefying. This is why you need salt. Without salt, yeasts would form and the fermentation process would lead to alcohol rather than pickles. However, between .8 and 1.5% of the vegetable’s weight in salt holds off the rotting process until the lactic acid can take over.

The temperature range for optimal fermentation is sixty-four to seventy-one, which is an easily achieved environment in most of the world. Hence the widespread popularity of pickling in many cultures. Although sauerkraut is popular throughout most of Europe and North America, Germans have long loved it the most. This might be partially due to the fact that Germans also have long loved and perfected sauerkraut’s best friends – sausage and beer… . Being from Germany myself, I can only attest that I indeed was served a lot of sauerkraut (with sausage and later on beer) when growing up. Even today, 85% of Germany’s cabbage crop goes into commercial sauerkraut production, compared to only 20% in the US. In Sichuan province in China, kimchi, the asian version of fermented cabbage, eaten together with rice is considered a perfect breakfast. The bland rice contrasts nicely with the saltiness and spiciness of the kimchi. Basically, the pickles are flavoring the rice.

Below is a recipe for a simple kraut. Start with it and once you get a hang of it, move on to more elaborate recipes and flavors. I also attached a recipe for Kimchi as well as for a chocolate cake, that contains – guess what? – sauerkraut.

Basic Kraut

Ingredients:
Cabbage
Pickling salt or kosher salt
Brine (water and salt)

Shred your cabbage as thinly as you can. Use 3 TBSP of salt for each 5 lb of cabbage. Put the cabbage and salt into your bucket and mix thoroughly with your hands. Put your weight on top.

Within 24 hours, the cabbage should be submerged in its own brine. If it isn’t, dissolve 1 1/2 TBSP of salt in 1 quart of water and pour enough of this brine over the cabbage to fully cover it. Check the sauerkraut every day or two to see if scum has formed. If it has, it’s not a big deal, just remove it and wash your plate and weight before putting them back on.

Start tasting your sauerkraut latest after 2 weeks. It will be fully fermented in 2 to 4 weeks at 70 to 75 ? F or 5 to 6 weeks at 60 ? F. The kraut produces more vitamin C if it is fermented at a lower temperature. When it’s done, it will be pale gold with a tart, full flavor. But really, there is no hard rule about when your kraut will be done. It’s done whenever you like its flavor.

Store the finished kraut in the fridge or properly can it in a hot water canner for 20 to 25 min, depending on your jar size.

Jamie’s Quick and Punchy Kimchi

Ingredients:
1 Cabbage, approximately 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs, sliced, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick
5 TBSP sesame oil
3 dried red chilies, chopped
2 star anise
1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns
2 TBSP sugar
5 TBSP vinegar, white wine or rice wine
2 to 3 cloves garlic
fresh ginger, a thumb-sized piece
salt

In a frying pan on low heat, gently heat the sesame oil with the chilies, star anise and spices for about 5 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the sliced cabbage in it for about 1 min. Keep the lid on. Drain and scatter the leaves on a baking sheet to cool.

After about 10 minutes, put the cabbage in a bowl and mix with the flavored oil, sugar and vinegar. Grate in the garlic and ginger and add a good pinch of salt. Mix everything well. Your kimchi will keep in the fridge for about 3 to 4 days.

Chocolate Cake with Sauerkraut

Ingredients:
2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/3 C sugar
1 C sauerkraut, pureed
2/3 C cocoa powder, unsweetened
1/2 C butter, melted
1 1/2 C water, hot
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and cocoa. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the melted butter, hot water and vanilla and mix well. Add the pureed sauerkraut to the wet ingredients, then mix in the dry ingredients in in several parts. Bake the batter in a prepared Bundt pan at 350 F for 55 to 60 minutes. Cover in chocolate frosting or simply sprinkle a little cocoa, cinnamon or powdered sugar on top.

Sources:
The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich
Salt, a world history by Mark Kulansky
Jamie’s America by Jamie Oliver
Weight Watchers
Wikipedia

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

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

This week in the in the DISH kitchen:

We’re hot.

