Tag: klesick farms

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Toothless GMO Food Labeling Bill Becomes Law

Note: I have covered the DARK Act in a previous newsletter, but wanted to share the perspective of the Cornucopia Institute. The folks at the Cornucopia Institute are advocates the heart and soul of organics and small to medium sized organic farms. In the ever increasing “get bigger or get or get out” model of American business and Agriculture, the Cornucopia stands up and for farmers like myself and consumers like you who support us. Real change comes when concerned people make intentional choices for their families and their communities.

As I have shared in the past, we are the solution: you and I making good food choices, and sending less of our food dollars to companies that promote and use GMO’s in their products.

Organic is better for our health and better for the environment,

Tristan

 

 

Toothless GMO Food Labeling Bill Becomes Law; Corporate Elites Betray Organics

BY WILL FANTLE

The looming July 1 implementation date for Vermont’s first-of-a-kind, historic GMO food ingredients labeling law pushed Monsanto and other corporate giants in retailing, biotechnology, and agribusiness into overdrive as they ramped up pressure on Congress to negate the state law.

Labeling opponents wisely identified Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, as the key to crafting what they described as a “compromise” bill. Stabenow’s bill was able to move enough Senate Democrats to join with an already solid block of Republicans to muscle through its swift passage.

Ardent GMO backer, Senate Agriculture Chair Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) called it “the most important agriculture vote in 20 years.” When signed into law by the President in late July, it preempted Vermont’s new law, mandatory GMO seed labeling requirements in two states, and dozens of related local ordinances.

But what has been rightly called the DARK Act would not have been possible without the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), a few of its most powerful members, and two corporate-funded non-profit organizations – Just Label It (JLI) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

JLI, founded by Stonyfield Yogurt chairman Gary Hirshberg, and the EWG signaled their support for an agribusiness-supported alternative to actual GMO labeling, Quick Response (QR) codes, those inscrutable Rorschach-like images found on some product packaging.

The scanning of these speckled black squares with a smart phone and the appropriate app can provide more product information. These QR codes were sold as a solution to food labeling requirements and became an integral part of the Stabenow Bill. Millions of Americans are now discriminated against by not having smart phones and/or sufficient data plans.

The full Senate vote was only made possible when its backers invoked an obscure procedural gimmick that hadn’t been used in more than 40 years to push it forward.

Its next hurdle would be a cloture vote, a 60-vote threshold required to halt a filibuster and debate on a bill and force a final vote on the Senate floor. By early July grassroots organic and pro-labeling forces were mobilizing to fight the cloture vote.

The nation’s largest consumer organization, Consumer Reports, along with the Organic Consumers Association, the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, Cornucopia, and dozens of others were publicly calling on the Senate to reject the bill, hundreds of thousands of their members flooding Senate phone lines.

Key Senators also spoke out against the bill. And the Food and Drug Administration – the primary agency overseeing food labeling – issued a damning assessment of the bill’s many deficiencies.

Behind the scenes, the OTA and its leadership quietly worked for passage. This activity persuaded enough reluctant Democratic Senators to ignore what had become a loud call for rejection from fellow Senators, 286 public interest organizations, thousands of phone calls from the public, and broad condemnation by the organic community.

Along with executives from companies like Stonyfield, Organic Valley, Smuckers, WhiteWave, and Whole Foods, OTA lobbyists assured Senators that “the majority of the organic industry supported the Stabenow Bill.”

One senate staffer told the bill’s opponents that OTA’s lobbying convinced 15-20 senators who might have opposed the bill (and had opposed an earlier version of the DARK Act) to instead support it.

The corporate-organic industry sell-out facilitated a successful cloture vote that passed by a 65-32 margin. Senate and House passage of the actual bill followed shortly.

Aside from overriding state and local laws, what are some of the DARK Act’s other fundamental deficiencies?

• There is no requirement for on-package labeling of GMO foods.

• As many as 100 million Americans lack the ability to find out product specifics by not being able to access QR codes.

• The biotech-friendly USDA – not the FDA – is charged with creating the law’s actual labeling rules over the next two years.

• The bill leaves totally unclear what will be considered a GMO food and/or ingredient. According to the FDA, most foods typically thought of as being produced or made with GMO ingredients will not be covered by the bill’s narrow definition of genetic engineering. The USDA might raise the threshold for incidental GMO contamination from the currently accepted .09% to as high as 30% while still calling that non-GMO!

