by Megan Winfrey

The beauty of this recipe lies not only in the ingredients, but in the preparation.

Broilers, people. I am ashamed to say that I never really appreciated my broiler until just recently.

Take something very simple, top with cheese or butter (or both), pop under the broiler for just a minute, and BAM. A good dish becomes great. A lazy, hodge-podge meal becomes a cohesive unit when combined under a mountain of cheese and high heat. For those of you who already knew this, congratulations on a life well lived. For those of you who were like me, welcome to the light!

Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Bake

• 4 links of spicy venison sausage, casings off
• 1 head of broccoli, in florets
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Coat the broccoli florets and garlic in olive oil, salt, and pepper then spread onto a baking sheet in an even layer. Cook until tender and slightly browned, about 25-30 minutes.

While the broccoli cooks, brown the sausages in hot oil for about 5 minutes on each side, until cooked through.



Turn the broiler to high.

Transfer the cooked broccoli and garlic into a baking dish and top with the cooked sausages. Top with the mozzarella, then the parmesan cheese. Broil until brown and bubbly on top, about 5 minutes.

Pile onto a plate and enjoy! Great with crusty bread.

CSA Box Contents Week of Dec 28th

Photo by Scott David Gordon

From all of the staff here at JBG, I want to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season! Today, the staff is taking a day off to rest and celebrate with their families. We're down to the last week of 2015 and I just want to say: thank you for letting me be your farmer this year. I'm coming out of my 11th year of farming and I couldn't be prouder of Johnson's Backyard Garden and the food we produce.

As we look ahead at 2016, we're asking our community what it means to be a shareholder at JBG, and if 2016 might be the time to make a big investment in your health, and our farm, by joining as a long-term CSA member. If you love our vegetables and intend to eat them year-round, please consider signing up for a 6 or 12 month CSA subscription. If you make the change now, we will send a special citrus gift your way! The benefits don't end there...

• 10% discount for 52-week subscriptions
• 7.5% discount for 26-week subscriptions
• A one-share CSA Gift Subscription to gift to a friend or family member, plus a free bag of organic citrus with an upcoming CSA delivery!*
• More than 250 varieties of seasonal, organic vegetables delivered right to your home or neighborhood, year round
• Flexible online management of your CSA schedule - postpone for travel!
• Customizable CSA boxes to ensure you get the veggies you want
• Add-ons to fill your kitchen with good food like local, free-range eggs and local, small batch roasted coffees

*Strike the iron while it's hot! Additional gifts are only available through 1/31/2016.

It's never been easier to make fresh, healthy produce a part of your New Year Resolutions, all the while making your contribution to sustaining local and organic agriculture. Call the farm at 512-386-5273 or e-mail Daniel or Ada to become a long-term CSA member. 

I often reflect on what it means to be a Community Supported Agriculture farm, and how amazing it is that our community has joined us on such a big journey to localize our food system and grow clean, organic vegetables in Texas. Our CSA shareholders are more than just customers - you are financial partners in our farm, putting faith in us by investing upfront, in return for a share of the farm's bounty in your weekly or bi-weekly CSA share. It's a share in the risks and rewards of farming - though we hope that we've been able to minimize the risks for you. Even this year, with two major flood events, our CSA boxes have never been fuller. You got muddy potatoes when the rains were insufferable, and beautiful sunflowers when our fields were bountiful.



Most CSA programs require that shareholders commit to a whole season - in Texas, these seasons are typically 15-25 weeks. As we've grown as a farm, it was important to ensure that the CSA remained affordable and approachable - especially for those interested in just giving the program a try. So we've lowered the commitment to join the CSA to just 4 weeks at a time. Many of our community members pay on a month-by-month basis and we hope this has been a valuable tool and an approachable way to give CSA try. Your commitment to our CSA allows us to cover our monthly costs and keep JBG's farm running strong.



But, it's our long term shareholders who allow us to make big investments in our farm to allow for longer-term growth so that we can continue to improve both in the fields and in the community. If you are a current member who loves the thrill of getting their weekly box, and have the financial capabilities, please consider joining our long-term subscribers. Signing up for a year's worth of organic vegetables is a powerful affirmation to your health and to the way you want to eat and feed your family in 2016.

Your commitment provides so much for the farm - upfront costs for seeds, fuel, and labor to grow the best organic vegetables around, improvements to our CSA offerings like customization and flex scheduling, and wiggle room to invest in larger improvements like the 1 acre of grapes and 1000 fig and pomegranate trees we planted last year. We are hopeful that in a few years, you might also be getting JBG fruit in your CSA share! There are so many more projects we'd love to take on to continue improving, but we can't do it without more long-term CSA members.

Photo by Scott David Gordon

To everyone who has played a role in the farm this year - CSA members, friendly market-goers, volunteers, staff, and friends, thank you for supporting your local community farm. I wish you a very happy holiday and am looking forward to what 2016 will bring!

Your farmer,

Brenton Johnson

We had some fog this week! Photo by Scott David Gordon

The last week of the year has brought us some foggy weather and a great variety of crops. The greens and herbs are absolutely loving the moisture and we have lots of variety and color to fill your holiday tables. Thanks to Scott David Gordon for braving the weather and snapping these great shots at our Garfield Farm this week!

