CSA Newsletter Week 29 - Kiler Canyon CSA Farm

Oct 15, 2014
KIler Canyon Farm
Hello CSA Members!
This morning we were harvesting under a darkened sky with the teasing jest of a few raindrops, a reminder of how long it has been since fall weather brought
us a good rain. Here’s hoping it shows up soon!
As you know next Wednesday the 22. will be
our last harvest of 2014. As we begin to button up the
farm for the winter and take stock of the season just
passed we will be thinking as always towards making next
year even better. At this time we would welcome any input
from our CSA members about their experience with the
farm, adjustments they would like to see or things they
really liked about his year. We will have a comment box at
the drop site next week for you to leave your thoughts, or
feel free to email us anytime.
Also for the winter months that we are not gardening, we are considering offering weekly hearth
baked bread from our wood fired oven. If enough interest exists than we would pursue this endeavor beginning in early November. We will leave more information
about the bread next week at the drops sites, but if you
already know you are interested please let us know by responding to this email.
Thank you!
P.S. Don’t forget to return all baskets!
In your baskets this week…
Half Share
Full Share
Salad mix
Salad mix
spinach
spinach
Tomatoes
Jeruselum artichokes
Jeruselum artichokes
Basil
Basil
Chard
Garlic
carrots
cilantro
garlic
Onions
onions
Carrots
Cilantro
Salsa basket
Eggplant
Eggplant
sw. pepper
sw. pepper
Salsa basket
parsley
Gr. Onions
zukes/or cukes
Zukes or cukes
beets
Beets
Parsley
Radishes
Table of Contents
dill
Black Bean Soup
Pg. 2
Cream of Carrot Soup
Pg. 2
Tomatillo Chicken Soup
Pg. 3
Roasted Vegetable and Black Bean Enchiladas Verdes
Pg. 3
Food in the News…
California Drought Renews Debate On Regional Food Systems
Pg. 4
Left: autumnal abundance! Above: hot organic
loaves from our wood fired oven.
P a ge 2
Black Bean Soup
Adapted from Love Soup by Anna Thomas
Makes 7-8 servings
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup dried black beans
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 large stalks celery, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large bell peppers, 1 red and 1 greed
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 cups vegetable broth
1 small bunch cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons ancho chile puree (2 dried ancho
chiles + 1 dried guajillo chile + 2 cloves garlic +
sea salt)
Steps:
Rinse beans and place in a large pot with about 10
cups water with half of each of garlic and onions.
Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Cook, covered, until beans are soft, about 1 to 2 hours. Add
a pinch of salt when the beans are soft
Heat oil in a large pan. When the oil is hot, add the
carrots and celery along with the remaining onions
and garlic. Add a pinch of salt and cook, stirring
often, until the vegetables are soft and beginning to
brown, about half an hour. When they are done,
add to the pot of beans then deglaze the pan with a
little bean broth.
Char the bell peppers either on the flame of you gas
stove top, in the broiler, or in a 450 degree oven,
until the skins are blackened. Place blackened peppers in a paper bag and sweat for a few minutes.
Remove the peppers’ skins then core and seed, cut
into 1 inch pieces, and add to the soup.
Make your ancho/guajillo chile puree by combing
chiles, garlic, and sea salt in a small pot with 1.5
cups water. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce to
a simmer, allowing to cook for about half an hour.
Let the mixture cool a bit then blend into a thick
sauce.
Toast the cumin seeds lightly then grind and add to
soup along with the ancho/guajillo chile puree and
vegetable broth.
Chop 1/2 of the cilantro and mix into the soup,
saving the rest for garnish.
Finally, let the soup simmer for another 20 minutes
or so then add a bit of lime juice and more salt, if
needed,
Cream of Carrot Soup
From The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas
Ingredients
1 C chopped leek
2 large yellow onions, chopped
4 Tbs butter
2 generous lbs sweet carrots
3 C water
3 C broth
5 Tbs uncooked white rice
pinch sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed dried thyme
1 small bay leaf
pinch cayenne
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C cream
dash nutmeg
garnish: chopped fresh chives
Directions
In a large, heavy saucepan, saute the leeks and
onions in the butter, stirring often, until they are
golden. Meanwhile, peel and thinly slice the carrots.
Add the carrots, water, broth, rice, sugar, salt,
herbs, and cayenne to the onion mixture. Cover
and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the carrots and rice are completely mushy soft.
Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup in batches
in a blender or food processor until it is velvety
smooth. Return the soup to the rinsed saucepan
and stir in the milk, cream, and a sprinkle of nutmeg. heat the soup through, stirring gently, then
taste and correct the seasoning with another pinch
of salt or nutmeg. Sprinkle each serving with
chopped fresh chives.
