CONTACT INFORMATION:
Coordinator: Mike Rabinowitz Before 5:00 p.m. House Phone: 895-2884. Leave Message
Tuesdays: Oz Cell: Phone: 689-7693 6–6:30 pm
Wednesdays: Mike’s Cell: 749-2884 6–6:30 pm
IF YOU ARE A NEW MEMBER, PLEASE READ, WEEK 1 AND WEEK 2 FARM NOTES TO GET A SENSE OF HOW THINGS ARE ORGANIZED! We will try to have the list of the veggies in your bag posted by noon before your pick-up day. Mike and Diane handle the lists. Mike sometimes sticks in notes in packing slip in case you miss farm notes; however, most recipes are already posted. Send in your recipes; we will be sure to post them, as well.
THIS VERSION OF FARM NOTES INCLUDES:
WHOOPS! Apology for packing list discrepancy.
What’s In the Bag. Chard or Kale?
Is salad mix ready to eat?
Sprouts, Pea Shoots and Micro-greens: What’s the big deal?
Garlic Scapes: Friend or Foe?
Cold Schav. Cold Soup Recipe for spinach, sour grass or any kind of green.
Same Old, Same Old. Weather, weeding and chilled crops!
Ryan’s Trip to U.S. – The bad news and the good news!
The Bonavista Social Club. Ahead of its Time!
Visit to Fishers Loft Gift Shop
Living in Rhubarb Heaven!
WHOOPS!
I wrote about daikon radishes for week 2 and summer turnips for week 3, because Alice, who helps prepare availability list felt they were ready. Mike cancelled using daikon because he felt they were not large enough. I am out of that loop and apologize for the misinformation – which may happen from time to time. Mike and I only live in the same house, meet each other at the coffee pot from time to time and are headed toward 50 years of coming and going in the same house and working with various aspects of the farm. He is usually in the outer most field or greenhouse when he gets a call and unlike most of the employees, he seldom packs a cellphone. Seriously, we don’t have the packing list down to an exact science, because things can change through the day as we start picking and counting what is available. If I write Farm Notes too early in the day, I may be misinformed!!
WHAT’S IN THE BAG?
Our apologies for not providing more information around your food items for the week, especially the micro-greens and/or pea shoots. In the old days, each bag had a printed packing slip inside the bag, along with Farm Notes and recipes. At that time, some of our members complained about wasting paper and encouraged us to enter this century by posting the lists and recipes on our Website. Now, some people are asking for paper copies of the packing slip and help identifying whether they have chard or kale in this week’s bag.
Chard or Kale?
We usually rotate these greens among groups because there is not sufficient supply for both groups the same week. (Check your packing slip for Week 4 by clicking here.) We plan to continue to post packing slip, farm notes and recipes on Farm Website. However, if you have any questions around anything after you get home, don’t hesitate to call us at our home number – 895-2884. It won’t be the first time we get a call, the night of pick-up, to ask about something strange or about the sprouts or if the salad mix/lettuce has to be washed.
IS SALAD MIX READY TO EAT?
Do I need to wash the salad mix?
To this, I always reply – I don’t wash mine but use your own judgement. We usually get a bag from the same lot that goes into Veggie Group Bags. If it is wet, I spread out on paper towels to help it dry before I use for supper or put away in refrigerator. If I am making salad, I scan the leaves, maybe pinching off the bottom of a couple of leaves that may appear bruised from picking. I might find a bit of something that needs to brushed off, maybe a bit of organic grit which is harmless, but never an insect, alive or dead.
Washing Process for Lettuce and Greens
The washing takes place in a building especially designed for processing lettuce into salad mix and rinsing other greens. As we pick, we pick various varieties of lettuce and a few spicy leaves that adds a little zing, such as chervil, cilantro and mustards. There are 3 sinks: the first is for removing dirt and grass; the second for close washing; and the last for rinsing. The product is then lifted gently and placed carefully on a long drying table where it is air dried (sometimes with fans) before final packing and weighing. If it is a wet, rainy day, it is impossible to get it thoroughly dried. The women are experienced, trained in food handling and mindful, paying attention to each leaf as it reaches the drying table. Most of us would not be as attentive in our own kitchens.
