Cultivating in between potato rows. Photo by Scott David Gordon

After a great spring celebration last weekend, it's back to work for your farmers! This week our potatoes are looking fantastic in the field, especially after a nice cultivation and hilling. Expect to see the first of our new potatoes coming up in the next month or so. We were also excited to have the crew out from Natural Epicurean for a tour of the farm this week. Thanks to the whole group for coming out and getting their hands dirty with us!

Potato field. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

The winter collard crop is flowering like crazy right now. Great for pollinators! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Katie talks to the crew at Natural Epicurean at our Garfield farm. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Weeding a patch of golden beets. Photo by Scott David Gordon

A few culinary students help out in the field. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Volunteers also helped plant more squash this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Farm dog and volunteer coordinator says, "put your back into it everyone!" Photo by Scott David Gordon

Assistant Farm Manager Jason spreading amendments. Photo by Scott David Gordon

by Megan Winfrey

Stir-fry is one of my favorite go-to weeknight dinners. You can stir-fry practically any vegetable, which makes it a super versatile yet simple dish to prepare. My trick to keeping this recipe simple is always having a bottle of store bought stir-fry sauce on hand. There are tons of varieties, and I love to get a different one every time! This is the kind of recipe you'll want to get creative with and try lots of substitutions. Have fun!

Crispy Beef & Vegetable Stir-Fry

• 1 package of vermicelli noodles
• 1 package of beef strips
• 1 bottle stir-fry sauce
• 5 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup green garlic, chopped
• 1 tbs. fresh ginger, grated
• 3 tbs. rice vinegar
• 2 cups dried seasoned chick peas, ground (bulk section)

OR

• 2 cups panko
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• toasted sesame oil (optional)

Heat oil in a cast iron skillet to medium high. Coat the beef strips in the egg, and then the ground chick peas or panko bread crumbs. Immediately drop them into the hot skillet and brown on all sides until crispy. Remove onto a towel lined plate and save for later.

Wipe the skillet or get out a fresh one for the vegetables. Add more oil to the pan and sauté the carrots and bell pepper over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes, until tender, but still with a bite. Add the green garlic, ginger, and chopped garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, then the stir-fry sauce and turn the heat to low.

Prepare the pasta according to he instructions. For the kind I used, I submerged them in luke warm water for about 2 minutes, then added them right to the pan with the sauce and vegetables.

Return the heat to medium and stir everything together with tongs until heated through. Top with the crispy beef, drizzle everything with a bit of toasted sesame oil if you have it, and serve. This feeds a crowd and makes great leftovers!

CSA Box Contents Week of Mar 28th

Carrots are always a little bit sweeter after a frost, so make sure you get some this weekend! Photo by Scott David Gordon

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a little bit of a gamble and start planting all of our summer crops - even though the average last frost date hadn't yet passed in Travis County (if you remember, I asked you all to cross your fingers for us). Taking gambles like this is part of being a farmer, and to be honest it's one of my favorite parts of the job! Average last frost around here falls near March 7th, and with this warm winter, we all thought we'd cleared the danger when we last week remained warm and sunny.

So I'll admit I was a little nervous when I checked the weather on Sunday to find that low temperatures were predicted to be 34 or less! We have a lot of summer crops in the field, and had even more transplants hardening off outside our greenhouses, so this forecast spelled bad news for our little gamble. JBG Greenhouse Manager, Brandon, was able to make it out to to farm on Sunday to get the tender young transplants back into our warm greenhouses, but obviously we couldn't do anything about the plants out in the fields. After that it was just a waiting game.

Katie helps to empty the greenhouse back out this week. We moved everything back inside for Sunday's frost! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Luckily, we really dodged the bullet on this late frost. In some of our low-lying areas on the farm, we lost some early tomatoes and cucumbers, but that was the worst of the damage. Higher areas on the farm must have sat right above freezing point, as we saw some minor frost burn on the leaves of a few potatoes, beans, and squash, but all of these plants will bounce right back and be fine. What a relief! Late frosts can be extremely damaging to farms - I remember one year we had a frost hit in late April, when all of our tomatoes, peppers, and more were mere weeks away from their first harvest! I know that a few farmers here in Austin still wait until April to plant out their tomatoes after that one very late frost, and I certainly don't blame them. Although part of the inherent risks of working with Mother Nature, weather events like that can cost farmers loads of time, money and labor in a business that runs on small margins to begin with, so we are extremely grateful that Sunday's weather went mostly in our favor.

Come see is this weekend at the Spring Picnic and Garden Gallop this weekend! Photo by Scott David Gordon

So, to our farm community, I'm happy to let you know that the farm will be as beautiful and bountiful as ever for our Spring Picnic tomorrow, March 26th! For those of you running, hopping, skipping or walking the Garden Gallop 5k or 1 mile Kids Fun Run, this year's route around the farm is a great one. You'll have the opportunity to see a huge diversity of fruits and veggies growing, flowering crops for our bees, the woods and creek that run through our farm, and yes, maybe even a few plants that didn't make it through Sunday night as well (we can't be perfect all the time!).

