Open House at the Farm This Saturday

Yikes, the weather forecast for the week is for highs to be near 94 and little chance of rain.  I think we are all getting accustomed to the drought, but darn it seems way too early to be in the mid 90s. Fortunately here at the farm we have been blessed with some moderate rain showers over the past week or so; nothing measurable but enough to keep the dust down to some degree. If you come to our open house this coming week, you'll see where we have begun plowing up some of our spring crops to make room for some of our summer plantings.

Speaking of our open house, it will be held at this coming Saturday between 4 & 7. It is open to all so please feel free to bring your family and friends. The open house will be held at our "ol' school house" which we relocated to our farm several years ago.  Originally built in 1912, we have modified it to have a working kitchen, dinning area and rest rooms. Depending on the weather, we may have most of our  activities outside, i.e.  pickling/canning demonstration and our "pot luck" dinner. We need to plan so we ask everyone to send us an email to csa@woodduckfarm.com  if you're coming (RSVP).     PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW MANY WILL BE IN YOUR PARTY, Adults and Kids. We're going to smoke some BBQ treats and will have plenty of water, ice tea and apple juice. When you enter the front gate, bear to the right and drive on down and we'll be waiting for you.

What Should You Bring?

·         This is a potluck, so if your last name begins with the letters

                  A~I = a side dish (slaw, beans, casserole, potato salad etc.)

                  J~R = fruits, salads or breads

                  S~Z = Desserts

·         Be sure to bring chairs and of course your family! 

·         Coolers welcome - filled with beverages of your choice.  Please drink responsibly!

·         PLEASE NO DOGS

R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, May25^th

csa@woodduckfarm.com

If you would like to help with any of our open house planning please let us know!

 What to do with Kale and Squash? We received these recipe below from two of our CSA members  

I wanted to share a SUPER easy and delicious Kale recipe. I made these just now and they are incredible! Apparently, you can do this with a lot of different greens but Kale is the most popular. 

Thanks,

Jennifer

Kale Chips 

• about one bunch of kale, rinsed and dried
• Olive oil
• Salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Make sure the Kale is dry- try a salad spinner if necessary. Cut the tough ends off the kale, and pull bite sized pieces off the inner stems. 
3. Place kale chips in large bowl. Toss in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Lighter is better! Then sprinkle in sea salt. Salad tongs work great for tossing. 
4. Put the kale pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet, using parchment if available.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until crisp, watching the baking around 12 minutes to ensure they aren't burning and to check to see if they are crispy enough for you! 
6. Experiment! For more smoky or spicy flavor, lightly dust the kale chips with paprika or cayenne pepper power.

  
Summer Squash casserole

Ingredients

• 1 small Vidalia onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 pounds yellow squash, cut into 1/2 to 1-inch cubes
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 cup good quality mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
• 1 1/4 cups crushed Ritz crackers, divided
• 1 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 to 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a heated skillet, add olive oil.  Add the onions. Cook until lightly brown. Add the squash, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and cook until the squash is tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the mayonnaise, 1 cup of the cheese, 1 cup of the crumbled crackers, and thyme. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and top with remaining 1/4 cup of butter crackers. Bake until the casserole is bubbly around edges, about 25 minutes. Remove the casserole from the oven and serve hot.

Kristina

Below are a few photos over the past  two weeks.

It takes a lot of manpower to pick wash sort and pack our CSA boxes.  We do everything outside, so tents are required to protect the veggies from the sun.

 Lots of Baby Carrots last week. More coming this week.

 

 Week of May 17th Full Share Above which included cucumbers, microgreens, salad mix, baby carrots, cauliflower, radishes, snow peas,onion, rainbow swiss chard and russian  banana potatoes.

 Week of May 12th, Full Share Above, 2 bags of Salad Greens, Summer Starburst Squash, Cheddar Cauliflower, Broccoli, 2 heads of Cabbage, Radishes, Beets or Salad Turnips, Snow Peas, Onions

Tomates Are Coming Soon

Trying to harvest our spring crops while planting for the summer requires the farm to be run in "full throttle mode," which makes idle time scarce. This hopefully explains why we have not had a lot of time to update you in more than a week. We've provided a few pics below that will hopefully "tell a thousand words."  As with most farms this time of year, we're currently wishing that there were eight days in the week rather than seven. Guessing though in retrospect that wouldn't make a much of a difference though as goes the adage "... a farm's work is never complete."

