Next week/soon: lettuce, zucchini/summer squash, snap peas?, scallions, beets, pearl onions, spinach?, lettuce mix?, broccoli, kohlrabi?
Next week: Back to Friday delivery again.
Reminders: If you cannot make it to the pick-up site yourself, and send a friend or family member to pick up your box for you, be sure that they are told which size box they should take, that they should check off your name on the list, and that they should take the bread and/or eggs only if you are signed up for them. It's a real bummer when folks come and they leave partially or totally empty-handed because someone else has taken the box of produce/bread/eggs intended for them. Also, keep the pick-up sites neat and orderly; the pick-up sites have been gracious to offer their garage for our use, so let's keep it clean for them. Thanks.
Recipe: Spinach Wild Rice Sent to us by subscriber Sori Marocchi, adapted from a recipe from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
3/4 cup white rice 1/2 cup brown rice 1/4 cup wild rice
Fresh or (thawed) frozen spinach, chopped
Fresh or canned mushrooms, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1/2 cup vegetable oil 3T cider vinegar 3T soy sauce 2T sugar
4 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled, if desired
Cooked & diced chicken or pork, if desired
Cook rices as directed (wild & brown may be cooked together), then cool.
Whisk together dressing (oil, vinegar, soy sauce & sugar).
Mix all chosen ingredients together & toss with dressing.
Salt & pepper to taste. I use a glass 13 x 9 pan.
Serve cold, room temp, or warm up in 350 degree oven, covered, for 30 minutes.
Spinach and Scape Frittata (adapted from dakotagarlic.com)
3 Tbsp. olive oil 10 eggs
1 cup (1/2 lb.) chopped raw spinach 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. chopped parsley or basil 1/2 c. finely chopped garlic scapes
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl mix all ingredients except oil and scapes. Heat oil in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet on the stove. Add the scapes and saute until tender on medium heat for about five minutes. Pour egg mixture in skillet with garlic and cook over low for three minutes. Place in oven and bake uncovered for 10 minutes or until top is set. Cut into wedges and serve.
Give Mr. Kohl a call: Our Wisconsin senator sits on the Agricultural Appropriations Committee, and shortly after July 4th the committee will vote on the 2009 budget. One item to be voted on is funding for ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer to Rural Areas). ATTRA is a very small government program in which staff answers specific farmer questions, and holds educational workshops. (This past year they handled 38,000 technical requests for assistance, and the demand continues to grow from farmers all across the U.S.) Farmers can call an 800 number and request help in either a general (e.g. how can one grow strawberries organically?) or specific (e.g. what kind of ration would be best for chickens that are raised on pasture?) realm. As far as advice goes, ATTRA has been by far the most beneficial government program for our farm. They have repeatedly found answers to questions that we have had, either by directly researching our topic, or by referring us to other articles or books that handle that same matter. ATTRA has been funded at the $2.5 million level for the last six years, and is requesting a slight increase to $3 million (given the huge increase in the number of requests it receives). The president has offered a total of zero dollars for ATTRA for 2009. In the past, Senator Kohl has usually been supportive of ATTRA, but it is important that he (and his assistant for agricultural matters, Phil Karsten) continue to hear from his constituents what is important and what is working for them. And ATTRA is a great program, and is extremely inexpensive, as far as federal programs go. So give the office a call in the next day or two -- the number is (202) 224-5653 -- and tell them that a farmer that you know has been helped tremendously by the service that ATTRA offers, and that he should give it the full funding that it requests. There are very few government programs which I can back 100%, but ATTRA is one that deserves every penny of its budget. (For more info on ATTRA, you can visit their website - www.attra.org.) Thanks.
This year's farm crew: We'd like to introduce this year's labor force that gets the crops in and out of our 15 acres. In addition to our family's help, including Anneke (20) who divides her time between the office and coordinating the boxing up of the 550 boxes that is split up between the Monday and Thursday boxing days, Jim (18) who is currently traveling and working on organic farms in Costa Rica, though will return in mid-July, Marika (14) who has added tractor driving to her all-around farm skills, and Esther (6) who voluntarily acts as a scout to determine when the vegetables will be first ready, in addition to helping Anneke in the barn occasionally, we are aided by interns Daniel Gnidovic and Veronica Sotolongo, who live on the farm and are learning the do's and don't's of vegetable growing. Daniel's a Chicago suburb native, though has several seasons experience working on a well-known organic vegetable farm in Virginia, and Veronica (whose parents came to Florida from Cuba in the 60's), is accompanied by her two cats and two dogs, the latter of which go into mourning when she leaves the farm with the truck on Tuesdays to deliver the boxes. (Daniel makes the Friday deliveries.) We have added a few more worker shares this season, so that about 35 households now come weekly or biweekly to the farm to help us with the planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, bunching, bagging, boxing, and cleaning. A couple of other local helpers include Eric Zimmerman (who has enjoyed playing with a 100% raw diet for over a year now, and finds the farm with plenty of both cultivated and wild plants to keep him happy), and greenhouse builders Ed Strzelczyk, Randy Wright, and Jed Tinkle. Our ever-faithful crew of Hmong women, joining us a couple of days per week from Sheboygan, help us again this season with some of the most difficult hand weeding and harvesting tasks, as they have done for about 15 years. We also will be getting a few visits from WWOOFers (which stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms) this summer, whereby travelers can volunteer at organic farms in exchange for room and board. (It's a great way to travel through different countries if any young people out there might want want to look into it! Our son Jim is 'woofing' in Costa Rica right now.) We were sad to see Zachary Drossman, a WWOOFer from New York City, leave last Saturday, after having spent a month with us. His enthusiasm for our farm life was infectious, though he's less excited about returning to his 80 hours per week management consultant life in midtown Manhattan. (At least our kids now have a welcome mat in New York City that they didn't have beforehand!)
Have a great week!
The Seelys
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