Hello Everyone! I hope you are all well. It’s been a busy week for us on the farm. We’ve been weeding our upper garden, which is much needed. One day I was walking past and saw that the onion rows had disappeared behind tall grass and knew it was time to get in there and try to reveal the goods again! Our eggplants are looking pretty puny because of cool climate of the past few weeks..we’re keeping our fingers crossed that they’ll bounce back and give us some decent sized duskies and ichibans. Anthony gave them a good foliar spray tonight and we covered them with some white agri-cloth in order to keep them warm. We also had to pinch the flowers, so now we must wait to see what happens.
Anthony made another raised bed, which is located next to our greenhouse. This is the first of many which will made in order to give us an earlier start next year.

The tomatoes are looking great and the potatoes still need some more hilling up. It’s getting too hot to grow our delicate salad greens mix, but we’re experimenting with a shade cloth and a newer planting, so we’ll see what happens. The lettuces look beautiful and are ready to pluck, which is why you’ll see one in your box today! Tear off the leaves and mix them into the spicy salad greens mix and you won’t believe the taste..yum!

This week we’ve also hit the pavement and put flyers around town for the Growers Market. Check out the pics of our handpainted sign! I’ve literally had two strangers ask me to paint signs for them. Maybe I should switch my day job!

Olympia, I’m including a quick pickled radish recipe, which will be a good way to deal with all of those radishes. I’m sure you’re not alone on this one! Also, when we buy jars of pickles at our house we keep the juice in the jar in the fridge, after we’ve eaten all the pickles, with just the juice and everytime we come home with jalapeno’s & carrots from Muchas Gracias, we’ll just put that stuff in the jar. Last night Anthony put a bunch of radishes in there to sit & soak.

Quiden su Corazon!!

Today’s Harvest:
Onions
Peas
Head lettuce
Collards
Easter Egg Radish
Mixed Salad Greens

Dill

Nasturtiums (these flowers are edible, so toss them in your mixed salad greens and enjoy!)

Some recipes for you:

Sugar Snap Peas with Sesame

Copyright, 1999, Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, All rights reserved

Hello Farm cats! I hope this Thursdays post finds you all happy and healthy! This tuesdays  Winston Dillard Growers market went pretty well, not as robust as the first one but good.  The Market is happening every tuesday from 9-2pm in the Winston Shopping center at 120 Douglas Blvd. Anyone with questions please call the market manager Jill Macgregor 643-1951 or Anthony Szlachciuk 679-0756. The cats are out on the street strengthening the the Winston-Dillard community one market at a time.  We had one new vendor this last tuesday,  Shaun of Sunset Nursery selling citrus and several types of Acer trees. Today we completed a 12′ by 3′ raised bed  that  will give birth to and house scallions, beets and culinary sage plants that anthony made cuttings from.  we bought two sage plants from Janice Bunyard at last years roseburg farmers market  and now we have multiplied them to about ten.we spent the sunniest part of today  weeding and harvesting the sugar snap pea beds. Later we took a look at our straw berry/ salad and radish mix bed and noticed that this bed is doing just fine and we haven’t watered it for about a week. This bed is a great example of dry farming. If you want to read about this topic see Steve Solomons book “Gardening West of The Cascades” the strawberries are sending out runners and making flowers and fruits. the mixed green salads are perky and strong.The radishes are all gone but don’t worry we have tons more radishes in the big field on there own bed. The only thing concerning us is will everyone and the market goers ‘be able to eat all those radishes in the small amount of time left before they bolt. Anyone have any special pot lucks where they could be eaten?

Please give us a call if you could use some  radishes..You could come pick them yourself this weekend!! Just let us know the day before, so we can keep an eye out for you.

Also, this last week we had some very special visitors..The Tucci’s from Pacific, California! Vicky is Anthony’s sister and you can see her, Joe (Vicky’s Husband) and Joey (Their youngest son) in the photos above as we prepare for a chewy chicken dinner! Yummm! It’s a long story… The important thing is that we loved being with them and were very lucky to have a surprise visit from Anthony (their oldest son). The highlight of the visit, I have to say, was watching the documentary called “Grizzly Man”. I don’t know if any of you all would find it funny as well as disturbing, but we  pretty much could not stop laughing for two days on that one.

Everyone pitched in and spent some time hilling up potatoes on the field. This was incredible because I was basically putting it off and telling myself that it would be a quick job, no problem! I was dreaming.

Just a couple of thoughts: I’ve had feedback from two members that there is more food in the boxes than they know what to do with. I think we’ll be scaling down a bit because we do tend to over do it. We’d hate for the food to go to waste and for you to feel pressured to make use of it all. It would be great to hear for you so we know what others are thinking about this. The second bit of information is that today we had a member offer to help us harvest, but we’d gotten a late start and were running around a bit flustered. Thank you Leonard for offering us a hand! We didn’t take him up on it today, but we sure could use the help. This situation got us to thinking..we have a gate which opens from the road and lets you into our garden, so we thought we’d put a clipboard out there with a list of things to do, which will be updated and marked off as we complete certain tasks. If any of you would like to work off some steam or take your kids to the garden, please just let us know the first time so we can show you around, but after that you can come and go as you please. We’re usually out there, but in case we’re not for some reason and you want to come to some work, just check out our list and write down what you did! There could be some free food in it for you, but mostly good feelings.