The frame for the drying table was custom made by Paul Bowers in Ontario. This is the company that supplied our greenhouses and growing tables. The non-rust, food safe mesh stretched over the frames was ordered from a supplier in California. We tried local suppliers, Jenkins and Puddister, who advised that there was no such product available in Newfoundland or Canada. The tables were assembled on the farm by a man from Bonavista.
SPROUTS, PEA SHOOTS & MICRO-GREENS : WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
Sprinkle over the salad, or use on sandwiches or tacos or as a finger food, out of the bag, just like chips. Unlike most snacks they are blazing with good things. Over the season, we will grow as many pea shoots as possible for weekly bags to make up for other items that would/should have been available in July. We are setting up a sprout growing table in Greenhouse #2, in hopes weather is warm enough to generate the heat we need there. If need be, we may use some electric heaters below the tables as we did in the past but it means re-structuring the watering system. Some former members are e-mailing to bring extra pea shoots to drop-off for their children explaining that pea shoots are the only fresh, green they will eat. However, we wonder if the pea shoots will make it home as there seems to be lots of tasting in the parking lot.
Sprouts and Micro-greens were new to me when Louis, our son and a young woman from Quebec living as a WWOOFer on the farm, started growing sun flower sprouts in soil, indoors under lights, about 15 years ago. When I followed up with the literature at that time, I learned that pea sprouts are not new at all; they were grown in the trenches during World War II, to help prevent scurvy in the troops. I began growing them with children and parents at our children’s centre, took them to healthy eating fairs at local schools and introduced them to a a provincial training held in Deer Lake for the nutritionists and community program directors for family resource programs. I brought six trays with me in a cooler on the plane to use for demonstrations and tasting; also supplies for planting a couple of trays. The most memorable part for me was that the nutritionists were hesitant to taste, even a few.
If I stood in front of them long enough holding a voluptuous quart of sprouts, some got up the courage. I reminded them that I had often observed them doing the same posture if they wanted someone to taste broccoli or some other chosen vegetable. Some waited until break time to sneak a taste. At the end of the day, several woman and a man from St. Anthony traveling together asked to take them for a snack in the car.
PEA SHOOTS HAVE THE TASTE OF FRESH PEAS and are much more nutritious than other snacks such as popcorn. The single little pea holds all the energy and enzymes needed to support the growth of a six foot pea vine. Micro-greens are also equally nutritious and will reflect the taste of many plants, depending on which seeds are used; i.e. radish, broccoli, cilantro, endive. In fact, some restaurants order flats of specific plants such as radish or endive because it has a more powerful flavour tossed into a salad. Try a sprinkle of cilantro or fennel sprouts on the serving dish with a scallop. I use as garnish for most dishes and soups; also during winter while lettuce is not available, we make full salads out of pea shoots for Christmas and pot lucks by adding cashews, feta and fresh mandarin slices. Have a look at what I found on Website when I recently Googled Pea Shoots. It appears the British think they invented pea shoots ! Maybe so. A woman from England who came to the farm ten years ago, explained to me that when she was growing up, her family used naturism leaves for making sandwiches. We plan more and more nasturtiums every year for both the edible flowers and harvest smaller, more tender leaves for salad mix. The leaves have a light radish taste.
Pea Shoots – The Changing Face of British Salad
Packed with vitamins A[1], C[2] and folic acid[3], Pea Shoots are a delicious, nutritious modern slant on the classic British garden pea. Lyndel Costain, B.Sc.RD, award winning dietitian and author of Super Nutrients Handbook, says, “Pea Shoots are a nutritious leaf with high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A. A 50g bag of these tasty greens offers more than half of the RDA for vitamin C, a quarter of the RDA for vitamin A and significant amounts of folic acid. It is great news that this healthy and simple to prepare British vegetable leaf is readily available to consumers.”
