Henry’s CSA

Food & Farm Notes

Week 26 – November 20, 2007

 

In Your Share This Week:

Sweet Potatoes

Leeks

Mesclun

Choice of: Lettuce or Spinach

Choice of: a selection of Chois

Choice of: Sunchokes or Burdock

Choice of: Daikon or Salad Turnips (white and red)

 

PLUS K Lots of storage Vegetables for the coming weeks and months. Don’t complain about having to shop at Jewel -- bring your checkbook or extra cash and stock up!

 

PLUS K As a big Thank You for being a CSA member this year, you get The Land Connection’s Farmer-Annotated (mostly Henry-Annotated) 2008 calendar at half price. With this calendar on your wall, you’ll know exactly what Henry is doing each week of the year -- when the massive seed order arrives, when the first tomato seeds are planted in the greenhouse, when they are transplanted to the field, when they are mulched and trellised, and when to expect the first tomatoes . . . and much more. For a preview take a look at http://www.thelandconnection.org/get_involved/calendar.cfm

 

Regularly $20, The Land Connection is giving CSA members a 25% discount, and Henry is picking up another 25%, meaning you pay only $10 per calendar. These calendars are available tomorrow ONLY – and only at the Bloomington Pick-up. They make great holiday gifts, so buy more than one.

 

Members at other pick-up locations, please send a check, with your mailing information, to The Land Connection, 1227 Dodge, Suite 200, Evanston, IL 60202. Be sure to identify yourself as a member of Henry’s CSA, and we’ll mail your calendars to you right away.

 

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LAST CHANCE to Sign up for Next Year’s CSA!

 

Henry has been getting calls and emails from new folks interested in joining the CSA next year. Before he tells them Yes or No, he has to hear Yes or No from you. It seems that about 50% of you are waiting until the last minute, and that minute is now here, so let Henry know tomorrow, or your slot will be given to a new member. By bringing your check tomorrow, you will lock in this year’s price ($364), and ensure that you will not be wait-listed for next year’s CSA. THANK YOU!

 

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Last announcement K On Tuesday, Nov. 27, please join Terra (humble author of these Food & Farm Notes) plus local farmers (as many as I can find – Bill Davison of the Blue Schoolhouse Farm, maybe Henry, maybe Teresa, maybe the Wettsteins . . . ) at 7:30 p.m. in the Cerf Center at Eureka College.

 

We will speak about the many benefits of growing and eating local organic foods -- improving personal health, environmental health, and the economic health of the community.  We’d love to have CSA members there as part of the Q/A and discussion.

 

I will also describe the groundbreaking local food policies in Woodbury County, Iowa, which have made organic farming a large part of the county's economic development. With your help, we can take similar actions here in Central Illinois. See http://www.woodbury-ia.com/ and http://www.woodburyorganics.com and campus calendar at http://www.eureka.edu/

 

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FARM NOTES: Last CSA . . . Giving Thanks

 

We have once again had the pleasure of traveling with you from spring equinox to summer solstice to autumn equinox . . . and as we wind up yet another growing season, old bittersweet feelings return. There is sadness that the season of growth is over, and that green life will soon sink into black earth--that divine sepulcher of deeper life--to be covered by a warm blanket of white snow. But, at the same time, there is the quiet sense of completion.

 

The completion and fulfillment come from the turning of the seasons, and also from the partnership between you, our CSA members, and the many hands that worked the soil, planted the seeds, hoed the long rows, mulched them, staked the tomatoes, and harvested, harvested, harvested . . . to bring, literally, tons of good food to your tables.

 

Those hands include Henry’s and Hiroko’s, their children Asa’s, Zoe’s, and Kazami’s. Also our parents’ Herman’s (champion potato-digger) and Marlene’s (champion tomato-sorter). And farmhand Matt’s. And intern Courtney’s. And Andy’s. And many others . . . our Nature Conservancy friends Bob and Renee ... and so many others. All these hands create a brief, simple, and perfectly transparent food chain that links us to each other and to the earth.

