Important Christmas + New Years CSA Schedule Changes

Please take a careful look at the schedule changes below that will be for the upcoming two weeks of Christmas and New Years (beginning 12/21).

In order to give our staff some time to celebrate, the farm will be closed on Friday, December 25th and Friday, January 1st.

All Friday Austin Pickups for the next two weeks have been rescheduled for Wednesday December 23rd and Wednesday December 30th.  Same time, same place, earlier day.

All Friday Austin Home Deliveries for the next two weeks have been rescheduled for Thursday December 24th and Thursday December 31st.

Lakeline Farmers' Market will be closed on Saturday December 26th.  If you normally pickup your CSA share here, it will be sent to our Cedar Park Pickup Location (1505 Hunter Ace Way) on Wednesday December 23rd.  You can pickup your share between 3-7pm.

Mueller Farmers' Market will be closed on Sunday December 27th.  If you normally pickup your CSA share here, it will be sent to the SFC East Market (2921 East 17th St., 78702) on Tuesday, December 22nd.  You can pickup your share between 3-6pm.

Sunset Valley Farmers' Market will be closed on Saturday, December 26th.  If you normally pickup your CSA share here, it will be sent to the Barton Creek Farmers Market on Saturday, December 26th.  This market is located at 3033 Tamarron Blvd., from 9-1pm.

All Thursday Dallas Pickups for the next two weeks have been rescheduled to Tuesday, December 22nd and Tuesday December 29th.  Same time, same place, earlier day.

All Friday Dallas Pickups for the next two weeks have been rescheduled to Wednesday, December 23rd and Wednesday, December 30th.  Same time, same place, earlier day.

If you are going out of town this holiday, and you would like to donate your CSA share to The Settlement Home instead of postponing the delivery, it's as easy as sending us an e-mail. To find out more information on our CSA donations program, click here.

From our farm to your family, Happy Holidays!

This week on the farm we're transplanting lettuce, beginning to seed for spring in the greenhouse, and harvesting new crops like rutabaga and brussels sprouts! The cooler weather has been great for the crews, and to sweeten up our winter veggies.  We're looking forward to a few days off for the holidays!

We're harvesting lots of carrots this week! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Blue skies at our Garfield farm. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We're ready to start transplanting - two pallets of soil trays ready to go! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Those leeks we planted last week are doing great. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Beets. Photo by Scott David Gordon

JBG's braising mix out in the fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Morning harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We've got bok choy going to markets this weekend! Photo by Scott David Gordon

A bunch of peppermint. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We're putting in more work on our shade structure this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Brussels sprouts harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Yum! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Transplanting the next round of lettuce. Photo by Scott David Gordon

by Megan Winfrey

Christmas is less than 2 weeks away. Can you even believe it? This warm weather is really toying with my senses. I mean, I spent the day outside yesterday, in short sleeves, drinking cold beer. While that is one of my favorite activities, I'd much rather be bundled up drinking hot toddies by a fire!

One thing that has helped me get in the holiday spirit is the arrival of bulk citrus! The possibilities are endless when it comes to mixing holiday spices and citrus.

One of my favorite things to do is stick whole cloves into whole, unpeeled oranges. It looks fantastic and makes the whole room deliciously fragrant.

The two recipes below were made with G&S Groves organic citrus and are perfect for the holidays, or anytime.

Grapefruit Cream Pie

• 1 grapefruit, juiced and zested
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 graham cracker crust
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3 tbs. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º.

Prepare the crust according to box or recipe directions (here's a recipe)

While the crust is cooling, make the filling. In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks into the condensed milk. Continue beating and add the grapefruit juice and zest until completely combined. Pour into the pie shell and bake 15-18 minutes, until the filling has set. Let cool on a pie rack then refrigerate to chill.

Once the pie is cool, it is ready to top. In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to whip the whipping cream and powdered sugar together until stiff peaks form. Pile high on top of the pie and spread thickly and evenly. Top with a sprinkle of orange zest. Make sure the pie is completely chilled before cutting! Will keep in the fridge for 4 days.

Candied Orange Peels

I have been wanting to try and make candied citrus peel since my restaurant days, and I'm happy to report that it's easy and SO delicious. Now, I won't stop until I've candied every citrus peel there is.