Growing pea shoots with children
Growing pea shoots should be part of standard healthy living curriculum for kindergarten students especially in Labrador where leather apples cost five and six dollars a piece and the oranges are dried up when they reach the coast, if at all. I was shocked several years ago when I visited these communities. I wondered why local stores brought in fruit at all and who could afford it. Liquor is controlled by Newfoundland Liquor Board and costs the same in Cartwright and Goose Bay, while milk and coffee costs 4 times what it costs in our local store in Portugal Cove.
With the approval of the principal, a parent, who was one of the Veggie Group Members, organized a short term project of growing pea shoots in the classroom at Bishop Field School a few years ago. The children brought in a disposable container from home such as a margarine container and grew them in the classroom, taking them home when they were ready to eat. My idea is for a province wide initiative where a service club or church group would be invited to donate funds for peas and organic growing medium for local kindergarten classes.
RECIPES AND OTHER TIDBITS!
Garlic Scapes: Friend or Foe?
If you were at recent pick-up at Science Building, you would have seen a few people lifting the garlic scapes from their bag, carefully, as though they were a live octopus while others rushed past them to see if there were more in swap box. We learned about Garlic Scapes from a man we buy garlic seed from in Ontario; he explained that sometimes he sells more garlic scapes than garlic. When the season comes in, they will be going into the Veggie Bags every week, as long as they last, which is only a few weeks because as they grow, they will become overly mature.
Mike put a note about scapes on the packing slips – but they are much more versatile than simply using as garlic substitutes in stir fries and soups. Add to humus if you already make it or make a dip with cream cheese, similar to onion dip in farm recipe files. If you feel creative and have the energy, try Googling: Pickled Garlic Scapes, which will keep in the refrigerator for months. Also, Google: The Crisper Whisperer, which explains 7 Things To Do with Garlic Scapes by Carolyn Cope. My guess is that by the end of the season this year, most people will be standing at the front of the garlic scape line next year!
Cold Schav (sour grass)
Schav is apparently a weed, harvested for decades in Europe and by Indians and early settlers in North America. According to some sources, there are several different plants commonly called sour grass. The farm recipe file offers it under greens because Aunt Esther, who introduced it to us, never served it as a soup. She made schav with spinach, in a blender as a drink, much like the smoothies with fresh wheat grass at BOOSTER JUICE. We use yogurt instead of sour cream and any combination of greens available.
What’s Happening on the farm?
We already talked about the weather but it is so serious that it is hard to move on. That’s about all Mike and I talk about in the mornings as we assign staff and before we go to bed at night after he looks at the weather forecast. Every year we think it is the worst. In 2012 we did not have 5 days of 15 degree weather in a row until mid-August. In 2013, we were doing o.k. Until Leslie blew in, in early September, taking with it the top off GH#1, robbing the farm of the entire Green House tomato crop and destroying the bean harbours and a full crop of beans. For the past couple of weeks, the lettuce is at a stand still and the lettuce transplants in trays on the outdoor tables are rotting. (Never fear, Ruby, our seeder is seeding every few days. ) We picked the lettuce available on Wednesday for the Veggie Groups, leaving little for restaurant orders or the Farmers Market. Even cool weather crops such as lettuce need some heat/sun. The challenge is that weeds thrive in cold weather. When we get a half-day of good weather, Mike collects all hands to focus on one crop that seems to be under siege. Every day is a rescue mission. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday of last week, it was the onions and chard. It seems this week, the leeks are lost in the field of weeds. Mike said he was getting ready to till a field of weeds for new planting, when Diane reminded him that it a field of small leeks, lost in the weeds. I am sure weeding the carrots will be next; this can only be assigned to our most experienced staff!
Volunteers to the Rescue
We are getting great help from a few volunteers, including some from our Veggie Members, who come on a regular basis, one or two afternoons a week or week-ends. We also have three young men who work part time hand weeding and cutting weeds along edges of gardens with grass cutters. Another young woman who comes on Sundays to open greenhouses, water and weed if Mike is lucky enough to be able to play golf. As my mother used to say, when she put me and my siblings weeding or hoeing the cotton and strawberries, “It just takes elbow grease.” A lot of plants first appear in disguise as weeds and vice versa. I am weeding in GH#4, where I am not familiar with perennial plants that self-seeded last fall. I am leaving some plants that have some kind of pattern until Alice gets back from her holiday and teaches me the next level of identifying edible flowers that were left to re-seed from last season.