• The bill suggests that the USDA harmonize its ultimate definition of genetic engineering with the organic law’s definitions – something that could create a huge loophole into organic’s current strict prohibitions on GMO technology.

“The passage of this law will deny, for the foreseeable future, the right of most American’s to know what is in the food they are eating,” observes Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst, Mark Kastel. “It is vitally important that we double down on our efforts to protect the integrity of the organic label, the marketplace alternative to untested GMO technology.”

The Cornucopia Institute and a number of our allies in this fight are researching joining forces in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of some of the aspects of this draconian piece of legislation.

 

This week’s guest blog & newsletter post from The Cornucopia Institute.

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Snohomish Farm-Fish-Flood Initiative: Finding Common Ground

Published in the Everett Herald, Sun Sep 11th, 2016 1:30 am

Since the retreat of the Vashon Glacier 13,000 years ago, the area that is now Snohomish County has been one of the best places on earth to live. A rich tribal salmon culture flourished here for millennia; settlers came for timber, fish, and fertile farmland; cities grew up around natural ports on our protected inland sea.

But the “resource lands” of Snohomish County – the farms, forests, natural habitat, open space and parks – that make this such a productive and beautiful place to work and live are facing historic challenges. An additional 200,000 people are expected to move here within 30 years; a changing climate – bringing droughts, floods, reduced snowpack, and sea level rise – is impacting agriculture, fish, forests, and communities; salmon runs are crashing; and the political and economic demands upon farmers, tribes, agencies, and developers are unprecedented.

Despite this complex landscape, groups are coming together in the spirit of “collaborative conservation” to work towards win-win solutions. The recent Farm-to-Table dinner hosted by the Sustainable Land Strategy (SLS) Agriculture Caucus, Snohomish Conservation District, and the Snohomish County Farm Bureau brought together a remarkably diverse 75-person group that included tribal leaders, flood control and drainage districts, big and small farmers, conservation groups, and high-level government officials, from County Executive Dave Somers to Puget Sound Partnership Director Sheida Sahandy and the Conservation Commission’s Mark Clark. On a pastoral 100 year-old farm on the banks of the Snohomish River, individuals shared their stories and their fears, listened to others’ perspectives, and experienced first-hand what exactly is at stake.

For over six years, the Snohomish County Sustainable Lands Strategy (SLS) has been providing a multi-stakeholder forum for identifying “net-gains” for simultaneously preserving and enhancing agriculture and salmon habitat.

The SLS, and similar regional “multi-benefit” initiatives like the public-private Floodplains by Design partnership between TNC, Ecology, and the Puget Sound Partnership, are based on the premise that science, collaboration, and coordinated investment can begin to bring together historically opposed groups, and address fish-farm-flood needs in a comprehensive way.

The benefits of this approach are beginning to emerge. The SLS brought together Lower Skykomish farmers, Tulalip Tribes, and other stakeholders to utilize reach-scale assessments and GIS maps to overlay potential habitat restoration areas, flood mitigation and drainage projects, and water quality sites. The Stillaguamish Tribe worked with the City of Stanwood, the Stillaguamish Flood Control District, and farmers to create a package of seven multi-benefit projects that received full funding under the Washington State Legislature’s Floodplains by Design program.

The SLS and its partners are also developing innovative models around conservation easements and the purchasing of development rights, incentives for stewardship practices, and climate resiliency planning.

In recognition of the efforts to advance this collaborative conservation model, and the national significance of our resource land base, the President recently designated the Snohomish basin as one of four focus areas under the federal Resilient Lands and Waters Initiative. The timely potential for positive impacts within our communities and ecosystems has never been greater or more imperative. We are all coming to the table with different needs but a common agenda: the long-term stewardship of these lands, and of our future.

Tristan Klesick, Klesick Family Farms, SLS Co-Chair

Terry Williams, Tulalip Tribes, SLS Co-Chair

Monte Marti, Snohomish Conservation District Manager

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If only I had been paying attention…

This has been a remarkable farm season. The weather has been neither too harsh nor too kind. We have had to irrigate very little and the crops have grown well.

