Dog scene at the Hergotz office. Photo by Ada.

Since our staff photographer, Scott David Gordon, is adventuring in the Northeast for a couple weeks, we thought viewing daily farm life through the lens of some of the JBG employees would be a fun and new way to experience Week 31. Another scorching week with a mid-week rain to cool things off a bit... check out Ada, Becky, Will, Angel, and Anna's farm and barn photos below.

Unloading veggies at Hergotz. Photo by Anna.

A mountain of CSA boxes at Hergotz. Photo by Ada.

Peppers a plenty. Photo by Ada.

Sunflower bounty. Photo by Anna.

Watermelon man. Photo by Ada.

Sunrise at the Garfield farm. Photo by Will.

Tractor bird. Photo by Will.

Will returning a neighbor's calf. Photo by Angel.

Cover crops. Photo by Becky.

Brenton and his posse. Photo by Becky.

A very happy Friday to all of you! It’s an especially happy Friday because... we’re back with another CSA Member Spotlight! It’s been quite awhile since we’ve taken a closer look at the amazing community that we've cultivated around our CSA. We hope that this series will highlight the diverse nature and composition of this community, and how each member integrates the CSA into their varied and oftentimes bustling lifestyles. This week, we had the immense privilege of interviewing Evelise Sandidge, one of our longest CSA Pickup Site Hosts and very warm and engaging long-time Austinite with quite the green thumb.

Located in the Zilker Park neighborhood, her home is a beautiful limestone cottage with a vast yard verdant with an impressive array of greenery, most notably her fragrant and blooming plumeria. Folks often refer to her carport setup as the "Cadillac" of pickup sites as she's honed it's effectiveness over the 12 years she has been hosting. She makes sure that everyone's veggie pickup is seamless week after week and we couldn't be more grateful for the JBG CSA community that she cultivates. Learn more about Evelise below!

Evelise. Photo by Allison Smoler.

How long have you been a CSA Site Host?

I moved here in ‘01, so I would say I started being a host in ‘03 or ‘04. I know that when I started JBG just had 2 markets. They had the one downtown, and they might’ve had another one… Brenton would deliver the veggies to my house on Saturdays. Back then, my day was Saturday, but now it’s Friday because the markets are so busy these days. On Saturday, he’d drop off the veggies and that went on for quite awhile until he got so busy. So, 12 years.

How did you hear about the farm and get involved?

I found out about the farm at the Downtown Market, and my friend Jill was taking me by Brenton’s booth because she loved his vegetables. That was when he was still on Holly Street. Then he said he was going to be gone because he was moving. We didn’t realize what he was moving to! We were like, “Oh my god! This guy is really going to do something HUGE!” Which he has.

So then, I got on the website and they were looking for hosts! So I thought, I could definitely be a host! I have a carport, so I contacted them and a few months later I was the Zilker Neighborhood host! JBG brought the table, veggies, ice chest, and clipboard, and everything just grew from there.

Photo by Allison Smoler.

Do you have any funny delivery truck run-in stories?

Lucas is a hoot, he’s a sweet pea. I always see him at music events. We have all these mutual friends that are musicians, and he’s hanging out with them. It’s such a small world... Lucas is everywhere I go when it comes to music.

Photo by Allison Smoler.

What’s your standard plan of action when it comes to leftover veggies?

If I’m not getting a box, I’ll use them. I’ll donate them to friends who are having a challenging time or need food. A lot of times I’m out of town on Fridays, so I’ll have the neighbors come by and check around 7 pm (when the pick up window closes) for extra veggies. They always get used, and nothing goes to waste. I use what I can, but I always share.

What is your favorite veggie? What veggie stumps you the most?

Cukes, peppers, and tomatoes are my favorites... I like all those together. My favorite season is summer for veggies. I like all veggies though. I can’t think of anything that I don’t use besides the sweet potato vines. I just don’t know how to use them!

My favorite thing that comes in the box is melons. Oh my goodness, I love melons. When it’s melon season, I freak out. I had a melon in my box last week or the week before that was like a cross between a honeydew and something yellow-y. It was spot on. It was perfectly ripe to eat right then, and I did.

Photo by Allison Smoler.

What is your favorite recipe?

I would have to say a pasta sauce because I can utilize so many of the veggies - onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, zucchini, squash. Anything that can be chopped up and put into pasta sauce, I do that. Because I’m cajun, we always use onion, green pepper, and celery. So, I just add everything else on top of that.

I prefer any recipes where you can use a ton of the veggies, and pasta sauce is definitely one of those. You can put everything but the kitchen sink in it.

Where did you learn to cook?

My grandmother, Mawmaw, and mom taught me. Though when I was growing up, I didn’t want to eat anything but junk food. I would eat away from the house, but as I got older and started living on my own, I would call both of them for the recipes that I grew up with. My darling daughter, Sharamay, and I went to visit Mawmaw a couple of years ago when she was 101 in Louisiana (she's 104 now!). Mawmaw always made fig preserves and kumquat preserves for us growing up, and we have pictures of her and Sharamay from that trip standing at the stove stirring kumquats. Even at 101 she is still teaching the art of cooking. She doesn’t remember all the recipes anymore, but my mother sure does.

Mawmaw and Sharamay in 2013.

Sharamay, Mawmaw, and Evelise.

All my cooking skills come from Louisiana and flying by the seat of my frying pan. Whenever we would get to one of our relative's homes, they'd have a bathtub full of crawfish, and big huge pots outside filled to the brim with crab and shrimp. Louisiana is for eating.

Photo by Allison Smoler.

What are you cooking now?

Stuffed peppers. I put meat, rice, and quinoa in them. I don’t go for a lot of red meats, so I use ground deer meat.

When you aren’t gushing over the CSA, what do you do?