For hot pot.

Otherwise known as nabe, hot pot is the ultimate in Japanese home cooking.  A super quick, easy, one-pot meal.  And perfect for using up those CSA veggies you might be neglecting.

The rules are simple.  You’ll need:

1.)  A hot pot.  Grab a nabe, clay, or cast iron, from just about any Asian market.  They’re inexpensive and will last a lifetime.  If not, any pot will do really.  Don’t let that stop you from cooking.

2.)  Ingredients of your choice.  Vegetables.  Meat.  Shrimp. Noodles.  Tofu.  Just remember that they’re all cooking together in one pot, so try to cut them in pieces that will cook in the same amount of time.  Big chunks work well because they’re easy to pick up with chopsticks.

3.)  Broth.  Use any flavorful liquid you want.  Chicken stock.  Beef stock.  Veg stock.  Or, you can use the traditional Japanese dashi broth, which is super easy to make.  Here’s how:

Soak 1 piece of kombu in 2 quarts of cold water for 30 minutes.  Then heat the pot over medium until small bubbles appear on the sides of the pot, usually about 8-10 minutes.  Do NOT let it boil, this is important for the clarity of the stock.  Remove from the heat and add 2 cups of bonito flakes.  Let it stand, still off heat, for about 15 minutes.  Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean pot and bring it back up to a simmer over medium heat.

4.)  Sake.  Ok you don’t need sake, but it does fit the theme…

All that’s left now is to arrange your vegetables nicely in the hot pot, pour in the hot broth and lid it.  Bring it up to a simmer for 5-8 minutes, or long enough to cook all the ingredients, and you’re ready.

Gather around the table, lift the lid and dig in.  Family-style eating at its finest.  Get together and get cooking!

Got any cooking quandaries you want us to tackle?  Let us know at info@dishalicious.com

From the Farmer’s Perspective

All week, our Greenhouse Manager, Kim, has been asking me, “When is the second greenhouse going to be ready?”  She’s already filled up the first greenhouse and now needs more space for the seeded flats that just keep coming.  I am happy to announce that Greenhouse #2 is officially ready!  We have installed fans, covered the walls, and put a piped-water heating system in place.  After the pipes were installed, we had to cover them with sand for protection.  JBG Farmers Market Manager Blake Chalfant put in a lot of time and muscle into this project and got almost all 3,000 square feet of the space covered.  That’s a lot of sand!  Thank you, Blake, for your hard work.  I am excited that we now have lots more  room to grow seedlings – we need it!

After the greenhouse was finished, I set my sites on another project that’s been long overdue: building my youngest daughter, Ada, a playhouse.  I have been promising her this for a long time, but work kept getting in the way.  Yesterday, though, I put farm work aside for awhile, and I gathered up everyone I could find to give me a hand.  Together, we put the sturdy poles in place that will serve as the bare-bones structure of Ada’s playhouse.  Those poles are heavy!  My heartfelt thanks to everyone who pitched in yesterday – soon, Ada and all of my kids will  have a great place to play.  Thanks, too, to Steven Mattern for designing this wonderful space!

1) Farm News

* Week of January 16th CSA Box Photo & Contents List
* The Nitty-Gritty: Mustard – Easy to Muster!

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

* Help Us Bring Vegetables to Children in Need
* Annual Citrus Sale Continues

3) Recipes

* Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts
* Simple Cauliflower Recipe

From the Farmer’s Perspective

It’s just two weeks into the New Year, but we are already thinking about Spring.  Our amazing greenhouse manager, Kim Grabosky, has been busy with the Spring seeding for our fields and for our annual Organic Transplant Sale.  This alone would take a lot of time, but she’s also responsible for managing the weekly plantings in the field and for ordering seeds for the whole year.  Kim does the work of a true farmer, and I don’t know what I would do without her.  I am excited by all the unusual heirloom varieties we will be offering for the first time at our transplant sale in late February/early March.  By then, we’ll also have quite a selection of tomato, Sun Gold tomato, tomatillo, sweet pepper, hot pepper, and basil transplants.  We will keep you posted on the dates and times of this sale as March get closer.  It’s not too early, though, to start thinking about what you’d like to have in your own Spring garden!

