The Path to Farming

All the jars stood in a long row on the kitchen counter, the red of the tomatoes all bright and the glass all shiny wet after a hot bath. My thought went to pioneers desperate to push through a looming winter or the grand storehouses of lost empires. It felt right and natural for this 8-year old me to have fantasies of a little cabin in the Beltrami forest where our family hunted, a refuge where I'd chop wood and garden and live an an idyllic life by myself, one with nature.

As I was trying to recall what brought me to today and this is one of my earliest memories of being attracted to farming. I've met few people who decided their life's direction at age 10 and I'm certainly not one of them. I never grew up farming and agriculture wasn't on my high school strength inventory (where you take a test which ID's jobs which would fit your interests).

My only farm-related experience as a kid was gardening in an abondoned lot which sat between some potato warehouses in East Grand Forks. My Uncle Doc was warehouse manager for Ryan Potato, who lived in a trailer on-site and our family shared a gardenspace with his family and my Grandpa Adolph. A lanky man who worked three jobs his whole life, my grandpa meticulously set coffee cans around tomatoes and watered religiously. This plot would never be found in Better Homes and Gardens, yet it brought together family, supplied us food, and gave us kids a reason to explore huge tracts of weeds near the rail line. Reflecting back on it, this minor chapter in my childhood made some mark on my life.

Fast forward to college, the 20-something me re-found his food connection when I stumbled into my local food co-op in St. Peter, MN. A storefront the size of my kitchen, this was the coolest place ever with a countercultural vibe, intermingling a bunch of local La Leche moms and left-wing college kids like myself. I never grew dreadlocks or picketed offices in my radical youth, but I fell in love with the co-op movement as it fit my Midwestern upbringing. It was both radical in spirit and practical in execution. This love affair led me to my two-year farm apprenticeship and four years working for Mississippi Market Co-op in St. Paul upon graduating, rich experiences which truly did make me the organic farm operator I am today.

In the box:

• Green Peppers
• Tomato Mix: Man, are these tomatoes slow this year! I had to hunt and peck like crazy to get this little mix of types. 
• Sweet Corn 
• Celery
• Red Onion 
• Sweet Onion
• Cuke 
• Summer Squash 
• Yellow Potatoes 

Mid-Summer Reset

Well, we made it to the beginning of August. This is the time of year when the major high season crops come in like tomatoes and sweet corn and when we have to turn our attention to fall crops. In the next week I'll need to clear space for salad mix, fall greens such as spinach, and fall brassicas like cauliflower and kohlrabi.

Argo, the farm dog

Seems easy enough, yet I find it hard to do this time of year as we spend a lot of time harvesting, washing, and delivering produce. When you spend your time a lot of time picking Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, it's a juggle which doesn't leave an opportunity for much else. But it's something we just need to take on sooner rather than later since the longer we wait, the further into the fall the crops get postponed. Even though spinach typically takes 45 days, with days getting shorter and shorter, we'll need to plant this week to have ready by the third week of September.

In the box:

• Beans 
• Sweet Corn 
• Parsley 
• Yellow Potatoes
• Sweet Onions
• Bunch of Beets: See pickle recipe
• Purple Peppers: A little deceiving, they taste just like green
• Cucumbers
• Celery 

Granny's Quick Pickled Beets

from St. Paul Farmers Market Cookbook

1 bunch beets, tops removed 

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3/4 cup white vinegar

1 tsp salt

2 bay leaves

8 whole cloves

2 allspice berries

Place beets in large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Low heat and simmer til done, about 20-30 minutes. 

While beets are cooking, combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil; simmer 5 minutes. Drain, peel, and cut beets in slices or chunks. Put into a jar and pour hot liquid over beets. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Makes about 1 quart. 

Lida Farm Tour

A few CSA members took me up on my invite to join a little farm tour last week - thanks for coming. The tour was hosted with an organization called FARRMS, a sustainable agriculture organization in North Dakota. Part of their work is to support beginning and existing sustainable agriculture operators build their business and get going.

I've hosted a number of tours at my place in the past and certainly participated in farm tours on other farms. There's no better way to learn the details of a farm operation than seeing it first hand and asking questions and getting answers directly from the farmer. \

I'd say farm tours are more common among the organic community than the conventional farm communtiy, in part because there's greater experimentation in growing crops and tricks to deal with things like weeds and pests than on a conventional operation.  I also appreciate that the organic farming community is willing to share and support one another instead being competitive and throwing rocks at each other.

The Half-Finished High Tunnel

I don't know what tour participants had as a big takeawy from this week...maybe 'Ryan never finishes a project' or 'How do so many weeds grow in one location?' Whatever the takeaway, getting together and looking at crops should be a Midwestern tradition that never dies.

