2013 CSA: Week 26

“And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of a whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night?”
— Chief Seattle, 1854

We look for bioindicators around the farm that confirm the health of the ecosystem. One of those bioindicators are a thriving community of frogs and toads. Of course, amphibious species require healthy aquatic and land environments. And since they have permeable skin, they are particularly sensitive to pollutants and chemicals that are unfortunately rife in our modern landscape. It’s estimated that up to a third of the amphibious species in the world are now threatened with extinction. So its nice to see a surging population here on the farm. They’re everywhere right now and have even been spotted by at least one of you inside your vegetable box. We hope to surprise you each week with the freshness and quality of the food you’re receiving, but we don’t actually plan any surprises with live amphibians. Yet while we wash everything at least once, (your salad mix is washed 3 times! and then spun dry), nature tends to find a way! In any case, we are proud of our healthy frog population and you can see one picture below with a faucet in our fields where I recently found a family hanging out.

On the farm-front, we’re continuing to set out new transplants for the fall, seeding some more cover crops and building some new fencing near our hog pastures. The turkeys are growing and foraging far and wide as well. It’s officially Fall and this is probably my most favorite season on the farm.

Finally, I’d like to welcome two new members to the farm crew: Bryan Aycock and Lucia Reyes! pictured below holding this week’s lemongrass.

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Meat CSA: (call us on Monday by noon for any additional a la carte orders: 229-641-2081 – web orders click here)

Grass-fed Spare Ribs (x2) – A long cut from the lower portion of the carcass, spare ribs are great for barbecuing, smoking, or cooking over an open flame.

5lb Chicken Wings –  Free-range, pastured, heritage cross chicken wings that have been cut into drums and flats for your convenience. Our chickens are raised with no antibiotics or added hormones. Our chickens are also Step 5 rated by the Global Animal Partnership, which is the highest animal welfare rating.

 

Pasture Raised Eggs: 

Beautiful brown eggs from our own lovely ladies that range freely on certified organic pasture. The eggs are washed, candled and graded fresh for you each week. (Wanna add eggs to your order this week?  Please email me or call our office today: 229-641-2081)

Certified Organic Vegetables:

Braising Mix – Tender young greens including: arugula, mizuna, tat soi, baby kale, and more! 

Sweet Potatoes – 3- 4 lbs of sweet potatoes this week and next. Enjoy!

Garlic – At least one head of Inchelium Red softneck garlic, an heirloom variety we know you’ll enjoy.

Okra – 1.5 to 2 full lbs of purple and green okra. Some big, some small and some just right in size.

Basil! – Caprese salads with Jay’s cheese are a summer favorite of mine. Pesto all around!  CLICK HERE FOR AN EASY PESTO RECIPE

Eggplant OR Rattlesnake Beans – Great looking beans and eggplant this week. Scrumptious!

Peppers – Jupiter and Orion Bell peppers, Cowhorn and Carmens. Fall weather should help us see more colors in the peppers too. What beauties!

Mixed Hot peppers – Mostly jalapenos and Cayenne types.  mixed hot peppers are bagged separately for your convenience.

Lemongrass – This stuff is delicious and amazing! Click here to learn more

2013 CSA: Week 25

What a great week to be in the Meat CSA! 2 Bone-in Ribeye Steaks and 2 Halved Chickens Hand-made sausages. And we finally have the first of our fall greens to share too. Baby arugula today and salad mix right around the corner. Look out for Rattlesnake pole beans in your share boxes this week too.

Around the farm, the baby chicks are continuing to grow and cheep cheep a bit louder and stronger every day. We’re already prepping the hi-tunnels for fall transition and continuing to seed cover crops over fields where dearly departed tomatoes, melons and winter squashes gave valiant efforts all year long. We’ve started harvesting and curing sweet potatoes this week as well. And after receiving good feedback on the greens this past week, have included them again in the shares this week.

Big news this week! The winter CSA sign-up is open now. You will be receiving an application in your email. Or you can find it here: WINTER CSA APPLICATION

Here are some changes for the winter:

1. All CSA members will enjoy a 5% discount on Meat purchases via our online store.
2. The winter CSA will not deliver to Tallahassee, Eufaula or Dothan.
3. Deliveries are roughly every other week instead of weekly.

You can find more info on the application linked above. And I’ll be updating the CSA Manual soon with the exact dates for pick-ups between December and March. I know how important scheduling is during the holidays so we’re trying to be really sensitive to that.

Ok, here’s some quick-pics and the weekly menu.

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Meat CSA: (call us on Monday by noon for any additional a la carte orders: 229-641-2081 – web orders click here)

2 Bone-in Ribeye Steaks – A griller’s dream. This steak, with the bone-in is a full-flavored, mild textured cut of meat that lends itself well to all types of dry heat cookery.

2 Chicken-halves –  And by Chicken halves, I meant to say Sausage. RIbeyes and sausage this week, not too shabby!

Pasture Raised Eggs: 

Beautiful brown eggs from our own lovely ladies that range freely on certified organic pasture. The eggs are washed, candled and graded fresh for you each week. (Wanna add eggs to your order this week?  Please email me or call our office today: 229-641-2081)

Certified Organic Vegetables:

Arugula OR Malabar Spinach – Young tender Arugula greens! We almost had enough to go around. Good thing we had Malabar Spinach waiting in the wings. 

Sweet Potato Greens – Sweet Potato Greens are a common nutritious addition to meals around the world and especially in Africa. A few different recipes can be found HERE.

Garlic – At least one head of Inchelium Red softneck garlic, an heirloom variety we know you’ll enjoy.

Okra – At least 3/4-1 lb of purple and green okra. Some big, some small and some just right in size.