It's going to be an absolutely gorgeous day out, so make sure you plan to hang out after the race for our great lineup of bands -  Doug Moreland, The Bottom Dollar String Band and Chansons et Soulards will be bringing the dance tunes while you picnic on the lawn! Frank Hot Dogs will be selling food on site if you don't want to bring a picnic, and we're excited to see the whole family out in Garfield for a day of farm festivities celebrating Spring in central Texas.

Running past a new cilantro block. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Tickets are still available for the Garden Gallop 5k and Spring Picnic at jbgorganic.com/picnic. We've also have some last-minute volunteer slots just open up! Volunteering will not only get you a free ticket to the event, but also a free t-shirt made special for our volunteers. Email us at volunteer@jbgorganic.com to RSVP for shifts. See you tomorrow!

Spring onion bunches destined for this week's CSA boxes! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Week 12 brought some new challenges at the farm! We narrowly avoided some serious damage from a frost this past Sunday, finished the farm's new harvest trailers, and continued to enjoy the awesome March weather here in Austin! We're cleaning up all the corners of the farm in preparation for this week's Spring Picnic. Hope to see you at the farm tomorrow!

Early morning at the Garfield Farm. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Spinach ready to be bunched. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Kate bring pepper transplants back out of the greenhouse. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Happy summer squash in the high tunnel. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Come see us at markets this weekend for the first squash of the season! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Curly green kale. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We finished our new harvest trailers this week! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Our spring carrots are coming along nicely. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Harvesting salad mix. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Cover crops in full bloom, ready to be turned in. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Now Hiring: Volunteer Coordinator

Johnson’s Backyard Garden (JBG) is seeking a hardworking and outgoing candidate to work with our barn crew and manage our volunteers.  The Volunteer Coordinator will be responsible for managing the farm's volunteer program, ensuring that volunteers have fun and necessary tasks get complete.. (read the full job description here)

Looking for work this summer? Join our Tomato Crew!

Photo by Scott David Gordon

We're also just beginning to think about our busy summer Tomato season at the farm. Know anyone interested in working in agriculture for a summer? Tell them to get in touch! We'll be hiring a limited number of seasonal positions at the end of May - early June and would love to hear from them! Email jobs@jbgorganic.com for more information.

by Megan Winfrey

The Spring Picnic and Garden Gallop is this weekend, and I am so excited to take in some fresh air and pay a visit to the land that so kindly furnishes weekly meals for my family! I hope you all join me in a nice, lazy Saturday of eating picnic food, drinking cold beer, playing games, and admiring the 5k runners from a cozy lawn chair. I'm bringing a few dishes that really represent Spring for me, and that also pack up and store easily so that I'm not cooking in a frenzy on Saturday morning. And I sure can't wait to snoop on what everyone else is bringing! See ya'll there.

Spring Picnic Grub

First, I prepared two leek tarts, whose recipe I shared with ya'll in my first blog post here! It's one of my all time favorite things to make not only because it's absolutely delicious, but because it travels well and is perfect to eat at room temperature. You couldn't ask for a better picnic dish! Here is the recipe. I added eggs this time, breaking from the traditional French way. Both ways are stellar, I promise.



The other dish I plan to bring is more of an appetizer or snack and utilizes the amazing artichokes that just arrived at the JBG market stand. I freakin' LOVE artichokes. I love their natural tangy/sweetness and texture. And I hate that many people have only tried them in that funky, greasy spinach dip. Hopefully this will change that! Baby artichokes are the holy grail, because they don't have that weird fuzzy part that you have to scrape out of the big guys. Once cooked, you can pop the whole piece into your mouth!



You'll need:

• A bunch of baby artichokes, the more the merrier
• 6 cups water
• 6 tbs. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425ºF

First, cut the stems of the artichokes to 1 inch. Peel off the bottom leaves until all of the loose, brittle leaves are gone and a tight, green artichoke remains. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the tough outer layer off the stems and base of the artichokes. Fill a large bowl with the water and 5 tbs. of lemon juice. Quarter the artichokes and let them soak in the water/lemon juice mixture for a minute or two. Drain them, pat them dry, and arrange them on a baking sheet. Drizzle on 1 tbs. of olive oil, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. Bake for 15 minutes, tossing them after 10 minutes.

While the artichokes bake, prepare the dipping sauce by mixing the yogurt, garlic, 1 tbs. olive oil, 1 tbs. lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl.

Once the artichokes are done, arrange around the dipping sauce and enjoy! These are just as good hot as they are cold.