In the box:

• Sweet corn: Sorry Tuesday people, it just wasn't ready earlier in the week...a few days makes a difference. This is an early corn variety, so ears are always small.  You should see the stalks...they stand about 3 feet tall. 
• Norland Red Potatoes
• Cucumbers
• Bunch of Beets
• Green 'Stonehead' Cabbage
• Green Onions 
• Red Torpedo Onion: Use as you would any red onion, either fresh or in cooking.
• 'Provider' Green Beans
• Fresh Thyme: Small bunch in box.

Your Size is Not You

First, let me say, I love the U.S., but I feel we have a problem in this country. Our culture loves big things: big cars, big yards, big businesses. I suppose it's not the bigness itself that's the issue, but this palpable sense that what's big is successful. Ladies over coffee fawning over another woman's kid whose billable hour is huge and clients are a household name drop phrases like "Wow, hasn't he made a name for himself." Neighboring farmers gawking at the 1,000,000 bushel bin put up by the ambitous guy down the road give their best Midwestern compliment, "Boy, he must be doing all right..." We judge places and organizations the same way. We're attracted to new development, more businesses of a growing community. We're dazzled with a store's bigger inventory, more products, and more and more and more.

West Otter Tail County Fair with New Barn Quilt

This thinking is quite natural. It's part of our biology to seek out abundance, just like our hunter-gatherer ancestors sought out huge berry patches. The problem, however, is how we internalize this thinking and apply judgement to our lives. I've felt this a lot in my adult life. Our 4H club is small - we're failures. Our school's enrollment fell - we're failures. Our sunday school attendance is down - we're failures. Our business is small - we're failures. I'm not alone - negatively judging ourselves in comparison to others is a pervasive and ugly epidemic in the 21st century that brings friends to antidepressents and rural communities to despair. Dollars flow to big box stores and local stores close. Everybody wants to be part of that big exciting congregation and rural churches suffer. That big school in the regional center offers more opportunity, so let's take our kids there and our district's school falls behind.

If you know me and read this blog, I don't let these feelings affect me or second-guess the direction of my life. I put my energy into the small but beautiful things that feed my soul and our community regardless of the wider world: a tiny farm, small 4H club, and small sunday school. I also log hours on the board of MANNA Co-op in Detroit Lakes, a tiny store starting up in the next couple of weeks in the age of big box grocery. If we step back, I think most of us realize that these images of bigness and success are often mirages - they're fake. If I'm feeling cynical, these images of success are part of a big con game that multinational corporations are playing on us to consume more of their stuff or show their dominance to scare off competition; I certainly won't let some corporate exec in NY define me. So, what to do? Let's let go of all of this envy and baggage and dig into the work and love of our daily lives. It's exciting to see where it takes us.

In the box:
Fresh Fennel: See recipe
A Couple Onions: The red one is a Tropea Torpedo Onion and the white is a sweet onion
Norland Potatoes 
Swiss Chard
Greenleaf Lettuce
A Cucumber
A Couple Summer Squash
Basil 

Ryan's Organic Pizza Hotdish

A pint of canned tomatoes

Fresh Fennel 

Onion

Garlic 

Parsley

Pepperoni 

Mozzarella cheese 

Olive oil 

1 lb of penne pasta 

1 cup of stock (chicken, beef, vegetable)

Finished hotdish

This is my organic take on my mom's pizza hotdish, which I love. I took a bunch of pictures like those food blogs with about 30 pictures before you hit the recipe :) 

Sylvia with combined sauce and penne

Heat oven to 350 degrees and put on salted water for pasta. Make a sauce by sauteeing equal amounts of chopped fennel stalk and onion in olive oil. When fairly soft, add minced garlic for about a minute before adding tomatoes, chopped parsley, 1/4 cup of wine and about 2T on anchovy paste (if you like the flavor). Let this simmer. Take penne out of water when almost al dente (leave undercooked..it will finish off in the oven).

Applegate uncured pepperoni with Organic Valley Mozzarella for topping pasta

Combine pasta and sauce and put into a 13 x 9 baking pan, cover with 1-2 cups of shredded Mozzarella, top with pepperoni, and put into oven until top browns a bit.

As a bonus, you can take some of fennel fronds and combine with basil and lettuce for an herbed salad. I topped mine with caesar and Hakuri salad turnips.

New Equipment for a Small Farm

There was a point last year when pushing a two-wheeled Vermont handcart up the hill near our house for the 1,000th time when I decided that I'd had enough. Since I started farming on my own in 2001 down in Lake Elmo, I transported my harvest bins around by hand. At that time I started I was 25; today I'm 40. I knew farming had already aged my body and continuing with this low-tech form of transportation was only going to age me quicker. 

So, this spring I fell in love in with an Italian tiller from Grillo. Sometimes called walking tractors, these glorified tillers are used extensively in Europe where farms the size of mine are much more common.  Yes, they have rototillers like any old Troy-Built, but they are designed to fit a huge range of implements from mowers to cultivators to potato diggers. Considering my need for a nimble form of transport and a tiller to fit into the little spaces on the farm where the tractor doesn't work, I coughed up the $5k to bring this beauty on farm together with a cart. 