Todays harvest contains:

Easter Egg Radishes

Sugar Snap Peas

Chard

Mixed Greens

Spinach

Radish and Alfalfa Sprouts

Cilantro

Some recipes for you:

Swiss Chard Gratin Gourmet | October 2000

Melt 2 tablespoons butter and toss with bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, herbs, half of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

Boil broth in a small saucepan until reduced by half. Add cream and keep warm.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small heavy saucepan over moderate heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, whisking, 1 minute, then whisk in broth mixture and boil, whisking, 1 minute. Season sauce with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cook onion in remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a wide 8-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add chard stems, remaining nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring, until vegetables are tender but not browned, about 8 minutes.

Increase heat to moderately high and add chard leaves and spinach by large handfuls, stirring, until all greens are wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer vegetables to a colander to drain well and press out liquid with back of a large spoon. Toss vegetables with cream sauce and transfer to a buttered 12-inch oval gratin or 2-quart shallow baking dish, spreading evenly.

Top vegetables with bread crumbs and bake in middle of oven until bubbling and topping is golden, about 20 minutes.

Sandee’s Vinigrette

I was a nanny some years ago for a wonderful family in San Francisco. The grandmother of the two girls I was responsible for (and love very much!) taught me some yummy recipes of which I’ve continued to make. I enjoy making this one for my family now! There have been a few changes, so I’ve named it my own.

I’ll toss this with the mixed greens, add feta cheese and that’s a wrap at my house. I wonder what you’ll do…

3 or 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2 0r 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinigar

1 garlic clove (crushed)

salt & pepper to taste

pinch of dried taragon

Anthony found this one and we’re definitely gonna give it a try:

Rated: Submitted By: ORNERY Photo By: SunnyByrd Prep Time: 6 Minutes Cook Time: 4 Minutes Ready In: 10 Minutes Servings: 4

© 2009 Allrecipes.com

Hello Farm Friends! I hope this Thursdays post finds you all happy and healthy! Ohmygato is now on Facebook, so you can search us out and make us one of your friends if you like.
Here’s your farm update:
The Growers Market on Tuesday was fantastic! Not a ton of people yet, but I think it could do very well in time. Make sure you tell everyone you know. Also, its a nice way to meet your farmers and we’ll be there every Tuesday from 9-2. Not to mention that Jill from Dillard Farm will be there with her wonderful strawberries, B&J Bakery with some lovely pies and I can’t describe how wonderful the bread was that I bought from Simple Life Bakery. They handmake each loaf and wrap them in paper..very old fashioned and very special. I know you all would appreciate this!
This rain has been much needed for us mainly because we were a little late putting in our last few beds. The weather was warming up and we were worried about the baby plants as they struggled to acclimate to their new surroundings. The rain has helped with that process and the plants are doing really well! Phew! Our pea plants are giving lots more peas, so you’ll find a few more than last week. By the way, we loved your emails after our first delivery! Thank you for taking the time out to write us and tell us how you feel. We want to know how it’s going and we won’t know unless you tell us. On another note, Anthony made a beautiful herb mix for you and we noticed that if you hold your pack up to the light it looks like a field guide drawing, but in 3D! A small but fun tangent: Speaking of 3D there is a film playing on Friday night at the Museum called “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. It will be played drive-in style and the 3D glasses will be provided by the Natural History Museum. The best part is that it’s free. We’ll be there for sure! Okay, back to the harvest..I suggest that if you need to relax a little take a little Thyme Tea. My sister-in-law Vicky introduced me to this wonderful relaxing elixir. Take at night before bed and you’ll sleep like a baby!

We still need a refrigerator and now we’re adding big baskets to the list. Let us know if you find any of these things or if you have extra that you can donate to our farm!

This weeks harvest:

Spinach
Mixed Salad Greens
Peas
Collard Greens
Sprig of Thyme
Sprig of Oregano
Scallions
Onion (Full share only)

Some Recipe’s for you:

Anthony’s Nutty Spinach Pasta
This is an adaptation from a yummy meal ate at our friends house. The original chef was Mark Manly. He uses another really yummy cheese and maybe a slightly different process.

Ingredients:
lb corkscrew pasta (you can use any pasta you like)
1 cube of butter
3 cloves of garlic (chopped, not too fine)
about 1 lb of Spinach chopped
1/4 cup nuts(almonds, cashews and hazlenuts) toasted and roughly chopped up
1/4-3/4 cup parmesean cheese

Brown the butter in a small skillet. Take the skillet off the burner and toss garlic in the hot butter. Toast the nuts and chop, put to the side. Cook pasta in salted water for approximately 8 minutes and add spinach to pasta and water, cook for 1 minute. Drain pasta then toss everything together. Add cheese and stir well.
Yumm!!