I garden. That’s what I’m doing for a living right now. I was doing interior plants, but I now do gardens for people... more flower and ornamental type gardens. I do weeding, pruning back, watering, and stuff like that.

Back in the 80’s I lived in a biodome in NC. I ran a three-story geodesic dome greenhouse. We grew our own food there. There were two swimming pools that were 15 feet across that helped with the moisture. So, the different floors had different vegetables growing on them. I had veggie gardens around, too - we did french intensive gardening. We had a cow we milked, we made our own butter, we had chickens that we got eggs from, and ate the chickens, too. I learned a lot about gardening there.

Photo by Allison Smoler.

If you were stranded on an island, what three things would you bring?

• My darling daughter
• Seeds
• Water

You need water to grow seeds, my darling daughter would help me plant them... that’s all I need!

A huge thanks to Evelise Sandidge for taking the time to meet with us and her continued support of the farm. Another huge thanks to Allison Smoler for taking beautiful photographs! 'Til next time.

Recipe by Mackenzie Smith

Soa Davies’ recipe for Smoky Tomato Jam from Short Stack’s Vol. 2: Tomatoes has become a mainstay in my kitchen over the past few years. It’s a nice addition to a charcuterie board and works beautifully on a BLT or grilled cheese sandwich for a classic with a kick. I drop a tablespoon or two into soups and sauces for a sweet/sour/smoky bonus all the time. Maybe you don’t need to can all of those tomatoes-- make some jam!

Photo by Rick Cortez.

• 6 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced (about 8 large tomatoes)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup sherry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons smoked salt
• 2 tablespoons smoked paprika

Place all of the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and almost dry, about 1 hour. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to two weeks.

At our tomato party back in May, I spread this jam on toasted baguette brushed in olive oil and sprinkled the platter with basil and parsley. A simple snack for cocktail hour, and an unexpected way to make your tomatoes shine.

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Box Contents Week of July 31st 

Recipes by Megan Winfrey

High-five! You made it through the hottest weekend of the summer....so far. I haven't felt much like cooking lately - the stove makes the whole house sweltering and the A/C has a hard enough time keeping up as it is. These simple no-cook snacks are perfect for the dog days of summer. Minimal effort required and guaranteed to make you feel cooler!

Persimmon Caprese

• 2-3 ripe persimmons
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• Mint leaves, a handful
• Good quality olive oil
• Maldon (or other good quality) sea salt flakes

Assemble each bite with a slice of persimmon, a slice of cheese, and a mint leaf. Lightly drizzle with olive oil over the plate, and top each bite with a few sea salt flakes. Serve chilled for more cooling power!



Watermelon-Mint Cocktail Pops

• 1 personal watermelon, cubed and deseeded
• 1/2 cup raspberry vodka
• Mint leaves, a handful
• Popsicle molds

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until a smooth, consistent texture forms. Pour the mixture into the popsicle molds and freeze for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight. Keep for up to a month in the freezer!

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Have you ever heard of cover crops? If not, you’re in luck because this week we are geeking out on them and all the benefits they provide for us out at the farm. Cover crops are a crop grown for the protection and enrichment of the soil, not for profit. They are used in vegetable rotation for a multitude of reasons, one of which is perpetuating soil health, as vegetable production depletes the soil of nutrients and ultimately limits productivity. There are lots of different cover crops to choose from, especially depending on the season, but currently we are using Sorghum sudangrass, Buckwheat, and Iron and Clay Cowpeas which are all very fast growing, drought tolerant, and love the heat. Right now, we have 45 acres of the farmland planted with cover crops (that’s a fourth of our entire farm!). They protect the soil from erosion that wind and rain can wreak upon unoccupied soil. Bare soil absorbs solar radiation which dries it out, creating massive hard, cracked clods of soil. Plus, the unimpeded heat and direct sun kills the beneficial microorganisms within the soil. Cover crops make for an awesome environment for advantageous bugs, keeps the dust down, quells soilborne diseases, among a plethora of other things.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Lots of nutrients are left in the soil at the end of cropping cycles. For example, when we put down a layer of compost for a squash crop, the crop doesn’t necessarily utilize all the nutrients readily available in the soil during it’s life cycle. Nitrogen, an integral element for vegetable farming and all gardening in general, is water soluble so it’ll wash away (this is something that is especially important to note for us because our farm is situated proximal to a couple waterways); thus, the cover crop will sop up the nutrients and save them for the next crop cycle. When we go through, mow, and till the crop back into the soil, the cover crop will decompose, and the nitrogen that has been absorbed into the plant structure will stay in the soil to nourish the next installment of veggie crops.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Carbon and nitrogen are in the soil, so when we till the soil, carbon is released into the environment as nitrogen is released into the soil simultaneously. When we use cover crops, we keep our carbon footprint net neutral since the plants pull carbon from the atmosphere, and absorbs it into the plant structure. When the cover crops are tilled, microorganisms within the soil feed on the raw organic matter and break it down. The composted and broken down remains of the cover crops is known as humus, which is rich in minerals essential for plant health. All of this maintains a healthy microbiome in the soil, and if you maintain this, it helps prevent diesase, and benefits the crops exponentially. Maintaining a healthy microbiome is a very important tenant in organic farming.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Cover crops also aids in water management. Water percolates more efficiently if there are root systems, plus the plants also trap surface water, reducing evaporation. Whereas, if you have hard, dry, cracked soil, the water oftentimes cannot easily infiltrate which can lead to flooding.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Additionally, another huge and underestimated perk of cover cropping is that they outcompete weeds to survive. Weeds cannot thrive in the shade that cover crops provide, which in turn reduces the amount of weeding that we have to do in the long run. The benefits of cover cropping abound! We hope that this shed some light on one of our most useful farming practices... 'til next time!