It seems a bit funny sometimes driving around the farm on a seat behind a tiller, but with the special 'drive gear' it makes for a pretty nice ride and I'm confident will save me from early knee and back surgery. 

In the box: 

• Fresh Basil 
• Fresh Fennel: Big bulb with celery-like stalks 
• Broccoli
• Arugula: Oakleaf-shaped green banded with a red band
• Dino Kale
• Green or Fresh Garlic: Cloves inside just like cured garlic...you could let dry down until papery in a sunny, dry location 
• Hakurai Salad Turnips: I just love these things...they are a very mild turnip that is made to  eat raw.
• Summer Squash: Both a zucchini and a yellow straighneck or yellow zucchini, which you use the same as green zucchini. 

Fennel Parmesan Recipe (adapted from Food Network)

1 fennel bulb, cut horizontally into 1/3-inch slices

Olive Oil

2 T Parmesan Cheese

Lightly oil the bottom of a 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Arrange the fennel in the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then with the Parmesan. Drizzle with the oil. Bake until the fennel is fork-tender and the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Chop enough fennel fronds to equal 2 teaspoons, then sprinkle over the roasted fennel and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

Extreme Weather and Vegetables

A giant wind blew across our bed at 5 am and a wind tunnel enveloped the upper story of our house for the next half hour. I initially thought it was just a front which would quickly pass over and I could go back to bed, but as the intensity increased, I knew I'd have to move and move quickly. Any passerby at the time could have caught the sight of me streaking across our yard at a breakneck speed to drop the roll-up sides of the greenhouse. You see, a hard and sustained wind like that would turn that open greenhouse into a 100-foot airplane wing, which, if I were lazy and stayed in my room, I could have watched take off into the neighbor's field like Mary Poppins leaving a party.

In my line of work, I always hear about weather, and one of the common stories I've heard this week and I've told myself is how the weather has changed.  I'm 40 years old and I distinctly remember hail being a very rare occasion - maybe once every 2-3 years. Neighbors with more life under their belt than me always talk about a time when rain came slowly. A gentle rain would give the earth its 1 to 2 inches of precip over 8 - 24 hours. Instead, each time we receive and inch of rain as of late, it drops out of the sky in 40 mintues or comes with a 40-mph wind. This was the case the evening of the 4th of July. Violent winds coupled with hail and a downpour of rain - the level of downpour I imagine one would find in the rainforest. 

This change in the weather has a signficant impact on agriculture. Although this effects all forms of ag, I think it has an acute impact on commercial vegetable production.  Certaily my friends growing corn and soybeans have issues with extreme weather and it can certainly affect their yield, but, at the end of the season, these tough crops almost always produce something to fill the contract. I've seen field corn laid flat on the ground in July which produced a decent crop by October. Hailed-on lettuce or ripped greens, on the other hand, don't pass muster with a customers and just don't get sold. Vegetable crops are delicate and fickle. In the big picture, they were bred to grow under very specific conditions and as our climate changes, I have to wonder what the future will look like in the long run. 

In the box: 

• 'Farao' Green Cabbage: See recipe below  
• 'Imperial' Broccoli
• Flat-leaf Parsley
• Spinach: You'll see evidence of the hail 
• Romaine Lettuce: Not the prettiest lettuce I've grown...looking good until the big storm this week. 
• Bunch of Beets
• Green or Fresh Garlic: Garlic with the stalk still on. You can use right now (it's a bit more pungent when fresh), or simply leave out in a dry, sunny location to cure it over the next 10 days for longer storage. 
• Zucchini

Dave's Mom's Best Slaw

From Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

6.5 cups of coursely chopped cabbage, loosely packed

1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup prepared mayo

1/4 cup sugar 

2.5 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup evaporated milk 

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives or scallions (optional)

Working in batches, fill a blender to the top with chopped cabbage and add cool water until 3/4 full. Whirl on low speed for about 4 seconds, just until the cabbage is evenly chopped - but not too fine - and transfer to a colander. Repeat with the rest of the cabbage. 

Place the carrot chunks in the blender and cover them with cool water. Whirl for about 8 seconds. Drain the carrots very well. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, sugar, vinegar, salt, and evaporated milk and set aside. 

In a serving bowl, mix together the well-drained cabbage, carrots, and parsley. Toss with the dressing and add more sugar, vinegar, and/or salt to taste. If you like, serve with chives or scallions. Tightly covered and refrigerated, this slaw will keep for a week. 

Men, Community, and Farming

"Hand me that pipe wrench...you have to turn that really tight for it to hold...thinking about where the world's heading, I really want you to go to school so you can work with your mind and not your hands..."  I received many lessons about life and talked about important things in our lives while working a jobsite with my dad.

