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.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 4:46 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.