It has been a crazy three weeks. We just finished harvesting green, yellow and purple beans. Originally, I had planted two different plantings, with a fairly healthy gap between them. The cool weather in May/June essentially slowed one planting down and so the later planting caught right up. It is sort a like when the outgoing tide meets the incoming tide and everything rises at that moment!

Thanks for eating green beans. We picked over 2,000 lbs. and our customers ate most of them. I can say most of them because green beans are one of those crops that gets “grazed” on a regular basis. They might not be as sweet as raspberries, but when beans are on, they are the preferred snack at Klesick Farms!

This week is a little quieter from our farm. Italian prunes and chard in most boxes; walnuts, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and peppers in smaller quantities. Then there are the cucumbers. This year we planted a new variety called Silver Slicers. They are a white-skinned cucumber and super delish! I planted about 100 seeds at two different times and, oh my word, those little cucurbits make cucumbers faster than rabbits make rabbits, if you get my drift. They are the most productive cucumber I have ever grown.

Ironically, I would have never grown these, if I had been paying attention. Early in the spring I was talking with Ada, my seed representative from High Mowing Organic seeds. We were talking back and forth about what varieties grew well in greenhouse environments and did well in last year’s seed trials. We decided on Manny, a beautiful smooth green-skinned cucumber. Ada also mentioned that Silver Slicers did really well in the trials, too. Because I am always willing to try a new variety, I ordered and split the plantings.

Well, since Ada and I were talking about cucumbers, it didn’t dawn on me that the Silver Slicers were not GREEEEN! Imagine my surprise when they starting “setting” fruit that was white! Talk about a mini heart attack! My mind raced through all the prep work, the fertilizer blend, weather patterns, and I asked myself, “What was wrong? How come they are not green? Is my soil deficient in nutrients?” Thankfully, a quick check-in with Ada calmed my mini crisis. She assured me that the Silver Slicer is a white-skinned cucumber.

I am now so thankful for that oversight. The world has plenty of green cucumbers, so I will make the Silver Slicer a staple for Klesick Farms and we can all enjoy them this year and next!

Thanks for eating locally grown food. You are making a difference one bite at a time for your health and the health of our community.

Farmer Tristan

 

 

Recipe: Mexican Style Grilled Corn

Ingredients:

3-5 ears of corn, husked 6 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, or to taste ½ teaspoon chili powder, or to taste Salt and freshly ground black pepper Cotija or feta cheese

Directions:

Prepare a grill, with heat medium-high and rack about 4 inches from the fire. Put corn on grill and cook until kernels begin to char, about 5 minutes, then turn. Continue cooking and turning until all sides are slightly blackened.

Mix together mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder and some salt and pepper in a small bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more lime juice or chili powder if you like. Serve corn with chili-lime mayo and sprinkle with cotija or feta cheese.

Recipe adapted from cooking.nytimes.com

 

Know Your Produce: Plums

Domestic plums are crimson to black-red with a yellow or reddish flesh; they are in season May through October. High in vitamin C, plums are packed with disease-fighting antioxidants. They’re sweet and delicious—which is why highly desirable things are called “plum.”

Store: If too firm to use, place in a closed paper bag at room temperature for one to two days. Once ripe, plums can be kept in a plastic bag in the refrigerator up to three days. Refrigerating plums before they’re ripe results in a mealy texture, so allow firm fruit to ripen at room temperature up to 2 days.

Prep: Remove the pit by slicing all the way around the fruit, starting at the stem end. Rotate each half and the pit should come free.

Use: Plums pair well with both sweet and savory foods and make an excellent accompaniment for cheese, chocolate, and dessert wines.

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Why???

I am not surprised that the Senate and House of Representatives cast their votes to send the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act to President Obama to sign, but I am saddened that President Obama signed it, and so willingly!

Essentially, for all of its purported good, it does nothing to protect the health of Americans and will not cause any meaningful information to be labeled on foods manufactured using GMOs. The DARK Act is wasted time and energy and is meaningless legislation that does nothing for America’s health or environmental crises. It does allow corporations an escape hatch when it comes to GMOs and more than a few elected officials to “pat” themselves on their backs. The biotech farms and grocery manufacturers of American lobbies are powerful—they wield heavy swords. The congressional and presidential backbone to stand up and protect the environment or our health doesn’t get any of them reelected.