Since then, the men I've connected with the most has been through work. And I mean real work-not the two of us looking at an Excel sheet together-but physically laboring together. The act of work alone brought us together, and time working together was also the opportunity when we talked about things that matter: death and love, fatherhood, community responsibilities.

I've had similar experiences with women in my life, certainly, but I bring this up in the context of men in large part because men have been in a funk lately. Men are all worked up about their identity and their role in today's age...the path just isn't as clear as past generations. This causes a whole host of issues as men shirk their 'traditional' responsibilities as fathers and husbands and engagement with neighbors.  

Maybe it's just my blue collar upbringing, but I imagine we're in this funk because we've lost those work settings where we mentored young men and connected with each other. Since the beginning of civilation we've labored together side-by-side in this fashion and now we remotely play Playstation or watch ESPN together. In my view agriculture has and can still play this all-important role of bringing us together for real connection and giving us purpose. Instead of bemoaning the loss of farming as we often do, let's do some fencing already! Invite over some friends, get some nails, and build and create. Chase some calves together through a pasture. I think men and the world will be better for it - at the very least women will enjoy getting them out of the house for awhile.

In the box:

• Broccoli
• Garlic scapes (see recipe below): Small bunch of green curley things with a rubber band. You can also check out this link if you're confused about how to use them.
• Swiss chard: Colorful green banded together
• Greenleaf lettuce
• Napa cabbage: This is the second week, so I hope I didn't wear out my welcome on this one.
• Radishes 
• Cilantro: Small bunch of banded green
• Spinach; Loose green on top
• Kohlrabi: Big bulbou
• Snap peas: Edible pod

Green Surprise Dip

from Simply in Season 

1 cup steamed kale, Swiss chard, or spinach

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 cloves of garlic (or use a 2-3 garlic scapes)

1/2 onion

1 tablespoon lemon juice or to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste 

Puree in blender or food processor. use as a dip for veggies, crackers, or chips. 

First Harvest of 2017 at Lida Farm

Life can throw people curveballs, and so can Minnesota weather. Weren't we all just sweating in a dry heat about a week ago? This morning I put on a sweatshirt to pick radishes in a light rain because it's 50 degrees out. 

Our wild weather ride provides me intersting growing challenges. So far I've really been striking out getting carrrots to germinate well. With the sun beating down day after day through May (when we typically seed carrots), the top of the ground just dries out too quickly and carrot seed is planted very shallow. On the other hand, hot and dry weather also keeps weed seeds from germinating, so we were able to get a fair amount of cultivating and hoeing done in May and early June. I suppose it balances itself out. 

Kohlrabi Harvest at Lida Farm

Yesterday, pulling kohrabi for the box, I hit a wonderful 'harvest flow.' Brand new harvest knife, LCD Soundsystem on my iPod and a beautiful evening...all was right with the world and harvesting was coming easy. This time of year I get excited about pulling veggies out of the ground and getting a new season rolling. There's nothing finer than getting something in your hand which took months of work. Let's just hope it's not just a flash in the pan and I can keep the energy up for the whole season. 

In the box:

• Napa Cabbage: Big item on bottom of box. See reciple below.
• Green Onions aka Scallions
• Westlander Kale
• Small Bunch of Arugula: Oakleaf-shaped green with rubber band 
• Kohlrabi 
• Lettuce: This is a mix of types coming in, so people received green butterhead, greenleaf, or red butterhead. We doubled up small heads. 
• Two Bunches of Radishes: Everybody received standard red radishes and some french breakfast radishes. 
• Snap Peas
• Fresh Mint

Napa Cabbage Salad from All Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 head napa cabbage
• 1 bunch minced green onions
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles, broken
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

1. Finely shred the head of cabbage; do not chop. Combine the green onions and cabbage in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Make the crunchies: Melt the butter in a pot. Mix the ramen noodles, sesame seeds and almonds into the pot with the melted butter. Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake the crunchies in the preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven, turning often to make sure they do not burn. When they are browned remove them from the oven.
4. Make the dressing: In a small saucepan, heat vinegar, oil, sugar, and soy sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil, let boil for 1 minute. Remove the pan from heat and let cool.
5. Combine dressing, crunchies, and cabbage immediately before serving. Serve right away or the crunchies will get soggy.

Getting Ready for CSA Season

Late night produce washing (fall, 2016)

What does it take to get another CSA season off the ground? Energy, money, and the right frame of mind.

Let's start with energy. Now that I'm 40 I'm pretty sure that I don't have the same amount of energy as when I started our CSA at the ripe age of 27. And I certainly don't have the grand sense of adventure of 24-year-old Ryan, who, as an apprentice at Foxtail Farm, looked forward to his second season like a new rock band firing up the van for their second world tour. Lately, all this heat and dry conditions have been testing my energy as we dash to keep ahead of weeds and weepy plants.