Cultivating new beds. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Fresh parsley this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

The salad crops are loving this rain. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Curly kale. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Pea tendrils serve as both a tasty salad and a nitrogen fixer for the farm. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Mizuna, one of our trial crop of Asian greens. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Loads of alliums waiting to be planted. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Onions for the spring! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Greenhouse manager Brandon moves transplants outside to harden off. Photo by Scott David Gordon

More carrots being harvested this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Rutabagas are a favorite winter crop around here. Photo by Scott David Gordon

by Megan Winfrey

December is the craziest month of the year, hands down. I feel like I've been running a marathon all month! This week, I needed simple, but filling meals to energize me and get me through to the finish line. This recipe is a winner because it has the laid back comfort of Chinese food, but doesn't leave you feeling like you ate a bowling ball. Perfect for gearing up to gluttonous holiday feasting! Enjoy, and Happy Holidays to all y'all!

Purple Cauliflower Fried Rice

• 2 heads of purple cauliflower, shredded
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 tbs. sesame oil, divided
• 6 green onions, sliced
• 1 large carrot, cubed
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 tbs. soy sauce or Bragg's
• 2 eggs, beaten

Stir the frozen peas and water together in a saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce to med-low and cook until tender and heated through, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

**When shredding the cauliflower, don't worry about shredding the stems. The leafy tops are what have the rice-like consistency. (and the stems were really difficult to shred, in my opinion)

Heat 2 tbs. sesame oil in a wok or deep skillet over med-high heat. Cook the cubed chicken until lightly browned on all sides and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate.



Heat the remaining sesame oil. Saute the green onions, carrot, and garlic until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the shredded cauliflower, cook and stir until tender but still firm to the bite.

Stir in the chicken, peas, and soy sauce and stir fry until mixture is hot and slightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Move everything to one side of the pan and pour beaten eggs into the empty side. Scramble the eggs until cooked through, then mix everything together, breaking up any large chunks of egg.

Garnish with cilantro or parsley and serve.



Makes great leftovers! Just gets better and better in the fridge

CSA Box Contents Week of Dec 21st

Brussels sprouts are here! Photo by Scott David Gordon

It's hard to believe that we're approaching the new year once again. That we are about to reset our calendars back to Week 1 and start the farm calendar over once again. Over the next few weeks, there will be quite a bit of reflecting on 2015 - on what it means to be your farmers, the hard work that we do and our commitment to a healthy farm, a healthy community, and some darn tasty food! I hope that over the last year, we have been able to provide your family with a nourishing and satisfying variety of organic vegetables, and we look forward to continuing to build this relationship with you as we move into our 12th year of growing. For this week, though, the bustle of farm work continues.

We've got a wonderful new crop of veggies headed your way for markets this weekend! If you've been looking for some new variety to change up your meals we hope you'll head to one of our farmers markets this weekend - we'll be bringing only the best to make sure your holiday tables are bountiful. Look out for the first harvest of Brussels Sprouts - because what holiday meal is complete without some roasted Brussels? Rutabaga, the sweeter, Swedish cousin of the turnip, will be making an appearance as well. Finally, Napa Cabbage is back after some wild weather left us with a bolted crop last year, and I know the staff is particularly excited about this one. The market tables will have plenty of the usual favorites as well - kale, beets, herbs, greens aplenty!

Carrot field ready to harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

This week on the farm, our bulk carrot harvest is in full swing. JBG has grown quite the reputation around town for having some of the sweetest carrots around and we made sure to grow a ton for you and your family this year! Large harvests of root crops like this also allow us to ensure that CSA boxes continue to be bountiful during the low season, the cold month from mid-January to mid-February in Texas that is sometimes known as a "hungry gap" (though we promise, you won't go hungry!). During this season, greens and herbs are in season but growing very slowly, so having loads of sweet carrots, beets and other roots really give some girth to your shares and make for some delicious cold-weather meals. It's looking like a really great crop, so start pulling out your favorite carrot recipes now!

Thanks for stopping in, Johannes!

We had a surprise visitor at the farm this week! Some of you may have heard me talk about Roxbury Farm in New York at one point or another. Jean-Paul, the man who started Roxbury, a biodynamic and organic farm, has always been one of my farmer heroes. He has published so many open-sourced documents to help farmers start up their CSA programs. When I was first starting in the backyard garden, and then scaling up to first Hergotz, then Garfield, Roxbury Farm's resources were such a huge help and inspiration. So imagine my surprise when Johannes Courtens, son of Jean-Paul, came to JBG's Garfield Farm to volunteer this week! He is traveling with his partner across the country, and they traded a morning in the greenhouse for a box of our veggies. I wish them good luck on their great road-trip adventure - we'll be following your travels online. Thanks for coming by!

The shade structure is getting closer to completion - we'll be ready for Spring transplants in no time! Photo by Scott David Gordon

The field crew is finishing off the week transplanting leeks, finishing our shade structure, and harvesting more carrots for the weekend. We're finishing up plans for the holiday schedule (CSA members: check your email or click here to look at your schedule for next week). If you are going out of town over the next week or two, please let us know if you would like to donate your share to The Settlement Home by emailing the farm directly. Finally, tonight at 9pm is the latest time to guarantee that we can have your farm-fresh gifts delivered by Christmas. Hope to see you at market this weekend - tag us on social media with photos of those yummy holiday meals!

For more of the farmer’s perspective, follow Brenton on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @farmerbrenton.