What’s Happening off the Farm?
Ryan’s Trip to US:The Bad News and the Good News!
Ryan came to the farm 2 1/2 years ago as a WWOOFer which stands for Willing Worker On Organic Farms. A WOOFER works as a volunteer for around 20 – 22 hours a week, in return for food and accommodations. We offer a flexible schedule for time off so WOOFERs can participate in off-farm activities such as East Coast Trail hiking, weekend festivals in St. John’s, evenings at The Ship, George Street, etc. Ryan is from England and has been in the process of renewing his working VISA since February. The VISA application dates are on Canadian Immigration Website. When Ryan opened that website on day announced, the opportunity was closed. Apparently, there were over 2 thousand hits from across Canada within 5 minutes of the time the site opened. Other dates were posted but it took several weeks to get in. Ryan finally got to first base, meaning he was able to fill out an application – but second base is the requirement that the applicant apply from outside Canada. Ryan and Mike looked at the options – St. Pierre (more expensive and 2 nights and 3 days and missing work); Boston (similar money and time commitment). Third Option – Atlantic City through Toronto and Newark. Required a one nights stay, leaving on Friday morning, returning on Saturday. Ryan booked a plane to leave early Friday morning. It was delayed which meant he didn’t make the connection to Newark from Toronto. He phoned Mike advising him of the situation. He and Mike decided that he should take a bus across the border to Buffalo, returning the next day and try to get back to St. John’s.
Too Bad! So Sad! No American Money!
When the bus arrived at the border, all passengers were unloaded to report to US Customs. Ryan was required to buy some kind of entry permit for $5.00; he didn’t have the American currency or a credit card. He called again. Mike told him that when he reached the person processing his “papers,” to call collect and we would give our VISA number . He went into the line and I stayed in the house near the phone most of the day in case he needed us. Ht didn’t. When he reached the Immigrations Officer, he explained that the purpose of his visit was to be on US soil, not go to Buffalo. When he understood Ryan’s situation, he stamped the credential he needed for working VISA. Ryan walked back across the bridge, caught a returning bus and arrived back in Toronto on Friday evening. That’s the Good News.
Here’s the bad news! There were NO planes going to St. John’s on Friday night or Saturday!!! Most people heard, there were over 400 cancellations over the weekend. Ryan had the return ticket for Sunday he planned to use after a wicked weekend in Atlantic City. He left for St. John’s on Sunday afternoon on a flight Air Canada predicted would have to land in Gander, which it did. The bus from Gander arrived at St. John’s airport around 4 o’clock on Sunday Morning.
I would say that this journey goes a lot further toward awarding Ryan the honour of becoming an honorary Newfoundlander than any screech in.
Visit to Fishers Loft: Trinity East
Toby, my daughter, who is a visual artist, talked my son, Oz, in driving us to Port Rexton to drop some art shirts and cards into the Gift Shop at Fishers Loft where she sold several things last season. We kinda, sort of, meant to go early June, but between the “jigs and the reels,” we are over a month late. (I am aware that jigs and reels is an over used phrase. My brothers and I grew up in Tennessee with a few jigs and reels of our own and my mother often used this term as way of describing the whatever mundane things in our lives.)
Fishers Loft
I am also aware that the definition of Chateau is a French castle, but this is the only word I can think of which describes the core buildings of Fishers Loft and the surrounding A-Frame, wooden tourist homes of various sizes scattered on the slopes around the main dining hall and library. The access within and among the buildings was developed thoughtfully with walking paths, which leaves the over-all terrain in its natural state. The buildings are actually off a road to Trinity East with one of the entrance leading to a convention and art centre perched on the highest peak with a Vista over looking, not only the restaurant and tourist houses, the herb and vegetables gardens that provide fresh produce for restaurant, but also Trinity Bay and the Islands beyond.