Next, money. Ah, yes, the dreaded thing we Midwesterners often shy away from. I think for folks from the outside, a produce farm looks pretty simple, you know, a bigger version of anybody's home garden. In many respects, it's highly complicated and certainly one the highest input or expensive farms per acre you can find, especially when certified organic.  So far this season I guesstimate that about $23,000 has gone out the door.  The big checks were for a new greenhouse (which I've yet to finish) at nearly $10,000 and a new tiller at $5,000, but a bunch of others are pretty common no matter the season:

• $3,500: organic seeds - crazy when you think that we only plant 4 acres
• $1,700: organic fertilizer
• $770: organic certification fees
• $600: propane 
• $600: waxed CSA boxes
• And the list goes on...you get the idea

Lastly, and probably the most important, is getting in the right frame of mind. I think anybody can relate, whether you're running 5k or expecting 20 guests for a big holiday dinner, the ability to get your head in the game is critical to success. 

Only in the past week, over 3 months since we planted our first seeds for the summer season, have I been getting there. I almost need a little panic to give me the adrenaline I need to go 'all in'  on the season. I received my warning shot this past week as pretty much every inch of ground has begun sprouting weeds and the plants are almost screaming for water in the hot, 20 mph wind. Game on, Ryan!

Do you want to buy from corporations or neighbors?

Where you buy your food matters. Twenty years ago, if you bought organic, you were buying from family operators. Today, organic has gone corporate. Organic retailers and manufacturers are publically traded and stock market traders want their financial return.

In the shadow of well-known organic brands owned by multinational behemoths like General Mills and ConAgra stands a thin phalanx of local farms building an alternative supply chain. When you choose to buy from these families and neighbors, you feed not just your stomach but really the businesses which will grow around you. It's not only money in the pocket of the farmer himself, but how those dollars flow to other local farmers and small businesses in your backyard. 

Hugh Dufner, Hugh's Gardens

A simple example is my potato seed. Last week I drove to Halstad Minnesota to pick up 500 lbs of seed potatoes from Hugh Dufner of Hugh's Gardens. Hugh has worked the trenches of organic production and marketing for a long time, and, like many I've known in organic farming, he is more motivated by healthy foods and farming than a dream of some potato empire.

When I visited his warehouse, I was impressed by the activity. Five people were employed working the wash and packing line, a real buzz of activity in a seemingly sleepy town.   

An even more inspiring part of Hugh's story is how he is actively transitioning his business. Instead of liquidating or selling out to some of the many new large operators jumping into the organic market, he instead is training in two young farm operators to take over. They are buying a home and moving up to Halstad. This is what a true organic food movement looks like. We not only grow without pesticides, but we deliver on the promise of organics to contribute to the wealth of rural communities. 

Too often as corporations enter into organic food, they employ their same old tried and true tactics: drive down price by squeezing suppliers and cutting labor and wages. Their replacement of family-based businesses may save you 10 cents on your next food purchase, but I assure you that your rural communities becomes all the poorer for it. Instead, please seek out local producers like ourselves who are committed a local food system that benefits our Main Streets, not Wall Street.  

Fergus dropsite is filled, but we still have room in Pelican Rapids, Detroit Lakes, and Perham on Friday afternoon. See http://www.lidafarm.com/p/2012-csa-information.html or contact lidafarmer@gmail.com for details.  

Taking on Memberships for 2017

Crossing over the  line into February, we're just weeks away from starting summer transplants like peppers and tomatoes.  Yes, summer will come sooner than you think!  
Now is the time to make plans for your summer produce needs.  We offer two kinds of CSA shares: a full share where you receive a 3/4 bushel box of what's in season every week for 16 weeks and an every-other-week share where you receive a box, well, every other week over the same time.  

Full-Weekly Share (3/4 bushel box each week, 16 boxes):

• Pick up at drop site or farm - $495

Every-other-week Share (3/4 bushel box every other week, 8 boxes):

• Pick up at drop site or farm - $255

DROP SITE LOCATIONS

1.     MANNA Food Co-op in Detroit Lakes (Fridays)

2.     Clean Plate Grocery in Perham (Fridays)

3.     
Riverview Place  in Pelican Rapids (Fridays)

4.     Keller Williams Realty in Fergus Falls (Tuesdays)

5.     On site at Lida Farm (Fridays)

HOW TO SIGN UP
Please fill our our 2017 order form below to join for the year.  We ask for half the payment when you sign up with the remainder due half way through the summer.  

2017 CSA Brochure

2017 CSA Order Form

Preparations for Autumn

Hey, we've come to the end of another summer CSA season and I'm tired.  Mar and I are motoring over to Duluth on Sunday after the farmers market on Satuday and we're taking the kids to the Black Hills next week for vacation.  We're been harvesting, washing, and packing produce 6 of every 7 days for the last four months....it will be nice to take a break.