 

If you’ve been to Henry’s Farm (or even to the website, www.henrysfarm.com), you know and can picture the oak-hickory forested hills surrounding the rich bowl of bottomland that nourished the vegetables that are nourishing you. Producing and eating good local food is a wonderful way to engage the world that sustains us. Like all the best pleasures, the pleasure of a real meal is based on knowledge. We don’t give you “happy meals”, but “real meals.” Through these Food & Farm Notes, and through talking with Henry and the workers at the market, you know the true cost of this food, the precise sacrifice of time and energy it entails. And you can rest assured that your meals have been fully paid for, with no environmental or social justice debts outstanding.

 

The diversity and beauty of Henry’s and Teresa’s CSAs mirror the diversity and beauty of nature. As Michael Pollan reminds us: “We eat by the grace of nature, not industry, and what we’re eating is never anything more or less than the body of the world.”

 

 

SONG OF THE TASTE

by Gary Snyder, from Regarding Wave

 

Eating the living germs of grasses

Eating the ova of large birds

    the fleshy sweetness packed

    around the sperm of swaying trees

The muscles of the flanks and thighs of

                 soft-voiced cows

    the bounce in the lamb's leap

    the swish in the ox's tail

 

Eating roots grown swoll

                inside the soil

 

Drawing on life of living

    clustered points of light spun

                out of space

hidden in the grape.

 

Eating each other's seed

                      eating

    ah, each other.

 

Kissing the lover in the mouth of bread:

                      lip to lip.

 

 

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Food NOTES: Amazing Greens, how sweet they taste . . .

All this last week, Henry and the crew have been on rescue missions -- busily cutting and pulling your produce out of frost’s way. The autumn greens – chois, kales, collards, and especially the lettuces and spinaches – Henry has declared to be in “record-breaking amounts,” so enjoy and give thanks to the fertile earth, with a nervous nod to global warming.

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Sweet Potatoes

It turned out to be a better sweet potato year than Henry expected, so they’ll be a lot in your share, with extras for sale. Henry cures all the sweet potatoes so that they will last perfectly for months if you keep them a dark, dry place, between 60 and 72 degrees. We were eating perfect sweet potatoes clear into April this year.

 

Leeks

Leeks have been around for a very long time. The ancient Romans were particularly fond of them. The first century Roman Cookery of Apicius includes seventeen recipes for leeks. Among them are fabulous-sounding dishes such as leeks stewed with shell beans in white wine, beets and leeks in raisin sauce, leeks and celery poached with honey and pepper, leek sauce with pepper for braised meats, fish fillets with leeks and coriander, and leeks with truffles. The Roman tradition continues all over Europe and the Middle East, where nearly every shopper’s market basket contains a pound or more of leeks. Large leeks are good for stuffing and for making soups. But small or medium leeks like the ones Henry is bringing have a much better texture and taste.

 

Daikon

Daikon have a medium bite when raw, but are very mellow when cooked. Raw daikon can be grated, slivered, diced, or sliced to add its crunch and zip to relishes and salads. For salads, thin-sliced daikon is especially good with carrot and sesame (seeds and/or oil). Stir-fried daikon slices, strips, or cubes are turnipy-sweet. Chunks of daikon boiled briefly in miso or another broth make a mild and delicious soup.

 

And for an uncommon cure to the common cold, try Mrs. Takayasu’s wonderful Daikon with Lemon: Thinly slice half moons of equal amounts of lemon and daikon. Add sugar to taste. Let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Eat the lemon and daikon and drink the liquid – they’ll cure whatever ails you!

 

Lettuces

Fall lettuce, like fall spinach, is extraordinarily tasty. And, because it’s gone through a fair bit of cold weather, it will keep well for weeks in your refrigerator.

 

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It is good to give thanks, at all times and in many ways. Especially at this time of Thanksgiving, we give heartfelt thanks to all of you who enable us and all our local farmer friends and neighbors to do what we do. As you sit with your loved ones this Thanksgiving and count your blessings, join us in our Thanksgiving Tradition -- count up the number of local foods on the holiday table, and do good while eating well!

 

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