Winter Produce—Box-by-Box
We are so lucky. From early spring to late fall, the Rogue Valley Growers Market puts organic, locally-grown produce at our fingertips. In an earlier post, I wrote about this twice-weekly bounty, a feast for the body, eyes, and the soul—also a gathering that brings small farmers and the community together.
In winter, the gears change. For Tony and me and other neighbors who have bought shares in the Barking Moon Farm Winter CSA program,the harvest—now entirely cold weather and root crops—arrives every two weeks in a large plastic box with our name on it. The boxes are stacked at the end of the driveway next to a small house a mile from ours. It’s so low key that we missed the “pick-up” spot the first time. The system is simple: You identify your box, transfer the takings into the canvas bags you (should) have brought, and return your box to the “emptied” stack.
A national program called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) makes this possible. A local farmer offers a certain number of “shares” in his or her farm to the public, local consumers buy a share and, in exchange, they receive a box of local, fresh, and seasonal produce directly from the farm. Many CSAs work throughout the growing season (in some places, year-round). Here, in Southern Oregon, there are three CSAs, but only Barking Moon focuses on winter vegetables (December-February) when the Rogue Valley Growers Market is closed.
It’s a win-win situation. Shareholders receive fresh organic vegetables during the winter season when locally grown produce is rare in area grocery stores. For small farms like Barking Moon, the winter investment from customers helps fund seed purchases, employees, supplies, equipment, cultivation, and planting for the winter and the following spring.
“As farmers, our challenges vary from year to year,” said Josh Cohen, who started Barking Moon Farm with his wife, Melissa, 13 years ago, he with a degree in environmental studies and she in agriculture. “We don’t get to pick our challenges.” But they can pick a strategy.
Five years ago. Josh and Melissa halved their acreage from ten to five acres—countering the prevailing paradigm for new farmers to “get big or get out.” The bold decision is paying off. Three years ago, they invested in cold weather crops and the Winter CSA program. December through January is now Barking Moon Farm’s biggest quarter.
After each bi-weekly box, Barking Moon sends out to shareholders an email with news, a list of the items in the delivery, and recipes.
Here’s the latest. (Note the cutworm in the carrots, one of those unforeseen challenges that can devastate a small farm.)
Greetings!
…And a slightly belated welcome to Box 4 of the Winter CSA season! Not to mention the deep dark of winter! Happenings to make note of from the last two weeks include:
1. We decided to deliver a limited run of our winter sweet carrots to the Ashland Food Coop and Shop n’ Kart over the next four weeks. We normally sell carrots to almost a dozen retailers throughout the Rogue Valley for the duration of winter, but we had a small setback this year. After seeding and weeding our 1.5-acre carrot patch last July, we lost an acre of that crop over the course of three days to a pest caterpillar called a cutworm. We were able to control the pest population after much research and accepting the reality of our situation, and were able to re-seed the area almost a month later, resulting in a lower yielding crop for us. While we prioritize our carrots for YOU! and our farmers market shoppers, we felt confident that there was enough to spare a few for the stores. As this has been a huge financial setback for us, it’s really neat to be reminded how the diversity of production that is built in to our business model can buffer us from even catastrophic losses like this one.
2. We are losing Jeremy and Saiesha, two of our great employees, to Arizona come February 1st. While we will be sad to lose them both, we are excited for the farming opportunities they will encounter in the southwest. If you know of any experienced market farmers, send them our way!
3. Rain!!! Real rain, followed by some dry weather which is why we live in the Rogue Valley! Not the wet Pacific Northwest, and not the desertified NorCal ecotone.
Other than that, life is good. The Barking Moon Farm family is starting to look ahead and begin to formulate some serious plans for this upcoming spring break. Desert time, a.k.a. our favorite time!
Not to toot our own horns, but I think we put together another solid box of veggies for you this week. We hope you enjoy.
In the box, you will find!!!
sweet winter carrots, red beets, yellow onions, Napa cabbage, hard-neck garlic, mixed kales, German butterball potatoes, cilantro, savoy spinach, green wave mustard, sugar dumpling winter squash, and leeks
Inspiration in the kitchen…
Saag: https://www.thespruceeats.com/sarson-ka-saag-1957985
Stuffed Butternut Squash: sweet-dumpling-squash-stuffed-with.html
Napa cabbage slaw: spicy-napa-cabbage-slaw-with-cilantro-dressing-243168
Spinach beet salad: spinach-salad-with-beets-and-walnuts-recipe.html
Chow!
BMF
Our bi-weekly Barking Moon deliveries have upped exponentially our consumption of fresh vegetables during this fallow season. We race to keep up with the bounty. Tony, the cook in our family, has expanded his already ample repertoire to include ginger carrot soup, ravioli stuffed with squash, frittata with spinach and potatoes, spicy kale soup with bacon, coleslaw with Napa cabbage, and more. Yesterday, I tried the kale chip recipe that came with this week’s CSA box. It was perfect for my non-cooking skills: cut the kale into one inch pieces, place on baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil and salt, bake for 20 minutes. The curly, crisp green chips were delicious.
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