When we return there's still preparations before freeze up.  We'll need to take out tomato trellis, disk the fields, and plant our rye cover crop.  Wood needs to be stacked, a cabins needs winterizing, and I have a plan to build a sauna this fall.  We still even planting late season greens since we're going into our third year of the winter CSA.

So, as you look to preparing for the cold weather yourself, let me get a couple things on your radar:

1. Buy Some Meat: Our members, the Nordgrens, farm west of Pelican and have beef and pork available for sale this fall.  Contact them at 218-340-2423 or hnord00@gmail.com if interested.
2. Fall CSA Share: We're planning on delivering "Halloween" and "Thanksgiving" boxes of good fall crops and some greens.  I'll be sending out an email to give you a chance to sign up.  

Thank you, CSA members, for joining us for the ride this year and thank all others who read this blog.  I hope my words give you some insights into our farm life, provide a few things to ponder, and maybe provide a little humor.  -Ryan.  

In the box:

• Celariac: Yes, this is a crazy looking vegetable, I know.  It's the ugly bulb on the end of a skinny celery stalk.  You use the bulb in cooking anywhere you'd use celery.  
• Autumn Greens: These greens in the bag are young and mild, so you could use as you would salad mix/lettuce or use to finish off a dish where you'd cook down some greens. 
• Chiogga Beets 
• Sunshine Kaboca Squash 
• Acorn or Carnival Buttercup Squash
• Red Onion
• Parsley
• Parsnips: The white carrot-looking things
• Pie Pumpkins 
• Cabbage: Not the prettiest cabbage I've grown...

Party Preparations

Maree was greeted yesterday by a pig being butchered in her front yard.  She took it pretty well. 

Here at the farm we've been doing our best to get ready for the harvest party.  This is the one time each year when we invite a bunch of people over to celebrate the season.  We've been mowing (this only happens about 4 times a year), weedwhipping, and generally putting things away so it looks a little less chaotic.  Hopefully when you come, you will still see the real Lida Farm behind all this order :) 

Harvest Party in the Barn, 2014 or 2013

We do have a little rain in the forecast - still only 30% chance this evening - but please come prepared just in case.  We'll go on a little walking tour at 5 pm so we'll trounce through some wet grass at the very least.  Just in case of bad weather, we are setting up the barn for dining.  Ideally, we'll be outside, but, should we need to go inside, it does make for an authentic barn event experience.  Lots of hay bales and bad lighting...

Please note that this weekend at Maplewood State Park is Leaf Days, a great opportunity to check out leaves in their autumnal glory.  If you're making the trek to the party, you could make a day of it.  

In the Box;: 

Salad Mix

Parsnips: Those loose white things which look like carrots. 

Carrots 

Butternut Squash: The tan one

Sunshine Kabocha Squash: The red one

Russet Potatoes

Dill

Cucumber

Garlic 

Leeks 

Big Vegetables

Some crops we plant, weed once, and forget about until fall.  Once such crop is rutabagas.  Only last week we said, "Man, we should go and check on those...maybe they're ready to go into the box."  Well, we went to rutabaga corner in the front field, and, wow, they got huge!  About a quarter of them got so big that they were weirdly misshapen and we kept out of the CSA boxes. This one was bigger than my head:

In the box:

• Rutabaga
• Butternut Squash: The long tan one.  Butternuts lend themselves well to a bisque or soup.  Check this one out: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/curried_squash_soup/
• Buttercup or Kabocha Squash: These two really look a lot alike.  A kabocha is rounder than a buttercup and more yellow on the inside than the orange-fleshed buttercup. 
• Russet Potatoes
• Carrots 
• A Couple Onions
• Spinach: Some is red and some is green.  Both kinds really got messed up by the hail last week, so it doesn't look the best, but the holes won't make it taste badly. 
• Cilantro: The green bunch with the red band
• Garlic 
• Eggplant

Adolph Pesch: Spudman

I remember when I was a teenager, my grandpa had me take a copy of the magazine "Spudman" from a shelf so he could proudly show me a picture of himself hosing down potatoes in some non-descript warehouse in East Grand Fords.  "You see, I'm famous...I made the big time..." he said, teasing.  My grandpa Adolph--a name that went out of style for good reason--worked 3-4 jobs in this prairie town to support a family of 11 kids, one as hired man working the potato fields which surrounded the town and another in the dank warehouses which were East Side's defining feature (besides the 60+ bars back in the day).

You see, unlike other farmers who point back to long lineage of farm owners and operators, my own past is filled primarily with landless peasants and farm laborers.  In a similar way to my grandpa who traveled to EGF from Floodwood in the 30's, my grandma Adele's family brought themselves to the Red River Valley in the midst of the depression.  They came to work the fields because, no matter how tough hoeing potatoes sounds, it sure beat the poverty and shame of the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Historic picture of East Grand Forks potato warehouse (Source: https://robbielafleur.com) 

I bring up my family's  farming history because our past always follows us around - it's part of who we are.  Today, as I gathered up the first of the big Pontiac potatoes with those deep-set eyes, I couldn't help but think about my grandpa.  This red potato, together with the Norland variety we also grow, was a mainstay of the Red River Valley potato business.  I'm sure Adolph spent many an hour digging the same variety out of the ground, and, like myself, washing them.  It took three generations, but this younger Spudman can say these potatoes came out of his own ground.  The inspration to work hard and care for his family came from elder.