I used this recipe and photographed the process for you. Enjoy!

CSA Box Contents Week of Dec 14th

Lola Stephens-Bell. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Did you know that JBG donates food to help Lola Stephens-Bell, also known as the Nubian Queen, feed over 1000 free meals to the hungry each week? In a town like Austin where new restaurant pops up every week, her kitchen, Nubian Queen Lola's Cajun Soul Food, stands apart from the rest. Not only does she cook up some mighty delicious soul food, but she's serving it up with a side of food justice and we want you to know about her work! When 1 in 6 Texans doesn't have enough to eat, and 190,000 in Travis county ALONE are at risk of hunger (thanks to our friends at Capital Area Food Bank for the stats!), we need more people like Lola fighting the issues of food insecurity in Austin.

Lola's mission is to feed her community, and she is really living that goal by feeding thousands of meals to hungry folks who can't afford to eat in Austin each week. Her restaurant is home base for her daily outreach to the community, feeding whoever comes in, regardless of their ability to pay. Maybe you've seen her in her short yellow school bus (the "Cool Bus"), delivering meals to Austin's east side housing projects. Maybe you've stopped in to eat and seen her serving hungry folks for free out her back door. Or maybe you've seen the place on Sundays, when she closes down the restaurant to serve backyard meals for the community.

Lola cooked us up a hearty meal when we went to visit this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Lola learned to cook from her mother - raised in a large family without much money or resources in Lake Charles, LA, good meals were tough to come by and the family relied heavily on prayer to ask for things they needed, like food. Lola's mother taught her to love the art of cooking, and how to make just about anything from scratch, working with what they had. After she moved to Austin, Lola spent a few years in and out of homelessness, living in housing projects like Mason Manor and experiencing first hand the food insecurity that plagues parts of our city.

After a time, Lola was given divine inspiration to build a restaurant with a mission to take care of the community - and the spark of Nubian Queen Lola's Cajun Soul Food was born. Her faith in this mission has defied the odds and brought many helping hands to the project when funds or materials were desperately needed. 11 years ago, with only enough money for first month's rent, she took a leap of faith and signed a lease on Rosewood and Chicon. Soon after, a random act of kindness led to the donation of over $1,000 of kitchen equipment and soon, she was back in the kitchen using those home-cooked, made from scratch skills she learned from her mama..

As the restaurant began doing business, Lola began serving food to the hungry with meals cooked in her restaurant's kitchen - a few meals at first, then more and more. This didn't just affect those receiving her meals, but started to change Lola as well, magnifying her desire to do greater good. Lola wanted to grow her impact, tackle the problem of food insecurity in a bigger way. She also wanted to reach those who couldn't make it to her kitchen - this is where the short yellow bus came into play. Now, Lola takes her bus out into the community 4 days a week, giving away free meals, especially to hungry children, but also to anyone who needs it. Lola estimates that she is preparing and serving 1200-1500 meals each week in the community!!

Bart delivering JBG produce to Lola's. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Opening up this week's boxes. Photo by Scott David Gordon

So what does JBG have to do with Austin's one and only Nubian Queen? Every week, we are proud to help Lola in her mission to feed the hungry in our community. With the help of a farm friend, Bart, we donate lots of produce to Lola once, sometimes twice a week. Seriously, you should see the produce that the woman cooks up! These donations include returns from farmer's markets, "inglorious" veggies (those ugly beets, carrots, etc. that don't get bought) and more. Lola provides an outlet for produce that we can't donate to food banks - sometimes the shelf life on donated produce is so short that if the produce had to sit at the food bank for even a day, it might spoil before it could be used. Lola is always waiting for these deliveries, knife in hand, ready to process the organic veggies sent her way and get them into a meal - and fast. We are so grateful to her for providing this service to our community and ensuring that food is used to feed those in need and not go to waste.

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Lola also receives weekly donations from CSA egg provider Coyote Creek (800-1000 eggs!), and also has protein donations from Tyson Foods, who filmed the short video on Lola below. Want to know what you can do to help? Stop by the restaurant for a meal, and be sure to fill out a donation card on your way out! Enjoy some of the Nubian Queen's Cajun Soul Food and chat with the woman herself - we promise you won't regret it!