Basil! – Caprese salads with Jay’s cheese are a summer favorite of mine. Pesto all around!  CLICK HERE FOR AN EASY PESTO RECIPE

Tomatoes OR Eggplant OR Rattlesnake Beans – No dried beans this week. If you don’t get beans, you’ll get a small amount of tomatoes or 1 or 2 eggplant. We just have enough to share with everyone. Fingers crossed for some good rain to help us out by next week.

Peppers – Jupiter and Orion Bell peppers, Cowhorn and Carmens. The coming fall weather should help us see more colors in the peppers too. What beauties!

Mixed Hot peppers – Mostly jalapenos and Cayenne types.  mixed hot peppers are bagged separately for your convenience.

Mint or Marjoram – Mint for mojitos and Marjoram for your Chicken, omelettes, or whatever other culinary adventure awaits. Enjoy!

2013 CSA: Week 24

Welcome back!!! We’ve had a busy three weeks but we’re so excited to get back to delivering freshness from our farm to your family! We have missed delivering to you but it was a perfectly timed and much-needed break for the plants. Make no mistake, there was no vacation for us here, though. We have been busy growing fall transplants and prepping the farm for a great Fall. Starting the next few weeks you will start to see some tasty vegetables we haven’t seen since the spring. Arugula, Salad mixes, radishes, and more Asian greens. Kale, Chard, and friends are all going into the ground this week as sturdy transplants and should be showing up in your share boxes around a month from now. Unfortunately, the fall squash, cucumbers and pumpkins all withered out as youngsters. Big disappointment! We’re easing the pain by throwing in some Muscadine and Scuppernong grapes from our friends at Koinonia Farm this week. If you’d like to order more, please e-mail Cindy and let her know (cindybarrows@whiteoakpastures.com). The grapes are grown with organic methods, untreated with chemicals or pesticides, and hand-picked for you. A quart is $4.70. Please get your order in to Cindy by Friday at noon for Week 26 delivery. 

We do have peppers, eggplants, and fall tomatoes for you this week and for the first time; Dried Beans! We pruned the okra back in order to harvest the regrowth and not have to break out the stepladders like we did last year. The minute we pruned, the rain stopped. So regrowth has been slower than expected. What we have been able to harvest has been larger pods which lend themselves well to the featured recipe you’ll see below in the okra description. And everyone is receiving rosemary as the herb this week because the meat share contains 2 small Whole Chickens, as well as 2 Sirloins. (For those of you keeping score at home: that’s almost a $40 value for only $30!)

Big news around the Farm: Turkeys are thriving and growing everyday! Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered last week along with your regular organic milk and cheese orders. Also, Free-range Frankie and the egg crew just received 5,000 day old hens last Thursday. With diligent care, they are all doing well in their recently redesigned egg-trailers out on pasture. We still have plenty of eggs so feel free to add a dozen to your regular deliveries whenever you need them.

***Housekeeping notes*** Pretty please – We need all of your clean egg cartons returned to us if at all possible. Just toss them in the bottom of your grey or red boxes and we’ll take it from there. Also, look out for surveys soon, as well as a special invitation to join us again this winter for the extended season CSA.

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Meat CSA: (call us on Monday by noon for any additional a la carte orders: 229-641-2081 – web orders click here)

2 Sirloin Steaks – A larger cut that is great for those large families who still like a great steak. This steak is full of flavor and lends itself well to those who like the experience of eating great beef.

2 Small Chickens –  Free-range, pastured, heritage cross chickens. Our chickens are raised with no antibiotics or added hormones. Our chickens are also Step 5 rated by the Global Animal Partnership, which is the highest animal welfare rating.

Pasture Raised Eggs: 

Beautiful brown eggs from our own lovely ladies that range freely on certified organic pasture. The eggs are washed, candled and graded fresh for you each week. (Wanna add eggs to your order this week?  Please email me or call our office today: 229-641-2081)

Certified Organic Vegetables:

Sweet Potato Greens – Sweet Potato Greens are a common nutritious addition to meals around the world and especially in Africa. A few different recipes can be found HERE.

Muscadines or Scuppernongs: Fresh from Koinonia Farm, North America’s native grape is one of our favorite signs of fall approaching.  Enjoy them this week but go ahead and order by Friday for the next go’round. Additional quarts are $4.70. and just email cindybarrows@whiteoakpastures.com with how many quarts you’d like.

Garlic – At least one head of Inchelium Red softneck garlic, an heirloom variety we know you’ll enjoy.

Okra OR Malabar Spinach OR Sungold Cherry Tomatoes–  At least 1/2 lb of good sized okra especially designed for this recipe: Barbecue Grilled Okra Try the Malabar sautéed with a little olive oil, butter, garlic and onion, salt and pepper. The picture in the slide show how we did it with Chanterelle Mushrooms – so good!

Basil! – Caprese salads with Jay’s cheese are a summer favorite of mine. Pesto all around!  CLICK HERE FOR AN EASY PESTO RECIPE

Tomatoes OR Eggplant OR Dried Beans – This is the first year we’ve tried dried beans. They’re a variety called Jacobs Cattle bean. But you can cook them like regular red beans or pintos. We harvested them off the plants and dried them, and you get the pleasure of shelling out the beans! Fun task to do with your kids or friends while you’re watching tv.

Peppers – Jupiter and Orion Bell peppers, Cowhorn and Carmens.

Mixed Hot peppers – Mostly, jalapenos and Cayenne types.  mixed hot peppers are bagged separately for your convenience.

Rosemary – Perfect for the 2 Small Chickens in your meat CSA box this week. Be sure to dry whatever you don’t use. Enjoy!