In the box:

• Arugula: This was much prettier a few days ago before the monsoon and hail.  
• Cilantro: Small bunch with red band
• A Couple Peppers
• A Couple Tomatoes
• Bunch of Beets
• Buttercup Squash: Seemingly everybody's  favorite with a deep orange flesh inside 
• Acorn Squash: Great for stuffing (think pork stuffing cooking inside in the oven...) with a yellow flesh
• Red Onion
• Daikon Radish: I always suggest using in a salad with vinegar and sugar...something like this http://www.food.com/recipe/musangchae-daikon-white-radish-salad-like-korean-radish-kimc-417657
• Pontiac Potatoes

 

Bountiful Harvests

This time of year we start to pull in some big harvests.  Earlier this week was the onion harvest, but coming up is still very heavy winter squash and potato harvests.  In the middle of the summer we just pull in the bit of a crop that we need, but, as cold weather and frosts become possible as we move into september, we need to pull in an entire crop to keep it safe and sound.

Onions drying on hayrack

In the box:

• Edamame: Yes, the big bunch of soybeans stuffed in your box.  Pull the pods or beans off the stalk, boil in saltwater a few minutes, and serve.  You pop the bean out of the pod into your  mouth...think a snack with a beer. 
• Black Spanish Radishes: Bunch with blue band and greens.  These are radishes that get big like a racketball.  With their rough outside, you need to peel these before using. 
• A few slicing tomatoes
• Colored pepper
• Italia pepper: The long red/green pepper - sweet, not hot. 
• Cippolini onion: The flat onion...really my favorite.  It's pungent with a good flavor, so use as you would a yellow onion in cooking. 
• Melon: Some received a yellow canary melon, some a cantaloupe.
• Delicata winter squash: First squash of the year.  Cut in half, remove seeds, and bake face down on a cookie sheet until soft.
• Cucumber
• Swiss Chard or Kale 

Eating in Season: Keeping it Simple

The number one reason members do not stick with a CSA is what I call food guilt - there's too much stuff and they don't get through it all.  I've found that folks feel quite differntly about produce that comes through a CSA than they get at the grocery store.  We always have a portion of produce form the store go bad, but we still keep buying stuff there - for example, we've maybe eaten about 50% of the avocados we've puchased at the store in our lifetime before they went bad.

At the farm, to minimize this sitution where members may find themselves overwhelmed with produce they can't eat in time, we carefully think through the box each week.  We try to give a variety in good-sized proportions - enough of each crop so you can use it in a recipe, but not so much that it's a burden.  On variety we also try to do about 80% of staple crops like onions and tomatoes and only 20% "different" things like fennel or Asian greens.  Part of the excitement of the CSA is receive something you haven't eaten before, but too much bok choy makes somes members think this whole CSA deal is crazy.  It's always hard to know which crops will push people over the edge.  I've had members ask for about ten times the amount of fennel is a season and others give me a look like "are you kidding me...I eat this bulb which smells like licorice?"  A tough balancing act at times.

The real key to making CSA work, however, is getting into the groove of eating in season and being a flexible cook.  Everybody cooks differently, sure, but if you're searching for a magic recipe which uses a bunch of the crops in the box, you could drive yourself nuts.  Instead, I always go off script and think of ways of preparing the veggie as simply as possible.  Especially in the summer, dressing veggies with vinegar and oil to eat raw or grilling/sauteeing veggies with just salt and pepper seasoning makes for great grazing in the evening.

In the box:

• Melon: Most get a canteloupe, but I had to substitute in a watermelon in some boxes. 
• Yellow Onions: These are not sweet like we've done in the box to date, but cooking onions.
• Italian Eggplant: See eggplant stacks recipe below
• Hakurai Summer Turnips: Yes, they look like racquet-ball sized radishes, but these are turnips.  Really sweet and smooth.  Simply peel and slice these and eat with some salt.  You could shred with carrots or cabbage and make a slaw - add sugar and rice vinegar. 
• Roma Tomatoes 
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Red and Green Peppers
• Cucumber 
• Celery 
• Red Cherry Tomatoes 
• A Little Basil: I included this if you want to do the eggplan recipe in the video.

Epplant Stacks

There are a bunch of recipes like this.  We find this a verstatile dish which lends itself to combining the eggplant with a lot of other veggies in season.  