Well, common sense tells me that something is amiss. What is amiss is that our food supply is over processed and laden with empty calories, and the DARK Act does nothing to help consumers (sometimes called constituents) get better information to make more informed healthy food choices. I understand the game. However, it would have been nice if Congress would have changed the rules and required real information through legislation, but they didn’t! Shocking (wink, wink)! It’s sad, but that’s okay, I can live with it. Congress can do all the grandstanding they want. Monsanto, the sugar lobby, and the GMA can spin and spin to their hearts’ content on how their products are safe. That is what they have always done. It is good for their profits, though not good for your health or the environment. The only things that have changed are: 1) the aforementioned companies and lobbies will no longer have to spend millions of dollars of their profits to fight labeling laws state by state and 2) the states, which is you and me, now have less control.

The fact that Congress even remotely toyed with passing a GMO labeling bill tells me that healthy-minded consumers have been putting the “hurt” on some multinational food and chemical companies. All we need to do is keep the pressure on their profit streams and continue to not support their products with our dollars. So in essence, the game hasn’t changed and the players are still the same. It is still us against them.

As for the Klesick family? We are going to continue to support companies that are committed to organic and GMO-free principles. I am not confused or deceived by their advertising or the new DARK Act passed by Congress.

Let’s continue to work together by saying “Yes” to better food companies and we will continue to change our food system for everyone just by eating. The last time I checked, you are free to eat whatever you want, so let’s exercise that freedom one bite at a time.

We are changing the food system!

Farmer Tristan

 

 

Recipe: Roasted Beets and Carrots with Rosemary Butter

Ingredients:

1 bunch beets, greens removed, peeled and cubed

1 bunch carrots, greens removed, peeled and cubed

3 tablespoons butter or ghee

3 garlic cloves, mashed

½ teaspoon dried rosemary

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Place the beets in a large mixing bowl, and the carrots in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. (Mixing the roots separately keeps the carrots from turning pink from beet juice.)

3. Place the butter or ghee in a microwave-safe coffee mug and add the garlic. Microwave until the butter is melted. Stir in the dried rosemary.

4. Pour half of the melted butter mixture over the beets, and pour half over the carrots. Sprinkle generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss each of the root vegetables to coat them with the butter mixture.

5. Dump the beets into the baking dish with the carrots.

6. Roast for 55 minutes, stirring halfway through.

7. Serve.

Recipe adapted from paleomg.com

 

 

Know Your Produce: Starkrimson Pears

Starkrimson pears are a summer pear variety that is excellent for fresh eating and salads or paired with a strong cheese like blue cheese or goat cheese. The striking crimson color of Starkrimson pears makes it a great choice for coloring up a green salad.

Unlike most other fruits, pears ripen from the inside out, so by the time they are soft on the outside the inside flesh may be overripe and mealy. Leave unripe pears at room temperature in order to induce ripening. To speed up the ripening process, place pears in a brown paper bag. This traps ethylene (a naturally occurring gas) which pears produce as they ripen. To determine if a pear is ripe, check the neck of the pear daily. Apply gentle pressure with your thumb to the stem end of the fruit. Once it gives slightly to pressure it is ripe and ready to enjoy.

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Miss Moo, the Family Milk Cow

There was a time when the Klesick family had a milk cow, and not any cow, but a Jersey milk cow. Her name was Miss Moo. Jersey milk cows are smaller than Holsteins and their milk is slightly higher in butterfat, which makes it, dare I say, more flavorful. The milk wasn’t free though, for she had to be cleaned and brushed, and provided clean bedding and fresh hay, but in exchange she gave us rich nutritious milk twice a day, EVERY DAY! Hmm…thinking back to those days, I am not sure who the owner was, Miss Moo or me.

Oh Miss Moo—she was quite the character and loved to have her ears scratched. One of the kiddos referred to her as a real “lubber dubber.” Even though Miss Moo was a brown cow, she produced copious amounts of white milk. This totally shattered our young’uns’ hopes for chocolate milk, but they soon got over it, especially when we would make ice cream, yogurt, or cheese.

With non-homogenized milk, the cream really does rise to the top. This is often called a “cream plug.” The cream can be loosened and shaken back into the milk, but we would skim the cream plug off for a few days and then make butter from it. Every so often we would set out to make a little whipped cream, get a little over zealous, and, voila, we’d end up with butter instead :)! You can’t over shake the cream, unless you want some butter, that is.