Luckily, Kim has had a lot of help from Workshare volunteers.  Our former greenhouse manager, Maura Ambrose, even came by to lend a hand!   Volunteers got the greenhouse ready for the onslaught of new flats and then started seeding  peppers, tomatoes, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and collards.  It was great having so many people out here – I feel grateful to have so much support from the community.  We couldn’t do it without you!

Given all of the seeding we are doing, our greenhouse will soon be at capacity, so I have been getting our second greenhouse ready to house transplants.  We have the metal structure for this greenhouse already in place, but we need to add an exterior cover and a heating system.   When I went to visit Buena Tierra Farms in Fredonia, TX (to read about this visit, click here), I was so inspired by the hot water heating system farmer Steve Kramer built for his greenhouse that I am now installing one at JBG.  The greenhouse space is so large (it’s approx. 3,000 square feet) that it’s much more efficient to heat it with piped water than with electric heating pads or traditional forced air from a propane fired heater.  The way the system works is that hot water flows through a pipe system, heating the soil from the bottom up.  It is costly to build, but, in the future, we will end up saving lots of energy by not having to heat the air.  I am also considering this type of efficient heating system for the house I am building for my family at Hergotz Lane.  For the last five years, I have lived with my wife, Beth, and our four kids in a mobile home we purchased off of Craigslist for $20,000.  This is not how I planned it to be – in fact, when we first moved to Hergotz, I told Beth we’d build a house for the family within a year.  Now, five years later, we are finally getting started!  We are in the planning stage with architect and CSA member Matt Leach, and I am very excited about creating a home that is energy efficient and built to last.   My guiding vision for my personal home is similar to the one I have for the farm: create something that is sustainable and will be around long enough for future generations to enjoy.  It may cost more in the beginning, but it’s well worth it in the long run.  Fitting for a farmer, we most likely will be building our home out of earthen blocks.  We are calling it the 2511 House…it will be designed to last 500 years.

1) Farm News

* Week of January 9th CSA Box Photo & Contents List
* The Nitty-Gritty: Incubator Farms

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

* Help JBG Bring Vegetables to Children in Need
* Annual Citrus Sale Continues

3) Recipes by Dish a Licious

* Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Bone Marrow Butter!

1) Farm News

Week of January 9th CSA Box Contents

Rainbow Carrots
Radishes
Braising Mix
Broccoli
Dill
Spinach
Cabbage
Rutabaga
Scallions
Brussels Sprout Greens

Incubator Farms: Nurturing the Next Generation of Farmers

The American farmer is getting old. According to the last two Agricultural Censuses of 2002 and 2007, the number of farmers older than 65 increased by 22%, whereas those younger than 45 decreased by 14% and those younger than 25 by 30%. Today, the average age of a farmer is pushing 60. Nurturing the next generation is becoming an increasingly pressing task.

The low numbers of young farmers aren’t due to a lack of interest. Work share programs and farm internships are more popular than ever. Instead, it is the necessary start-up money and infrastructure to run a farm that are lacking as well as bookkeeping and business skills. According to the USDA, the average income from a beginning farm in 2009 was a negative $8,283. Even government aid is often just out of the reach. Federal government grants for beginning farmers generally require three years of experience for eligibility.

What is needed is a place where people can learn while operating under real market pressures. So called incubator farms attempt to do just that. Their goal is to help farmers-to-be bridge the gap between internship and full farm ownership.

