Barn dance!

I'm glad to see that so many people came out to enjoy some juicy tasty berries last week. For those of you who just can't get enough Harmony Valley, or for those of you who were unfortunately unable to make it to Strawberry Day on the 21st (I fall into this group), don't forget about our upcoming BARN DANCE next weekend, Saturday, July 11th! This is a big deal, because it is the only Saturday the whole season we aren't at the Dane County Farmers Market.
Join us at 2:00 for field tours, followed by a potluck dinner, and then dancing until the cows come home... or whenever.
We'd love to see you here! Don't forget to keep the "C" in your CSA. Take some time to relax, enjoy some good food and music, and meet the people who have been growing your tasty veggies! Check out our website and click on "events" if you'd like a little more info.

Thank you! Strawberry Day inspiration

I just wanted to take the time to thank all the members who attended the Strawberry Festival on Sunday. (special thanks to the first time CSA members!)

It’s wonderful to know where our food goes and how much it’s appreciated. What an inspiration you are! I’ll be sure to think of you all the next time I’m having one of those days when things aren’t going according to our plans (bad weather, equipment malfunctions).

You make it easy to keep on keepin’ on – farming that is.

Thank you!!
Sincerely yours,
Farmer Darin (picture soon come!)

First CSA box for June

We've had a wonderful and delightful, if cool, spring this year & here comes summer! What is that rhyme (nearly a limerick) my friend & co-worker Mike says? Something about the weather and fun things to do in the great out of doors. I'll have to try to remember it.

Here's some pictures of what we're getting out of the fields and into the CSA boxes these days.

Some may think I'm strange, but dang those baby white turnips are sexy!

Spring veggie pizzas

After work last Friday, I left the farm with an armload of leftover produce (okay, so it was a shopping bag, an overflowing shopping bag) and headed home for the weekend with fresh Harmony Valley arugula, spinach, salad mix, green garlic, and some tiny red beets leftover (and still fresh!) from the fall.
My parents and sister were visiting for the weekend, and I thought it would be a fun idea to have a few neighbors over for a little pizza party. My mother was concerned that cooking for 11 people might not be a relaxing way to spend a day off; I tactfully pointed out that after cooking for 35 people a day, dinner for 11 ain't no thang.
For pizza # 1, I finely chopped several bunches of green garlic, then pureed it in the blender with olive oil and a little apple cider vinegar. I spread it raw on an uncooked pizza crust and topped it with mozzarella and sliced summer sausage.
For pizza #2, I roasted all those tiny little beets with olive oil until super tender, then peeled them and pureed them with balsamic vinegar, oil, oregano, and black pepper. I spread this on my pizza crust as the sauce for a pizza featuring fresh chopped morels (the last of my stash for this year!) simmered in butter, Fontina cheese, and a little bit of Sterling Country Jack goat cheese. Yum.
Pizza #3 was a simple combo of sundried tomato, Capri goat feta, and lots of chopped spinach with just a little olive oil.
Served it all with a huge lovely bowl of salad and a maple balsamic vinaigrette.
So how did it turn out? Well, definite thumbs-up to the green garlic sauce. Try it. The pie's cooking time was just long enough to take the edge off the raw garlic bite, but it was still robust enough to be fun ("fun" and "garlicy" are basically synonyms in my mind.) I have been having a reeeeeeeally good time with the green garlic these last few weeks.
The morel and beet pizza was equally delightful, although the flavor of the morels sort of got buried in all of those other ingredients. I tried to select milder cheeses for this one, and felt that the earthy flavor of beets would be a nice complement to the tasty wild mushrooms. I guess the mushroom to crust ratio was just a little low. Eh, c'est la vie. There's always next year.

Spring Field Tour

Read this week's CSA newsletter for the (loose) narrative. Here's the pictures to go with it (taken Sunday, May 10 - love you Mom!):

Sunchoke, (Richard goofy on) spring radish, spring spinach, lettuce, garlic field, freckles, currant blossom, blueberry blossom, asparagus, arugula under cover.

yum.

Goats on parade

If it can be said that there is anything fun about washing dishes, then for me, the fun part is gazing out the kitchen window. The window overlooks the wooded slope behind the house, and this is where chickens, and recently goats, put on daily parades for my personal entertainment. For some reason, watching the entire troop of goats wander back and forth across the hill together just tickles me. It is especially exciting to watch the goats climbing trees-- there is a fallen tree that extends several yards above the ground, and some of the goats like to jump onto the trunk and walk the balance beam, as if showing off for each other. Goat gymnasts.
I was raised in the suburbs, which are pretty deficient in goats and chickens. Perhaps someday the novelty of this will wear off. But it hasn't yet.

CSA members, start your engines...

Well, I'm sure we are all very excited for the beginning of CSA boxes starting next week. Here in the Harmony Valley kitchen, I am charged with preparing dinner using the vegatables in each week's CSA box -- one week ahead of the actual pickup date. So this week I have a box full of next week's forecasted CSA veggies. The week's lead time gives me a chance to experiment with veggie combinations and, hopefully, develop some fun recipes for the newsletter. So I am your guinea pig here on the farm. Actually, Andrea, Terri, and Richard are the real guinea pigs.

So far this week, I have made a burdock beef stir fry (not bad- the burdock retains a pleasant crunchy texture. Make sure to cut it pretty small, or it becomes a tiresome mouthful) and am planning a turkey and sorrel salad for tomorrow night's dinner. I have ideas for the ramps, chives, spinach, and of course the parsnips, which are always a delight to work with. I'm not quite sure yet what to do with those sunchokes. This is complicated by the fact two members of the household are not on very friendly terms with sunchokes. Still, eat from the box we must, and eat from the box we shall. We'll find something to do with those sunchokes.