P a ge 3
Tomatillo Chicken Soup
Adapted from Splendid Soups by James Peterson.
Ingredients
1 chicken cut into 8 pieces
1 lb tomatillos coarsely chopped (husked
first!)
1 onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 jalapeños seeded and chopped
3 c chicken broth
2 T chopped cilantro
Steps
salt and pepper and then brown the chicken
in a pan 8-10 minutes a side. Adjust the fat
and lightly saute the onions and garlic. Add
broth, tomatillos, jalapenos and chicken to
pan. When chicken is done (~15 minutes)
remove to cool. Skim any fat (I use a stick
blender) and puree what is in the pan. The
recipe calls for straining it, but I prefer it
more 'peasant' and don't. Shred the chicken
meat and return to the pan with the cilantro.
Adjust salt/pepper (add cayenne if you need
it) to taste and you have a great soup (I'll
sometimes add a little lime juice to taste as
well). Serve with sour cream and/or shredded cheese.
Roasted Vegetable and Black Bean Enchiladas Verdes
http://pamelasalzman.com
serves 6
5-6 cups mixed vegetables, such as zucchini,
sweet bell pepper, red onion, eggplant, beets,
carrots, or Jerusalem artichokes cut into ½inch cubes
Olive oil for drizzling
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups cooked black beans or 1 15-ounce
can, drained and rinsed
Sauce:
20 medium tomatillos, about 2 ¼ pounds,
husked and washed
1 jalapeno, stem removed (will make the
sauce a 5 on a heat scale of 1 to 10)
½ small onion, peeled
3 garlic cloves
10 sprigs cilantro
1 Tablespoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons olive oil
12 corn tortillas
grated cheese, (such as Monterey Jack) if
desired or crumbled queso fresco
To roast vegetables: Preheat the oven to 375
degrees. Place the vegetables on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil
and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt
and pepper. Roast until tender, but not
over-cooked, about 25 minutes. Add the
black beans to the vegetables and mix to-
gether or put everything into a bowl to combine.
Place all the tomatillos and the jalapeno on a
parchment-lined baking sheet. Change the
oven to broil. Place under the broiler for
about 10 minutes, turning over after 5 minutes until tomatillos are lighter in color and
contain a few brown spots. Change oven to
350 degrees if baking the enchiladas right
away.
Transfer the tomatillos to a blender or a
food processor with the jalapeno, 3 garlic
cloves, ½ onion, cilantro and sea salt. Process until smooth. You should have 4 cups of
sauce.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and warm
the olive oil. Add the tomatillo sauce and
simmer 5 minutes.
In the meantime, warm the tortillas on a
griddle or skillet on both sides until softened.
Pour 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of a
13×9-inch baking dish. Place about 1/3 cup
of vegetables down the middle of a tortilla
and roll tightly. Place seam-side down in the
baking dish. Repeat with each tortilla.
Cover all the rolled tortillas with remaining
sauce. Sprinkle with grated cheese, if desired. Bake until heated through and cheese
is melted, about 10-12 minutes. Serve immediately.
California Drought Renews Debate On Regional Food Systems
Agriculture is a major factor in region’s water quality and supply.
July 15, 2014
By: Monica Eng
At a Chicago area farmers market in July
you won’t see many signs of the California drought. This is the time of year
when produce lovers can pretty much
noted that the pricier California crops
gorge on all the local cherries, blueber- could drive more retailers to source their
ries and zucchini they want.
produce from Mexico and Chile. But
others think we should go the other way
But this wasn’t the case in January.
and reestablish more regional food systems again.
“What we saw was extremely high prices
on kales, leafy greens etc in the first part “This is the ideal storm for the local
of the year,” said Bob Scaman president food network in the Midwest,” Scaman
of Goodness Greenness the Midwest’s said. “It really brings home what people
biggest distriAnd as the year wore on,
have been talking about for years: the
Scaman says, the effects of the drought need to grow more local food, stabilize
only got worse. Farmers had to decide
the food supply and build the local marwhich crops they were going to water
ket.”
and which they weren’t resulting in what
he called the California “cherry season
Related: What water issues in California
that didn’t exist in 2014.”
mean for the Midwest
Luckily, the Washington State cherry
crop was booming this year. And today
Michigan cherries have filled any other
gaps. But Scaman warns that this bounty
will last for only about another 100 days
in the Midwest.
Adding to the drought problems this
year were high summer gas prices that
further argued for more localized food
production.
not enough people growing at a slightly
bigger scale that could produce quantities of fruits and vegetables that could
go into our grocery stores and school
cafeterias and other institutions where
people are shopping and eating,”
Brockman said. “It’s a question of building infrastructure and putting together
policies and funding to make that happen.”
