RiverHouse Farm CSA and Calliope’s Table CSA are now one!

It’s official! RiverHouse Farm CSA and Calliope’s Table CSA are now one! As I mentioned before, I have been doing more and more farming with my good friend Nikki Hill at RiverHouse Farm. Living on the land there together in Sellwood has given us plenty of opportunities to learn what’s important to us, and how we approach urban farming and growing food. We finally decided it made too much sense to work together on our CSA’s, which will free up time for both of us to pursue some individual pursuits related to farming.

For me, that’s cooking and feeding people. Calliope’s Table started life as a Personal Chef service, and my search for good ingredients led me to farming. Those few short years ago it felt like no one understood what I was talking about when I said that we all need to be growing more of our own food, supporting local urban farmers, and using unused and underutilized land to do so. Now, this idea has really spread wings. So many people get it now and are putting energy into embracing these things.

So I come full circle. I find myself understanding and totally agreeing with what Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton say in “A Nation of Farmers”, and that is that possibly the most important tools in feeding ourselves could be a kitchen knife and a cooking pan. As a culture we are losing our ability to cook food “from scratch”, work with raw ingredients, and understand how to intuitively make scrumptious meals with whatever is on hand that day. Your farmers eat this way as a lifestyle and it is one of the reasons we are farmers is that the food doesn’t get any better than this.

Since those Personal Chef days, I have taken a greater interest in canning and preserving since I know how to get the good stuff now. I no longer buy anything that is not in season, preferring what I’ve preserved from last season when things were at their peak. Other strategies play into this like growing greens all year round and planting enough root crops to be able to harvest all the way through winter until the new crop of spring vegetables emerge.

We are planning a new outdoor kitchen at RiverHouse Farm for this season, and plan to continue with great enthusiasm the tradition long held here of gathering people together for food and music next to Crystal Springs Creek which runs through the land.

CSA information will now be available at the RiverHouse Farm blog (http://riverhousecsa.wordpress.com/), and as the season progresses cooking and preserving info at Calliope’s Table (http://www.calliopes-table.com/). There is other exciting news about what is going on at RiverHouse Farm including our new association with GeerCrest Farm (http://www.geercrestfarm.com/) in Silverton. You can read all the latest at: http://riverhousecsa.wordpress.com/news/.

Thank you for your continued support. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Peace,

Calliope

New website changes and 2010 CSA info

Hello subscribers, land-lenders, helpers and friends of the farm!

I hope you’ve all been staying warm during the very cold weather. The 2009 CSA season for Calliope’s Table ended just before Thanksgiving, and the very wintery weather seems to have provided a closure to the season with beds being covered and tucked away for winter. It’s also given me an opportunity to get to work on plans for 2010, and you can now see those changes on the website.

Here are some of the changes for you:

The 2010 CSA season is now underway and you can find subscription info and all the details on the CSA page. The CSA distribution will be moving to the RiverHouse farm in Sellwood where I’m now in residence, and there will also be some new options for picking up your produce. Among them are a delivery option that will get your CSA share to your doorstep and also a Sunday pickup at the Hawthorne Urban Farmers Market.

There is also a new 2010 CSA Info Sheet that has all the details of the 2010 season including an updated crop list. Among the new things that will be in your CSA share this year are herb and vegetable starts and cut flowers.

I’m keeping the CSA the small, intimate size it was in 2009 which is going to give me time to do some other food and farming things I want to do like more cooking and canning the harvest, feeding some folks that need a good meal, helping to get some new folks started growing some of their own food, and raising a few chickens. I talk more about this on a new Foodshed page. There’s a new video there that talks about Neighborhood Foodsheds too.

I’m going to be doing more farming this coming season with my friends Marie of Sellwood Garden Club and Nikki from RiverHouse CSA which will help all of us accomplish more and give us more time for the other things we want to do. We’re quite a combination of experience, philosphies, and temperaments, and we love working together.  Among the projects we’re already working on together is doing a remediation and creating a garden space at Radius Studio in Portland’s industrial eastside. We’ll keep you updated on our progress. We’re also working on building some raised bed gardens for folks while we have a bit of spare time this winter, offering 100% sliding scale to accommodate those that really need some help getting some food growing. You can read more about how we’re planning to do that on a new Garden Box page.

I’ve also learned a lot this past season about growing food in other folks’ yards, and so I’ve added a new Yardsharing  page to talk about those things and find a few more folks that want to have us grow some food in their yards.

We’re planning a gathering here at the RiverHouse sometime in late January when everyone gets back from the holidays so we can hang out and eat some food in this wonderful space. I would love for you all to visit and see what amazing things have been done here and are planned for the future. I’ll keep you posted on that.

I thank each of you for the part you played in one of the best years I’ve had in this life. I feel it’s just the beginning of a fabulous life as a farmer. I also wish you the best of the holiday season. See you soon!