Ingredients

Eggplant: sliced in rounds 

Panko crumbs or breadcrumbs

Salt 

3 eggs 

Fresh Mozzarella

Basil 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Sprinkle both sides of eggplant rounds generously with salt; place on baking sheet for 15 minutes to draw out moisture. Use paper towels to blot moisture from each side of the eggplant slices. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Whisk eggs in a shallow bowl. Place panko bread crumbs in a second bowl. Dip each side of the eggplant slices in the whisked eggs, then press into the panko crumbs to coat each side. Place slices on a cooling rack on a baking sheet.
4. Spray the tops of eggplant generously with cooking spray. Bake 8 minutes in preheated oven. Turn each slice, and spray the other side with cooking spray. Bake an additional 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
5. Make stacks by putting slice of mozzarella and leaf of basil between eggplant.  You can put a slice of tomato in your stack too, or cover with spaghetti sauce and top with some olive oil...whatever you're in the mood for.  We typically serve a stack with three eggplant slices for each person. 

Baby Cows!

I haven't written yet about the new member of the family since she was born about six weeks ago now.  Meet Juneberry the heifer calf.

Years ago this farm saw many a calf born each year when the Kratzke family (who we bought the farm from) ran a dairy operation.  But that was a long time ago now.  To the best of my knowledge this is the first calf born here since the 1970's....that's pretty exciting after such a long stretch.

In the box:

• Japanese Eggplant 
• Sweet Corn
• Leeks '
• Oranos Pepper and Anaheim: The orange one is sweet, the green anaheim is hot.  
• Yellow Potatoes
• Lemon Balm: Yes, this is the weed-looking thing on the top of the box.  Think of using in your lemonade or suntea - also nice laid over a baked chicken or fish.
• Yellow Summer Sqush 
• Mix of Tomatoes: The heirlooms are cracked and ugly-looking, but good for fresh eating.  I included a few romas, which are best for a sauce or cooking.  Types included German Pink (pink), Golden Rave (yellow roma), Margold (blush red/yellow), Green Zebra (green with stripes)
• Watermelon: Some got a yellow variety, some an orange variety. 

Veggie Treadmill

It all feels a little out of control this time of year.  Besides the CSA and my full-time dayjob, we just keep running to keep up with thre farm stands (one at Essentia in Detroit Lakes and Falls Baking Co in Fergus Falls plus the 24/7 one at then end our our driveway) and supplying the farmers market on Saturdays.  It's kind of constant harvesting.

From the outside it might seem kind of simple.  After all, many have experience gardening and that's pretty chill.  But once a person gets to packing 55 boxes a week with a whole mix of produce, it takes an investment of time and effort.  For the 47 boxes we packed this Friday, for example, this is how it happened:

• Thursday evening: Maree, Ryan, and Kelsey picked yellow beans, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and pulled red onions (3 hours)
• Friday Morning: Maree and Ryan pick corn, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots (4.5 hours).  
• Friday Afternoon: Mix cherry tomatoes, wash produce and pack boxes (3 hours).  Ryan and Maree deliver boxes to members (2.5 hours each). 
• After getting home, we start on farmers market (6 pm - 11:30)....wake up and go again.

In the box:
Silver King (white) and Trinity (bi-color) Corn
Red Onion 
Cucumber
Garlic 
Mix of Tomatoes (some heirloom, some slicers)
Cherry Tomatoes
Yellow Wax Beans
Carrots: Wow, this has not been my year on carrots....Maree and I scrounged around the bed for a few hours to get these.
Eggplant: Certainly this time of year ratatouille is great.  It uses eggplant and pretty much anything else you feel like adding in.  This recipe gives you the idea, but feel free to change with the produce you have on hand: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/ratatouille

We're in a Video

Earlier this summer we had one day's experience of reality TV stars when a camera crew followed us around the farm while we went about our business.  West Central Initiative is doing this regional marketing campaign about West Central Minnesota and wanted to have a farm featured which was incolved in local food production.  I think it turned out great.  Check it out:

 
Live Wide Open - Lida Farm from H2M on Vimeo.

Now that we're in August, we love how nice the fields look in the video.  In June the weeds were under control, whereas, today, you'd find a big mess.  We're also impressed with how these shots done with a drone make the farm look huge.  My overall impression is "Hey, that place is beautiful...I'd like to live there!....Oh, ya, I do."

In the box:
Sweet Corn: A mix of the Trinity bi-color which is coming in and the early yellow Sugarbuns which is going out of season.
Fennel: Green stalk thing on top of the box. Check out this recipe from the Spendid Table http://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/roasted-beet-fennel-and-citrus-salad  You will have to adjust a bit since there's a single fennel bulb.
Cucumber
Pepper
Satina Yellow Potatoes
Beets
Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
Mix of Regular Tomatoes: There's getting to be a fair amount of ripening out there. Everybody got some red tomatoes plus some yellow romas or orange blossom for some color.
Red Onion
Fresh Garlic