News from the farm:

Rain:  About a week ago, we received over an inch of rain which was so very welcome. The bad news was that it all came in about 30 minutes, which resulted in a little flash flooding on our fairly flat farm land. Oh well beggars can't be "choosey." We only wish that all of our farm friends could have participated in it as well.


Summer CSA Registration To Begin in mid-June:  Yes, we were able to begin our 2011 Spring program early enough to have a summer program as well. We're planting lots of summertime favorites such as watermelon, cantaloupe, grape tomatoes, sweet corn, purple hull peas, as well as your normal staples such as cucumbers, squash, green beans, eggplant, and green garlic. Just like last summer, we're hoping to participate with other local farms so that we can add summer fruit, such as peaches, blue berries, figs etc., to your farm shares. More info soon, but you can contact me directly at csa@woodduckfarm.com if you'd like to go ahead and sign up.

Farm Open House    Looking at the calendar, we're thinking the weekend of Saturday, May 28th may be a possible date to welcome some of you that are interested in seeing the farm. More info later. We are going to try and find someone to demonstrate canning summer veggies like cucumbers for pickles etc. Let us know if you have someone in mind.


Website Facelift  We're working to make our website more user friendly. This should ultimately help us with some of our back-office "organizational/growing pains." We'll keep you posted as this develops.


Pick Up Location Punctuality:  We have ideas as to how improve our delivery "on time" scoring which has been dismal of late, especially for those of you that pick up in the west Houston area locations.Please hang in there as we fully understand your frustration. Hopefully you'll begin to see a difference this week.

Meat & Poultry Subscription Plan: Our next and second delivery for our Spring 2011 Meat/Poultry Share is scheduled to be next week, May 17th. FYI the meat subscription plan is for three deliveries over ten weeks.
  

Shown above is our commercial pea sheller, a "used" but new edition to our farm. Although  We're hopeful that this pea sheller will come in handy during our summer CSA program. This "gem" is supposed to shell 1 bushel of peas in 3 minutes; compare this to when I used shell about 1 pint in about 30 minutes.

Well summer is coming and we're growing purple hull peas. For those of you not familiar with PH peas, they're "cousins" to black-eyed peas, an "ol' time" summer southern favorite. I remember shelling PH peas as a child, usually watching either "Dark Shadows" or the Atlanta Braves. (I  was about 7 or 8 yrs old, growing up in Georgia, played Dixie Youth baseball, slept via an attic fan (no AC), and watched TV on a RCA Black & White model w/outdoor antenna being required.  If I was not at baseball practice, I was usually riding my bicycle, playing in my "tree house" or reading an army book. Lots of good memories, but I'm not wishing shell peas anymore.)

"Rocky Raccoon" an unwelcome neighbor

We have not had predator problems in a long time, but a few mornings ago we started seeing chicken parts laying outside the chicken coup. Not sure if this raccoon is the culprit, but it got caught in our "have-a-heart" trap. Overall we lost around 15 chickens. Not to worry "Rocky Raccoon", it'll be okay as we'll release you down near the river. Hopefully your short time in confinement will result in your being rehabilitated into a "kindlier gentler raccoon." Yea Right?

Some of our pastured poultry enjoying some fresh forage after their pen was just moved to a new location a few feet away.

Like a lot of commercial growers we use stakes and twine to support our field grown tomatoes. Above is an example of our tomatoes planted on plastic mulch to inhibit weeds and enhance moisture retention and supported with baling twine. Notice the green tomato. Just a few weeks away before CSA shares begin receiving tomatoes.

Lots of time needed to plant, stake and maintain our tomato plants

Normally we get rain here in SE Texas which requires adequate spacing between rows for good air circulation. This helps retard fungal development which is the primary "bad guy" for tomato plants in the south. So far our plants are looking pretty healthy. Perhaps a silver lining to the drought?

We picked a few tomatoes today. Real small, almost plum size. Bigger ones coming soon.