Remember, we have lots of ways for you to give organic veggies, and to feed those in need, this holiday season. Donate a share to The Settlement Home through our Sponsored Share program and help us reach our goal of 150 shares to feed children with histories of abuse and neglect. Or if you're as inspired by Lola's mission as we are, we hope you'll look for other ways to give this holiday season. Do you know anyone in your work, school, or church communities who are in need, or would really appreciate our CSA but might not be able to make it work financially right now? Contact the farm about setting them up a CSA subscription or Market Bucks for farmer's markets! We've got loads more gift options available here to make last-minute holiday shopping easy and stress-free.

This week was a busy one at our Garfield Farm. The field crews had a lot on their hands getting our crop of leeks into the ground. Every year we sell out of leeks, and so we are planting more than ever this year, even though they are quite labor intensive to grow. We are continuing our plantings of salad crops, radishes, and asian greens like bok choy to keep your winter plates full of greens!

In addition, the farm crews are working to build our soil fertility by seeding more cover crops this week. Assistant Farm Manager Jason says we've got over 1/3 of the farm in cover crop right now! Once grown, these "green manures" will be turned into the soil to increase organic matter and nutrients to grow healthy, strong veggies. Finally, we're seeding the first of our early Spring crops this week - though it might seem a bit early, we're excited for a great Spring and will be ready to plant as early as the weather will allow.

Who likes cilantro? Photo by Scott David Gordon

Cilantro harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Those carrots just keep getting sweeter. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Getting ready to transplant leeks. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We have to dig trenches to transplant leeks into, which is a lot of work! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Transplanting. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Baby leeks ready to go in the ground. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Slowly but surely. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Romanesco cauliflower. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Radishes in the field. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Coming your way this spring - artichokes! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Montana mixing cover crop to seed. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Cover crop growing in our fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon

So many greens! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Spinach harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

It's our biggest year for sweet potatoes yet! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Our colorful December fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Bok choy

Towering bok choy! Photo by Scott David Gordon

By Megan Winfrey

Instead of a recipe this week, I thought I'd share my prepping process (the tedious, sometimes annoying part) that inevitably must happen before the cooking (the fun part) can begin. I've been wanting to post about this for awhile because finally, after almost 8 months of receiving my CSA share, I feel like I've finally got my system down.

If I've learned anything at all, it's that prepped produce gets eaten and unfortunately, the bunches that go straight from the box to the fridge tend to end up in the compost. Sad, but true. But it makes sense. Who wants to prep AND cook? Who has that kind of time? When everything is washed, par-cooked, or chopped, cooking just seems more appealing. I hope these tips help y'all to make the most of your produce!

Prepping Process

1. The Greens
I always start here - probably because they're on top, but also because I'm a little obsessed with my salad spinner. If you don't have one, GET ONE. It's my BFF in the kitchen. They're surprisingly pricey ($30), but so worth it.
I de-stem the hearty greens like kale and collards, but just snip the ends off chard, spinach, and arugula. Soak, spin, and drain the green in batches, then lay them out to dry on paper towels. Once dry(ish), bag in gallon ziplocs** with one paper towel to soak up excess water. If you store these in the crisper drawer of your fridge, they'll be good for a week or even two.

2. Herbs
Simple. Just snip the ends of the stems and display in a cup of water like a bouquet of flowers. They look beautiful and will last for about a week this way.

3. Root Vegetables, etc.
The guys and gals at the bottom of the box get their stems trimmed and bodies scrubbed with a vegetable brush before drying in the dish rack. I almost always eat the carrots with Grandma's Hummus within a few hours, which is why I cut the tops right off (pictured). Beets get boiled, peeled, and chopped for snacking and salads. Everything else ends up in the fridge, ready for the week.



I try my best to do all of this the same day as my CSA delivery. Sometimes though, life happens, and my box remains untouched until the next day, which is just fine. The food will be OK.

** I try not to feel bad about using paper towels and ziploc bags because I literally reuse them until they fall apart and the zippers break. New kale goes into the old kale bag, that soggy paper towel is used to mop up a spill, and so on and so on.