A real family favorite was making “squeaky” cheese from our milk. We would heat up the whole milk, add a little lemon juice to help the milk curdle and form curds, drain off the whey, and salt the curds and enjoy. It is called squeaky cheese because, well, it sort of “squeaks” when you rub it between your fingers or bite it. I’ve included the recipe (below).

I often look back on those days with Miss Moo and fresh Jersey milk with fondness. Recently, Larry, from Twin Brook Creamery, asked if I would be willing to carry his milk. I paused and thought long and hard. I love that Twin Brook is pretty much a grass-based dairy, l love that the milk is ultra-fresh, I love that the milk is from Jerseys, I love that it is milk from one local herd and not a thousand herds, and I love that it is not homogenized. Although I am not a milkman, at the heart of Klesick Farms is good food, and the more local the better. So, after some serious thought, we added local milk delivery from a local dairy to our offerings.

Now, once again, I am making cheese and yogurt, but this time Larry gets to milk the cows. That is a fair trade in my book. Enjoy!

Farmer Tristan

 

 

Recipe: Squeaky Cheese

Ingredients:

2 quarts of milk

1/4 cup vinegar, lemon juice or lime juice

Butter muslin

Directions:

1. Heat the milk to 185 degrees F, then remove from heat.

2. Add the vinegar slowly while stirring, until curd forms. The milk will curdle almost immediately once the vinegar is added.

3. Once the milk has finished curdling, either skim the curds from the pot or strain them through a colander.

4. Tie the cords of the butter muslin together and hang the cheese where it can drain for several hours.

5. After draining you can either use it as is or go on to make queso blanco.

 

Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes for the BBQ

Ingredients:

4 red potatoes, thinly sliced 1 large onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 1/4 cup butter, cubed Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat grill for medium heat.

2. Layer sliced potatoes on aluminum foil with the onion, garlic, basil, and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Fold foil around the potatoes to make a packet.

3. Place potato packet on heated grill over indirect heat, and cook for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Turn over packet halfway through cooking.

-adapted from allrecipes.com

 

Know Your Produce: Potatoes

Add a little whole milk to our freshly dug potatoes and turn them into mashed potatoes for dinner this week and you will be in for a special treat.

This week we are digging extremely fresh potatoes from the farm. You will notice that the skins are not set on the potatoes and will easily rub off. Don’t be alarmed because this is normal for freshly dug spuds. The freshness also means that they won’t keep as long either.

I will often boil the spuds one day and make hash browns the next or a potato salad. My favorite way to eat them is cubed. For this, placed the cubed potatoes in an 9” x 12” baking pan with salt, pepper, parsley, and olive oil. Mix them up and bake at 425 degrees F. They rarely make it to the table in the Klesick household!

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Now Delivering: Farm-fresh Milk from Twin Brook Creamery

In case you missed it…here are the need-to-know details on fresh, local, all-natural dairy, delivered to you.

We’re now offering local milk products from Twin Brook Creamery in Lynden, Washington. You can now add whole, 2%, and 1% milk, half and half, and whipping cream to a regular delivery!

Shop the local dairy section here.

Order Deadlines:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday customers: Orders are due by 8:00 a.m. the Friday before your delivery day.

Friday and Saturday customers: Orders are due by 8:00 a.m. the Wednesday before your delivery day.

Not sure what your delivery day is? See our delivery areas guide here.

Free delivery with a box of good order, or if you’re not getting a box of produce each week, our minimum order for free delivery is just $20. Consider adding your milk order on a weekly or bi-weekly rotation and you’ll never have to remember the milk again!

What you need to know:

Twin Brook Creamery products are:
  • All natural and GMO-free.
  • Local.
  • Non-homogenized.
  • No synthetic hormones used (such as RBST).
  • No commercial fertilizer or pesticides used on our grass fields or pastures.
  • Kosher certified.

Although Twin Brook Creamery is not certified organic, they produce a high quality natural product that is free from synthetic hormones (such as RBST) that artificially stimulate growth or milk production. Because they strive not to feed any GMO feeds to their cows, their grass fields and pastures are free from commercial fertilizers or pesticides, and any concentrate supplements they have to buy for their animals’ health, so as to give them a balanced diet, are non-GMO whenever possible (e.g., they use barley instead of corn as an energy source). Twin Brook Creamery strives to be the best possible stewards of the land, providing wildlife habitat and using the best management practices that are available.