The profile on the Website emphasizes that hiring and training local people is important to the work and philosophy of John and Peggy Fisher, who bought the land and imagined this setting over twenty years ago and started to work with an architect from the city to develop their ideas. They also envisioned Fishers Loft as a world class tourist destination, which it is. We were graciously received by Peggy Fisher, who unpacked and admired Toby’s work. Besides the cards, art shirts and hand sculptured clay pieces, Toby left 2 paintings from her solo show at Leyton Gallery. They will be displayed in one of the guest houses or the main lodge. She/they sold a painting reflecting Cape St. Mary bird sanctuary from the collection of paintings Toby left last season.
The Bonavista Social Club
When our son, Oz agreed to drive Toby to Trinity East and Fishers Loft, it was with the understanding that we would make a side trip to the Bonavista Social Club, a relatively new place developed by Katie Patterson and her partner, Shane. The pizza dough is made fresh every day and is baked in the only wood fired bread oven in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is made with fresh ingredients, grown on the farm, including their own pasta sauce. In addition to pizza, we were served sauteed asparagus, the best ever and partridge berry sorbet; the menu offers several local meats such as lamb, chicken, fish and an array of soups, sandwiches, salads and desserts, all prepared in-house. The friendly and peaceful energy which embraces the farm, livestock and small tourist homes with children playing freely around the gardens is magical.
Katie is the daughter of Mike Patterson, well known wood worker and farmer from the Bonavista area. Our children know Katie and Shane as they lived in St. John’s for several years and Denziel, Katie’s brother, worked on the Farm a few years ago. These young people now have a baby and a toddler. Shane explained how they share child care on a daily basis, Shane is on early shift to get fire started and bread baking started. Katie comes in later to oversee menus and meal preparation, returning to mothering in the afternoon, when Shane takes over restaurant until closing. They also employ several local young people from the area to help as needed. The main activities close as winter approaches. Shane says, it takes about 20 cords of wood to fire the oven and that’s how he spends his winters. Katie makes bottles of pasta sauce and soups for sale, all with their own label. (Did I mention hard working?)
It is a 3 l/2 hour drive from St. John’s and would have been better as a full weekend experience for visiting the Trinity and Bonavista area. Our challenge is that Oz works manages sales at Farmers Market on Saturdays and our vehicle is in use for deliveries the other days of the week. We stayed over night in Port Rexton Sunday evening at an inexpensive hotel, serving a traditional breakfast – nothing fancy, and started home at noon on Monday, only to discover our windshield wipers were loose and jumped their tracks. This meant stopping the car in serious rain and trying to tightening the head screw. After trying this three or four times, Oz decided to drive without the wipers. It was a very frightening ending to the trip but not even that spoiled our memories of the weekend!! We won’t wait another year to return; it is high on our agenda, as it going back to Fishers Loft with additional artwork.
See: www.bonavistasocialclub.com. Phone: (709) 445-5556.
Where oh where is rhubarb heaven?
As you make your rhubarb squares or pie or have a cuppa, think of Toby, our daughter, who cuts and chops arm loads of rhubarb each weekend and makes rhubarb sauce for her dad and farm visitors. Each cutting, she saves a few cups for me for rhubarb cake and/or rhubarb squares.
I hope the next farm notes will be more timely. The story is that I do have some health issues, which often unfolds into about two days a week for doctors appointments. And when I am feeling “up to par,” I had rather be outdoors, mixing into some kind of project, which includes upgrading the processing shed with chill room where veggie members pick up at the farm. The target for finishing this project was Mid-May before Veggie Group pick-ups opened for the season.
DON’T FORGET TO TRY THE RECIPES HERE ON THE WEBSITE as a starting place for using your farm goodies. Click here or use the menu at the top. It reflects many years of experience from our members as well as The Little Red Hen. Would love to see you at the farm, especially on Saturdays. Even if it is a messy day, we can accommodate you and the children in the family kitchen. Most days I am usually on my perch by the fire or hobbling around, organizing young men who work part-time helping with extra projects.
The Little Red Hen!
Began, July 20th/ Final Editing, July 25, 2015.