Our full share for the week of May 3rd included summer squash/zucchini, 3-4 sweet onions, green beans, Russian banana heirloom potatoes, 5-7 red beets, 5-7 Japanese turnips, radishes, kale, 2 bags salad greens.

Full share from the last week of April,  Micro Greens, 2 bags salad greens,  3 bunches kale, large bag of spinach, green beans, beets, turnips, potatoes, radish.

 

2011 has been a hot dry spring for growing spinach. Here we are washing some after harvest a few weeks back.

Baskets of fresh cut lettuce, arugula and assorted mixed greens ready for rinsing.






Until Next Time,


Van

It's Going To Rain Soon, Right?

My gosh, it has been the driest spring since I have been market farming.  It is only April, and our largest pond, about 5 acres, is completely dry. Our second pond, about 4 acres, is supplemented with us pumping well water into it every night.  From this pond we use both "trickle" and overhead irrigation for most of our row crops on the back side of our farm. Our greenhouses, where our baby greens are grown, are irrigated with well water.  This afternoon we noticed that almost all of our spinach, beets, turnips, and radishes were wilted from the constant wind that blows from the south every afternoon.  We've now got over half of our tomatoes transplanted in the ground, along with most of our summer squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. With no rain forecast in site, one has to worry if we have enough well capacity to keep everything going. We're optimistic that we'll be okay. Below are a few photos of our last two weeks of CSA shares etc. The wonderful sugar snap peas are about finished, too little rain/too much heat. The good news is that we are hopeful that the green beans will begin next week  and Red Lasoda "new" potatoes in a few weeks. Strawberries were good while they lasted but they are gone for the season. The native "dew berries" that grow wild on our farm are about ripe for picking, so blackberries will soon be ready. Hopefully we'll find a local sustainable source of blackberries as well. For those of you that are CSA members and wondering what to do with all those beets you received this week, we have provided a recipe, courtesy of one of your fellow farm members, found further below.

In our Full Shares the week of April 20th, two bags baby salad greens, bunch of spring onions, 6-7 Beets w/tops, 6-7 Radish w/tops, small box micro greens, bag sugar snaps, assorted baby summer squash/zucchini.

In our Full Shares the week of April 13th, two bags baby salad greens, bunch of spring onions, 5-6 Beets w/tops,  two bunches of mustard greens, bag sugar snap peas, small box micro greens, a few summer squash/zucchini , pint strawberries.

 

 Lots of baby beets just picked and freshly rinsed

 

Our delivery trailer almost filled up. The back of our pick up truck was full of coolers containing our frozen pastured pork and poultry as our CSA Meat/Poultry shares began this week too. So happy that this is just a once per month delivery in the spring/summer. Whoever invented dry ice, we're grateful. 

A recipe note from a fellow farm member:

Hey Van,

I made this recipe with your beets tonight --it was a hit ! The beet greens were delish too. We used vinegar in the beets as opposed to the butter option. Thought I would pass it along for you to share if you'd like. We are really enjoying our veggie share :)

Best, 

Roasted Beets and Sauteed Beet Greens

Yield 4 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 bunch beets with
• greens
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C). Wash the beets thoroughly, leaving the skins on, and remove the greens. Rinse greens, removing any large stems, and set aside. Place the beets in a small baking dish or roasting pan, and toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If you wish to peel the beets, it is easier to do so once they have been roasted.
2. Cover, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a knife can slide easily through the largest beet.
3. When the roasted beets are almost done, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and onion, and cook for a minute. Tear the beet greens into 2 to 3 inch pieces, and add them to the skillet. Cook and stir until greens are wilted and tender. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the greens as is, and the roasted beets sliced with either red-wine vinegar, or butter and salt and pepper.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 204 | Total Fat: 13.9g | Cholesterol: 0mg

 

 

Spring 2011 CSA begins

It has been a few busy weeks here at the farm which might explain our prolonged absence sense our last update.  In any event, our Spring 2011 CSA program kicked off last week and seems to have received good reviews. Directly below is a photo of what full share holders received in their boxes beginning this past week April 4th. Partial Shares received about 1/3 less.