Brockman says that Land Connection
has recently applied for grants to teach
Midwest farmers techniques for extending the notoriously short growing season.
Bob Borchardt of Harvest Moons Farm
in Wisconsin says he is already using
some of them and investigating others.
“Some kind of controlled environment
growing is really the answer,” he said,
“whether it be greenhouses or hoop
houses or inside and vertical gardens.
Anything that we can do to push more
local product into the non-conventional
farming months here in the Midwest I
think are things that need to be on top
of our list as producers.”
Brockman notes that farmers can also
extend the seasons by planting varieties
of vegetables that mature early or late in
“So not only is there less product but we the season.
are paying more to transport it from
“But going into the late fall, early winter California,” he said. “You’ve got a douwhen we are relying again on California ble whammy coming at us. So when you “There’s like an early broccoli and a late
we are going to be right back where we look at local food supplies, we’ve got a broccoli,” she said. “One that comes to
fruition earlier and later. Just not putting
were on these drought supplies,” he
little more stability in getting it to the
said, “and we will be negatively affected marketplace, lesser freight costs and we your eggs in one basket or not just
planting one kind of broccoli you can
back here in the Midwest.”
are growing our local economies.”
sort of insure yourself from whatever
One Arizona State University study says
that the California drought is likely to
push items like avocados and lettuce up
28 to 34 percent. And the USDA expects drought and other factors to push
domestic food prices for meat and produce up 3 to 6 percent this year.
Business professor Timothy Richards
who conducted the Arizona State study
the season might be.”
Terra Brockman founded the Land
Connection, a local non-profit that helps But she says the drought isn’t the only
train Midwest farmers. She says that
water related issue causing debate in
while the drought hasn’t made big waves Midwest agricultural circles.
among local farmers so far, it has revived important questions.
“If you’re concerned about water then
you have to be concerned about agricul“Like, ‘Why do we have plenty of farm- ture because the thing that affects our
ers market farmers and CSA farmers but water quality the most of anything in
this state is agriculture,” she says.
“So that’s everything from erosion and
soil washing into our rivers and silting
them up and making them inhospitable
for river life, and especially the run off.
So in Illinois the main source of pollution in our waterways is industrial farming, and the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that runs off that becomes a dead
zone the size of Delaware in the Gulf of
Mexico is due to runoff from Illinois
and Midwest corn fields.”
Brockman hopes that concern for our
waterways will prompt Midwest farmers
to swap synthetic fertilizers for crop
rotations that take longer but can fertilize the soil naturally.
Scaman, however, has aspirations that
go one step further. Given the growing
demand for local produce and the richness of Illinois soil, he hopes the
drought might convince some corn and
soy farmers--whose harvests go primarily to processed food, animal feed and
ethanol tanks--to grow crops suitable for
local human consumption.
“Years and years ago, Illinois as an example was one of the largest vegetable
growing states in the country,” he said.
“We don’t necessarily need to just grow
soybeans and corn. There is a need for
vegetable production here in the Midwest to supply Chicago and other cities.
And it provides a lot of economic opportunities for rural communities. So
[the drought] has really brought that
need to the forefront. You are seeing
more and more farmers every year and
more local produce. And the demand
for local is off the charts.”
kiler canyon farm
po box 2234
paso robles, ca
93447
Phone: 239-9503
E-mail: [email protected]
About Kiler Canyon Farm….
Nestled in the oak woodlands west of Paso Robles CA, our farm is a diverse operation which includes over 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers. We believe in nurturing the soil, incorporating water wise techniques, encouraging biodiversity, and working with the natural cycles. Our homestead includes a variety of animals which are
integral to the farm, two acres of densely planted fruit orchards, three acres of rotated vegetable ground and 150
acres of grass and woodland that creates a shelterbelt for diversity and wildlife. Our farm produce is marketed
through our CSA membership which was started in 2000. Our land has been Certified Organic through CCOF
since 1989!
Our goals are to provide the highest quality vegetables and fruit while maintaining the integrity of the land. We believe that diversity ensures success.
Who Grows Your Food?
Our farm is comprised of one extended family (Chaponica, Quill, Kaleen, and Dan). The combined talents and interests that we bring to our work create a dynamic and deeply impassioned environment. We all share an appreciation for fun, problem solving, enjoy getting dirty, and are alive with what we do. A major tenet in our farm philosophy is keeping the farm a manageable size. By doing this we stay in touch with the farm as a whole organism and are
better able to anticipate the changing variables that each new season brings. We believe that stress and hard work do
not necessarily have to go hand in hand and that just like any crop we might tend, maintaining the health and happiness of the farmer is one key to a successful farm.