Viva Farms in Washington, founded in 2010, is one of these incubator farms. It rents an acre for $400 to anyone interested. The rent includes costly plowing and preparation as well as an in-place irrigation system, a shared tractor and a cavernous cooler. Water is $100 per acre. Viva’s goal is to enable participants to take off on their own within 7 years. This year, Viva Farms started purchasing produce directly from its farmers for a CSA program as well as built an on-site farm stand run by the incubators. Creating a self-sufficient revenue stream, Viva Farms was able to move away from grants and donations as funding.

The New Farm Institute here in Austin, founded by Skip Connett and Erin Flynn of Green Gate Farms contains an incubator parcel as part of its program. Their first incubators were Neysa King and Travis Czerw, former JBG interns. “Working 8 hours per day on a farm for a few seasons doesn’t present a realistic picture of what it takes just to break even,” says Connett. It is a different game, he says, to farm year-round, 24 hours every day, making your own business decisions and shouldering your own risk. This is what incubator farms can teach.

The big question still stands. Will farm incubators be able to prepare emerging farmers well enough to succeed once they’re on their own? Since the concept is still very new, time has yet to tell. However, some encouraging early statistics are emerging. The most established incubator farm is in California and run by the Agriculture and Land Based Training Association. They work with Latinos and graduated 44 farmers over the past two years. Their pupils have gone on to create 25 new start-up farms. Incubators close to urban areas seem most successful, where future farmers can tap into high-value markets, selling fresh food. Conversely, they may not be the right learning tool for large scale agriculture or ranching.

As the USDA’s goal is to help 100,000 new farmers and ranchers launch viable businesses, incubator farms seem to only have a small impact. This is both the strength and weakness of incubators: They invest in individuals and businesses one at a time. They meet people where they are, take all their peculiar circumstances into account and help them move forward. It’s slow and labor-intensive, however, there is no real alternative. After all, we can’t learn farming in a night class and it takes longer than one growing season to take home a profit.

Sources:
Article by Jennifer Lanston for the High Country News, Nov. 2011
Article by Addie Broyle for the Austin American Statesman, Sept. 2011

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

Help JBG Bring Vegetables to Children in Need

We need your help to bring fresh produce 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 organic vegetables they receive from JBG, the Settlement Home can provide nutritious meals to these children.  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 for the Settlement Home.  Then, JBG will deliver this produce straight to their kitchen

To donate, click here or go to http://www.jbgorganic.com/settlementhome.  No amount is too small. We would greatly appreciate your participation at any level.

CSA members can also make a one-time contribution when they sign up or renew their CSA membership. Please consider contributing to our partnership with the Settlement Home.  The more who give, the more produce we can provide these children in need.

From the Farmer’s Perspective:

With the new year starting, I have been in a particularly reflective mood.  2011 was such a good year for JBG – I am amazed when I consider the growth we experienced in just 12 months. This time last year, we had 20 employees, and now we have almost 40! We also significantly increased our land base, adding 146 acres out at River Road. In reviewing all of this growth, I have become keenly aware of the need for a strong guiding vision for JBG’s future.

When I first started JBG in my backyard on Holly Street in East Austin, my main goal was to grow vegetables for my small CSA.  Eventually, my backyard (and front yard!) garden provided produce for about 30 people a week – not bad for a city-sized lot.  Now that JBG has grown to over 200 acres, my primary goal remains remarkably unchanged: grow high quality, nutrient rich produce for my community.  While it would be very possible for JBG to expand to other large cities such as Dallas and Houston, I really want to stay focused on Austin. I truly love this city, and I know the need for locally grown organic vegetables will only go up as our population increases.

The question then becomes how does JBG best serve the produce needs of this vibrant and growing city?  First, we will continue to improve our CSA, which really is at the heart of JBG.  As a first step to achieving this goal, we recently sent out a survey asking members for feedback on the CSA.  We will use the data gathered from this to make improvements and increase our offerings to members.  Such changes will likely include a smaller box size option as well as more add-on choices like locally produced artisan food products from other vendors.  By offering more add-ons, JBG will become a kind of “hub” for people to purchase locally made food products.  This will allow JBG to help smaller artisans by widening their audience, and it will give our CSA members another convenient way to support local producers.