Two bunches of spinach, 3-4 medium sized spring onions, micro greens 3 or 4 heads of broccoli, 2 bags of salad mix, pint of strawberries, approx. 1# sugar snap peas

A few weeks back we poured a nice size slab for our soon to be packing shed and walk-in cooler/freezer

We had some extra ready mix left over, so we poured a sloping wash station where we will be able to wash our baby field greens.

Slow going, but we're making progress. Above is a 16x`18 walk-in unit, one half is a cooler and the other a freezer.

In spite of the drought, our veggies are hanging in there. Above are some spring onions; thirsty but hanging in there.

Summer is a coming! Piggies can't sweat and can sunburn too, so they need protection from the hot sun.  Consequently we've moved our pigs from the open winter pasture areas to the shady woods. Above is junior resting his head on a "senior fellow."

Above are some red beets planted on raised beds. Even the weeds are having difficulty.

Our pastured chicken coups sitting on wheat pasture.  Water twice a day required for these chicks. We'll have to provide them shade soon.

It may be hard to see in the photo above, but we've got overhead irrigation going almost non-stop.

Spring Farm Dinner Set for Saturday, April 2nd

Red Bud trees in bloom and the Houston Rodeo in full swing:  time to plant green beans and red potatoes. 

On another note, several of you have inquired as to when we are going to host another dinner event here at the farm. Call it “spring fever” or something, but we’ve gotten motivated and selected Saturday, April 2^nd to be our first dinner event for 2011.  Jon Buchanan, Executive Chef at Trevisio, will be directing the culinary team.  The Saturday evening dinner will begin with a reception staring around 3:30 or so, followed by a farm tour around 4:45, with our first dinner course to begin around 6:00, and the final course likely being complete  around 8:30-9:00. You can then take a seat over next to the camp fire to finish your coffee or spirits if you'd like prior to heading home.  The dinner menu, still under development, will focus on locally grown seasonal food, and will likely include four or five courses. To get a “grasp” and more info/photos about our five farm dinners held back in 2010 visit  WDF Spring Dinners . A lot of participants in the past have put together groups of 4-12 to make a party within a party.  Some rent a bus, some hire a limousine , and some just rendezvous here at the farm. Seating is "family style" so no matter if you are a party of one or twenty, you'll have more friends when you leave than when you arrived.

“Early Menu”

Field Greens with Fried Green Tomatoes, Pickled Red Onions,

Pola Cadoc Steel Eye Blue Cheese Dressing and Homemade Bacon

Gumbo with Pastured Chicken Sausage, 

Texas Gulf Coast Shrimp, Oysters and Texmati Rice

Texas Red Fish with Remoulade and Veggie Slaw

Whole Roasted Hog, Braised Greens with Herbed New Potatoes

Strawberry Shortcake with "Way Back When" Whipped Cream

Coffee, Herbal Tea & Spring Water

Alcohol Welcome, BYOB

 

Lots of planting this past week at our Rogers Farm Lease, located just down the road about 2 miles from the farm.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Radicchio, and Onions being overhead watered.  Nice clean beds now, but with water and sunshine later comes the weeds, arrggg!

Pac Choi Plugs Ready To Be Transplanted.

What’s Growing?   Although it has been extremely dry here at the farm, the weather has been good for planting.  Consequently, we’ve got a huge amount of planting taken care of since our last update, both transplants and direct seeding. Potatoes and green beans are in the ground too. We just ordered 20,000 linear feet of row cover for our warm weather veggies. Row cover is a thin sheet of “gauze like” fabric which helps keep warmth in and frost out; kinda’ like a blanket.  While it can only protect plants down to about 29F, or so, it is good insurance for unpredictable Texas spring weather. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it. With that in mind, we’ll begin transplanting tomato plants into their cozy raised beds next week. Summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers are soon to follow.  We’re still a little behind, so the spring CSA is not set to begin until possibly the 2^nd week of April. Why? Well, back around Jan. 31^st we went through two weeks of cold enough weather, about 19F, to freeze a lot of veggies that were set to be our early March harvest. Having to replant has resulted in us being a few weeks behind. Those of you that visit us at the Farmer’s Market know that we have not had any arugula or salad mix since mid January. We want your experience to be a good one, so please be patient as we’re confident this is going to be a great season.