Note: Leave your clean empty glass bottle(s) out on your next delivery day to avoid a $2 bottle fee.

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Local Milk and Honey

We are excited to now offer local milk products from Twin Brook Creamery in Lynden, Washington. You can now add whole, 2%, and 1% milk, half and half, and whipping cream to your regular delivery. Twin Brook milk comes in old fashioned glass bottles, is non-homogenized (the cream rises to the top), is pasteurized using the low temperature vat pasteurization method, and is kosher. They process milk in their freshly renovated bottling facility from their own purebred registered Jersey cows. Jerseys produce milk with a higher protein and butterfat content, which greatly enhances the flavor.

Although Twin Brook Creamery is not certified organic, they produce a high quality natural product that is free from synthetic hormones (such as RBST) that artificially stimulate growth or milk production. Because they strive not to feed any GMO feeds to their cows, their grass fields and pastures are free from commercial fertilizers or pesticides, and any concentrate supplements they have to buy for their animals’ health, so as to give them a balanced diet, are non-GMO whenever possible (e.g., they use barley instead of corn as an energy source). Twin Brook Creamery strives to be the best possible stewards of the land, providing wildlife habitat and using the best management practices that are available.

You can find Twin Brook Creamery products on our website under the “Dairy” category. When ordering dairy products, please keep the following in mind:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday customers: Orders are due by 8:00 a.m. the Friday before your delivery day.

Friday and Saturday customers: Orders are due by 8:00 a.m. the Wednesday before your delivery day.

We are also happy to once again offer local raw honey. Our honey is the product of hard working Snohomish County bees and Mike and Christa Miller of Sunshine Honey Company. The honey comes in 12 oz. and 25.6 oz. glass jars. We also offer certified organic honey from Brazil. Honey can be found on our website under the “Grocery” category and under “Sweetners.”

 

Farmer Tristan

 

 

 

Recipe: Greek Marinated Grilled Vegetables

Grilled vegetables are marinated with fresh herbs, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil to create a simple and delicious side dish. Great roasted or broiled as well.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant – sliced in ½ inch rounds

1 large zucchini – sliced on the diagonal

1 large (or 2 small) pattypan squash – sliced in ½ inch rounds

¼ cup olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves – grated

½ teaspoon salt

Pinch red chili flakes

¼ cup fresh mint – minced

¼ cup fresh oregano – minced

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat grill on medium-high heat.

2. Place eggplant, zucchini and pattypan squash in a large bowl and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, salt, chili flakes, mint and mint oregano. Pour mixture over the sliced vegetables and toss well to coat.

4. Grill vegetables until soft and slightly charred, about 8-10 minutes flipping once halfway through.

Notes: Dried herbs work fine if you don’t have fresh on hand. Simply use half of the amount listed for fresh since dried herbs are more potent.

From Liz DellaCroce | TheLemonBowl.com

 

Know Your Produce: Summer Squash

here are numerous varieties of summer squash, ranging from dark green to bright yellow, long to stubby, smooth to lumpy to ridged. Unlike winter squash, these varieties of summer squash have soft, thin skin that is perfectly edible, with varying degrees of light to dense flesh. Some varieties are: zucchini, round zucchini, pattypan, crookneck, zephyr, cousa, tatuma, gourmet globe, tinda, and luffa.

Summer squash is technically not any one vegetable, but comprises many different cultivars of a few different species of edible plant. It also is actually classified as a fruit – a “pepo” or type of berry with a hard outer rind.

Summer squash can be eaten raw or cooked, and have a mild flavor that can range from sweet to nutty, and though the difference in flavor between varieties is subtle, it’s distinct. Summer squash can be grilled, steamed, boiled, sautéed, fried, or used in stir-fry recipes. They mix well with onions and tomatoes in vegetable medleys. Summer squash can be used interchangeably in most recipes. Some types of summer squash can give off a lot of moisture, so depending upon your recipe, you may need to blot grated or cut squash to absorb some of the moisture. Use them within three to four days of purchase for their best taste and texture.