Second, we will continue to serve the community at area farmers markets.  We want to bring our farmers market customers a large variety of high quality certified organic produce every week of the year.  Managing all of these markets is a big task, so we will soon be hiring a full-time Farmers Market Manager to oversee and improve this area of JBG.

Third, we will continue to provide vegetables to wholesale customers such as local restaurants and grocery stores.  In the past few months, we have seen tremendous growth in the number of restaurants we serve.  This is good news for Austinites because it means there’s a lot of local organic  produce going into your meals when you dine out!  Now, we would also like to increase our wholesale clients to include buyers for local school, university, workplace and hospital cafeterias.  We feel we can have a positive impact on the health of our community if we can provide these cafeterias with organic produce with which to make their meals.

Finally, I want to expand our reach to those typically left out of the local food movement by starting a non-profit arm of JBG.  Through our current donations program, we have been able to serve the children at the Settlement Home and as well as some of the homeless population in Austin, but I believe that we can do a lot more.  Establishing a non-profit arm of JBG has been a goal of mine for some time now, and I hope that 2012 is the year we can make it happen.  Through this non-profit, we would like to serve Austin by making organic, local food accessible to all of its residents.  My vision for the non-profit includes cost-share programs to increase accessibility, educational programs to increase farming, cooking, and nutritional knowledge, and on-farm research to help JBG move to higher sustainability.

With the rapid growth JBG has experienced, it is very easy for me to get caught up in the rush of all of my daily tasks.  That is why I think it is so important to frequently assess where we are and where we would like to go.  My main driving vision has always been the same: to provide high-quality, nutrient rich organic produce for the whole community, including those with limited incomes who are often left out.  This seemingly simple goal is a tough one to meet, but I love a challenge.  Here’s to 2012 and Happy New Year.

1) Farm News

* Important Reminder:  Do Not Take JBG Wax CSA Boxes!
* Week of January 4th CSA Box Photo & Contents List
* The Whole Story: Max’s Wine Dive

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

* Help JBG Provide Vegetables to Children in Need
* Annual Citrus Sale Continues

3) Recipes

* Carrot Soup
* Shaved Fennel Salad

1) Farm News

Important Reminder: Do Not Take JBG Wax Boxes!

Too many of JBG’s wax vegetable boxes are disappearing!  If you are a CSA member, we ask you to please not take the CSA box home with you – even though it is tempting.  Instead, please bring  bags with you to your pickup site to carry your vegetables home with you.   The best thing to do is to unload your produce into your bags, break the box down so it is flat, and then stack it neatly for easy pickup by JBG.  Last year, we paid about $15,000 for these boxes, and each one costs over $2 a piece.  It’s worth the investment to us because we can reuse them and reduce waste.  This plan doesn’t work, though, if we don’t get the boxes back, so, please kindly leave them behind!   We thank you for making this effort to help us reduce cost and waste.

Week of January 4th CSA Box Photo & Contents List

Carrots
Spinach
Scallions
Cabbage
Rutabaga
Fennel
Dill
Brussels Sprouts Greens or Collard Greens
Turnips
Kohlrabi

Max’s Wine Dive
207 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, TX 78701
Phone: 512-904-0111

Edible Austin’s Eat, Drink Local week was a real success, thanks to the many amazing food purveyors that participated.  In particular, we would like to recognize Max’s Wine Dive and their executive chef, Erica Beneke, for an amazing dish that really embodied all that is great about local food, creative culinary skill, and beautiful fall color.

Erica and her crew offered up a perfectly cooked Texas Quail stuffed with Chèvre from Water Oak Farms, over sauteed JBG Rainbow Chard in a JBG Carrot and Tangerine puree (citrus from Ronny Wheeler), and topped with amazing crispy JBG Red and Chioggia Beets. Every bite was heaven, and the combination of savory quail juices mixed with the tart tangerine and subtly sweet chard was truly magical.  Also, the staff of Max’s did what they do best and paired this wonderful dish with a delicious, blended wine, called Les Trios FITOU, from the 3 best grape growers in the South of France.  It was a perfect experience in food!