Southern as You Can Get Collard Greens
I got this from AllRecipes.com. I love Southern fare and this is a pretty traditional recipe, which has a lot of flavor. This is not vegetarian friendly, but I’m sure you could fudge with the recipe and make it that way! That’s what I do.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients:
1 bunch collard greens - rinsed, trimmed and
chopped
2 smoked ham hocks
2 (10.5 ounce) cans condensed chicken

broth
21 fluid ounces water
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Place the collard greens and ham hocks in a large pot. Mix in the chicken broth, water, and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 1 hour.

Bon Appétit | April 2009

by Maria Helm Sinskey

Ohmygato will be at the Winston Dillard Growers’ Market today!! Come out and represent!

It’s the first day of the market and we’ve got spinach, eggs, salad mix & radishes! We’re also selling tomato plants..so exciting!!

Photo of "Peeps in our plum tree" by Sandee

Hello Gatos!!! Happy first week of deliveries. We’re so glad it’s time to share the harvest with you.
The rain has been such a welcome surprise this week. The plants are loving it and so are we because it’s given us a much needed break from the field. We’ve been able to do some other important things that we’ve been putting on the back burner. We have a wrap around porch which has become a kind of obstacle course. I’m not even going to get started on what our home has become. Let’s just say that we could probably plant some seeds on the floor and they might just sprout.
The peas are taking their sweet time and on top of that they were pummled by the hard rain, so peas have some patience! So in this box you’ll find just a handful, but that’s all you’ll need for a yummy stir fry! What they lack in quantity, they make up for in flavor.

Anthony wants me to remind all of you that you can also add the greens from your radishes to the salad mix. He’s big on not wasting any part of the plant, so you’ll get lots of suggestions along the way as to how to use the parts that normally get tossed to the side.

Please remember to bring your empty box and swap it for your new box next week. Also, we’ll recycle the egg cartons and pastic containers which you’ll get from time to time. Just put those (when you’re done with them) in your empty box and return each week.

Again, Thank you Olympia for letting us drop the boxes off at your place.
I’ll be starting a Facebook Profile for Ohmygato Farm in the next few days, so look for us there as well. I’m thinking it’s a better way for us to know what’s going on with all of you as well as create a more democratic way to communicate.

Here’s the list of what’s in this weeks harvest:
(The veggies are field washed, so please make sure to wash them before you eat.)

Mixed Salad Greens (our very own combination)
D’Avignon Radishes
Alfalfa & Radish Sprouts
Pasture Raised Organic Eggs (green & brown)
Spring Onion
Tyee Spinach
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
Peas
Calendula Flowers (Add petals to your salad! They’re edible!!)

Some recipes for you:

By Gil Marks
Olive Trees and Honey

Keftes de Espinaca

Among my favorite spinach dishes are these simple but delicious patties. Even spinach haters can’t resist them, especially when they’re splashed with a little fresh lemon juice; fresh juice does make a major difference in taste. Onions add a sweet flavor and textural complexity. These patties are traditional on Passover and Rosh Hashanah, corresponding to the emergence of the early and late spinach crops.
Yield: Makes about 16 patties
ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
2 pounds fresh spinach, stemmed, cooked, chopped, and squeezed dry, or 20 ounces thawed frozen chopped spinach, squeezed dry
About 1 cup matza meal or fine dried bread crumbs
About 3/4 teaspoon table salt or 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Vegetable oil for frying
Lemon wedges for serving
preparation

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and, if using, the garlic and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the spinach, matza meal, salt, pepper, and, if using, the nutmeg. Stir in the eggs. If the mixture is too loose, add a little more matza meal. The mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for a day.

2. Shape the spinach mixture into patties 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, with tapered ends. In a large skillet, heat a thin layer of oil over medium heat. In batches, fry the patties, turning, until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm, accompanied with lemon wedges.

Sephardic Spinach Patties with Cheese (Keftes de Espinaca con Queso):

Add 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Muenster, Swiss, Gouda, or Cheddar cheese; or 1/4 cup grated kefalotyri or Parmesan cheese.

Sephardic Spinach Patties with Walnuts (Keftes de Espinaca con Muez):

Substitute 1/2 to 1 cup finely chopped walnuts for the matza meal.

Italian Spinach Patties (Polpettine di Spinaci):

Add 3/4 cup raisins soaked in white wine for 30 minutes, then drained, and 3/4 cup toasted pine nuts.

NOTE
To reheat the spinach patties, place in a large skillet, add 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.

Epicurious.com ©

Sauteed Radishes and Wilted Radish Greens

You're friendly farmer!

Fresh-picked radishes taste like summer. And sa

uteed baby radishes with wilted radish greens? Well, they just taste delicious. Check out this recipe that some other CSA members have shared on a website called www.reallynatural.com:

1 bunch of baby radishes with radish greens

1 Tablespoon butter
salt and pepper

1. Wash radishes in cold water. C

ut off the greens and set ‘em aside.
2. Slice the radishes thin, and saute them in melted butter.
3. Add the greens (still wet) and saute until wilted (less than 1 minute).
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns..We know that you’ll love your CSA box!

One more thing..Does anyone have a fridge that they’d like to get rid of, or know of anyone who wants to relieve themselves of one? We could use another refrigerator and are on the lookout. Let us know via email if you’ve got a lead.

Warm Regards,

Sandee & Anthony