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#fueledbyklesickfarms continues

newsletterWe have received some great pics from you and would love to generate a few more before we draw a winner! A winner? Yes, a winner. We are hosting a raffle to draw one person on July 31st that will win a month of free produce ($112 value). All you have to do is snap a photo and tag the photo with #fueledbyklesickfarms and #optoutside and we will find it and enter your name into the raffle. And in addition to entering your name, you will receive free blueberries with your next delivery! So don’t be bashful, share that special shot from the beach, mountain tops, a sprinkler, etc.*

Joelle and I have had a fun-filled summer, seizing every opportunity to get outside and enjoy the beautiful area in which we live. Some getaways we plan, and others we, literally, wrestle ourselves away from the farm on a moment’s notice! We have to do both strategies or it just won’t happen. Life and farming are both relentless task masters. Planning, as well as taking advantage of opportunities as they come, assuage the taskmaster for a little while.

Last week we had a planned trip to Northern Idaho with the NYC relatives that came for a visit. Can you say cousin time? We had three full days of swimming, swinging, basketball, tennis, golf, paddle board and kayak adventures. Northern Idaho is beautiful.

Though Northern Idaho is a trek, Winthrop is a whole lot closer and has the same feel as Northern Idaho. Plus, you can visit Cascadian Farms to get some fresh organic blueberries and stop by the stunning Washington Pass Overlook, which has a good ADA trail with some incredible vista views. Make it a day trip.

I encourage you to get outside and enjoy this beautiful spot we call home and create some memories. The laundry will be there when you get home and so will the lawn (and weeds). Summer is short, so enjoy it!

As a side note, this week we are putting “green” garlic in some of the boxes of good food. Most of the time garlic has been “cured” and will store for several months. We are not curing the garlic, which means you need to use it this week. I would encourage you to roast it or stir fry with it, but use it right away. I popped a clove into a berry/spinach smoothie earlier this week. Just a hint of garlic, nice!

Farmer Tristan

 

What are the details? It is simple, while you are hanging from a rock or kayaking on the sound or watching/playing soccer or baseball anything outdoors this summer, snap a photo and use both #fueledbyklesickfarms and#optoutside in your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram post and we will find it and send you Free Berries with your next delivery.* And for everyone who uses the above two #tags in their outdoor photo, we will enter your name to win A Month of Free Produce. So start uploading those photos and share your summer fun!

Please note: if you are using Facebook or Instagram, you may need to post or message directly to our page if you prefer to keep your post settings from an audience that’s public. Otherwise, we can’t see your pics!

*Must be current Klesick Farms customer. Berries are: 1 pkg. free blueberries, while supplies last, if n/a, other berries may be substituted. Offer runs now – July 31, 2016. Limit one entry, and one delivery of berries, per customer, per week. A month of free produce value of $112.

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What’s New?

What’s new is that it’s July and I am wondering what happened to June!? It looks like chilly June is going to carry over into July. Sorry tomatoes and peppers, maybe August will be your month!

After last year, I made a conscious decision to plant heat-loving crops early and take advantage of the changing climate. That decision has not worked out so well. The tomatoes and peppers look like they want to put on my wool sweater, but I am not giving up :).

Speaking of tomatoes, I planted 200 Early Girl/Stupice type red tomatoes. I got them all caged up and cleaned up and growing in the right direction and now there are a few starting to ripen, but they are ripening orange! I apparently transplanted orange tomatoes. They taste great, but that is not what I was expecting to grow.

For the last few months, I have been looking at those plants and wondering about them, I knew they were “setting” fruit differently, but with the cool, wet weather, I just chalked it up to climate change. So this year we are growing Klesick Farm’s tasty orange colored tomatoes. #ithappens #ohmy #atleasttheyarestilltomatoes

Another telltale sign indicating that I guessed wrong about the weather this season was the cucumbers. They were direct seeded in early May…and GERMINATED LAST WEEK! Seriously, that is a head-scratcher, but they are up and growing now. Thankfully, I planted some cucumbers in the greenhouses also, and they are happy – really happy. I mean, they are rivaling Jack-and-the-Bean-Stock happy. Long story short, cucumbers are going to be in the boxes of good food, picked daily and delivered daily.

This week we are putting a lot of Klesick Farms-harvested good food in the boxes. We use a KF next to items from our farm on the newsletter, and an * next to other local NW farms’ fruits and veggies. So this week, my crew and I are picking, packing and delivering chard, chives, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, lettuce and a few raspberries.