New Clear Lake Pick Up Locations Added:  We have been looking for a friendly location to provide for customers living in and around the Clear Lake/Sea Brook area. Well “low and behold,” we may have found two at the same time.  We contacted the fine folks at The Coffee-Oasis located in Seabrook at 4650 Nasa Pkwy, 77586; a few weeks ago and after providing them more information about who/what we are etc, they’ve agreed to give us a try. For a map to their location visit Coffee Oasis Map . The other Clear Lake area location, Cullen’s, is located about 20 mins. north from the Coffee Oasis.  We have known Paul Lewis, the Executive Chef at Cullen’s, since when he was the Sous Chef at the Four Seasons of Houston. Paul was the guest chef last summer at the Outstanding in the Field Event over at Jolie Vue Ranch located in Chapel Hill, so he really understands the “buy local” concept.  We have been delivering our farm produce and herbs to Chef Paul since they opened a few years ago, so it seemed like a natural fit for us to have Cullen’s as a CSA pick up location.    Cullen's Upscale American Grill is located at 11500 Space Center Boulevard, Houston, TX 77059 or visit this link for a Map to Cullen's. We’re looking for both of these locations to be Thursday delivery days, i.e. 4:30-7:30. We’ll have both of these on our website soon. As mentioned last week, we recently added The Beans Café & Coffee House, located in the Energy Corridor of West Houston. This is going to be a great location as it has great parking and is only about one mile south of the I-10 Katy Fwy on Eldridge Pkwy. For a visual, visit this link for a Map The pick up times are set to be Wednesdays between 5 & 7:30, possibly earlier. We’ll keep you posted if the times are adjusted to earlier in the afternoon.  We are still visiting with prospective locations down near Pearland as well as in Spring. Smart Meals Location Changes? Our fine friends over at Smart Meals have decided to regroup and “close their doors,” while they refocus on a new business plan.  Not to worry however, as our nearby Upper Kirby host Joyce has told us that she welcomes the CSA customers that were set to pick up at Smart Meals.  Joyce’s house is only about three blocks away and can be found at 4208 McDuffie St. Houston, TX 77098. Visit this link for a map to the Upper Kirby Pick Up Location

CSA, What’s That? For those of you not familiar with the term, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a direct partnership between you and the farmer. C.S.A. members pay in advance for a share of the upcoming harvest, thus the farmer is ensured a consistent market and the consumer is ensured high-quality local produce. Produce is delivered to many of our Houston neighborhood pick-up locations within 24 hrs. of harvesting. For a link to where we deliver, visit CSA Pickup Locations  For inquires email us at csa@woodduckfarm.com or call us at 713 876 8645 for more details. As mentioned previously, you can get an idea of what size volume a full shares is by viewing some photos on Our Farm Blog   (You'll need to scroll down a tad from the top.) FYI Partial shares receive about 1/3 less than full shares and are geared towards the two member household.  Our Spring CSA registration form can be found at this link  Spring 2011 CSA Registration . We think we have simplified the registration process to be just a few clicks and some of contact info and then pay with your credit card.  If you’d rather mail in your registration, you can go to this link WDF CSA Mail-In Form  We have added an Alternating Week option to our Full share size. The Alternating Week option is for those not wishing to receive a full share every week. So with the AW option, a farm member receives a Full share every odd week of the ten week program, i.e. weeks 1,3,5,7, and 9.  

Customer Survey Results & Comments: For those of you interested in hearing what some of our CSA members have said etc, please visit this link Customer Comments & Surveys

Grass Fed Meat/Egg Subscription Program: Visit this link to register online CSA Registration. Scroll down to middle of your screen. We listened to your comments and have created two options, 1) our Full Share priced at $210 for a three-month program and/or 2) our Poultry Share priced at $165 for three months. You can add on a dozen eggs with either program (a dozen eggs for the entire 3 month program for $15.)  You can go to this link Meat Subscription Svc to read more. Too much meat for your family? Consider splitting a share with a friend. The first month will likely be March, which should coincide with our Veggie CSA deliveries

Twitter?: Find us  @WoodduckFM.

WDF has facebook page, but this link will take you to Van's page, from there you need to search for Wood Duck Farm. Go figure huh.

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com