What is really great about Max’s Wine Dive is their investment in the creative freedom of their chefs.  If you visit other Max’s restaurants in Houston and San Antonio, you might find the same wonderful staff and wine offerings but you will see distinct menus which reflect the taste and talents of the individual chefs and filled with the local ingredients available to them.  Erica Beneke let me have a little taste of her new winter menu, and the Roasted Pumpkin Humus was an instant classic, garnished with pomegranate, brioche, and fresh veggies (YUM!).  She finds her inspiration for her fall/winter dishes from many of the colorful seasonal vegetables including winter squashes, winter leafy greens, and the many beet varieties.  I’m ready to go back and taste everything coming out of Erica’s kitchen because she is doing something very special for Max’s.  Check it out!

2) Updates, Meetings, and Events

Help Us Provide Organic Vegetables to Children in Need

This week, we made our third delivery of CSA boxes 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 provides nutritious meals to these children.  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 for the Settlement Home.  Then, JBG will deliver this produce straight to their kitchen

To donate, click here or go to http://www.jbgorganic.com/settlementhome.  No amount is too small. We would greatly appreciate your participation at any level.

CSA members can also make a one-time contribution when they sign up or renew their CSA membership. Please consider contributing to our partnership with the Settlement Home.  The more who give, the more produce we can provide these children in need.

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

Carrot Soup

from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds carrots
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (or clarified butter)
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 cups+ vegetable stock or water
juice of 1/2 a lemon
fine grain sea salt (as much as you need)

olive oil, toasted sesame oil, or red chile oil for a finishing drizzle – if you use toasted sesame oil (sometimes labeled pure sesame oil) it is very strong. I typically dilute it with olive oil. I use one part sesame oil to four parts olive oil.

Take the tops off the carrots (if they have tops) and give them a good scrub. Cut them into 1-inch segments and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes or until the onions start to get translucent. Add the stock and carrots and bring to a gentle boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes or until the carrots are tender – longer if your carrot pieces ended up larger. But try not to overcook. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes.

Puree with a hand blender (sometimes I leave the soup a bit chunky, other times I go completely smooth) – then stir in the lemon juice. Now salt to taste. If you used a salty veggie stock, you might just need a little salt. If you used water, you’ll need quite a bit more. Keep adding a few pinches at a time until the carrot flavor really pops. If it tastes flat or dull, keep adding.

Finish with a drizzle of great extra-virgin olive oil, one of the other drizzles I mention up above, or whatever twist you come up with.

Serves about 4.

Shaved Fennel Salad
from 101 Cookbooks

If you’re using a knife to prep here, do your best to slice things very, very thinly – not quite see through thin, but close

1 medium-large zucchini, sliced into paper thin coins
2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed and shaved paper-thin
2/3 cup / .5oz/ 15g loosely chopped fresh dill
1/3 cup / 80ml fresh lemon juice, plus more if needed
1/3 cup / 80ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
fine grain sea salt
4 or 5 generous handfuls arugula
Honey, if needed
1/2 cup / 2 oz/ 60g pine nuts, toasted (I used almonds)
1/3 cup / 2 oz / 60g / feta cheese, crumbled

Combine the zucchini, fennel and dill in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside and marinate for 20 minutes, or up to an hour.

When you are ready to serve the salad, put the arugula in a large bowl. Scoop all of the zucchini and fennel onto the arugula, and pour most of the lemon juice dressing on top of that. Toss gently but thoroughly. Taste and adjust with more of the dressing, olive oil, lemon juice, or salt if needed. If the lemons were particularly tart, you may need to counter the pucker-factor by adding a tiny drizzle of honey into the salad at this point. Let your taste buds guide you. Serve topped with pine nuts and feta.

Serves 4 to 6.