We are also getting cherries and carrots from two other organic growers that I have been working with since 1997! Those are some seriously long relationships. All of our customers – some since 1997 – have nourished their families with these farmers’ produce as well.

We are a different kind of food system; a more sustainable, more earth-friendly option – as we have been for the last two decades – helping families to eat better food and feel better about the food they eat.

Bon Appétit!

Farmer Tristan

 

Recipe: Indian Roasted Potato Salad with Chard

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs. potatoes, halved and/or quartered

3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

1 Tbs. ground turmeric

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 bunch chard, shredded (or cut into thin ribbons)

2 Tbs. Greek yogurt

2 Tbs. lemon juice (more if desired) salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Place the diced potatoes on a large baking sheet, covered in foil. Toss with 1 tablespoon oil, turmeric, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Slide into a 400°F oven and roast for 30-40 minutes, or until browned all over and tender, tossing halfway through.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, remaining oil, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

3. In a large bowl place the ribboned chard and roasted potatoes. Drizzle with the lemon dressing and toss to coat.

4. Serve garnished with fresh parsley or basil, if desired. Or even bacon bits!

Recipe from bevcooks.com

 

Know Your Produce: Chard

Chard has large, fleshy but tender deep green leaves and thick, crisp stalks. Although they’re unrelated, chard is similar to spinach, but with a stronger, more assertive (some think, bitter) flavour.

Different types of chard have different coloured stalks and ribs. Some stalks are white, some are a golden orange and some are red (called ruby or rhubarb chard) – there’s even rainbow chard. There’s very little difference in taste, but ruby and rhubarb chard can have a slightly stronger flavour.

Prepare: The leaf and the stalks should be cooked separately. Wash, then cut the stalks from the leaves and either leave whole or chop, depending upon your recipe. On some older leaves you may need to cut the ribs out of the leaves, too.

Cook: Leaves: boil (1-2 minutes); steam (3-4 minutes). Stems: stir-fry (around 2 minutes); boil (3-4 minutes); steam (4-5 minutes); roast (10 minutes).

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Perspectives

I am currently visiting my homeland of Peru. I was born and raised here – from kindergarten to college, Peru was my only home. At age 25, I moved to the United Stated to get my graduate degree and planned on returning to Peru after a few years living abroad. I eventually met Brad, who, three and a half weeks later, became my husband and just like that, I became a first generation immigrant! I never really thought of myself that way until about a month ago, when I was asked to write my “Defining Moment.” Now, I have two homelands, both with room for growth, both full of wonderful people willing to spread goodness and happiness around the world.

At first sight Lima, Peru can be chaotic, loud and cloudy. Lima is a city full of contradictions. It sits in the desert, right next to the ocean. It is the second richest land in natural resources and is still categorized as a developing country. It also happens to be GMO-free.

One of the first things I do every time I come to Peru is visit a farmers market. What used to be an everyday way of life has now become a weekend event, in an effort to remind us of where it all comes from. Foods I grew up eating (and forgot about over time) are the stars of the show. Some I loved, like lucuma, forte avocado and chirimoya, and some I avoided, like the beloved quinoa, amaranth and noni. Today, I cherish them all.

By moving away, I learned to appreciate what I have here. Cooking became comforting – a way of staying closer to home even though I was thousands of miles away. I found that keeping our culinary traditions alive was a way of keeping Peru always in my heart. In my constant search for fresh ingredients, I am reminded that no matter where I am, every civilization begins with agriculture.

Human communities, no matter how sophisticated, cannot ignore the importance of agriculture. To be far from dependable sources of food is to risk malnutrition and starvation. In modern times, in our urban cities, it’s easy to forget this fundamental connection. Insulated by the apparent abundance of food that has come from new technologies for the growing, transportation and storage of food, humanity’s fundamental dependence on agriculture is often overlooked.

All this to say, let’s share with those around us the importance of supporting our local farmers. Locally grown food not only tastes better, it was probably picked within the past day or two. It’s crisp, sweet and loaded with flavor. In addition, local food supports local farm families everywhere. For example, with fewer than one million Americans now claiming farming as their primary occupation, farmers are a vanishing breed. Therefore, local food is about the future. By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow, and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, and abundant food.

Sara Balcazar-Greene (aka. Peruvian Chick)
Peruvian Food Ambassador
peruvianchick.com
instagram.com/peruvianchick
facebook.com/theperuvianchick