Peace and peas,
Calliope

Calliope’s Table CSA Distribution #7 – July 15, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

A variety of things, new and continuing, await you this week at the distribution such as peas, chard, broccoli, BASIL!, and maybe even a first showing of the root crops. Even with the cold weather we’ve been having lately – it’s summer! That means we’re finally shifting from spring into the heat of summer, whatever that means this odd weather year. So, salad greens are on their way out for a bit, and squash, tomatoes and basil are in. Well almost.

The nearly 100 summer squash plants around town have started producing as you saw last week, and are just waiting for a couple of decently hot days to take us into that time of year when folks start hiding them at friends’ and neighbors’ to get rid of them. I will stop by those gardens today and see what we can find there that is ready.

On the tomato front, about 50 plants of different varieties are planted and have fruit set on them. An indicator of our cold season is that the early season varieties are only slightly ahead, if any, of their mid-season cousins. There is green fruit set on most every plant in the first wave, and again, we just need some warm weather to remind them it’s time to ripen some of that fruit.

Today I will be harvesting the first of the Basil. Woohoo! I love basil so this is always a special turning point for me in the summer. I can eat a handful of it every day, so it has been so hard for me to just pamper them and not pick them up to this point. Another wave of basil transplants are now in and growing down the street from this first batch so we will have plenty this season. They are in fact growing right next to (yes, tomatoes do love basil as you’ve heard) those heirloom tomatoes I posted about seeding back in April. Hopefully it will all come in at once and be a big part of some canning and preserving we’ve talked about. If you are still interested in doing/learning some canning this season, please mention it to me as I’m starting to think about rounding up all the right people and equipment to be ready when the plants are.

The chard is making a fine comeback after the recent leaf miner raid that left them less than eatable last week, but already has some nice new growth that will be harvested today. Thanks to Carmen for her Zen-like approach in culling out the damaged leaves and singing to the plants while she did. That kind of attention really does wonderful things for the plants.

On the greens front it looks like we’ll be making a transition from salad greens back to cooking greens, or maybe somewhere in between. There may be one more picking from the lettuce mix you (and especially me!) have been enjoying these past weeks, but time is really up for them now and with the New Moon coming up next week it’s time to replant those beds. This will likely take us right through the fall with salad greens when they make their appearance in a couple of weeks.

There are lots of the Tatsoi mustard greens left, even as they try to bolt, and also Orach and Chicory are now at a harvestable size. I’ll have a mix of these available today for you to try as either a cooking green or give them a try as a summer salad mix. Think of Orach as a summer spinach, and chicory as well but with a bit more bitter taste.

Did anyone try a pasta salad with the Broccoli? I did and came up with two versions. The broccoli is the sweetest I’ve tasted in some time, and I’m enjoying eating every bit of it, stalks and all. One salad had Rotini (corkscrew) pasta, broccoli, sliced red onions, matchstick carrots, minced ginger, scallions, snow peas, cilantro and dressed with a honey-dijon salad dressing. The other had less of an Asian influence and left out the carrots, ginger and cilantro.

Another simple pasta creation that will work for this week is taking the hot pasta and mixing it into sautéed greens. For pasta shape, try a medium spaghetti or linguine. In a skillet in which you’ve sautéed sliced onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until mostly translucent, stir in the chopped cooking greens and continue cooking keeping everything moving until the greens are wilted. Toss in a good amount of minced garlic, turn the heat down to low, toss well to mix, then add the hot drained pasta and keep mixing. Add a bit more olive oil if needed to coat the pasta, and serve when everything is well mingled. Black olives with a bit of its juice works well in this too. Serve in a bowl with grated parmesan on top and crusty bread.

You might also try the greens mix this week as a salad too. Use your favorite salad dressing or you might like to try this one I ran across that sounds great too: Whirl in a blender or whisk in a bowl: 1 clove roughly chopped garlic, pinch salt 1 teaspoon (scant) dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons plum jam or any other jam available, 4 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil. Thanks to Marquita Farm CSA for that recipe. Check the link for more recipes from them.

In other farm news, there will be regular gatherings at the Ladd’s Addition garden on Saturdays at 9:00am. If you’d like to help us turn this lovely space back into a community garden, please join us on any Saturday starting this week, July 18 at 9:00 am. We would love your help to make this space a food production garden that will help supply the new Food Not Bombs-style serving that is being developed in SE Portland. Help us grow high-quality, nutritious fresh food to supply these servings, and help us vision the direction this community garden will take in future seasons. Across from the East Rose Garden in Ladd’s, straight down the Harrison hill into Ladd’s if you’re on bike. Get in touch if you need better directions.

Also, for the next 3 weeks, I will be the farmer-in-residence at the SE Urban Farmer Collective produce booth at the new Hawthorne Urban Farmers Market. It’s 1-6pm on Sundays at SE 43rd and Hawthorne next to the Hawthorne Auto Clinic. There’s lots more than produce there, natural soaps, Reiki treatments, furniture, cut flowers, and live music, all truly local, with a down-home feel you’ve not seen the likes of at a farmer’s market for some time. Come see the new market, enjoy the music, sit a spell, and meet some of the urban farmers and artisans in your neighborhood. The new market will be featured in a piece on National Public Radio this week. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/marketplace_money/ It’s on Friday night here, from 8-9pm (91.5fm). Tell everyone!

A most wonderful and blessed week ahead to you!

Peace, Calliope

Calliope’s Table-CSA Distribution #6 July 8, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

It’s finally time to share some of the Broccoli we’ve been watching grow all this time, and some of you had a sampling of last week. In fact, it’s a bit past the time of the first heads being ready. One of the challenges I find in distributing produce with the CSA model is that it only happens once a week. And the plants are working hard 24/7 to reach their ultimate goal of producing flowers and then seeds. As you remember from the many flowering mustard plants this spring, that can happen quickly, and our goal as cultivators and eaters is to swoop in just before that happens which is usually the time they are at their peak eating.

With the several days of 90+ degree weather we had last week, several of those big broccoli heads decided it was time to show some flowers just two days after last week’s distribution. There are more plants ready for this week, and others just starting to head, so no worries, but I wanted to use this example to show you how this food thing is really an everyday affair. I think often about how to accommodate the plants’ schedule and get produce to you at it’s peak. I know at least one of you think we could really help this situation with tweets on Twitter. And I’m thinking they might just have something there based on my limited knowledge of Twitter. “Broccoli’s ripe! Meet at the garden this afternoon!” It gives me much food for thought how to evolve the CSA. Your thoughts?

So for this week, besides Broccoli we’ll have scallions, peas, the last of the salad greens for a while, cilantro, parsley, mint, and lemon balm.

I’ve been re-inspired by Jeff Kingman, who writes the Kitchen Dances blog and has been helping get some press for the new Hawthorne Urban Farmers Market, to get you some recipe ideas every week for the produce available. He is a credentialed chef who can throw together a menu in a heartbeat, as you’ll see in his blog he did for Week 2 of the Hawthorne market. So here are some ideas around this week’s produce.

BTW, a huge thanks to Marie of Sellwood Garden Club for the many hours she’s putting in to help shape and promote the new market. This besides the very long days she puts in as an urban farmer. If you haven’t been to the new market yet, go check it out, and support a farmer’s market that is more like the one’s of older days than you will see anywhere. Everything from the best local produce around to local flowers, soap, furniture, a Reiki healer, and live music. Sundays 1-6 PM at SE 43rd & Hawthorne next to Common Grounds Coffeehouse.

Here are some recipe ideas for the week’s produce, rather than step by step instructions. If you need a little more detail you can do a Google search on any dish name or combination of ingredients and find many detailed recipes. I want to give you some of the basic building blocks of a dish and some options to go with them. If you’d like to peruse some good recipe sites I suggest Allrecipes, Food Network and CDKitchen.

Broccoli Pasta Salad
1 lb pasta cooked al dente (slightly underdone). Any pasta will work but best with a bigger shape that will stay on a spoon like Farfarelle (bowtie), Rotini (corkscrew), Shells, or Penne.
1 large head of Broccoli cut up into bite-size florets (uncooked)
2 or 3 scallions sliced at an angle for eye appeal
Cheese 1/2 to 1 lb, shredded or cut into small cubes. Cheddar is good, crumbled Feta for Greek style, or try your fave.
Nuts 1/2 cup. Try slivered almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts.
Fruit or Herbs for a little zing. Fruit can be grapes, raisins, cranberries, currants, something that won’t break down in the salad too easily. For herbs, anything will work but fresh herbs are really good here. From the garden this week you can try cilantro, parsley, mint, or even lemon balm.
Salad Dressing 1 bottle or jar of your fave. You can try Cole Slaw dressing, Blue cheese (maybe omit the cheese above or crumble in more blue cheese), Ranch, etc. Or you can make something yummy yourself from plain yogurt, mayo, veganaise, sour cream, and some herbs, etc. You’ll need about 2 cups.

Toss everything together reserving just a bit of the salad dressing, and chill in the refrigerator for an hour or two. You can toss the salad before serving with the rest of the dressing.

There you go, Pasta salad 101. Ask me if you need help (or need a bigger challenge). And when you’re creating, try doing as chefs do. Think of the flavor of an ingredient in your head (sometimes I like to munch the ingredient as I’m creating), think of another ingredient and see how it would taste with the first, and find combos that seem appealing. Most good chefs can create a recipe this way without ever touching the food.

Something else chefs do is just vary a few of the ingredients of things like a pasta salad to get a different ethnic themed dish. For a Greek pasta salad add Feta cheese, olives, and a little fresh oregano or parsley. For an Asian Pasta salad try a Sesame-Ginger salad dressing, snow peas, shredded carrot, scallions, cilantro and maybe some sesame seeds. The snow peas you’ll receive this week are a perfect mix to add some of the younger ones whole, and the bigger ones that have swollen up you can add the shelled peas and thinly slice the pods to add.

Happy eating!

Peace and Broccoli,
Calliope